Grey power

The debate about how we elect MPS is interesting. It demonstrates the black and white nature of our politics.

Black says our way is right and the white lot would ruin it. White says the black lot are ruining it.

The reality is that black and white are both grey. Their ways are more or less the same. It doesn't matter which one is in power.

One faction does better under the blacks. Another does better under the whites. Most of us do better when times are good and worse when they are bad. And a government, of any hue, has little control over that.

So how we vote for our MPs matters little.

We have first-past-the-post now, which means there are safe Tory seats, safe Labour seats and the LibDems, Greens and other fringe parties may get an odd seat here and there, but are never going to gain a majority. Once a blue moon, neither black nor white gains an outright majority and the LibDems, or one of the other fringies, may be offered a coalition.

We are offered Alternative Voting, which would still produce safe seats, but might give the fringe parties a better chance in the seats which aren't safe. This might increase the number of times when a coalition is needed.

So what? European countries often have coalition governments. Germany does and Germany is doing better than most of us.

We have a coalition and the wheels have not fallen off. The LibDems are getting a lot of stick for taking part, but all political parties get stick from other political parties all the time. The punch and judy show at Question Time demonstrates this. The only other people who behave like this are football fans.

The party we vote for, the way we vote for them, are just details. When we get fed up with one lot, we can vote them out, whatever voting system we use.

People in Zimbabwe and Libya would love to have any parties to vote for and any way of voting.

Sir Alex Ferguson

Sir Alex Ferguson has been banned from the touchline for five matches and fined £30,000 by the FA.
The FA aren't fit to lace his boots. What has the FA ever achieved? What has Sir Alex Ferguson achieved?
Sir Alex is passionate about football. So are football fans. It's a game of passion.
Referees have a difficult job, so difficult that they sometimes make mistakes.
If the FA don't organise some way for referees' mistakes to be put right; if the FA simply say obey the referee and shut up, they will get managers shouting their mouths off. And if their only response to that is to ban and fine the giants of the game, they lose any remaining respect from the people who play and watch football.
The FA should do the job is is there to do - organise the game properly.
John McEnroe used to be censured for disputing line calls. Now, tennis players simply ask for Hawkeye to demonstrate whether the ball was in our out. What is the FA doing about using technology to demonstrate whether a player is offside, or whether a ball has crossed the goal line? Nothing. All they say is obey the ref and shut up.
The FA should not fine Sir Alex. They should listen to him and work out how to stop him moaning by making the game demonstrably more fair.

Success

We crave success. We hate those who achieve it.

Rupert Murdoch is the latest successful man to raise our hackles. He actually wants to profit by his success. And people say the Government is guilty, too. It shouldn’t let him be so successful.

In the West, it is possible for any of us to be a success in business, sport or showbiz. All you need is a vision and the ability, guts and determination to make it work.

Very few have all these qualities.

Millions of youngsters are clever with computers. Bill Gates at Microsoft, Sergey Brin and Larry Page at Google and Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook have turned their skill into businesses generating millions. The rest are just clever with computers.

Millions of youngsters are brilliant at sport. Roger Federer, Valentino Rossi and Lance Armstrong are champions. The rest are good losers.

We like a good loser. The Americans say a good loser will always be a loser.

Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger are bad losers. They have cupboards full of trophies to prove it.

Rupert Murdoch built a successful newspaper business in Australia. He then came to Britain and wanted to repeat the trick. We wanted all sorts of assurances before we let him buy The Times. We didn’t ask him if he was prepared to pour money into it, to employ journalists in it, even though it has never made him money. He did because it was part of his vision.

He saw the possibilities in satellite broadcasting. He reckoned people would be prepared to pay for good programmes. They didn't initially, so he did a deal with British Satellite Broadcasting, which limited both their losses and bought the joint company the time to make it work.

That took guts and a lot of money. But, eventually, the losses turned to profits – huge profits.

He spent the money to produce good programmes - Sky News, with all its journalists, Sky Sports and HBO programmes, even though they cost him a fortune.

He then took the same vision to America and made it work there, too. And if you succeed in America, you become rich and powerful. They understand about success and power in America.

Now, he wants to buy out his old BSB partners here in the UK. He wants to keep all the profits, no doubt so that he, or his organisation, has the money to spend on other ventures.

We want assurances again. We don’t think the Government should let him do this. He would become too successful. He would overshadow other News organisations.

The door is open to any other news company to be as successful, as powerful. They could try to emulate his success, or even exceed it.

But they don’t. They complain and try to restrict him.

Go web, young man

In the old days, you needed to know where you could get stuff. All the shops in your town which sold the DIY stuff you wanted, the records and books you wanted. The places you could go with a stripped bolt and say I want something like this.
Now, we have the long tail of the internet, which will find you something like this wherever it is and charge you a pittance to have it sent to you.
Example: I needed a short HDMI lead. Nothing fancy, just a 1 metre lead.
PC World had one in an awful bubble pack for an amazing £26. Maplin, who used to have cheap stuff, charge the same price.
On the web, various cable firms can do one for £6 to £8 plus postage.
Amazon, bless them, found a Marketplace bunch who wanted just 20p for a 1 metre HDMI lead, plus £1.99 for postage.
The web has taken all the skill out of being an anorak.