Tories and Europe

Given that the Tories mess of an European policy is already unravelling before their very eyes, I would imagine that Cameron wishes that this was true.

Yesterday the underlying splits in the Tory European policy where apparent again, when the biggest financial backer of the Conservatives, Stuart Wheeler, defected to the United Kingdom Independence Party, giving UKIP a £100,000 cheque. Mr Wheeler complaining that "Dave" Cameron was not taking a tough enough line on the European Union, and just wanted to ignore the issue.

If this wasn't bad enough for "Dave" Cameron, his policy is also being attacked by the Pro-European wing of his party, pointing out that withdrawing from the centre-right European's Peoples Party, and attempting to form his own group, the so-called "Movement for European Reform."

So far the MER has gotten two parties on board, "Dave" Cameron's Conservatives and the Czech Civic Democratic Party, however things haven't been going to plan, the Bulgarian Union of Democratic Forces said it would join "Dave" Cameron's MER only to do a complete U-turn a month later, and say that it would remain in the European Peoples' Party, realising that mistake it would be to join "Dave" Camerons Movement for European Reform.

And it is easy to see why they would do a U-turn, the other parties that Dave "Cameron" wants on his European Group, including the Polish Law and Justice party, a party that believes that

"homosexuals should not be teachers"

they also said that;

"The affirmation of homosexuality will lead to the downfall of civilization."

. The Italian Lega Nord Party is also interested in joining the MER, a party that produces posters such as this (It reads: "Guess who is in last in line for housing, employment and healthcare?"), the Danish Peoples' Party, a MP of which claimed

"It may sound offensive, but Islam is a totalitarian regime that has thousands of human lifes on its conscience. The headscarf is a symbol of this regime and the Quran may very well be compared with Hitler's 'Mein Kampf'"

they also claimed that; the rest of their members are not much better and the Latvian "For Fatherland and Freedom" party has also shown interest in getting involved in the Movement for European Reform, a party which attends ceremonies to commemorate a Latvian unit of Waffen SS troops.

They also have interest from several, minor parties, that don't have seats in either the European Parliament, or their own national parties. The harebrained scheme of creating a new group, to try and get both the anti-European members of his party and the pro-European wing, however it has blown up in his face, and I feel it will only get worse.

"Dave" Cameron has made a massive tactical error in leaving the EPP, he has left himself isolated in the European Union, and on the world stage, allying himself with racists and loonies. "Dave" Cameron is clueless on the European Union, his balancing act is not working, and will end with one almighty fall.

In the words of President Obama on "Dave" Cameron, "What a lightweight".

What the G20 should, but won't do

The G20 are meeting this week to discuss the total mess that they have made of the world economy and then arguing about how to fix it, before claiming at the end they had a construstive discussion with a lot of ideas presented on the way to go forward, but not actually coming to any agreement, or having anything at all come out of it, as it always does. They will still come out of this G20 conference, persuing the failed, debunked neo-liberal policies that led us into this global economic disaster.

The G20 countries will be too scared of upsetting the very people responsible for leading us into this crisis, the rich bankers, and the elite, and they wll be too timid with any propoals to change this system. What is needed is a radical rethink of the global economic system.

At the moment it is too unsustainable, the vast majority of the world's wealth is in the pockets of a handful of people, policies are designed around the idea that greed is good and that profit should be put before people, they have put the rich before the everyday person, and have encouraged debt and irresponsbile leanding.

The politicans, from both the left and right, must start to move away from the idea that greed is good, and consumerism works, greed is the main cause of the current finincal crisis, the greed of rich bankers, wanting to make more money, and not caring about the conquences of their actions, indeed Gordon Brown backed the "light touch" regulation approach, which, in part, was based on the flawed idea that greed by bankers was a good thing.

What is needed now, is a finincal system which places responsibility at it's heart, responsibility not to the stock holders and share holders, but to everyone, to society by enlargre and to the global community. Bankers, must learn that they now have a responsibility to society, and to helping ensure economic stablility. Politicans too much learn that they too are responsible to looking after all in society, not just the rich, and not just themslves. They must now have the guts to abandon the neo-liberal global consensus that led us to this mess.

The have to be willing to regulate the finincal sector, to ensure that such a sitution cannot happen again. The idea that regulation doesn't work and damages the economy has now been disproven on a global scale, the neo-liberal agenda has been debunked on the same global scale.

The governments must be more willing to take a more active role in the economy, and be more willing to get invovled with the market, being quick to correct it where it goes wrong, and ensuring that enough regulation is in place so that the system works for the poorest in society.

They also must be more willing to nationalise indstries providing a key service for all, such as utilities, who are over charging customers with ridiculously high, unjustifiable prices, which is hurting the most vunerable in society, and putting them into fuel poverty

If the politicans don't learn the mistakes from this disaster, then it will only repeat itself again and again, and next time, it will be worse. What is needed is a global society where the busineesses, governemtns, finincal insitutions and indivisuals all realise they have responbilities beyond that of narrow self-interest, that we all have responsibilties to the wider society as the whole.

We now have been given the opportunity to start down that path, but I fear that the politicans will not take the opportunity for a better world, that has presented itself to them.

Back Blogging

I've decided to, yet again, make another attempt at blogging (must be my third attempt, eek.), and hopefully keeping this one interesting, and keeping it active, then my last attempts, I should have the time to keep it active. Anyway, this blog will probably mostly be about politics and the what not.