Been a while...

Oops let this slip didn't I? To be honest its the complete lack of inspiration I've been afflicted with. But I finally found not one but two things I thought I could talk about. I'll look at the more serious one first.

Just the other day David Cameron used the rather unfortunate term "swingeing cuts" to describe what he wouldn't do to the government spending in his first year in power. Regrettably this implies "swingeing cuts" in the years afterwards. (Swingeing cuts just means massive cuts) This public statement has caused deep divide within the conservative party. George Osbourne the Shadow Chancellor disagrees with Cameron's statement, stating that there will be cuts immediately to recover the £178 billion deficit. Such is the confusing nature of politics.

Sadly at the moment it seems that the election will be a choice between two evils, neither of them a lesser. Its either the confused conservatives led by the vague Cameron or the fat and complacent Labour party led by the uncharismatic Gordon Brown. Lets hope we choose the right one somehow.

On a lighter note ever notice how annoying it is when stupid people can't follow a brilliant joke? Hope you've all been picking comedy referees like I told you too.

Be casual. Be happy.

The beginning of the end

It's a shame I didn't start this blog earlier because if i had my prediction that we would leave Afghanistan before the end of 2010 would have been documented. In echoes of Churchill's "beginning of the end", the conference on Afghanistan in London heard repeatedly about the beginning of a "transition" to Afghan control.

It's become or rather has been for a while one big mess. In reality it should be years before we start leaving or reducing troop numbers but Afghanistan is a political embarrassment for Brown and Obama. It's an unpleasant left over from the previous administrations of Blair and Bush. The current leaders of the free world cannot wait to leave. They use the word transition to start shifting all responsibility for both good and bad to the Afghans.

While this may seem cold and underhanded in reality its not a completely bad thing. Afghanistan is the Afghans problem when its all boiled down. Doubtless they will face many years of fighting the Taliban but they will not be alone, they will receive continued funding from the US and Allied troops are not just going to disappear. However the body count will now fall almost exclusively on the shoulders of the Afghan people.

In the end no one in the West wants war. The terrorist threat for the most part seems to have subsided, the hysteria of the past few years has grown weaker and now more pressing matters like the recession have taken hold.

If Afghanistan wants to democracy and a functioning society its going to have to prove it. Its going to have shed more blood. Endure more years of hardship. And be prepared to really mean it.

Oops he did it again

The less popular younger Conservative version of Tony Blair. Who am I talking about? David Cameron obviously. Why is he in the headlines again? Well because has once again stunned the nation with his ability to hammer another nail into the coffin of what should be an easy landslide victory come June/July. His newest policy is a "brazenly elitist" approach to teaching in essence denying training to graduates with poor degrees. While this is highly idealistic it is also impratical and reflects Camerons role as leader of the Conservative party. Its his job to come up with policies like this but should the common voter simply accept or ignore them because they wish to remove the unpopular Gordon Brown from office? This is of course up to the voters but they may wish to think carefully about the repercussions of electing such a man.