Events

There is much to consider. First the mind blowing nature of political hypocrisy.

Let me look for a moment at the USA. Obama is a great man. Or is he? Two issues are bothering me about his current regime.

First the BP disaster. OK so it is terrible. If it was caused by negligence then we need to know whose how and why? But in the meantime, where is the oil that is produced going to be used? The USA we presume. Who were the engineers engaged in the enterprise? Americans largely  we expect. 40% of the investors are American we are told. Who benefits by the Chief Exec being prosecuted or vilified, Obama I suspect. His statements are nothing but political opportunism.

Secondly, who seems to have authorised special forces to assassinate specific people? We are told it is Obama. OK so probably all USA Presidents have also authorised this to happen but what price the rule of law? It is simply not acceptable that any Country decides that their nationals can go around the world killing people in other countries. I hope that the UK Government will take every step possible to bring to justice anyone who commits this crime in the UK, whether it is sanctioned by the President or not. And indeed I hope that we would also look at whether he has committed an offence under our law. However uncomfortable that may be. Where capital punishment is allowable it should only be sanctioned after due process of law. We have enough of the cowboy approach to world affairs, that philosphy seems to cause more problems than it resolves. Obama is capable of so much better than this.

In the UK my concern is that our new Government ' the coalition' promised the lighter touch, local decision making, less targets, let the people at the front line have the power. Statement 1 from the new Secretary of State for Health is hospitals will be penalised for people who are readmitted within 30 days.  This is obviously a sensible objective but there are a hundred and one reasons why someone might be readmitted. If there is income or expenditure attached to events every detail thereof needs counting, anything that has to be classified and counted needs people to do it, and this adds to the bureaucracy, not reduce it. Where do these people live? Where do they get their ideas from? Who advises them? `It is just more of the same from a government that has promised to do different. Wrong!