Blog 2023 Malcolm Blair-Robinson

The Marching Season

What a sorry sight to see riots in Belfast again. Let us not forget that at the root is the utterly preposterous ‘tradition’ of triumphalist Protestant marches passing through Catholic areas. This whole concept of celebrating a victory of centuries past by humiliating the losers, is the most distasteful and insulting aspect of the flawed political philosophy called Unionism. Why Cameron talks to these people goodness knows, unless it is to tell them that time is up, this has to stop. This strutting arrogance and show off culture flies in the face of every principle held dear by the rest of the U.K.

The price for maintaining the Union should be a stop to this spectacle once and for all.

Useless Jobs.

Lord Tebbit, admired always by this Blog for his personal courage and public candour but rarely for his policy positions, has written an excellent article for the Times today. In an assessment of the road ahead for the coalition he considers the prospect of the unions bringing it down, as they did with the  Heath and Callaghan governments. He makes shrewd comparison with those two frustrated leaders and their much more resolute successor, Margaret Thatcher.

He also points out that the cost of the public sector is not because of the dedicated employees at the sharp end of delivery; refuse, hospital ancillaries and so on, but the middle class, often overpaid, public sector workers doing utterly useless jobs. He says they should be the first for the chop. I entirely agree. It is a harsh doctrine, especially if it is your job that goes, but spending has got to come down to the level of revenue. Many of those affected will be Tory voters. Some will recognise the party is over, but others will feel aggrieved. 

Nevertheless the coalition as a sum and in its parts, must remain resolute. It must also do everything possible to create the opportunities, freedom and finance to enable British industrial strength to be rebuilt. The destruction of our industrial base with its employment and wealth creating capacity, replacing it with a so called services economy is where Thatcherism went wrong. In his quiet reflective moments Lord Tebbit will know that.  The coalition must work also to ensure that this current upheaval does not leave an unwelcome problem for future generations to resolve.

Health Reforms

The centrepiece of the government’s White Paper on Health is that GPs (I prefer the title Personal Doctor) will be in control together with the patient, of their diagnosis and treatment path, for the first time since the NHS was formed. This is the critical point. It is not about funding or who controls funds. Huge delays now occur to both diagnosis and treatment (especially for less well known or test sensitive conditions) because patients are shuffled from hither to thither without anybody being responsible for the overall progress or outcome.

In conditions such as cancer, diabetes or heart disease, which are common and for which there are well rehearsed and resourced procedures, the inefficiency of the current system is masked, as is also the case in an accident or health emergency. Outside these and similar boxes there is a muddle; sometimes sufferers make do for years without a correct diagnosis or, therefore, effective treatment. Putting GPs in charge, as opposed to keeping them informed, will not only change process and outcomes, but will, if done properly, be much more patient focused. It will be better for the doctor and better for the patient.

The idea that timely and efficient healthcare could be organised by ‘commisioning trusts’  responsible for determining the scope of care, in which patients and doctors were no more than customers or providers, has always seemed to me to be based on a misunderstanding of the nature of medicine itself.

The path ahead will not be smooth or without mishaps, but it does go in the right direction.

Manhunt

The manhunt for Raoul Moat has ended in the media spotlight and now the questions are coming thick and fast. At one level the hunt was a success, in that his shooting spree was brought to an end before he could kill or injure again. At another level he seemed to be able to outwit literally an army of police and in spite of his rage and violence, cut a rather tragic figure who had support from elements of the community. The final standoff ended without Moat attempting to shoot his way out, which is a blessing, but without the police being able to stop him taking his own life, which some see as a failure.

Moat faced a lifetime in gaol in any event. If it was an imperative to save his life, a commendable aim in an enlightened country, confronting him with a phalanx of armed officers akin to a firing squad, may not have been the way to go about it. Public safety and his arrest alive might have been secured with more in cover and less on view. Pleas from his nearest relatives to approach him when he sank into a sad recital of his abandonment by his kin should not, perhaps have been ignored.

We shall not know the answers to these questions until after both the outcomes of the IPCC review and the inquest. Meanwhile there is that nagging feeling that the vast, at times frenetic, procedure driven, safety governed response to this case may have delayed its conclusion and may not, in future, be the way to do this.

The Synod

The Church of England Synod has voted to reject the compromise proposal of Canterbury and York, to allow dissenting parishes to be overseen by a man bishop if they refuse to accept the authority of a woman bishop. Quite right too. The two Archbishops were grievously in error to propose it. Those who think God is a man who only deals through men are as far from the Truth as those of past times who believed that Copernicus and Galileo were blasphemers and their science heresy.

Across the spectrum of religious belief there are churches and sects which anchor their faith at a fixed point of the evolution of human understanding and hold fast to it even after enlightenment shows the nostrum, though observed with integrity, to be false, harmful, unfair, nonsense or a combination of  all of these things.

The Church of England is not one of those. It advances its interpretation of God’s Truth as society evolves to enshrine fairer, more equal and more inclusive values through the progression of humankind and wiser understanding. Those who gain comfort from a flat earth view of life and faith can find it in the welcoming arms of Rome. They should go there now. The debate should end.

The Church of England must remember that it is a component of the Constitution of a liberal, progressive and inclusive country in which the practice, outside the church, of discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation or gender is against the law. The Church of England believes it is also against the Law of God.

Education Muddles

I have from the beginning of this coalition government been uncertain about its eduction policies, which are mostly based upon the Tory blueprint, much of which I have criticised in the past. The latest muddles and mistakes over the school building programme, which should not have happened, confirm this department as the weak link in the new government chain. On the plus side the restoration of teacher authority and the shutting down of quangos has been very welcome, but the positive is being overshadowed by the negative.

It may very well be the case that the Labour programme was in confusion. Resolving it with more muddle is hardly a way forward. Moreover a question hangs over the concept of encouraging so many schools to become Academies at this time and an even bigger questions hangs over the novelty schools to be set up by parents. All these ideas may be radical and worthwhile, though I have some doubts, but introducing them piecemeal through a department which the new government claims it found in disorder, will lead to one muddle upon another.  Either that or the muddles are of the coalition’s making.

It is without doubt politically inept to announce the cancellation of rebuilding projects of schools which are falling down, even if there are some which could wait. I fear the new Secretary of State may be a better talker than an organiser. Opposition is indeed about talking, but government is about doing and Mr Gove is not at present doing well.

The Church Of England

There is renewed controversy over the potential appointment of a gay bishop. What marks the C of E out from the Roman Catholic church is the simple fact that the latter believes that religious doctrine and faith are set in the fundamental interpretations of the New Testament as written, which do not vary with time and human evolution. The Church of England was founded on the principle that people and therefore faith must evolve together.

Thus on issues such as divorce, contraception, abortion and so on, it has modified it formal position in accordance with the moral standards of the country of which it is a constitutional pillar. In looking at moral standards it now  (but did not always)  sees that it is not defensible to deny those who are gay, female or black. Indeed to do so is not only against the law of the land, but it is also against an enlightened interpretation of the Law of God.

For this reason those who argue against gay bishops, women priests or both should leave the Church of England forthwith. They are no longer welcome here, because we do not recognise the faith they proclaim. There are plenty of opportunities to cross to Rome or elsewhere, but to remain and cause endless argument, often narrow and bigoted, should cease to be an option.

The NHS

The reforms proposed by the Government to put GPs in charge of the patient and therefore where and how they should be referred, returns to the basic principle of healthcare. This is that the two people  at the core of a coherent approach to solving health issues are the personal doctor and the patient. Between them they decide what to do next in a caring, practical and cost effective world, which gives primacy to patient well being.  At present the communication between doctor, patient and hospital is interrupted by the bureaucratic overlay of Primary Care Trusts and Strategic Health Authorities, which is costly and inefficient. Worse it has become an industry in itself, with the patient as little more than a passing statistic like a traveller in a motorway diner.

Apparently £80 billion is to be released to GPs, much more of which will be available to fund treatment than at present.There will be protests and many jobs will go. For those who will need to re-establish a new career one must have sympathy, but restoring the balance in favour of front line care is long overdue.

These proposals are exactly on the principles set out in my book 2010 A Blueprint For Change. It looks as if at least somebody read it. Or maybe it is just that Great Minds……..!

The Meaning of Sangin

It makes perfect military sense, we are told, and it is not a withdrawal but a handing over. Whatever it is if it takes our troops to a less dangerous part of the country it is welcome news. Our troops have shown valour and courage in full measure, in sharp contrast to the misplaced optimism of the top brass who give the orders and the naive rationalisation of politicians who set the policy.

Afghanistan, like Iraq, is the product of the knee jerk reaction to 9/11 and the hallucinatory fiasco of the Bush/Blair foreign policy agenda. One of the useful features of the Chilcot Inquiry is the parade of former top officials now willing to come forward and expose the muddled, shallow, ill informed and arrogant nature of those two leaders’ understanding of the realities of the challenge ahead of them. It is a pity the officials did not  all offer their candour before the event. It is difficult to calculate the number of lives which could have been saved across the piece, but it is considerable.

Without those two sanctemoneous zealots in charge at that critical time, the world would also now be a good deal less exposed to the terrorist threat.

China’s Financial Power

America and markets generally were relieved when China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange (Safe) announced that it would not be dumping U.S. assets in a programme to diversify its foreign exchange reserves, the largest in the world. It said such a move was unnecessary. However it called upon the U.S to ‘genuinely take measures to protect investors’  interests and confidence as a responsible large nation’. In other words get a grip of its budget deficit and burgeoning debt. This is not quite the tune the Obama administration officials were playing at the G8 and 20.

What is truly remarkable, in the historic context, is that China said it and notice has to be taken. Even if the U.S. government knows that economic power has shifted irrevocably to Asia, the American people do not. Yet.

What is even more astonishing is the spectacle of the world’s leading capitalist power being lectured on financial good housekeeping by the world’s leading communist power, which seems to be able to operate a better model of capitalism. As a great trading nation we need to wake up. Definitely the sun now rises in the east.