Guess who impressed Widro? Yep, Widro so moderately liked my column last week that decided to promote me from scab labour to the permanent Thursday guy. Now I would talk about what you can expect from this column each week but it’s like 2 in the morning here and I wanna go bed so let’s just say I’ll be focusing on the three p’s: plugging, politics and (my) personal life. Although for this week only the first two because I’m writing this quite late after a great day and half of a house party/barbeque, which I’ll give you more details about next week. Plus something interesting happened in British politics so I wanna talk about that”¦sorry Widro.
The Plug Section
I must admit this week has been a bloody hectic week for me so far so I actually haven’t read this site that much and as I’m doing this having came back from watching England and then catching up on Fox News I haven’t really got time to do an in depth plug section. So of course read everything you can but from my skim search of the site the following are well worth reading:
Okay in my weekly moan about video games being shit today I will mention the fact that because all developers apart from Nintendo and Sega have forgotten how to make fun and interesting games I’ve been reduced to a casual gamer. And by casual I mean; usually buys four games a year-one wrestling, one football, one football management and one surprise. And guess what? I don’t think this year I’m going bother with the wrestling game because I hated the last Smackdown game. I mean I’m a bastard for button bashing when playing fighting games but my thumbs were sore after about five minutes”¦plus they still haven’t devised a good story mode for it. Anyway for those who aren’t completely bitter and dejected at the state of video gaming go over to games and check Matt Yeage’s excellent review of a non-excellent WWE game that you’ll buy only so you can smash Eugene’s face in . Again, I really wish I gave a monkey’s about video games because the level of writing in the Games section is amazing.
You may not know this but Ben’s got a girlfriend (yep even we comic fans get them) and her name’s Megan and sometimes she’s writes for The Nexus and provides a fresh viewpoint on comicdom unaffected by spending way too much time obsessing about the little things. She guest stars in this week’s >The Watchtower , a column that somehow actually made me interested for Teen Titans*.
You may also want to check out Iain Burnside’s Marvel News and Views if only to hear the poor lad’s deluded ramblings about being the sexy beast of The Nexus. I mean c’mon, he’s a nice Scotch lad but when you’ve got hunks like Manolis, Mathan and Daron in The Nexus-all of whom are hung like donkeys-who does he think he’s kidding.
Also check out the debut Across The Pond by myself. It’s a column full of news, exclusive art previews about the best British comics out there. I know its egotistical to plug your own work but you have no idea the trouble we had getting this up. Thanks again to Daron, a lifesaver like always.
Also check out Eric S’s Triple Threat Short Forum for more grooving screen shots and a shocking attack on yours truly”¦would like to know how he knows that my analysis of the RNC was “propaganda” based on watching only five seconds of it”¦
I’m just saying.
Anyway that’s enough plugs”¦let’s talk politics baby!
President George W. Bus’s Speech
I think even the most diehard liberal would be hard pressed to admit that on a purely political level Bush was so on fire with his convention speech. Bush walked onto the BushTron with three goals in mind; one don’t screw up, two to say something interesting and enthusing about domestic issues and three confirm his near unassailable lead on the War on Terror against John Kerry. How did he do?
Well, he didn’t screw up for starters. He delivered a speech with a warmth and personality that was fun to watch something that simply wasn’t true of the unsmiling Kerry from a few weeks ago. I honestly believe that the body language of the two candidates could be a deciding factor in this election, Bush just looks more at ease on camera than Kerry and because of that is more convincing and captivating on TV. The domestic agenda stuff was interesting if not particular of any major concern to me (I after all don’t live in America) but I find Bus’s use of the a large and ever growing state to expand freedom a fascinating rethinking not only of the economics of Adam Smith but the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes and the idea of Leviathan, something I’ll probably write about when I get to restart Writings From The Soapbox. The interesting thing about it is that in the conservative family it actually places Bus’s domestic policies closes to Chirqac than say Ronald Regan, which is slightly strange. Then there was the rousing close on the War on Terror and Iraq, which was simply an awesome piece of oratory. The emphasis on freedom and the return to the pan-Americanism that always produces the most internally coherent argument for Iraqi regime change produces a passionate defence of the war and also the coalition that fought it. However perhaps where Bush was most effective was in his attack on Kerry, the passages painting Kerry as a flip-flopper were extremely effective due to the fact that they were delivered in an understated manner with Kerry’s “nuances” allowed to speak for themselves. Couple that with the superb and oh too short section where he talked about his weaknesses, which was a great humanizing moment. An effective speech that if the polls are to be believed (and I’m not talking about them until we get some post Labour Day Weekend ones) has alongside an equally effective convention caused Bush to create a surprisingly impressive lead.
However there is one criticism, what the hell was George Pakai doing introducing Bush? I can understand you wanting the Governor of New York i.e. reminding everyone of 9/11 but they had General Tommy Franks making a speech of endorsement for Bush on the convention floor at a time when almost everyone missed it. Surely he would have been perfect to introduce Bush, would certainly stop Kerry arguing the military were being ignored.
Anyway enough of this American rubbish let’s talk about British politics! We join the action with the MPs back from their summer holidays and two reshuffles on their way”¦
Blair Reshuffles Cabinet
So our annual reshuffle of the Government’s top team has been and gone with only two changes, a surprisingly limited reshuffle. The reshuffle was launched by the resignation of Andrew Smith who had been our Works and Pensions Secretary (i.e. guy in charge of the hand outs!).
Now Andrew Smith was barely know outside Westminster (where our parliament/political class is based) for the very good reasons that he was as boring as sin. He was the type of ugly, no charisma, no original thought, jumped up bureaucrat that this Government in increasingly shoving into almost every single major spending department (i.e. one that de runs a state monopoly or service) they have in the mistaken belief that is the minister has the sex appeal of an accountant he may spend like one. However, as British readers will know and be thoroughly sick of there is a fault line right through the middle of the British Government. On the one hand you have the Prime Minster Tony Blair and on the other you have the Chancellor (Treasury and Public Spending Minister) Gordon Brown. The two have been at loggerheads for nigh on ten years now because these two former best friends kinda fell out when Blair surpassed the older Brown and became Labour Leader and then Prime Minister first. Now our ruling Labour Party has virtually split into two armed camps with each one just itching to fight the other and only stopped by the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction. You see in Britain because the Chancellor is such a powerful minister even more so in Brown’s case with his control over how public services are run if s/he publicly falls out with the Prime Minister its basically curtains for the Government. Now obviously that’s bad for Blair, but it’d also be bad for Brown because he would be blamed for destroying the Government and so miss out on the succession, which at the moment is his the minute Blair leaves. So the two have been doomed to a tense co-existence, both detesting the other but frustrated in the knowledge that they need each other to survive.
Anyway history lesson over, as I was saying virtually every minister is either dubbed a Blairite or a Brownite. Andrew Smith was a Brownite as have all the Pensions Secretary’s under Blair since the disastrous Harriet Harriman/Frank Field experiment. This is largely because the entire benefit system has been overtaken by the Treasury with the Chancellor viewing Pensions as a little offshoot of his department. Now Blair decided to move him originally because he wanted his controversial mentor and confidant Peter Mandleson to replace (which whilst political suicidal and morally repugnant was actually quite a good idea) but was told by the rest of the Cabinet to get stuffed. The result was that Mandy was packed off to Brussels to eat caviar and kiss his political career away. However, Blair and those close to him had still decided to get rid of Smith and so began a briefing campaign against him, which is to be honest really pathetic. The idea that Blai’s position is so fragile that he has to soften the media up to allow him to sack the most unappealing Cabinet minister he has is staggering. The fact that he went to all this trouble to make Alan Johnson Pensions Secretary in his place is amazing. I mean I didn’t like Smith, but Johnson no different except the extremely petty fact that he’s a Blairite. If he had promoted someone exciting like David Milliband or Ooma King or even got Frank Field back and tried again at welfare reform then I’d be happy but really this is same old shit different stick.
However, the really big story and the true sign of Blai’s impotence is the return of arch-Blairite Alan Milburn to the Cabinet after a 14month absence due to his resigning as Health Secretary to “spend more time with his family”. Now alongside news that Smith had resigned was the rumour that Blair wanted Milburn to replace Ian McCartney as Labour Party Chairmen only to be blocked by his Deputy John Prescott and Gordon Brown both of whom wanted McCartney to stay and weren’t too keen on Milburn anyway. Now I think Milburn’s slightly overrated, I mean he’s not bad on TV as he’s quite articulate but he comes across as too smug and self satisfied for my tastes. There’s something a bit unreal and inhuman about him that tells the lie about claims he could challenge for the leadership of the labour if Blair was to step down. Still he’d be a lot better than McCartney at the TV and organisation side of things, where he wouldn’t succeed quite so much is dealing with the Trade Unions that bankroll Labour. So basically, Blair was proposing a sensible if flawed change and yet was blocked, a fact made worse when you consider that Milburn is the most senior ally that Blair has left in British politics. Now that said the compromise they’ve reached is good, with Milburn becoming Policy and Election Coordinator (sounds an awful lot like what the Tories’ get their Chairmen to do) with the sinecure post of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster giving him a place in the Cabinet. However, still Blair should have been able to get his way and the fact he didn’t doesn’t bode well for Milburn making a success of this job if the Brownites pick a fight.
Tory Shadow Cabinet Reshuffle
Unlike America where your opposition waits eight months before the election to selection its leader in Britain there is always a leader for the opposition parties. What’s more the leader of the second largest party is charged with the job of organising his front bench to shadow and critique what the Government does and offer an alternative Government for the people to choose from. The current Tory Leader Michael Howard is after a very bad end to the last parliamentary session is struggling to recover the momentum that he had built from his coronation last year where the 165 MPs of the Tories conspired to put no one up against him (something I was predicting a month in advance! Seriously!). His reshuffle is confirmation of a move to the right with the sad news that the gifted International Development Spokesmen John Bercow had been gotten rid off, although Bercow can’t learn to keep his mouth shut and be patient. Plus he wants us to just be Blairites in Blue. Gone too is the sole remaining Tory wet, Damien Green and so confirms that the Tory future is a solidly Euro-Sceptic one. Another good move is the abandonment of the elite-Shadow Cabinet with David Cameron as Policy Coordinator and Nicholas Soames as Defence Shadow Secretary promoted to the Shadow Cabinet whilst still doing the same job.
However, the big news is the return of the former Welsh Secretary and the pre-eminent Conservative attack dog and intellectual John Redwood to frontline politics as the Shadow Secretary for Deregulation. Firstly, I like Redwood a lot as he’s a very clever and honest politician who has devoted a lot of effort and thought to his principles and sticks to them. Secondly, being on the (ultra)right of the party I tend to agree with him, plus he’s the type of thoughtful yet slightly awkward intellectual politician who always appeal to me. He will add a lot to the Shadow Cabinet, especially in his role of identifying Government spending and regulation to be cut, a vital area if we are not going to be left with a country with such a large Public Sector that its permanent socialist (like France). On the whole a good reshuffle, which with the more rightist stance on issues currently should help the Tories recover momentum.
What Next?
Well that’s a very good question”¦Blair and Brown’s relationship seems to be back to bloody awful after a good patch, which probably means that’s Blai’s reneged on a promise to quit from earlier this year. Now if I were Blair I’d be preparing to call a General Election (the British Prime Minister can with the Queen’s permission call an election anytime during his five term-no set date) not for next spring when he’s expected to do so but this October/November. At the very least would it mean he could use the Labour Party Annual Conference as an American style convention so allowing him to reintroduce and repackage himself and also stop the left tearing into him. It would also catch the opposition parties off guard as the Tories’ are still recovering from the summer whilst the Liberal Democrats and Scottish National Party are both in the middle of restructuring themselves. The Liberal Democrats are put together a policy booklet called the Orange Book, so forgetting that the same stunt didn’t work for Lloyd George in 1929. The SNP have just electing a new leader who is confusingly the ex-leade’s predecessor”¦very strange. So basically Blair could steal a match on all the oppositions, ensure election happens before the economy finally keels over and would mean that on the back of a 150 majority he’d be back to full authority by December instead of the slow, lingering death he’s experiencing now.
Anyway that’s what I would do”¦of course I hope he doesn’t, can’t stand the guy.
Anyway I’m tired, so all the stuff about the great house party I went to (barbeque breakfast-nice!) will have to wait till next week. See you in seven!
