Now for a sensible answer to a Thorny Problem

AUGUST 3RD, 2010 12:48

Digger on the Ropes

I preface this Blog with the actual date I publish it to highlight the fact that The Other Other Dave finally prompted by the Blindingly Obvious and his acolytes has to be got around to my way of thinking and looks like adopting a policy I have relentlessly promoted for the best part of a decade unless he is overcome by a bout of the collywobbles.

  A mere 5% of viewers originally backed the Digger’s takeover of BSkyB which in essence meant a further erosion of the tele-viewing available for FREE TO AIR, so it became obvious that radical surgery and a new solution was called for.

  What baffles me most of all though, is the way people cough up £30+/month subscriptions on top of the TV licensing fee to watch puerile advertising slogans. It’s bad enough having to suffer it on Freeview, as the big switchover takes off. But to have it shoved down your throat after paying another £30 or so on top of the licence fee. 

  So I’ve conceived a cunning plan. We bring the TV licensing fee due for the coming TV viewing year for the BBC into line for all renewals from 1st Jan 2012. Then we turn the Beeb into a pay per view channel by allowing the licence payers to use the fee, as the entree into the world of digital satellite subscription channels. This way the viewer chooses which service they wish to view. BBC + Freeview or otherwise.

  

   It needs a strict ceiling of course on subscription channel charges, so we finish up with a level playing field and a wide variety of services to choose from.But all in all it puts the viewer in charge rather than rip-off merchants just in it for a free ride

  

  So It makes no sense to pay a licence fee and a further subscription on top to watch Commercial Satellite Subscription channels. So it this would be an appropriate answer, to those fearful of too much TV broadcasting being concentrated in the hands of one big spending channel owner. Especially with BT coming to the party with offers it is difficult to refuse. 

  The BBC recording and programming studios can then be floated off as commercial, film, news, entertainment and sporting venue production companies (IPOs - If you see Syd tell him) and transmissions mostly accomplished via satellite or cable.

That's  what you might call 'Job- Done' and just remember where you read it first?

 Watch this space, I’ll be back!

Daz.

Farage Agogo

Can Mr. Farage be trusted at this seminal moment in EU Continuum?

One could easily be tagged an afficionado of sour grapes, for even suggesting this. But the real facts point to the absurdity of elevating someone with "psychopathic tendencies" to trample rough-shod over sensibilities, at such a seminal moment in the history of our Anglo-Saxon Nation State. This attempt by Mr. Farage to spearhead Brexit in harness with Britain in Business. Can do no more than diminish the fine credentials of the 'Britain in Business' leadership. Previously known to exit stage right at warp speed, with any mention of political activism.

 It has often been said that we Anglo-Saxons prefer to muddle through, until we find a way to cobble together some degree of progress, in our own inimitable best interest.  Can we do it this time, when our elected P.M., is an avowed Europhile? Determinedly seeking a way to remain at the heart of this flawed experiment, for all the wrong reasons?  In consequence therefore we have to examine all the arguments for and against with searching candour, in reaching a definitive decision. A decision about to influence our future prospects, in ways no one is capable of predicting - with any degree of certainty.

 The movement to open up membership of the European Union to all the basket case economies of Europe and beyond, has turned out to be a master stroke in ambiguity. Promoted by the Margaret Thatcher Government, it was actively pursued by Douglas Hurd, in his capacity as Foreign Secretary. Though whether this was a sponsored initiative, fully-backed by the Iron Lady, is open to scrutiny. When almost immediately, she faced a growing attempt to oust her by her own Europhile MPs. Like John Major who came under pressure too, from those he was wont to refer to as  the 'Bastards'. To the extent that he too was moved to declare: 'Back me or  Sack me'.

 So there we have it, or do we? Did Douglas Hurd intentionally; with Maggie's consent? Attempt to throw a spanner in the works, knowing full well; that by inviting all these Basket Case Economies into the fold, knowingly create a situation entirely dependent on Social Transfers for continuum. A situation which at some future date would begin to self-implode?

 It is now self-evident that such a process is playing-out, as the only solution that was ever going to work in parallel with this idea of:- a place for all? Had to be either some arrangement to prop up these Basket Case Economies with handouts, or if this didn't work out. They had to come up with a new way to print money. Something that now goes by a quaintly misleading technicality - Quantitative Easing or QE

 QE is no more that a recipe for eventual self-implosion. When the day arrives that !st and 2nd class memberships have to be negotiated, to keep the dream alive or nations no longer prepared to support this situation. Go their separate ways and QE has to be unwound.

 So the time is here and now, it has arrived and the decision of Anglo-Saxon England the heartland of this other great Federal State of Europe, the United Kingdom. Now faces another self-implosion. Devolution is high on the agenda, as the UK has about to run its course, in much the same way. With satellite governments in Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland dependent on handouts for lifestyle.  So decision time is upon us and it's no time to be led by those with 'psychopathic-tendencies' or hidden agendas for self-preservation. When such matters, take priority over what is best for Anglo-Saxon Plc.

 Do we fight to stand or fall on our own feet, as a United Entity following our own unique Anglo-Saxon way of doing business? Making our own laws and trading the world in the manner of our Victorian forefathers? Those who built the Greatest Empire the world has ever known. Or do we spend another generation in penury, awaiting the inevitable disintegration of this flawed EU experiment and devolution of our own Federal United Kingdom Nation State when dead beats in Scotland, think it's better for them to be an EU basket case?

 This is a situation now facing Anglo-Saxon England on all fronts, as we muddle through in our own unique and time-honoured fashion. Exposed to the harsh light of day with a disaster in the making, as another 'Highland Charge' heads our way. From a part of the UK Nation State trying to punch above its weight, led by a 'Bunch of Plonkers' dubbed the SNP.

I can do and say  (nay more) to help a bit of common Anglo-Saxon sense prevail; than re-iterate the words of probably our greatest general of all time. The one and only Arthur Wellesley better known as the Iron Duke, the Duke of Wellington who explained: 

"They came at us in the same old way and 

we beat them off in the same old way."

Yours truly

Dave Black.

  

MadVlad Episode X

A busted Flush

Obviously, without much in the way of forethought, MadVlad has decided he can get away with whatever policies he decides to pursue.  He seems to have set out to ride roughshod over the sensibilities and reservations of his peers across the rest of the World. He doesn’t appear to be concerned by reaction to his foreign policy and any ramifications which might arise from it. Could it be the macho bareback riding antics splattered across ‘Red-top’ tabloids across the Globe, has convinced him, he can do no wrong.

Now he’s launching a fight back as it becomes obvious to Russia and his people at large that he’s overstepped the mark. Sometime soon he’ll ‘Reap the Whirlwind of universal disapprobation, from all but a few of his closest acolytes, dependent on him for longevity and continuum, as he instructs Pravda to proclaim his popularity. Will it wash in the face of discontent across the wider Russian Continent as support for his policies wanes in the face all the nonsense he’s perpetrated with misguided policies. It’s no good Vlad trying to say sanctions are not biting and capital flight is irrelevant. For he soon backed-off from baling out Greece, in the face of dubious Russian economic prospects.

Now he’s stepped up to the rostrum, accusing Western Powers of trying to damage his country, while trying to deny the current economic situation is in any way revenge for the annexation of Crimea.  Speaking defiantly and confidently, he tries to evoke the image he wants others to adopt. In Western terms it could be said he’s attempting to promote himself as his own ‘Spin- Doctor’ by slanting the way outsiders view his antics. Then he comes up with an analogy, which smacks of an Eric Cantona Press Conference.

 With signs that all is not well with him, and suffering the discomfort of a heavy chill, Vlad went-on to proclaim: “Maybe the Bear should sit back and relax. Not chase piglets and swine across the forest to snack on berries and honey. Then maybe they’ll leave him in peace.”  But will we and can we? Maybe we’re always going to want to cage the Bear, for he’s at his most dangerous - when cornered.

Maybe he does need to be caged with his teeth ripped out and his claws blunted. The nuclear deterrent defenestrated for want of a better analogy, so we can make it a better world as the Bear is done for. Sooner or later and we hope it will be sooner, economics will kick-in as they did for the Soviet Union and once again the pragmatists will reign supreme and Russia will have no need to try and provoke another Cold War with Iron Curtains and the like.

It’s time the Sovereign States of World tried living in harmony, without trying to impose ideologies they espouse on others - who want no part of it. Maybe there will always be people loose in the world that think and feel, they know what’s better for us - than we ourselves do. But insofar as they confine all this to their national borders and abide by majority’ decisions from their own people, who in their right senses across the Globe - can disagree?  

Watch this space, I’ll be back.

Daz.