The Funeral of Lady Thatcher

In the end there appeared to be relatively few protesters out on the streets of London, far outweighed by supporters keen to express their respect and remembrance for a powerful leader and former Prime Minister.

So many comments have already been made, that it is difficult to say something new. I think though that I would like to add, that coming from a part of the UK where her emphasis on allowing the freer movement of both labour and capital, resulted in a near twenty year decline, I have always felt able to see “both sides” of her impact. It is with this knowledge, indeed – experience – that I say quite categorically her impact, though divisive, was powerfully for the good.

We forget the regular blackouts, resulting from inefficient State control of the Electricity Grid (CEGB). We forget the rampant and fickle destruction of incentive caused by secondary picketing and the overwhelming dread many public sector workers felt in heading to a job where a foreman could call “Strike!” for little apparent reason.

We do not forget the strife of honourable workers, determined to defend their rights, but whose time, whether they were accepting of this or not, was fast being chased down by the rolling waves of globalisation, rendering inefficient business redundant in the face of international competition…and we forget, at our peril, where we would be in that great counter-historical possibility, had we allowed Michael Foot to become our Premier. History has a way of righting itself, but in this instance the price would likely be our place in the twenties or thirties of GDP per head, instead of sixth or seventh – and far above this in the prestige and regard in which our international diplomacy and military prowess is held.

There are winners and losers in all games of participation, let us not lose sight of the significant raising of the board that Baroness Thatcher presided over, and those who followed her seek only to refine.

Women and the General Synod

Women are in the ascendant everywhere. Men, with the demise of repetitive factory and manufacturing work, and the outsourcing of industry, have somewhat lost their way in the world. Men may earn more for the same work, we may occupy way too many spaces on Boards, but many of us secretly know women are naturally better professionals than we are. Women, with their superior “soft” skills, penchant for team work and innate diplomacy, are taking over the world.

The World, outside of the Church of England that is…

The notice for the right to ordane women clergy as Bishops came again to a vote in the General Synod yesterday. The Synod comprises three “Houses”; in order to pass, the vote needed a successful outcome in each of these three Houses. The Bishops approved the vote, but the Laity, sadly not. We are now in a position where the present Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and his successor, support a modernised principle that the Laity do not.

Churches, as with any other Institution, comprise their membership, and require of this membership an active, informed and participative process of engagement. How can the C of E not now be seen increasingly as the relic it is so swiftly turning into. Women deserve to be Bishops, and have earned the right, through centuries of missionary work, through outreach, and arguably their “husbanding” (not a misnomer) the Church through periods of turmoil. Women showing great clarity of purpose during recent trials of Faith. Challenges including the abuse cases littering Catholicism (can Priests now marry?) and the exodus from the C of E to the Roman church, of so many, during the original ordination of women clergy some twenty years ago.

As the present Archbishop noted: this is not going to go away. Can we wait another five hundred years for the Church to catch up with the rest of society? I’d say watch this space, yet the likelihood is, there’ll be little left to look at….

A hammer to crack a nut…

The United Kingdom Border Agency (UKBA) has decreed that London Metropolitan University (LMU) has forfeited it’s right to sponsor foreign students. By foreign, it means non-EU students. Precisely the sort that LMU prefer, as their fees are far higher – even after the home students’ increase – than everyone else’s.

This is bizarre, misapplied jingoistic policy at it’s worst. Sure, there may be students who don’t have the right to stay in the UK; they may have out stayed their Visa, or be working – or never have studied in the first place. Find them, and deport them, but don’t stigmatise 2000 students whose sole crime is not being European.

The University should be sanctioned, fined, license restrictions imposed…but don’t penalise the students, some of whom may have bankrupted their families to send them to what they, wrongly, thought was a prestigious English establishment dedicated to truth, knowledge and the pursuit of self betterment. The reputation of the UK University sector overseas may not recover from this act. Education is a very fast moving market, and an English one is not necessarily seen as gilt edged anymore – even if it still fares well by international comparison. In such a responsive sector, Government action should be there to facilitate and support, not undermine and jeopardise.

Race taunts at Anfield

Anfield is the home of Liverpool Football Club. LFC has one of the most illustrious histories in world football. Arguably, it showed Manchester United, the biggest club in the world, how to do it – and spent almost twenty years at the top of the European game.

However, the recent racist tauntings of a visiting Oldham player, reveal that for all its claims to have modernised, football can all too easily resort to the provincial, parochial and small minded behaviour that tainted it for several generations. In the nineties, Liverpool had the elegance and talent of John Barnes to call on. Yet Barnes, a black Briton, would frequently walk on the pitch to bananas being thrown by racist fans – and many of these were home Liverpool fans!

For all its multiculturalism, Britain still suffers from huge regional differences, in relation to diversity and acceptance of differences – both cultural and racial. Our northern cities still have some way to go, to recognise that we are now one of the most racially diverse, and actually harmonious with it, countries on Earth. These differences emphasise that most of the “ethnic population” of the UK, lies in the south, and that for our small size, there still remains great intolerance and ignorance, particularly amongst the working classes of the north.

LFC authorities and the police (who themselves have much to learn), should pursue this case and not allow fans to think that this behaviour is acceptable. It isn’t.

The beginning of the end of the Euro

In our last posting, we spoke about some of the technical concerns underlying the solution that had seemed all too temporal, in the problems of the Euro.

Today we hear that the Greek government, on whose behalf the Prime Minister had accepted the deal, may itself be close to failure. Apparently, the Greek Finance Minister has now changed his position on the suggested referendum, recently put forward by the Prime Minister. This referendum was proposed, one feels, as a matter of conscience on the part of the PM, in light of the austerity it would continue to impose on the Greek people.

Given that inevitably that question has to boil down to one of principle: should Greece be in the Euro or not? The PM is, at time of writing, looking like he may not survive the vote on whether to proceed with the referendum. The leaders of the Eurozone, notably France and Germany are stating that the first tranche of bail out funds will now not be paid, leading to effective default on the part of Greece, increasingly unable to pay its debts.

Some thinkers have now begun to rationalise what many of us have been saying all along – that the Eurozone will be little worse off without the Greeks. No bail out fund until a decision on the referendum, and if the answer is the wrong one, then no bail out fund period: Greece will default more legitimately than this slow strangulation, and return to the Drachma.

With the loss of its weakest member, the Eurozone could consolidate and strengthen…or unwind completely. We are at the end of the beginning, but of exactly what, remains to be seen…

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