Origin North West

The leaked memo from the Foreign Office on the Popes visit to the UK is either one of its biggest blunders or could be thought deliberate to placate those who oppose the Popes preachings. The Catholic Church has had some bad press lately and there are several areas where Catholic beliefs are very different from the UK government, such as on abortion, contraception, gay rights and although not currently government policy euthanasia could become another one.

The theory of some government support for the memo should be resisted as you would hope the government would see the loss is far greater than the gain. Although there is a worrying factor that people in government departments discussed these ideas and actually considered them worth recording.

No matter what you think of the Catholic faith and the Pope, and I’m not a member, there are millions of worshippers in the UK and millions who will flock to see the Pope visit the UK.  Those who want to disrupt should have some common decency and allow the leader of one of the worlds greatest churches a peaceful and welcoming visit.

Another case of contradiction - the Human Right to protest opposing the Human Right to worship in peace.

The people of Ireland and Greece are suffering in the Euro. The Irish have taken their medicine on the chin while the Greeks are reluctant to accept it. In both cases it isn’t clear why the countries are in the Euro. Their economies are so small that they are always going to get little consideration when it comes to supporting the Euro. If Germany needs an adjustment in the interest rate then the interest rate will change.  If Greece needs it, well that’s another matter.

The Euro is a good idea but the criteria for membership isn’t rigorous enough. If the UK had been in the Euro there is no way Germany and France could have supported it in the recession and we’d  be facing massive pay cuts and redundancies. Even EUphile me has realised that keeping out of the Euro has been a major plank in helping the UK economy in the recession.

It would be interesting to read any other thoughts on UK membership.  The Liberal Democrats support joining the Euro and maybe in next weeks leaders debate the subject will come up.

Three days after the leader’s debate the pollsters are saying Nick Clegg is the leading leader.  Who is this man?

Born in Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire in 1967 and went on to one of Britains leading public schools, Westminster School. Then to Cambridge to study archeology while doing some acting.  Did two post degree studies and became a journalist.  In 1994 he worked for the European Commission before becoming a Euro-MP in 1999 and an MP at Westminster in 2005.  Winning the Lib Dem leadership battle in 2007 and now in 2010 winning the first leaders debate.   Clean in the expenses scandal and heroic in some circles for his claimed sleeping with no more than 30 women and setting fire to his professors cactii. 

Is against the storing of innocent peoples DNA, a laudable trait.  Supports prison welfare.  Had involvement in environmental and animal welfare as well as international trade discussions.

Overall seems a decent enough.

Well done, the debate was a success. Seems to be a consensus that Clegg, Cameron and Brown was the order of success, yet in reality there was no outright winner and no  outright loser and two more debates to go. That Nick Clegg could speak confidently and naturally, if not a bit fast, seems to have been a surprise factor for many. David Cameron and Gordon Brown made no significant inroads into each other.

Gordon Brown made a bit of a hit with his comment saying the Conservatives would cut police budgets more than Labour which seemed to surprise everyone, including David Cameron. David Cameron came back strongly with a story about a very violent crime and the culprit getting a short prison sentence. Gordon Brown has the handicap that he’s said he’ll do things before and somehow they never appear to be quite what was said as well as 13yrs of baggage. David Cameron has to show he is more than not being Gordon Brown.

Nick Clegg spoke of the increase in tax threshold being a new idea, that they will look for an alternative to a Trident replacement, opposed immigration limits and his seat in Sheffield was mentioned several times perhaps to distract from his public school background. Wasn’t particularly pushed as the other two were aimed at each other.

The next debate will no doubt take lessons from this and Nick Clegg might find the ride a bit bumpier.  Perhaps Gordon Brown will stop the smile that looks so patronising, David Cameron won’t stand with that distant horizon look, maybe Nick Clegg will appear less anxious about getting his points over. A better method of signalling who is to speak might help, at one point it appeared that David Cameron was left out of the debate. Someone has suggested the audience should be allowed to applaud – please no. Is there anything worse than the Question Time applause battles with someone so eager to get the first clap. Yet sometimes it can be a good feature and how to capture the good without the bad is difficult.

Disappointing that the biggest issue in week 1 of the election campaign is a 1% increase in National Insurance included in the budget and rejected by the Conservatives.

That over 50 top business leaders came out saying they were against it and it would reduce employment has been the flare that lit up the debate. This is said to be a reflection that business has fallen out with Labour after many years when they trumpeted its support.

There appears to be some simple arithmetic to support the business leaders case. National Insurance is charged from a very low wage level and a 1% increase has a disproportionate impact on business performance measures.  It could be the difference between profit and loss in these straightened times. Businesses have already driven efficiency as hard as they can.  The inevitable response must be to get it back either through not recruiting, shedding staff or increasing prices.

The government throws this back by saying the Conservatives will need to take the money from somewhere else and the business leaders are deceived. However as neither party has come clean on what they really intend to do about the deficits this seems like smoke and mirrors.   There seems to also be confusion that some people say the Conservatives are taking money out of the economy by rejecting this measure when actually it is the opposite. The government is taking money out of the economy with the measure and are paying themselves when they admit they are making inefficient use of taxpayers money.

Overall though it seems a minor issue has been blown into a major one and sub-plots have grown all around it. Lets hope it gets better than this although it probably won’t.