On the BBC's programme, Question Time, the former deputy leader of the Labour Party, John Prescott, seemed to agree with the statement that his Party's abandonment of the UK's nuclear energy programme was due to the lobbying of the National Union of Mineworkers. They had forsaken the interests of the British Nation for the ideological support of their left-wing backers. Some might call this treachery!
After the war, the UK was one of the leaders in nuclear technology with a centre of excellence at Harwell. As a result of the Labour Party's policies, the country has lost almost all of its competative edge along with all its experience and accumulated knowledge. These days what is left of Harwell and nearby Culham seem to be more involved with experimental physics than developing new technologies for generating power. Sure, a lot of money was spent chasing the 'Fusion' dream rather than say, Thorium technology, but to my mind it was like looking for the perpetual motion machine whilst other countries such as France and Japan knuckled down to making better use of what was already known. Now, with the fossil fuels running low and the Country at the mercy of gas producers such as Russia, renwables such as the stupid wind turbines will not be able to meet the Country's energy need when the old Magnox reactors are closed down.
So keen were the Labour party to chase votes nand appease their followers, they lost sight of the National Interest. This can't be right!
It is a prime example of why the democratic system fails the Nation and my system of a five man 'Politburo' should be adopted. Quite correctly the matter should have been debated in Parliament, the motion reviewed in the revising chamber before being forwarded and rejected as not being in the public interest by the Politburo.
An outline of my form of meritocracy can be found here:
http://www.kevilldavies.com/2010/04/failure-of-lemming-party-case-for.html
Saturday, 26 May 2012
Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Sales of British assets
Here we go again.
According to the Daily Telegraph, Krauss-Maffei Wegmann is set to announce today that is has bought Williams Fairey Engineering (WFEL), which was founded in 1915 and has grown into a world leader in the manufacturing of mobile bridges for military forces.
The deal is the latest example of British engineering expertise being snapped up by foreign wealth.
WFEL has been owned by private equity group Dunedin since 2006 and the deal with KMW, which helped to make Tiger tanks for German forces during the Second World War, is thought to be worth around £60m.
The company, which employs 250 engineers at its base in the north-west, is still located in the same factory but diversified into bridge-making in the 1970s. The bridges are used by more than 40 armed forces around the world, including in the UK.
Dunedin do not care about heritage or tradition or the loss of British skills to a foreign competitor because they are only interested in profit. I am sick of these Private Equity companies who trade in companies as if they were commodities, perhaps adding value by asset stripping or making redundancies regardless of the wider consequences.
I believe the British Government should stop this deal and others like it before it's too late.
According to the Daily Telegraph, Krauss-Maffei Wegmann is set to announce today that is has bought Williams Fairey Engineering (WFEL), which was founded in 1915 and has grown into a world leader in the manufacturing of mobile bridges for military forces.
The deal is the latest example of British engineering expertise being snapped up by foreign wealth.
WFEL has been owned by private equity group Dunedin since 2006 and the deal with KMW, which helped to make Tiger tanks for German forces during the Second World War, is thought to be worth around £60m.
The company, which employs 250 engineers at its base in the north-west, is still located in the same factory but diversified into bridge-making in the 1970s. The bridges are used by more than 40 armed forces around the world, including in the UK.
Dunedin do not care about heritage or tradition or the loss of British skills to a foreign competitor because they are only interested in profit. I am sick of these Private Equity companies who trade in companies as if they were commodities, perhaps adding value by asset stripping or making redundancies regardless of the wider consequences.
I believe the British Government should stop this deal and others like it before it's too late.
The fall of Singapore
I am still haunted by the BBC programme last Monday on the fall of Singapore to the Japanese in the Second World War and the alleged perfidy of the Lord Sempill.
The programme reported on files recently released into the public domain showing that Sempill and another flying pioneer, Frederick Rutland, were under investigation by MI5 almost from the beginning but didn't act. To those who argue that it is wrong to accuse a man who having died in 1965 cannot answer his critics, the programme showed that he did have the opportunity to make his case in a specially held tribunal and he failed to allay the fears of those who feared that the nobleman was sharing secrets with the Japanese and actively helping them to build a carrier fleet of such power it was subsequently able to carry out the devestating attack on Pearl Harbour.
It can be argued that the Colonel and Master of Sempill was initially helping British allies because during WWI, the Japanese were indeed on the side of the allies but as their imperialist ambitions broadened, so did their need for the latest war technology including carrier know-how and the design of massive airborn bombs. However, such was Sempill's apparent affection for the Japanese, their political philosophy had some resonance with his own right wing ideology, he continued supplying information to them for small payments despite it becoming clear that they were becoming a likely enemy. That he was selling information to a prospective enemy was known to MI5 and eventually Winston Churchill. Sempill even served in Churchill's war office and was was almost certainly the source of top secret information on the meeting of Churchill and Roosevelt that was passed to the Japanese and intercepted by Bletchley Park, the British surveillance centre. Still, nothing was done to curb the man's influence, MI5 fearing that to expose him would compromise the secret's service own information gathering techniques.
Meanwhile, Rutland, a dedicated flier had left the British military and hired himself to the Japanese for the purpose of training their pilots how to land and takeoff from carriers, skills they were to use to devastating effect at Pearl Harbour and in the invasion of Singapore.
Many questions are raised by these revelations, not least by those who lost their loved ones to the Japanese.
Why did MI5 take no further action against Sempill when it became clear he was acting against the interest of the UK? Did they fear that he might betray other, at the time more serious, secrets?
Why didn't Churchill act more decisively knowing he had a possible spy in his midst? Did Sempill have some hold over him? Did Sempill have some knowledge of Churchill's private life? The MI5 might have had him assassinated but didn't. Did they fear a secret being uncovered in the event of his death?
Sempill was interned during the war against the Japanese but was left to live out his life in peace, receiving a distinguished medal from his sponsors.
Rutland took his own life after the war.
The programme reported on files recently released into the public domain showing that Sempill and another flying pioneer, Frederick Rutland, were under investigation by MI5 almost from the beginning but didn't act. To those who argue that it is wrong to accuse a man who having died in 1965 cannot answer his critics, the programme showed that he did have the opportunity to make his case in a specially held tribunal and he failed to allay the fears of those who feared that the nobleman was sharing secrets with the Japanese and actively helping them to build a carrier fleet of such power it was subsequently able to carry out the devestating attack on Pearl Harbour.
It can be argued that the Colonel and Master of Sempill was initially helping British allies because during WWI, the Japanese were indeed on the side of the allies but as their imperialist ambitions broadened, so did their need for the latest war technology including carrier know-how and the design of massive airborn bombs. However, such was Sempill's apparent affection for the Japanese, their political philosophy had some resonance with his own right wing ideology, he continued supplying information to them for small payments despite it becoming clear that they were becoming a likely enemy. That he was selling information to a prospective enemy was known to MI5 and eventually Winston Churchill. Sempill even served in Churchill's war office and was was almost certainly the source of top secret information on the meeting of Churchill and Roosevelt that was passed to the Japanese and intercepted by Bletchley Park, the British surveillance centre. Still, nothing was done to curb the man's influence, MI5 fearing that to expose him would compromise the secret's service own information gathering techniques.
Meanwhile, Rutland, a dedicated flier had left the British military and hired himself to the Japanese for the purpose of training their pilots how to land and takeoff from carriers, skills they were to use to devastating effect at Pearl Harbour and in the invasion of Singapore.
Many questions are raised by these revelations, not least by those who lost their loved ones to the Japanese.
Why did MI5 take no further action against Sempill when it became clear he was acting against the interest of the UK? Did they fear that he might betray other, at the time more serious, secrets?
Why didn't Churchill act more decisively knowing he had a possible spy in his midst? Did Sempill have some hold over him? Did Sempill have some knowledge of Churchill's private life? The MI5 might have had him assassinated but didn't. Did they fear a secret being uncovered in the event of his death?
Sempill was interned during the war against the Japanese but was left to live out his life in peace, receiving a distinguished medal from his sponsors.
Rutland took his own life after the war.
Sunday, 20 May 2012
Subliminal messaging
I wonder if you saw the ground advertisement during the Chelsea Bayern Munich European Cup match yesterday.
My eyesight is failing, I admit, but I thought I saw a sign saying 'Go Fuhrer'. Wiping my eyes and looking again I saw it said: 'Go Further' but I couldn't help but wonder if the Bavarians were conducting some sort of subliminal messaging.
My eyesight is failing, I admit, but I thought I saw a sign saying 'Go Fuhrer'. Wiping my eyes and looking again I saw it said: 'Go Further' but I couldn't help but wonder if the Bavarians were conducting some sort of subliminal messaging.
Sale of Bird's Eye
There is news that the British frozen food manufacturer 'Bird's Eye' is likely to be sold to an overseas buyer.
The owner of Bird's Eye is a company called Permira, a firm that is described as an European Private Equity company. It is not the only frozen food company that is owned by a Private Equity fund; Lion Capital owns Young's seafoods and was recently referred to the monopolies commission when attempting to buy Cumbrian Seafoods. It is thought that Lion may have cornered the market in smoked salmon if the deal went ahead.
This exploitation of the markets for personal greed was recently seen when a bank JP Morgan tried to corner the copper market.
Why do I feel such a sense of loss when British companies are sold to overseas concerns and see them subsequently desecrated with impunity such as at Cadbury's. Kraft, an American company felt that the Chocolate manufacturer was undervalued in the stock market and bought it, closing factories and moving the headquarters to Switzerland. The country lost not only tax revenue on the company's profits but also valuable jobs and likely expertise in a business that was pre-eminant in its market. Like the Private Equity companies, Kraft didn't care about the history, the heritage, the effect of the move on the workforce and the surrounding area. The only thing that mattered was profit for Kraft shareholders at whatever human cost.
Like JP Morgan with copper, Permira and Lion have no business to be in frozen foods. They trade in stock market value only and run their companies as an accountant rather than as a miner or fisherman, say. Not for the first time I wonder if this is the way forward or is it, in fact, the reason the Country has so much unemployment and unhappiness. Too few people are cornering, not just the copper and seafood, but the money in the Country causing a huge disparity between those who have and those who haven't.
I believe in big rewards for those who create wealth by invention or manufacture. But rewarding those who do neither of this things but manipulate markets is not only stupid but will ultimately bring down the World order.
The owner of Bird's Eye is a company called Permira, a firm that is described as an European Private Equity company. It is not the only frozen food company that is owned by a Private Equity fund; Lion Capital owns Young's seafoods and was recently referred to the monopolies commission when attempting to buy Cumbrian Seafoods. It is thought that Lion may have cornered the market in smoked salmon if the deal went ahead.
This exploitation of the markets for personal greed was recently seen when a bank JP Morgan tried to corner the copper market.
Why do I feel such a sense of loss when British companies are sold to overseas concerns and see them subsequently desecrated with impunity such as at Cadbury's. Kraft, an American company felt that the Chocolate manufacturer was undervalued in the stock market and bought it, closing factories and moving the headquarters to Switzerland. The country lost not only tax revenue on the company's profits but also valuable jobs and likely expertise in a business that was pre-eminant in its market. Like the Private Equity companies, Kraft didn't care about the history, the heritage, the effect of the move on the workforce and the surrounding area. The only thing that mattered was profit for Kraft shareholders at whatever human cost.
Like JP Morgan with copper, Permira and Lion have no business to be in frozen foods. They trade in stock market value only and run their companies as an accountant rather than as a miner or fisherman, say. Not for the first time I wonder if this is the way forward or is it, in fact, the reason the Country has so much unemployment and unhappiness. Too few people are cornering, not just the copper and seafood, but the money in the Country causing a huge disparity between those who have and those who haven't.
I believe in big rewards for those who create wealth by invention or manufacture. But rewarding those who do neither of this things but manipulate markets is not only stupid but will ultimately bring down the World order.
Wednesday, 9 May 2012
More common sense from Nigel Farage
More common sense from Nigel Farage concerning the EU. How long can serious politicians ignore this man and his prediction of massive civil unrest unless the EU is reformed.
Watch him here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hJ6_Ey_MJV4
Watch him here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hJ6_Ey_MJV4
Traditional Segovian Dancing
During a recent tour or Spain, I filmed a dance in the Plaza Mayor. Click on the following link to view:
Traditional Segovian dancing
A travelogue describing the trip will follow.
Traditional Segovian dancing
A travelogue describing the trip will follow.
Tuesday, 8 May 2012
London Mayoral Election results
The biggest surprise in the London Mayoral elections is not that Boris Johnson won but that almost a million people voted for Livingstone despite his standing for the Party that brought the Nation to its economic knees and that he is a champagne socialist making huge amounts of money whilst being reluctant to pay his full taxes. When will the people learn and if they won't learn, take away their vote?
I was disappointed with the result for UKIP. The Liberal Democrats and Greens both polled twice as many votes but I'm sure it won't always be this way. As each country discovers how disastrous the EU and the Euro is for their people, the traditional Parties will be forced to respond and who knows, Nigel Farage may become the man of the moment. Momentous times lie ahead. Let's hope the politicians see sense before the people take to the streets in their millions. If they are stupid enough to vote for Livingstone, they are certainly capable of trashing Cities.
I was disappointed with the result for UKIP. The Liberal Democrats and Greens both polled twice as many votes but I'm sure it won't always be this way. As each country discovers how disastrous the EU and the Euro is for their people, the traditional Parties will be forced to respond and who knows, Nigel Farage may become the man of the moment. Momentous times lie ahead. Let's hope the politicians see sense before the people take to the streets in their millions. If they are stupid enough to vote for Livingstone, they are certainly capable of trashing Cities.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
