War Is Murder

There was an article on the BBC News website conserning the death of a soldier in Afghanistan. A coroner in the UK had just found that his death was due to unlawful cause, in other words murder. That finding is nothing short of ludicrous. You invade a foreign country with your army and they fight back and you call any deaths that result on your side murder? No, it is war. Just possibly it is unlawful because you should not have invaded in the first place, in which case the culpable parties are the politicians who sent the troops there.

I sympathise with the troops sent to do this job and the families of the soldiers who have been killed as I would in any circumstances where troops have died doing their duty.

In this instance however, as with deaths of troops in Iraq you have to look at the politicians who have sent our troops off on these missions. If the deaths are indeed unlawful then the politcians (our politicians) are the ones who should be standing in the dock. Their failures are many, including the lack of proper materials provided to the troops and including the responsibilities for their deaths and injuries.

It is time we had an enquiry into our interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq. And not a whitewashing one like the previous ones set up by Phony Blair (or as I understand we should be addressing him, Miranda, or indeed Emily).

Bank Weakness

It has been a while since I last wrote. My ire has not really risen anough to rant on much, but the latest fumblings between the Treasury and the Bank of England have justcaused my dander to be well and truly up.

First they said they wouldn't help any banks, then they turned around and said they would. Then they bailed out Northern Rock and said 'any other bank would get similar assistance', then today they announce that any new deposits at Northern Rock would not get the unlimited guarantee, if made after midnight last night, because this would give unfair benefit to Northern Rock's competitors. However since they have already said they would give the same support to the competitors it means that in order to protect your depositors to the maximum you need to wait until the receivers are at the door befor e approaching the Bank for assistance, then you get it and after a week or so any new depositors would not be covered. SO, in effect ALL of Northern Rock's competitors now have an unfair advantage over northern Rock as they are not yet being bailed out and so can follow the argument above.

Who was it who said when the Tories get caught doing something stupid it usually has to do with sex and when Labour gets caught doing something stupid, it is usually to do with money?

It would be nice if between all of these people at the Treasury we could assemble enough material to form a single brain. Then if they could properly inform the Governor of the Bank of England of his role, then they might not all look the laughingstock they do this morning!