When will they ever learn . . .

Cameron wants the Commons to vote in favour of British troops bombing ISIS in Syria.
He says this will make us safer. It will do exactly the opposite.
All it will do is make Cameron feel better when he meets other leaders.
Our politicians never learn. They make the same mistakes over and over again.
No wonder so many young people voted for Jeremy Corbyn.

Bombs or brains?

David Cameron is banging on again about military action 'to make us safe'. What planet is he on?
Let us suppose that our brilliant army, navy and air force, backed by our nuclear arsenal, manage to wipe out Daesh/ISIS in both Syria and Iraq.
Are we to believe that, after celebrating our brave success, we will be immune from terrorism?
George Bush and Tony Blair thought that by invading some Arab country and 'shocking and awing' them into submission, we could somehow avenge the terrorist attack on New York and make the West safe from terrorism. They were wrong. Terrorism has increased. Why do we think military action will succeed now?

We are a county with the military might we needed half a century ago. 
Daesh/ISIS are a terrorist organisation with the military might they need now.
We might defeat them if we used the same tools they have, but we don't want to use soldiers with guns and tanks. Our public wouldn't stand for it.
We might defeat them if we used our nuclear weapons, but we don't want to do that.
So we use the things we have that they don't - air power, missiles, drones. And those tools won't defeat a terrorist group who can melt into the general population.
All military action will do is satisfy the politicians' need to do something and the terrorist leaders' need to have an enemy.

Terrorists are clever. They strike when we are not expecting it, at targets who are not prepared for it. 
We will only defeat them by being cleverer than they are and pre-empting those strikes. To do that, we must accept more surveillance, more action against those who indoctrinate.
Terrorism is the new way of fighting. We need to resist it with a new form of defence.

Big pond, small pond

The European Union is about working together.

It believes that European interests are as important as national interests, and, in time, will become more important than national interests.

The freedom of movement, goods and services, along with the single currency, make the people of Europe citizens of a continent, not just a country.

Politicians in Britain and in several other countries, cannot get their heads around this. They keep banging on about their national interest.

The solution is not, as David Cameron suggests, for Europe to become more like Britain. It is for those who believe in a European future to divest themselves of those who don’t.

Not a two-speed Europe, a single-minded Europe which decides on what terms other countries can deal with it.

The Europeans will decide what happens; share services, resources, regulations and data; deal as a group with international companies and other countries.

Those outside won’t have any say in what happens; won’t have the same access to services, resources or data; and will have to deal with multi-national companies and other countries on their own.

I want to be a European. I may be in a minority in Britain, if the media and politicians are to be believed. But my life will be better if the things which affect me are decided by Dutch, French, German and Italian representatives as well as those from Britain than it will be if my local representatives decide them all with no reference to any wider picture.

A different guy

The media just don't get Jeremy Corbyn. They are looking at everything he does and saying 'a normal political leader wouldn't do that'. Of course he doesn't. That is why so many people voted for him in the leadership election.
He went to an anniversary service for the Battle of Britain. He did wear a tie, which was surprising. He didn't sing the national anthem. Shame! Disrespect!
Nothing of the sort. If, like me, he doesn't care for gods and he thinks the monarchy is an anachronism, why would he sing 'God save the Queen'?
I like a bloke who does his own thing, not the things people do because everyone else does them.

People in glass houses . . .

The European Union Competition Commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, is going after Google. She reckons Google dominates the search market and should not 'abuse its powerful market position by restricting competition with others in markets where it is dominant, or in neighbouring markets'.
Interesting how European commissioners are keen to tackle big American companies, but less keen to tackle the protectionism in many European countries and in farming all over the EU, which also restricts competition.
The EU tackled Microsoft and insisted it changed the way it bundled browser and other software with its operating system. There are lots of operating systems and lots of browsers, but the EU still thought it ought to be brought down a peg or two to give the second-raters a hand. 
Likewise there are many search engines and many comparison websites. Google is used by most people because it is the best and it is free. You can pay to have your adverts appear in Google searches, but to the ordinary punter, the service is free. Nonetheless, the EU thinks it restricts competition.
Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Apple have all succeeded because their founders are driven mavericks who made brilliant ideas work. They did not need government help.
Any European entrepreneurs who aim to match those achievements will do so by their own efforts, not because the EU has hobbled the market leaders. 
I'm in favour of the European Union, but this sort of government-knows-best nonsense gives huge help to the anti-Europe nationalists.
Europe should sort out its own problems before trying to put the world to rights.

Election-free zone

This blog is an election-free zone. There is more than enough political rubbish in the newspapers and on TV and radio.
I don't care who promises what, or who wins.

Where is the United Nations?

Two soldiers:
Mohammed Emwazi. Trained by his army. Obeying his orders. Killing his enemies.
Joshua Leakey. Trained by his army. Obeying his orders. Killing his enemies.
Both used by their respective authorities to publish their message to the world. Mohammed in videos on YouTube. Joshua with a Victoria Cross medal.
It is all part of the old, old narrative. They are bad. We are good. What they do is bad. What we do is good.
But who are we? And whose message do we believe? Three schoolgirls from east London gave their answer to that this week.
The world is more complicated than it was. It needs more sophisticated solutions than those we used in the Crusades in the Middle Ages.
After the last world war, the United Nations was set up to prevent such conflict by providing a forum where problems could be discussed and, where necessary, solved by force sanctioned by a majority of the countries. What is the United Nations doing about Syria, Libya, Nigeria, Ukraine? Where are the blue-beret troops from many countries? Why is it left to the old big powers to take action on their own account - in their own interest. Why was Angela Merkel negotiating a ceasefire in Ukraine and not Ban-Ki Moon?
If the United Nations decides to do something, I am more ready to believe it is right than if America, Britain, Russia, or Islamic State tell me it is.

Rights and wrongs

I ain't lookin' to compete with you
Beat or cheat or mistreat you
Simplify you, classify you
Deny, defy or crucify you
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you
        - Bob Dylan, All I really want to do

Fundamental beliefs are personal. In a civilised society, you can believe in anything you want. You must also accept that everyone else can believe in what they want.
If society is to remain civilised, we should not impose our beliefs on others, or deny others their beliefs. We should enjoy our differences and get along together in spite of those differences.
What we have seen in Paris is a bunch of journalists whose belief in freedom of speech made them think they should publish things which they knew would offend those with different beliefs. That is wrong.
They were killed by two extremists whose belief in the teachings of Islam made them think they should kill people who mock those beliefs. That is wrong, too.
Both factions think that their own belief allows them to attack others. It doesn't.
In uncivilised societies, the belief of those in control is imposed on those who are controlled. Those who think differently are punished.
In civilised societies, we have to control ourselves.