Strike Up The Band

With the agreements and involvement with Turkey, quite simply it means that now the European Union is no longer European, it is something else.  The move to the East into what were parts of the Soviet and earlier Tsarist Empires pushed out the margins.  Taking on Turkey is going beyond.

Have any of those involved in Europe and the UK ever read or studied anything in history about the Ottoman Empire of old, it's reach, it's purpose, it's ambitions and it's endless greed for power and authority over other people?  This Empire was taken apart in 1919 and new entities created that are now failing in turn.

For a time Turkey was the part that was left after it's disintegration.  A century further on it is getting back into business and it means it.  Also, it does not operate in the same way that other states in Europe like to think is right.  Beyond Turkey it raises questions about the states of the North African littoral and Egypt as well as others in the Middle East.

The result is that we are facing a new Union, of a different kind, where it is likely that this new member, big and centralised, will have more authority than any other recent arrivals and most long standing members.  The ambition of Brussels to build a bigger Empire to overcome the problems of the existing one may mean that they have found a new master.

With Turkey now given entry to Europe this will be a powerful incentive for any in the areas connected to the Ottoman's in the past to renew their links now to Ankara in order to take advantage of this "back door", which may become the open gateway.  It may take time and it will not be easy but it is possible.  My guess is that for the Turks they see it as probable.

Perhaps the leaders in the present EU have addled notions that bringing in Turkey will help us exert some sort of control over those from North Africa, the Middle East etc. who are already here and establishing major communities.  It is not likely, it does not work that way and never has.

When Brussels takes over the UK Armed Forces, which may well be part of a Government future big deal for a mess of Euro pottage we will need to find bands for our ceremonial occasions, such as Trooping The Colour etc.

I am sure the Turks will be happy to oblige.

Capitalism In Warp Drive

While we are arguing about what Socialism is and ought to be about it is often forgotten that it is intended to address Capitalism and all its many, alleged, evils.  Therefore in order to know Socialism we have to know Capitalism.

But what is it? At this stage we come back to Star Trek, that basic guide to philosophy etc. that has informed most of us.  The answer is perhaps "It is life Jim, but not as we know it."  Except that the line was never used.

A useful quide to this is in the link which suggests several lines that related to this question and the answers are not all quite the same.  On the one hand it depends what you are looking at and on the other it depends what you think, repeat think, you see.

Given that so much of what we think of as capital today is in fact pieces or paper or digital figures mostly created and representing only themselves we could be in for some surprises.  One is that the globalisation dependent on capitalism and on which capitalism is said to depend may not be working as we think.

Globalisation may have its limits according to this article in This  Finite World and there is a case that it might have a peak and that is now about to be reached.  From here it is all downhill however much increased population and the peoples of the world might demand from their governors.

If history is any guide long major down turns do not go equally for all and are more rapid in some places and less so than others.  This is the cue for and cause of many troubles, conflicts and wars.  Prolonged declines make matters worse.  If our media and leaders do not understand this or do not want to this does not help.

Beam me down Scotty.

President Juncker Go Home

We are told that President Jean-Claude Juncker, currently top shape shifter, of the European Commission, instructs those in favour of Leave in the Referendum on Europe, should visit war graves because it would change our minds.

The inference is that any Leave voter is ignorant of the sweep of European history, I suspect that this is far from being the case.  My own may not be entirely typical but there are certainly many, very many, in favour of Leave who are better informed than he thinks and perhaps than he is.

The Memorial above is at Thiepval.  There are remembered and buried many of my grandfather's comrades who fell in The Battle of the Somme in the summer of 1916, good decent working men.  I knew him well, he survived, just, but could not know them, but I did know some of their widows and other family.  I have been there and to many other War Grave locations.

Also, I have read through many of the War Diaries of the units in question as well as formal study of the War and its consequences.  There is nothing like the detail and the primary sources to make sure that you understand the bigger picture and can judge what later historians and people have to say.

As  for the Second World War, well, I was there, albeit huddled in the air raid shelters.  Not only were a number of close family involved, but some, much loved and respected, lost.  For a time, a mile away, we welcomed the US 82nd Airborne Division, including the man who hung from the spire at St. Mere Eglise on 6 June 1944, along with Polish airmen, paratroops and army.

Later, for a short time I was part of the Army of Occupation before we became guests of Germany in 1955.  I was on the General's staff of the Desert Rats, 7 Armd Div, working for men who won good M.C.'s in the war.  My second General commanded a Brigade at Arnhem, and dear old Monty, courteous to a fault, pitched up once for a chat where my job was to deal with the files.

Before and after that I was doing History, European and International, an interest maintained.  I fear my reading of the past differs strongly from that of the President.  Then there is the longer past, one trip made was to follow Wellington's line of march in the Peninsular War.  We must never forget Napoleon, even if the President has.

For me many wars occur because power comes into the hands of unchecked and arrogant men who blunder about, lie, deceive, do not go carefully into that dark night of war and seek to hold or gain more power by inflicting damage and misery on untold numbers of others.  All too often, once embarked on their mission of land, wealth and power seeking war becomes inevitable.

In short, systems of rule and authority all too like that of the EU of the present, a corrupt governing authority that does not account for its spending and costs, brooks no opposition, relentlessly interferes where it should not and listens only to the major power and money brokers, many of whom are criminal and few honest.

The President is a fantasist, who with others at his side believes in the strange unreal world that has been created out of the weakness and division of others.  What I see is a Europe in decline, in hock to others who do not like us and open to others who hate us.

Unluckily, in the UK we have some leading politicians who are attracted by the fantasies and believe that they and their financial minders will gain by it and are unworried by who will be the losers and to what extent.

Empires, history tells us, rise and fall.  Some last long others do not.  Normally, long periods of conflict and war, chaos, poverty, disease and misery follow collapse.

Perhaps, the President during his tour of war graves, might take in Poitiers, Crecy and above all Agincourt and then finish at Waterloo, close to home.  We were there.

Advertising Can Be A Pain

Advertising can be a pain.

What is going on out there?

This explains the new and intricate world we are in.  It is longish and closely argued but worth the attempt if you want to be a little wiser.

The real questions are where it is all going and where the big money is going to be made.

If you have the answer, you could get very rich.

Blame The Yanks

It was a nice day today, we did enjoy our trip to the dentist.

Up to a point.

There is too much going on and it is becoming very complicated to work out what is what.

This strange story in Zero Hedge caught the eye.  The Euro, it alleges, is all the fault of the Yanks, albeit the key man was Canadian really.

Stranger things have happened and even stranger ones are happening right now.

Tuesday Tale Spin

It is beginning to get rough out there.  Today, 2nd March The Telegraph carried an article by Tim Stanley titled "Tomorrow Belongs To Trump", which to most simply means that he is on his way to nomination as the Republic Candidate.

Thos with long memories  would recall the 1972 film "Cabaret" starring Liza Minnelli and Michael York set in Germany in the 1930's.  There is a scene in a rural Gasthaus where a young man sings a political anthem "Tomorrow Belongs To Me".

The Youtube clip lasts three minutes but says it all for the period.  Just how it applies to Trump in the second decade of the 21st Century is another matter entirely.  The words "cheap shot" come to mind.  I am not a fan of Mr. Trump but that is another story.

Meanwhile the media is full of our David Cameron's plan to centralise and control membership of the Conservative Party, seeing off all those nuisance locals who have their own ideas about his Grand Projects and Europe.

Yesterday, I mentioned the repeat of the "Yes Minister" series, as it happens the fourth in the first series is titled "Big Brother" and is about Hacker's idea to create a National Integrated Data Base with the names etc. of each and all on it, it will be Tuesday 9th March when it is screened.

I have this vision of a very young Cameron being plonked in front of the new colour telly with a bag of sweets while his parents shove off into the next room for a quiet bottle or two leaving David to watch Prime Minister Heath fool us, along with others, about Europe just being a trade association.

Cameron is becoming a second Heath in a number of ways and if so it is a matter of concern.  I recall the shambles that he left behind him that Wilson could not cope with and led to James Callaghan trying to plug the gaps without much success.

What is a worry is his increasing liking for the "cheap shot" and the easy untruth before moving on quickly to another subject.

Repeat Of "Yes Minister" Begins Tonight

Hunting round the listings came across this one to my delight.

Tonight, 1st March, at 10.40 p.m. on the Yesterday Channel, Sky 537, there is the repeat of episode one of the first series of "Yes Minister" which begins a run in that slot.

Also the Yesterday Channel Plus One an hour later at 11.40 for the additional repeat.

I have set my box to record, perhaps David Cameron should set his.