Current Events, Climate change
There is a lot of fear-mongering in the British press about the disastrous consequences if the Labour Party won a British General Election and Jeremy Corbyn became Prime Minister.
One approach to see how disastrous this would be is to compare it to what happened when the last left-wing government was in power. The closest analogue is the Labour government from 1945 to 1951 under Clement Attlee. Continue reading “What Would a Corbyn–Led British Government Look Like?”
Much has been written about the effects of Brexit on the UK, but there has been little thought given to the future of the EU itself.
The problems of the EU are well known. What Europe needs is a Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, Napoleon or a Bismark (or all of them). Angela Merkel showed hints of European leadership, until her disastrous error in allowing unlimited numbers of “refugees” into Germany. Even though there is the lack of leadership, clear common goals and periodic crises, the EU muddles through, in spite of the British press gleefully predicting the imminent break-up of the EU and the collapse of the Euro
Continue reading “The EU after Brexit – A Vision for Success”
The chief reason the British voted to leave the EU was the issue of immigration. Before the vote, David Cameron (Britain’s Prime Minister) “re-negotiated” the relationship of Britain with the rest of the EU. However, he was unable to get any concessions on EU immigration because it is one of the “four freedoms” which is central to the EU.
Could there be a conspiracy at work?
In his first trip to the US, Boris Johnson, Britain’s new Foreign Minister and a leader in the Brexit campaign, claimed that UK financial firms will keep EU ‘passporting’, which allows banks to sell their services to clients across the EU. He claimed that the “City” (as London Financial district is called) offers the deepest pools of liquidity, talent and skill for the capital formation needs of businesses across Europe (Julian Ambrose, in Daily Telegraph, July 23rd).
The “talent and skill” is crucial. As someone who was brought up in the UK, I cannot shake the suspicion that, for every financial whizz-kid in the City, there are ten upper-class twits (good example of an upper-class twit – John Cleese in the Monty Python sketch “The Ministry of Silly Walks”).
Is Johnson’s optimism justified? Several reasons suggest that it is not: Continue reading “Is Boris Johnson’s Optimism about London’s Financial Centre Justified?”
For those who do not follow British politics, Jeremy Corbyn is the leader of the Labour Party and, as such, is the leader of the opposition in the British parliament.
Jeremy Corbyn has had a difficult start as leader of the Labour Party. He has floundered on a number of issues such as anti Semitism in the Labour Party and more recently, his support for Britain remaining in the European Union (EU) has been weak and lukewarm, even though the party is strongly pro-remaining in the EU.
The key to understanding Jeremy is his academic record. At A-levels (equivalent of Grade 12 exams) it is normal to take three subjects. Corbyn passed two with E grades[which is the lowest pass mark] and presumably failed the third. He then went to the North London Polytechnic college to take Trade Union studies and flunked out after one year. This shows that Corbyn has limited intelligence, certainly lower than the intelligence required the lead the opposition in parliament, or potentially to be a future Prime Minister. Continue reading “Understanding Jeremy Corbyn”