Another scandal has hit the Labour party, this time over smears it was planning to put onto a website regarding certain members of the conservative party. Of course the man concerned has been sacked and everyone, including the Prime Minister has walked away stating they new nothing about it and it was all down to one man, who just happed to be Gordon Brown’s aid.
Actually over a week later the story is still being delivered to a bored public who really don’t care as much what the media think they do. Of course they don’t want politicians to smear other parties, but everyone has assumed it was happening anyway; it certainly does in the USA, where we see hurtful election campaigns on TV, telling it all true, or not true.
In the end Gordon brown was forced to apologize, even though there is no proof he knew anything about it and even though, we all think that the conservatives, probably have a rogue member in their mists also, who just was not caught and can now hide and pretend the idea never crossed their mind.
The ironic thing is more about those who reported the story. Every day the media will stir up information on someone and then still claim to stand by their story even when a fine has been applied by a jury. Most people do not take newspapers to court, so you end up with a Media who criticize a government for doing what they do every day of week.
Has it hurt the Labour party, probably only those who had already given up on them? Those who know how politics really works and how we move more and more towards what they do in the USA, would wonder why the commotion or at least, why has this never been brought up before. So I do not see much difference to before. We just wish the story would go away; maybe the budget will give us some real issues to moan about
The UK April budget may see something unusual within to stimulate the new car industry or nearly new market under 1 year old. It follows what other nations such as Germany have done and that is to reward car owners with a nice bonus if they scrap their car over 9 years old and buy a new fuel efficient car under 1 year old.
In Germany motorists have been rewarded up to 2500 Euros when they have done this, there are current rumours that the chancellor may offer up to £2000 per old car scraped.
It would be interesting to see how the government would apply this incentive as in Germany new car sales rose by 40% because of the scheme, old sectors of the market i.e. used car sales dropped. Currently the UK is seeing a rise in used cars sales with the underlying prices rising by 5%, surly this new scheme would effect this market.
It may also affect other car markets indirectly such as the salvage section. It is very possible that a car about to go to the salvage yard that is currently worth £50 may suddenly have a £2000 value from the chancellor. Breaker yards could also be affected as the supply of car parts over 10 years old will likely diminish, but there is also likely to be a huge influx of cars to be scrapped; high supply with a low demand.
The next car industry that may be affected is the Car Lease sector. It is estimated that 50% of all new car sales are to be leased. With huge discounts being applied to purchasing a new car, it may be that many choose not to opt for a car lease policy and buy themselves direct.
On the face of it a 40% increase in new car sales certainly is something to aim for. But it is important for any chancellor to see the whole picture and is the tax payer contributing to save one industry but putting other businesses at risk. Lets see when the budget is released later in April.
The G20 summit was designed to bring the world leaders together and agree a strategy to end the current world financial crisis. There was massive scepticism, with rallies planned and the media ready to pounce on this huge failure. However what really occurred was at a level not really expected.
Gordon Brown the UK Prime Minister instigated the idea, instead of having 20 nations doing different things to sort out their own financial affairs, why not come together and sort them out with a common course and plan. The French sent out messages that of they did not get what they wanted, they would walk out and there were mutterings from other nations too. However the day ended as what could be described as a huge success, although not everything was agreed to a higher level.
The fact that 20 nations could come together and agree on the basics including Russia and China was a huge success to Gordon Brown’s idea. The star of the show was President Obama, who chose the UK as his first official engagement outside of the USA. He mingled in with other country leaders adn can only be seen as a ray of hope and optimism. His wife attended a school with teenage girls and there is no doubt, they came away motivated and moved from the First Lady. The media also captured the pictures and the world looked on in awe.
The G20 conference ended in triumph inside and was only marred by demonstrations outside that saw some property damaged and now a police investigation to why a gentleman died of a heart attack and was it brought on by riot police.
President Obama then moved on to Strasbourg and continued to woo everyone he came into contact with. A q and A session was set up in front of the cameras and we saw a very rare thing; A USA president answering questions from an audience. A surprise visit to Bagdad afterwards to see the USA troops brought smiles to the faces of personnel serving in Iraq, something we all want to go away.
The week was something the world needed; it gave optimism and hopefully a bit of trust in the world leadership that in times of trouble we can forget some of our differences, come together and find a solution. With the USA playing the largest part in all this, it was good to see a President, sharing and talking and not dictating the odds like previous leaders.
Well one way is to get drunk behind the wheel and mow down some innocent pedestrian down killing them instantly and creating lifelong suffering to their family. Another way is to throw a shoe at the 41st president of America and not even hit the target.
Well this is what has happened to an Iraq journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi. He used his privilege as a journalist and then in front of millions worldwide, threw his shoe at the President making him a hero in Iraq. Today he has been sentenced to 3 years behind bars, something that here in the UK, we seem to reserve for more serious crimes.
A fair agreement would suggest that it is a great insult in Iraq to throw shoes at anyone that may result in up to 15 years behind bars and even though this journalist and pretty much everyone in the western world may think his was harsh it certainly isn’t 15 years and you can’t help thinking he would be out in 1 year.
There is also a security issue here, with shoes being used to hide bombs in planes, it was possible this amusing incident could have been more serious and locking this person up, hopefully is a message that shoe throwing is just a gimmick, but could be a very serious one, if security had thought it was a bomb and decided to shoot the journalist instead.
With 2 soldiers being shot this weekend and then 48 hours later a policeman too, Gordon Brown has some challenges to convince those involved that they should not react and risk slowing down the peace process. What is clear from the public is that they do not want to go back to how things were say 15 years ago, clearly they enjoy peaceful times. It was interesting how Gordon brown called them murderers rather than terrorists, the message seems stronger somehow and it was always easy for a terrorist to say they were an army at war.
To send the army in world send the wrong message to those who may still not have any trust, but are the police correctly trained to deal with such issues, especially with automatic weapons. Of course this was what the real IRA (who claimed responsibility for the soldiers’ shootings) wanted. Let’s get people thinking the troubles are not over and force them to bring back the troops or heavy handed checkpoints and the rest must ne the aim of the game. It would not take long before the news would be focussing on the security measures rather than why they were implemented in the first place.
On saying this, the murders are in a minority. It is unlikely there will be many who will put them up in safe houses, or protect them should their identity before apparent. Let’s hope it is a temporary blip and these people are captured and prosecuted. They will then see who their friends are
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