We are NOT all in it together

"We are all in it together" is the most cynical sick joke of this decade. A report in the Scotsman says: The effective tax rate paid by Britain's biggest companies has dropped by almost a third over the last two years, but many are still considering moving their headquarters abroad. In 2009, FTSE 100 companies on average paid tax equivalent to 35.8% of their annual profits. But new research by UHY Hacker Young, a national group of accounting firms, shows that figure has fallen to just 26% in 2011, even though profits are higher. For Aileen Scott, tax partner at Campbell Dallas, the only Scottish member of the UHY Hacker Young group, "While the government has made efforts to make the UK tax regime more attractive, will it be enough to stymie the tide of British companies still thinking about the exit?". On top of some of the FTSE top executives giving themselves up to 50% pay rises this really stinks. Still as long as we pull out of the EU and relentlessly hunt down benefit cheats it will all come right. Like hell it will.

The uselessness of Trident

Trying to work out how many nuclear weapons needed to destroy the UK is a bit of a 'how long is a piece of string' question but here goes anyway. I'm assuming the data uses American Tons of 2000lbs or 907kg. It doesn't matter that much in terms of the discussion.Worldwide there are approx. 30,000 warheads with a total capacity of about 5thousand million ton of TNT [5000megatons]. So that gives each warhead about 170,000 ton or roughly eight times the 22000 tonnes of the bomb used on Nagasaki. [The biggest ever detonated was 50megaton & 100MT is believed to be enough to cause a Nuclear Winter].

The Nagasaki/Hiroshima bombs each devastated about 5sq miles. The area of London is about 620 sq miles & Birmingham about 100 sq miles. Again without defining what is included & what is not these data are very approximate. However we might say, without getting too tied up in irrelevant accuracy, that 10 average bombs on London, two on Birmingham, 3 on Manchester would effectively render those cities completely disfunctional. It doesn't take us long to realise that maybe 30 would effectively wipe out the UK.

Doesn't really matter whether the answer is 20 or 50. In this ball park an enemy like the ex Soviet Union could reduce us to nothing with only our Trident Submarines still functioning. So we could hit back. Yippee. Big Deal. But the Soviet Union isn't there any more. Only the USA has this capacity in terms of warheads & delivery system. Is Liam Fox seriously considering a need to deter an attack from the USA?

Would a terrorist or a rogue state with the warheads & capacity to deliver two or three bombs on the UK [only Israel can do this right now] be deterred by our Tridents? That number of bombs would still leave us functional & deterrence/retaliation could very effectively be from Cruise missiles.

Liam Fox made some good points in his speech to the Tory Party conference but his affirmation of a replacement for Trident, as a sop to the Tory 'Right', is what should truly differentiate the LibDems from the Tories on Defence. Trident is a completely indefensible waste of money. On every possible argument, & there are many besides the one I have just made here, it has no value whatsoever.

Promises Promises

Bro Ed Miliband was keen on the subject of broken promises in his conference speech taking care to bash the LibDems on this matter & saying he would never make a promise he wouldn't/couldn't keep & the going onto make a fair few such promises. We might also recall David Cameron pledging to make Britain the most "family friendly in Europe" and of course Duncan-Smith "making work pay" - which is why 58% of children in poverty are in families where at least one parent works. Recent figures from the Office of National Statistics show that UK households have experienced the biggest fall in disposable income for 30yrs. The LibDem problem is that people expect the Conservatives & Labour to dump their promises at the first excuse - they've been doing it for decades. People thought the LibDems were different without realising the impossibility of remaining so pure when you are a minority party in government. If voters, & particularly disillusioned supporters really want the LibDems to pull out of coalition & preserve the purity of their soul then recognise that the Tories would call a General Election which they would win. Well done the LibDem bashers. Enjoy.

A Labour mystery

My IT skills are very very limited. In advance of the events I could go to the LibDem & Conservative Party websites & readily find the content of their forthcoming Conferences. Not so Labour. Even now that their Conference has started I can't find out the timetable from the main Labour Party website. I can see an advert for a free app for a choice of devices non of which I have. So recent is this that when you click on it it says "This app is to complement the Labour Party Conference. It will be made available very soon. Check again after 5th September". It is now the 25th & this text has not been updated. I did click on ipad (even though I don't have one) & lo & behold there was the 'Timetable'. Obviously I couldn't check if it was real or just illustrative. And Labour thinks it is fit to go on governing & should have won the last election? I'm not convinced they could tell the time & get it right.

Banking reform is a LibDem priority

According to Bank of England statistics [FT 17 Sep 11] lending from UK Banks to private sector businesses has dropped by £64bn since Sept 2008. SMEs have been particularly hard hit. Governments are rightly criticised for trying to micro manage but what can they do when a British based entrepreneur, who has won a contract to provide hydroelectric power to Windsor Castle, cannot find a bank willing to lend the money to get the turbines built in Britain? He's had to get them from Holland.[Observer 11 Sep 2011]

Meanwhile the Federation of Small Businesses has launched a campaign setting out six steps to help real life entrepreneurs. Vince Cable's Department has responded: " The Government is committed to creating the long term environment to help people start & grow a business. We announced measures in March 2011 to transform the enterprise experience of schoolchildren and students and we are transforming business support ". Labour's Ed Balls, leading as usual firmly from the rear, calls for [Blackpool Gazette 23 Sept 2011] children to be given compulsory lessons in finance. Some Primary schools have been doing that for years. Even the normally LibDem bashing Nick Cohen [Observer 9th September 2011] comments that 'Ball's inability to learn from the past has left the Liberal Democrats as the only political party campaigning for banking reform'.

Ask a silly Question

Do news presenters,commentators and other general pundits ask George Osborne & other senior Tories if they now agree it was wrong to support Cecil Parkinson's deregulation of financial services? Of course not. Do they ask Ed Balls if he thinks it was a mistake for Gordon Brown to sell large chunks of our gold reserves at a price one sixth of its present price? Of course not. So why do they go on asking Nick Clegg whether he is glad the LibDems failed in their policy of joining the Euro? Is it just trying to discredit the LibDems by any means available? It is a silly question anyway. In reality no one knows what the present state of the Euro would have been if the UK had adopted it and worked as hard to make it a success as we have in carping & undermining the EU on every possible occasion.

The House of Peers

Mark Pack speaking at the LibDem Conference today urged Liberal Democrats to lobby any members of the House of Lords known to them to encourage such Peers to support a fully elected upper house. Mark pointed out that we were the Liberal DEMOCRATIC Party. Well I'm sorry Mark. I can see nothing relentlessly democratic in electing a replica of the Commons. Whatever form of proportional voting is used - and the experience of AV is still a raw wound - one might expect a re-run of the tribal voting that has characterised our so called democracy for decades. It was pure fluke that just this time the General Election result led to the Coalition. Also my limited exposure to Hereditary Peers is that a significant number have much more empathy with the ordinary people than many career politicians, ex-politicians, business men & such like. I would like to see a house of Lords - call it a Senate or whatever - with a maximum number of 600, (like the revised Commons) made up of 20% Hereditaries elected, as now, by themselves; 20% nominated for their expertise and/or service to the Community by a majority of the Upper House - NOT the Government; 60% elected as proposed by the Bill. I do agree that there should be no place as of right for religious leaders - some might of course qualify as nominated members based on what they've done - not their rank in whatever religion they might espouse. In my opinion such a mix would lead to an Upper House that knew what it was talking about and could mount a real challenge to the Commons in the situation that prevailed until May 2010, & is likely to prevail again, i.e an elected dictatorship.