WHERE IS BRITAIN’S OBAMA?

ANOTHER week, another storm for the Prime Minister. Gordon Brown’s leadership skills were once again called into question by the media and a number of Labour party heavy weights.

After the furore to get a one to one with US President, Barak Obama at the UN and G20 – which left many pondering the ‘special relationship’ –Brown has ambled on to Brighton and to the Labour Party conference.

It has made me think about the up coming general election next year. Labour seems to be floundering and as Alistair Darling put it, has ‘lost the will to live’. The Conservatives don’t seem to be offering anything new or different apart from ‘savage cuts’, which could possibly worsen the UK’s economy. What choice is there?

Britain needs a change, the public are crying out for it. After the events earlier in the year regarding the MPs expenses scandal, there was a chance for real change and reform in British politics. The public felt disconnected to Westminster and many had lost confidence in their MPs. So far nothing has happened and it looks as though nothing will.

Remember though, It is not just Parliament that needs reform. The gap between rich and poor is the greatest since the 60’s. There need’s to be a tighter grip on the financial system to prevent a repeat of last September. The list could go on.

So it seems Britain is crying out for it’s own Obama, who unfortunately doesn’t seem to exist.

A LITTLE NIBBLE TO KEEP YOU GOING

YES I am back. Two weeks later then promised. I couldn’t even keep to my word of a regular blog each week. Lets forget about the blank spaces and pretend we were all in a coma for a good few days. Good. Frankly I was feeling a little uninspired by the news. It wasn’t as though there were no important stories, it was just I wasn’t gripped by any to investigate further. Not good news for a ‘journo’ in training.

Don’t worry I haven’t been completely uninspired. I have a few ideas I want to develop over the next few weeks. Until then here is a little nibble to suppress you literary hunger.

We are firmly into the annual party political conference season. Kicking off with the Lib Dems. I am sure a vast majority of the population have little, to no idea that this is taking place. It seems that this how politics seems to work in Britain today. Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem party leader (apparently a third of voters have never heard of him) announced that the party will need to seriously consider outlining policies on cuts in public spending prior to the election in contrast to previous elections. There are also hints that the vote winning policy of scrapping student tuition fees could be dropped from the next manifesto.

If only tuition fees had been scrapped already. The past few weeks have seen thousands of students wondering if they will be able to go to university at all this term. The government and Student Finance England, have - to put it bluntly - cocked up big time. It is estimated that 50,000 students will be left without finance at the start of the term due to a delay in processing applications. With a phone line that is permanently busy and a Direct Gov website that is constantly useless it’s a case of waiting for the post. We’ll just have to wait around and twiddle our thumbs nervously.

Back to party conference, Clegg makes his key speech tomorrow. We might find out a little more about the party’s direction, if we are lucky.

BACK TO BLOG

FIRST of all, welcome back from the summer and welcome to a slightly refreshed and newly re-named blog.

It has been a bit of a disappointing summer this year. The promised BBQ weather from the Met Office failed to ignite confirming that we now only have two seasons; the rainy, cold season and the very rainy, very cold season.

If you want to try and get a little sun and top up on your vitamin D the only way is to go abroad. It’s no use relying on the good old ‘British Summer’. I myself have just come back from a two-week holiday in Europe and there was something that really stood out to me. It wasn’t the continental café culture, or the slower pace of the Mediterranean lifestyle. It was the amount of large people that I saw. I’m not talking about the odd paunch or bingo wings, I mean the almost obese. Weight has really become an issue.

I’m not trying to write this in an offensive or hurtful way, but the number of really fat people on the beach was shocking. People would sit and eat rubbish purely for sake of having something to do. This really wasn’t an expected sight on a Greek Island.

We, the west are consuming too much food, not only junk food either. It seems wasteful and counterproductive. It’s almost offensive to those in the world who do not have access to the amounts of food that we do.

Not only do we eat too much food we also waste too much as well. According WRAP (a quango who work to reduce waste) we throw out an estimated 6.7 million tons of food in the UK alone. This is a staggering amount and I am sure we are all guilty of throwing good food away. Love Food, Hate Waste, is a website which can give you recipes for left over food in your fridge. It may just be worth taking a look at before you start throwing out the almost off carrots at the bottom of your fridge.

Finally on another note, I must hold my hands up to the fact that I have been very bad at posting on this blog. When I started in 2008 I had intended to add a new entry at least every week. But as you can see from the vast white spaces below this hasn’t really happened. I have decided to set myself the task again, so it’s back to blog and watch this space. Hopefully it will be filled by next week.

FIGHTING FIRE WITH FIREARMS

LAST week I caught a disturbing report on a change in gun law in Tennessee, America. The change could allow people to take guns into public spaces including restaurants and wait for it – bars.

To me this just shouted out stupidity, surely this was some sort of joke. Lets be honest mixing alcohol with firearms is completely safe and rational, just as drink driving is harmless and has never killed anyone! It doesn’t take the brightest mind to put guns and drink together to work out what could happen on a rowdy Friday night. A misguided comment is all that it could take for the local to turn into a blood bath.

Those in favour of the altered law suggest that it would make their lives safer if they could carry around guns in public spaces. Of course the best way to stop someone murdering your loved one is to pull out a gun on the gunman. The argument supporting the change in law seems to suggest fighting fire with firearms. How a weapon can ever be used in a positive way is beyond me.

To an extent the proposal does not surprise me that much, this is the South of America we are talking about. Many Americans are sickly devoted to the Second Amendment of the US Constitution, the 200 year-old right to bear arms. Some estimate that one in four Americans own a gun, which is roughly 76,000,000 people. That is a large number of guns.

All I can say is that I am glad that my constitution does not permit me or my neighbour the right to bear arms (all be it there is no written constitution but that is a completely different minefield).

A Little Rant About Media Coverage.

THERE has been pretty much wall-to-wall coverage of the sudden death of the ‘king of pop’ Michael Jackson. The story, although very shocking and unexpected, has taken over most of today’s news coverage.

This morning I listened to the Today program on BBC Radio 4. Much of which was dedicated to the story of the pop star’s death. I can honestly say there were few facts being given on the flagship morning news program. The story was even being talked about on ITV’s ‘This Morning’.

I was forced to watch Sky News today, not my preferred source of news. I was watching for the best part of an hour and no other news was mentioned. The headline ‘Michael Jackson has died’ was permanently on screen with the perverse juxtapositions of an archive clip showing the singer announcing his would-be comeback concerts in London at a press conference. It was as if Sky was showing a press-conferencing being held in the afterlife. Viewers were also shown footage from a helicopter showing the megastar’s body being moved into a private ambulance.

This blanket coverage is quite sickening and disturbing. We have been made voyeurs of what should be a respectful and sombre event. However, this is now not shocking. We saw this treatment with the death of Jade Goody not many months ago. The pointless live links and two-ways outside the Hospital or Estate, in which the report repeats the same information he told us not more than 10 minuets ago. The flashy graphics, dramatic scripts and the dreadful ‘have your say’ texts messages and emails from the viewers. It doesn’t make me feel proud of the industry.

Is it right to cover the passing of public or popular figures in such a way?

 

With little else but Jackson on the news today here are a couple of news stories from the UK and around the world.

• A 15 year old boy from Manchester has today been convicted of beating a two-year-old to death who was in his care for 90 minutes.

• Network Rail bosses are to receive bonuses totalling over £1.2m. Two directors will each receive more than £300,000 in bonuses. The bonuses have been awarded despite the company’s annual profit falling and its debt level increasing.

• A bomb in the Iraqi capital Baghdad has killed at least 15 people today. The bomb was hidden in a motorcycle. The bike had been packed with ball bearings and nails. The bombing comes after a week of violence in which 200 Iraqi’s were killed. US combat troops had been planning to pull out of cities in the country in just four days time. US and Iraqi officials state that the withdrawal will still go ahead but expect more violence.

• A senior Iranian Cleric has called on the government to harshly punish riot leaders. Ayatollah Ahmed Khatami was speaking at Friday prayers in Tehran today. The call on the government comes days before the election results are to be ratified by Iranian officials. 
  

Knife Crime

TODAY Monday July 7 2008, marks the third anniversary of the July 7 terror attacks in London.

The suicide bombings on the capital’s transport network shocked the country and brought terrorism to our streets. 52 Innocent lives were cut short, families of those that were killed and people throughout the country were appalled by the act of senseless and callous murder.

Today though it would appear that terrorism is not the biggest worry on the streets, it is in-fact knife crime. So far 19 teenagers have been murdered on the streets of London this year alone, many of them stabbed to death. And the number killed increase week by week.

Just last week, the Metropolitan Police announced they were to make knife crime their number one priority. The Met aims to step up measures - like increased stop and search and the use of metal detectors - to rid the streets of knives. But sadly I don’t this will really have much effect. The root cause needs to be tackled.

So why has knife crime become so prevalent in our society?

The question is complex and not easy to answer at all. Of course it is easy to turn to the bad role models and blame them. But we need to take a closer look at the country we live in today.

We live in a broken society. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. We are obsessed with ourselves, and bettering our own lives. We want to work long hours or feel we must to get as much money as possible. Yet our family lives are becoming more no-existent. Our children spend more time in school then with their parents. And there seems to be a general lack of respect and trust for those in positions of authority.   

I could go on, but maybe that should be left for another time. 

So, it will not be an easy task to rid our streets of the sickening teenage killings. But we must try with all our might to do so to make our country a safer and free place to live. We must pick ourselves up and stand tall to defend what is right, just as we did after the events of three years ago today.

London Elects

TODAY, Thursday 1 May, whilst sitting in the park by Embankment, London I was unfortunate enough to receive a gift from a passing pigeon.

Not only did my newspaper get splattered but my brand new trousers were attacked too. But as they say 'sh*t happens' and I think I will recover. 

More importantly today though, London Elects. We get the chance to change Mayor and change our leadership. This is a welcome thought seeing as we cannot as yet do much about our blithering, blundering PM Mr Brown. 

At the moment it is too close to call as to whether Ken Livingstone (lab) will be re-elected or if bumbling Boris Johnson (con) will be voted in. (Full list of candidates here).

To me though there seems to be a air of change in London today. People I have met on the street seem to be fed up with Mayor Ken, fresh leadership may be just what London needs at the moment.

With the threat of a downturn in the economy if not an economic crisis, this global capital needs strong leadership. And if not from a strong central government then from a strong mayor instead. 

But it is just too hard to predict, Boris and Ken have been changing positions in the polls all week. 

We may not vote the right man (or woman) in but at least if we vote we can have the right to criticize and hold the mayor to account.  

So I urge, if you haven't voted to day, go out and do so. Make sure nothing stops you voting today, not even a pigeon pooing on your head. It didn't stop me.