I have just watched Andy Murray lose at Queens in a match delayed from the previous day when his US opponent claimed the light was too bad. Murray had his man on the ropes and he was not even asked by the umpire or referee what he thought of the conditions. I remember watching an exactly similar thing happen to Tim Henman in a Wimbledon semi final against Goran Ivanisevic. Tim had Ivanisevic on the ropes but Wimbledon officials were happy to accede to the Croat's request to go off for bad light. The rest is history and Tim lost his last and best chance of playing a Wimbledon final. Can you imagine any other country France, USA etc where their officials do not do everything they can to support their home players. British tennis needs all the support it can get but its own officials prefer to help the other side.
Its the same with our new PM Cameron with Obama kicking BP. Cameron's initial quoted reaction was to side with Obama! Unbelievable! When the US owned Torrey Canyon went down the British and French had to clean up the US mess themselves. The same with Piper Alpha owned and operated by a US oil company! US companies put their hands up for nothing. They hand it straight to their lawyers who deny liability and spin it out for many years. The US refused to extradite the CEO of Union Carbide to India to stand trial for the Bhopal factory leak which killed 16000 Indians and irreparably damaged many more unborn children. I had hoped the new coalition government would end our master and poodle relationship with the US but obviously not. BP is going to be hung out to dry by the most hypocritical nation on god's earth.
It is the same syndrome that has allowed our interests to be walked over by the EU since before Heath took us in. Why can our leaders and officials not stand up for our interests the way the other nation's governments do? The French are past masters at this. Note how they dominate international organisations by getting their best people into the key jobs. We get ex-social worker Cathy Ashton out of her depth, manipulated by the Eurocrats and the poor cow does not even realise what is happening.
We are now led by boy politicians who move from University straight to MP's Spad, to think tank, to a safe seat. As Portillo, it takes one to know one, pointed out by the time a Spad comes up before a selection committee they have been at the heart of things, know all the arguments and answers inside out and will clearly be the selected PPC. Then when they get in as an MP their experience and contacts gives them first crack at ministerial jobs and then it is onwards and upwards. So we are led by those, largely from Oxbridge, with no experience of doing a real job.
Our country is doomed unless this can be changed to say require 10 years in a proper job out of politics before one can stand for parliament. Short of revolution I cannot see the legions of ex-Spad MPs voting this through.
There is not a lot happening in Eurozone. Greek-Bund spreads remain at 8% and the Euro continues to decline against the dollar. Amusingly one of Merkel's banks, Deutsche, or as Eddy George used to call it Dodgy Bank has been caught shortselling PIGS corporate's bonds. A case of pig on pork as they say in the City.
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