The Lobby Group » goldtop

European Elections 2009

goldtop — Fri, 22 May 2009 15:42:14 +0000

Are these elections relevant? Will anyone care?

David Cameron is trying to use these as a platform to call for a general election in the UK, will the results of these european elections indicate the mood of the country or will people just be reacting to current issues which they will forget further down the line?

A remarkable number of independent candidates this time round and its also the first time out for the Jury Team- it will be interesting to see how they fare.

As a non voter for nearly ten years (in all elections, local, national or otherwise) should I bother now? The political process is so fundamentally flawed is a vote for anyone just an endorsement of a system that I don’t believe in?

Oops

goldtop — Tue, 12 May 2009 11:48:00 +0000

Just in case the news is being suppressed in the UK: the BBC quote of the day about GB’s blusher is only the tip of the story. According to continental sources, the bag lost by Brown’s aide contained the full spin briefing for his defence against the Telegraph, who are trying to get their hands on it.

Car Trouble

goldtop — Sun, 03 May 2009 21:00:00 +0000

Whipped butter is a strange thing. Doesn’t really have enough consistency to be absorbed into the toast in the correct manner and therefore makes for a disappointing breakfast experience. But that is not the issue. It was, however, over breakfast that I was reading in the Toronto Globe and Mail that Chrysler’s bankruptcy protection plan will leave the United Auto Workers Union as the majority shareholder (the union has purchased 55% of companies shares). The union however doesn’t see this as a good thing and analyists predict that it will sell the shares once the government loans have been repaid.

I’m interested in this. I would have thought that a stake in the company’s future would be a good thing for a work force. As long as it stays profitable of course and part of that could be down to the unions behaviour itself- welcome to the wonderful world of self employment. Or is worker ownership too socialist an idea for North Americans to stomach? Or is it an indication the even the car workers union recognize the age of the big gas guzzler (which was Chrysler’s forte) is over, or even that we at the end of the petro-chemical age, and they are desperate not to own part of what is going to be a big money loser, in which case why bother using/wasting union funds prolonging the inevitable?

The Crash Course

goldtop — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 09:17:00 +0000

A good place to start understanding some of the underlying reasons for the current mess (explained in good old laymans terms) is here-

http://www.chrismartenson.com/crashcourse

Takes a couple of hours to go through the whole thing but it is well worth the time.

My issues with the media

goldtop — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 09:01:00 +0000

“In a society which finds spoon fed porn on freeview TV along with a 24 hour shopping channel and quiz call and casino TV and routine stylised violence acceptable it (the real world) does not shock or motivate. The REAL world can not compete for our attention amidst all the distractions which are very appealing to our ‘base level powerful animal instincts’ which are a part of us (and the reason why we are in this mess). The trouble is while we are all distracted by all this BS in our lives the real world is doing what it always does”

That is a quote from a post elsewhere in these parts and I agree with the sentiment wholeheartedly. The staggering amount of media devoted to vapid, vacuous and inconsequential rubbish is blinding people to the real issues in their lives.

Is this really what people want and are interested in. Really? Or is it the fact that this kind of thing has reached such a level of critical mass that people are just steamrollered into submission.

Are people now reaching out from their homes to bind themselves together not as communities or as a society as a whole to express any indignation and anger at their situation but to merely ‘text their vote’? Why can’t that inclusive desire be harnessed to influence something that actually MAKES A DIFFERENCE?

I do not care about celebrity lifestyles or Paris’s New British Buddy or the quest for the new UK supermodel and yes, I can exercise my right to change the channel or not buy certain magazines but I worry about the state of a culture that seems to hold these kind of issues in high esteem and the sedative effect of this kind of saturation. Is this rubbish really What People Want?