Monday, May 31, 2010

There will be CUTS - Coalition Government



Daily Mail: Reports that the new Coalition Government is stressing to the money markets that even with the resignation of David Laws the Coalition will follow through with its planned cuts. The great plus with David Laws was that he came from the money markets, his successor Danny Alexander does not, he will have a lot of fast reading to do over the next days and weeks, but for the Conservative Party the great point is that the Cuts man with be a Liberal Democrat, thus two is always better than one when one has to make drastic cuts in public spending. One can predict that the money markets wont dive when they open on Tuesday, the resignation of Mr Laws is a blow but lets not write off Mr Alexander just yet folks.

Blair and Brown, NEVER WORKED OUT - Balls

Guardian: Has an interview with former Education Secretary Ed Balls and candidate for the Labour leadership, Mr Balls tells the truth about the relationship between Blair and Brown, " Tony and Gordon never found a way to bring it together. ". It seems that the candidates for the Labour leadership want to bury New Labour, with that they are throwing in Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, it seems from the Labour Leadership candidates point of view that both former PM's are toxic in this new Coalition Government Era. The problem for Mr Balls is that he is seen as very close to Gordon Brown, while David Miliband is seen as close to Tony Blair. Thus the leadership fight could be the election that never took place between Blair and Brown. One has to in a way feel sorry for Mr Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer for ten years and then PM for two years and 11 months, the shortest serving Labour PM ever, also unlike Tony Blair it can be argued that Mr Brown is not a people person, the bigot remark showed that fault line. Also one can postulate and hope that Mr Brown will look to tell the whole truth of his time in Government, his success as Chancellor but also his fraught relationship with Blair and his succession in 2007 and the near collapse of the banks in 2008, it would be a way for Mr Brown to set out history as he would like future historians to see the past.

UN meeting of Gaza Ships Deaths



Telegraph: Reports on a emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the death of nineteen individuals by the hands of Israel on the Gaza set Ship. Its the usual lynch Israel lobby, what is interesting is what the Oval will do, Obama has enough political problems on his plate at the moment, the Oil Spill, the tensions between North and South Korea, Iran and the US economy, he does not need the old age headache of the Israel and the Palestinian Question. Also if Obama is negative when it comes to Israel one can postulate that the Democrats and Republicans on the Hill will come out and support Israel, as stated the US has the Mid Term Elections in November, Obama has frosty relationship with Israel at the present, thus there is a limit to the political damage that Obama can take to keep the NYT types happy or the UK Guardian. Also Obama cant push Israel to far as he does not want them to attack Iran, if he is not talking to Israel they might as well attack Iran, if they are frozen by Obama what is a little bit more frost.

The UK and the Gaza Ship Deaths


The new Coalition Government in the form of the Conservative Foreign Secretary is taking the usual FCO line when it comes to Israel and its actions, the Mr Hague has stated the following in a statement,I deplore the loss of life during the interception of the Gaza Flotilla…..there is a clear need for Israel to act with restraint and in line with international obligations. It will be important to establish the facts about this incident, and especially whether enough was done to prevent deaths and injuries. …This news underlines the need to lift the restrictions on access to Gaza, in line with UNSCR 1860. ….I call on the Government of Israel to open the crossings to allow unfettered access for aid to Gaza, and address the serious concerns about the deterioration in the humanitarian and economic situation and about the effect on a generation of young Palestinians‪. " This is typical of the FCO, its on auto to blame Israel and support the Arabs, one could have written above from memory, if the FCO had something different that would have been the surprise.

Death in Afghanistan

MOD: Reports that a British Soldier was killed yesterday in Afghanistan, the Soldier was a " Royal Marine from 40 Commando Royal Marines serving as part of Combined Forces Sangin ". Thus since 2001 the UK has lost 289 of its Armed Forces Personnel in Afghanistan, of that total it has lost 255 in combat operations and 34 due to illness, accidents or other incidents. In May of 2010 the UK has lost eight of its Soldiers, how many more this year?