Monday, February 23, 2009
A seriously bad idea …
Even if we thought it should legislate in this area – which we do not – the way this is happening is not good news.
The EU, we are told, is moving into top gear on financial regulation reform "as part of global efforts to apply lessons from the credit crunch and make markets safer for investors." However, it seems, this complex process has turned into a "race" dictated by the timetable for the Euro-elections.
In order to get the first stages of the legislation through before the parliament breaks to go electioneering, the EU commission wants to rush its proposals through, to avoid hang-ups later.
The timetable is also heavily influenced by the prospect of a new commission taking over – with a considerable hiatus as new members are vetted and approved by the EU parliament, putting new legislation "on hold" from June until near the end of the year.
On the agenda are, amongst other things, reforms to the bank capital rules, in an attempt to undo some of the damage done by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision guidelines. But, considering the labyrinthine complexity of these rules, and the fact that the Basel Committee took fourteen years to get them wrong, the thought that the EU is rushing ahead with modifications is not a happy prospect.
Certainly, no thought is being given to any wide-ranging examination of the regulatory structures which have done so much damage. This is more of the same, only done at great speed, which can only bode no good.
COMMENT THREADYou play, we pay …
The EU is at it again, prancing on the world stage, trying to be important. Its latest pronouncement being that it has a "crucial strategic interest" in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. Therefore, "we" should dosh out €350 million to help tide them over their little local difficulties.
Now, there can be no dispute that the fate of these countries is of immediate importance to the likes of Germany and some of the eastern states, not least because of the gas supply and diverse other matters. And, in the general run of things, what happens in these countries is important. But it's not that important … not to the UK, anyway.
Nevertheless, that does not stop EU external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner declaring that the EU's so-called "Eastern Partnership" has "gained urgency" and we must drop everything and rush to its aid. Problems in Eastern Europe, she says, "affect us directly".
Therein lies our problem. They don't "affect us directly". Our prime minister has – or should have – far more important things to concern himself about, and we have far more important things on which to expend our dwindling pile of cash.
But there it is in a nutshell. If the EU says it's important, then it's important, whether we think so or not. And when it plays, we pay, all to help the little old lady in Kiev cross the road, between the high-priced SUVs (pictured) – AP's way of illustrating that there is a crisis in Ukraine.
The trouble is, we really cannot afford these diversions. We need to be able to address our own priorities, and deal with what is important to us - not wasting our efforts and resources dancing to the EU's tune.
COMMENT THREADOh this is so sad
Every year, round about now I write a posting about the Oscars as there is usually something of interest in them; in return, every year I am roundly abused by many of our readers who do not consider such events worthy of discussion. Then again, those readers abuse me for so many things that it really does not matter what the particular excuse is.
So here it is, folks: the ritual Oscar posting but this year with a difference. There is nothing to say. Which is very sad for those of us (well, me) who love film and like looking at pretty clothes on attractive people.
I am very glad that Kate Winslett won the Best Actress award because I think she deserved it. I went to see "The Reader" and reviewed it for the New Culture Forum. I remain ambivalent about the film but not about Winslett's performance: it was excellent.
I was particularly pleased because I have been reading pompous articles about the need for British actors to adopt the American obsession with the Method, which produced such luminaries of the screen as Marily Monroe and Marlon Brando, neither of whom could act but both were undoubted stars who hogged the screen. If they do not, said pompous articles, British actors, even as good as Kate Winslett will fall behind in the Oscars stakes. Well, yah-boo and sucks to them.
I am quite pleased that "Slumdog Millionaire", by the sound of it (have not seen it yet but fully intend to) an unpretentious film, has won all those awards.
Others I am less bothered by, though I hear good things about "Milk", so I may well overcome my visceral dislike of Sean Penn and go to a screening. But really, I could not put the general flatness of the whole business better than Andrew Klavan, writer, blogger and script-writer, has done. Sad but true.
So, I think, this evening I shall go to the National Film Theatre. On offer are a French film of 1946 with a young Yves Montand or a heavy-going German film of 1933. Decisions, decisions.
COMMENT THREADA summer of anger?
Pointing to more trouble to come, The Daily Telegraph notes: "Thousands of foreign workers exploiting British jobs market".
The issue is "intra-company transfers", through which means international companies can transfer their staff to the UK for supposedly limited periods of time. However, the number of workers taking advantage of this system has increased by almost half in four years. Some 48,010 applications for intra-company transfers were approved in 2008, up 47 per cent on the 32,770 given the go ahead in 2004 and the equivalent of 131 arriving every day.
These figures, says the paper, will further fuel the row over foreign labour as the recession deepens and comes ahead of more damaging immigration and population statistics to be published tomorrow.
Much as the political establishment wants to ignore this issue, numerous stories are doing the rounds, one doing the e-mail circuit at the moment being a report from The Liverpool Echo. This tells of foreign workers being brought in by coach because "a company can't find the skills it needs among the local workforce."
Where this falls apart is that the company is the ship-fitting contractor Trimline, and it is claiming that cannot find skilled ship workers - in Birkenhead.
To add insult to injury, the work is on a Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel at the Cammell Laird shipyard, paid-for by the British taxpayer. Polish workers are being bussed in to do the work, despite there being hundreds of skilled British shipworkers left idle after recent completion of major MoD contracts.
A number of media outlets are therefore picking up on the same vibes we reported in our earlier piece, the latest being Reuters. It is recording that the police are warning of a "summer of rage" with mass protests over the economic crisis, the first being the G20 summit in April.
The Met Police are well used to dealing with this sort of thing, and the likelihood is that any disruption will be the usual "renta-mob", using the current unrest as a cover for that which they do anyway. They do not need an excuse. And, with this being so well flagged-up, it could amount to nothing very much.
However, The Daily Mail is also on the case, and it too it picking up the vibes. The concern is that "law-abiding middle-class individuals who would never have considered joining demonstrations may now seek to vent their anger through protests this year. "
The point that has perhaps escaped the paper – and the police who have made the comment – is that the middle-class is no longer "law-abiding". Submerged under a tide of New Labour laws and forever being picked on by petty officials looking for easy targets, few have avoided brushes with the law. There is, therefore, an underlying reservoir of resentment and contempt which brings a new dimension to this situation.
This may result in developments which are not as clearly flagged-up as the police would like to believe. When people get really angry, they do not always follow the script.
COMMENT THREAD
Monday, 23 February 2009
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