Hello and welcome to The Week. I didn’t have time to do one last week as I was away at a conference. This week the main news everyone will have seen by now is the killing of nine people in the Charlestown Church shooting. I’m not going to talk about that specific event as it is far too raw for some guy from Britain to be looking through it and what possessed that man to do such an evil thing. What I am going to talk about is the race issue in America, as a neutral outsider I believe I can see past the patriotism and political manoeuvring by Americans, as John Stewart pointed out this week, there are deep roots sunk in America’s short bloody history and devastating Continue reading The Week #26 21st June, 2015
The Week #25 7th June, 2015
So, this week I am going to be talking about the immigration epidemic going on around Europe on all fronts, and what can be done about it. If you are European you probably know or have heard about the disaster off the Mediterranean coast at the moment – if you haven’t or if you are from further afield then let me bring you up to speed. There been a boom of immigration via Turkey and all along the north African coast into Europe as a result of war in North Africa and because of hardship in drought areas – coupled with war in the Middle East pushing millions from their homes, all in search of a better life – and so they are seeking this by getting across the med to start a new life in the greener fields of Europe, who can blame them? The dark side of
The Week #24 31st May, 2015
So this week we have big, big stories in the world all to do with corruption so let’s get onto it. This week, the whole saga that is Fifa crumbled in front of us with almost all the high ranking officials being arrested for bribery, racketeering and laundering money, similar to the raids on the mafia in the 90s. A quick summary for those who have missed it; FIFA, which is a charity, has been taking massive kickbacks from business cartels and so on in South America to fix matches in the South America league, so that is fairly bad but not a complete shock as Fifa has been called out since the mid 1990s for corruption from people within the set up and from without. However, recently they have become over confident, bold, by giving the next two world cups to two countries that don’t deserve it and calls that Rio paid a truckload of money for it – all alluded to but now this has become a big deal as it looks like there is hard evidence. Russia and Continue reading The Week #24 31st May, 2015
The Week #23 24th May, 2015
So back to chatting about what’s going on around the world at the moment now the election is over with. Gay marriage – now legalised in Ireland after a high number of news outlets claimed it wouldn’t pass due to the huge catholic population living outside the urban areas and this got me thinking about gay marriage in general. There is a lot of legal moves going on around the world at the moment; in the USA around 70% of the population live in a state where it is legal; in the UK it has been legal for a while, except in Northern Ireland – so why this change in the past few years and why has it taken so long? Continue reading The Week #23 24th May, 2015
The Week #22 10th May, 2015
So this is the last one in my two week project on British politics – the round up, what happened and want might happen.
So, in a stunning turn of events an election that looked as if it would be a close run thing, turned out not to be with the Conservatives smashing home with a small majority – something they not had in 20 odd years, with Labour being complete wiped out in Scotland at the hands of the SNP so what does this mean for us now in Britain? Well here are six policies the conservatives will most likely get through parliament now, all six of these policies were ones they either tried to get through in the last five years but were blocked or are in their manifesto – so here we are, this is what 36% of the British population voted for.
NUMBER ONE: benefits will be capped at £23,000 a year per household which will affect millions of people struggling at the bottom part of our society, whilst Continue reading The Week #22 10th May, 2015
The Week #22 And they’re off!!!
Having looked at the political parties it is time to take a look at how Britain works, and the fundamental problems that all parties fail to address. A successful nation needs a motivated workforce but in the U.K. today business is all about the CEO and their big fat bonus, low costs, big profits – that is why so many people are on zero hour contracts. The trade unions have lost most of their power and since the crash people have put their faith in a Tory government (God only knows why) that has systematically worked to take as much money from you as it can without actually tackling the deficit at all. The shame is that none of the parties are strong, but at least morally speaking labour has some ground to stand on. So let’s consider the vote. If you vote UKIP you are Continue reading The Week #22 And they’re off!!!
The Week #21 6th May, 2015
So there you go, after spending a whole weekend reading all the manifestos side by side that is what I learned from them. Realistically though I think I have showed that none of the parties really know what they’re doing. The system itself is at fault here so in this week I am going to outline what I see is wrong with the system and then put forward my own plan for our country, as if I was standing as a member of parliament, so let’s begin.
We need to look at a bit of the history revolving around the economy for the last 30 odd years, the boom and bust system and what has happened to the United Kingdom and the rest of the world, so we can understand why our political parties are so woeful now. I think the big issue is our business sector. We have one of the shabbiest in the world with the profit and bonuses over-ruling aim, rather than longevity, Continue reading The Week #21 6th May, 2015
The Week #20 Episode 4
−⓪∕⑤Finally to UKIP, the last party I looked at. I wasn’t sure how to view them really and I wasn’t sure I wanted to look at them as they stand for pretty much the opposite of what I believe, but I headed over to their site and I’ll be honest, I felt uncomfortable entering it. Not just because of the racism that people believe is at the core of this political party, and its’ xenophobia, but because it is a party of men and women who, by their nature, have no empathy for others. However, I was determined to approach reading their manifesto objectively rather than emotionally so, with a mug of tea and a note book that only I can read (a bonus of being so dyslexic, no one else can read my notes or copy me) hear we go….
My first impression was the the site seemed, Continue reading The Week #20 Episode 4
Week #20 19th April, 2015 Episode Three
⓪∕⑤ Sorry about this if you like the liberals but zero from me. Poor Nick Clegg, what an idiot, all he had to do, five years ago, was not join with the Conservatives and force them to run the government alone, with a hung parliament that would have collapsed within a few months or a year then Nick, you could have walked into number ten as you would have had everyone clamoring for you and by sticking to your promises you would have had the students with you (and their parents) instead of becoming Cameron’s dog’s body. How foolish Continue reading Week #20 19th April, 2015 Episode Three
Week #20 20th April, Episode Two
①∕⑤ Right then, off to the Conservatives. So I headed off to their website and their home page annoyed me to start with as it looked like I would have to register to get in to read their information, until I noticed the camouflaged continue button to the top right. Which I was relieved about as it is hardly democratic to make us all register first in order to read what they plan to do! So, after getting past the huge image of David and his wife, I had a nosy around. Their first page has a British flag and that resonated with me for some reason (why haven’t the others? Is it that the union jack is now seen as a right wing instrument – I suspect so, which is a shame, it is simply the symbol of Britain!) It is quite a good website, quite nice with lots of Continue reading Week #20 20th April, Episode Two
Books and Social Commentary by Tomos. A. Roberts 