So what does the name tee2i mean?
Well it's shorthand for the independence index. This blog takes independence seriously. There's no problem, in principle, with a country being part of a confederation or partnership, the UK is part of NATO. But the EU is a failing confederation and our independence is threatened by continued membership. But there's more to politics than the EU. Neither is politics all about leaning left or rightward on any issue, it's far more subtle than that. It's all down to the quality of life so let's aim high. It's our right to do so.
The no fly zone meets the no oil problem
Merkel the mouth, again!
Merkel quick to moan, slow to help
Oh how funny! Also typically hypocritical. About a fortnight ago Angela Merkel, the Guardian told us, had been angry -
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has sternly rebuked the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, in an unusually fractious telephone call, according to media reports.
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It all began in Barnsley?
Trouble in the north, and not just for Nick Clegg
Modern Barnsley, oh dear!
It had to happen. In the Barnsley Central by-election the coalition has hit the floor and what they have to face is that there will be rejoicing. And no, not only from the supporters of Labour. From the outset the coalition has not satisfied grassroots supporters of either the Conservatives or the Liberal Democrats. It's ducking out of the issue to pretend that, as the LDs and Conservatives stood as separate parties, the result is a disaster for only the LDs who lost their deposit. For they are, the rest of the time, part of 'the coalition'. They are together in victory and defeat. Nor will it do to point out this is a northern town with all the usual tendencies of political tribalism.
Spin and the MSM
Spinners and Journalists, who depends upon whom?
Son of the Manse and his thug
There is always a steady stream of criticism directed towards the MSM, not all is deserved. In the past we have praised Fraser Nelson for his work, but his recent article on Damian McBride was terrible. As a spin doctor McBride will always be measured alongside Alistair Campbell, awkward that. For Campbell was a different sort of person doing a different job. The term spin doctor covers just about anything the person using the term would like it to mean. The job of media manipulation goes back at least to Bernard Ingham who helped Margaret Thatcher get her message across. Or at least that is how these things are explained. However, once you start manipulating, stopping is a hard thing to do and it's not just the message that gets distorted. Never once since the days of Ingham/Thatcher (or perhaps the other way around) has anyone in government worked out, then set out for all to see, why these spinners and their craft are needed; that insults the general public.
Big society and bad policies
Big muddle, but society foots the bill
Bad policy, dropped
The big society. It's hard to know where to start. For example, is it the Big Society? Is it capital letters to start the thing off; big letters for a big idea? It's fair to say that at the general election many people were desperate to get rid of Gordon Brown. Equally fair is to say there were not enough of them to give David Cameron an overall majority. This is important as the BSoc is now causing so much bother that it's right to wonder if, with more of a mandate, Cameron would have had the confidence to drop the thing. The Big Society was not a big noise on the run-up to the election, perhaps Cameron is holding onto it as a result of post-election dynamics. The Tory coalition with the Lib Dems has ruined more than it has created. The Lib Dems hang in shreds and the Tories are forced to act so carefully it looks more like dithering than care. With the Big Society policy the Tories can try to out-Lib the Lib Dems. Had the Tories got the mandate to act alone we can imagine it would be very different now, the Tory party would have 'moved on'.
Common sense tells us that Big Society is the opposite of Big State, but what else do we know? Well it does seem that size matters. For 'Small is Beautiful' was also once a very powerful creed.
More on the cuts
Still far too many people dependent on public money
HMS Dreadnought
More on the cuts. This time it's the Navy and EUReferendum has posted an opinion based on a Guardian article. Both are interesting and EUReferendum has a comments section. In the the Guardian we see -
The navy's Caribbean patrol was originally set up to guard British dependencies in the West Indies. In recent years, it has taken up a joint role countering drug runners and coping with humanitarian disasters during the June-October hurricane season.
