The Best and The Brightest?

Are politicians really as stupid as they sometimes seem?

Take three silly examples from the last ten days:

Cameron, in his weekly attempt to put the world to rights from the podium, announces that there will be no free lunches for MP's. Saving the tax payer millions! At a time when UK national debt is heading to 1 Trillion (and beyond) this must be a piece of political satire, surely?

In the midst of attempts to grab the headlines Clegg had the opportunity to be seen to be rising above it. To show himself as a level headed leader prepared to put well thought policy before publicity. But no, the cameras were there and the chance to get the main headline spot on the News at 10 was too much: "Savage Cuts" was the soundbite, and the response was as expected.

Ed Balls then decides to play his trump card: 2 Billion of savings from the top of the teaching profession. It appears that the teaching unions were not consulted on this knee jerk policy announcement - the Tories didn't need to criticise, the NUS would do it for them.

Where have the great statesmen and women gone? Why have policy announcements from Sunday morning TV sofas replaced announcements from the dispatch box? Why do the best and the brightest of all parties get sidelined for cheap hacks that are prepared to tow an ill-thought party line?

CUTS FOR ALL - the popular choice

The focus has changed from who can cut the least, to who can cut most effectively. And, don't the people love it.

Today Brown, Darling and the rest of Labours increasingly lowly high command are in meetings to find areas of the public sector that can be cut. Presumably (hopefully) they will be looking for areas where the cuts will have little affect and might go "unnoticed" (if this is possible). Realistically however any cuts to public services are going to be felt somewhere by someone to some extent. The politicians know that they just have to bite the bullet - there is no option.

What seems odd to me is the pleasure that the press and the majority of the public are taking in the prospect of these cuts. People and journalists, who haven't fully grasped the basics of Macro-economics, have failed to understand or forgotten that the UK government has been living in debt for as long as we can remember. A small amount of debt can be beneficial to a country. A country is not like an individual where a large amount of savings is required for prosperity.

Few would argue against the statement that the public sector investment over the last 10 years has been largely positive for this country. Classrooms are no longer closed due to leaking ceilings and waiting lists for critical treatments are now almost non-existent. And, it is of no surprise that the conservatives are in raptures over having legitimate grounds to reduce public spending. But the public, who has benefited so much from spending, should not be so eager to see cuts. So eager that most politicians now think that this will be the battle lines of the next election.

Cuts need to happen. Debt must be reduced towards 40% GDP. Cuts are going to happen. Most likely they will happen before a full recovery has occurred, even though basic economic thought suggests this is counter productive and will end up costing the economy more in the long run. Cuts are going to hurt people. Most likely it will be the people at the bottom, in most need, that will suffer the most. However, cuts should not be celebrated. Rather they should be accepted, minimised where ever possible and stopped as soon as financial possible.

The Conservatives have fooled the press and the press have talked the country into a "cut for your life" mentality. Hopefully this mentality will not be in the top level meetings today.

The Recession is Over

It has gone unnoticed my many parts of the British press, but the recession has come to an end.

Manufacturing is rapidly reviving, with mothballed factories springing back to life as companies cracked up production for the second month in a row. The FTSE 100 of blue chip companies is closing close to the 5000 mark. Large scales mergers and take overs are happening again.

This is not to say that it is business as usual. It will take many more months, if not years for the economy to return to 2007 levels. But, make no mistake the recovery has started and the third quarter of this year will show positive economic growth.

So maybe it is time for the Daily Telegraph and the BBC to stop covering Cameron's laughable House of Commons "savings" and stop to look at the events that have contributed to this recovery. The bail out of the banks, the VAT cut, the quantitative easing and numerous other schemes that this embattled government bravely stuck to. And, it might also be worth examining the alternative path that would have been taken had a Tory government been in Number 10 and the awful repercussions that would have had.

It might never be known how close this country came to going to the wall in the winter of 08/09, but I am betting it wasn't far off.

Afghanistan - a just and popular war?

70 years ago today Britain declared war on Germany. Young men flocked to enlist into the armed forces. My grandfather described a sense of anticipation bordering on excitement. The Hun were approaching across Europe and the start of the Second World War was an event that galvanised a nation. Even in the darkest days of 1941 and 1942, when many thought that a full invasion was only weeks away, the war effort was widely supported.

British historians and the British public look back on this war with a sense of pride. As a young boy I used to love listening to the stories my Grandfather told. A war in which thousands of British men, women and children died is widely (and rightly) considered this nation’s finest hour.

It is interesting to compare this with the wars we have fought recently and are fighting currently. Today the sense of national pride described above is absent. While there has been an increase in Army recruitment this is due mainly to the economic situation. Many see the wars in the Middle East as a scar on the British reputation and politicians freely criticise many aspects of the war effort, while troops are in the field.

So why is the war in Afghanistan losing support, and rapidly?

Is it because the public find it hard to separate it from the Iraq war, which many say was a massive misadventure? Is it because of the images from the front line that shows terrifying scenes of close quarter combat with bayonets fixed (images never seen during WWII)? Is it the heart wrenching scenes from Wootton Bassett? Or, is it the sense that we no longer fighting for our own self-interest, with the more real threat now coming from the border regions of Pakistan?

Furthermore, at a time when many nations around the world (Iran, N Korea, Russia…) could be considered a threat to British interests is this aversion to conflict a good or bad thing? Will it increase the possibility of diplomacy or leave Britain open to these threats? What would the situation be now if Britain were attacked? Would a government be able (if necessary) to take this country to war? And, if not what are the ramifications of that?

The morale, emotions and feelings of a nation often dictates domestic policy, this may be the first time in a long time it influences foreign policy.