Are we being infantilized by our governments? Or are we just lazy?

The outbreak of swine flu is the latest avenue for our governments to act out as the ‘parental’ states they are. Here in the UK we are pretty used to always being told what to look out for. ‘Mind the gap’. ‘Look left’. ‘Take care when alighting the bus’. Now there is a new campaign out from the NHS, telling us how to sneeze. Or rather, what to just after we have sneezed.

EU warns against swine flu panic.

It seems that a swine flu pandemic is imminent. A pandemic of any sorts creates panic amongst people, which is far more damaging than the disease itself. The EU Health Commissioner, Androulla Vassiliou said yesterday that a possible pandemic would not necessarily cause widespread deaths. She said that Europe is well prepared and there is ‘no need to panic’.

The swine flu is great for the media.

After months and months reporting on the economic downturn there is finally a new kid on the block; swine flu. This week there hasn’t been much talk of unemployment figures and recession, but much, much has been said about sneezing pigs. So much, in fact, that the media has a whole country fooled.

Brown wants stronger ties with Pakistan.

Gordon Brown wants the ties between Britain and Pakistan to become stronger to help fight the threats posed by extremism and terrorism. Speaking in Islamabad, the Prime Minister called for a ‘strategic dialog on all issues’. The visit to Pakistan suffered a blow when President Zardari pulled out of a joint press conference, amid tensions over recent anti terror raids. The press conference went ahead with prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani instead, whom with Brown also held talks.

Over-optimistic Darling puts up a fight.

Chancellor Alistair Darling delivered the budget yesterday. Not many people envy him his job these days, and not many people believe they can do a better job. That doesn’t mean people don’t criticize. City experts warns the Chancellor is being too optimistic when anticipating that the economy will grow by 3.5% in 2011 and continue to grow by 3% plus in the next two years.

‘Freedom of speech’ is a selective term.

A large number of European diplomats walked out during an address by the Iranian president Ahmadinejad, which he held at the UN’s second conference on racism. The conference was boycotted by amongst others Israel and the US, and Ahmadinejad was the only head of state to attend.

Yes, his address was racist and offensive. To the western world. President Ahmadinejad chose his words in order to offend and cause a stir, maybe even to worsen relations with the West. Or was it a test? A couple of years ago, many Danish newspapers printed cartoons of Mohammed, and under Islam the face of Mohammed must not be shown. Some of the pictures are quite offensive, one is of Mohammed as a paedophile, another shows him as a suicide bomber. Is this not racist and offensive to the Arabian world?

The spotlight does not favour Gordon Brown.

According to newspaper reports, Gordon Brown has only got two things right over the last nine months. That is not a good track record for a prime minister, and especially not when he was used to having an almost cult status as Chancellor of the Exchequer having made British Economy one of the best in the world.

Promise of hope and change turning ugly.

Is Obama’s style of governing ‘hyperactive’? A conservative talk show host in the US claims Obama’s amount of policies is like dousing the American public with petrol and lighting a match. A former adviser to the Bush administration calls the vice president a liar. Apparently there are 17 socialist in the House of Representatives. Isn’t it time the Republicans realized they lost?

Inspector Clouseau?

No, just Bob Quick. The UK’s top counter terrorist officer resigns after admitting he could have jeopardized an operation to stop a possible al-Qaeda terror plot to the UK.  I just don’t understand how it happened. He had folders in his hands. Folders that would easily have hidden his secret documents, he just chose not to use them. For someone whose job is secrecy, he didn’t do that very well.

Poor RBS.

The troubled Royal Bank of Scotland announced today the devastating news they are to cut 9,000 jobs worldwide. 4,500 of those are in the UK. The jobs cut will be ‘backroom staff’, eg employees who cannot under any circumstances be blamed for the crisis the bank finds itself in.