Listen up, especially UK expatriates and UK-sympathetic foreigners.
Rupert Murdoch owns the pay-to-view TV conglomerate Sky. In the UK his main competitor is the BBC which users pay for in one annual lump sum that is a tiny fraction of what Sky costs. For years Murdoch has sought to close down the BBC.
Because the BBC does not fit the conventional idea of market forces, the Tories have sought to modify (ie, castrate) the BBC for ideological reasons.
The new Tory minister of culture is an MP who has campaigned against the BBC.
Verb. sap.
Which ever political party I look at they all seem to have AT LEAST one vitally important policy that I don't agree with. Then there is the quandary in a general election of considering local or national issues which again conflicts and interacts with the first mentioned problem above.
ReplyDeleteSir Hugh: There's nothing much to be said about making a choice when all the governing factors are pluses. Or for that matter when they're all minuses. But the word "choice" almost implies "difficult". This conundrum is supposed to lie at the heart of business management although in my experience it doesn't; there's nothing like a middle-manager when it comes to evading choice
ReplyDeleteIf I read between the lines here, while invoking other opinions you have expressed, I take it you decided to vote for "a good constituency MP". Nothing wrong with that except it tends towards self-interest and ignores what might be called the greater good.
I offer this observation. Even before the election the consensus was that we hadn't yet seen the worst of the cuts in public services George Osborne is pursuing in his austerity programme. And this is now confirmed. Huge sums are mentioned and I think it's always profitable to mentally convert £1bn into £1,000,000,000 in order to maintain a sense of perspective.
You and I are pensioners and so far we have only been affected by generalised cuts, none that have been specifically targeted at pensions. George and Dave needed our votes. But now the electorate has provided this mandate, slender though it is, I can't see pensioners remaining inviolate for ever. Pensioners are said to have profited over the last decade and may now have to pay the price. A vote for "a good constituency MP" doesn't do anything at all for pensioners in general. Self-interest yet again, but in a different form and taking into account, to some extent, the fate of others.
Good managers don't necessarily make good choices but they should make the best choice (ie, the best compromise). In this instance we are managing our own lives. True there are pluses and minuses but there should also be priorities. Enough, enough.