Saturday, June 05, 2010
Tully's brief talk on BBC
Today Tully gave a brief talk on the Indian Government in Delhi. Here is the current URL. I do not care for most of the BBC propaganda broadcasts on India, but this one was worth hearing at least. Probably like Tully, I felt quite sorry for Manmohan Singh who really is doing an extremely good job in difficult circumstances, and also for Chidambaram whose problems with the Naxals must be one of India's very major concerns. Didi seems very willing to co-operate and there could be a prospect of a very good continuance of the coalition.
As an Australian in India/UK I have a good understanding, for a lay person, of coalition politics which has great advantages as well as disadvantages. UK is new to coalition politics but advantages are beginning to emerge. For example in the present UK state of affairs there seems somewhat less likely to be monolithic nepotism which we are beginning to find in the Labor opposition.
But there is a big problem that in coalition circumstances the UK babus will become even more unfettered. And likely corruption will increase with the UK babus, or clerks with a mere veneer of modern education, and often a title, who run the UK civil service and are so economical with the truth. This can lead to the worsening of UK commercial corruption overall, and a further deterioration in life in the UK.
Already drug pushing in UK schools, public drunkeness and immorality are universally common, but one hopes, perhaps without much hope, that coalition politics may at least moderate excessive libertarianism and reduce bribery by large companies.
I well remember the days of Lang Labor (oh, yes !) in NSW, and the DLP in the Commonwealth government, and whilst people these days are perhaps reluctant to admit their many virtues, they did come into existence because of a public perception of vicious corruption and unfairness. In India, Trinamool Congress clearly appears to have done a lot of good in Bengal, and it would not be beyond the realms of possibility for Abbott, McDonnell and others, to do the same for the UK.
As an Australian in India/UK I have a good understanding, for a lay person, of coalition politics which has great advantages as well as disadvantages. UK is new to coalition politics but advantages are beginning to emerge. For example in the present UK state of affairs there seems somewhat less likely to be monolithic nepotism which we are beginning to find in the Labor opposition.
But there is a big problem that in coalition circumstances the UK babus will become even more unfettered. And likely corruption will increase with the UK babus, or clerks with a mere veneer of modern education, and often a title, who run the UK civil service and are so economical with the truth. This can lead to the worsening of UK commercial corruption overall, and a further deterioration in life in the UK.
Already drug pushing in UK schools, public drunkeness and immorality are universally common, but one hopes, perhaps without much hope, that coalition politics may at least moderate excessive libertarianism and reduce bribery by large companies.
I well remember the days of Lang Labor (oh, yes !) in NSW, and the DLP in the Commonwealth government, and whilst people these days are perhaps reluctant to admit their many virtues, they did come into existence because of a public perception of vicious corruption and unfairness. In India, Trinamool Congress clearly appears to have done a lot of good in Bengal, and it would not be beyond the realms of possibility for Abbott, McDonnell and others, to do the same for the UK.
# posted by uv : 8:55 PM
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