(no subject)
I'm curiously unimpressed or unscared by the thoughts of a LibDem-Conservative coalition; I didn't even join the Facebook group against it. Maybe I don't really care - the coalition negotiations were exciting but it's hard to feel that anything Cameron does will have much effect on me. It'll have plenty of effect on other people, of course.
I wasn't joining the euphoria when Obama won 18 months ago - another election that seemed epochal to many - and it looks like my skepticism was justified; he's continuing with Bush's attempts to corrupt the American legal system; believes targeted assassinations are the way to tackle America's drugs problem, and his main achievement was a healthcare bill whose principal function is to give billions of dollars to private insurance companies.
Now with Theresa May in the Home Office and Ken Clarke in Justice, it's likely that Britain will go in a similar direction - Labour introduced draconian laws but there was at least some reluctant acknowledgement of the Human Rights Act, some token safeguarding, some judge or lawyer as a figurehead, some acceptance that Human Rights could not be ignored even if they could be circumvented. It's hard to imagine Clarke having any respect for any concept more abstract than Cognac. But now he's Secretary of State for Justice, in charge not only of the judiciary but also of constitutional reform (which means House of Lords as well as voting reform). On the other hand, I'm sure Liam Fox will make an excellent Defence Secretary - I'm sure he'll do lots of riding in tanks and then lots of hiding when he has to switch from attacking spending cuts to justifying them. Defence is the traditional post for idiots (Geoff Hoon, John Reid, Des Browne, John Nott, Malcolm Rifkind) - even the more intelligent jobholders were nuts (Portillo, Heseltine) - and I'm not sure if any of them were all that bright.
Probably it doesn't matter very much, as there's nothing the government can do about the recession - other than worsen it. Plus, Education Secretary Michael Gove once got drunk and threw a parking cone off a bridge in Aberdeen. Brilliant minds, all.
I wasn't joining the euphoria when Obama won 18 months ago - another election that seemed epochal to many - and it looks like my skepticism was justified; he's continuing with Bush's attempts to corrupt the American legal system; believes targeted assassinations are the way to tackle America's drugs problem, and his main achievement was a healthcare bill whose principal function is to give billions of dollars to private insurance companies.
Now with Theresa May in the Home Office and Ken Clarke in Justice, it's likely that Britain will go in a similar direction - Labour introduced draconian laws but there was at least some reluctant acknowledgement of the Human Rights Act, some token safeguarding, some judge or lawyer as a figurehead, some acceptance that Human Rights could not be ignored even if they could be circumvented. It's hard to imagine Clarke having any respect for any concept more abstract than Cognac. But now he's Secretary of State for Justice, in charge not only of the judiciary but also of constitutional reform (which means House of Lords as well as voting reform). On the other hand, I'm sure Liam Fox will make an excellent Defence Secretary - I'm sure he'll do lots of riding in tanks and then lots of hiding when he has to switch from attacking spending cuts to justifying them. Defence is the traditional post for idiots (Geoff Hoon, John Reid, Des Browne, John Nott, Malcolm Rifkind) - even the more intelligent jobholders were nuts (Portillo, Heseltine) - and I'm not sure if any of them were all that bright.
Probably it doesn't matter very much, as there's nothing the government can do about the recession - other than worsen it. Plus, Education Secretary Michael Gove once got drunk and threw a parking cone off a bridge in Aberdeen. Brilliant minds, all.