News Round Up
Wikileaks:
Weak Tories
William Hague and Liam Fox were
paranoid in their attempt to resurrect the British/ American special
relationship, with promises to buy American Global arms.[contrary
to the cuts in the defence budget]. This two faced weak attitude
was sneered at by the Americans: Deputy Chief of mission Richard LeBaron
suggested that it would be possible to
take advantage of British longing for Washington's approval.
But he concluded that the "unparalleled"
support offered by the UK for US global aims made it advisable to show
the British public that the relationship remained strong.
You may remember David
Cameron also displayed the same weakness,[blog
28/0710 Coalition Split] when he belittled
Britain, the country he is supposed to promote, when
he told the Americans that Britain was
a junior partner to America in 1940 in the war against Germany.
In fact the Americans weren’t interested in helping Britain in
1940, It wasn’t until 1941 after Pearl Harbour was bombed, that
the Americans joined.
It was revealed that Mervin King the Governor of the Bank of England
had criticized the Tory leadership for their lack of experience, there
were calls for his resignation. The government
can belittle the country with out recourse; the Governor of the Bank
of England has to be more ‘politically correct’ than politicians.
School Fees: an olive branch to the
poorest.
ConDems have suggested that the most disadvantaged
pupils who are offered a University place, provided they are eligible
for free school meals will have their first years fees paid by the Government.
The majority of pupils eligible for free school meals prefer to go without,
to save the embarrassment, the stigma, and the bullying metered out
to pupils. If the university is charging more that £6,000 per
year, the university will have to pay for the second year. The ‘Free
School Meals’ programme was the one the Tories were going
to raid to fund their ‘Free schools’ Programme.The
proposal for a year's free tuition has emerged as the preferred option
over alternatives such as an increase in the maintenance grant for poorer
students.[Which other students wouldn’t know about’ hence
no stigma or embarrassment] This has been strongly backed by the Deputy
Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who believes the Government should move the
debate on. The LibDems are under immense pressure from students after
the Lib Dems signed a pre-election pledge to abolish fees altogether,
and then sold out to the Conservatives. Nick Clegg said he wants to
shift the political contortions his Liberal Democrats are going through
over which way they will vote on fees. The contortions could be a guilty
conscience, or a worry that they will never be able to stand for election
again.
Nick Clegg told the Independent on Sunday, he would "of
course" like to vote for the Government's university funding package
and would like all his party colleagues to do the same, but
we are not there yet." Many of those opposing fees
in the recent wave of student demonstrations appeared not to have taken
on board the details of the policy, which would actually be more affordable
for low-paid graduates than the current arrangements, he said."It's
immensely frustrating to me to see a policy which lowers barriers of
entry to university [from £3000 to £9000] being portrayed
as putting up barriers," said Mr Clegg. [Does
“he would "of course" like to vote for” mean he
will vote against?]
To defeat this bill on Thursday the 9th requires that 16 LibDems
vote against it, so far only half of this number have indicated they
will vote against it. The self inflicted pressure the LibDems have put
themselves under, will affect their lives for a long time, even after
leaving politics in 5 years. Will anybody ever believe a word they say?
I don’t think so!
Ron
Gold RFT
Express
