The first week of 2012 has been busy with lots of New Year’s resolutions in Politics, Business and all in influence, of course what we really want is a NY revolution in thinking, approach and action.
There is no real leadership in the UK; Cameron blows with the wind, seizing on the latest Public Opinion; Clegg has disappeared, as a lifelong Liberal I find little to support; and Milliband does not exist, not that you can notice. In fact there is little leadership in the World today, except for China and various dictatorships.
Anyway if we look at the various events of the past week, not in any particular order.
Breast Implants - These are faulty goods, not fit for purpose and should be treated in the same way as anything else we buy. With all the stringent control on drugs, how on earth did they get on the market, five minutes testing with modern analysis would have shown them up as industrial silicone! Surely the clinics have insurance to cover this.
HS2 – The case is based on increased capacity, business need and job creation. Due to the braking distances required and the laws of physics, doubling the speed increase the train spacing four times thus halving the capacity and needs dedicated lines without slower traffic. Motorway experience shows that at peak times reducing the speed to 50mph, smooths out the flow and reduces travel times, we have all experienced the stop start travel surges on busy motorways and the delays.
Business needs- the 25 minutes saved on travel times will be spent in delays getting to the station, the logistics of waiting to board and delays getting to the final destination. Modern technology allows one still to work, deal with e-mails, video conference or just sit back and enjoy the countryside on a slightly longer journey.
On previous experience job creation will certainly occur in Germany, France, etc. but how much will really be spent here; it is another way of increasing our balance of payments deficit, as if we need one.
It will go down in history as an epic waste of money, there are better ways of spending £33bn; the Severn barrage would do more lasting good and meet green targets, as would Housing, School, Hospitals and modernising all infrastructure generally, they all would create more jobs and boost the economy and prosperity.
Immigration-“ does not displace British workers except from outside the UK”. Commonsense and observation shows this to be not true, based on those who draw benefit it is obviously flawed, how many EU or other immigrants even exist officially, pay tax have an NI number or work permits. They are visitor workers outside rules, who export money home, they are industrious with a good work attitude which we could well adopt.
Directors pay and Banking reform – still in the doldrums and unresolved, including bonuses; pay should be related to share value and other perks such as share issue and bonuses should be banned; shareholders, employees and all concerned should obviously have a greater say. This would give better value for money, it is debateable whether such high incomes in any occupation are deserved, earned or worthwhile.
Economy – “There is a good time coming but it’s ever so far away” seems to be the theme tune, but the credit squeeze does not make sense. It started off with good intentions, a 20% cut to get things straight, but then someone appears to have been too lazy to sort the detail or think it through.
The result is the easy way out, cut services; shed labour to cut wages; close libraries and community centres; cut grants to charities etc., regardless of whether they are doing a useful job or essential to communities or a necessity to maintain an ordered society and even whether you can afford to be without it.
However it is funny how the odd billion can be found for something or other and we spend money wildly abroad, we need to balance budgets but mainly on our external budgets with the rest of the world.
Olympics – dominate the headlines, the ticket fiasco continues; like the budget spend, they seem to find the odd million or so tucked away; are they filling the tracks with seats or can no one count. The cost rises steadily, now its security, which we were assured had been catered for, but apparently not. It is also puzzling that no mention of parking facilities for cars and coaches has taken place, or is that another jack-in the box waiting to jump out.
Youth – has also been in the news after the riots, but they were only a mindless minority; there is a lot to be admired in the youth of today, they have modern technology at their fingertips and seem to have more get up and go than I can remember from my youth. What they need is more opportunity, they have no work, nowhere to go, nothing to do and if they want to better themselves at University, a lifetime mortgage. Other Countries, especially the successful ones, value and nurture their youth, perhaps we should follow their example.
The New Years Resolution I would like is a little bit more common sense and thought in planning our future.
Savings Annuities Public Sector NHS Teachers Police Local Government Hutton State Pensions
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