Archive for May, 2014

Astra Zeneca and Pfizer : Good For Whom?

Wednesday, May 7th, 2014

This proposed takeover has become a political hot potato in Britain, with all sides wading in across the ideological span, from state intervention to free markets. The potential problem, given that eventually Pfizer make a sufficiently attractive offer to tempt AZ investors, stems not from the specifics of this deal, but from the broken promises of the now infamous takeover of Cadbury by Kraft. That flagrant betrayal, whatever the caveats of not realizing the true picture until able to look into the books after purchase, screwed any prospect of an easy ride for US corporations with eyes on big UK companies.

There is complete distrust of whatever promises Pfizer may make and a growing suspicion that the approach by the US giant has more to do with its own problems that it has to do with the opportunity offered by Astra Zeneca. AZ was until recently a potential target, because two successive leaders of the company had failed to organize an effective strategy post expiring patents, but new leadership is transforming the company’s future prospects, giving it a business model a good deal better than the Viagra dependent  Pfizer.

Sooner or later the issue will be resolved by a merger, or a failure to merge, and everyone will move on. At the heart of it all lies a very telling statistic. The United Kingdom is the largest foreign investor in the Unites States, way ahead of Germany, Japan and China. Likewise the US is the biggest foreign investor in the UK. This is what the special relationship is really about.

Hitler’s First Lady UK

Hitler’s First Lady US

 

Hitler’s First Lady

Monday, May 5th, 2014

What was Gauleiter Kaufmann’s relationship with Hitler? Why alone among the top Nazis did he receive only the kind of prison sentence you would expect for a bit of burglary? Why did he surrender Hamburg to the British without a fight?

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Gerry Adams: What Price For Peace?

Monday, May 5th, 2014

The arrest of Gerry Adams has not been universally welcomed, even by those who consider him guilty, if not directly, by association. Sinn Fein has complained that there may still be hard core loyalist elements within the PSNI who want to see Adams brought down and who are lukewarm about the peace process. The unionists insist that nobody is above the law. Maybe so but many are the unionists who are beyond reason.

Certain facts need once more to be rehearsed. Ireland is one country, separated into two because a protestant minority believe themselves to be sovereign above the majority and demand to remain a part of the United Kingdom. These people call themselves loyalists, yet their intransigence, thugishness, unwillingness to compromise and their refusal to recognize the will of the majority in the country of which the have occupied and separated a part, finds no echo in the rest of the United Kingdom at all.

Once a way is found to bring peace to a community torn by war, whether it is formally declared by one side against the other, or whether it is an insurgency involving terrorism and counter measures from the established authorities, everyone has to move forward together. To do this will mean drawing a veil over terrible things which happened in the conflict and to turn away from pursuing those suspected of being responsible for them. This means for victims there is no justice, but for them and for all, there is the reward of peace and harmony in which they can live thereafter.

Such a principle cannot be applied to this case but not to that. It has to be applied without favour across the board. It is the price of peace. Everyone in Northern Ireland, whatever their responsibility, whatever their stake, whichever side they are on and whatever they may have suffered or be suffering, needs to think about that.

Hitler’s First Lady: Was Rudolf Hess murdered. If so when? In 1987 or was it actually 1942? Find out in my new novel.

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Ukraine: Russia And The West

Sunday, May 4th, 2014

This Blog has been consistently critical ( and in my book 2010 A Blueprint For Change) of the post cold war approach of the West to Russia, especially the UK and US. Essentially the new world order created by the collapse of the Soviet Union called for a fresh approach to foreign policy, based not upon confrontation and challenge, but on consensus and cooperation. This required a big intellectual leap in the State Department and in its European sub office, better known as the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Unfortunately the idea of adversarial diplomacy with goodies, who did only good, and baddies who did only bad, was too ingrained in the psyche. Rivalry as between football supporters was all that was understood in the programme. Thus the great opportunity was lost.

What should have happened was that Russia and its satellites should have become members of both the EU and NATO, bringing security and economic opportunity all round. Instead Russia was treated with such disdain that it fell hardly short of shunning, and both the EU and NATO, having said they would do no such thing, advanced their boundaries steadily eastwards, growing ever closer to Mother Russia. They claimed to be friends, and at a certain level they were, but because she felt rejected, Russia could never bring herself to trust these new friends unconditionally, nor to feel on equal terms.

Moving forward to the present day, Russia has regained her self confidence and is embarked upon economic regeneration project that remains in the very early stages of realizing its full potential. This new self confidence stems in part to the catastrophic failures of western foreign policy in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria and in part to the problems with the Euro and the rumblings among the populations of the western end of the EU about the bureaucratic and intrusive nature of EU governance. Britain is the most disaffected but the contagion appears to be spreading to France. Bombshells are forecast for both countries in the EU elections later this month.

Into this unstable firmament suddenly Ukraine, about which few Europeans ever thought and a surprising number of Americans had never heard, splashes down. Because Russia is once again cast by the West as little better than an enemy, the situation, instead of being calmed with simple common sense, is inflamed by wild rhetoric and accusations, based not on the facts but on which side is making them. Thus the Ukraine sinks ever lower to the point where mayhem and destruction take over.

It is not too late to stop this, but it very nearly is. The West should pause and think and remind itself that without Russia’s support of it, Napoleon, the Kaiser and Hitler would all have won their wars.

Hitlers First Lady: Did Churchill encourage Hitler to attack Stalin to ease the threat to Britain? This book will give you the answer

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Hitler’s First Lady

Friday, May 2nd, 2014

Did the King plan to sack Churchill? What stopped him? You will find the answer in my explosive new novel!

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Hitler’s First Lady

Friday, May 2nd, 2014

Hitler’s sexual hang-ups. What were they? How did they affect his relationships? Was it Hitler’s brain which plotted the rise of the Third Reich or was it Hess’s? Find out the answers in my new novel HITLER’S FIRST LADY.

 

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Hitler’s First Lady

Thursday, May 1st, 2014

Who was she? Why has she been air-brushed from history? Read my new fact based novel to find out the answer!

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