tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post7298501681570783104..comments2024-03-12T17:53:27.753+00:00Comments on I'll think of something later: Left writeDavidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-51656828278904363592012-09-27T13:07:11.435+01:002012-09-27T13:07:11.435+01:00Well, Sir David, you have argued more broadly than...Well, Sir David, you have argued more broadly than my remit, and while of course I don't agree with your Maggie sentiments, it is all food for thought...Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-58576844505897159782012-09-26T16:43:26.399+01:002012-09-26T16:43:26.399+01:00I am afraid that not enough attention is paid - ...I am afraid that not enough attention is paid - in general though also in some of the comments in this blog - to the real failing the Blair government - the dreadful economic management. Overspending by the government ( far too much on social security and the health service: nice but irresponsible) and ( though the central banks were mainly to blame) the prostitution of the money supply. Thus the banks were funded by a tsunami of very cheap money - what could they be excepted to do, but take foolish risks? Encouraged by one of the most disgraceful comments ever made by a politician, Brown's " I have abolished boom and bust" What stupidity ! What vanity! Plus the failure of the regulators who claimed that they applied a light touch but exercised no touch at all. <br />And the group of Callaghan, Healey, Shirley Williams ( as a result of whose schools policy we have a cabinet from Eton and Westminster etc) - all were trapped by the post war consensus which brought this country to a state in which we were the worst economy in Europe, until Mrs Thatcher transformed us into one of the best, and until Blair and Brown threw it all away. Mrs Thatcher should be seen as the greatest PM since Churchill - why is she not recognised as such? And<br /> she may have a state funeral and deserves it. <br /><br />One of her faults was not firing Nigel Lawson. I could never understand that, unless he did not tell her that we were shadowing the Deutschmark. She certainly foresaw the results of a fixed exchange rate.....in 1995 she wrote that with a fixed currency the southern countries would revolt about the privations imposed, and against being run from Brussels and BerlinDavid Damantnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-89335178952341902012012-09-18T16:02:07.145+01:002012-09-18T16:02:07.145+01:00Never thought of reading the Iron Lady's memoi...Never thought of reading the Iron Lady's memoirs, though perhaps for comedy might make them bearable. Not as interested as I should be in Jim Callaghan. <br /><br />Fond of his Yeats, is our Denis.<br /><br />About to give up on Shirley Williams's 'Climbing the Bookcases' - such a disappointment after the eloquence of the lady in person.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-13106332941030408322012-09-17T16:07:31.392+01:002012-09-17T16:07:31.392+01:00Have you read Thatcher's The Downing Street Ye...Have you read Thatcher's The Downing Street Years and Callaghan's Time and Chance; both comic masterpieces, full of Wallace Arnoldish self-justifications and emply meditations on nothing in particular. They may well be brilliant Craig Brown spoofs actually. I always liked Denis Healey's quote from Yeats depicting the Conservative Party in full cry:<br />"The best lack all conviction<br />The worst are filled with a passionate intensity"<br />John Graham, EdinburghAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-85103154044678770832012-09-07T12:31:54.007+01:002012-09-07T12:31:54.007+01:00I liked Blair, at least in the early days of the N...I liked Blair, at least in the early days of the New Labour government, which raised such high hopes (and did realise quite a few of them). I was even conflicted at the time about the reasons behind the war with Iraq. I never thought Bush Jr could be thought of as 'nice' (and TB didn't quite say that): as a Governor of Texas who signed more death warrants than any other in recent history - and casually, too, having barely skimmed the briefs - he had blood on his hands before he even became President.<br /><br />Though like you, Sue, I don't watch TV, I've seen various clips of the Republican and Democrat conferences. How we winced (delightedly) at Clint's ramblings to an empty chair; how impressed I was with Michelle's mastery of pace and tone. By all accounts Obama's speech was pragmatic rather than euphoric, but that chimes with what I think of as the man's honesty. It seems bizarre to me that there's any contest this time around, but that's America for you.<br /><br />One day, let's hope, Dubya (and Blair, why not) can be caricatured in an opera as outrageously as Kissinger is in that masterpiece Nixon in China. Interesting what Healey has to say about HK ('his most disappointing performance was over Vietnam...By invading Cambodia he...imposed unnecessary death and suffering on a horrific scale...Nevertheless, history may forgive him because he shifted American policy towards an accommodation with the Communist powers').Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-20515188532674341462012-09-07T03:26:38.549+01:002012-09-07T03:26:38.549+01:00I was not capable of reading Blair's book simp...I was not capable of reading Blair's book simply because I never liked him. I do agree though with Blair's opinion of George W.Bush, I remember the King of Saudi Arabia saying that he was a very nice man but understood nothing. Nice does not make a good leader.<br />Am reading Kissinger on China at the moment, now that is a good book, since I lived in China it brings back a lot of memories.Laurenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03297393116796129135noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-87751583291376039442012-09-07T00:57:16.321+01:002012-09-07T00:57:16.321+01:00What a phenomenal post you have written here, a tr...What a phenomenal post you have written here, a tremendous tour of political biographies. I don't know the British players and their roles so well, other, of course than Tony Blair, and to a smaller extent Gordon Brown. It's hard for me to get past my fury with Blair for giving Bush "cover," as it were, but I do remember, early on in Blair's years as PM, listening to a speech of his and wishing we could have someone as intelligent, well-spoken, and reasonable as he was then. (Come to think of it, this may be much of why I became so furious with him, for George Junior was a total dolt, and led us into disaster after disaster. Ah well.)<br /><br />Over here, of course, the Democratic convention is in full sway. I've sworn off television, so missed Clinton's speech, but read about it. He, too, is maddening, because he truly had it all, and squandered it in the most stupid of ways imaginable (actually, his lack of judgment remains unimaginable to me), but it is a great relief that he's here and able to speak with such force and clarity right now. The times are fraught, indeed. I am struck by many things you report about Mullin, but this one leaps out at me particularly: “‘half my trouble’, at least in terms of advancement, is that ‘I can usually see the other side’s point’.” This brings Obama in mind for me—though he has advanced, of course, to the “top” position, this trait presents an ongoing difficulty for him in achieving all he could. (Too much the law professor, I sometimes think.)<br /><br />Your closing lines are elegant and true. I worry, too, though I feel I have no choice but to remain hopeful. “Let us cry sorrow, sorrow, but let the good prevail.” May it be so.Susan Scheidhttp://prufrocksdilemma.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-85361922712335296442012-09-06T12:38:59.966+01:002012-09-06T12:38:59.966+01:00Thanks for the recommendations, Catriona. Now Laws...Thanks for the recommendations, Catriona. Now Lawson's on my list. Shirley Williams next.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-77608728397600745182012-09-05T20:00:01.149+01:002012-09-05T20:00:01.149+01:00Glad to see you enjoyed reading Dennis Healey'...Glad to see you enjoyed reading Dennis Healey's autobiography. I think it has to be my favourite, with Nigel Lawson's and Michael Heseltine's runners-up. Lawson's, because he is charmingly honest about where his narrative is getting too technical for most of us, so he sign-posts the bits we can skip without losing much of the narrative. Heseltine, on the other hand, was just interesting.Catrionanoreply@blogger.com