Saturday, July 21, 2012

Political Life - UK Mid Term

Interesting to see how unpopular the government is becoming mid-term in the UK. Governing this or any other country fairly seems almost impossible. The electorate becomes irritated by any government after a couple of years or fewer so when given the opportunity vote in another party - usually the opposition one.

However the indecisiveness of the British electorate last time round resulted in the formation of the first British coalition government since that led by Winston Churchill during WWII. The outcome so far in my view seems positive. The fact that the world is going through so many financial crises at present  makes life   difficult at home or abroad.   Such ongoing crises also make the task of government financing, especially difficult for those countries including the UK, which have been used to providing relatively generous social security payments to certain members of population for many years.  All EU nations are experiencing financial constraints at present.

Our dear friends and neighbours the French, happen to have had their national elections recently and have replaced their right wing president with a left wing one. He has started his new reign (possibly a better word is required for a republic) with proposals to increase taxes for the very rich to 75% and to reduce retirement age for some civil servants to 60 (I dont expect to retire until 65+). Good luck to him and our French friends but I surmise that upon becoming more accustomed to running a great country, the new president will learn that sadly there are insufficient rich people to go round and that there is hardly enough state money to fund pensions from age 65+ let alone 60+. At the same time he will have to cope with the increasing Euro crisis affecting the  country and other Euro members which I surmise will cost more than can be paid for mainly by the very wealthy in France.

Meanwhile back in the UK we are fortunate to find that as a result of previous governments' blundering we have not joined the Euro. One of the unforeseen problems now being caused for us is the increase in value of sterling against the Euro.

However Euro issues apart, apart, many financial problems for the UK are being caused   by world events which simply mean that the state will not be able to provide as much for the people at least for the next few years as it has done in the past. Thankfully the state   inevitable spending cuts and hikes in taxation, will have to be considered by the two very different coalition parties forced to work together. The outcome is likely to be rather fairer than would be the case if the cuts and hikes were left to one right or left wing party in power to determine. Yet if one relies for the media for information about this, one is left feeling that the main causes of national woes at present may be put at the door of David Cameron and all that would be required to resolve them is for Ed Milliband's party to be voted into office. Such media reporting is in my view nonsensical. The failures by Ed Milliband's party seem far too recent to warrant it being back in government so soon but more importantly, a coalition  in what are proving most difficult times for many countries round the world, seems the least worst for government in the UK right now.

1 comment:

  1. The trouble is Jerry, it seems to me, that the media of all descriptions function on a diet of constant crises, immediate headlines, etc, while the rest of us (including the government) are, so to speak, in it for the long haul!

    ReplyDelete

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