I am constantly writing that the government makes legislation with a broad brush which affects almost everyone, in circumstances where the need is only with respect to a small minority. What is also evident is that instead of a calm, reasoned approach to matters, they are dancing instead to the media tune, rushing to sound-bites, being subjected to unreasonable and belligerent questioning, instead of ignoring it. The press themselves are not beyond reproach, muck raking at every opportunity, using their great finances to importune information more for sensationalism than because there has been a serious breach of protocol.
The business about the Home Secretary being unaware that a minor charge against the permissible account, just a few quid, for programmes on television, has been blown totally out of proportion, to the level of a witch hunt, and the Prime Minister of all people, has been wasting his valuable time, which should have been spent at this worrying period, on more serious matters, by giving sound-bites, and worse still acknowledgement that there was something wrong just by answering the question which should have been ignored. Indeed in those circumstances I would have thought either the Deputy Prime Minister, or some senior minister should have made a statement, thus giving the matter its due value. At a time when the whole country, from the most wealthy to the poorest, have suffered minor or really serious effects from something which should have been recognized and stamped out by the government, is not the time to start putting its private house in order, something which will take considerable time and distraction, when there are other more pressing issues, which we all know about.
My regular readers will know that I have been against Britain hosting the Olympic Games from the outset. My reason was that only a very small proportion of the United Kingdom will have the opportunity of being at the arenas, at considerable expense, and the rest of us watching it on television, but footing the bill nonetheless. We know originally it was an ego trip for Tony Blair, who then walked away leaving Brown holding the baby. The ones who are most likely to profit from it are the media, the advertisers, and those personally involved. As to the rest, this is just another burden. It has since transpired that we can’t really afford pay for it. Currently we are being asked to foot the bill for the GE 20 bandwagon, in many millions of pounds, when according to the league table of countries suffering from the credit crunch, Britain is alleged to be at the bottom of the heap. Because so many foreign countries are involved, I would have thought that the whole thing should have been under the cloak of the United Nations and consequently paid for universally. I just wonder if this is an ego trip for Brown.