Archive for January, 2017

Trump Presidency: After One Week, Disaster.

Monday, January 30th, 2017

It was not about more stringent vetting, nor about protecting America’s borders. It was about breathtaking incompetence, muddled thinking, a failure to consult, liaise, inform, consider and programme. It was about ruling by decree, outside the law, without regard to consequences and blind to knock on effects. It traumatized and distressed innocent travelers with lawful documents seemingly invalidated by confused officials whose 60 minute notice of an instruction to implement an opaque order, was an act of impulsive government from which even the likes of North Korea would shrink. It was further compounded by ill informed comments from White House Officials endeavoring to justify the biggest and most damaging presidential mis-step in living memory. Now the White House is retreating in confusion, beaten back by the weight of outrage and ridicule from all across the world.

A world which has seen a side of America supposed not to exist. A President who has all but destroyed his potential as a leader to be taken seriously. Trump has crashed before and recovered. But make no mistake, this is in a very different league to groping.

Vintage Psycho-Thriller Promo: .99p Download £5.99 Paperback

Sunday, January 29th, 2017

This ever popular psycho-thriller, now in its twenty second year, is offered for a limited period at the special price of £5.99 paperback and .99p Download. A haunting tale of passion and the paranormal, written in the style of its setting in the 1920s.

A tiny English village slumbers on the Surrey/Sussex borders, but the pastoral exterior hides a number of nightmare secrets.
The return of a young man after a long absence stirs memories of the horrific murder of his mother and uncle years earlier and of an ancient curse delivered upon the family in Napoleonic times. The villagers’ unease grows as the young man embarks upon an affair with the local farmer’s daughter, and a series of mysterious deaths seem to follow in his wake. Full of authentic period detail, this is a tale which will haunt readers long after the last page has been turned.

Amazon UK             Amazon US

Labour: Caught Between The Devil And The Deep

Sunday, January 29th, 2017

The government is now hell bent on hard Brexit, perhaps because it is the only kind of Brexit which will achieve the return of sovereignty, the end of free movement, the neutering of the European Court of Justice and the end of contributions to Brussels. The Tory party will in the main accept the outcome of the referendum and vote to trigger Article 50. Remember it is the Article 50 which is the act of leaving. After that it is a clean up job. It is not a notice of later intent which might, if the terms are not right, be abandoned.

Nobody consciously voted for hard Brexit, because what it truly meant was never explained, not least because the Leave campaign had no idea. The choice was In or Out. But that choice was never there. It was never that simple. Yes we could leave, but to do so would cost us rights and freedoms, economic opportunities and cultural associations which probably a majority would prefer to keep. Simply put, Out is less. Less bad things perhaps, but less good things too and the balance looks increasingly negative. Maybe Out will one day be more. Maybe not.

Labour is the Official Opposition. The margin of victory for Leave was narrow and only in England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland voted Remain. Labour’s job is to stand up for the rights and interests of the people who want to stay in the EU at best and at the very least not to leap over the hard Brexit cliff. There is nothing undemocratic about that. In a general election when one party or coalition wins, there is no obligation on the minority in the Commons to support the government; the opposite is true.

The problem for Labour is that most of its party membership is for Remain, but although so are many of its voters, many, perhaps many more, are for Leave. Passions are running high both ways. So whatever Corbyn orders about votes and whips will provoke a rebellion. Here is the nub of the problem. Corbyn, the serial rebel, who has over decades in the House of Commons rebelled against his party nearly 500 times, is on a hiding to nothing. But surely this is why he was elected? Because in the New Politics, which he was seen to represent, it is no longer acceptable for MPs to vote according to the demands of party managers. The idea of more authentic democracy has taken hold. Lobby fodder is out. MPs are now expected to represent the wishes of their constituents. So some should vote for Article 50, but many should vote against.

Labour’s underlying problem is there if you look.  It has elected a disruptive leader and it wants a parliamentary party in his image, which will do their bidding, not his. And that means that only if there is consensus would all be expected to vote the same way. And on Brexit there is none. The smart thing would be to give Labour MPs a free vote. The smartest thing of all would be to end the practice of whipping and replace it with liaison and welfare to keep open healthy channels of debate and exchange of ideas. That is what the people want. Because today they have the whole thing in the palms of their hands. The press now just talk to each other. But so do the people.

Downfall In Downing Street: Enjoy Now

Saturday, January 28th, 2017

Product Details

Set in the mid nineteen nineties, this fast moving thriller lifts the curtain on sex, sleaze and corruption in high places as the long reign of the government totters to an end, following the ousting of the iconic Margaret Thatcher. The novel catches the mood of those times with a host of fictional characters who engage in political intrigue, sex, money laundering and murder, pursued by an Irish investigative journalist and his girlfriend, the daughter of a cabinet minister found dead in a hotel room after bondage sex.

Download £2.08 ($2.51)    Paperback 8.99 ($12.99)    UK    US

    

Torture: No Because It Is Inhuman: No Because It Produces False Intelligence

Saturday, January 28th, 2017

There is no doubt that IS is a heartless enemy which blows up, beheads and shoots mostly innocent people who somehow violate its theology, often by no more than just existing. So there is a certain logic in saying we need to fall to its level to beat it. But this reasoning is wrong. First because any terrorist organisation is doomed to fail in its mission, because although all cause mayhem and suffering, none have succeeded in their aims. Second because to stoop to the terrorist agenda is in itself a victory for terror. Finally it produces false intelligence from half crazed victims, which in turn leads to wrong decisions and bigger disasters.

May made that clear to Trump. He showed some ingenuity by continuing to support water boarding, but deferring to his Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, who opposes it. But for how long? The UK government needs to keep an eye on this. For the British people of all political persuasions or none, it is a red line.

 

The Hastings Option: Download for 99p : USA $1.24

Friday, January 27th, 2017

The Hastings Option: Romantic Mystery

DOWNLOAD TODAY for 99p, this powerful retro thriller, written for women but enjoyed by men, in which raw innocence confronts darkest evil. The narrow, ordered life of a gentle but reclusive artist, Jane Block, is disturbed when a bequest, intended for her dead mother, passes to her. Mystery surrounds the nature of the inheritance and Jane is led on a sinister trail to secrets of the past, forcing her to confront her own fears and inhibitions. She finds herself caught in a frightening game of cat and mouse, laced with intrigue, love and betrayal.

CLICK IMAGE TO DOWNLOAD      Click Here for US.

 

Foreign Policy Reversal: At Last!

Friday, January 27th, 2017

The May government is suddenly coming to life. It began as if mesmerized by the aura of power, allowing drift and inaction in the country while engaging in rows within itself. Then came Trump. Somehow this energised the reformers to crush those who bumble their way through the glum political landscape of the status quo to the glory of a knighthood after many useless years of public service. Not only has it produced a coherent strategy for Brexit (with which this blog disagrees) although we await the detail, it has seen the wild card Trump as an opportunity to play a very different hand on the international stage. But most important of all, at last it has dumped the calamitous foreign policy of intervention against which this blog has for years campaigned. Armed interventions for regime change and nation building are out and Assad can stay if his people vote for him. This is not a change of direction. It is a reversal and it is to be applauded. Three cheers for Boris. Three cheers for Theresa.

There is still a blank spot over Russia. Russia did not illegally ‘annex’ Crimea. A Fascist mob, encouraged by the West, overthrew the legitimate, democratically elected government of the Ukraine and replaced it with one that announced it was hostile to Russia, to Russians who do and have always lived in eastern Ukraine and that Russian would cease to be an ‘official’ language. The terrified Russian Ukrainians, many families of centuries standing, took up arms to defend themselves and rang up Putin to ask for help. This came at a mobilisation speed which startled the West.  Crimea, which is almost entirely populated by Russians and was for centuries part of Russia, was ‘given’ to Ukraine by Khrushchev when he was Soviet leader to honour his birthplace and when everything was an integral part of the Soviet Union. Not surprisingly a referendum was held in Crimea asking the question would they like to rejoin the Russian Federation? 80%  of the population voted and 95% said Yes. That is democracy at work and it is silly to call it illegal.

Sooner or later we will have to accept that and end sanctions on Russia which have hurt the EU very badly. Indeed they have produced the economic stagnation which threatens the stability of the eurozone and with it the EU.  Moreover if we do accept the illegal claim, we are morally obliged to hand the Falklands back to Argentina, Northern Ireland to Dublin and Gibraltar to Spain.

But yesterday was a good day and it is the first step in making the world a safer place.

Labour’s Challenge: A Moment Of Truth for Corbyn.

Thursday, January 26th, 2017

Labour’s position in the polls is without modern precedent. A double digit Tory lead is only part of the problem. There is now a credible UKIP challenge in its heartlands, which depending on who lies second, could cause losses to the Tories, to the Lib Dems or to UKIP itself. In the two upcoming by-elections in its own seats, Labour is predicted to lose both.

Why is this? It is very simple. No political party can survive the impact of an attempted coup by its parliamentary arm against the membership’s choice of leader, fail in the attempt and retain credibility with the mass of voters outside its own bubble.Voters are now unable to fathom what it is Labour stands for. Is is for or against Brexit? What about immigration? What is its economic plan? Why is it backing all these disruptive strikes which make people late for work? How on earth has it managed to get itself into a double digit polling deficit?

It really does not matter what the answers are or indeed whether there are any. All that matters is that the era of tribal politics is over, the era of disruptive politics is upon us and the the unexpected champion of disruptive change in the UK is no longer, as it certainly once was, Jeremy Corbyn. It is Theresa May.

To recover its position, Labour needs to grasp,  through its ranks and across the breadth of the whole movement, that centre politics is over, new politics is coming and new politics will be of the Left. New economic models, new models of globalization, border controls, currency management, training, taxation, education, healthcare funding and international relations are all on their way. Corbyn has done an amazing job of re-energizing the Labour movement and hugely increasing the membership. But it now looks increasingly unlikely that he will be able to deliver power.

Yet were he now to resign matters would get worse not better, because there is no sign of a credible Labour leader who could take on the likes of May, Boris and Sturgeon. So the urgent priority is now to find one. For Labour’s time will come, but it will not wait. Labour will have to be ready with a narrative which inspires and gives hope, a clear set of radical policies which will deliver positive change and a charismatic leader who can communicate the message and lead it to power.

PS. This might be a good moment to read Turn Left To Power. (See previous post)

Labour’s Road To Recovery: Download or Paperback from £1.99

Thursday, January 26th, 2017

Product DetailsTurn Left To Power is a dissertation in book form offering a fundamental redirection for Labour, with bold ideas for a new economic and social settlement, including economic and taxation reform, restoration of responsibility in government and a renewal of democracy. Full of detailed information, hard facts and the results of thorough research , the narrative will grip you like a thriller and open your eyes to a brighter, fairer future in a mere 25000 words. Frank and at a times brutal, Turn Left To Power offers a collection of fundamental reforms which amount to a political revolution. 

Get your copy now. Paperback £4.99   Kindle £1.99     AMAZON UK

Book Of The Moment: Transatlantic Intrigue: Download and Papaerback

Wednesday, January 25th, 2017

Dr. Rachael Benedict is an American historian and a best-selling author. Through the death of her estranged father she sets out to expose secrets from the Nazi era, which are so sensitive they have been subject to an extensive cover-up lasting seventy years.  This provokes a killing spree as parts of the security services of both Britain and the United States become engaged in the drama, with one side determined to get the secrets out and the other determined to keep them hidden.
Rachael battles forward to unearth the truth from intrigues of the past, but also within her own family, surviving three attempts on her life, before finally achieving her goal. Not only does she expose the truth from history and from her own roots, she has to delve deep into her own emotions to find the truth about herself.

Click on image for uk.          Click here for US