Author: Malcolm Blair-Robinson

Tightening the Police Belt The way we have organised a police system in the U.K mainland is financially daft, with every county or city having its own dedicated and independent force to do everything. In Northern Ireland there is one police service for the whole province, which is better, though direct comparison is difficult because of special […]

Spy Thriller There is a rather surreal B movie aspect to the arrest of the Russian ‘spies’, engaged in information gathering operations in the U.S of apparently non-classified information which any savvy political commentator or  investigative journalist would have access to. False identities and information exchange in the most unsophisticated  but melodramatic circumstances, which if […]

G 20 and Recovery There is an interesting sub-text developing. This blog has repeated many times the need to re-balance our economy on with manufacturing at the heart, reducing reliance on the City and services. There needs to be more saving and less borrowing. Especially we need to import less and make more of what […]

Home Again We do not yet know who will win the world cup, but we do know for sure England have not just been defeated in this tournament; they have been beaten. There is something not quite right with English football. Too much money, too much celebrity, too much rope, but not enough character and […]

Moving to Work I see nothing wrong in moving towards regional employment opportunities. People have been doing this since the dawn of the industrial revolution. Before that they moved to more fertile land. It is right to make it possible to vacate council accommodation and benefits in one location, to a similar situation, but with […]

Special Relationship Having spent years cringing at the unlikely coziness between Bush and Blair which produced one of the most toxic political partnerships of modern times and having consistently advocated a more independent view of British interests informing our foreign policy, I am very comfortable with the Cameron/Obama chemistry. I think Obama understands our need to […]

Tribal States Further emphasis is given, if any were needed, to the complete miscalculation of the Afghan project by understanding the precarious nature of tribal states. Colonial powers and other conquerors have, down through the pages of history, created stable regions by imposing a universal discipline on diverse tribal and ethnic interests. All is well […]

Helping the Poor Although the Budget has been promoted as fair and spreading the pain, it is a fact of life that austerity directly impacts the quality of life of the poor, whereas it only affects the comfort of the better off. In the last great austerity period in the years after WWII, there was full […]

  General McChrystal President Obama was wrong to sack this man. Yes he did a very silly thing to let a journalist trail around after him (and his aids) for a couple of weeks and spout off in a reckless way, normally reserved for close and trusted buddies. Remember this general was not caught in a […]

Troublesome Generals When President Lincoln was urged to get rid of Grant because of excessive casualties, he responded  ‘I cannot spare this man. He fights.’ President Obama will be pondering on this historical parallel today.