PARIS: Of all the things the French do their own way, what truly distinguishes their country from its counterparts in Europe or the United States has been the reality that its politics can be decided in the streets. The notion and expectation that demonstrations and strikes can overrule policy is unique here. And so is recent governments' fear of street protests along with the generalized idea that this kind of confrontation constitutes fairly normal procedure. Specific grievances, settled with less clamor elsewhere, sometimes coalesce with deep troughs of dissatisfaction in France, and a glorified old reflex - call it nostalgie de la rue - can quickly mass crowds and create stoppages and violence without French democratic tradition providing a powerful contradictory brake.
PARIS: Of all the things the French do their own way, what truly distinguishes their country from its counterparts in Europe or the United States has been the reality that its politics can be decided in the streets.
The notion and expectation that demonstrations and strikes can overrule policy is unique here.
And so is recent governments' fear of street protests along with the generalized idea that this kind of confrontation constitutes fairly normal procedure.
Specific grievances, settled with less clamor elsewhere, sometimes coalesce with deep troughs of dissatisfaction in France, and a glorified old reflex - call it nostalgie de la rue - can quickly mass crowds and create stoppages and violence without French democratic tradition providing a powerful contradictory brake.
Where will it all end?
A national transport strike is set for Thursday, and after that, wider demonstrations are scheduled by teachers and students resisting reforms in the vast national education bureaucracy. A far-left leader with a growing audience has said he would like to see a general strike.
In contrast to May 1968, French students are more clearly divided now between idealists (or nihilists) ready to head for the barricades and those who want to take exams and think that France's state-oriented capitalism must be overhauled.
He was elected president as a reformer and would lose all credibility at home if he wavered in his commitment to uproot France's conservatism, castes and comfort in living with a foot in the past.
What has clearly changed is that the media keep doing "he said/she said" reporting, giving a voice to the small minority of right wing students. Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères
Those protesting don't protest the system, they mostly don't want it to change.
You hope.
Why this should be unusual in "democracy" is the real story. Federalist Republicanism for the win?
DUBLIN: Ireland convened diplomats from more than 100 countries Monday in hopes of negotiating a treaty banning cluster bombs, which have littered battlefields worldwide with potentially deadly "duds." Each bomb, rocket or shell scatters "bomblets" that carpet enemy troops or armored vehicles. But some fail to detonate, creating unmapped minefields that kill or maim civilians - including children who can mistake the objects for toys - months or years later. The negotiations, begun in Norway last year, seek to impose restrictions on cluster bomb manufacturing, sales and storage. But myriad arguments loom over defining what a cluster bomb is, and whether to exempt the most technologically reliable or precise systems. If participants achieve a draft treaty in Dublin during the coming 12 days of negotiations, a formal signing ceremony would follow in Norway in December.
DUBLIN: Ireland convened diplomats from more than 100 countries Monday in hopes of negotiating a treaty banning cluster bombs, which have littered battlefields worldwide with potentially deadly "duds."
Each bomb, rocket or shell scatters "bomblets" that carpet enemy troops or armored vehicles. But some fail to detonate, creating unmapped minefields that kill or maim civilians - including children who can mistake the objects for toys - months or years later.
The negotiations, begun in Norway last year, seek to impose restrictions on cluster bomb manufacturing, sales and storage. But myriad arguments loom over defining what a cluster bomb is, and whether to exempt the most technologically reliable or precise systems.
If participants achieve a draft treaty in Dublin during the coming 12 days of negotiations, a formal signing ceremony would follow in Norway in December.
International envoys are meeting in Dublin for a 12-day conference to hammer out a deal that would ban the use of cluster bombs. Big producers like the US and Israel will not be attending, while the pressure is on the UK to push to water down the treaty to prevent it undermining the NATO alliance. A live unexploded "bomblet" from a cluster bomb: More than 100 countries are trying to get cluster bombs banned. Almost 10 years after the Ottawa Treaty banned the use of landmines, more than 100 countries are gathering on Monday to attempt to ban cluster bombs as well. However, the United States and other big producers will not be attending. Washington is arguing that the proposed treaty threatens to undermine the very fabric of NATO (more...). Envoys are gathering in the Irish capital Dublin for a conference that aims to agree on a convention banning cluster bombs. The states will negotiate the terms of the international treaty that would prohibit the use, production and stockpiling of the cluster munitions by the signatories. However the biggest producers of the cluster weapons, the United States, China, Israel and Russia, are not attending the 12-day conference and have been lobbying hard to have it watered down. Benjamin Chang, a spokesman for the US mission to the United Nations, told Reuters that Washington is opposed to any ban. "We do not believe they are indiscriminate weapons."
International envoys are meeting in Dublin for a 12-day conference to hammer out a deal that would ban the use of cluster bombs. Big producers like the US and Israel will not be attending, while the pressure is on the UK to push to water down the treaty to prevent it undermining the NATO alliance.
A live unexploded "bomblet" from a cluster bomb: More than 100 countries are trying to get cluster bombs banned. Almost 10 years after the Ottawa Treaty banned the use of landmines, more than 100 countries are gathering on Monday to attempt to ban cluster bombs as well. However, the United States and other big producers will not be attending. Washington is arguing that the proposed treaty threatens to undermine the very fabric of NATO (more...).
Envoys are gathering in the Irish capital Dublin for a conference that aims to agree on a convention banning cluster bombs. The states will negotiate the terms of the international treaty that would prohibit the use, production and stockpiling of the cluster munitions by the signatories.
However the biggest producers of the cluster weapons, the United States, China, Israel and Russia, are not attending the 12-day conference and have been lobbying hard to have it watered down. Benjamin Chang, a spokesman for the US mission to the United Nations, told Reuters that Washington is opposed to any ban. "We do not believe they are indiscriminate weapons."
PARIS: The head of France's governing party called Monday for a definitive end to France's 35-hour workweek - but within hours he was contradicted not only by the government but by President Nicolas Sarkozy himself. Ten years to the day after a Socialist government decided to shorten the workweek, the division at the top of the governing camp highlights how France's most disputed labor law continues to split the center-right. Rather than scrapping a law that Sarkozy once called a disaster, successive governments have preferred to tinker with costly overtime. So when the leader of the Union for a Popular Movement, Patrick Devedjian, announced Monday in unambiguous language that his party was "forcefully requesting the definitive dismantlement of the 35-hour week" and provisions to allow companies to negotiate their own work-time agreements, it did not take long for confusion and recriminations to spread through the ranks of the government.
PARIS: The head of France's governing party called Monday for a definitive end to France's 35-hour workweek - but within hours he was contradicted not only by the government but by President Nicolas Sarkozy himself.
Ten years to the day after a Socialist government decided to shorten the workweek, the division at the top of the governing camp highlights how France's most disputed labor law continues to split the center-right.
Rather than scrapping a law that Sarkozy once called a disaster, successive governments have preferred to tinker with costly overtime.
So when the leader of the Union for a Popular Movement, Patrick Devedjian, announced Monday in unambiguous language that his party was "forcefully requesting the definitive dismantlement of the 35-hour week" and provisions to allow companies to negotiate their own work-time agreements, it did not take long for confusion and recriminations to spread through the ranks of the government.
According to the Canard Enchaîné, Devedjian is slated to be kicked out of the UMP leadership by Sarkoztic ukase sometime very soon. Which has as much if not more to do with rivalries in the rich West Parisian conservative powerhouse département, the Hauts-de-Seine, as with anything else.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Anatoly Chubais, architect of Russia's 1990s privatisation programme, has suggested that Moscow should re-channel its focus on feeding energy into European grids to serving its domestic market. "I think that, in strategic terms, our priorities should not be Europe or China," Mr Chubais said in an interview with the Financial Times published on Sunday (18 May). He underlined that rising energy demand in Russia should not be overshadowed by its ambition to export to Western markets. "We have this western stream, northern stream, south stream. What I believe we need is a Russian stream. The Russian domestic demand is growing a lot. I think that Russia needs to restructure its strategy in this sector," said the man responsible for the liberalisation of the country's electricity sector. Mr Chubais specifically referred to Gazprom, Russia's state-run gas monopoly.
Campaign to stop inappropriate wind farm development by Country Guardian
Country Guardian is a UK conservation group which, since 1991, has campaigned against the construction of wind turbines in environmentally sensitive areas. We object because wind turbines convert rural landscape into industrial landscape, and because they are a poor source of renewable energy.
The Govt are in thrall to the nuclear industry and will impede and prevent anything and everything that gets in the way of nuclear growth. They hate wind cos advocates of wind are the same DFHs who oppose nuclear expansion, therefore in the UK wind power is not complementary, it is an enemy to be defeated. keep to the Fen Causeway
EU farm ministers are meeting in Brussels today (19 May) for an emergency debate on the sharp rise in food and agriculture product prices on global markets, just a day before the European Commission unveils proposals for a review of the bloc's agrosector. The Slovenian EU presidency put the food prices issue on the ministers' agenda "with a view to finding a solution to mitigate the adverse effects of such market price trends," Ljubljana wrote in an introductory statement for the meeting. Despite a minor slowdown of the food price hikes, they still remain at historically high levels with wheat up 84 percent over one year, maize 21 percent, and butter 21 percent, according to media reports. It is expected that the ministers will express a demand that the farm reform package - which EU agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel will present to MEPs in Strasbourg on Tuesday (20 May) - includes measures aimed at curbing the trend.
The EU's mission to Kosovo is unlikely to be fully operational by 15 June, as first planned, due to opposition by Serbia and Russia which are blocking the transfer of power from the UN to the EU and local authorities. Under an initial plan, UN mission UNMIK which has been administering Kosovo since 1999, was to hand over the power to local authorities on 15 June. After this, the EU would have stepped in to help with police and judicial work, while NATO forces would have continued to be responsible for hard security in Kosovo, according to the AFP agency. However, this transfer of power has been blocked by UN members Serbia and Russia, which do not recognise Kosovo's unilaterally proclaimed independence of 17 February. For his part, UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon has also avoided clear statements on the matter so far, saying simply that the UN was taking note of the EU's wish to intervene.
Germany's Thomas Mirow was named the new president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development at the group's annual meeting. The 55-year-old Mirow was selected on Monday, May 19, in Kiev to replace Frenchman Jean Lemierre who will step down in July after eight years in charge of the bank. Mirow, a long-standing German Social Democratic politician and a deputy minister at the federal finance ministry, is the second German to head the EBRD. The group has always been led either by a German or a Frenchman since it was founded in 1991 to help ex-Soviet countries in Europe and Central Asia in their transition to market economies.
The 55-year-old Mirow was selected on Monday, May 19, in Kiev to replace Frenchman Jean Lemierre who will step down in July after eight years in charge of the bank.
Mirow, a long-standing German Social Democratic politician and a deputy minister at the federal finance ministry, is the second German to head the EBRD. The group has always been led either by a German or a Frenchman since it was founded in 1991 to help ex-Soviet countries in Europe and Central Asia in their transition to market economies.
Firefighters battled overnight in the southern Italian city of Naples to extinguish dozens of blazes as angry residents set rubbish piles alight. The city has some 3,500 tonnes of uncollected rubbish, piled up around its streets. Italy's prime minister is due to hold a cabinet meeting in the city on Wednesday to address the crisis. Silvio Berlusconi has hinted he may force local councils to accept new rubbish dumps, despite opposition.
Firefighters battled overnight in the southern Italian city of Naples to extinguish dozens of blazes as angry residents set rubbish piles alight.
The city has some 3,500 tonnes of uncollected rubbish, piled up around its streets.
Italy's prime minister is due to hold a cabinet meeting in the city on Wednesday to address the crisis.
Silvio Berlusconi has hinted he may force local councils to accept new rubbish dumps, despite opposition.
Berlusconi's much publicized ministerial reunion in Naples to "affront the garbage emergency" has simply incremented the arson attacks making it all the more difficult to collect trash. Predictably, earmarked heads will fall.
In the meantime it appears the Camorra has centered its objective, if we can give credence to the scoop today written by Carlo Bonino in the Repubblica.
Because of the emergency, shipments of undifferentiated waste abroad has become a major resource for solving the problem. Until now, the rail society Ecolog shipped waste to Saxony at a price of 225 euro per ton. The company had also negotiated new contracts with the three giants in the sector, BKB, Remondis, and the French Veolia, for a total of 600,000 tons. Negotiations with the Swiss were well on the way for 60,000 tons at 199 euro per ton.
The Ecolog CEO Roberto Cetera has always been menaced by the camorra for his campaign against organized crime infiltration. The menaces against him suddenly ceased when Ecolog lost the job.
Strangely- or not at all- Ecolog's contract has been revoked to the advantage of another rail company that has yet to begin transport with the excuse that the German authorities have intervened. Supposedly, Germany wished to set a limit to the processing of Neapolitan waste. But the new plan makes no sense. The waste is now to be routed to a small consortium of companies called Returo in Reno-Westphalia at the price of 270 euro per ton, against the previous 225 or 199. The Returo companies have only the capacity to process 10,000 tons each.
The transportation of waste to Germany has all but ceased since the end of March aggravating the emergency. The new company, which has never transported waste before, Trenitalia Cargo, will begin transportation to Reno-Westphalia as of this evening. In coincidence with Berlusconi's three-ring circus in Naples.
I would like to see a sense of civic pride in which everyone separates waste and recycles but I see that in Rome it is largely ignored- far beyond what is perfectly normal in the North.
It remains that sanctions are notoriously ineffectual in Italy. They are usually shot down quickly by the administrative tribunals or the upper courts.
What will happen is that as soon as organized crime has monopolized the market at an inordinately higher cost to the taxpayer, garbage will shrink to a tolerable level- only to be pulled out again when the mobs up the ante.
Even the official statistics and reports are cooked. In no way do they depict the real situation. It is why I feel that Italy and its products should be boycotted. The garbage in Naples is an Italian problem. The `Ndrangheta in Calabria or the Mafia in Sicily is an Italian problem. If Italy can't put its shit together, hit their exports.
FRANKFURT: Warren Buffett may be one of the few Americans who can still afford to come to Europe for a shopping spree. Undaunted by the decline of the dollar against the euro, Buffett, the billionaire investor, arrived here Monday to begin a four-country tour of Europe, with a view to buying family owned companies. "I would rather be doing this with the euro at 90 cents than $1.50," Buffett said to a crowded news conference at an airport hotel. But he added, "If we can buy good businesses with good people at a good price, I'm not going to pass it up because I think a currency is too high." Buffett said he was making the rounds so publicly because he and his holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, were less well known in Europe than in the United States, where the firm's annual meeting and homespun letter to shareholders have long served as a guide to his investment philosophy.
FRANKFURT: Warren Buffett may be one of the few Americans who can still afford to come to Europe for a shopping spree.
Undaunted by the decline of the dollar against the euro, Buffett, the billionaire investor, arrived here Monday to begin a four-country tour of Europe, with a view to buying family owned companies.
"I would rather be doing this with the euro at 90 cents than $1.50," Buffett said to a crowded news conference at an airport hotel. But he added, "If we can buy good businesses with good people at a good price, I'm not going to pass it up because I think a currency is too high."
Buffett said he was making the rounds so publicly because he and his holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, were less well known in Europe than in the United States, where the firm's annual meeting and homespun letter to shareholders have long served as a guide to his investment philosophy.
Poland plans to privatise hundreds of businesses in a move that will halve the state-owned sector's contribution to the economy and give a shot in the arm to the Warsaw stock market.The state will retreat from large areas of the economy - including tourism, shipyards, publishing and construction - under plans to sell off 740 companies within four years, the Treasury minister has told the Financial Times. Aleksander Grad said the sell-off would reduce the footprint of Poland's government-owned companies from 20 per cent of GDP to no more than 10 per cent. "The role of the state in the economy will be much more limited," he said. The programme is expected to bring in about 30bn zlotys ($13.7bn, €8.9bn, £7.1bn) over four years. The government has only a minority stake in about half the companies to be privatised and selling these stakes made financial sense, said Mr Grad. "We analysed whether it is better to sell the remnants or count on the dividends. We worked out that it is much better to sell."
Poland plans to privatise hundreds of businesses in a move that will halve the state-owned sector's contribution to the economy and give a shot in the arm to the Warsaw stock market.
The state will retreat from large areas of the economy - including tourism, shipyards, publishing and construction - under plans to sell off 740 companies within four years, the Treasury minister has told the Financial Times. Aleksander Grad said the sell-off would reduce the footprint of Poland's government-owned companies from 20 per cent of GDP to no more than 10 per cent. "The role of the state in the economy will be much more limited," he said.
The programme is expected to bring in about 30bn zlotys ($13.7bn, €8.9bn, £7.1bn) over four years.
The government has only a minority stake in about half the companies to be privatised and selling these stakes made financial sense, said Mr Grad. "We analysed whether it is better to sell the remnants or count on the dividends. We worked out that it is much better to sell."
We analysed whether it is better to sell the remnants or count on the dividends. We worked out that it is much better to sell
Thank goodness for spreadsheets. They don't feature political functions.
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- A law extending a smoking ban in Turkey to most enclosed areas -- including taxis, ferries and shopping malls -- came into effect Monday in the nicotine-addicted nation. Around 40 percent of Turks over the age of 15 are smokers, according to anti-smoking campaigners. As of midnight, outdoor smoking was also banned in locations such as stadiums and playgrounds. A ban on lighting up in bars, restaurants and coffeehouses will be implemented next year. Smoking was already barred on buses and airplanes and in larger offices. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-rooted government expanded the ban to most enclosed places as part of an attempt to reduce smoking rates in the country and the effects of second-hand smoke. Around 40 percent of Turks over the age of 15 are smokers, consuming around 17 million packs a day, according to Yesilay, an organization devoted to fighting alcohol, drug and tobacco abuse. The government says around 160,000 people die annually in Turkey from smoking-related ailments.
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- A law extending a smoking ban in Turkey to most enclosed areas -- including taxis, ferries and shopping malls -- came into effect Monday in the nicotine-addicted nation.
Around 40 percent of Turks over the age of 15 are smokers, according to anti-smoking campaigners.
As of midnight, outdoor smoking was also banned in locations such as stadiums and playgrounds. A ban on lighting up in bars, restaurants and coffeehouses will be implemented next year.
Smoking was already barred on buses and airplanes and in larger offices. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-rooted government expanded the ban to most enclosed places as part of an attempt to reduce smoking rates in the country and the effects of second-hand smoke.
Around 40 percent of Turks over the age of 15 are smokers, consuming around 17 million packs a day, according to Yesilay, an organization devoted to fighting alcohol, drug and tobacco abuse.
The government says around 160,000 people die annually in Turkey from smoking-related ailments.
Ministers are to consider plans for a database of electronic information holding details of every phone call and e-mail sent in the UK.
A Home Office spokesman said the data is a "crucial tool" for protecting national security and preventing crime.
Court. Because they still, occasionally, do inconvenient things like asking for evidence.
And would a court order be needed to access a government database?
Complaining about it is pointless, our elites are so wrapped up in authoritarian practice of communication, command, control and intelligence that they cannot see it for what it is. They think it makes us feel safe and free when it achieves the opposite.
changing the govt won't make any difference, we need a government that really is on the side of thepeople and right now I cannot see many politicans who give a stuff about anything beyond their own perks and privileges. keep to the Fen Causeway
The European Central Bank has warned that the world economy is still in the grip of a "very serious market correction" and risks repeating the inflation debacle of the early 1970s if global authorities respond by slashing interest rates too soon.Jean-Claude Trichet, the ECB's president, said the credit crisis is still extending its shadow over the economy, but cautioned against any easy solution given the cocktail of threatening forces that have come together. ... "We have this accumulation of the oil shock, the food and agro-products shock. In the first oil shock, when we took the wrong decision, we enshrined high inflation, and we created mass unemployment," he said.
Jean-Claude Trichet, the ECB's president, said the credit crisis is still extending its shadow over the economy, but cautioned against any easy solution given the cocktail of threatening forces that have come together.
...
"We have this accumulation of the oil shock, the food and agro-products shock. In the first oil shock, when we took the wrong decision, we enshrined high inflation, and we created mass unemployment," he said.
¨In the first oil shock, when we took the wrong decision, we enshrined high inflation, and we created mass unemployment," he said.
So it wasn't high wage demands after all?
Now he tells us.
guardian.co.uk: Worst of credit crunch 'may be ahead'
In an interview with the BBC, Trichet said that the combination of an oil shock with rises in food prices made these "challenging times". "In the first oil shock when we took the wrong decision, embarking on what I call second-round effects, we enshrined a high level of inflation," he said. "And we created ... mass unemployment in Europe."Price stability and credibility in price stability in the medium term is the best way to have a high level of sustainable growth and sustainable job creation."
"In the first oil shock when we took the wrong decision, embarking on what I call second-round effects, we enshrined a high level of inflation," he said. "And we created ... mass unemployment in Europe.
"Price stability and credibility in price stability in the medium term is the best way to have a high level of sustainable growth and sustainable job creation."
BBC NEWS: The Reporters - Robert Peston
What if the Bank of England were not to bear down on inflation in the face of the upward pressure from rising global energy and food prices? What if it were to respond to popular, corporate and political calls for cuts in interest rates, to give some oomph to an economy slowed down by the credit crunch?In a worldwide trawl of bankers and economists - which I made in preparing a documentary to be broadcast at 8pm tonight on Radio 4 ("Power Failure at the Central Bank") - a compelling case for not cutting interest rates came from across the Channel, from the veteran public official who is arguably the most respected central banker in the world right now, Jean-Claude Trichet.
What if it were to respond to popular, corporate and political calls for cuts in interest rates, to give some oomph to an economy slowed down by the credit crunch?
In a worldwide trawl of bankers and economists - which I made in preparing a documentary to be broadcast at 8pm tonight on Radio 4 ("Power Failure at the Central Bank") - a compelling case for not cutting interest rates came from across the Channel, from the veteran public official who is arguably the most respected central banker in the world right now, Jean-Claude Trichet.
Mass unemployment was created in the first aggressive round of 'reform.' The energy crunch provided a good excuse for this.
Also - take a look at UK's rate history.
Where are the aggressive rate cuts he claims were happening then?
All I can see in Peston's summary is the same-old same-old nonsense about wage demands magically destroying 'competitiveness' and creating econo-doom.
Or to be more precise, he argued that the current rise in energy and food prices is comparable to the oil-price shock of the early 1970s. And he insisted that the failure of most European economies back then to suffer the short term pain of tighter monetary policy, higher interest rates, led to inflationary wage settlements that undermined economic competitiveness. "Before 1973 and 1974, there was everywhere in Europe full employment," he told me. "It is after the absence of sufficient lucidity in analysing what was happening after the first oil shock, trying to protect ourselves from the first oil shock and not understanding that we had a real transfer of resources associated with the first oil shock, all that created mass unemployment. "And we are still fighting against unemployment which is at a level that is not satisfactory in the euro area and which is the legacy of these mistakes in the first oil shock." Or to put it another way: cut rates and risk long-term, serious damage to all our prosperity.
"Before 1973 and 1974, there was everywhere in Europe full employment," he told me. "It is after the absence of sufficient lucidity in analysing what was happening after the first oil shock, trying to protect ourselves from the first oil shock and not understanding that we had a real transfer of resources associated with the first oil shock, all that created mass unemployment.
"And we are still fighting against unemployment which is at a level that is not satisfactory in the euro area and which is the legacy of these mistakes in the first oil shock."
Or to put it another way: cut rates and risk long-term, serious damage to all our prosperity.
What Trichet fears is what he calls "second-round effects", such as wages being set at levels that assume inflation will not fall - which could precipitate endemic inflation, a debilitating virus that would be hard to shake off.
Tax levels are hurting U.K. households, and the Conservative Party will streamline public services to pay for tax cuts if it wins the next election, leader David Cameron said. Prime Minister Gordon Brown increased spending during his decade as finance minister without making public services more efficient, Cameron said today in a speech in Birmingham, central England. ``After a decade of reckless spending under Labour, Britain needs good housekeeping from the Conservatives,'' Cameron said. ``We need to start living within our means. We have reached the limits of acceptable taxation and borrowing.''
Prime Minister Gordon Brown increased spending during his decade as finance minister without making public services more efficient, Cameron said today in a speech in Birmingham, central England.
``After a decade of reckless spending under Labour, Britain needs good housekeeping from the Conservatives,'' Cameron said. ``We need to start living within our means. We have reached the limits of acceptable taxation and borrowing.''
Independent - Steve Richards - David Cameron has some lofty aspirations, but there is one big problem with them
Magic is not enough. Public services cannot be improved without sustained investment
The debate in Britain about public spending often begins with the assumption that investment is a waste of money. It ends by taking a magical route towards a paradise of low taxes and the best public services in the world free to everyone at the point of use............. The harsh truth about public spending was made very clear in the questions asked of Mr Cameron at the end of his speech in Birmingham. Most of them implied a desire for more spending, not less. To take one example, one business leader despaired of the transport infrastructure in the West Midlands and beyond. The Conservative leader acknowledged the importance of the issue and, in fairness, offered some examples of small policy shifts. What he did not do was promise the investment needed to take Britain up to the transport standards of equivalent countries. Perhaps at some point he will promise to wave his own conjurer's wand. Magic is not enough. Public services cannot be improved without sustained investment. With the investment, the scope for economic growth is greater, as the business leader in Birmingham suggested with his cry for improved transport.
The harsh truth about public spending was made very clear in the questions asked of Mr Cameron at the end of his speech in Birmingham. Most of them implied a desire for more spending, not less. To take one example, one business leader despaired of the transport infrastructure in the West Midlands and beyond. The Conservative leader acknowledged the importance of the issue and, in fairness, offered some examples of small policy shifts. What he did not do was promise the investment needed to take Britain up to the transport standards of equivalent countries. Perhaps at some point he will promise to wave his own conjurer's wand.
Magic is not enough. Public services cannot be improved without sustained investment. With the investment, the scope for economic growth is greater, as the business leader in Birmingham suggested with his cry for improved transport.
The debate in Britain about public spending often begins with the assumption that investment is a waste of money. It ends by taking a magical route towards a paradise of low taxes and the best public services in the world free to everyone at the point of use.............
