New PM

We have a new PM in the UK, David Cameron. It looks like a Con/Lib coalition government will shortly be announced. As a Lib Dem voter, pre-election, I'd have found this prospect horrifying but somehow, at this point, it seems right.

A Lib/Lab coalition would have been a doomed exercise I feel. Although I would argue that such a coalition would have had some claim of "legitimacy"(representing 52% of the vote) in reality it would have been ungainly and likely to collapse. Had this happened the damage to the "centre-left" support would have been catastrophic, rejigging politics in the UK to the "right" for a generation.

If this coalition works the Lib Dems should hopefully hold this new government towards the centre ground. Manage this feat and the Lib Dems, in proving the benefits of pluralist coalition government, may just do the cause of PR reform some good despite not securing a commitment to electoral reform.

Then of course it may all turn to custard. That'll be the end of the Lib Dems.

UK Election

Well we've had the Leaders debates, now just the last few days of campaigning and then the vote next Thursday. The press, even the Guardian for goodness sake, seem to be starting to call it Cameron's way.

We really must rally the "keep the Tories out" vote. On current percentages of support the majority of this country (Labour+Lib Dem supporters) is still very much "centre-left". The Tories will almost certainly gain a marginally higher percentage than each of the other parties, but that will hardly be a mandate to unleash what is likely to be a policy programme resembling THATCHERISM ON STEROIDS.

Lib/Lab centre-left coalition, representing a majority of the British people, must be the best outcome that can be hoped for. With the Lib's unexpected strong showing in the polls "centre-left" progressives potentially have a unique opportunity here. With The current flawed FPTP system a political party can normally only re-invent itself while in Opposition. A Lib/Lab coalition will bring political re-invention without passing power to the Right. It should also bring much needed electoral reform which will make it difficult for a minority party of the Right(Tories) to ever govern again as what Lord Hailsham referred to as an "elected dictatorship".

Labour deserve to be punished for Iraq, the erosion of civil liberties, their role in the credit crunch, and their pathetic inability to replace an utterly lame PM, Brown. Alas punishing them too much will only lead to us all being punished with 5 years under Tory rule. A tactical Liberal/Labour "keep the Tories out" vote can give Labour a "black eye" without passing power to Cameron. It's unlikely under the current voting system that the Libs will garner more seats than Labour, but with a larger share of the popular vote they'll certainly be wearing the trousers of "LEGITIMACY" in any coalition.

A London Moment.

We were at an excellent concert last night at the Barbican featuring the Kings of Convenience. 'Brilliant show. At one point band member Erlend Øye stated that he used to live in this town - meaning London. Obliviously thrown by the lack of the kind of enthusiastic reaction you might expect from other cities he then asked where we all were from then? Queue a myriad of cosmopolitan responses covering much of the UK,Europe and even Mexico.

That's London, about as far from parochial as you could possibly get. I think that's one of the reasons I love it!

Nobel Peace Prize

It appears Barack Obama has received the Nobel Prize for the achievement of not being George Bush.

‘Good thing too I believe. He may not have done much in his time in office but just his presence on the world stage signifies the lifting of a dark cloud.

Essentially this prize is recognition for the American people showing the good sense to elect Obama, an event that still heartens me and many others around the world.

Still, I expect the moronic, Fox News viewing American right will probably twist this into a negative. For them any approval from abroad is to be regarded with suspicion. These cranks can’t even accept that Obama is an American for goodness sake.

House Price Madness

Reports this week say the housing market is now back to peak 2008 levels. Of course it isn't really back to that level in real terms as the £ has taken one hell of a hit. The whole economy has effectively been run for the benefit of those homeowners/banks who over extended during the boom and the weak £ - driven down by low interest rates and quantitative easing - has been left to carry the burden.

Of course, outside of hols on the Costa', the poor saps who live in the UK don't see this. With the house price boom being the bubble literally to big to let burst what are the lessons we all have learnt? Pretty much all the wrong ones I'm afraid! We seem to be going back to our destructive debt addled ways, only this time even more recklessly with the false security that the government won't let it all go tits-up.

The economy is effectively held hostage by the an insane housing market and the resulting policy of ongoing low interest rates is the very prescription that to a large degree created the environment for the recent crash in the first place. Next time the bubble looks like bursting the government will be impotent to act - they've shot their bolt and not only not fixed the fault in the system but adopted an economic course that can only lead to a bigger financial meltdown in the future.

We really are screwed!

Murdoch's 'End of Free' and the future of newspapers.

There's currently much talk of Murdoch's move to place his English newspaper titles behind a "paywall". Simon Jenkins in his article Goodbye Guardian. Hello the Guardian Experience has an excellent take on what newspapers might do to improve revenues or even entice punters over such a paywall.

In his piece Jenkins writes......

Whatever the point of entry, somewhere behind a paywall was a beckoning club, privileged access not just to news and comment but to a galaxy of media brands, events, concerts, courses, seminars, conferences, tours and related discounts and dating agencies. To pay was not to read, it was to join.

It seems to me that newspapers first and foremost need to get over being "newspapers" and embrace and engage their core brand and audience. This will be easier for some more than others - the Guardian certainly represents a strong global liberal brand. They should be portals on their readers whole lifestyles, not just suggesting where to take a trip and what movie to watch but selling them the holiday and the DVD.

I would expect the differences between other media like TV and newspapers to erode also. Why shouldn't The Sun bring you a future series of Big Brother streaming live from it's website?

The dead trees that constitute a newspaper represent only a delivery system, and a rather outmoded, inefficient and environmentally damaging one at that. Newspapers future will be secured when we've long since stopped calling them such.

LOOKALIKES!

Cameron Diaz.actor(left) Josef Fritzl.killer,pervert etc(right)



A little dated this,I did think of it awhile back but only now thought it a laugh to put up on blog.