Music of the week

Remembering the bad times ...

Kicking the can down the road

The cancellation of Wednesday's EcoFin meetings means that the Euro-summit tomorrow evening is doomed to reach nothing more than agreement on a vague outline framework of the kind of package needed.  No member state will be committed to anything and further meetings will be necessary to thrash out the details.  And that's the optimum outcome; it could be much worse. The Germans (and the Finns and the Dutch) won't subsidise the Club Med unless they sign up to austerity squared, while the latter will firmly resist being sent down the black hole where Greece finds itself.

The effect on the markets will not be a happy one.

For me, it's a puzzler

Maybe I'm a bit dim; or am I being obtuse?  The Guardian reports:

Salmond confirmed on Saturday, in his keynote speech to the SNP conference in Inverness, that the referendum, planned for the second half of the five-year Scottish parliament, will consist of two questions.
On Sunday he gave more details. The first question would be "a straight yes-no question [on] independence," the SNP leader said. Alongside this would be "a second question, in the same way as we did in 1997, in which we'd offer a fiscal autonomy option". He added: "I'm not for limiting the choices of the Scottish people, I leave that to Westminster."

Now let us suppose that, on the first question, the Scottish electorate votes 51% to 49% in favour of independence and that, on the second question, votes 70% to 30% in favour of devo-max.  What then has been proved?  Should independence be abandoned on the basis that it commands less support than devo-max?

And it is no use comparing it with 1997.  Then the choice was between devolution or devolution with tax-raising powers - it would have been inconceivable to have failed to obtain a majority in the first question but to have succeeded in obtaining a majority in the second.

Don't waste your schadenfreude on me!

Hey, it's raining a bit; well it's chucking it down actually, thunder and lightning accompanying.

But I can't complain - it's the first time in seven weeks that I've had to wear long trousers.  Went down to the supermercado to get the makings for a bolognese sauce (which is now cooking happily on the stove).

Stopped for a beer on the way back and the bar manageress (rather unkindly, I thought) poked fun at my trusty yellow plastic poncho.  It's nothing like a giant condom, honest.

No, you're not getting any photographs.

Money-grubbing

Slightly distasteful, I think.  The Guardian reports:

The starting pistol for British firms to pursue contracts in Libya has been fired by the new defence secretary, Philip Hammond, who urged companies to "pack their suitcases" and head there to secure reconstruction contracts. 

As Nato announced that it plans to wind up operations in Libya, Hammond said that great care had been taken during the campaign to avoid destroying critical infrastructure. 

"Libya is a relatively wealthy country with oil reserves, and I expect there will be opportunities for British and other companies to get involved in the reconstruction of Libya," he told the BBC in an interview. 

"I would expect British companies, even British sales directors, [to be] packing their suitcases and looking to get out to Libya and take part in the reconstruction of that country as soon as they can," said Hammond, who replaced Liam Fox as defence secretary a week ago.

I suppose that, for this government, there always has to be a bottom line.

Please Mr Postman

I wrote and sent a letter this week. (It was to a rather special young lady.)  But I doubt if I will do it again.  The Independent explains why:

How much?! The price of a second-class stamp could soar by about half, to 55p, under rules proposed by the Royal Mail's nice new regulator, Ofcom. As for a first-class stamp, don't even ask. There will be no limit at all to what the Mail can charge. Shocked headlines proclaimed that we will see the biggest rise in stamp prices in 171 years.
This is the price of dragging the Royal Mail into the 21st century, fulfilling the exacting mandates of this year's Postal Services Act, including the commitment to a six-day delivery, while at the same time fattening itself up for privatisation.

Booze-ups in breweries?

Let's see if I've got this straight.  They were going to have a summit on Sunday when they would reach agreement on a package of measures to resolve the problems of Euroland.  But now they have discovered that they will not reach agreement on Sunday.  So they will hold another summit on Wednesday where they will definitely reach agreement on the package.  Or maybe not.

I think it's called muddling through.

Music of the week

No, I don't understand it either; maybe some crazy Belgian thing:

The fine art of whistle-blowing

It is never easy, telling bosses what they do not want to hear.  Not that journalists care; The Guardian reports:

The top brass, senior diplomats, MI6 - they all knew what Liam Fox and his friend Adam Werritty were up to. They did not know everything that enterprising journalists from the Guardian and subsequently other newspapers have disclosed. But they knew that Fox and Werritty were pursuing their own priorities and interests - in the US, Israel, Iran, and Sri Lanka. The question which the cabinet secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell, should address in his report, expected on Tuesday, along with how Fox breached the ministerial code of conduct, something the former defence secretary has in effect admitted already, is why didn't they blow the whistle.

The journo in question then admits:

The former chief of defence staff Air Chief Marshal (now Lord) Stirrup, and Sir Bill Jeffrey, former permanent secretary at the Ministry of Defence, are reported to have expressed their concerns some time ago.

So what happened after this whistle-blowing?  Well, nothing.  No 10 didn't want to hear.  And note that these two luminaries are now former luminaries.  But The Guardian goes on to put the boot in: 

It is "inconceivable" that Ursula Brennan, Jeffrey's successor, did not know what was going on, says one well-placed official. How much we do not know. What is clear is that the affair has demonstrated that officials seem frightened to reveal their anxieties - to speak truth to power. They seemed cowed.

Aye well, what would you do, if your career depended on it, and when you already know that Mr Cameron is not in the least interested?

I used to be decisive but ...

I used to believe, with some confidence, that my fellow citizens would resist the blandishments of Fat Eck on the little matter of Scotland's independence and that they would firmly return a resounding negative when it came to a referendum.  But now I'm not so sure.

It's not just the ComRes poll announced over the weekend which showed that even the English were unperturbed by the prospect of Scottish separation, although in many respects this was quite a remarkable outcome which will no doubt have its impact on the inclinations of Tory MPs south of the border - why should they fight to maintain a bloc of Scottish Labour MPs in Westminster, if the good people of Chichester and Henley and Tatton are not bothered about Scotland going gently into that good (or bad) night?

Then there is the question of North Sea oil or at least the oil lying west of Shetland.  If BP is prepared to invest all those billions and if the oil is going to last until 2050, then the prospect of Scottish independence becomes that much less scary.  I know that it's more complicated than that, but you can almost hear Mr Salmond asking the electorate if they really want to allow the UK Treasury to fritter away - once again - the economic returns from oil on unemployment benefits south of the border.

As for the Labour Party, the only party in Scotland which might have been capable of resisting the SNP, it's not looking good.  So far, the leadership campaign has yet to throw up anyone known to the Scottish population, let alone with the ability to take on Salmond and his acolytes.  Nor do the voices from down south in the form of Mrs Curran and her "crack team" offer any consolation; after all, they're there and not here.  And they are not exactly likely to set the heather on fire.

So, with apologies for being somewhat depressing on a Monday morning, we will await the referendum with trepidation.  As usual, it will probably end in tears.


 

Quote of the day

From The Telegraph (here):

Speaking in his constituency yesterday, Mr Letwin said: "I was walking around dictating responses and I did not want the paper to weigh me down. 

It's a tough life being a politician.  You get up early every morning for a walk in the park to dictate your correspondence (doesn't everyone?) but you can't move for Mirror photographers.  And what are bins for if not to put waste paper in?

He doesn't get it ...

Sad, almost.  The Guardian blog records:

As Severin Carrell mentioned in his piece on the devolution debate in the Guardian earlier this week, ministers are also making an attempt to woo Scotland too. Cameron's visit [to Aberdeen] may be part of that drive, but he started his speech by saying that he would be flying the Welsh flag over Downing Street on Saturday because they are the only British team left in the rugby World Cup. That's because, in the UK, when one team drops out, we all support the other one, he told his Aberdeen audience. The remark was met by silence. Then he had to assure them it was a joke.

I'm not laughing ...

Wee Duggie is back!

No doubt, just dropping by to chivvy the troops.  The Herald reports:

ONE of Labour’s key strategists will tonight warn that the Scottish party has become too backward-looking and negative.Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander, who co-ordinated last year’s General Election campaign, will also say Labour needs to raise its sights to produce a more positive “One Scotland” vision.
His remarks will come in a lecture at Stirling University, in which he upbraids the SNP for focusing too much on its “gleeful assertions of difference” rather than the more positive message of co-operation, unity and diversity.

It is of course only a day or two since the appointment of a new Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland.  Mrs Curran is not of course renowned for her positive and constructive approach, being a West of Scotland machine politician par excellence.  But Mr Alexander presumably considers that she may be able to play a more enlightened tune on that weary old Labour fiddle.

Quote of the day

Jonathan Freedland in The Guardian (here):

What if Fox gave the full apology he has so far withheld – would that be enough? No. Only in politics is the mere act of saying sorry deemed to be sufficient punishment. You don't see rioters walk away from court simply because they had the grace to put their hands up. Nor can they evade a jail sentence by regretting that they had allowed "the distinction between legal and illegal to be blurred". Even Wayne Rooney gets a three-match ban for blurring the distinction between his studs and an opponent's leg.

Too damn right.

Music of the week

The late great Kirsty:

Football, bloody football

After the glorious 1-0 thrashing of the mighty Liechtenstein, tonight we get to play with the big boys of Barcelona and Madrid.

The boss-man is optimistic:about his players:

"They won't be overawed by the occasion," said Levein. "We have players who play week-in, week-out in the Premier League and we have players with self-belief and those two things help.

As Oscar Wilde said, the basis of optimism is sheer terror.

Headline of the day

From The Independent (which sees the brakes being put on):

UK at risk as OECD signals acceleration in pace of global economic slowdown

Not sure how you accelerate a slowdown but I think we know what they mean.

Displacement activity

Distasteful populism from Mr Cameron.  The Independent reports:

Foreign nationals could soon have to take a test on British history before they are granted a UK passport after David Cameron set out moves to toughen up requirements for citizenship....
 "There's a whole chapter in the citizenship handbook on British history. But, incredibly, there are no questions on British history in the test," he said."Instead you'll find questions on the roles and powers of the main institutions of Europe and the benefits system within the UK. So we are going to revise the whole test and put British history and culture at the heart of it."

This from the expensively educated Prime Minister who thought that the Americans were our World War II allies in 1940.

It's the way I tell them

People sometimes ask if I benefit financially from this blog.  The answer is that I am not dependent upon any transactional behaviour in relation to the blog to maintain my income.

What?  You don't know what that means?  Liam Fox will explain ...

They must think we're idiots

So it's all sorted, is it?  City AM records:

A highly anticipated meeting yesterday resulted in a bland statement by German chancellor Angela Merkel that politicians “are determined to do the necessary to secure the recapitalisation”, which the IMF has said will cost around €200bn (£172bn). 

Merkel and French president Nicolas Sarkozy claimed they are in “total agreement” but said they cannot answer questions about any of the crucial technical details of any deal until November’s G20 summit. 

Both Merkel and Sarkozy denied that there is a despute over how the region’s bailout fund should be used in the bank rescue. “Germany and France want the same criteria to be applied, and criteria that are accepted by all sides,” said Merkel.

How long do they think that will hold?