Afghanistan Front News

MOD: Has announced the name of the UK Soldier that was killed on Sunday in Afghanistan, the Soldier was “ Private Thomas Christopher Lake, 1st Battalion The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment ”. Our thoughts are with the family of Private Lake.

UK Coalition Government and DEBT

Telegraph: Reports that the Coalition Government could fail to eliminate the structural deficit as planned for by the end of the Parliament in 2015. Thus folks the Coalition has a massive political problem, the Unions are on the street at the end of the month over the present cuts, what if the Coalition has to bring in even harsher cuts as faced by Ireland, Greece and Italy, what if the basic structure of the UK welfare state has to be reformed, what if you as in Ireland have to pay form some health aspects, what if you are means tested for the use of the NHS. The Coalition might have to look at actually not giving benefits to people under 25, that is out there idea folks, there would be exceptions of course, but that kind of radical thinking is needed, the UK could face ten years of low to no growth and austerity, come back Harold Wilson. At some point the Conservative Party might decide that it needs a political scapegoat, no matter the Lib Dems, thus the EU, have a Referendum at the same time as the General Election about getting out of the EU. It would kick the Lib Dems out of the system, the Labour Party would be split, and Conservative Party might just win a election with an overall majority. At the end of the day Conservative Party is about winning folks.

Obama on Iran

President Obama has announced new sanctions on Iran, the President stated the following in a statement, “ Today, my Administration has taken yet another step to further isolate and penalize Iran for its refusal to live up to its international obligations regarding its nuclear program. ….New sanctions target for the first time Iran’s petrochemical sector, prohibiting the provision of goods, services, and technology to this sector and authorizing penalties against any person or entity that engages in such activity. They expand energy sanctions, making it more difficult for Iran to operate, maintain, and modernize its oil and gas sector. They also designate 11 individuals and entities for their role in assisting Iran’s prohibited nuclear programs, including its enrichment and heavy water programs. And today we have taken the next significant step to escalate the pressure by acting under Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act, identifying for the first time, the entire Iranian banking sector – including the Central Bank of Iran – as a threat to governments or financial institutions that do business with Iranian banks. We are joined in this action by the United Kingdom and Canada, who have also acted to cut off Iran from their financial systems today. I welcome these steps and encourage all of our partners to do the same….Iran has chosen the path of international isolation. As long as Iran continues down this dangerous path, the United States will continue to find ways, both in concert with our partners and through our own actions to isolate and increase the pressure upon the Iranian regime. ”. In a odd way folks this statement might be the most under report story of the day, in effect Iran is out of the World Banking system, the Tehran Government will find it hard to funnel cash to buy the nuclear material it needs, this should cause pain to the people of Iran, but also might get them out on the street, lets hope if they do Obama does not waffle like the last time. As stated in previous post one can postulate that Israel has made it clear to the West, the clock is ticking, get something done or else, lets very direct here folks, Israel is a nuclear armed power, it has tested missiles that can reach Iran, if that clock reach the dark hour of 12, Israel will hit folks, Mossad the Israeli Intelligence Agency can only do so much folks using covert means, there might come a time when Israel can not wait, as occurred in 1981 with Iraq and 2007 with Syria.

Egyptian Government and the Protests

The New York Times: Reports that the Government of Egypt has offered its resignation to the Egyptian Military, after according to official figures 23 deaths another 1,500 protesters wounded since the fresh demonstrations. The Army Elite folks are not going to just give up their power, also the West has no interest in allowing the Muslim Brotherhood to gain power in Egypt, that would be a disaster in the long term for Egypt and the Middle East, no matter their PR, the Brotherhood is a threat to Israel and the peace deal between Egypt and Israel. This blog supports peaceful protest, but lets be honest here folks, Egypt was never going to have a Western Democracy, no matter how may Egyptians are on Facebook or Twitter, that’s not the real world. An Egyptian Democracy that benefits Egypt and the wider region would allow political, economic, social freedoms to the young, but the Army would prevent Egypt becoming an Islamic State, the US would pull all funding then, lets recall Egypt get a few billions each year from the US, and lot of that goes to the Army. In odd way the China model would be good for Egypt, freedoms on the economic front, but the Army protecting the security of the State and the region. This blog speaks truth to power but also to brave protesters, that is the real world folks, this is not the 1960s.

The Spanish Election and the EURO

Guardian: Reports how the delay in power transfer between the out going Socialist Government of Spain and the incoming Conservative Party is damaging Spain on the bond market. The New Government the article states will have to do “ ..further massive spending cuts or tax hikes.. ”. The Spanish bond is close enough to 7% mark for the EU to have backup plans to rescue Spain, thus far we have seen Governments fall due to the Euro in Ireland, Greece, Italy, in Greece we have a technocrat in charge, but the main Opposition Party is refusing to play ball, it wont sign an agreement with the EU to fallow through with its austerity package. In Italy the PM and the Cabinet is full of technocrats, the new PM has stated that he expects to last in till the planned election of 2013 as to follow through with his austerity package. It wont happens folks, former PM Silvio Berlusconi is making noises of a comeback, thus the Government of Greece and Italy are on political life support but they don’t know it, they don’t have years, months if they are lucky, to push through tough austerity packages, to deal with the mass protests, then for the Parliaments to pull the plug on them, the Greek people might want to be in the Euro, but if they wont pay the taxes something has to give, if the austerity package is either stalled or slowed down by the Greek system then the EU will have to throw Greece out of the Euro, Italy is 50/50 folks. Expect more ups and downs on the markets folks, will be interesting to see the Asian Markets after the failure of the Super Committee in the US.

UK and Iran

Telegraph Live: Reports that the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has announced today that ALL financial links between the UK and Iran have been cut, as Iran is a threat to the UK national security. This and harsh sanctions from the UN could keep Israel from bombing Iran folks, but they will need the support of Russia and China, one can postulate that Israel is keep a gun at the head of the international community, in essence you have one chance, make Iran STOP developing the bomb or Israel will go nuclear and make sure that Iran does not go nuclear. One wonders really how far Iran has gone with the development of the bomb folks, would it surprise anyone if they announced one day that they had the bomb.

The Markets and Western Debt

BBC News: Reports on the failure of the US Super Committee, and how the Eurozone Debt sent stock markets down. Folks all the Markets see are endless meetings between politicians who don’t risk a big plan and they will get thrown out of office, the Germans will never go for Euro Bonds and they would have to underwrite them, the German Supreme Court has stated it would have problems with such a move, also the European Central Bank, the common view is that the ECB should print money and thus pay off EU debts, the Germans recall the inflation crisis of Weimar Germany and the raise of Hitler, thus another No from the 4th Reich ( they are being pain folks ) the French risk losing their tripe AAA credit rating, the Greeks have internal problems with the Conservative Opposition refusing to sign agreements with the EU that would allow for eye watering cuts, the Italians have a technocrat Government that think it will be around in till 2013, no they wont, the political parties left or right wont allow some non elected theocrats to rob them of power. In the US its down to the 2012 Presidential and Congressional Elections, thus 9 months of a campaign folks. Buy gold folks, paper money just might become worthless, only joking but not to much folks.