The politicians just don't get it
Monday 16 April 2012
The energy minister Greg Barker has been very much in the news over the last few days, not least for his attack on UKIP, lashing out at their "swivel-eyed" rhetoric.
However, not only has this not been a winning tactic in the past, coming from this "uber-modernising Cameroon lieutenant"it simply serves as confirmation that the Tory establishment is getting seriously rattled by the UKIP threat. Barker himself is doing the best he can to lose the Tory vote in the shires, with his push-me, pull-you policy on bird choppers, telling us all that there will be no more of these hated machines built onshore … except for the thousands that have already been approved and are in the pipeline. And it is by no means the effete south that is up in arms, and indeed it is not only Barker amongst politicians who are putting their foot in it. Ooop 'ere in the grim North, we have Bradford councilapproving an application to build a 200ft wind monitoring mast, which is expected to pave the way for a "devastating" wind farm of four 330ft turbines on Thornton Moor, Denholme. Councillors gave the scheme the green light despite huge opposition from campaigners and the Bronte Society, who said the structure would "deface" views across the "culturally and historically significant" moorland. Famous for its association with the Bronte sisters, local councillor Tony Maw, of Oxenhope Parish Council, pointed out the potential economic damage that the planned bird choppers could cause, stating that regeneration of the area, including using the moors as a tourist destination, was vital for the future of the area's rural economy. This time, though, it was the turn of the other side to display the contempt the political classes have for the plebs. Said Labour councillor Imdad Hussain from Heaton – one of the more grotty parts of Bradford - "I think we have got the situation here where members of the public are against something because it is in their back gardens". Mr Hussain's mailbag, we are told, has since been rather full of "foxtrot oscar" missives, his excretions merely underlining the sentiment that won Galloway his seat in West Bradford. The real problem we all have, though, is that the politicians just don't seem to get it. Barker is just as much in cloud-cuckoo land as the contemptible Mr Hussain, and just about as wildly off the mark if he thinks his utterances are going to have a positive effect on the electorate. The man may fool the kiddies (above), but he's going to have a harder job with the rest of us. COMMENT THREAD Richard North 16/04/2012 |
Echoes of Tet
Monday 16 April 2012
However, with the co-ordinated raids in Kabul, the Taliban having launched tightly choreographed attacks on military bases, embassies and the parliament, one cannot help but recall the 1968 Tet offensive by the Viet Cong.
Militarily a defeat for the insurgents, it was presented by the media to the US public as a major defeat and fuelled anti-war sentiment that eventually led to the withdrawal of US forces. Most powerful of all the media commentary was Walter Cronkite in a CBS special, when he concluded that: "To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past. To say that we are mired in a bloody stalemate seems the only realistic, yet unsatisfactory conclusion". No figure of similar stature in the US media now exists, but the sentiment is not dissimilar. Whatever optimism might emerge from the military ranks, the civilians back home are convinced that we are bogged down in a never-ending struggle than cannot be won. Michael O'Hanlon, writing for CNN World believes the current offensive is a propaganda ploy by the Taliban, and that we shouldn't fall for it. The attacks were only moderately effective and suppressed almost entirely by Afghan forces. But O'Hanlon does not know his history, or understand the dynamics of modern insurgencies, those where indigenous government are kept in power by external forces. These are not won or lost on the battlefields, but in the hearts and minds of the peoples of the donor countries – those that supply the forces to keep the regimes in place. Long ago, that battle was lost, not least because so few people here - and in the United States, for that matter - believe what their governments say. And, as far as the UK goes, the MoD is as inept at publicity as its military Brass are at fighting the Taliban. They too have lost any credibility. Thus, whatever the outcome, this current offensive will be read as another failure of the security forces, and as another reason why we should withdraw our forces as soon as possible. Whatever else happens, it is just detail. COMMENT THREAD Richard North 16/04/2012 |
Posts
