Saturday, June 26, 2010
LINKS & COMMENT
A recent mention by Jerry Pournelle of an item I did summarising here quotable thoughts has, in turn been twice mentioned by him, which did my hit rate considerable good.
Also he linked to my article about the Chinese submarine that surfaced in the middle of a US carrier fleet without being spotted.
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And on a different & remarkable example of the continuity of political principle, or otherwise, Daniel Hannan mentioned on his blog
Also he linked to my article about the Chinese submarine that surfaced in the middle of a US carrier fleet without being spotted.
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And on a different & remarkable example of the continuity of political principle, or otherwise, Daniel Hannan mentioned on his blog
The Conservatives had promised to close the budget deficit with an 80:20 ratio – 80 per cent spending cuts, that is, to 20 per cent tax rises. The Liberal Democrats wanted 100 per cent spending cuts and 0 per cent tax rises. While the Lib Dem position was plainly preferable, coalitions involve compromises,to which I pointed out
I was unaware that the LDs had wanted to end the deficit 100% by spending cuts. This seems remarkable like classic liberalism. However since I was expelled from that party a few years ago for having had letters published in papers calling for cutting corporation tax & government spending to promote growth (as worked so well in Ireland), the need for nuclear power & that cutting regulations preventing housebuilding would mean more housebuilding, I have to have some doubts if they meant it. Officially the LDs still claim that such views are "illiberal", "too right wing" to even discuss & "incompatible with party membership". There seems to be some contradiction if they are also now party policy.Other commenters suggested that their 100% call may have been made purely for coverage without any intention of letting it actually happen. This is reminiscent of the LD behaviour at the last Scottish budget when they voted against it because they nominally wanted to make use of Scotland's income tax cutting powers, but without having suggested any of the cuts needed to pay for it & then when, as a result of voting against it, the budget unexpectedly failed to pass, immediately reversing their vote & putting it through unchanged.
Labels: Errata
