I wrote about this a year ago, a year later things have not improved. Aside from weathering the financial crisis, Brown is facing a party crisis and and inquest over his inner circle.
Eventually you have to ask yourself what does he want to go down in history for? Blair I think always had the idea of further European unity - luckily the single currency never materialised more pressing things about backing America in a bizarre war on terror in Iraq came first, and eventually did for him.
Still Blair would have you point to a few things that made him a good prime minister - minimum wage. better health care investment, and it would be unfair to quibble here.
But Brown? Unless there is a near miraculous turnaround in fortune he could go down as the worst in history - and given our history that is an awful epitaph.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Photo: USS Theodore Roosevelt
Last week this carrier was staying over in the Solent. It coincided with Obama's visit to Europe, and it was returning to Virginia from deployment.
Not much notice that it was arriving, and it stayed for a few days. Took this photo, it made a very imposing presence on the horizon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Theodore_Roosevelt_(CVN-71)
Photo: Farleigh Hungerford Castle
This is my 100th post, and I've not put enough photos on my blog (in all honesty I hardly take any).
This was a castle I visited in Somerset in 2006, and I took this - which was a good shot of the derelict turret. The castle dates from the 1370s and is a great example of the depths of British history. The Hungerford family certainly had a very colourful background!
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.16178
Photo: Farleigh Hungerford Castle
This is my 100th post, and I've not put enough photos on my blog (it all honesty I hardly take any).
This was a castle I visited in Somerset in 2006, and I took this - which was a good shot of the derelict turret. The castle dates from the 1370s and is a great example of the depths of British history. The Hungerford family certainly had a very colourful background!
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.16178
This was a castle I visited in Somerset in 2006, and I took this - which was a good shot of the derelict turret. The castle dates from the 1370s and is a great example of the depths of British history. The Hungerford family certainly had a very colourful background!
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.16178
Monday, April 13, 2009
Tech Company Consolidation - part 2
The IBM-Sun takeover seems to have died off, leaving a question of who would fill their place. But it seems rumours of Oracle buying up Sun are building. This also does not sound a bad place for them to go. Oracle despite all their faceless corporate image are big open source users and contributers, certainly in the same league as IBM.
Some concerns for MySQL if the deal does go ahead, I think the purchasing by Sun originally was a strange move. The moves Sun has made in open sourcing many of it's closed technologies is really impressive, but it would be very sad if the company ended up failing without seeing any benefit from doing this. If this were to occur the very question of why open source would be asked by other companies and that is a bad thing. Certainly the business models in an open source market are a long way from being refined, Sun are certainly proving that.
Some concerns for MySQL if the deal does go ahead, I think the purchasing by Sun originally was a strange move. The moves Sun has made in open sourcing many of it's closed technologies is really impressive, but it would be very sad if the company ended up failing without seeing any benefit from doing this. If this were to occur the very question of why open source would be asked by other companies and that is a bad thing. Certainly the business models in an open source market are a long way from being refined, Sun are certainly proving that.
Piracy
More news this week of ship hijacking off the coast of Somali. We do have some of our limited surface fleet patrolling - a Type 23.
But it is probably going to get to the stage where we need a much bigger influence in such areas. It would also be a chance for the Navy to redefine what it is for, as it has struggled in recent years without a perceived threat from the sea. Although not having a reasonable surface presence for this sort of threat is probably the reason why piracy is now such an issue.
Lewis Page wrote an interesting article last year about this subject.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/13/retro_piracy_brouhaha_discussed/
Where he sums up what it would take to have a better anti piracy role. He also describes a cultural thing of there being not much interest in having helicopter and marine carrying platforms in the upper echelons of the Navy. Helicopters for fast intercept, and marines for boarding parties - neither of these create posts for the RN's officer career ladder.
Definitely time for a change if the RN wants to react and regain a role.
But it is probably going to get to the stage where we need a much bigger influence in such areas. It would also be a chance for the Navy to redefine what it is for, as it has struggled in recent years without a perceived threat from the sea. Although not having a reasonable surface presence for this sort of threat is probably the reason why piracy is now such an issue.
Lewis Page wrote an interesting article last year about this subject.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/13/retro_piracy_brouhaha_discussed/
Where he sums up what it would take to have a better anti piracy role. He also describes a cultural thing of there being not much interest in having helicopter and marine carrying platforms in the upper echelons of the Navy. Helicopters for fast intercept, and marines for boarding parties - neither of these create posts for the RN's officer career ladder.
Definitely time for a change if the RN wants to react and regain a role.
World Population
I saw an article today with David Attenborough wanting to limit the world's population, with an attempt at families to stop at two offspring.
It is of course easy to think of over population in terms of developing countries only where larger families (and high mortality rates) are common. But it is always too easy to think of how these countries could solve the problem without taking some of the medicine in the western world.
Thinking purely in UK terms, the population stands at 60 million with some 600+ people per square mile according to Wikipedia (2007 estimate, 2 million above 2001 census). I think it is probably fair to say that most families do not extend beyond two children - we do have an over state supported class who would be able to break those limits (after all children are expensive).
So there comes a hard decision already right on our doorstep, how do you reduce the population in these areas to just two - when so many of your support structures make having children on state aid an incentive.
I'm not saying I know an answer, nor am I getting at this group for being the cause of the issue as that is an over simplification. It is just hard to see how a party could make this a policy of any sort. In the end any behaviour change has to be partly through incentives by government.
It is of course easy to think of over population in terms of developing countries only where larger families (and high mortality rates) are common. But it is always too easy to think of how these countries could solve the problem without taking some of the medicine in the western world.
Thinking purely in UK terms, the population stands at 60 million with some 600+ people per square mile according to Wikipedia (2007 estimate, 2 million above 2001 census). I think it is probably fair to say that most families do not extend beyond two children - we do have an over state supported class who would be able to break those limits (after all children are expensive).
So there comes a hard decision already right on our doorstep, how do you reduce the population in these areas to just two - when so many of your support structures make having children on state aid an incentive.
I'm not saying I know an answer, nor am I getting at this group for being the cause of the issue as that is an over simplification. It is just hard to see how a party could make this a policy of any sort. In the end any behaviour change has to be partly through incentives by government.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Volunteer work
A bit of news today about Brown being keen for teenagers to have completed 50 hours of voluntary work before the age of 19.
I'm not against it, it sounds a good idea. Unfortunately some parts of the press have connected "compulsory" and "voluntary work" in their headlines. This shows how hard it is to do anything right when the chips are very much down as leader.
The headlines did make me smile, bought back memories of teachers at school "right I need 3 volunteers, you, you and you".
I'm not against it, it sounds a good idea. Unfortunately some parts of the press have connected "compulsory" and "voluntary work" in their headlines. This shows how hard it is to do anything right when the chips are very much down as leader.
The headlines did make me smile, bought back memories of teachers at school "right I need 3 volunteers, you, you and you".
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Book read: Trafalgar the biography of a battle by Roy Adkins
I always feel I do not read enough history, and I was lent this book. I had tried reading other books around this era (Napoleon, and the Great Game) and this book describes the battle of Trafalgar where the Spanish and French combined fleets were defeated.
It was a surprisingly emotional read, describing both the battle, some of the characters, and the death of Nelson. Although Nelson knew this was his last battle at sea the book gives the impression he knew he was not to return to England alive.
The author gives a detailed description drawn from various accounts of the battle. Some of the signals such as the famous "England expects" are described in detail. Nelson had wanted the signal to sound like a personal message so had wanted to have "confides" but the flags were too complex!
Life at sea was very brutal and conditions were harsh on board ship. However it gave some extra comforts as life back in England was also not good for the average person. The author uses a good technique of tracing the death of some of the participants years after the battle, their obituaries often made national news.
Mention also goes to Collingwood who stayed at sea to enforce the blockade of ports. He died some years later, but never set foot on land after the battle.
It was a surprisingly emotional read, describing both the battle, some of the characters, and the death of Nelson. Although Nelson knew this was his last battle at sea the book gives the impression he knew he was not to return to England alive.
The author gives a detailed description drawn from various accounts of the battle. Some of the signals such as the famous "England expects" are described in detail. Nelson had wanted the signal to sound like a personal message so had wanted to have "confides" but the flags were too complex!
Life at sea was very brutal and conditions were harsh on board ship. However it gave some extra comforts as life back in England was also not good for the average person. The author uses a good technique of tracing the death of some of the participants years after the battle, their obituaries often made national news.
Mention also goes to Collingwood who stayed at sea to enforce the blockade of ports. He died some years later, but never set foot on land after the battle.
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