BBC Blog Network

User Profile

watriler

Listed below are comments made by watriler between Wednesday, 11th November 2009 and Tuesday, 24th November 2009 (10 Hours Ago) .

«Newer
Older»

A healthy squeeze? 5:58pm on 24 Nov 2009 Evidence of balance sheet mentality again and the Right are jumping on the bandwagon for cuts in services which of course do not affect the wealthy and those on high incomes (declare an interest?). The economy will start to grow when there is internally and or externally demand for goods and services so it makes sense to stimulate spending especially for low income earners including the growing reserve army of those dependent on benefits (and not trying to hard to stop the pound dropping). Why not upgrade benefits and pensions in advance of inflation then allowing inflation to return spending power to parity over a number of years (Why not if we can stimulate people to buy cars they probably do not need!).
Introducing green cuts 11:09am on 24 Nov 2009 Of course it is achievable and so are 5% efficiency savings but that does not mean that the Tories (and Labour) wont dress up service cuts as positive achievement. The problem is the incompetence of public sector senior management who are only good for presentation and survival!
Tories tweaking their message 3:15pm on 23 Nov 2009 DC is in great danger of talking himself out of an overall majority by pushing the slash and burn line. He will alienate many floaters who rely on public sector jobs and services and those who see the argument on policies that should not lengthen or exacerbate the recession.
Rare earth: The New Great Game 8:40pm on 19 Nov 2009 Exposes the shortcomings of leaving everything to private enterprise and how private enterprise is particularly poor at responding to strategic changes. If rare earth is massive leaver in the developing 'green' economy the state must play a role in local extraction. If China dumps rare metals to crash the price why not the state buy them and treat them as strategic material and financial reserves - green gold?
When and how to squeeze the budget 6:08pm on 17 Nov 2009 A schedule of higher rate progressive taxation starting at £100K rising to 75% marginal at half a million would be more effective especially allied with a military style crack down on tax avoidance and evasion would yield benefits. Rather than hit VAT a carbon tax is better with low paid/unemployed benefits tax thresholds adjusted to compensate.

Cutting public services even if the NHS is protected makes no sense because not only will it affect the poor and vulnerable disproportionately but the associated loss of jobs will prolong the recession and expand the benefits dependency culture into new territories. The priority must be to stimulate the real economy to resume growth which is more likely to close the funding gap. Public opinion will rapidly change when people are confronted by the loss of public services across a wide front. The Government must campaign itself out of the short term 1930's balance sheet mentality and go for active economic management rather than relying on playing with interest rates.
Thought for the Day. 5:58pm on 17 Nov 2009 It is not just TFTD but the whole christian dominated thing as I wrote in the letter to the BBC:-If religion is the opiate of the people then the BBC is the nation’s pusher.

This letter from a licence payer challenges the corporation’s patronage and promotion of the exceptional volume of radio and television time allocated to organised religion generally and Christianity in particular. Uniquely the BBC routinely hands over control of both presentation and content to these private minority interest organisations.

The extraordinary quantity of Religious Broadcasting is neither required nor even legitimised by the BBC Charter. I draw your attention to that document’s section (4) listing the “The Public Purpose”. There is nothing in this component of the Charter that clearly implies an obligation for the BBC to so generously facilitate the promotion of organised, mainly Christian religion.

It seems as if the Corporation has yet to disestablish itself from the early influence of its founding Reithian Presbyterianism. An anachronism made all the more embarrassing by the recent flirtation of the Archbishop of Canterbury with state disestablishmentarianism.

The BBC has no right in our essentially temporal society in inducing its audience into Christian dominated religious exposure. The heavy burden of the Corporation’s legacy in this class of broadcasting is particularly clear when the Church itself becomes news. Nowhere is this more exemplified than the extraordinary broadcast prominence given to the recent Church of England’s sad and contemptible medieval style debate on gay priests (see also the earlier women clerics’ version).

The BBC’s taste for imposing religious views on its audience – sometimes covertly- is best exemplified by the Radio 4’s “Thought for the Day” which in truth is religious and overwhelmingly Christian thought for the day. In this prime time listening spot various priestly speakers awkwardly or disingenuously contrive to lead listeners into god waffle by hijacking and re-packaging a current news topic.

Although few people are fooled it is shameful that the Today programme is denied a pristine opportunity for concise and penetrating analysis of current topics and social issues free of political and religious dogma – “Critical Thought for the Day”

The pretence of the Corporation’s religious neutrality is crudely exposed by the bombardment of Christian worship on Sundays when the Corporation feels safe to dispense with any vestige of commitment to religious diversity not to mention reflecting the essential secular nature of 21st century British Sundays.

Everyone should have the right to participate in religion and have religious belief but it is not the role of the BBC to sponsor these in its mainstream broadcast schedules and especially when favouring one particular religion that is in evident decline.

If the BBC believes it is obliged to subsidise religious broadcasting they could always find some partime space on the Long Wave or DAB or even the Internet. Why not jointly fund with pan national religious bodies a dedicated religious station.

Better still just treat religion and its followers no more than as newsworthy as other activities and institutions.
Afghanistan ifs and maybes 12:47pm on 17 Nov 2009 Milliband's approach is more realistic than the wishful thinking of Brown but such an approach should have been taken 3 to 4 years ago. The problem is that that approach will require time, organisation and determination qualities sorely absent from HMG Afghanistan campaign so far.
Tough times ahead 7:06pm on 16 Nov 2009 Instead of just fiddling with public sector fat cats a schedule of higher rate progressive taxation starting at £100K rising to 75% marginal at half a million would be more effective especially allied with a military style crack down on tax avoidance and evasion would yield benefits.

Cutting public services even if the NHS is protected makes no sense because not only will it affect the poor and vulnerable disproportionately but the associated loss of jobs will prolong the recession and expand the benefits dependency culture into new territories. The priority must be to stimulate the real economy to resume growth which is more likely to close the funding gap. Public opinion will rapidly change when people are confronted by the loss of public services across a wide front. The Government must campaign itself out of the short term 30's balance sheet mentality.
Gordon Brown and the military 1:58pm on 13 Nov 2009 Realistically Brown cannot just walk away from this war. He can however follow the dictum of Northern Ireland that a military victory was impossible and insist on negotiations with the Taliban (or elements of them) are prioritised. The implications for Afghanistan civil liberties may not be attractive but the country will quickly be rid of endemic corruption. If Brown really thinks that the war against terrorism is won or lost on the battle fields of this troublesome country then he needs to prosecute the war with extreme prejudice as the Americans would say. Maybe their equivocation reflects that they do not believe in Brown's justification for the spilling so much of our boys' blood.
It won't be March 8:34pm on 11 Nov 2009 Oh why can't a Mandy be more like a socialist!

«Newer
Older»

^ Back to top

BBC MMVI

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

BBC.co.uk

BBC Blog Network

Find and talk to the BBC's bloggers.

User Profile

watriler