Friday 6 October 2017

Theresa may cough

My goodness - what a storm in a tea cup. She has a number of things go wrong as she makes her speech, and the journalistic pack descend howling upon her as though these are all signs that she needs to go. Whatever you or I may think of her, this is not a good reason to bay for her blood. I hope it all works out well for her as one Tory is as bad as another in my little and limited view of things. Ok, she isn't quite the master of the quick quip, (although she did quite well if only the reporters had not sought to portray such a distorted image). What the media fails to see is that as a nation, we quite like the underdog and if they continue to portray her as they have been doing, she may well get a good deal more public sympathy than she actually deserves. The mistakes are many and deep: Boris unleashed like a disobedient dog, (she should promote Gove back into the cabinet and have him walk behind Boris with a big metaphorical knife...) Brexit jammed and Mrs May telling the Europeans that they have to be creative and flexible. It seems to me that that is like telling a chess player who can mate you in a couple of moves, that they will have to negotiate with you for a draw. Then there's a lack of transparency about what limited funds can achieve and how if you are trying to reduce the national debt, there are some things you can't spend a lot of money on. She needs to make much more public the national balance sheet, along with what it is they will spend money on and how they will save money in other spheres. The public need to be told what can't be achieved in Public Health and Education and Social Services, along with what can. But having said all that, the Tory reign is inevitably slipping, as does the reign of all political parties. The danger is that Labour, with its huge and expensive wish list to be paid for by borrowing, will drag us to the verge of bankruptcy or over the edge of it even. I approve of socialist ideals, but I see also that they can't be arrived at without some more cost to us all, and all the politicians are afraid of raising taxes. In a country as free of bribery and corruption amongst politicians as ours, surely we can risk that?? The socialist agenda won't really work unless we are all prepared to pay a bit more for it. Meanwhile, surely, Theresa may cough.

Monday 2 October 2017

The Las Vegas Massacre

So what do those crazy American gun lobbyists say now? "If this is the price we have to pay for allowing people to own assault rifles capable of discharging multiple rounds in matters of seconds, so be it.That freedom is worth the lives of 50 people." Really? Because there is no other defense. There is nothing else to be said about allowing people to own weapons capable of killing on that kind of scale at that speed. The shame is that there will still be people who make these arguments, people who think that it is morally defensible to allow people to possess that kind of killing power. And even more upsettingly, because the gun lobby is powerful, there will be strong republican voices to influence the legislative process in an obstructive way. If nothing changes after this with regard to ownership of guns in the USA then they have lost all sense, and lose all respect in the eyes of the world, (what shreds are left that is, given Trump's insane outbursts).

The worst of it all is that this was an event just waiting to happen. Those opposing gun ownership on the liberal and permissive scale permitted in some states, could see this. And why is it that we always have to wait until lives are lost before our authorities lift a finger to do anything? It's because money and winning votes still matter more than anything, including human life. But even one life lost to one handgun is too many, is not worth the freedom of being able to easily own a gun. It is bad enough that other methods of slaughtering people are too easily accessed, such as owning a car. And even in this regard there are people who rail at the loss of freedom and invasion of privacy that speed cameras and average time cameras present. I for one welcome their presence on our roads if even one life is saved. That makes them worth it. Freedom to drive as fast as we like, freedom to own guns, is not worth the life on one single person, end of argument. We cannot ban the use of cars, or car ownership, but we are trying to make our roads and  vehicles ever safer, thank goodness.  Unlike car ownership, the owning of guns in the USA could be dealt with by drastically revising the laws, and this would have powerful and positive benefits. Come on America, listen to and act on this wake up scream.