Prime Minister Questions - 22nd October 2014

In this weeks Prime Minister Questions focused on the NHS. David Cameron was again blaming Labour for the problems with NHS Wales. Ed Miliband was excellent at highlighting the problems within NHS England.

David Cameron response was weak and  even his own party did not really seem to be supporting him. I think it is bit ridiculous of David Cameron to blame Labour for NHS Wales when he is Prime Minister of the whole country. 

So I think that Ed Miliband won the exchange by sticking the facts and highlighting that David Cameron is responsible for NHS England which is having some serious problems. 

These are the kind of exchanges that are important for Ed Miliband to win he has any realistic chance of becoming Prime. Minister in eight months time. 

Autumn political conferences

The political conferences have now taken place and Labour Party took place few a weeks ago. I was a little disappointed with Ed Miliband. 

I did not expect him to say that he will continue with the same destructive Tory policies. 

I really hope Ed can up his game in the next eight months because this is his election to lose.

The Conservative party conference got off to a bad start with the resigniation of MP Mark Reckless. 

The Tories did not say anything new but instead doubled down on their destructive policies that many have suffered from. 

UKIP where the next to hold there conference and Nigel Farage was buoyant from the defection of Mark Reckless from the Tories to them. 

Farage was again promising to cause an earthquake in British politics. Sadly he is probably right and his brand of extreme right wing politics will probably succeed. 

Liberal Democrats held there conference last week and Nick Clegg is a man in deep trouble experts have predicted that the Lib Dems will lose almost half there MPs in the next General Election. 

There really wasn't much Nick Clegg could say that would change what the experts are predicting. I suspect he has lined himself with a nice job in Europe. 

So none of the parties had a game changer of a conference party so there is still lots for each of the parties to do. 

Scotland says No....

So the people of Scotland rejected independence and it was right result. I don't think that financially Scotland could look after itself and the UK needs Scotland. 

I still fundamentally believe that David Cameron messed this up from the get go. 

He never took it serious before polling  day and then when he realised that the Scottish people might vote for independence he started offering them everything and the kitchen sink. 

He has now realised that he needs to offer English voters something too and to me it is like watching a man a totally out of his depth.

For the people of Scotland this has been a win/win situation they had David Cameron and Westminster begging them to reject the referendum, so they will now get more power. 

Scotland decides...

Well the day has finally come! the people of Scotland will decide today whether they want to be part of the UK. 

Not many people British people including me was paying too much attention the referendum talk. But I have to admit that in the last few weeks this has really caught my attention. 

I think that if the people of Scotland vote Yes then the Scottish people who voted no might at some point relocate to England.

I think from an English perspective it could put even more pressure on health, housing and education services. 

I have read that Scottish Nationalist Party think that they run the economy based on the oil in the North Sea. 

There are quite a few countries around the world that have an oil based economy and not all of them have been successful. 

Ultimately I think the No vote will be successful but after this I think that David Cameron's  lack of leadership has been exposed. 

It seems like at first he wasn't particularly bothered but once it had been explained to him the real impact on the UK economy did he really start caring. 

Now David Cameron has offered the people of Scotland everything and the kitchen sink in a last attempt to keep the UK together. 

It's really desperate politics and he probably would not be in this situation if he had taken the referendum debate seriously in the first place. 

So I hope the people of Scotland stay with the UK after all they can look forward to receiving all those political and financial gifts offered by David Cameron. 

The death of Michael Brown - Missouri - Ferguson

On the 9th August in Missouri, Ferguson, eighteen year old Michael Brown was killed by a police officer. According to eye witnesses he may have been shot up to six times.

Apparently Police Officer Darren Wilson had asked Michael to get out of the road and this somehow ended with Michael Brown being shot dead up to six times.

For me this another shocking case that is hard to get my head around. It's clear that Michael Brown was no angel but to be shot him up to six times sounds more like an execution.  

Since the shooting of Michael Brown things have gone from bad to worse for the little town of Ferguson. 

As hundreds of people protested Michael Brown's murder, some wanted to exact revenge and the police have reacted with military weapons I.e. Tear gas. 

The Missouri Governer Jay Nixon decided to use the National Guard to control the situation and so far this has been unsuccessful. 

For me the police seem to be making mistake after mistake and nobody in the state Missouri seem to know what they are doing. 

At some point the police will realise they need to stop treating protesters as terrorists and engage them in a positive way that may not necessary bring a solution but quell the unrest.

As the public is waiting for the official report in Michael 's death. I hope that they are able release  this information without even more unrest. 

Like I said Michael Brown was no angel and he seem that  he had issues he needed to deal with and instead of a police being an authoritive and calming force, this police officer Darren Wilson acted unilaterally and killed Michael Brown. 

I am hoping that once the current unrest subsides the African Americans in Ferguson will come together and some how turn this tragedy into a learning point from stronger and better community relations with the police. 

Hopefully both the community and the police will learn that aggression just leads to more aggression and rarely solves anything.  

Gaza Strip - latest crisis

Tensions have flared up again between Israel and Palestine. This started with the deaths of three Israeli boys and this has lead to the deaths of hundreds of Palestinian people including children. 

Whilst I feel the pain of hundreds of innocent Palestinians, I feel that they have been let down by the Palestinian Authorities and placing to much faith in Hamas. 

Whilst Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is  a Man that only knows how to use brute force. I was sad when the Israeli people elected this man to be their Prime Minister at a time when they could have elected a more moderate Prime Minister. 

So the violence will sadly go on and more people will continue to die until there is a ceasefire.

 I know I sound pessimistic but I don't believe the current leadership of either Israel or the Palestinians want peace. 

If anything is going to change in this conflict it's going have to be a change of leadership from both sides and I don't really know how realistic that is. 

President Obama needs to get more involved as Israel need the USA support and I think if President Obama had a proactive role in this conflict then at least Benjamin Netanyahu would have to listen and could result in a temporary ceasefire. 

Malaysian Airlines crash - The Political fallout

A Malaysian airline from Holland and on it's way to Malaysia crashed last week and it was brought down by a Surface to Air Missile in Ukraine. 

This plane crash killed two hundred and ninety five people and nearly two hundred of them where Dutch nationals and ten British nationals. 

The investigations has just started but there is strong evidence to suggest that this airline was brought down by Russian backed fighters. 

If it is proved that Russia where involved in bringing down this airline it could have some far reaching consequences politically for Russia. 

I think if it is proved that Russian government where involved then applying sanctions against Russia will not be enough.

President Putin has been quick to deny that Russia had anything to do with it and  Russians at the moment seem quite supportive of him. 

In the UK David Cameron has been using his Public Relations background to full effect by pressing for sanctions against Russia.  

But then he is not prepared to return any of the money that some billionaire Russians linked to the Russian government have donated to the Conservative Party. 

President Obama has been very even handed at the moment and he waiting for confirmation of Russian involvement before pointing the finger. 

As there was only one American on the plane he might only be able to advise without really getting involved.

But the next week or so will give us better indication of what the European Union response will be.

 I think that Russia where involved and once it's proven not only should they apply financial sanctions but they also need to relocate the 2018 World Cup to a safer region.