Vox Polis

Well I was going to write an anaylsis of Blair’s “radical” resuffle but Nosemonkey has done such a good job that I thought i’d link to him.

The only additions i’d like to make is that i’m not surprised that he chose Margaret Beckett as Foreign secretary - Blair always likes to break records to give a positive spin on his reshuffles and to beat Maggie Thatcher whenever he can - remember Blair has broken all records by having the most women in cabinet, the first black man (Paul Boateng), the first black women in Cabinet - well now he’s got the first women Foreign secretary.  The only surprise is that Jack Straw was demoted - was it over Iran perhaps?

So hybrid cars arn’t going to save the world, why am I not surprised. As reported in the Guardian, hybrid cars are as polluting as the traditional family estate cars. I love the way that politicians and celebrities have adopted the hybrid as a symbol of their green creditials - “I’ve got a hybrid therefore i’m doing my part to save the environment” are the words uttered so easily.

The hybrid car is a convenient symbol - only a few thousand pounds more than a typical car and what’s great is you don’t have to change your lifestyles one bit. You can still drive where you want, when you want. But as we know to save the environment we must change our habits…and this is the hardest thing of all. David Cameron would agree with me on this- he’s attempt to grab the green vote faulted last week when it was reported that a car followed his bicycle to work full of his paperwork and clothes. Clearly Dave needs to get a bag for his bike.

If politicians really want to prove to me they care about the environment then why not just use public transport or walk. May be after a week of being late because of buses and trains they may also start to think seriously about the transport system as well! Double wammy!!

Maybe London needs this.  The New York Metro newspaper is attempting to deal with the litter problem its free newspaper inevitably causes by employing people to collect them, iron them out and give them out again.  Not a bad idea really.

Berlusconi has at last conceded defeat, ending weeks of uncertainty. But what can we expect from Prodi’s government assuming the fragile coalition remains intact?

looking at the problems he’s facing at home and the wafer thin political majority he has, I think Prodi will follow in Merkel’s footsteps and concentrate on foreign affairs. First off as an opponent to the war in Iraq we can expect the remaining troops to be recalled within the year. As a former EU President we can expect the future of the European project to be high on his agenda, especially the return of the EU Constitution.

At home one of the first things Prodi will need to do is tackle the fragile economy - but i’m not convinced he’ll be able to achieve much. Not only will he need to negotiate with the Communists, but few will have the stomach for the reforms that would be needed to revigorate the economy.