Trust me…

We have a government at last - it’s just…

So after pretty much five days of uncertainty we now have a government and a new prime minister, they are however Tory. With the Lib Dems support in coalition the two parties will set about running the country with the Labour party in opposition. Nearly all the tabloids seem to be rather smug about the whole thing.

The saving grace is that we as the voting public didn’t vote the Tories in as a majority government and that they had to join into coalition with the Lib Dems. And whilst I don’t agree with everything that the two parties offer, each tempering the others views can only be a good thing - though having said that it remains to be seen how much the Lib Dems can stop.

I doubt they will be able to stop the huge spending cuts that the Tories seem certain to implement, I can’t see how they are going to push through the savings that they want without cutting frontline services - or at least making front line services work harder on background things to effectively cut them. I can only hope that amongst other things it isn’t good bye to the childrens centres that Libby so loves going to and that the Maternity services in this area don’t suffer as it should serve as a model for other areas that don’t get the same level of care. That schools will have better support from the parents to continue offering the level of education that they do now. Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying that Labour had everything right but they did a lot of good in their 13 years in power - let’s hope the Tories don’t dismantle it.

The coalition is new ground for the UK and maybe it will work out but with such major differences in the idealogy between the two parties is seems odd that they were even talking in the first place. However agreement has been reached and we have this government until the coalition breaks down - when will that happen? I wonder whether it will be the first time that the wishes of the Lib Dems are really put to the test.

We shall see…

Good Hunting

Tony Blair faces the music

So today Tony Blair must face the Chilcot inquiry about his involvement in taking Britain to war with Iraq. It seems that Tony Blair has faced most of the questions he’s going to be asked before so I’m not sure that it’s going to as explosive as the media seem to be building it up to.

There was talk that his statement the other day on TV that he’d still have gone to war even if he’d know that there were no (I’m not sure I can bring myself to use the abbreviation…) Weapons of Mass Destruction was a bit of a mistake and that he’s not as sharp as he used to be. I’m sure that he’ll just reiterate what he’s said before - I can’t see that there is going to be any real fallout from this as it all happened over five years ago.

It seems that the more important day will be when Gordon Brown steps up and has to answer questions about his involvement - it’s going to be important for no other reason (to most people) than the fact that there is an election around the corner. With the Tories already out in front it could be bad for Labour.

Good Hunting

Go on then tell me how to judge Afghanistan

With the 100th British solider being killed this year in Afghanistan this week, those named by the media as the British Military bosses are again saying don’t judge us by the casualties alone. But what am I then to judge them on? I’m no stranger to the news, especially online - I even listen to Radio 4 occasionally but yet I don’t see many reports on how the ‘war’ is progressing?

I’m not 100% sure that I was convinced by the initial arguments for the campaign in Afghanistan but we now have troops there I think that they deserve our support and respect for what they do. I think that ultimately ensuring peaceful democracies around the world is the ‘right’ thing to do even if sending in the troops to do it does seem a little hypocritical. Gordon Brown’s argument that we are protecting Britain by bringing stability to this region does seem to hold some truth but then it doesn’t seem to cut it in Europe so why should we buy that without question in the UK? The mainstream media would have us believe that the Iraq war was based on a transatlantic whim so why should we just accept what the Government have to say this time?

We are constantly told that the campaign is progressing on one hand then that we’re not getting anywhere on the other, depending on who is talking. There are various commentators that talk about how we’re getting nowhere and that we should bring the troops home and there are those who are all for sending more. I’m not sure who we should believe.

I think that we need (deserve?) some more concrete statements about what a difference our involvement in the region is having, stories from the area where we learn about children able to go to school without risk or farmers that can now support their communities without having to grow drug crops. There is some of this around but I haven’t seen it in the mainstream media - they prefer to focus on bashing Gordon Brown it seems. I may be wrong of course and may have just missed the human story that would go a long way to showing the British public what a difference we have made to the lives of these people,  and how we should be judging the campaign.

Good Hunting

Changing hands

With Brown set to succeed Tony Blair in the next month or so, the French having already appointed a new President and the Americans having to soon what will the state of world politics be for the next few years?

Blair, Bush and Chirac have had their differences over the last few year but they have all been in power for a considerable amount of time and their personalities have influenced the way others think of their countries. With all of these nations about to get new and very different leaders (Unless the US elects another Republican) how will that landscape change? I have no idea really I’m just a computer scientist but I can’t see things staying the same.

At the moment each of these nations has been relatively outrospective, they have been concerned with world issues and making the world and safer and cleaner place but each of the new leaders has reasons not to continue with this precedent - the French are dying for internal reform and I can’t see Sarkozy being too worried about whats happing outside of the French economy really, Brown has already said that his main focus will be on home issues such as the NHS and Education and the Americans, whoever they elect will have to deal will Bushs negative impact on their foreign image before they can even consider looking any further, coupled with a slowing US economy they’ll probably have their work cut out!

This could be bad news for humanitarian issues and climate change, with China also seeming not interested in these issues then could there be a swing wawy from internationalism and back towards nationalism…?

Good Hunting