Politics and Business in the far east

Recently we were graced with pictures of our Prime Minister visiting China and India with a coterie of business advisers, journalists and Richard Branson. He spoke about new trade links, historical ties and that Britain should grasp the new and exciting opportunities available to her in the far east. We do seem to have got into the arena of politics of the obvious. Tony Blair told us that he always did what he thought was the right thing to do and Gordon Brown said that he would always do his best (forgive me, this is the very least that I’d expect any of us to do) or perhaps I’m out of touch.

The visit to the new economic superpowers reminded me of a conversation I had with a very close friend of mine. We spoke about China in particular and he recounted a recent lecture that he’d attended. China at the moment is on best behaviour. She is anxious for the Olympic games to be a success. The eyes of the World will be on Beijing this summer and the authorities will not wish this great sporting spectacle to be blighted by any controversy. After the games it may be different matter and the sleeping giant may decide to stretch out those powerful limbs and flex some financial/political muscle. When he was chancellor the Prime Minister spoke about the plight of Africa and debt relief, maintaining that as Prime Minister he would make addressing Africa’s problems a central pillar of foreign policy. In the midst of this grandiose chatter, China is slowly but surely colonising the African continent, hoovering up resources and doing deals with Governments. I doubt that the Prime Minister highlighted this issue on his visit.

Herein lies the problem. Gordon Brown appears to patently out of his depth when dealing with the Chinese and Indian administrations. If you’re not convinced take a look back at the Rover story which broke during the last election. The Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp (SAIC)  pulled the plug on Rover just as the government was at it’s most precarious ( during the election). The Prime Minister, the Chancellor and particularly the Trade & Industry Secretary at the time (Patricia Hewitt) were outflanked and made to look naive at best. SAIC chose the moment to strike, negotiated from a position of strength, got what it wanted and moved on. I’ve been involved with real estate transactions on the subcontinent and it’s nothing to get personal about. You just have to understand that business and Politics in China/India are played hardball and that any leverage your opponents have over you will be exploited. I may again be stating the obvious, but until you actually experience the negotiations, involve yourself in the horse trading, you are unprepared for this arena.

It’s often said that far too many people aspire for political office with no business experience, or any experience of real life if truth be told. I’ll let other people judge that but as the Rover story quite aptly illustrates, a lack of business acumen, not understanding different cultural attitudes and poor judgement has costs us jobs and continues to harm the prosperity of the West Midlands.

 Paul 

Britain’s Moral compass

The brutal and horrifying death of Gary Newlove is an event which forces us to take a good hard look at ourselves in the mirror. In the face of constant media exposure and cynicism about the ability of politicians to really change things, have we become immune to these events occurring on our streets ?

David Cameron has spoken about the forces which undermine the family unit in modern Britain. As a parent I believe it is my primary duty to teach my children first and foremost the difference between what is right and wrong (if nothing else, this is probably the most important thing you can do as a parent). As precious as my values are to me I increasingly see examples of individuals displaying a lack of courtesy, acts of selfishness and basic bad manners. I always understood that good manners cost nothing, only perhaps a bit of time and thought. So it’s unsurprising that issues have been raised around bad parenting, a lack of morality and a broken society.

Having been out with Police patrols in Wolverhampton over Christmas, it was often said to me that once officers return children home, even if they’ve been involved in incidents, they invariably face a shrug of the shoulders and an unwillingness from parents to take their responsibilities seriously. We need serious sentencing, to really empower the police and teachers and for discipline in schools to be a central pillar of government policy (not to pay lip service to this, as has been done by the current government).

Recently the Bishop of Rochester spoke about his concerns over the failures of multiculturalism. The leader of the Liberal Democrats responded by going live on Radio and chastised the Bishop (a Muslim who has converted to Christianity) for offending minorities and dividing communities. As a well as stating that he doesn’t believe in God, the damage done by this kind of hand wringing liberalism is immense. It immediately reminded me of the issue of “Winter-ville”, when middle class white liberals become so obsessed with the idea of Christmas offending minorities, they felt it necessary to rename that late fortnight in December as “Winter-ville”. I can say, hand held on heart, that I’ve never met any non christian who was offended by the term Christmas.

It is that same Liberalism which sneers at the family as a unit, ridicules traditional values and which refuses to project a perception of right or wrong but will always produce the strongest shade of grey. Our Prime Minister has spoken about his own personal moral compass but has refused to speak about the moral compass of 21st century Britain. The Conservatives alone, have chosen to speak about this subject because in politics you can either speak about what you think is right, or stay silent, because you’ll be castigated by liberal thinking for offending some group, or perish the thought, abusing their human rights.

Paul

Police Patrol

Apologies for the delay in resuming my blogging duties but after Christmas the whole family has been down with flu and the sickness bug.

Over the Christmas period I was out on Patrol with the police in Wolverhampton to get a much better understanding of the difficulties our officers face on the front line.  The message came through loud and clear.

1. The public want to see an increased Police presence.

2. Officers want to do the job they joined the force to do, and not be tied down by bureaucracy and paperwork.

At a time when our Government is patronising officers with pay offers which seem to insult the Polices’ intelligence, they’re also increasing the numbers held in police cells thirteen fold. Concern over crime is at the forefront of voters minds and that will not be allayed by a Government which massages the crime statistics and generates increasing paperwork for our police officers.

Fortunately one member of our family seemed to avoid all the January bugs and she really seemed to get into the swing of Christmas.

Well, it was her first Christmas.

Paul