Kind regards

Nadine

I wonder what questions were asked in the Ofcom survey. If Ofcom asked questions about regulation without defining the term, it seems likely that a finding such as, “Almost half (47%) felt that current levels of internet regulation were ‘too little’” means little more than, “47% thought that nasty things were available on the internet.”

Please tell me Ofcom’s survey was better than this!

As a country, Britain seems to have nowhere to go. The Empire is gone, though the stigma of colonial rule keeps rearing its ‘ungrateful’ head. The Queen will no longer attend the Commonwealth conference and Charlie Boy is no substitute.

The EU 27 and Euro are seen as ‘basket cases” or (‘for god’s sake), dominated by Germany, despite two world-class ‘defeats’. Even ungrateful Scotland is seriously considering whether to break away and Ireland under Sinn Fein, is not such a fantasy as it once was. Demographics could reduce the Loyalist majority to a minority – another headache and continuing drain financially. Wales has the temerity to thrash England at rugby. The ‘special relationship’ as the 51st state, looks rather ordinary, as Obama sends back Churchill’s bust from the White House.

In these circumstances, is it surprising that a large swathe of the English are toying with a UK Independence Party? And that’s before they have a straight Euro elections coming up to polarise opinion even more. Oh yes, and there’s the small matter of our lopsided economy. A deliberately shrunken industrial economy (didn’t we just thank Thatcher properly for that!). Bloated services (nail bars, betting shops and coffee shops galore). Financial\banking crisis – banksters generously rewarded for almost bankrupting the country. High unemployment figures massaged to disguise the desolation of a nation without secure work. Miigrants ‘flooding’ in from Eastern Europe to provide cheap (‘flexible’) labour, worsen the dire housing shortage – how many youngsters today can afford/get a mortgage. Some might say, they should have left the Iron Curtain drawn!

And now the ‘Socialist’ alternative is a pale shadow of what once used to give hope to the large English working class that there was a ‘Jerusalem’. Today, Labour ‘triangulate’ with the policies of City and Treasury-dominated economics while Alan Johnson entertains\cashes in with Andrew Neil and stories of his boyhood. The upper classes are still raking it in and the ‘squeezed’ middle class are wondering why life’s changed for them.

Apart from all that, things are fine for some of us, still. But if the world economy doesn’t come round and things get worse for more of us, Farage and UKIP might begin to show its real fascist teeth. In any case, regrettably, they are not going away for a while. But Labour and Miliband is going to have to ‘go up a gear’ to keep up with this new, dangerous, mood swing.

Keep travelling! best, jim