Comments for Business and Politics

Comment on Obama Tackles Mideast Peace, Get Real – by Rachel Marsden by Tony

Tony — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 23:19:10 +0000

‘Useless symbolic intervention’ may not always be as useless as it seems. We can’t run the counter-history to find out what would have happened if the right gestures hadn’t been made. We can however be pretty sure that an all-out conflagration in the region could have some very nasty consequences for nations in the region and for a fragile world economy.

Comment on How do we reclaim Britain’s towns from the drunks? by Michael

Michael — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 17:54:13 +0000

It strikes me that if you want to clear up town centre streets then you need to go to the heart of the problem, which comprises the places where people are drinking.

1. Reduce the number of licences
2. Curtail opening hours with most closing at 11pm
3. Apply very high licence fees to premises that want to serve after 11pm
4. Ban happy hours

Some people will obviously argue that such measures are those of a killjoy but it’s the joy of other people that is currently being killed.

Price controls on alcohol might reduce overall consumption and lead to better health (homebrew notwithstanding) but they won’t have a great impact on town centre rowdyism.

Comment on The Unavoidable Role of Emotion in Top Politics – Charles Crawford by Townie Oik

Townie Oik — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 06:13:16 +0000

“Went up to Oxford”. What century are you living in?

Comment on The Unavoidable Role of Emotion in Top Politics – Charles Crawford by Roger Steare

Roger Steare — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 05:28:02 +0000

Charles – great post, thank you. There is no substitute for primary research in the field. Best wishes Roger.

Comment on The Unavoidable Role of Emotion in Top Politics – Charles Crawford by Charles Crawford

Charles Crawford — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 17:51:42 +0000

You are quite right! I made a footling slip there, somehow thinking that I went up in 1976 rather than 1973!

Old age. I have asked for that line to be changed, with my apologies to readers.

Comment on The Unavoidable Role of Emotion in Top Politics – Charles Crawford by Tapestry

Tapestry — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 17:20:43 +0000

Blair went up to Oxford in 1972. By 1975 he was 22.

Comment on No G*d nor Stig, just branded hope – by Jonathan Gabay by Neil

Neil — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 22:32:41 +0000

Interestingly we see many forward thinking people describe the meaning of life and origins. However I have yet to meet anyone or read anywhere where the concept of nothing is discussed in depth. By our very own teachings nothing is nothing, therefore what is present to explain nothing.

Unfortunately the Darwin assumption of a selective status suggests that we have evolved in a way that prevents the true understanding of origins or alternatively we are still evolving to a point where a beginning and an end can be replace with circular thought.

From a brand perspective I suppose many unanswered questions leads to many more books, I don’t suppose there is much branding to be made out of nothing, or is there?

Comment on Blair and Marr – by James Sale by BitterandTisted

BitterandTisted — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:39:51 +0000

Can we really say that expelling hereditary peers has been good for parliament? We replaced the odd yet generally un corruptable collection of honourable aristos with light fingered lefties mostly. Hence the scandal? Before then the only scandals were mainly old boys caught with young ‘chickens’ in compromising positions somewhere in the South of France.

Comment on Blair and Marr – by James Sale by John Willman

John Willman — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:06:55 +0000

Blair made a terrible mistake with Iraq, and he allowed Brown too much freedom to increase public expenditure. But he also did some very good things. Here’s some examples:

1. Devolution for Wales and Scotland.
2 An elected London mayor.
3. Expulsion of most hereditary peers from the House of Lords.
4. Peace – of sorts – in Northern Ireland.
5. Ending the barbaric civil war in Sierra Leone.
6. Forcing Serbia out of Kosovo, and toppling Milosevic, Europe’s last mass murdering dictator.
7. Reducing child poverty.
8. Creating a single financial regulator in the FSA. The Tories are mad to unravel it.
9. Raising standards in primary schools (though not secondary schools by very much).
10. Introducing student loans for fees, which has boosted university income and provided the means to reverse the decline in undergraduate teaching.
11. Doubling the research budget.
12. Creating regional development agencies – again, the Tories will regret abolishing them.

There are lots more. Britain five years after Blair was elected was a much happier place than under the ludicrous John Major, at peace with itself and in greater harmony with the rest of Europe. He made many mistakes, but they are all that anyone can remember now.

Comment on BBC DG Mark Thompson: under the Microscope – Charles Crawford by BitterandTisted

BitterandTisted — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:47:55 +0000

Not only but also, the BBC is utterly lefty. It demonstrates this through news item running orders and interview technique time and time again. The banality of BBC 6 in relation to the cost (The Proms coverage in particular) to serve an audience of approx 150,000 regular listeners is stagering.

My white faced puffing with rage and total disgust at the smugness of the shower of self serving so called culturati of senior management is palpable in this room. How dashed un British…or how terribly British, whichever.

Angry from Tisted Green