Friday 27 May 2011

BACK TO THE EIGHTIES

Listening to Radio Four a few weeks back I was taken a back from an off the cuff  comment made by the Rt Hon Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osbourne when he seemed to slip up and announce that Government borrowing at the end of their term of office in 2015 will be higher than it was when they came to office!

Surely not, I heard a thousand people cry, this is the Government of austerity, the "tough love" masters of the national debt. The people who dumbed down the credit crisis by telling Joe Public, we have simply overspent on our credit card and now we need to make the repayments. So what is now going wrong?

Well that's a simple one, and some of us did hint at it before. You see the Government in their haste to cut the deficit has destroyed any growth in the economy 0.5% down in the last quarter of 2010 and 0.5 up in the first quarter of 2011 leaving the economy flat, and if we are not earning and we are still paying off the debt then where is the money going to come from for paying for an ever increasing welfare bill, growing by the day as people across the public sector lose their jobs?

In addition rising food prices as emerging nations demand more of the worlds production, and rising commodity prices for similar reasons are pushing up inflation far beyond any hitherto expected measures and therefore people understandably are keeping their hands firmly in their pockets.

So there we have it, we have hardly any public services left, the cost of living has risen massively, oil prices are up food prices are up, unemployment is up, growth is down and the economy is flat. All leading to us having to borrow more year on year and get ourselves in a deeper mess with less to show for it.

And to think, those of us who suggested investment in public spending to protect growth and spending and keep unemployment costs down were as good as declared insane by the Tories. If only we could turn back the clock? But that's not going to happen. Instead expect more cuts, heightened public unrest, high unemployment, and a return of inflation and massive cost of living rises. Its the 80's all over again!

Perhaps Cameron is far more Thatcherite than his party really thinks he is?

WAR BY INSTALLMENTS!

Let me first be very clear about how much better Libya would be without Colonel Gaddafi. I recently attended a fundraiser in Northampton with local Libyan families who are ever hopeful that regime change will be effected in their home country sooner rather than later, but despite their wishes and my support for that same outcome. I cannot turn a blind eye to the unfolding disaster the British Government have made of their input to the crisis thus far.

UN resolution 1973 demanded "an immediate ceasefire" and authorized the international community to establish a no fly zone and to use all means necessary short of foreign occupation to protect civilians on both sides.

To be blunt the British government alongside the French government and with assistance of the USA have extended their actions far and beyond any legal interoretation or boundary of the resolution. And to think that in all three countries thier leaders played such a huge part in protecting Gadaffi reign over all these years. I bet President Sarkozy of France regrets the picture here (left) as much as Obama and Blair do their own snaphots with the crazed dictator. Cameron it seems has only been spared the same humiliation by way of good timing!

First of all it was the West's interpretation of the no fly zone to enable air attacks on Gaddafi's forces on the ground if they looked to be threatening areas where civilians were congregated and then it extended the action to excuse attacks on Libya's air defences and then on their static defence positions and finally to attacks on government buildings and palaces which were being protected on a voluntary basis by civilian human shields!!

Then we took to sending over armed troops to assist in training of the rebels in flagrant breach of the foreign occupation ruling and now we hear that British Apache attack helicopters are to be deployed! We have step by bloody step purposely embroiled ourselves in another bloody civil war this time wholly of our own making and in doing so we have weakened the UN's position and also made a mockery of the governments so called defence spending reductions to help ease the national debt.

We have led brave freedom fighters from East Libya on the march to Tripoli by illegal use of attack planes and then left them in the desert to fend for themselves without protection, and we have (unbelievably) in doing so left Gaddafi in a stronger position now than he was at the start of the Arab spring. Don't be fooled Gaddafi still has his supporters in Libya in large numbers and the best outcome most can see is eventual partition of the country into pro and anti Gaddafi enclaves. Meanwhile back in Benghazi and in Misrata where the rebels still hold power, normal governance has come to a halt, medical supplies and care are in short supply, kids have no schools to go to and the rubbish is being picked up by football club supporters groups.

William Hague and David Cameron must be very pleased with themselves, I always disagreed with Tony Blair over our involvement in Iraq, but at least he took us to an illegal war with an air of competence about it rather than us ending up embroiled in an horrific human stew of our own making which will damage further relations within the Arab world for many more years to come (if that is possible)

One more depressing thought though is that no one in the UK seems to give a fig? Where are all the protests? from either side? Has Jeremy Paxman lost his nerve or his voice in questioning what is going down in the name of UK PLC, and what about the printed press? If we are at war then why no Sun headline declaring GO GET GADDAFI and if we are not at war then where are the Guardian or Independent headlines questioning the legitimacy of the military intervention?

Perhaps it is only me that is concerned?

TIME FOR A RANT

Elections always wear me out. Not surprising really, as if they didn't then you couldn't have worked hard enough!

Anyhow they also make you reflective, and over the past two weeks of inactivity I have been thinking a lot about the mess we are in.

So despite the wishes of some to stick only to local issues here follows a few posts on whats troubling me of late!

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Thank you for visiting "tonyclarkegreenparty" The views expressed here are mine and mine alone. They are made by me personally in my own capacity as free citizen and not as representative of any outside body or council that I may serve on or be employed by. However if anyone is offended by any of these comments or feels that they should be corrected then please contact me in the first instance at tony.clarke@email.com and I will do my best to consider your comments and correct any errors.

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