As so many places in Provence (Var), a site with an immense atmosphere: the distressed stones, the clear blue sky - and history oozing out of every corner.
Monday, 20 September 2010
Jorgen Faxholm : Bargeme Provence 1995
As so many places in Provence (Var), a site with an immense atmosphere: the distressed stones, the clear blue sky - and history oozing out of every corner.
Monday, 13 September 2010
The Human Condition V
In a recent TV-feature about Al Quaeda’s bombing of two American embassies in East Africa, one of the victims, a woman who lost her eye-sight in the Nairobi blast, said: God, if you have to, please take only one eye.
The statement stunned me.
What kind of god would take up that offer?
If he had decided to take both eyes, he would surely take them, as it was unclear what the woman had to offer in return.
And if she had something to offer, what kind of miserable, stingy, vengeful god would consider such a trade-in?
Wouldn’t it have made more sense to ask Osama Bin Laden for compensation for this incredibly cowardly act? The chance of a positive response would have been endlessly higher – albeit minimal.
Let me demonstrate through their own account how sick these terrorists are:
The one allocated to the Nairobi plot was supposed to have shot the guard at the embassy entrance, paving the way for the other to drive the explosives through the gate.
However, he forgot his gun at the back seat of his car.
As he couldn’t shoot the guard immediately, after which he’d probably have been killed himself, he figured that he had messed things up – and ran away.
The logic is that in order to obtain a one way ticket to paradise, he had to be killed in the act – and not afterwards, as this would be considered suicide.
And suicide is not allowed.
Chew on that one for a while.
I don’t know who of the two people, the blind lady or the terrorist, I pity the most. Both are lost in an illusion that only religion could bring about.
My conclusion is, that our time on earth is short and final. Therefore it is better to concentrate on friends and family and make the most out of life here and now than to believe in deluded promises of a paradise – or to believe that God (which of them?) has monopoly on being good.
The problem, of course, is that friends and family may not see it that way, but the solution is simple: convert them to at least understand the "here and now" principle - or dump them.
Time is much too short to live with waste and futile hopes.
What a relief this insight has become for me!
The statement stunned me.
What kind of god would take up that offer?
If he had decided to take both eyes, he would surely take them, as it was unclear what the woman had to offer in return.
And if she had something to offer, what kind of miserable, stingy, vengeful god would consider such a trade-in?
Wouldn’t it have made more sense to ask Osama Bin Laden for compensation for this incredibly cowardly act? The chance of a positive response would have been endlessly higher – albeit minimal.
Let me demonstrate through their own account how sick these terrorists are:
The one allocated to the Nairobi plot was supposed to have shot the guard at the embassy entrance, paving the way for the other to drive the explosives through the gate.
However, he forgot his gun at the back seat of his car.
As he couldn’t shoot the guard immediately, after which he’d probably have been killed himself, he figured that he had messed things up – and ran away.
The logic is that in order to obtain a one way ticket to paradise, he had to be killed in the act – and not afterwards, as this would be considered suicide.
And suicide is not allowed.
Chew on that one for a while.
I don’t know who of the two people, the blind lady or the terrorist, I pity the most. Both are lost in an illusion that only religion could bring about.
My conclusion is, that our time on earth is short and final. Therefore it is better to concentrate on friends and family and make the most out of life here and now than to believe in deluded promises of a paradise – or to believe that God (which of them?) has monopoly on being good.
The problem, of course, is that friends and family may not see it that way, but the solution is simple: convert them to at least understand the "here and now" principle - or dump them.
Time is much too short to live with waste and futile hopes.
What a relief this insight has become for me!
Tuesday, 7 September 2010
Wine Harvest 4 Sept. 2010
The same amount as last year? Unfortunately not!
Grapes were small, 50% didn't pollinate and many dried out.
The result was a little more than a gallon - but what a gallon! 22% sugar according to the refractometer, now bubbling away for the next 3 months!
Volume low - quality high - that's OK!
The proud vigneronne demonstrating - -
- and here bubbling away on 7 Sept. after 3 days in the vat. Last year they spent 5 days before being poured over to the demijohn. In theory the longer in the vat, the more 'fruit' in the wine. But this also increases the chance of noxious bacteria developing - hence the short initial fermentation. Let's see in 3-4 months!
So far left on the vine (8 Sept.)
They do take their time to become ripe and this year the miserable spring and summer didn't do much to promote great growth. But there is enough to fill another demijohn - just about. Let's see in about 2 weeks (i.e. 20 Sept.) - but here's a pre-view on the vine:
I have removed as many leaves as possible to let maximum air and light into the bunches.
Sun, please!!!
And now hear this:
Pour que le vin fasse du bien aux femmes, faut que ce soyent les hommes qui le boivent!!
Perhaps I shouldn't be so impatient? This is the state of the art at Nyetimber's vineyard in Bignor, Sussex.
Not exactly well ripened fruit either. Tough year!!
 |
| Pinot Meunier, 11 Sept. 2010, Nyetinber Vineyard. |
Friday, 27 August 2010
Jorgen Faxholm : Tourtour Provence
Tourtour meadow.
Just outside Tourtour, a medieval village with castles and tourist traps, near Salerne and Villecroze, this wonderful view can be found. It takes in the blessings of Provence: The deep blue sky, the cooling Mistral, lavenders, medieval towers and a breathtaking view towards the Esterel mountains.
It just had to be painted!
Wednesday, 18 August 2010
Jorgen Faxholm : Roman bridge
Between Apt and Bonnieux this 2000 year old Roman bridge still carries the main traffic from "Gallia Cisalpina to Gallia Transalpina" - the only remaining bridge of a series of constructions that took trade and legionairies around the old empire.
Don't be fooled by the apparently wafer-thin top of the bridge. It is strong as an ass's back and may stay safe for another 2000 years!
(My painting 2010).
Monday, 28 June 2010
Danish Tax Policy 2010
Danish Tax-policy, explained by Lars Løkke.
with an English translation
English MPs have a lot to learn from the old Vikings.
Or perhaps the Vikings never left?
The compatibility between English and Danish parliamentary processes and similar ways of explaining complex matters are extraordinary. These 10 seconds from a specialist in clear communication, Lars Loekke, flows like a poem:
1. DANISH
Så har man altså valgt at lave et system,
hvor man skal aflevere lidt mindre
end man gjorde før.
Det er så det vi har valgt,
og det fører så selvfølgelig til, at – øhh –
dem, der tjener mere og afleverer meget
og nu afleverer lidt mindre,
ja, de afleverer så meget mindre,
end dem, der tjener lidt mindre
og afleverer mindre,
men altså så afleverer mindre - - mindre.
2. ENGLISH
So we have chosen to set up a system
where one will pay a little less
than we did before.
This is what we have chosen
and of course it leads to – uhmm –
those, who earn more and pay more
and now pay a little less,
yes, they will now pay a lot less
than those, who earn a little less
and pay less
but also pay less - - less.
Fantastic!!!!
with an English translation
English MPs have a lot to learn from the old Vikings.
Or perhaps the Vikings never left?
The compatibility between English and Danish parliamentary processes and similar ways of explaining complex matters are extraordinary. These 10 seconds from a specialist in clear communication, Lars Loekke, flows like a poem:
1. DANISH
Så har man altså valgt at lave et system,
hvor man skal aflevere lidt mindre
end man gjorde før.
Det er så det vi har valgt,
og det fører så selvfølgelig til, at – øhh –
dem, der tjener mere og afleverer meget
og nu afleverer lidt mindre,
ja, de afleverer så meget mindre,
end dem, der tjener lidt mindre
og afleverer mindre,
men altså så afleverer mindre - - mindre.
2. ENGLISH
So we have chosen to set up a system
where one will pay a little less
than we did before.
This is what we have chosen
and of course it leads to – uhmm –
those, who earn more and pay more
and now pay a little less,
yes, they will now pay a lot less
than those, who earn a little less
and pay less
but also pay less - - less.
Fantastic!!!!
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
Jorgen Faxholm : Adam's Shop
 |
| Adamou's historic Chiswick shop. Opened 1959, closed March 2011. Acrylic on board, 2008 |
This is the kind of shop our children will have a hard time to find in the future.
Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury's are well on the way to take over, making convenience shopping via easy access to a car park more and more common. The result is that they increasingly determine what we can buy and what not and tend to set the price (usually a high one) for our thus forced limited ambitions. Automatic tills and an overpowering competitve position are about to drive both local employment and small shops into oblivion.
Ultimately, we may all stay at home, ordering our food from the HD-LED screen of the computer, and let a service company bring us whatever they have on the shelf without giving us a chance to 'feel' the produce. So what about the shopping experience?
What about choice?
What about the diversity of specialised shops?
What about the personal relationship with innovative greengrocers, who understand the market and who understand what their individual customers want?
And what about the feeling of experiencing a bustling High Street?
Welcome to the 21st Century.
Friday, 18 June 2010
Political poems - sorry - de er paa dansk!
Udfundne af den pegasusianske rytter, hovmodets basker og skjald par excellence: Jorgenius Faxibus udi Maj 2010, i anledningen af det engelske valg - kan uden omskrivninger bruges til danske valg med henvisning til forfatterens intellektuelle korpus!!
1.
1. Der sviges fedt med grå pamfletter,
sandheden i Sibirien bor;
Der kastes tons af blår
og grus og sorte hætter
over folkets øjne, mens i kor
vi tigger, be’r, og håbet får et skår.
2. For pøbelen den sover,
lægger hjernens krøl på is.
Mens potten, som er fuld
af løfter, løber over
lover skov og røden guld,
og så’r den bare fuld a fis.
3. Det knivver lidt med hjerner,
at bruge dem er ikke let.
Til sorte huller visdoms stjerner
gøres daglig uden ret.
Med troens lidelse og mord
Det aldrig før er set:
3 ½. Det usandsynlige er sket,
at Faxibus er tom for ord.
2.
1. Jeg sidder midt i haven
i piberøgens slør
Med fisk og steg i maven
alt mens jeg roligt spør:
Hvor tør de politiker
tante fjas og fjumse,
når de ej engang er sikker
på om deres numse
ej bliver rød og slagen?
2. Snablen ned i krukken
det har de alle stukken.
Men hvor er deres blusel?
Ja, jeg spør’ Dem bare!
Man ej kan skrække dem
med sandheds bitre fusel.
For lige det er syv og fem,
og vi har lov og orden:
Dem rider ingen mare.
3. Men vos som der har viden
vi ser igennem røg’n
og sporer hele tiden
hver lusk og hver en løgn.
Jeg venter på min chance
til at brække deres rygge
og tage fed revanche:
Måske som valgt minister
jeg selv ku finde lykke?
Udfundne af den pegasusianske rytter, hovmodets basker og skjald par excellence: Jorgenius Faxibus udi Maj 2010, i anledningen af det engelske valg - kan uden omskrivninger bruges til danske valg med henvisning til forfatterens intellektuelle korpus!!
1.
1. Der sviges fedt med grå pamfletter,
sandheden i Sibirien bor;
Der kastes tons af blår
og grus og sorte hætter
over folkets øjne, mens i kor
vi tigger, be’r, og håbet får et skår.
2. For pøbelen den sover,
lægger hjernens krøl på is.
Mens potten, som er fuld
af løfter, løber over
lover skov og røden guld,
og så’r den bare fuld a fis.
3. Det knivver lidt med hjerner,
at bruge dem er ikke let.
Til sorte huller visdoms stjerner
gøres daglig uden ret.
Med troens lidelse og mord
Det aldrig før er set:
3 ½. Det usandsynlige er sket,
at Faxibus er tom for ord.
2.
1. Jeg sidder midt i haven
i piberøgens slør
Med fisk og steg i maven
alt mens jeg roligt spør:
Hvor tør de politiker
tante fjas og fjumse,
når de ej engang er sikker
på om deres numse
ej bliver rød og slagen?
2. Snablen ned i krukken
det har de alle stukken.
Men hvor er deres blusel?
Ja, jeg spør’ Dem bare!
Man ej kan skrække dem
med sandheds bitre fusel.
For lige det er syv og fem,
og vi har lov og orden:
Dem rider ingen mare.
3. Men vos som der har viden
vi ser igennem røg’n
og sporer hele tiden
hver lusk og hver en løgn.
Jeg venter på min chance
til at brække deres rygge
og tage fed revanche:
Måske som valgt minister
jeg selv ku finde lykke?
Thursday, 27 May 2010
NuLab (New Labour) review 1997-2010
By now most of us have given up on politicians. At the election on 6 May 2010 only about 62% of voters managed to lift their bum off the couch and do their duty – a disgrace as this was the most advertised election campaign ever in British history. The full brunt of Twitter, Facebook, eMails, mobile phones, smart posters and big budgets were brought to bear, all, apparently, to little effect. In this age of automation 1000s were not allowed to vote, as the polling stations’ capacity was exhausted across the country and people were refused entry.
Is this Britain or Afghanistan?
Politicians and politics have clearly topped lawyers, estate agents and traffic wardens in un-popularity.
What was it that New Labour promised us in 1997, when euphoria broke out as Labour won a land-slide election?
A new and fairer society? (Did I hear that again in 2010?)
New politics? (Did I hear that again in 2010?)
A society based on strong values? (Did I hear that again in 2010?)
How dare politicians pander to public amnesia and think they can keep promising the same broken promises over and over again?
Let us therefore take a look at some of Labour’s 13 years’ record.
Today we have a society that demonstrates an unprecedented gulf between rich and poor. It has become a society of money, materialism and celebrities. When I bought my house in 1994 it cost roughly 3 times my yearly salary. I couldn’t buy it today for 12 times that amount. If you don’t know what rich is, then take the Alfa list of the 50 people with the highest income in the world. 8 are UK based and most are involved in the financial industry. These 8 managed an average of £200mill income each in 2007 and these 50 account for a total income of approx. £20bill. Hedge funds, Derivatives, Sub Prime Mortgage speculations in a free-for-all market with little regulation – all under the nose of a NuLab government that promised the end of Boom-and-Bust - have done more damage to our lives than we will be able to catch up with in the next 20 years.
When you are blessed with a Labour Prime Minister, who didn’t hesitate raiding our pension funds for £100bill and sell our gold-reserves at a dumping price, it is no wonder that those who were still awake kicked him out in the 2010 election.
It is a bigger wonder why so many still voted for him.
There’s public amnesia for you. Or plain stupidity?
In ’97 Blair trumpeted his 3 major priorities for all to remember: Education – education – education. Recently the UK was placed at nr. 24 on a list of maths teaching in Europe, but some of us didn’t forget the speech Blair gave and the applause he received.
The same positive promises were made on the alleviation of child poverty (it’s worse today than then), drink issues and criminality. When recently the lead was ripped off my neighbour’s house and my car was stolen the police bragged: no serious crime was committed in the area last month. Lies, damned lies and statistics seem to be Labour’s method.
One can argue endlessly (and we do) over the objectives and justification of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Personally I believe that the devout catholic Blair knew very well that the arguments were dubious and that he followed Bush’s tail, putting an almost religious spin to the matter. The follow-up to the invasion was dramatically disastrous. In short, NuLab took us to war without putting the country, or rather the military, on a war-footing. Demonstrated lack of military equipment and a public discussion drowning in political waffle have showed NuLab to be callous to an extent bordering on criminal laissez faire. In the end they had to admit that despite a rise in money spent on the military, the rise in real terms was nil. For a country at war?
This is unforgivable, even if there were a shadow of justification left.
It is almost trivial to make an account of the plethora of mismanagement NuLab has been responsible for. To err is human, but to really screw things up obviously took a Labour government. Here are a few examples.
Tonnes of spin were brought to the fore, when Labour tried to wriggle out of the 10p tax scandal as they mistakenly cancelled the lower tax bracket. It was another example of a party, that has ‘Labour’ to its name, protecting the rich more than the poor – something they always accused the Tories of doing.
Historically Labour has always been a big spender, almost a squanderer of state funds. That’s the reason we can now see the bottom of our coffers, finding ourselves trapped in the worst recession in 60 years, with the Pound at an all time low and unemployment at its highest ever despite the ’97-promise of full employment.
Public spending happened as if there was no tomorrow, even during the last days of NuLab in office and the Brown government had planned to continue as if there actually was a tomorrow, had they not been stopped dead in their tracks at the election.
The Millennium Dome cost in excess of £1.3bill against an original budget of £400mill. 70,000 family houses could have been built for this amount, eliminating the problem of Britain’s homeless. And then there is Ed Balls, the Education secretary, who had planned funding for massage rooms and contemplation suites in our schools. Eh? For distressed teachers, who have lost all control over the kids?
Identity cards would have cost £1bill, at least, and everyone except Labour agrees it would have been a complete waste of money. Quangos, e.g the “Potato Council”, spin doctors and ‘Consultants’ had the life of Roman governors under NuLab.
When the house started to come down after Blair’s departure and an un-elected Brown took over, it looks as though the emphasis changed to lining one’s own pockets before the gravy train stopped.
The MP scandal broke under Brown’s watch. The speaker had to be sacked for the first time since the 17th Century, as he refused to clean up the matter. Labour MPs were caught asking for cash (allegedly £3-5000) for lobbying. ‘Cash for honours’ was another juicy undertaking in which donors to the Labour party could obtain a Lordship. Compare this to Blair’s end-of-sleeze promise in 97. Free holidays for senior politicians also became the heading of the day and Blair was one of the frequent recipients. Then there was Blair’s wife, who excelled in snubbing the queen, using convicted criminals to broker the purchase of apartments and generally the Blairs operating a presidential life style that certainly had little relationship with the 97 promise of labour values. This, by the way continues today, where Blair is rewarded £2-400,000 an hour on the speech circuit with 16 publicly paid police officers as protection – and no contribution by him self - costing the taxpayers £5mill/year, while he retains another costly sinecure job as a ‘Middle East Envoy’.
Is that what he called ‘Labour values’ in 1997?
There must have been something sinister going on at an early state in the NuLab government. Why, otherwise, would the herostratically famous Jo Moore otherwise have said “This is a good day to bury bad news” just after the 9/11 disaster?
Peter Mandelsohn, who was twice sacked from the government, first time over lying about a home loan, was later asked to return as a “Business Tsar” by Brown, with whom he had dramatically fallen out. This prompts the question: what kind of dealings and wheelings were going on behind the curtain? What kind of person is Brown actually? After 10 years of constant arguments and rows between him and Blair, accusations of Brown bullying his staff and a public derogatory remark about an old voter as being an ‘old bigot’ – who did this un-elected prime minister think he was? And on that kind of question one can extend the curiosity to the daily comings and goings of the Unite Trade Union bosses’ daily visits to Brown in nr. 10. These are people who underpin the NuLab party budgets and at the same time try to bring down British Airways while twittering during confidential ACAS-talks. Talk about sinister people and events - - - - .
Then there’s the case about foreigners in Britain. NuLab has been completely unable to clarify what is going on, how many foreigners there are in this country and how many come and go.
The general popular attitude is that foreign immigration is a bad idea. But they forget that a lot of British people work abroad – in the EU and elsewhere.
Recently there was a TV-feature about foreign workers, East Europeans in particular, who worked as farm labourers in Norfolk. According to the local English employers there would be no business without these workers – and yet people on the street were complaining that foreigners took away work from the British, maintaining this was the reason for the local 10% unemployment figure. With great (actually enormous) effort the TV-producer managed to get a few of the English jobless out of bed, sending them out in the field together with the East Europeans.
Most of them didn’t last a day, the rest didn’t turn up on time and none of them was able to work effectively.
Why hasn’t NuLab created better conditions for work? Then you could say: You work, you get paid. You don’t want to work, support stops. Hardly rocket science.
In addition no one knows how many illegal immigrants we have. Poor people from all over the world have found that Britain is a soft target for their ambitions of a life away from extreme poverty. The stream of illegals, making the channel crossing hidden in lorries from Calais is endless. How difficult can it be to ‘defend’ an island? And are these people really such a big problem? In order to exist, they need money and they will only get money if the work, i.e. produce. Consequently they contribute to the economy. It all boils down to proper management and political regulation, something NuLab seems totally incapable of instigating.
As far as the EU-workers are concerned, Britain has a political and contractual obligation to accept them and they wouldn’t be here if they didn’t see the benefit. This is perhaps why the flow goes the other way at the moment, as the value of the Pound is falling.
Non-EU people also seem to leave faster than they arrive.
In other words: where is the problem, other than perhaps a social problem with misuse of people, who are in need of support and who live outside the system – and thousands of British job-seekers, who are too lazy to make an effort? The fact is that there are lots of jobs available, but few willing takers. Isn’t that just a management problem? The Tories seem to think so – a welcome change.
Labour’s record on political correctness and support of human rights is also tarnished.
Ostensibly 900 foreign criminals, some of whom are highly dangerous terrorists, have disappeared in the system, i.e. no one knows where they are. The Home Office is in a mess. Letting dangerous criminals loose on the streets of Britain is not a good alternative to sending them back to their home country. But obviously someone thinks it is better to absorb them as a local danger than potentially violating their human rights.
We don’t all agree!
Finally a word on Climate change and energy management.
NuLab lost the plot!
Britain only produces 2% of their energy in a renewable fashion against some other European countries’ record of 20-30%. The ploy today is to ‘pay’ yourself out of a carbon foot-print. This is disgusting, irresponsible and a mismanagement that shows no understanding of the problem nor commitment to the future. And yet Brown, at the charade conference in Copenhagen in 2009, said that “Britain would lead”. From the back seat? When he decided to print money and kept borrowing from abroad in 2009, very little went into green investments. The wind farms and North Sea grids now being planned will all be financed abroad and none of the materials used will be produced in the UK. It will take us at least 30 years to eliminate the Russian and Arab stranglehold on Britain’s energy. In the economic vice that a spendthrift NuLab has created for us, the consequences are difficult to oversee.
What a lost opportunity. We could have rebuilt our industrial base. Instead we missed an obvious chance to change Britain’s economic platform from becoming based on B&Q, Homebase, MacDonalds and Supermarkets. Will we all end as hairdressers? Perhaps the lack of a business vision for Britain is the worst crime NuLab have committed.
Unfortunately the new Conservative/LibDem government keep talking about a commitment to halt climate change. Although they have a sensible objective of building the nuclear power stations we so badly need, they don’t seem to have seen the light either: that we probably have no impact on climate change whatsoever (see elsewhere on my blog: AGW-nonsense), that we have no money to invest in a dramatic turn-around and that the promised investment in small industry leads nowhere, when the big industry suffers and a green energy industry is left for others to build.
One of the Tories just spent a week in Bangladesh to see for himself the effect of climate change. Eh? When cutting Himalaya’s forests are the main cause of flooding in a country that probably never should have occupied the land they have. Why didn’t he go to Germany, Denmark – or the village in Scotland, where people have made themselves 100% independent of a carbon energy supply, except when used in cars? No one seems to understand that realistic adaptation is far more important than preventing something over which we have no control. NuLab killed the cat and the Tories seem to be just as confused and drowned in political correctness.
My fear is that now the ‘toffs’ are in power, they may lean back and relax. Politicians only work for politicians.
Is there hope for the population, then?
Will the banks stop repossessing the homes of people, who must suffer the consequences of the financial mismanagement by the very same financial institutions? These are the banks, who lend the money in the first place and who now continue to pay billions of pounds in bonuses to their employees – the same money the banks received from the taxpayers to stay alive? In this light repossession is deeply immoral.
Thank you NuLab for creating these conditions through lack of vision, lack of honesty, broken promises, false values, a messy relationship between The Bank of England, the Treasury and the Financial Services Authority, lack of proper regulation – and a colossal mismanagement across the board.
This was done on the watch of what Labour-voters still call the “best chancellor we ever had”, referring to Brown’s 10 years in nr. 11 Downing Street.
His unelected time in nr. 10 showed in less than 3 who he really was!!
By now most of us have given up on politicians. At the election on 6 May 2010 only about 62% of voters managed to lift their bum off the couch and do their duty – a disgrace as this was the most advertised election campaign ever in British history. The full brunt of Twitter, Facebook, eMails, mobile phones, smart posters and big budgets were brought to bear, all, apparently, to little effect. In this age of automation 1000s were not allowed to vote, as the polling stations’ capacity was exhausted across the country and people were refused entry.
Is this Britain or Afghanistan?
Politicians and politics have clearly topped lawyers, estate agents and traffic wardens in un-popularity.
What was it that New Labour promised us in 1997, when euphoria broke out as Labour won a land-slide election?
A new and fairer society? (Did I hear that again in 2010?)
New politics? (Did I hear that again in 2010?)
A society based on strong values? (Did I hear that again in 2010?)
How dare politicians pander to public amnesia and think they can keep promising the same broken promises over and over again?
Let us therefore take a look at some of Labour’s 13 years’ record.
Today we have a society that demonstrates an unprecedented gulf between rich and poor. It has become a society of money, materialism and celebrities. When I bought my house in 1994 it cost roughly 3 times my yearly salary. I couldn’t buy it today for 12 times that amount. If you don’t know what rich is, then take the Alfa list of the 50 people with the highest income in the world. 8 are UK based and most are involved in the financial industry. These 8 managed an average of £200mill income each in 2007 and these 50 account for a total income of approx. £20bill. Hedge funds, Derivatives, Sub Prime Mortgage speculations in a free-for-all market with little regulation – all under the nose of a NuLab government that promised the end of Boom-and-Bust - have done more damage to our lives than we will be able to catch up with in the next 20 years.
When you are blessed with a Labour Prime Minister, who didn’t hesitate raiding our pension funds for £100bill and sell our gold-reserves at a dumping price, it is no wonder that those who were still awake kicked him out in the 2010 election.
It is a bigger wonder why so many still voted for him.
There’s public amnesia for you. Or plain stupidity?
In ’97 Blair trumpeted his 3 major priorities for all to remember: Education – education – education. Recently the UK was placed at nr. 24 on a list of maths teaching in Europe, but some of us didn’t forget the speech Blair gave and the applause he received.
The same positive promises were made on the alleviation of child poverty (it’s worse today than then), drink issues and criminality. When recently the lead was ripped off my neighbour’s house and my car was stolen the police bragged: no serious crime was committed in the area last month. Lies, damned lies and statistics seem to be Labour’s method.
One can argue endlessly (and we do) over the objectives and justification of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Personally I believe that the devout catholic Blair knew very well that the arguments were dubious and that he followed Bush’s tail, putting an almost religious spin to the matter. The follow-up to the invasion was dramatically disastrous. In short, NuLab took us to war without putting the country, or rather the military, on a war-footing. Demonstrated lack of military equipment and a public discussion drowning in political waffle have showed NuLab to be callous to an extent bordering on criminal laissez faire. In the end they had to admit that despite a rise in money spent on the military, the rise in real terms was nil. For a country at war?
This is unforgivable, even if there were a shadow of justification left.
It is almost trivial to make an account of the plethora of mismanagement NuLab has been responsible for. To err is human, but to really screw things up obviously took a Labour government. Here are a few examples.
Tonnes of spin were brought to the fore, when Labour tried to wriggle out of the 10p tax scandal as they mistakenly cancelled the lower tax bracket. It was another example of a party, that has ‘Labour’ to its name, protecting the rich more than the poor – something they always accused the Tories of doing.
Historically Labour has always been a big spender, almost a squanderer of state funds. That’s the reason we can now see the bottom of our coffers, finding ourselves trapped in the worst recession in 60 years, with the Pound at an all time low and unemployment at its highest ever despite the ’97-promise of full employment.
Public spending happened as if there was no tomorrow, even during the last days of NuLab in office and the Brown government had planned to continue as if there actually was a tomorrow, had they not been stopped dead in their tracks at the election.
The Millennium Dome cost in excess of £1.3bill against an original budget of £400mill. 70,000 family houses could have been built for this amount, eliminating the problem of Britain’s homeless. And then there is Ed Balls, the Education secretary, who had planned funding for massage rooms and contemplation suites in our schools. Eh? For distressed teachers, who have lost all control over the kids?
Identity cards would have cost £1bill, at least, and everyone except Labour agrees it would have been a complete waste of money. Quangos, e.g the “Potato Council”, spin doctors and ‘Consultants’ had the life of Roman governors under NuLab.
When the house started to come down after Blair’s departure and an un-elected Brown took over, it looks as though the emphasis changed to lining one’s own pockets before the gravy train stopped.
The MP scandal broke under Brown’s watch. The speaker had to be sacked for the first time since the 17th Century, as he refused to clean up the matter. Labour MPs were caught asking for cash (allegedly £3-5000) for lobbying. ‘Cash for honours’ was another juicy undertaking in which donors to the Labour party could obtain a Lordship. Compare this to Blair’s end-of-sleeze promise in 97. Free holidays for senior politicians also became the heading of the day and Blair was one of the frequent recipients. Then there was Blair’s wife, who excelled in snubbing the queen, using convicted criminals to broker the purchase of apartments and generally the Blairs operating a presidential life style that certainly had little relationship with the 97 promise of labour values. This, by the way continues today, where Blair is rewarded £2-400,000 an hour on the speech circuit with 16 publicly paid police officers as protection – and no contribution by him self - costing the taxpayers £5mill/year, while he retains another costly sinecure job as a ‘Middle East Envoy’.
Is that what he called ‘Labour values’ in 1997?
There must have been something sinister going on at an early state in the NuLab government. Why, otherwise, would the herostratically famous Jo Moore otherwise have said “This is a good day to bury bad news” just after the 9/11 disaster?
Peter Mandelsohn, who was twice sacked from the government, first time over lying about a home loan, was later asked to return as a “Business Tsar” by Brown, with whom he had dramatically fallen out. This prompts the question: what kind of dealings and wheelings were going on behind the curtain? What kind of person is Brown actually? After 10 years of constant arguments and rows between him and Blair, accusations of Brown bullying his staff and a public derogatory remark about an old voter as being an ‘old bigot’ – who did this un-elected prime minister think he was? And on that kind of question one can extend the curiosity to the daily comings and goings of the Unite Trade Union bosses’ daily visits to Brown in nr. 10. These are people who underpin the NuLab party budgets and at the same time try to bring down British Airways while twittering during confidential ACAS-talks. Talk about sinister people and events - - - - .
Then there’s the case about foreigners in Britain. NuLab has been completely unable to clarify what is going on, how many foreigners there are in this country and how many come and go.
The general popular attitude is that foreign immigration is a bad idea. But they forget that a lot of British people work abroad – in the EU and elsewhere.
Recently there was a TV-feature about foreign workers, East Europeans in particular, who worked as farm labourers in Norfolk. According to the local English employers there would be no business without these workers – and yet people on the street were complaining that foreigners took away work from the British, maintaining this was the reason for the local 10% unemployment figure. With great (actually enormous) effort the TV-producer managed to get a few of the English jobless out of bed, sending them out in the field together with the East Europeans.
Most of them didn’t last a day, the rest didn’t turn up on time and none of them was able to work effectively.
Why hasn’t NuLab created better conditions for work? Then you could say: You work, you get paid. You don’t want to work, support stops. Hardly rocket science.
In addition no one knows how many illegal immigrants we have. Poor people from all over the world have found that Britain is a soft target for their ambitions of a life away from extreme poverty. The stream of illegals, making the channel crossing hidden in lorries from Calais is endless. How difficult can it be to ‘defend’ an island? And are these people really such a big problem? In order to exist, they need money and they will only get money if the work, i.e. produce. Consequently they contribute to the economy. It all boils down to proper management and political regulation, something NuLab seems totally incapable of instigating.
As far as the EU-workers are concerned, Britain has a political and contractual obligation to accept them and they wouldn’t be here if they didn’t see the benefit. This is perhaps why the flow goes the other way at the moment, as the value of the Pound is falling.
Non-EU people also seem to leave faster than they arrive.
In other words: where is the problem, other than perhaps a social problem with misuse of people, who are in need of support and who live outside the system – and thousands of British job-seekers, who are too lazy to make an effort? The fact is that there are lots of jobs available, but few willing takers. Isn’t that just a management problem? The Tories seem to think so – a welcome change.
Labour’s record on political correctness and support of human rights is also tarnished.
Ostensibly 900 foreign criminals, some of whom are highly dangerous terrorists, have disappeared in the system, i.e. no one knows where they are. The Home Office is in a mess. Letting dangerous criminals loose on the streets of Britain is not a good alternative to sending them back to their home country. But obviously someone thinks it is better to absorb them as a local danger than potentially violating their human rights.
We don’t all agree!
Finally a word on Climate change and energy management.
NuLab lost the plot!
Britain only produces 2% of their energy in a renewable fashion against some other European countries’ record of 20-30%. The ploy today is to ‘pay’ yourself out of a carbon foot-print. This is disgusting, irresponsible and a mismanagement that shows no understanding of the problem nor commitment to the future. And yet Brown, at the charade conference in Copenhagen in 2009, said that “Britain would lead”. From the back seat? When he decided to print money and kept borrowing from abroad in 2009, very little went into green investments. The wind farms and North Sea grids now being planned will all be financed abroad and none of the materials used will be produced in the UK. It will take us at least 30 years to eliminate the Russian and Arab stranglehold on Britain’s energy. In the economic vice that a spendthrift NuLab has created for us, the consequences are difficult to oversee.
What a lost opportunity. We could have rebuilt our industrial base. Instead we missed an obvious chance to change Britain’s economic platform from becoming based on B&Q, Homebase, MacDonalds and Supermarkets. Will we all end as hairdressers? Perhaps the lack of a business vision for Britain is the worst crime NuLab have committed.
Unfortunately the new Conservative/LibDem government keep talking about a commitment to halt climate change. Although they have a sensible objective of building the nuclear power stations we so badly need, they don’t seem to have seen the light either: that we probably have no impact on climate change whatsoever (see elsewhere on my blog: AGW-nonsense), that we have no money to invest in a dramatic turn-around and that the promised investment in small industry leads nowhere, when the big industry suffers and a green energy industry is left for others to build.
One of the Tories just spent a week in Bangladesh to see for himself the effect of climate change. Eh? When cutting Himalaya’s forests are the main cause of flooding in a country that probably never should have occupied the land they have. Why didn’t he go to Germany, Denmark – or the village in Scotland, where people have made themselves 100% independent of a carbon energy supply, except when used in cars? No one seems to understand that realistic adaptation is far more important than preventing something over which we have no control. NuLab killed the cat and the Tories seem to be just as confused and drowned in political correctness.
My fear is that now the ‘toffs’ are in power, they may lean back and relax. Politicians only work for politicians.
Is there hope for the population, then?
Will the banks stop repossessing the homes of people, who must suffer the consequences of the financial mismanagement by the very same financial institutions? These are the banks, who lend the money in the first place and who now continue to pay billions of pounds in bonuses to their employees – the same money the banks received from the taxpayers to stay alive? In this light repossession is deeply immoral.
Thank you NuLab for creating these conditions through lack of vision, lack of honesty, broken promises, false values, a messy relationship between The Bank of England, the Treasury and the Financial Services Authority, lack of proper regulation – and a colossal mismanagement across the board.
This was done on the watch of what Labour-voters still call the “best chancellor we ever had”, referring to Brown’s 10 years in nr. 11 Downing Street.
His unelected time in nr. 10 showed in less than 3 who he really was!!
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