Tuesday, January 13, 2009

As he leaves the stage

George W Bush stands down next week and much is being written about his impact on the world stage. The anti American (Bush) stance is very evident. History will always make judgements and quite often history changes the opinion.

What can not be denied is during his presidency – America changed. Its role since 1989 and the fall of socialism! In the East left a void which no one filled. America was expected to be the world policeman and Clinton never filled the role, foreign policy was a weakness. George W has developed a foreign policy. This is not just the war on terror but much of the work that has been done in Africa.

This must really annoy the anti Bush lobby. His achievements in Africa in tackling AIDS and the atrocities in Darfur are often overlooked.

The challenge will be will the American/bush haters dreams of Obama live up to expectations?

Monday, January 05, 2009

Deal or no Deal

The proposed deal that Peter Oborne suggests between the Labour party and Liberal Democrats in the Mail appears to exist if Nick Clegg’s comments are true.

Why does Nick Clegg wish to come out against the conservative policy and indirectly /directly support the Labour party? All good knock about party stuff for the start of the year, but he has been very quiet over Gordon’s fake 100,000 jobs.

Friday, January 02, 2009

PIGS and the Euro

Peter Oborne has a very interesting article in the Mail today on the Euro. The economic downturn has affected many countries differently and he highlights the PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain) as countries that are suffering due to a central bank setting interest rates and the lack of flexibility that the countries have.

It is his conclusion that I find most interesting. In this he points to Gordon Brown not willing to enter the Euro Zone in 1999 and the willingness of Blair and Mandelson who wished to enter the new European monetary system, thus Brown losing control over the economy. The interesting bit is the person he has missed out – William Hague. His campaign to ‘save the pound’ created a situation where the government could not enter the euro zone. This was a campaign that was much ridiculed by many commentators but as we enter the financial mess that Gordon Brown has created it might just be to our advantage.