Weekly Opinions

Weekly Opinions

The decline of Britain’s white working class

This is our objective summary of Simon Heffer’s article on the decline of the white working class published in the Daily Mail Newspaper.

It was the suggestion from the Universities minister, David Willetts, earlier this year, that poor white pupils often from deprived backgrounds should be treated as a disadvantaged ethnic minority when it comes to university admissions that prompted that article from Simon Heffer.  What became of our white working class could not be better narrated than what Mr. Heffer said an eminent Cambridge professor once told him; that the white working class went from being ‘the salt of the earth to the scum of the earth in just two generations’.  He blamed the State for that tragic decline.

The slant of Simon Heffer’s argument was that poor white pupils should not be made to need a ‘leg-up’ on the education ladder if the government and all other people in position of authority did their work properly.  Successive Labour and Tory governments were blamed for the fall in the quality of education and the decline of our great grammar school tradition.  Blames for widespread welfare dependency and millions of poor families living in ghettos of squalid tower blocks was similarly apportioned too.

Trade unions were not spared the blame either, the irresponsible conduct of many union leaders for promoting unrealistic expectations and inciting their members into trouble making was cited as contributing to our overall ills.  The combined effect of all these national failings is to give the impression, in the words of the author, ‘rightly or wrongly’ that increased immigration drives some poor white working class into the embrace of the British National Party, BNP.

A rare praise was reserved for Jon Cruddas for being honest enough to admit that some of the Labour Party’s policies when in government alienated many of its natural constituencies. In his conclusion, the author recommends a drastic scaling down of the size of the State and an equally massive enlargement of the private sector in order to enhance job creation throughout the country and save our economy and, who knows, probably redeem the declining white working class too.

                                     

                                                         

Editor’s COMMENT:

Simon Heffer’s article has implications beyond the fortunes of the white working class, unfortunately most of the problems uncovered blights many poors, both whites and non-whites.  But the core of the massage remains unshakably true: That the legacy of those ordinary folks who gave all for King and Country is fast vanishing.  Before the 2^nd World war, there were hardly any council flats, no welfare payments and no NHS yet; the men and women of that generation excelled both in their enterprise, dedication and conduct. [Patrick Chike]

***To read the entire article by Simon Heffer, go to: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2257325/Britains-families-breaking-point-They-deserve-better-trite-gimmicks.html

 

News Commentaries

The rise of UKIP: Time will tell

Comment

One thing that many commentators and voters of the Tory party appear to have either forgotten, or just failed to take into account, is that the government led by David Cameron is a coalition, and that his freedom to carry out the policies he believes in is tempered by the willingness of his coalition partners. When did we last see a coalition government in Britain?  No, not in this generation.  This morning Lord Lawson declared that he would vote for Britain to leave the European Union; this is hardly helpful to a beleaguered Prime minster.  It is easy for UKIP to promise heaven and earth to voters from a position where they don’t shoulder the burden of responsibility.  Word is cheap!

You only have to look at the United States to see what the equivalent of UKIP, the Tea Party, is doing, not only to the fortunes of the Republican party, but to the American body politic in general.  So bad is the disunity in the Republican Party brought about by the extremeness of the Tea party, that the speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, himself a Republican, can not even get his own bill passed. 

In December last year Speaker Boehner was humiliatingly forced into withdrawing his own finance bill because his fellow Republicans threatened to vote it down.  A similar pattern of dissent was repeated when Republican senators twice withheld the appointment of one of their numbers recommended by President Obama to the post defense secretary.  It took a third attempt before they finally relented and Chuck Hagel’s appointment was ratified in February this year.

In the provinces too, the Tea party’s style of politics brought strife and deep-running divisions, just like UKIP is sowing the seeds of discord here.  I remember with dismay how Senator Richard Lugar, a moderate Republican who has held his Indiana seat for 35 uninterrupted years, was dramatically displaced by Tea party hardliners peddling the politics of hate.  The crazed gunman who shot Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords claimed to have lifted his manifesto directly from the extreme rhetoric’s of the Tea Party.

It was not long ago that Nigel Farage stood on the floor of the European parliament and lambasted the then newly appointed President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy.  It was a completely unprovoked tirade on the president and a terrible insult on the honour of that legislative house.  This in a way shows the nature of the man we are dealing with, combative without a cause and ready to upset and trample down on the established order, without any regard as to how much damage and destruction his actions wrought.

David Cameron rose through the ranks to become the leader of the Conservative party and the Prime minister of our country; he has duly served to get to the position he is in today, and will now in turn,  rightly expect faithful service from those under him.  At a time of worldwide economic and political uncertainty, those near the PM should close ranks and give him all the support he needs.  Time will tell if UKIP has the keys to heaven, as they would like us to believe.     

  

  

News Commentaries

[Multiple Blogs]

HP’s new boss and a

disastrous deal

Comment

Hewlett Packard Vs Autonomy:

I am not surprised that Hewlett Packard is now pursuing the former owners of Autonomy through US regulators and Courts to remedy what are clearly their own failings in basic business decision-making. Furthermore, though I am not preempting their outcome, I hold very little faith or confidence in that process, judging from how American regulators have been extorting huge sums of money from UK-based businesses, especially banks, in recent years.  Look at what is happening to BP; haemorrhaging cash at a rate that no multinational corporation has ever suffered and survived, they may end up with a bill in excess of $50 billion. The sums suffered by BP and our banks far exceed the gravity of their ‘sins’, if any.  

People who make a wrong commercial judgment should not expect the Courts to remedy their loss.  In the case of Guy Hands Vs CitiGroup; where they claimed to have overpaid on the acquisition of EMI, they subsequently lost the case and were forced to dispose of the asset, compounding their loss.  Royal Bank of Scotland deliberately overpaid to outbid Barclays in the acquisition of ABN-Amro; this was a reckless and greedy transaction that later rendered RBS insolvent and had to be taken-over by the State.  Though the law suits against Facebook’s $100 billion IPO is not strictly a case of direct business acquisition like the ones referred to already, it follows the same pattern of people complaining only after buying and sustaining at a loss.

 Meg Whitman, the new boss of HP will be better advised to concentrate her energy on rebuilding the company from scratch than pursuing an unjust and wasteful witch-hunt that has no merit.

 

Cameron and Merkel 'agree to work together' on EU

Comment

David Cameron’s family visit to Angela Merkel at her country retreat is a PR coup for both parties.  It clearly shines a favourable light on the Prime minister, but may not be enough to appease his eurosceptic parliamentary colleagues.  Similarly for Mrs. Merkel who is facing elections later in the year, such advert will resonate well with many Germans amidst growing whispers of resentment that Germany is becoming a sugar-daddy whose money is propping up the rest of the Eurozone.  Definitely the PM knows that he can no longer hope to materially change the direction of European integration, but the symbolism of his visit is equally significant.  

In about 2 year’s time, all things being equal, I must hastily add, the PM will be seeking another mandate from the British people.  British voters are intelligent enough to judge that this PM has already delivered much from a very restricted position; struggling with a coalition government with its inherent limitations and at the same time trying to rescue an ailing economy which he inherited.  There was a great old sage that says: ‘To whom much is given much is required’.  But in the case of PM Cameron the converse of this sage should apply: ‘To whom few is given few will be required’ – So expecting the PM to perform miracles with what is in effect a minority government is like asking an athlete with one hand tied to his back to outrun Usain Bolt. 

The PM should remain true to his conscience and convictions and, in the meantime try to optimize with the resources available to him.  Among the many tributes paid to Baroness Thatcher, the words of Sir Malcolm Rifkin best supports my argument that the PM should not try to be all things to all men, but should follow his convictions.  Sir Rifkin recalled one occasion when the then Prime minister Thatcher was asked if she believed in consensus politics, she replied: ‘Yes, I do believe in consensus: There should be a consensus behind my convictions’.

So, with disloyal Tory parliamentarians exploiting the PM’s lack of majority at every turn, his Lib-Dem coalition partners threatening to withdraw support if they don’t have their way, and UKiP intent on splitting the conservative party, there is clearly no way the PM can expect to keep everybody completely happy.  But you never know, 2 years is long time in politics; between now and 2015 when the next election is due any thing can happen.  At a point in Margret Thatcher’s 1^st term as Prime minister she was so low in the polls that she was not expected to win a 2^nd term, but she went on to win 3 terms.

Finally, I just hope the PM and Chancellor Osborne will carry on with their policy of economic discipline because, to my mind, there is no third way.  However, in the meantime, the PM should not allow the controversies surrounding the EU to distract him from the more urgent work at hand.   

     

        

Public Opinion

What do you think?

‘I'm keeping all four!' What this courageous mother replied when doctors said: Sacrifice two of your sons to save the others

Doctors don’t know all; Follow your instincts

The miraculous story of Emma and her husband Martin started about 2 years ago in Bristol.  She was pregnant and went for the usual checkup at 12 weeks when she was told that she was carrying 4 babies which was conceived naturally at a mind bugging odds of 750,000 to 1.

When she went for her next routine checkup, to her further surprise she learnt that of the quadruplets; 2 were identical twins.  But there ended the sweet stories as the consultant explained the dangers inherent with such level of multiple births and recommended that she either get rid of 2 of the babies or terminate the whole pregnancy.  After discussing with her husband they resolved to carry on with all 4 babies.

On her 20^th week checkup she learnt that all the 4 kids were boys.  Here then comes her final temptation; for after this week she must live or die by what ever she decides now, she can’t change her mind after that date, said the consultant.  As this is the last time a termination or selective reduction would be possible she found herself in an impossible dilemma, she thought; ‘ If I abort 2 to save 2, then each time I looked at my surviving babies I’d also be thinking about the ones I’d lost.  The thought of it broke my heart’.  She however decided to soldier on, what ever.

Financially, how will she and her husband cope?  God will provide, she believed.  Last month the 4 bubbly, happy and healthy boys celebrated their one year birthday.

(Now consider the 2^nd case below)

Would you give up your disabled son to allow your other children a chance of happiness? Despite agonies of guilt, Jane says it's the best decision she ever made

A mother’s anguish

Jean and her husband, Andrew, have 3 children, Tom, James and Elizabeth; they live in Birmingham where she worked as a solicitor.  In 1999 she gave birth to James, her second child, and her life and the life of the entire family changed dramatically; for James was born severely disabled with cerebral palsy, epilepsy and autism and he grew up to be wheel-chaired.

From the day James was born in 1999 the entire family suffered for 9 agonizing years before finally deciding to give him up in 2008.  Attending to James was so all-consuming that Jean’s other 2 children were almost forgotten and the strain almost destroyed her marriage.  James was extremely troublesome; he attacked everybody including his mother, his other siblings and even complete strangers.  He was so dreaded at home that his elder brother, Tom would refuse to join a family outing if James was coming along.  Jean had no time for any other thing, she ignored her husband and her other 2 children to be a 24-hour carer to James.

By around 2007 Jean and her husband made the decision to give up James.  Then began the struggle to get the local council to admit James as a special needs pupil and provide funding.  The parents spent over £20,000 of their hard savings on legal fees and professional assessment in their long battle to convince the local authorities that their son was disabled enough to qualify for admission and funding into a special needs residential school.

In 2008 James finally left home for this residential school and the reports his parents gets on his progress has so far been encouraging.

      

Editor’s Note:  If you want to read the full story, see my twitter page at @ Patkehinde on Tuesday, 9-4-13.  Alternatively you can send me an email at: journalists@newsbitsweekly.mygbiz.com, allow 3 days for a response.

News Commentaries

(Multiple blogs)

It's trade or bust for Britain

(Says, BBC Business editor, Robert Peston)

Brief Comment

This essay by Robert Peston should be read by every household in Britain in order to appreciate how out-of-balance our economy is and how uncertain the future is. I keep on hammering the ‘gospel’ that the rise of China has changed all known axioms about the Wealth of Nations. Chancellor Osborne is right in cutting spending and diverting the savings into new house building.

 

BBC director general Tony Hall 'confident'

about the future

Brief Comment

The BBC, like our Monarch is a name that opens doors all over the world, rich in goodwill and accepted without question. But in a fast changing world, to remain ‘confident’ about the future, in the words of new D-G, Lord Hall, the BBC must explore all eventualities, including self-financing in the long-run. Adopt forward-thinking models like Tesco and Primark.

 

M4 relief road: Chancellor

'to approve toll plan'

Brief Comment

If the success of the Millennium stadium in Cardiff in terms of costs and revenue can be replicated in this proposed M4 Relief road, then it will be a viable project. Otherwise the government may be better advised to wait to see how the economy improves before allowing the Welsh government to commit itself to more borrowings. Will private investors contribute? 

News Commentaries

[Multiple Blogs]

Food banks used by thousands

of jobless, figures show

Food-banks are staffed by volunteers who provide

emergency food for people experiencing hardship

Brief Comment

Food banks should not be seen as demeaning, especially when you consider, as reported in the Press 2 months ago, that Britons throw away £10 billion worth of good food every year. Yes, the price of choice food may have gone up, but you can still buy a big loaf of bread (Everyday Value range) from Tesco for 50 pence. Don’t throw good food away; give them to Food banks.

 

Should Britain let go of London?

Brief Comment

Separating administrative capital from commercial capital as in: USA; Washington and New York, China; Beijing and Shanghai, India; Delhi and Bombay, and Nigeria; Abuja and Lagos, is the way forward for strategic reasons and as a way of reallocating resources. Moving the admin capital of UK to say Birmingham would relieve London and solve other problems.

UK banks 'still short of capital',

says BoE

Brief Comment

4 months ago the BoE said that the 5 big UK banks would need a new capital injection of £60 billion in order to withstand accruing losses, but with increased provision for PPI and other penalties the figure could now be a lot higher. The problem in Cyprus today is extreme capital depletion in their biggest banks. Banks in Asia are not exposed to extreme bad debts as in the West. 

Public Opinion

What do you think?

‘Get me back to Belgravia’: Mother of six demands she is re-housed in exclusive suburb after a cap on housing benefit forced her out of £2MILLION home  

Taking the taxpayer for a ride

Miss SD has 6 children and is on benefits, she lives in a £2 million 4-Bed room town house in Belgravia, near Sloane Square which is one of the most exclusive areas in London.  Her total rent of around £4,800 a month is paid nearly entirely by the State. 

Because of budgetary constraints forced on us by world-wide economic decline, the government had to cut corners to keep the country afloat.  Therefore new rules for those on benefits was fixed at maximum of £400 a week (About £1,700 a month) for rent; consequently those living in more expensive areas like Miss SD must have to relocate.  The Council gave her £10,000 gratuitously to help towards her relocation expenses; she contested it and asked for £40,000 instead.

To add insult upon injury, she is now asking the Council to return her back to Belgravia from Edgware where she has been living in the past 2 months or so.  Her reasons are her studies and her children’s schooling.  Worse still, she went to the High Court and lost her application to stop the Press from reporting the story of her claim - If she had a noble cause she would surely want the world to know about it.

(Contrast this case of Miss SD with the story of Mr. and Mrs. R narrated below) –

Living by the sweat of their Endeavours

The Rs started off together very early in life when they were in their teens. The couple has to date given birth to 16 children, 9 sons and 7 daughters, the whole family live together in a 9-bedroom house which they bought after the birth of their 6^th child. They don’t claim any state handouts; the husband runs a successful bakery in Lancashire and leaves home for work at 4 am every day and their 2 oldest children also work in the bakery.

Editor’s Note: 

1) To read the full story of both Miss SD and the R family, visit my Twitter page on Thursday, 28^th March 2013: @Patkehinde

 2) No view is held or expressed on the size of either family, the issue here is; dependence.