Protests

A strike is a protest by other means and it is clear that unless the protesters have a real passion for what they are protesting about that repeated protests about the same issue will eventually just fizzle out. So in such cases employers and governments have to hold out until the protesters get bored. So it is with those BA cabin crew of whom many do not believe they have a cause and are embarrassed by the greed demonstrated by their colleagues. So it is with the tube train drivers who know that not only are they well paid but that the change in working practices Transport for London want to introduce are reasonable and make sense. So it is with with the students who pretend that they are going to be greatly disadvantaged by the introduction of the new tuition fee regime - they say the poorest students will not be able to afford tuition fees whilst knowing full well that they do not have to make any payment until they are earning £21,000 a year and then only a minimal amount a year until their debt is paid off. If students do not understand that then how the hell did they manage to pass any exam to get into a University in the first place? It seems that some of the students are schoolchildren and other protesters are not students at all and are old enough to know better. The decision of LibDem MPs to abstain or vote against the introduction of the tuition fee changes is pathetic. Are they representatives of all their constituents or just a mandate for their supporters? What does their constitution say about giving a specific pledge on an issue that many of their candidates did not support? Furthermore it seems that LibDem policy on tuition fees was in the course of changing at the time of the election from one against to somewhere in favour. They gave a hostage to fortune and are now being hoist on their own petard. Surely they have someone amongst their ranks that is intelligent enough to wriggle them out of the ridiculous position they are now in and save Vince Cable from looking like an idiot by proposing legislation which he then votes against.  

Wikileaks and Iran; the Autumn Review

So far it seems that the leaks have been pretty much a damp squib. Hardly news that Saudi Arabia amongst other Middle East countries, including Israel, have been urging the United States to take out Iran's nuclear plants. A number of western countries have no doubt being urging the same course of action. Let's hope that the hack into the nuclear plant's computers has left a sleeping virus which can be reactivated at a moment critique and stop the Iranians dead in their tracks as they are about to use the weapons grade uranium to arm a missile.

George Osborne made a most interesting announcement in Parliament today which should help bring significant benefit to the economy over time and in particular to the North of England and Scotland. The idea seems to be that revenue earned from intellectual property generated as a result of research and development carried out here will only be taxed at 10%. GlaxoSmithKline Chief Executive was asked his views about this proposal on Jeff Randell live this evening and was rather complimentary saying that now there was a level playing field GSK would be looking to take advantage of the opportunities that would now be available at home including opening plants in the UK. This will be good for private sector jobs but it is disappointing that the Office of Budget Responsibility has today forecast that the number of public sector jobs that will go will be 330,000 and not 490,000 as previously forecast. This is a disappointment because as we all know it is the private sector that makes the money that pays the public sector wages out of taxes and too big a public sector means that the private sector has too big a burden to cope effectively. Our economy would be a power house if the public sector was cut in half and of course it could be without any danger to front line services.    

Human Rights

Let us hope that this Government introduces legislation to replace the Human Rights Act with the UK's own version which, inter alia, will ensure that people like Learco Chindamo can be expelled from this country without any exemption. Let us also hope that the replacement Act amends the Data Protection Act as well so that victims like Mrs Lawrence can be told the area where released prisoners like Learco Chindamo will be living. Murder after all should be punished and one of the punishments should be a cap on human rights. We British are full of common sense and I am sure a form of wording can be worked out which the judges will not be able to overturn. If Blair had not hated the British constitution or was so ignorant of our history there would have been no need to introduce the Human Rights Act. Our own protections evolved over centuries were more than adequate and the mark of a most civilised country. Europe should have adopted our common law and we should not have agreed to Napoleonic civil law being imposed on us.

Happiness

It is a quite extraordinary idea for a government to waste spend money on finding out how happy we all are. What will the government do if it discovers we are all unhappy? Is it it going to prescribe prozac? I vacillate every moment between worry and a semi comatose state and imagine everyone has the same kind of experience. At which point is happiness to be measured? When one is feeling chipper or when one is feeling depressed? What will be done with the results and will they be used to try and improve our lot? Will that make us happier and if not why not? Or is this announcement one of those politician's ideas that dies as we all get on with our lives? Rather than the taxpayer having to stump up the cost of this exercise why doesn't the "Big Society bank to do so? The "Big Society" bank is the bank to be set up by Barclays, HSBC etc to finance good causes at lower rates of interest than ordinary banks charge. No doubt there will be many applicants for funding good causes - themselves.    

The EU Parliament

Iain Dale has a fascinating video on his blog today of how democracy works in the EU Parliament. It shows a UKIP member being ejected for calling a socialist europhile a fascist! The EU Parliament is a fig leaf for the Monnet/Schuman project to abolish European countries and to construct another country in its place. No matter that the citizens of most European countries do not want to become citizens of another country without being asked. Monnet and Co, not untypically of the French intelligentsia, believe the likes of you and me  too stupid to know what's good for us so the transfer of our citizenship from our native lands to 'Europe' must be done behind our backs without further ado. Monnet and Co together believe that eventually all us proles will one day wake up, realise our resistance to the whole idea was misconceived, or at worst futile, and thank God for what these visionaries have done for us, or at worst sullenly accept it. I think Monnet and Co fail to understand human nature. Why is the EU Parliament a fig leaf? Because it has virtually no powers and it seems its decisions can be overruled by unelected officials (watch Channel 4's Dispatches http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/4od#3139895 for 15 November 2010, about 14 minutes in).

Danger

We have been reminded today that the world remains a dangerous place. It seems that the Irish bailout is not going as planned, that the EU's comments about the dangers of an early Irish general election will be ignored and that the EU will have to negotiate with a new Government which might take a different line to the current one. If this happens will the new government reject the straight jacket of euro membership and set itself free? What a turn up for the books that would be! We were also reminded today why we need our military. North Korea for whatever crazy reason (and it is easy to suggest that it is part of the leadership handover process from father to son but who knows) has launched an unprovoked attack on South Korea. How does the rest of the world deal with a mad dog like North Korea? If it were a dog it would quietly be put out of its misery but it will be fascinating to see how the only world power will deal with the threat. Bummer Obama's initial 'outrage' response has not been 'helpful' and demonstrated his lack of credibility where foreign affairs are concerned. As the world power mantle slips from America's shoulders everyone will be looking to China to whip the North Koreans into line. But how will China carry out that task and will we ever know when it has done so? Do not bank on it.  What a complicated world we live in! Crises though bring opportunities and if our politicians are clever they will use the euro and North Korean crises to boost our influence in the world, shake off the dead hand of the EU and rejuvenate our economy. 

A Sad Day

Ireland's heroic efforts to sort out their finances have come to naught. They have been forced to apply for a bailout despite the fact that they had sufficient funds until the middle of next year to pay for interest on Government borrowings etc.. John Redwood seems to think that the reason for insisting that Ireland take a bailout is because the European Central Bank (ECB) would prefer to lend to the Irish Government rather than continue making advances to Irish Banks, which because of their parlous state the ECB has been supporting for months now. The Irish Banks concerned presumably have still not worked out what their losses on sub-prime etc. are, which if true is unbelievable.

A sad day also to learn that the New Zealand miners have still not been rescued. What is happening? Why are the rescuers taking so long to find out if any of the miners are still alive. It is astonishing that no one has been inside the mine to investigate. Considering the poisonous gases swirling around in the mine it is a given that anybody who did go inside would have to be wearing breathing apparatus. Surely though some attempt to make an exploratory expedition into the interior should be made even if, as has been reported, there is a small fire. Is the real reason why nothing is happening one of UK type health and safety regulations? I sincerely hope not.  It would be dreadful to think that people are dying who could otherwise have been rescued but for health and safety reasons.

There is no reason why taxpayers should support any political party. That is why a week or so back I was glad to hear that the Coalition had decided to stopped further payments to the Union Modernisation Fund.  It is widely believed such payments  were used by the Unions to support Labour. I had also thought the Coalition had stopped payments to the Union Learning Fund but I gather that taxpayers are still paying into this fund to the tune of £14 million a year. This is an outrageous scam as it is the cynical opinion of many that the money is again being filtered through to the Labour party. If the Unions want to learn anything they can pay for it out of their own pocket although there are plenty of bodies like the Adam Smith Institute that I imagine would be more than willing to teach them something about economics.