A TROIKA OF WISE MEN

The bombing of Moscow railway stations this morning is a sad reminder of the common terrorist threat now facing countries like Russia, Britain and the United States, coming as it does on the heels of a historic agreement on post "Cold War" nuclear arms reduction.

However, the "New Order" which has replaced earlier international hostility has created a set of problems of its own, as my previous post indicates.

Asked by an interviewer whom he would most like to meet, one of the authors of "Londongrad" cites a group of oligarchs and Russian Prime Minister Putin.

My own preferred grouping would be Gorbachev, Vaclav Havel and Lech Walesa, suggested to me by an account in Havel's own memoirs, "To the Castle and Back".

Closer to home, and as an antidote to accounts of oligarch excess, I've just started to read Vince Cable's "The Storm",about the causes and consequences of the global financial crisis. I'll include the good Mr Cable in my "Troika" of wise men.

A CITY WITHOUT PEERS...OR TOO MANY ?

Image: Wikipedia Commons

The outing this week of three former New Labour Cabinet members for touting business might have stole some of the thunder from the Budget, had it contained any.

As it happens, I've been reading "Londongrad: from Russia with Cash" by Mark Hollingsworth and Andrew Lansley, a book drawn to my attention by a 2009 Channel 4 Dispatches programme about the influence of oligarch money over peers of all parties.

"Londongrad" draws attention to the impact of Russian oligarchs on the Capital and hinterlands, re-inforcing the City's role as the world's premiere financial centre in the noughties, and contributing to the domination of the UK economy by a small number of geographically concentrated business sectors.

In short, the book draws attention to some fundamental failures of governance, most notably in the former Soviet Union itself, but facilitated by the international community and particularly by Britain.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated story. For whilst the "Londongrad" phenomenum undoubtedly provides one of the most sensational perspectives on the world's "laundry of choice"*, as one African commentator describes some of the Capital's financial and property services, many other countries have lost out to Britain's failures of governance, as well as their own.

Indeed, this might very well be described as "The New British Problem", and there is little evidence that any of the nation's main parties have the wherewithal to tackle it, as last year's Dispatches programme illustrated very well.

For the inconvenient truth is that the British economy is now dependent on its role as the world's "laundry of choice", and it is notable that the Chancellor has postponed the introduction of a higher rate of stamp duty on properties over £1 million until next year, something which will undoubtedly encourage a flurry of international purchases in the meantime.

* BBC Radio 4 "File on 4" 31.10.2006

THE MEN (& Women) WITH NO BRAIN

The hero - or anti-hero - of "The Dollar Trilogy" is "The Man with No Name", and I shall return to him in a future post, but today I want to focus on "The Men with No Brain". Now I'm aware that this expression sounds sexist, so I'd just say that women are included here, but they play a smaller, albeit not insignificant, role.

"No Brainer" - something which requires little or no mental effort - is a term whose usage has become widespread in recent years, along with an apparently insatiable interest in zombies etc. For my own part, I've long suspected an android conspiracy whereby key sections of the UK corporate world, public and private, have been infiltrated by automatons.

My evidence for the presence of these, admittedly high-functioning, drones is their incapacity for individual thought and apparent dependency on some collective "super-brain", possibly located in the United States, but more probably in China. The implications of the global financial crisis would seem to bear out my suspicions.

I also suspect that there may be a hierarchy of such collective brains, with a superior one in London, albeit subservient to more powerful forces elsewhere, and lesser ones operating across the English regions, at County and District level. My own feeling is that the intellectual professions, including many academics, are particularly prey to this collective intelligence.

Fortunately, many other people seem to have a natural immunity to the "No Brainer" virus, and I very much hope that their vote will determine the outcome of the next UK General Election when "The Man with No Name", for his identity is still unclear, will restore this nation's strong tradition of collectivist individualism.

Please also see http://janetmackinnon.wordpress.com - Planners's "Ivory Towers" targeted by Conservative MP

THE DOLLAR TRILOGY OF NEW LABOUR

I began to reflect yesterday on the legacy of New Labour, and it struck me that "The Dollar Trilogy" might provide an alternative narrative for the Blair-Brown years as follows :

1997 to 2001

A Fistful of Dollars

2001 to 2005

For a Few Dollars More

2005 to 2010

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

I refer, of course, to the dominance of "The Special Relationship" between the US and the UK for the past 13 years, the positive aspects of this and its serious consequences.

It must be remembered that New Labour came to power amidst the strong expectation that it would oversee Britain's entry into the Eurozone, although I thought at the time that this was unlikely.

However, the pervasiveness of "The Special Relationship" did not become entirely clear until after the UK joined forces with the US in Iraq, thereby calling into question not only external relations with other key members of United Nations and the European Union, but also within this country's own government.

This has had a very high price indeed, not least because both the US and UK governments clearly had their eyes off the ball from the mid-noughties on economic issues, and most notably in failing to intervene in the global speculative bubble from which the economies of both countries are still reeling.

DEFICITS - The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

News this morning that the European Commission wants Britain to cut the national deficit faster than proposed by the present government has put the issue with which most UK voters are most concerned - the economy stupid - firmly centre stage again, thank goodness !

However, it is not just New Labour and the Liberal Democrats who favour a more softly softly approach to tackling the financial deficit, so do many bankers. The Conservatives, on the other hand, have declared firmly that they do not intend to be dictated to by the money markets.

Meanwhile, the public need to understand the implications of different approaches to dealing the deficit so voters can make an informed choice at the ballot box. What is clear is that the consequences will be serious and far reaching whatever approach is taken.

In short, we can look forward to "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly" - to continue my analogy to "The Dollars Trilogy"* - whoever wins the Election.

The real choice is between a short, sharp shock of the kind favoured by the Conservatives - or economic shock therapy too far for some - and pain management from the other main parties, which may not in the end deliver an economic cure.

* A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More (see below) and The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

The Wild West of UK Financial Services

The wish expressed in my previous post that UK politics might be re-cast as a Spaghetti Western in the run-up to the Budget and General Election seems to have been in part granted by the latest revelations on the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. Lack of robust action by the Financial Services Authority on the bank's UK operations is now being cited by the United States Treasury Department as a contributory factor in the bank's demise, according to BBC Radio this morning. HSBC are also credited with playing a significant role in the collapse of Lehman Brothers, although it is auditors Ernst & Young who come in for most blame. However, whilst one is certainly left with the impression that the "Big Guns" are out for bounty, precisely who will be ingloriously dispatched at the end of the day is still rather less clear.

BUDGET FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE

Like many folks probably, I'm starting to tire of a too long run up to the British General Election. Usually thought-provoking, Channel 4's Dispatches programme on Monday about David Cameron's Conservatives was just plain boring, and I decided to have a bath in order to watch "For A Few Dollars More" on Five later on. If only British politics could be recast in the form of a low budget Spaghetti Western, we could then all look forward to a much more exciting Budget on 24 March, and opposition party response.

"British Politics....murky, obfuscatory, opaque"

This was Mathew Engel's description of The Iraq Inquiry on Friday as Prime Minister Gordon Brown gave evidence, in the weekend edition of the Financial Times. Engel's sketch laments a lack of robust cross-examination, only adding "...one panel member, Sir Roderic Lyne, did show a sharper edge. As ambassador to Moscow in Boris Yelsin's time, he is used to dealing with exasperatingly obtuse leaders."

Michael Foot - The Old & New Politics

Today's announcement of Michael Foot's death is, paradoxically, both a reminder of the Old and New Politics. For whilst he is synonymous with the British Labour Party's "Wilderness Years", which co-incided with the Thatcher Governments of the 1980s, Michael Foot is also strongly associated with progressive liberal and socialist politics which survive in movements like the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and other contemporary anti-militarist campaigns. It should also be remembered that whilst the 1983 Labour Manifesto proposal to nationalise banks was regarded as unthinkable by many people at the time, this is effectively what has happened under New Labour.

GENERAL ELECTION ON LADY DAY ?

In addition to being shared by Basil Fawlty's wife and Alistair Darling's cat, the name Sybil also belongs to creatures from classical mythology endowed with the power of prophesy.

March 25 - known as Lady Day* - was forecast as the date of the 2010 UK General Election earlier in the year.

Could this be one forecast which proves correct ?

*Also New Year's Day until 1752