I find it disgusting that the Prime Minister and now the Deputy Prime Minister make an art form of not answering the questions they are asked at Prime Minister’s Question Time.
They treat it as some kind of game but what they forgot is that they are our servants being paid by us and that gives us a right to hear the question answered to the best of their ability.
The solution: if the question asked is not answered then the question can be repeated without counting as another question.
Wednesday, 25 March 2009
Friday, 6 March 2009
Government Interference – banker’s minimum pay
How ridiculous that the government thinks it best knows what is an appropriate level of bankers pay.
Of course there have been the most awful excesses but that is because the government’s lack of any reasonable regulation in ensuring the banks report true profits based on true value of their assets.
If the true state of the bank’s finances had been properly reported over the last decade they would have been shown to be making much smaller amounts of money and so bonuses and pay would have been much smaller.
So rather than fix the real problem, once again, they fiddle with something that makes them look good.
Why? Well there are two reasons. The first is that they are too incompetent to begin to know how to fix the real problem. And second, because, for lazy politicians, looking good is all that is important to them.
Of course there have been the most awful excesses but that is because the government’s lack of any reasonable regulation in ensuring the banks report true profits based on true value of their assets.
If the true state of the bank’s finances had been properly reported over the last decade they would have been shown to be making much smaller amounts of money and so bonuses and pay would have been much smaller.
So rather than fix the real problem, once again, they fiddle with something that makes them look good.
Why? Well there are two reasons. The first is that they are too incompetent to begin to know how to fix the real problem. And second, because, for lazy politicians, looking good is all that is important to them.
Government Interference – the price of alcohol
It is already openly being acknowledged that having a minimum price for a unit of alcohol will have little effect in reducing the damage to people’s health from excess alcohol consumption. So why do they go ahead – because they are in for the quick grab publicity solution – they don’t care whether it will work or not so long as they look good that they have done something. It’s typical of short term politicians.
The solution can only come from understanding why people do it and what would stop it – why not run some regional trials or set up some regional competitions to see which regions can have the best results in reducing alcohol consumption and then adopt the most effective ones. It would also be great to generate debate and awareness and in itself provide part of the cure.
The other action that needs to be taken is to stop health care being free of charge to those who deliberately injure themselves or injure themselves due to abuse from drink or drugs – this includes tobacco.
Both these solutions are much harder than just imposing a minimum charge but they are the right way to go.
Sad fact is, politicians don’t do hard, they do look good.
The solution can only come from understanding why people do it and what would stop it – why not run some regional trials or set up some regional competitions to see which regions can have the best results in reducing alcohol consumption and then adopt the most effective ones. It would also be great to generate debate and awareness and in itself provide part of the cure.
The other action that needs to be taken is to stop health care being free of charge to those who deliberately injure themselves or injure themselves due to abuse from drink or drugs – this includes tobacco.
Both these solutions are much harder than just imposing a minimum charge but they are the right way to go.
Sad fact is, politicians don’t do hard, they do look good.
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