Revisiting my alma mater: Brittania Royal Naval College

Re-visiting Britannia Royal Naval College Dartmouth, England during a college reunion...

Pictures by A of HB

A better picture of the College here.

Finally, an Olympic Gold for Britain!

(Jim Young/Reuters)

Stayed up late to watch skeleton bob racing in the Vancouver games and was not disappointed at all. Amy Williams wins Britain's first Winter Games Olympic gold! Hurray!

Congratulations to Olympic Champion skeleton bob racer!

Amy Williams holds her nerve to win gold for Britain in bob skeleton
Owen Slot, Chief Sports Reporter, Whistler 

Amy Williams, the skeleton bob racer, held her nerve to win Great Britain’s first gold medal of the Vancouver Winter Olympics and the first by a British individual in 30 years at the Winter Games. 

The 27-year-old from Bath led by three tenths of a second going into the final two runs at the Whistler Sliding Centre and made a statement of intent by going out first in the third run and smashing the course record for a second time. 

Williams clocked 53.68secs for her third run, lowering the mark she set in her opening run by another 15 hundredths of a second. 

Her nearest rival, Germany's Kerstin Szymkowiak, who had been three tenths of a second down at the halfway stage, lost further ground leaving the pre-event favourite and Canadian icon, Mellissa Hollingsworth, as the Briton’s nearest challenger. 

Well done, Ms Williams!

Tax bomb in the UK (come what may?)

New tax bombshell: 20% VAT 

A rise in VAT is looming whichever party wins the general election, as Labour and the Conservatives draw up plans to balance Britain’s books.Alistair Darling and George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, are both considering raising VAT to as high as 20 per cent — the European average — from the current rate of 17.5 per cent, The Times has learnt.

Doing so would raise an extra £13 billion a year at a time when financial markets are searching for signs that whoever takes power is serious about tackling Britain’s £178 billion deficit.

Shit a brick!  

Alright! Despite the planned VAT increase, UK will still fare well below many of the countries in the EU in terms of VAT, eg., Belgium (21%), Denmark (25%) Finland (22%), Ireland (21.5%) Sweden (25%) Hungary (25%), or Poland (22%).  

Just the same, this planned 20% is a sharp increase from UK's normal/average 15% VAT. This is not gonna be good news for people in the UK.

I wonder how this planned VAT increas will affect the building sector in the UK. I know it will affect us -- we won't be able to do UK shopping to our hearts' content anymore.

Source: 2009 VAT rates in 27 EU member nations

A war with Iran? Dream on...

 

What to do about Iran is troubling UK and US reports The First Post.

 

The dilemma over what to do about Iran strikes at the heart of the defence security debates now fast rising up the political agendas in both the UK and America. Both countries are faced with unaffordable levels of military spending, and both are confused about what they mean by their own individual and collective security and defence now and for the foreseeable future. 

The UK certainly cannot afford another major war. With its troop count of roughly 149,000 and  an annual miserable defence budget of £37 billion (compared to America's annual defence budget of roughly three-quarters of a trillion dollars), capped by MoD's continuing incompetence in defence planning, there is no way the UK could even begin to set up a beachhead.

A succession of corrupt Labour Governments has seen to that. Defence spending is lowest since the 1930s and it's happening under Labour. But not to be outdone, Tories who expect to win the general elections this year, have promised to wield the axe on 30bn GBP defence projects spending.

So, what to do about Iran? Nothing much can be done really. Si vis pacem para bellum... If you want peace, prepare for war, so goes Julius Caesar's political dogma. In that context, the UK's dire financial and defence situation realistically does not make it possible to even begin to dream of peace.

 

An incompetent PM and a dysfuntional UK Labour Government

The UK Prime Minister is supposed to govern through or with his/her cabinet but power has been so centralised in 10 Downing Street that members of cabinet have little or no say at all in how government should function. Political corruption has become le mot d'ordre in UK politics.

Gordon Brown holds a position for which he has never been elected and yet he wields power that's virtually not checked nor balanced. Tony Blair had the same absolute privilege, a major reason why he was able to launch an illegal invasion of and war on Iraq completely unchecked.

In other developed countries, the executive is checked and balanced by Congress or Parliament, eg., the US, France and other presidential type of governments but not in the UK. Hence, the reason for UK Government dysfuction. Couple that with the incompetence with whcih Labour exercises governance, not a surprise at all the UK is tilting towards disaster.

Whitehall rebels over ‘brutish’ Gordon Brown

GORDON BROWN’S government is “weak” and “dysfunctional” with a “strategic gap” at its heart, Britain’s top civil servants have warned, in a devastating critique of the state of Whitehall.

A report, based on the testimonies of 60 senior civil servants, has found that Downing Street and the Treasury “have few tools beyond the brute force of political edict”.

The analysis by the respected Institute for Government, which is funded by Lord Sainsbury, Labour’s largest donor, concludes that despite Downing Street’s grip on power, there is a “conspicuous lack of a single coherent strategy for government”.

In an ominous warning for the governance of Britain, it warns that there must be a wholesale reform of Whitehall if it is to function properly after the general election.

One of the insightful comments (very likely by an Englishman) in The times that I could agree with albeit tounge in cheek:

Daniel Earley wrote:

They do have some plan in mind, bankrupt england and restore scotland. has anyone noticed how all the contracts to build the Royal navy's new ships has been awarded to shipyards in scotland? Not a single shipyard outside of scotland has won a contract to build them.

January 16, 2010 11:45 PM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk Recommended (16)

A New Year blast thanks to Tony Blair's travails...

My heartfelt best wishes for a prosperous, peaceful and healthy New Year to one and all...

It's good to be back in the thick of  blogging and my bloghopping activities (duties?) after a 3-week absence.

Christmas has been splendid... weather in Brittany leading to the wee hours of the 1st of the new year was simply wonderful. Believe it or not, it's been sunny all around, really quite unusually warm for the season with the temperature ranging from 4 to 10°C for a good wee while in December. That was one Christmas to remember indeed.

Meanwhile, back to the grind. And what better way to start this blog than to post about Tony Blair's travails!

How to get a ticket to the Tony Blair Iraq show

Roll up, rollup for the Tony Blair show. See him squirm, watch him wince, as he faces the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq war for a solid six hours (with a break for lunch). But if you thought it would be simple to get a ticket, think again. The procedure makes getting into Wimbledon centre court look a doddle. 

Picture lifted from AhYap's blog

Kate Nesbitt, 20-year old Royal Navy medic receives Military Cross

Kate Nesbitt, 20, Royal Navy medical assistant, becomes the second woman member of the UK armed forces to receive the Military Cross in recognition of her 'exemplary performance' on operations in Afghanistan.

Seaman Nesbitt was awarded the medal by the Prince of Wales today. In one operation, under a hale of enemy gun fire, she ran 70 meters to the spot where her colleague had fallen. Without her courageous intervention, her wounded colleague would have died.

Interviewed on BBC this morning, the modest Royal Navy medic said that she only did what she had to do and was paid to do.

Makes one think, eh? While many young women her age the world over go partying, killing themselves drinking, drugging and God knows what, who would think that there's one young woman who's actually putting herself in the line of enemy fire -- at the risk of getting killed herself to perform an honourable duty  and to save lives.

Go, NAVY, go! Go Able Seaman Nesbitt, go!

Official picture of Kate from Royal Navy website 

Picture showing Kate with blood in her face taking a breather with her colleagues from the Sun

....

* Beach, sorry but had to re-post your kind comment under this revised post... Thanks!

Beach Bum said...

I heard this while I was serving from one of my platoon sergeants about his new arrivals but dammit, she looks like a kid. I feel old.

27 November, 2009 15:00

A widow's eulogy to her husband warrior killed in Afghanistan

Widow's brave funeral tribute to Olaf Schmid

(The Daily Telegraph)

The widow of Olaf Schmid, the bomb disposal expert killed on his last day in Afghanistan before he was due to return home, paid a powerful tribute to her husband at his funeral service in Truro Cathedral. There was prolonged applause when Christina Schmid, resplendent in her husband's medals, finished her eulogy.
 

”I have chosen to speak because to look on us as husband and wife was an understatement. He said we were a unit.

”In my eyes my husband, my son’s father, was a warrior. Warrior are unique; our protectors, not destroyers.

"Oz and troops like him join to serve traditional warrior values; to passionately protect the country they love, its ideals, and especially their families, communities and each other.

“In past conflicts, where there was an immediate threat to our shores and our existence, soldiers were never plagued with self doubt about the value of their role in society, and a people and their soldiers were once close to unity.

“We might disagree with a war, however I hope through Oz’s death and my public appreciation and our community’s display of respect here today can serve to bridge that gap and unite us once more with our troops.

“I would personally like to thank you all for coming here today and showing your support

“All the families of lost or injured servicemen should expect our peacemakers to show they are working as hard as Oz did to preserve life.

“For the present, too many die, too many veterans exist in silence and too many are left with horrific disabilities while the rest of the community proceed as if it is business as usual.

“My husband’s death means it can never be business as usual again for our son and I. There is just too much that time cannot erase.

“Most of you will know Oz the joker, always up for a giggle. However, I lived with a very different man, particularly in the past 18 months when I have stood by him through what he described as his toughest, darkest challenge ever.

“When he felt compromised, overwhelmed or threatened, I’ve wiped his tears, pulled him up, and fought his fears for him.

“Becoming his widow has been the hardest thing I have ever done with him. I am fiercely loyal to serve him in death as I did when he was alive, however much it is breaking me.

“Hopefully he is watching and knows he is the only man who will have all of me.

“Oz lived and stood for something he believed in. In the end he paid the ultimate sacrifice for those beliefs.

“We now have a duty to not just honour what he stood for, but to live lives which honour the sacrifice he made. Please do not allow him to die in vain.”

Video link

David Cameron, future British PM: "We must confront irresponsibility!"

Ladies and gentlemen, the leader of the Conservative Party, future prime minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: David Cameron!

Andrew Winning / Reuters

David Cameron during his keynote address on the final day of the Conservative Party conference in Manchester 8 Oct 2009

Cameron, although not the most brilliant orator in British politics, hit the right notes as he spoke about a better Britain, a Britain of responsibility, a modern Britain, as when he said: "We must confront irresponsibility".

Key quotes:

"We all know how bad things are, massive debt, social breakdown, political disenchantment. But what I want to talk about today is how good things could be."

"None of this will be easy. We will be tested. I will be tested. I'm ready for that - and so I believe, are the British people. So yes, there is a steep climb ahead. But I tell you this. The view from the summit will be worth it."

"We could have come to Manchester this week and played it safe. But that's not what this party is about and it's certainly not what I'm about."

"We are not going to solve our problems with bigger government. We are going to solve our problems with a stronger society, stronger families, stronger communities, a stronger country. All by rebuilding responsibility."

"This is my DNA: family, community, country. These are the things I care about. They are what made me. They are what I'm in public service to protect, promote and defend."

"I know how lucky I've been to have the chances I had... I want every child to have the chances I had. That is why I'm standing here."

"Yes we have made some tough choices. But in British politics today that is the only responsible thing to do."

"I will send more troops to Afghanistan"

"Just a quick word to the man who says he abolished boom and bust and then saved the world. It was you Gordon Brown who designed the system of financial regulation that helped cause the financial crisis."

"Who made the poorest poorer? Who left youth unemployment higher? Who made inequality greater? No, not the wicked Tories - you, Labour: you're the ones that did this to our society. So don't you dare lecture us about poverty."

"It's your character, your temperament and your judgment, not your policies and your manifesto - that really make the difference."

"If we cut big government back, if we move society forward, and if we rebuild responsibility, then we can put Britain back on her feet."

"There are reasons to believe. Yes it will be a steep climb. But the view from the summit will be worth it."

"I see a country where the poorest children go to the best schools not the worst, where birth is never a barrier."

"If you've got something to offer, this is a place you can call home".

"If we pull together, come together, work together - we will get through this together."

Cameron delivers his speech with quiet conviction. It has substance. He doesn't duck the issues that matter just because they seem unpopular, eg., Afghanistan, spending cuts, but no tax cuts, unemployment, mmigration, poverty, crime, the tough times ahead... as he promises to put Britain 'back on her feet'.

As the British people become increasingly dissatisfied and frustrated with Labour's ineptitude, the next General Election is David Cameron's and the Conservative Party's to lose.

“I have no illusions. If we win this election, it is going to be tough, I will be tested. I’m ready for that."

Time to kick out Labour with finality!

• Link to video of David Cameron keynote address here.
• Live blog by The Daily Telegraph

Comparisson:

• Full text of David Cameron speech, 8th October 2009
• Full text of Margaret Thatcher speech to conference 13 October 1978

Tories will wield axe on £30bn defence projects (If they win election)

The UK is buzzing with the news that if David Cameron's Tory Party wins the next general election, Tories will wield axe on £30bn defence projects.

Three of Britain’s biggest defence projects with a combined value of nearly £30 billion could face the axe if the Conservatives win the general election next year.

George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, said in a major speech on the economy that he would hold a Budget within weeks of a victory. Afterwards, he was asked to identify specific savings that an incoming Conservative government might make.

In comments that surprised and dismayed his own colleagues, he cited the £20 billion Eurofighter/Typhoon project, the £4 billion project to build two aircraft carriers and the £2.7 billion order for 25 A400 transport aircraft as areas ripe for cuts. Later, however, he admitted that he did not know what penalties might have to be paid out under break clauses if the contracts were scrapped.

Alright. We know how badly Gordon Brown and his Labour Govt have mismanaged the UK economy. Everyone knows that in order to put the British economy on track, the next government wll have to do a major spending and taxation review to address the horrendous debt mountain that they will inherit.

Defence will have to be completely re-thought. Right off my cricket bat: What sort of roles does the UK want to fulfill? What does this mean for the Army, Navy and Air Force? What equipment is needed? What have we got and what are we planning? What changes need to be made? And by the way, why don't they scrap the JSF, the white elephant, too?

Defence is only about 7% (I think) of the UK government expenditure. So, I don't see how cutting even by as much as 50% will make that much difference.

Health and education are 20%, Social Services are about 30%. Cuts here will make much more difference. But I'm pretty certain, Tory will not be announcing cost cutting measures in those areas, well not before election, and risk getting it in the neck, i.e., lose the election.

Picture by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images: A Typhoon at the Paris Air Show. George Osborne hinted that the jet could be a casualty if the Tories were elected

Incompetent Gordon Brown sends SAS to train Gaddafi's troops

After releasing the Lockerbie bomber-murderer to Libyan strongman Gadaffi for a lot of money (tons), Labour Government's Gordon Brown sends the SAS to train Libyan troops...

Utter stupidity!

One: There is no guarantee that those Libyan troops won't turn around one day and use the skills they've perfected against the British. Two: Sending in the SAS to train the same troops who trained and equipped the IRA who in turn maimed and killed not only civilians but also members of the British military takes the cake! Something is seriously wrong with Brown and his pillock of a Government.

Gordon Brown, not content with having destroyed the British economy singlehandedly, is now hell bent on undermining the security of the UK and of the West.

Gordon Brown, one of the most incompetent PMs Britain has ever had, should be sent out of office before he completely destroys Britain!

SAS trains Libyan troops

For the past six months Britain’s elite troops have been schooling soldiers working for Col Muammar Gaddafi’s regime, which for years provided Republican terrorists with the Semtex explosive, machine-guns and anti-aircraft missiles used against British troops during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

The Irish never fail to amuse

I like the Irish in general. Those I know are usually laid back, happy-go-lucky "lads and lasses" who could be seriously God-fearing one minute and murderously quarelsome the next. Hospitable to a fault towards practically anybody, except perhaps the English, they are eager to please and be nice except when they fight between themselves as Catholics and Protestants in Ireland do, or when they are battling the English in Londonderry.

Like many nationals, the Irish are a people of contradictions. Ireland of the south was still officially a possession of the Great British Empire when WWII broke out but declared neutrality with many Irish refusing to be conscripted to fight in the war against Nazi Germany. (I was told it was because they hated the English more than they hated Adolf Hitler.) In fact, the Germans counted Irish volunteers in their ranks to fight the Allies and to spy for the Nazis.

That said, of the more than 19,000 men that made up the Irish Army at the outbreak of the war, 5,000 'deserted' and joined the British Army to help defend Great Britain against the Nazis despite a standing order by then PM Éamon De Valera to stay put.

My English father-in-law, who was a career British Army officer, had great respect for the Irish with whom he fought side by side in the African and Italian campaigns, and I believe the respect was mutual. He commanded the Royal Irish Fusiliers regiment in Armagh and developped a healthy rapport with the Irish community .

But my father-in-law was also the quintessential English-British career military officer who believed, and rightly so, in the greatness of the British Army. I wonder how he would react, were he alive today, to the news that the Irish in the emerald green nation had, at some point in recent history, planned to invade Britain. Would he, like me, but with typical English-British pragmatism somberly remark, "The Irish never fail to amuse."?

Ireland: A laughable invasion plan

Irish planned attack against UK in 1969

By Henry McDonald

FIRST POSTED SEPTEMBER 1, 2009

With the benefit of hindsight, observers of the Irish political scene can sit back and snigger at the notion - which emerged over the weekend in advance of a TV documentary to be broadcast in Ireland tonight - that 40 years ago the Republic's army could have invaded and liberated Northern Ireland.

The idea that a nation with one of the smallest armies in Europe could attack, seize and hold territory defended by a Nato power resembles the 1960s British comedy classic The Mouse that Roared in which a bankrupt Ruritania declares war on America. More here.

French health care system

Back from our remote Breton farm holidays to the busy, busy bee town living realities in Europe's capital.

For a good four weeks, we lived a multi-media free life in the country without access to telephones, computers, television or radio or any of those electronic gadgets that prevent you from communing with nature. But as ever, when you have kiddies around, the blast from their MP players or mobile telephones is a constant reminder that living far from the madding crowd ain't exactly possible.

That said, we led a healthy outdoor life for a good wee while, great food, lots of greens and fish, and plenty of physically demanding exercises...One rediscovers how important it is to keep fit and healthy. So, it is only natural that post holiday blogging season should begin with something about universal health care, a project that President Obama seems to be having trouble convincing Americans to accept...

An article on the French health care system by one of my favourite journalists caught my attention. John Lichfield of the Independent, has it spot on, or most of it. I am for free wheeling capitalism, less state intervention, indvidual-devil-may-care-attitude to what one should do with one's own money, lower taxes, etc., but let me say for the record that I'm glad that we have an excellent health care system in France. It may well cost us a great deal of money, but boy, it's good that we have it and I would have it no other way.

Whatever detractors say about France's health care system -- and there are many of them from Britain and the US (many Americans believe that the State subsidises our health care system completely which is absolutely far from the truth!), I don't believe I will be accused of chauvinism if I declare loud and clear that the French health care system is still one of the finest, if not the finest, in the civilised world. Would do America a great deal of good to find out how proper universal health care works or can work (wink, wink)...

John Lichfield: Even the French are starting to worry about healthcare

"France has the worst health system in the world, except for all the others I've tried"

Thursday, 27 August 2009

According to the World Health Organisation, France has one of the finest health services in the world. It offers, says the WHO, excellent care, generous provision, great choice, rapid response and coverage for all. According to the French, their model is falling apart, no longer egalitarian and facing bankruptcy. Both diagnoses are somewhat exaggerated. In a world of ageing patients, explosive medical costs and galloping scientific advance, there can be no such thing as the perfect health service.

My wife and I have lived in Britain, the US and France and have consumed medical care in all three. To paraphrase Winston Churchill: "The French have the worst health system in the world, except for all the other ones that we have tried."

Related articles

• Nigel Edwards: If we want to improve the NHS, let's stop talking about funding
• Ian Birrell: Why I don't believe that the NHS is sacrosanct
• Christina Patterson: The big problem with the NHS isn't funding
• Cameron joins Brown in defence of NHS
• 'The NHS pretty much signed my death warrant'
• Leading article: The NHS can be improved
• Across the Atlantic, battle rages over value of NHS
• The Big Question: Why is US health care in such a mess, and what can Obama do about it?
• Go organic and get your healthcare reform for free
• The brutal truth about America’s healthcare

Critics of President Barack Obama's Herculean efforts to cure the disgraceful state of healthcare in the US have had much fun mugging Britain's NHS. Quite apart from the outdated or mendacious statistics hurled around, the comparison with the British approach was deliberately misleading. Mr Obama has never suggested the cumbersome NHS model – state-run, funded from taxation and free at the point of access – should be imported to America.

Defenders of US healthcare reform have therefore tried to divert the conversation to include other developed countries, which come higher than Britain in WHO league tables: Canada, the Netherlands, Italy and France. All have systems of compulsory health insurance which bear some relation to the reforms which Mr Obama has, vaguely, outlined for the US.

In France, healthcare is funded not by taxation but by a levy on wages and payrolls (sécurité sociale, or Sécu). The assurance-maladie system is not run directly by the state but is in the hands of autonomous public bodies, run by unions, employers, insurers and health professionals. Doctors and many hospitals are independent entrepreneurs who work within the system but are not governed by it.

The result, in theory, is that French patients have great freedom of choice. Until 2004, they could consult as many doctors as they wished. They could consult specialists directly without going through a généraliste or GP. The public insurance scheme refunds the bulk of the cost: 70 per cent of a doctor's visit, for example, so long as the doctor charges the officially agreed rate. The rest is paid by the work-related, health insurance organisations (mutuelles) or private insurance plans, to which almost all French people belong. This top-up insurance is relatively cheap (perhaps £30 a week for a family) but also covers only the approved, or conventionné rate. If you choose to go to a more expensive doctor, you have to buy fancier private insurance or fund the difference yourself.

Technically, the French system is not "free at the point of access". French patients are "refunded" for what they spend. In practice, most families now have a carte vitale, a kind of health credit card that means the doctor, or hospital, is reimbursed directly by Sécu and the top-up insurance schemes. In many respects, the French system – for all the commitment to égalité and fraternité – is a middle-class health service. It works best for those who are clever enough and wealthy enough to know how to play simultaneously inside and outside the system and its arcane rules.

In Britain, the middle classes have the disagreeable impression that they are paying twice for healthcare: first through their taxes, then through Bupa and others. In France, the state Sécu system, broadly speaking, shares the cost of care with private health insurance and the job-based mutuelles. Even if you go to an expensive specialist, the nationally approved part of his or her fee will always be refunded by the public system.

The French system has, historically, been financed much more generously than the NHS. The assurance-maladie budget this year is €157.6bn (£138.2bn) compared to roughly £100bn for the NHS, covering the same population. France has nine hospital beds for every 1,000 people, compared to 4.9 in the UK.

Critics of the NHS complain that health funding in Britain will never reach adequate levels while it has to compete for resources within the same tax pot as, say, education and defence. In France, Germany and other continental countries, the state health system is – in theory – ring-fenced and funded by a separate tax on employers or employees. The problem is that the French model has reached the limits of what is economically sustainable. The burden on employers has become intolerable. A company might easily pay an extra €20,000 a year in Sécu charges to employ someone earning €50,000. Two-thirds of these pay-roll taxes go to pay for healthcare.

Even with this generous funding, the system is chronically in debt. An extra €10bn this year will have to be funded from taxes or state loans. Doctors have angrily resisted any attempt to reduce costs by placing "efficiency" controls on the kind of treatments that they offer. Until 2004, they resisted prescribing cheaper generic medicines. In the same year, some limits were finally placed on the "nomadic" rights of the notoriously hypochondriac French to visit as many doctors and specialists as they wished.

Costs tend to be squeezed by holding down the wages, fees and training places for the foot soldiers and NCOs of the system, such as généralistes, junior hospital doctor and nurses. As a result, doctors are still thick on the ground in large cities and wealthy suburbs, but increasingly scarce in the poorer banlieues and in parts of rural France.

Everyone – doctors, insurance companies, employers, unions, politicians – agrees that a healthcare crisis is looming. President Nicolas Sarkozy has done little about it so far, but has spoken in radical terms of what he plans to do. He suggests that more of the cost of healthcare should be transferred from the public-funded Sécu system to private and work-based insurance schemes. He suggests that the insurance companies and workplace-based mutuelles, not just doctors, should have more say – US-style – over which treatments are worth funding.

In truth, the French system is still, in many ways, excellent. It is more flexible and more generously equipped than the post-Blair NHS. It is infinitely more rational and humane than a US system, or non-system, where 16 per cent of the nation's GDP (five per cent more than France) is poured into healthcare and more than 60 million people are uninsured or underinsured.

The British and French systems, opposed in principle in many ways, are showing some signs of convergence. The French government is trying to persuade its citizens that the British (and Dutch) reliance on the primary carer, or GP, is preferable to the traditional medical promiscuity of the French. The Conservative Party has spoken of moving to a system – rather like in France – where the distinction between state and private health provision is less rigid.

Given the challenges faced by all healthcare systems in an ageing world, stealing successful prescriptions from friends and neighbours makes sense. Except, it seems, to the American right.

j.lichfield@independent.co.uk

British fascist party leader whines after being pelted with eggs!

This is the funniest story today: BNP leader pelted with eggs at Parliament

Nick Griffin, chief of British National Party and his fellow party lister Andrew Brons, were pelted with eggs by about 100 anti-fascism protesters at a planned press conference outside of the House of Parliament. Hah!

Griffing began to whine and moan after he was struck with eggs:

“The problem is, why aren't the police prosecuting these people? What journalists need to be asking is who is doing this, who is behind this, and they need to be asking the Labour Party why they are backing people who are using violence against legitimately elected political representatives.

“The next time they could throw a brick. The police were there today and they stood by and did nothing.”

The extreme right-wing BNP, which is reviled by mainstream political parties, has just won two seats in the recent European Parliamentary elections.

Well, well...I don't know if they can do anything substantial with their two seats in the EU. But I can very well imagine Griffin and Brons, who can be aptly described as rightful heirs to Genhgis Khan's right flank generals, will be able to play their sieg heil clown tricks before a very large and select audience in Brussels.

Pictures: Griffin attacked

Labour in-fighting opens door for BNP racists‎

Is Britain the new Sick Man of Europe? CER article says so!

An article in the Centre for European Reform (CER) that attempts to compare Britain and France economic status today.

Are the British the new French?
by Simon Tilford, 5 May 2009

The British tend to deride France as a hopelessly statist, anti-entrepreneurial country full of bolshie workers intent on extracting a disproportionate rewards for their labour and a state too weak to resist them. This characterisation is not wholly inaccurate. But the implicit (and sometimes explicit) assumption is that the UK is everything that France is not. This is not the case.

In some respects, Britain now looks worse than France. For all its faults, France produces good public services and decent social outcomes, such as relatively low levels of poverty and high overall skills levels. Britain, by contrast, now combines a very big state, patchy public services, generally poor social outcomes and increasing barriers to wealth creation. This is a poisonous mixture. The situation can be rescued, but not without breaking some eggs.

The figures are arresting. Britain has gone from having one of the smallest states in the EU to one of the largest. In 2000, public spending accounted for 37% of GDP in the UK, just three percentage points above the US and a full 15 percentage points below France. By 2010 the OECD estimates that state spending will account for 49% of GDP in Britain, against 53% in France (52% in famously high-spending Sweden). Britain has already overtaken Germany and the Netherlands (44% and 46% respectively).

This unprecedented expansion of the British state would be less of problem if the UK now had Scandinavian (or even French) levels of public services or first-rate physical infrastructure. But improvements in British public services over the last ten years have been nowhere near big enough to justify the increase in expenditure. Most of the money has gone on increased employment and wages, rather than improvements in services. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the stranglehold that the unions have on the public sector, productivity has stagnated.

It is also notable that Britain’s welfare-state is not comparable to that of Germany or the Netherlands, let alone France or Sweden. Unlike in these countries, many of the ordinary Britons currently losing their jobs will receive only derisory sums in unemployment benefits because these are means-tested. And only a forensic scientist could spot significant improvements in the country’s physical infrastructure. Britain’s roads remain as congested as ever and its railways expensive and unreliable.

Of course, the tax burden in the UK is still lower than in France. In 2008, taxes accounted for 49% of GDP in France compared to just 42% in Britain. But the gap between tax and expenditure in Britain is completely unsustainable, given the parlous state of the country’s public finances. How it is closed will to a large extent determine Britain’s economic prospects. If the gap is bridged by cutting expenditure, the UK stands a chance of returning to a relatively strong growth path. But if it is closed primarily through increased taxes, Britain will have a bleak future. The tax burden will be among the highest in the OECD, but public services (and the country’s social outcomes) will be nowhere near good enough to justify the tax take. In short, Britain will have Scandinavian levels of taxation and American levels of public services and social welfare.

The Labour party is poorly placed to sort out this mess because of its close links to the public sector unions. Under Labour the public sector has become a privileged class that is impervious to change and reform. By way of illustration, public sector wages are currently rising by close to 4% a year at a time of economic crisis. And this despite the fact that public workers are on average better paid than their private sector counterparts and enjoy generous pension entitlements. What about the country’s physical infrastructure? On the government’s forecasts, public investment will halve over the next 4 years. In fact, the only significant cuts the government intends to make are to investment.

The Tories stand a better chance of taking on entrenched public sector vested interests, but it will be a battle. Moreover, they will need to avoid the mistakes of the 1980s when they reduced spending by cutting services and investment rather than by increasing public sector efficiency. If they do this again, UK taxes will remain very high relative to what those taxes deliver in terms of services.

Britain still has strengths, of course. It is straightforward to set up a business in the UK and the labour market remains flexible. But overall Britain looks increasingly like one of the sick men of Europe, and certainly as sick as France. The French state is an efficient provider of services and quasi-state institutions construct and manage first-rate physical infrastructure. France, unlike Britain, has bitten the bullet on public pensions, increasing the retirement age to 65. The French have no qualms about allowing private companies to provide healthcare. Even the Tories do not appear to have the stomach for dismantling the NHS’s near monopoly on the provision of public healthcare.

The British need to get over the idea that they took all the difficult decisions in the 1980s and that Britain is an example for others to follow. It has a huge state, yet has poor social outcomes. Much of its growth in recent years has been down to a turbo-charged financial services industry and an unsustainable expansion of the public sector. Both trends have now run their course and the public sector has become a dead weight on the economy. Britain needs to concentrate on improving the climate for wealth creation. This will require much better public sector productivity and high levels of investment in human capital and physical infrastructure.

Simon Tilford is chief economist at the Centre for European Reform.

I would say that on the whole, the author's laments about the British economy have a leg to stand on and could be taken seriously. But I do not like nor agree with his introduction which I believe is patronising and is derision oriented disguised as favorably contrasting France against the UK.

"The British tend to deride France as a hopelessly statist, anti-entrepreneurial country full of bolshie workers intent on extracting a disproportionate rewards for their labour and a state too weak to resist them. This characterisation is not wholly inaccurate. But the implicit (and sometimes explicit) assumption is that the UK is everything that France is not. This is not the case.

"In some respects, Britain now looks worse than France. For all its faults, France produces good public services and decent social outcomes, such as relatively low levels of poverty and high overall skills levels."

His general portrayal of France, to wit: "This characterisation is not wholly inaccurate. " is uncalled for. Besides, to qualify Britain as now looking "worse than France" implies that France "has always been bad", which I feel is not true. If the CER wish to be credible, they must provide serious data to prove that France has "always been bad" so that their own characterisation that Britain "now looks worse than France" will make sense.

In my view, the author is using a tested "Anglo-Saxon journalist" (eg., Charles Bremner of The Times) technique when he interjects something that resembles French bashing right at the beginning of his article in order to attract readers to what, otherwise, would have been perceived as another bland item about the British economy.

This Brit must be hanged from the highest London lamppost and flogged!

Anjem Choudary, a British-born hate-filled Islamic cleric has called on his followers to "stop spending their money on their families and to divert it to Muslim soldiers waging jihad."

While the idea that we should just laugh at these clowns sounds like the British thing to do in the face of such rocambolesque inanities by Choudary, I am inclined to suggest a less lenient course of action in dealing with the tiresome Islamic extremist. My initial recommendation is for the man to be hanged from the highest London lamppost and flogged, or if you like, caned!

I do think it is utterly unacceptable that someone holding a British passport should be allowed to incite UK born Moslems, and worse, foreign combattants to commit atrocities on members of HM's armed forces.

The man must be investigated, arrested, charged, indicted, convicted and thrown into the dungeons for a wee while at the very least.

Lest I be accused of racial discrimination, cultural xenophobia, religious prejudice or whatever, let it be known that I'd react in the same fashion and would suggest the same course of action against a British Christian or anyone belonging to another cultural, political or religious denomination, who should possess the same treasonous mien as Choudary's.

Canadian sis chides Brits (through me) over snowstorm standstill

The snow storm couldn't have come at worse time in Britain or at a time when the nation is feeling the recession crunch.

The snow storm that hit the UK brought the country to a virtual standstill and is predicted to cost the economy 3 billion Great British Pounds! Bad, real bad! It is the worst winter weather in 18 years. Almost 3,000 shoes closed for the day, shops didn't open for business, people didn't go to work, many simply stayed at home and London was empty, according my sis in law.

My sister who's married to a Canadian and who lives in Alberta rang to chide me, teeheehing all the way.

"Oh, c'mon!", she says, "Where's the British spirit of tenacity? A lil snow storm and they all stay home?"

I reminded her that British folks are not masochist. Why should they suffer the brunt of the snowstorm when they could be comfortably warm at home? Let's look at it this way, at the end of the day, people had fun as shown in pic. (It's snow time! -- Amber Forster, 8, enjoys a sledge ride in Tooting, South London, as schools closed after snow crippled South East England for the first time in 18 years)

Tee hee!

Seriously now -- Britain ain't Canada (thank goodness not!) and this sort of thing doesn't always happen. Must admit though that 3bn British Sterling Pounds is a stiff bill to pay for being ill-prepared. Calling Boris Johnson!

While I'm at it, check this out: I didn't find it funny but I liked what Pres Obama said at the end of Cassetteboy's Barack Obama Inauguration Speech: "The time has come to strangle President Bush."

And if you want to know the names of the 10 people most responsible for the recession look them up here.

UPDATE: 15h18 3rd Feb: I was wrong, actually 25,000 schools closed, 7,000 buses cancelled...

Amidst the economic downturn, France is trumpeted as the last model standing

The global economic meltdown has brought two of the western world's super financial powers into recession: Britain and America.

On January 23rd, Britain was officially in recession. Tomorrow's healdlines will announce that the US is officially in recession.

It seems, in the midst of the downturn, France has managed to remain resilient and is seen as the last model standing. (H/t France Blog and SuperFrenchie)

According to Newsweek, "For better or worse, French-style intervention is gaining the upper hand as other economic models lose credibility."

But this did not deter Le Monde, the left-wing French daily that has been vociferous in its criticisms of President Sarkozy's active state intervention policies long before the US and Britain got their bailout acts together, from pouncing on the French president for using state interventionism which it claims, albeit implicitly, is a monopoly of left wing ideologues. Somehow, despite the sarcasm, the French daily manages to trumpet, Dans la crise, le modèle français, naguère décrié, retrouve des couleurs (Amidst the crisis, the French model which has been, until recently, severely mocked, floats its colours anew) and declares:

Malgré une dette publique élevée, l'Etat peut encore emprunter dans des conditions jugées "très favorables" par Bercy. Un peu moins que celles offertes à l'Allemagne mais bien meilleures que celles proposées à l'Italie, à l'Espagne ou au Portugal. Les ménages et les entreprises sont moins endettés, ce qui limite les risques notamment en matière immobilière. (Ministry of Economy and Budget believes that in spite of a high public debt, the State can still borrow under favourable conditions. A little less than those offered to Germany but better than those proposed to Italy, to Spain or to Portugal. Households and companies are less in debt which limits risks particularly in real estate.)

Although I'm not sure of the exact statistics pertaining to household debts, I can personally attest that I know of no one among my circle of friends and acquaintances in France who is debt ridden. It's simple: bank loans to individuals and households are heavily regulated and are hugely controlled. Even before the economic crisis, there simply was no way an individual could take out a loan to buy a property unless he could prove that he is financially eligible to pay back, eg., sufficient income to make a monthly reimbursement of what he borrowed. The saving grace for the French could also be their culture of systematic "petites epargnes" (translated literally as little savings, i.e., saving for a rainy day.)

It is much more difficult to take out a loan in France in general unlike in the US and in Britain where households and individuals could take out a 100% loan even if the person has already an accumulation of debts. Bank overdrafts have always been regulated. Thus, it's safe to say that when the economic crunch hit the world, the French household finds itself less at risk than their friends in Britain and in America.

That said, I'm not overly optimistic that things will stay as they are in France. I believe that unless things turn around for the better on the world scale quickly, we just might start to feel the brunt of the meltdown as bad as our friends across the Channel and the Atlantic. For the moment, the French economy is resilient and I do hope it stays that way for some time.

Related post: France tops 2008 Quality of Life Index

Some suggested reading (h/t again to SuperFrenchie):

• Euro unemployment rate
• OECD countries labour rates
• France leads Europe in birth rates (not due to Muslim births)

Terrorists are targetting UK and US nationals -- in India? But why? (With Updates)

The iconic Taj Mahal hotel in flames. (REUTERS/ARKO DATTA photo)

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"India has never seen the kind of attacks that it has suffered during the last hour," says CNN anchor. He is referring to The Mumbai Atrocities, which was part of a coordinated terror attack committed early on today, 26th November targetting UK and US nationals.

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Based on an interrupted CNN interview with India government spokesman, the situation is now under control and declares that 84 people died in the carnage and 200 were wounded.

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What is definitely perplexing is why were Britons and Americans targetted in India and by whom? Who are these armed people whom witnesses said looked like young 'boys,' perhaps 20 - 25 years old -- a suspect shown in picture -- who are holding or held Taj Mahal guests hostage? Are they Indian right wing extremists or are they members of the Indian faction of Al Qaeda?
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India Terror Arrests Shock Nation Ahead of Elections, in Time provides some insight.

Meanwhile, Paris is also under threat of attack by the Talibans: Taliban at the gates of Peshawar and threatening to hit Paris

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Update 27 Nov 20h28: Europe strongly condemns attacks

European officials strongly condemned the attacks in Mumbai. Three members of European Parliament were among those trapped in the Taj Mahal hotel. They escaped unscathed, but will return to Brussels with harrowing memories.

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More here.

ATTACKS IN INDIA
October 29, 2005
At least 60 people were killed and more than 250 people injured in a series of bombs in the Indian capital New Delhi just three days before the popular Hindu festival of lights Diwali.
September 8, 2006
Two devastasting bomb attacks on a Muslim festival killed at least 37 people in the western Indian state of Maharashtra. More than 100 people were injured, some seriously.
July 11, 2006
Seven bombs exploded on packed regional trains and railway stations in the western city of Mumbai (Bombay). A total of 187 people lost their lives and more than 700 were injured in the repeated blasts.
February 19, 2007
A terrorist attack on a train killed 69 people. The so-called "Peace Train" was travelling from New Delhi to the Pakistani city Lahore. An estimated 60 passengers were injured by the two bombs.
August 25, 2007
Two bombs exploded in a street restaurant and at a laser show in a city park, killing 42 people and injuring 50 in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad.
May 13, 2008
At least 63 people were killed and 118 injured during a terror attack in the north-western city Jaipur. Eight bombs were detonated within minutes in the city center of the popular tourist destination.
July 26, 2008
Sixteen bombs exploded, one after another, in the western Indian city Ahmedabad killing at least 56 people and injuring 150.
October 30, 2008
More than 80 people were killed in Assam in north-eastern India's most brutal bombing attack to date. Security services suspected seperatists and Muslim extremist groups were behind the plot.
November 26, 2008

Given the religious and socio-cultural tensions that have been prevailing between the Indian Hindu and Indian Muslim communities, I have a strong suspicion that this attack was more internal to India than earlier analysts thought.

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Meanwhile, I've just learned that a French colleague was in Mumbai on business and was staying in Taj Mahal. He was one of those caught in the crossfire in the restaurant when the terror attack occurred. He hid under a table for four hours while bullets were wizzing about got out when the coast cleared. He is due back at the EU Capital this weekend.

Thanksgiving Day: The first European arrivals seeking religious freedom in the “New World” were French

Thanksgiving Day in June? (H/T to Mark over at SuperFrenchie's)

Kenneth C. Davis, author of “America’s Hidden History: Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women and Forgotten Founders Who Shaped a Nation”, wrote an amazing Op-Ed piece in the NY Times, suggesting that a June date would be far more appropriate to commemorate the arrival of the first pilgrims to America’s shores, “After all the first European arrivals seeking religious freedom in the “New World” were French. And they beat their English counterparts by 50 years.” °

A French Connection
By KENNETH C. DAVIS
Published: November 25, 2008

[...] That French settlers bested the Mayflower Pilgrims may surprise Americans raised on our foundational myth, but the record is clear.

Long before the Pilgrims sailed in 1620, another group of dissident Christians sought a haven in which to worship freely. These French Calvinists, or Huguenots, hoped to escape the sectarian fighting between Catholics and Protestants that had bloodied France since 1560.

Landing in balmy Florida in June of 1564, at what a French explorer had earlier named the River of May (now the St. Johns River near Jacksonville), the French émigrés promptly held a service of “thanksgiving.” Carrying the seeds of a new colony, they also brought cannons to fortify the small, wooden enclosure they named Fort Caroline, in honor of their king, Charles IX. [...]

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Full NY Times article here.

Now, let me tell you that this was a surprising discovery for me just as I think it will surprise many Europeans and Americans alike to learn that America has a lot to thank the French for, eg., not only when they helped the rebels led by Gen George Washington boot King George's colonial armies but also for Thanksgiving Day! (I can't wait to hear what my English side of the family will say about that! See American Thanksgiving Day and England's Plymouth Today)

So, with history for a backdrop, what better and more appropriate way than to wish all our friends in America a Happy Thanksgiving Feast in French: Joyeux Fêtes de Remerciements a tous nos amis en Amerique!
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Crossposted in Americablog comments.