A matter of judgement - by Richard... Monday, August 22, 2011

A matter of judgement - by Richard... Monday, August 22, 2011

With the media going into "super-hype mode" over Libya, one can only observe that, had it now to report the proceedings on the Second World War, most of the detail with which we are now familiar would have been left out. The newspapers would have run out of space.

Despite this, however, the Daily Mail still finds room to squeeze in a story about Cameron's favourite "supercop", Bill Bratton. It transpires that he was forced to leave his last public appointment under something of a cloud.

The affairs recounted by the newspaper underline the unsavoury nature of this "celebrity cop". But, more to the point, they strengthen the view that, as a judge of character, David Cameron is singularly lacking. Already having burnt his fingers with Coulson, we now see The Boy make a similar mistake with Bratton.

Politicians can never hope to cover adequately all the issues with which they are confronted, which means they are reliant on their advisors. The test of a modern politician, therefore, is his skill in picking the right advisors – and listening to them. In this, as in so many other departments, Cameron is again found wanting.

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Chutzpah - by Richard...

The irony of Dannatt pronouncing of Libya that: "We must learn the lessons of Iraq" is almost unbearable. It is rather like Neville Chamberlain declaring to the world at large that we must learn the lessons of Czechoslovakia.

Bizarrely, the former soldier argues that the future of Libya is a matter for the Libyans themselves – despite The Boy having supported an intervention which has ensured that, up to press, the future of Libya has largely been determined by outsiders.

But now, with the drama of Libya approaching the end game, the Dannatt blithly tells us, "We can support and encourage but we should not go where we are not invited". He then asks "surely our memories of Iraq are not that short?"

His memory, though , seems to be on a par with a senile goldfish. Having interfered throughout the uprising in Libya, he now wants Britain to walk away and leave the mess for someone else to sort out – just as we did in Iraq.

It might thus be better for a man who contributed very significantly to the humiliation of the Army in southern Iraq to keep his opinions to himself. That he does not says a great deal about him. Like so many of our ruling class, he lacks self-awareness. That the Daily Failygraph then gives him a platform says a great deal about the newspaper.

Nevertheless, we are going to see much wise-after-the-event counsel from people who should know better. The truth is, though, that we as a nation have very little influence and even less control.

The Boy might like to give the impression of being at the centre of events, rushing home from his fifth holiday of the year (in stark contrast to his reluctance to be disturbed when England was in flames), but the game now moves to Brussels where the "colleagues" will be calling the shots.

At least we can draw some comfort from that. When the situation deteriorates into a bigger mess than it is already, we can at least say that we do not bear sole responsibility for it. Unlike Iraq, we will be able to spread the blame - the EU does have its uses.

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Jailing the wrong looters - by Richard...

"A social fightback means instilling in our children and young people the decency, discipline and sense of duty that make good citizens", says arch hypocrite, David Cameron, a man trying to convince us that he has a handle on the recent riots and looting.

Another pretender is Tony Blair, who at least has a point when he rails against the "muddled thinking" of those on the Left and the Right. Both, he claims, "miss the point" about the cause of the riots. Neither social deprivation nor a lack of personal responsibility is at the root of the problem. Instead, he says, Britain, like "virtually all" developed nations, needs to deal with a group of people who are beyond the pale.

"The big cause is the group of alienated", he says, "disaffected youth who are outside the social mainstream and who live in a culture at odds with any canons of proper behaviour. And here's where I simply don't agree with much of the commentary. In my experience they are an absolutely specific problem that requires a deeply specific solution".

This polarisation gives the MSM exactly what it wants, as it can now turn the post-mortem analysis into a biff-bam soap opera, a genre it can cope with.

Blair is right in one thing, though, in asserting that the disaffection noted on the streets of Tottenham and elsewhere is an international phenomenon, with the car burning in Berlincontinuing. It is causing as much puzzlement and anguish as the unrest over here. And, with a recent outbreak of street violence in Hamburg, we are seeing some awfully familiar TV pictures.

The British plod, though, are charging that some of the violence was orchestrated in Birmingham, with a similar charge in London, where it is alleged that outsiders were bussed in to do the business.

Where that applies, it rather knocks into a cocked hat the theory that we are dealing with "mindless violence" – the preferred meme of the Right. If it was "organised", it could hardly have been mindless. But what escapes both Right and Left is any clear idea of where the causation really lies - another thing Blair has got right.

However, while Cameron prattles about "decency, discipline and sense of duty that make good citizens", he and his predecessors (including Blair) have presided over an epidemic of organised looting which relegates the efforts of the street gangs to the minor league.

Even this weekend, we see Peter Mandelson put in a bid for an £8 million mansion, and no one is even attempting to pretend that this sort of money was gained by honest toil. We also see that more than half of the highest paid council chief executives have enjoyed pay rises as services are cut, despite orders from the government to slash their salaries.

This comes on the back of other examples of organised looting, where council credit cards have been used for spending on £1.5million of items which included furniture and designer jewellery and, yes, plasma screen televisions. Councillors and town hall officials have also spent more than £4 million on luxurious trips around the world.

As examples of "decency, discipline and sense of duty that make good citizens", these positively stink, but no one seems to want to join the dots. Nevertheless, it seems that Cameron might be more right than Blair in defining a cause of the riots as "moral decline". Where The Boy goes wrong is in looking in the wrong place for his decline.

Too easily is attention focused on the street violence and looting, when we should going to the top to find the rot. From the look of it, we are wasting our money by jailing the wrong looters.

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They shoot looters don't they? - by Richard... Sunday, August 21, 2011

Rather ironic, all those "tough guys" calling for the Army to be brought in to deal with the looters ... when it turns out that amongst the biggest looters of them all are the military top brass - one helo trip equivalent to two wide-screen plasma TVs (PTEs).

Mind you, there is little new about this. The Brass have a history of ripping off the taxpayer – here, to the tune of nearly 1,700 PTEs .. for the servants (many, serving soldiers). That, it seems, is in addition to the 1,200 PTEs for the limousines .. call it 3,000 plasma TVs, including discount.

Success, it seems, it being able to sit in your luxury office and get your serfs to do your looting for you. Why bother breaking windows when one can delegate your looting, and do it wholesale? One can even get the loot sent directly, or get one's servants to pick it up for one.