The US Democrat Primaries.

We have taken a greater interest than normal in the current race for winning the Democratic Party nomination for the presidency. We have been quite impressed particularly by Barak Obama’s campaign. He does of the all the candidates appear to be the more presidential, he outshines Hillary Clinton by far and seems the more qualified.

John Edwards has now withdrawn his candidacy and clearly now for the Democrats it’s a two horse race. The Republican Party candidates are also now down to two candidates and in this regard Senator John McCain, “four more years of Bush”, looks like a winner.

We hope, that the coming Super Tuesday Democratic Party primaries will see a boost for the Obama campaign.

The Commons & Equal Opportunities

What is becoming a serious issue is that Members of Parliament seem to believe it’s ok to give a job to a family member and then ensure payment from public funds. It would seem that the House of Commons is the last bastion of privilege and patronage.

It is time that equal opportunities polices were made effective in the House and that Members of Parliament should be subject to equal opportunities practice and law. There is no excuse in the 21st Century for the continuation of patronage.

Kenya’s nightmare.

Kibaki’s seizure of power has led to tragedy in Kenya, since his rushed and illegal swearing in ceremony 900 citizens have died.  Ethnic cleansing is sweeping the nation as tribal extremists exact destruction and murder on fellow Kenyans. What on earth can justify fellow citizens destroying homes and inflicting more suffering on Kenya’s population? This madness must stop. There is nothing wrong with legitimate and peaceful protests but clearly gangs of killers, including mungiki, the Kikuyu extremist criminal gang are involved.

Kofi Annan is at least making an effort to bring the parties together; the main political leaders, to talk on a solution, but it would seem the best solution is the re-run of the presidential election under international supervision this formula might seem the best way forward.

Tory MP allegedly commits fraud.

Bexley & Sidcup MP, Derek Conway, has been rather naughty in allegedy, though he appears to have admitted the offence, of using public funds to to finance one of two sons. Now this seems to be abuse of public funds and appropriate action should be a matter for police investigation. Suspension from the house for ten days seems rather mild. The silence in the Commons was unbelievable when the matter came before the house one wonders how many more are enjoying the misuse of public funds.

Dispatches - Why Kids Kill.

Channel 4s’ flagship documentary programme which recently exposed the questionable antics of Ken Livingstone’s rule in London last night aired a magnificent programme on youth crime, in particular the killings of teenagers in south London. There was some excellent footage of interviews and plenty of relevant facts highlighting the rising concern in regard to gang culture. Maybe Livingstone can spend a few million pounds providing youth centres and activities in Greater London. There was also good footage from Glasgow where gang culture is well entrenched but lacks the gratuitous use of guns so common in the major urban centres of England.

On the positive side the programme sought possible answers to counter gang culture. There is a sad neglect of the needs for youths and the reluctance of national and local governments to spend money on youth centres. There are organisations that are actively involved in filling the gap with providing youth centres and activities to overcome territorial boundaries so loved by gangs.

More should be done by local and national governments to provide facilities and activities for youth and the sooner the better. Come on Greater London Mayor, Livingstone, let’s see some of that cash you love wasting and spend it on youth centres and activities.

Comments on the week’s news.

Kenya: the crisis has deepened, not surprisingly, due to the inept response to electoral fraud and weaknesses of the democratic nations in failing to act to deny Kibaki legitimacy. The tragedy is that now tribal strife is spinning out of control; the total senselessness of destroying homes and property belonging to suffering Kenyans and murders of innocents is dreadful, all political and community leaders in Kenyan should act now to stop rampaging mobs.

Macdonalds and other businesses will be able to issue qualifications to trained staff, we suppose now their will be NVQs in McFurries or A Level McFlurries, who know perhaps even a BSc MacFlurries Studies. Should we be legitimazing a company that contributes to mass obesity? Legitimate companies we have no dispute with.

Listening to Martin Amis this morning, on Andrew Marr’s Stop the Week radio programme, he reports that recently at a conference he asked an audience of 500: “hands up those who think they are morally superior to the Taliban” Shock horror, he said “only 40 trembling hands were seen”. We would like to add two more hands we also think we are morally superior to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda and morally superior to other rag bags of islamic fascists.

Zimbabwe continues its inevitable decline into total economic ruin. Banks cannot get their demands for cash from the Zimbabwe Reserve Bank; ministers and party bosses are known to be hoarding local currency notes to speculate on black market transactions. Trying to send money to relatives and friends in Zimbabwe is now virtually impossible; sooner or later this means the Mugabe regime is going to run out of foreign currency. Mugabe’s rambo economics has led to the total ruin of the country.

Reduce the interest rate now!

The US Federal Reserve Bank yesterday made a dramatic reduction in the interest rate, our own Bank of England should follow the same path. We need now to see reduced interest rates.

Sometimes, we suspect there are people, experts in finance and economic affairs who seem to persist in talking down the economy thus uncertainty in the financial markets becomes a self fufilling prophecy. Some of these experts believe inflation is a problem and there should be wage restraint, except when it comes to city bonuses. We cannot understand why the inflation rate here of 2.10% causes tea cups to be broken when in Zimbabwe inflation is at 24,000%+. Inflation in the UK is price driven not wage driven.

The Mayor of London.

The Mayor of Greater London, Ken Livingstone, apparently according to The Guardian, tried to stop Channel 4’s Dispatches programme aired last night. Martin Bright has raised issues of real concern in regard to: Livingstone’s  style of government, the clique that supports him; alleged irregularities in finances; the opening of London offices in 11 countries; the fuel deal made with  dictator Chavez; his alleged fondness for drinking a certain amber liquid at public meetings, his arrogance and his rather close relations with extremist islamic leaders.The Greater London Labour Party should not ignore the implications of this report: it should not be dismissed. It would have been better if a new Labour candidate could have been found to run for mayor.  Labour Party members in Greater London should be concerned as important questions have been asked and frankly, it looks very grim for Livingstone.

Parents, children & crime.

Firstly, let’s make this very clear, it is time that the media, including not just the printed but TV & radio feature more prominently positive images and stories of youth, that means good role models simply because there are youths who do play a positive role in society and the problem is that the the media as a whole concentrates solely on bad news which then gets hyped up to the maximum.

Secondly, given there is a real social problem in regard to bad behaviour and criminal behaviour from children and youths then this is an issue that must be dealt with and dealt with firmly. Parents whose children behave in criminal or anti social activities need to be brought to account if necessary their benefits; as in many cases the parents may well be single parents who apparently care little where their children are after school. We have seen a list of cases, the most recent well known case being that of the tragic story of Garry Newlove.

Children need to be taught that they have duties in society, that whilst we regard corporeal punishment as being outdated there is a need to respect those older than themselves.

We need to also consider the role of retail outlets for selling energy drinks and alcohol, perhaps the time has come to outlaw retail outlets selling energy and alcoholic drinks.

Shock, Horror stories.

A naval officer appears to have lost a laptop computer in unclear circumstances which contains the details of 600,000 people. For some weird reason our delightful Tory inspired mass media outlets along with their current playmates accuse the government of this latest failure in security. Another story is circulating of papers being dumped again with sensitive information. The likely effect of these little tales, though we are not underestimating the seriousness of events, is merely to build on an agenda of cynicism in regard to government. If some civil servant or military officer loses sensitive information then surely the fault lies with the offender. Government cannot be in a free society a magic eye watching every move its employees make. Whilst there may be regulations and duties concerning employees, surely its employees must also have some sort of common sense not to allow or risk sensitive information to fall into the wrong hands. Perhaps, after the necessary inquiries have taken place if  an individual is at fault then that individual must face the ultimate penalty of dismissal.  Cameron and his fellow Tories need to address themselves in regard to real issues not momentary silliness.