Archive for May, 2018

Disaster Response: Is It Good Enough?

Wednesday, May 30th, 2018

It is clear that the response by the authorities to Grenfell came up short at almost every level. But it is also clear that minor events by comparison, like flash floods, leave those affected traumatised and often lacking the essentials of life.  There is a common complaint that although the emergency services are wonderful, the follow up is not. Often there are people doing helpful things about which victims either do not know or do not know how to access. This is especially the case for people without enough insurance. Even in high profile events like terror attacks, there are often victims left struggling with the aftermath, even if the response on the day was heroic.

Some countries have a dedicated Emergencies Ministry. This blog thinks we need one in the UK. Its function would be to mobilise and coordinate all the aid and response which is available from multiple  sources within government, business and charities, so that it is directed to where it is needed. Almost as important, some would say more so, is to provide a clear first point of call for victims.

Think about it.

Italy On The Brink

Monday, May 28th, 2018

Italy is a great country. Italians are great people. They make great things like cars and fridges which we use and enjoy. They have wonderful cities and art treasures few can match. We love Italian food. We enjoy great holidays in Italy from the mountains to the beaches. But they have, for years, suffered from rotten governments. Now they are in a crisis, because the figurehead President will not accept the nomination for finance minister, from the non-elected prime minister, chosen by two minority parties in their bid try to forge a  majority, through coalition, in which neither leader becomes prime minister. Wow.

But at the heart of Italy’s problem is the Euro. The single currency lacks a democratic structure of governance, there is no finance minister or finance ministry and no economic policy shared among its members. The way it works is that the euro is, in practice, Germany’s currency shared by the other members. That is how the markets treat it or it would have gone long ago. It is the devalued D-mark, which has worked very well for Germany, paid for unification of the two German halves and made Germany a world economic power. It is also an up-valued franc, which has caused France economic pain with which it is just able to cope. But in Italy it is a very much upvalued lire, which has been a disaster, an economic ball and chain and fertile ground for the growth of excessive debt.

The spat with the pro euro Italian president is over the nomination of a finance minister who is anti-euro. There is now talk of impeachment or new elections. The future is uncertain. It may remain an Italian crisis or it could blossom into a full blown euro crisis. Italy is not Greece. It would be much, much bigger.

And the effect on Brexit? It could go one of two ways. The EU caught up in a euro crisis might be more accommodating to GB’s priorities, if and when the government can articulate them. Or the twenty-six may close ranks and say no concessions, because to offer them might weaken their whole project. In that event it is over the cliff Brexit. Then it would become the biggest peacetime  crisis the UK has ever faced.

There is a third way. We could abandon Brexit and go to Europe’s rescue. Not for the first time. But the option which, in the end, is in our very best interests. And Europe’s too.

Rejoice With Ireland

Sunday, May 27th, 2018

There was talk that it might be close. In the event is was a landslide to empower women to make their own choices about pregnancy and all its consequences. This is wonderful news and will stop so much heartache, suffering and guilt, let alone risk. From being one of the most conservative countries in Europe, dominated by the Roman Catholic Church, Ireland has now become one of the most enlightened. It has been a long process but at last the rights of women have trumped the cruel dogma of a seriously tarnished Church, revelations about which continue to surface and cause dismay.

With this wonderful breath of fresh air in the Republic, the attention of women now turns to the North. There is little doubt that sentiment  in Ulster is the same as the South, but the  DUP, propping up the tottering May government, is a total stranger to any concept of enlightenment about anything and stands in the way. Will May show courage or will she fudge it?  She has managed to fudge everything else.

Transatlantic Thriller

Thursday, May 24th, 2018

Purple Killing: Compact Edition by [Blair-Robinson, Malcolm]

Dr. Rachael Benedict is an American historian and a best-selling author. She has a British connection through her estranged father Saul, an English thriller writer. Saul, whose parents were of Anglo-German origin, has spent much of his life plotting to expose secrets from World War Two, which are so sensitive they have been subject to an extensive cover-up lasting seventy years. As the time approaches for him to make his move to expose duplicity, murder and lies at the heart of the British State, he seeks Rachael’s help. 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.
Set equally in the United States and Britain, the narrative grips from the first page, transporting the reader to the heart of government both in Washington and London and on into the darkest corners of the secret states on each side of the Atlantic. Rachael battles forward to unearth the truth both from intrigues of the Nazi era, 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

Political Sleaze Thriller

Thursday, May 24th, 2018

 

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

    

Trump Trashes Summit.

Thursday, May 24th, 2018

For those outside the US who watch and try to fathom the Trump presidency, the extraordinary sequence of events which has unfolded in the saga of the projected meeting with Kim Jon Un, defies explanation. The surprise was that it was set up at all and when it was it became a foreign policy triumph for an administration in pretty hot water all across the diplomatic firmament.  Then bit by bit, with incessant talk about Libya as an ideal model or possible consequence, the whole thing was undermined and an angry Trump has cancelled it. But make no mistake, the first stone was thrown by Bolton not by Kim.

Trump’s letter to Mr Kim is quite gracious and beguiling, whilst unable to resist the ‘ours is bigger’ boast. Perhaps this leaves the door open? Or has it fallen off its hinges? Trump supporters, a little under half of America, will rejoice at wise decisions and measured responses. The rest of America and most of the rest of the world, will regard this as yet another example of an administration in chaos with which constructive business is impossible.

At this moment  this blog is too confused to offer a view. Time will tell.

 

Border Costs

Thursday, May 24th, 2018

The revelation from HMRC that the extra cost to the economy of new technology controlled borders will be in the order of £20 billion annually comes as no surprise. Countries do not organise customs unions and free trade deals because they do not know what to do with their days; they set them up because the alternative is too expensive and reduces both living standards and trade. Downing Street’s response to the damning evidence given by the head of H.M. Revenue and Customs to the Treasury Select Committee, is that it knows there are problems.  Wow.  Clever.

NHS Funding: Getting Closer To Reason?

Wednesday, May 23rd, 2018

This Blog has posted so many times about the complete failure of the present fixed budget taxation funded NHS business model that I  will not bore readers by going over it all again. Likewise the fundamentally ridiculous management structure where no person takes responsibility for anything and multitudes of boards and quangos fight upon each other’s turf without useful results.

Noises coming out of this leaky government at war with itself at many different levels, indicate a rethink over the Lansley reforms and a recognition that the business model will have to be redrawn on quite different lines, with the capacity to expand the financial base in line with demand. This is very good news. All that we need is a coherent plan and timely delivery.

And that is where the government has real problems. Let us hope it can solve them.

Transatlantic Thriller: Download or Paperback

Sunday, May 20th, 2018

Purple Killing: Compact Edition by [Blair-Robinson, Malcolm]  Dr. Rachael Benedict is an American historian and a best-selling author. She has a British connection through her estranged father Saul, an English thriller writer. Saul, whose parents were of Anglo-German origin, has spent much of his life plotting to expose secrets from World War Two, which are so sensitive they have been subject to an extensive cover-up lasting seventy years. As the time approaches for him to make his move to expose duplicity, murder and lies at the heart of the British State, he seeks Rachael’s help. 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.
Set equally in the United States and Britain, the narrative grips from the first page, transporting the reader to the heart of government both in Washington and London and on into the darkest corners of the secret states on each side of the Atlantic. Rachael battles forward to unearth the truth both from intrigues of the Nazi era, 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 IMAGE FOR UK                                   CLICK HERE FOR AMAZON.COM

The Monarchy: A Seismic Day.

Sunday, May 20th, 2018

This Blog does not engage in Royal comment, unless the issue is the Constitution. But the historic wedding yesterday deserves just a few words.

It was a ceremony like no other in the history of what I have always thought the rather stodgy but reliable House of Windsor. It was not just that the mixed race, divorced descendant of slaves, an actress and an American, was marrying a Royal prince, a situation unthinkable until quite recently, now even. It was not the culture shock of the barn storming sermon by the African American bishop (did you see their faces!?). Nor was it the tenderness of the love that the couple clearly have for each other. It was because in regal poise, sheer glamour, grace  and empathy Megan Markel, now the Duchess of Sussex, outshines them all.

The people, once again, have their own princess. And that will prove to be a game changer. Just you wait and see.