The news, our take.

One of the big news stories of 2011 has been the uprising in the Middle East. Personally I’m happy to see dictatorships fall and people’s republics becoming strong from them. We have seen some of the biggest dictatorships in the world fall, such as Egypt, which has put its former leader and members of his family on trial.

Libya is a funny one, only a few years ago the USA and Britain were happy working with Libya and Gaddafi at arm’s length over oil but fighting Al-Qaeda has turned on Mad Dog(Gaddafi) and instead British and American forces support a mixture of groups who nobody’s never heard of. This is the main concern for me. Are we helping to replace one dictatorship with an even worse one? Time will tell but it will be a good thing if someone like Gaddafi isn’t in power and as a student of history it is interesting that the media is showing pictures of torture chambers and detainment camps very similar to when Nazi Germany fell.   One thing I’m not sure about is weather the people of the middle-east are ready for a new style of government, especially as very few of these countries have ever tasted western democracy.

At home in Britain there have been riots in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and my home city of Wolverhampton. Whilst I’m disgusted at the riots and I saw the mass free for all to get the biggest plasma screen, I am concerned that the police struggled to control it. I do not blame the police at all because there dammed if they don’t act and dammed if they do act.  What I mean by this was it was only a few weeks before that a police officer was charged for the man slaughter of a protester in the G40 riots.   Like many things in Britain we are very centre. We are not left or right wing.  For instance people were outraged at the looting but when a young lad is given a 2 year jail term for picking up a T-shirt from a shop that had already been cleared out by looters earlier in day and walked off with the T shirt and then handed himself in and pleaded guilty.  Now from looking at that from the outside what will prison do to that lad? The system has let him down there and I reckon he would be better served helping his community.

The Coalition Governments cuts programme continues. This time it’s the brave men and women of our armed forces who are being cut. It amazes me that people who have given so much to their country get a P45 when there fighting the Taliban. It disgusts me that this government can do this to these people who put their lives on the line daily. Don’t get me wrong Labours defence spending was out of control and seriously over budget and I believe this was down to bad project management but why are brave troops on the front line having to take this burden. Britannia once ruled the waves but after these cuts, I think are ability to cope with world affairs will be greatly damaged especially with resent developments in the Middle East. It comes to something were we have to share aircraft carriers with the French.

It has just been the 10^th anniversary of twin towers something that I remember watching as an 8 year old and will always remember. Years after this I watched a documentary called 102 minutes that changed America. It’s made up of film reels filmed by people on the day as it happened and it was one the most interesting documentaries I’ve ever watched (and I’ve watched a few).  It was a day that didn’t just change America but the world. It was the modern day pearl harbour and the war on terror continues and who knows when this War is going to end.

As we go from a summer that was bit of a letdown after the warm start, to autumn we go into party conference season. All three party leaders must be feeling a bit under pressure. Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, must be under pressure from his party members after selling their souls on university fees and a long list of other polices. He should also be worried that his party is at an all time low in terms of the polls. Labour leader Ed Miliband is under pressure to prove that he would be a better leader than his brother. Labours position on the cuts and the economy is still un-clear and the unions who bank role his party want some answers. Also poor commons performances won’t help his reputation with back benchers, many of who were big supporters of his brother David Milliband.  Mean while, David Cameron will we worried that his party are behind in the polls and that many Tory party members in the north who were councillors, lost their seats in resent local elections. Many Tory back benchers are un-happy with the amount of power the liberal democrats have in government with many are showing their frustration in PMQs.   Also many women voters in a poll said they will not vote conservative in the next election with 78% saying they will vote elsewhere. Add that to state of the economy and that’s one worried Prime minster!

Finally I was watching BBC 1 before match of the day on Saturday and tuned in to the last night of the proms.  It may seem to be something for older generation but I enjoy it as it a celebration of British musical culture. Anyway I was surprised how many young people were in the royal Albert hall and at Hyde Park waving flags and singing land of hope and glory. It just goes to show!