Bad Medicine

Page two of the Guardian today was an advert from British Gas to explain why it was "good for our customers" they increased profits by 24 percent to £724m.

Pointless supporting statistics included the £700m paid by their employees in tax which translated into English means " we employ a lot of people and like everyone else they pay tax on their income." Hardly a boast.

But there is a wider problem than the mere profiteering during a recession and a hard winter. Fuel prices are feeding inflation which means interest rates are bound to rise in the near future. Other inflationary pressures are coming from food where speculators have found a whole new market to play with.

A raise in interest rates would be corrective action to dissaude over-spending. However gas, petrol and potataoes are not luxuries we can easily dispense with. Spending in these areas would be largely unaffected if rates went up one, two or three points. But households' disposable incomes would be severely hit and would drive the economy faster and deeper back into recession.

Osbourne as Chancellor has a strong 'laissez-faire' instinct and would not seek to rein in the capitalist zeal of complanies like British Gas. In fact immediately prior to the big crash he was calling on banking regulation to be cut. But it is the irresponsible profiteers of industry and the City which is driving the economy into the ditch and George is just letting them do it.

Pour Encourager Les Autres

I have yet to hear one journalist or political analyst claim they had long predicted a wave of revolutionary protest in the Arabic world. What started in Tunisia has swept through several countries in North Africa and the Gulf; it is hard to imagine it would even be possible before the internet.

The violence prior to the overthrow of Mubarak in Egypt was relatively minor given the intransigence of the President and the pivotal role of the army. Mubarak must have been conscious of how violent repression broadcast to the wider would be ultimately self-defeating.

Libyan despot Gaddafi has no such qualms. All foreign journalists are banned and would have a very short life expectancy if they dared enter Libya. The state media promised a "violent and thunderous" response. Murderous would have been a more appropriate description. http://bcc.in.fsecvd/

There are now reports the army have been using mortars on protestors around Benghazi. Hand-held cameras show marchers walking into a hail of bullets.

Whether this erratic dictator is remotely concerned with the reaction from other African countries it is imposible to say. The West has zero leverage, certainly. He overthrew King Idris in 1969 and how the people would yearn for a regime such as that again.

Usually the state propaganda blames "foreign influence" for inspring the protests. Gaddafi has been forced to deploy mercenries to quell the protests killing scores of innocents. One doctor said there 200 bodies at her hospital alone.

Under the threat of a massacre, the people have every right to arm themselves against this brutal unyielding suppression.

This is Total BS

It must be at least a year since Cameron has been bringing up the Big Society like some obsessive. And still he cannot find the few words of narrative to explain to the public what it is, let alone how it works or how does it mean for me?

Ed Milliband has slowly improved in the weekly duels with PM and it helps him that the only clear linking issue for the BS is the huge cuts in community funding. Manchester Council announced this week how it would save £109m this year - by closing 36 Sure Start nurseries, 20 youth centres, sport centres, swimming pools and also five libraries.

Cameron, on the issue of libraries, blithely ignored the 25% reduction in central funding for LAs and said such cuts were "political motivated by Labour Councils" adding "I see no reason why they should not continue a well-funded network of libraries." Milliband knows every LA, whatever their politics, will face these impossible decisions, if he keeps his calm the political momentum will just come to him.

On Newsnight on Monday night, the BS Minister, Francis Maude continually let all other members of the panel interupt him. His newly discovered good manners was simply because after his short brief ran out he had nothing left to say. His exhausted response of blaming Labour is wearing very thin, especially when new figures revealed the cost of the bank bailout to us, the taxpayer, was £131Bn. That is the reason we are losing our public services and why we will have a shrinking society.

___________________________________________________-

About five years ago, my employer was making a big push on volunteering as something of a forerunner of PM Dave's big idea. I had missed the main presentation but was compelled with another colleague to attend a second meeting. After half an hour's Powerpoint about fishing shopping trolleys out canals, we had the Q and A. The young, super keen presenter asked us both what we might contribute. I said I had three children aged between one and eight and that took all my spare time. The other chap said he was sole carer for his 90 year-old mother who suffered with dementia.

The eagerness from the presenter dried up instantly. I confess I rather enjoyed his discomfort and the silence which followed.

Divided We Stand

It is still not entirely clear to me what drove David Cameron to make such a provactive speech in Munich today.

Generally, PMs, as statesmen, are expected to promote social unity and reject divisive rhethoric. This sounded more like some tired and emotional junior minister going"off-script" than a PM's prepared text.

To declare multiculturism as a total failure, is a bewildering statement which cannot realistically be based on fact, only ideology. In Britain in 2011 we have distinct communities of Poles, West Indians, Irish, Somalis, Jews, Chinese, Indians, Pakistanis and many more. Is it all such an abject failure?

In most parts of the country the diversity marked by mutual peaceful co-existence is a source of pride not fear nor resentment. Of course there are residues of intolerance and hatred embodied by groups such as English Defence League (pictured) and it was abysmal timing for Cameron to bark out his ill-advised speech when the EDL was simultaneously intimidating the residents of Luton with their agressive racial message.

When Cameron tried to provide detail about what he meant, it was clear his 'attack' was restricted to British Moslems and nobody else. He cited the 'soft left''s tolerance of outrages like arranged marriage. Popycock. Labour introduced legislation on just that issue, set up units in Home Office and Met to uphold women's rights in these communities. Where there is a lack of integration, it is often poverty and a dearth of social opportunity which strengtens isolation not a particular religious culture.

Having warmed to his theme, Cameron then took the logical leap of suggesting this apathy and moral cowardice of the left had allowed terrorism to thrive. Bit of a jaw-dropping moment that. It gave the impression this was what he wanted to address all along and the rest was just a preamble. He hung the whole speech on an absolutist quest to restore British 'values' into every house and every street in the land. These values are not proscribed so are always in some way subjective. In the end, it amounted to the PM declaring too many Muslims to be, on the whole, not very British and, frankly, we've just about had enough of it .

He used a curious phrase, calling on more "muscular liberalism". The least tolerant in British society will be encouraged by the PM's speech, they may not be familiar with liberal aspect but they are all to eager to deploy the muscular.