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Posted by richard

I noticed this article on The Independent, this is the first paragraph:

At last we’ve apologised for Hiroshima – well, sort of. We’ve recognised the suffering our atom bombs caused –well, kind of. President Obama was showing off his anti-nuclear credentials in the killing grounds of Hiroshima, but this was not to be confused with saying sorry.

I was shocked to say the least. And I’m glad that we’re not saying sorry – let’s be honest with one another here, because it seems to me these days that people aren’t taught the real history of things. The Japanese were engaged in a brutal war against the Chinese for years in the 1930′s, then in 1941 they attacked the Americans at Pearl Harbour and us (the British) at Singapore and Hong Kong.

At that time, the Japanese were brutal, they were cruel, ask any surviving soldiers from the work camps. They weren’t “honourable” as movies might portray today, this wasn’t Shogun in any way. It was a war of conquest plain and simple.

Estimates at the time of the Americans invading the Japanese homeland were that 1 million casualties would result. That’s perhaps one of the main reasons the Americans dropped the bomb. Yes, that’s right, the -Americans- dropped it, not us. Sure, the British and other nations were involved in developing it, but the Americans had their fingers on the button. And for this Brit, I’m damned glad they pushed it. They have nothing to apologize for in my opinion.

The author of that article puts things into perspective at the end:

But it raises another question. When do our war “crimes” have an expiry date. Blair gave his half-hearted apology to the Irish a century and a half after the Brits exported Ireland’s food instead of using it to save Irish men and women who were found dead in ditches after trying to eat stinging nettles. The Americans and the Australians have said sorry to their native peoples. But what about Cromwell and Drogheda? Or the Thirty Years’ War, or the Hundred Years’ War? Or the sack of Rome – a Goth war crime (poor Mrs Merkel)? – or the Roman destruction of Carthage? Or the death of Jesus – I guess Rome’s imperial history means Berlusconi has to apologise, though an awful lot of Catholics have spent centuries living in their anti-semitic world by blaming the Jews. Poor Benjamin Netanyahu!

He’s right, when is there an expiry? And for what? War today is much different than even one hundred years ago, civilians died back then too. Do we take into account who dies, and what led to it, or who won? Magnanimous us, we apologize for the deaths caused by our ending of the war. I’d say that since then the Japanese have done quite well, if the shoe were on the other foot, would we have done so well under German or Japanese hegemony? Would they be apologizing?

 

Posted by richard

Our nation suffers from a delusion. That delusion is that, in the 13 years of power Labour has had, they’ve added 900,000 jobs for the public sector, and that the general electorate seems to believe that that’s “wealth” for the country.

Many, many, of the public sector workers earn more, if not nearly double, the average wage. How is that right in a capitalist society? Surely private industry should pay more, or at least, equal? This is where the wealth of a nation is generated.

 

Posted by richard

I am a bit (ok, a lot) disappointed in Israel. Such violence is something I would have expected from their own former torturers.

For such a high-tech state, so advanced, could they not have used non-lethal weaponry? Stun guns, tear gas, bean bag guns, and so on. New reports suggest the people on the boat only defended themselves with wooden staves.

And what permits them to do such things to vessels in international waters, in the name of a state? If they were so concerned about weapons being on boards the vessels, why not send their navy there, and tow the vessels back to Ashdod, get the people off, and then check the cargo? Would that not have been a more intelligent way of dealing with this than boarding suspected vessels and shooting protesters?

Israel has enemies I’m sure, but it just seems to me that the past decade they are getting more and more desperate and violent, but with no similar or matching enemy aggression. So the Palestinians send a rocket or two over, then the Israelis flatten towns and any large buildings, hardly a measured or equal response.

Even the US is beginning to lose patience, and although the UN is toothless and useless, even it is starting to act in whatever limited way it can. In the entire sixty years or so this low-level war has been going on, is no-one yet sick and tired of it? Can no-one step forward and finally come up with a workable and lasting peace for the region?

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Posted by richard

Just imagine wanting to move into a new house, but in this case the Queen is the one that decides it. Yes, welcome home David, the last occupants have been kicked out and your servants await.

On a less joking note though, nice to see that our election of a party with 2 million more votes than the next highest party, actually gets to be Prime Minister. We have been dancing around on broken glass these past few days and I’m not sure that Clegg really had it in mind to go with Labour, but rather use that as leverage for dealing with Cameron.

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Posted by richard

(like the captain says on Master and Commander)

In this case it’d be three weevils though. The three parties that vie for power.

Honestly I’m not sure what differences there would be should any of them get into power. I don’t want Gordon Brown back but then again, I doubt the other two would be any better.

One thing puzzles me though. Gordon Brown promises all this stuff but since he’s Prime Minister -now- anyway why hasn’t he got this stuff under way?

 

Posted by richard

You know that a political party is in dire trouble when candidates for them are telling the media that the Prime Minister, their leader, is the worst the UK has ever had. Pretty harsh. Also true.

It’s also bad when cabinet ministers, those you would expect to back the PM to the hilt, are suggesting to the media that people vote for another party to stop another party from winning (Ed Balls, on voting for a Lib Dem candidate). Never mind voting for them, because they know they won’t get the vote…

Surprisingly for me, and I will only say this once, I think that Tony Blair is much smarter than I ever gave him credit for. I actually felt sorry for him for getting stabbed in the back and at the time thought he was a bit pathetic for not striking out. But really, he’s the smart one here. He must have seen the writing on the wall and went gracefully with a smile on his face. A cheesy one, but nevertheless, a knowing happy smile.

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Posted by richard

Gordon Brown’s big mistake wasn’t to call the woman a bigot, but rather to not listen to her.

Just because she’s concerned about rising immigration to this country does not mean she’s a bigot anyway, and her point is shared by a LOT of people. This is one of the issues that the candidates in this election are not focusing on because it’s a political hot potato.

Gordon responded to Gillian Duffy’s question about immigration by saying that plenty of Brits go to Europe (in approximately the same numbers that come here), but that’s besides the point. And although she asked about Eastern Europeans, it’s not really important, but immigration as a whole is.

It is a major issue incidentally because in a time like this recession, immigration should be halted until the unemployed people already in the UK have jobs. When we have a lack of a workforce, then permit immigration. If people balk at doing a job because they don’t want to, cut their benefits, stop giving them money, stop providing them a house etc.,

It’s a pity this came out now, with the prime ministerial debates now moving on to the economy when the talking point should have been immigration. I think we can all make up our minds anyway, and the fact that Gordon reacted in such a way then sickly-sweet apologized, doesn’t bode well for his Number 10 bid.

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Posted by richard

After having endured two years of his “rule”, Labour insiders are finally starting to gather to bury Mr. Brown. He is an unelected leader, a tyrant in sheep’s clothing, it’s about time someone stood up to this woeful primacy.

To those that may not know us Brits, we apparently have an enlightened system where we vote a party into office, not a person. So collectively, the politically correct idiots of Labour have had nearly thirteen years of rule. It has not been pretty.

It seems un-British to have a system where we can’t vote for our leader. Moreover, when Blair was forced out, only Labour MPs got to vote on his replacement. Frankly, I think we should vote for a leader and a deputy. If the first goes, the second takes over and if the second goes, we have a general election, that seems fair.

Mr. Brown is not elected, except as an MP. This needs to stop now, even this close to an election (one has to be called before June). As the NY Times writes so succinctly:

In a radio interview, Ms. Hewitt, a former health secretary, declared: “This is not an attempted coup. It’s exactly what we say in the letter — it’s an attempt to get this matter sorted out once and for all.”

Precisely, it needs sorting out, as do our election and leadership laws.

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Posted by richard

All this hullabaloo about the execution of a convicted heroin smuggler. The fact is, he was found with 4 kg of heroin in a bag. Thus, a drug smuggler. China has severe laws regarding drug smuggling and frankly, I think we should too.

Everyone falls back on this “mental disability” nonsense when they’re going to be convicted of something, like this, or when being extradited, in the case of Gary McKinnon. What I’d like to know is, did Akmal Shaikh seek help before going to China to become a pop star (who on earth, at the age of 53, goes to a foreign country to become a pop star?!)? Did Gary McKinnon do that, before hacking into US computer systems?

The British Government needs to drop this and stop interfering with another country’s legal system. Certainly, the family could lodge appeals, but it’s not the Government’s place when the man has been found guilty, to intercede. Simply because we don’t have capital punishment for such crimes (it still exists here for treason, piracy), is not a good reason to wave the flag in front of China and whine like little girls.

To go into another country and to expect to be treated leniently when committing crimes, is lunacy.

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Posted by richard

The UK has now made GBL a Class C drug. This, after a student named Hester Stewart died after having taken it. It was legal, and because she died, or at least contributing to it, it is now illegal.

Questions arise though. GBL is a solvent – what about those products that use GBL in them? Inks in industrial printers, they use GBL in significant quantities, are they to be changed to another solvent because of this? Are we to throw away those products that we have that contain it?

Also, why doesn’t the government put alcohol and tobacco into the same categories? Many MANY more die because of them each year, but they’re still legal. Doesn’t make sense does it?

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