First Strike & Secrecy

I can’t believe that a refusal to countenance a nuclear first strike is seen as a sign of weakness. I have written several times over the last two years about the dangerous imbalance in the Tory defence strategies. Weak conventional arms means that nuclear annihilation is more likely not less. A military that can only throw nuclear bricks will have to do so. The ballistic missile fleet is a deterrent not an asset. It’s use would mean it’s failed.

One thing I had not considered though is whether the submarines can stay hidden for their 20 year expected life time. This article in Open Democracy quotes the Tory Chair of the Commons Defence select committee who questions whether the current submarines’ technology will be able to keep up with the growing surveillance technology. They supplement this by  citing numerous ex-Defence Secretary’s opposition and add in Colin Powell for good measure. …

Undercurrents

I was out in Hampshire earlier today and travelled through Farnborough Station, not known as a hot bed of socialism. One stalwart comrade was handing out leaflets calling for a Labour vote on the back of the renationalisation promise. Last time I saw Labour leafleting places like this was 1997. Is something happening? …

Manifesto bingo, digital liberty and the internet

Manifesto bingo, digital liberty and the internet

I have had a look  at the manifestos and see what they have to say on the internet and Digital Liberty. I have been very influenced by the EDRi voting exchange and summarise the issues of Digital Liberty as e-citizenship, equality before the law, privacy and copyright reform, to which for this election we must add internet governance and industrial & innovation policy. I have created a table summarising the positions of the Tories, Labour, LibDems and Greens. Possibly I should have analysed the SNP manifesto since much of this is Westmister reserved powers. I was hoping to write something easy and quick to read. I don’t think I have succeeded. My super summary is in the figure immediately below, and here is the table I built to help me write this article. (I lost the excel file, so this will have to do!)  My main source was the ORG pages but I have been reading the Labour Manifesto also. I feel that the opposition parties have suffered from the surprise; they probably expected more time to develop their promises. All three opposition parties 2015 manifestos covered these issues in more depth.  …

Co-ops

In the 21st century, are joint stock companies the best form of corporate governance. There’s a lot of justice in arguing for either worker or consumer co-ops. The arguments for consumer co-ops being the dominate form of governance in financial services seem overwhelming to me. Thatcher of course created laws where the previous generation of mutual’s de-mutualised; they have since been bought by banks and in several cases caused them fatal damage. …

Borrowing

The Tories have resurrected the phrase the magic money tree which has been commented on by me, and Edward Snowden. But for the thick, Damien Green, that’s you that is, here’s how the financial markets work and how Labour will pay for those nationalisations that require compensation.

They borrow a wodge of money at the current rate about 1% for say 25 years, and buy some companies currently returning 5% (or more) ROI.

When I was doing sums at school, 4% is higher than 1%. Perhaps we should buy some more stuff because it’s such a good deal. …

Student Debt

The Independent and the Canary both report that not only will Labour abolish Higher Education tuition fees, and reintroduce grants but will also consider how to give some form of relief on the current debt already held by students. This is about £76 bn, which is quite a bit, but if you consider it an investment in the nation’s human capital, it’s something that is worth borrowing for and can be paid through the capital borrowing account. …