THE CRISIS

Well, while it, the slump or recession, continues, those in power proceed with their same lifestyle, wages, perks, benefits and bunce. Perhaps, like the Spanish with their Napoleonic admirals, we should shoot or hang one of them occasionally, just to encourage the others. Hundreds of apparently important people, and their staffs, fly, probably first class, to interesting, and often sunny, parts of the world in order to discuss other people’s difficulties. Their hunger, their lack of human rights, their poverty, their homelessness, their diseases, their wars, their torture and their destitution are really important subjects to discuss, but best, over gourmet meals at the finest hotels. They then fly home, in carbon emitting jets and wring their hands at their press calls and say, "We all", meaning really, YOU all, need to do something about global warming, ice caps, water shortage, war, revolution, crime, carbon emissions and all the rest. Then back into their limos, and off to their centrally heated, air conditioned, over-staffed and beautifully maintained offices. And now the good Lord Leveson, that very model of a modern major moderator, suggests press reform. We, the public, all agree. Two out of the three leading UK politicians also agree, as do their party members, but DC, says whoa! “Yes I know I set up the enquiry, yes I know I said I would implement Leveson’s findings, unless they were bonkers, but hang on, let’s think about it” . Our Dave obviously thinks that his brain is better and sharper than Leveson’s. Um? Whilst Leveson took several deliberate months to formulate his thoughts, David did it almost overnight. Clever chap. The good Lord, of whom I speak, actually trades as Lord Leveson, his real and full name, I learn, is Henry Dudley Gresham Leveson Gower. The other Lords, bearing very similar names generally traded as Gowers, rather than Levesons, however in the UK one can adopt any name one chooses, providing one doesn’t frighten the horses. We all know that Cameron had very close dealings with the press and its Barons, we all know that some of these contacts, if repeated in the future, would be subject to very close scrutiny by virtue of the exposures highlighted in the Leveson Report, and subsequent recommendations. We know that several of these contacts have lost their jobs, resigned, retired, have been arrested, and several of them face criminal proceedings. Also we know that poor Cameron is in an extremely difficult position, with an election looming, and of course the prime consideration of any parliamentarian is how to win the next election, not how to relieve the distress and suffering of his people, let alone the difficulties of other people’s people.

So The Right Honourable David Cameron MP needs to prepare for the next election, and needs a supportive press in order to at least stand a chance of victory. But, if he implements the full Leveson, the press will turn against him, and he’s doomed. Large stones and unyielding surfaces come to mind. But currently ,how truthful, free and independent is our media, bearing in mind not only the closure of the News of the World, the outpourings at the Leveson Inquiry, but also the serious wobbling of the Beeb. It seems that the old trick of blaming someone else for all the national difficulties in times of crisis is still part of the propaganda perpetrated by Britain’s distributors of information. Moslems blame the Catholics, Hindus blame the Sikhs, Argentina blamed the British, Hitler blamed the Jews, Britain blames Europe. Hardly a day goes by without reference in the British media to Europe’s difficulties, but the fact that the British pound is continuing to fall, having lost some 30% in relation to the Euro in the last dozen years, the US dollar, similarly, over the same period has also lost some 15% of its buying power in comparison with the Euro, and that Britain is still in, or is it out of, a double dip recession, and the fact that England has Europe’s worst figures for child poverty (Daily Mail 16th march 2011) must say something about Britain’s economy. The BBC provided figures for pensioner poverty, and the UK is the fourth worst in Europe, and now we find that to bolster Britain’s ever flagging economy, apart from printing more and more money; remember the Weimar Republic, Argentina, Israel, Hungary, Zimbabwe and many others; that the quantitative easing or inflation is being exacerbated by the British government buying its own bonds. Quantitative easing, according to Wikipedia is “ an unconventional way of financing an economy when normal methods fail”. Bit like a Ponzi scheme, and look what happened to him, and Bernie Madoff, Parmalat, Marconi, Enron, AIG, Fanny and Freddie et al. So, the next crisis, and it will be big, is when the UK and US bubbles, like all the others before them, burst. Remember the South Sea, the Property, the dot.com,etc? Don’t look them up on the internet, you’ll be there for hours. Both US and UK government bonds are heading for a bursting of the current bubble, another crash, but so far the European banks have resisted the temptation of in-house trading, hence the currently more valuable Euro. Similarly the Common Market, European Economic Community, or whatever, has as many, or possibly slightly more people than the United States, and unlike the States who have had a fairly high standard of living for the last eighty years, much of the emerging EEC population still crave the goods that Europe can produce, another reason to invest. Just imagine if I was to buy; with pieces of paper, promissory notes or Tunstill Bonds; all the properties which appear on my site, and then use those pieces of paper to finance my imagined life-style. Whoopee!!! But then, when I’ve spent, or wasted , all the money, the poor Bond holders have nothing. So, tough, as long as you let me do it again by re-electing me, or trusting me again! Just don’t let it happen to your few remaining pounds or dollars. Think seriously about buying into an economy which is thought to be more secure by the international money markets, and remember, even your old granny told you that bricks and mortar were, in the long run, the safest bet. Hope to see you soon in Umbria, either for tin soldiers, film locations, weddings, properties…….or just afternoon tea, next time you’re just motoring through our province of Perugia, land of saints, artists and poets. Best wishes, John Tunstill PS. Osborne now tells us that he, apparently, got his sums wrong, and that we, you, are going to be in schtuk for another FIVE years! Will the last person to leave please turn out the lights!