Thursday, July 12, 2007

The end of Cabinet government?

One of the interesting things about Gordon Brown's new broom is that he promised a "new politics" "change" and "a return to cabinet government".

On the super casino's U-turn of course there was no cabinet discussion at all, whilst the decision was revealed by way of a planted question at Prime Ministers Questions.

We know there was no cabinet discussion because of this quote in the Guardian here:
His spokesman said the prime minister had not discussed it with the cabinet, but had agreed a position with the new culture secretary, James Purnell.
Hmm..

I agree with the decision itself, or rather I had not been persuaded by the argument for "Super Casinos" but am very dubious about the decision making process both for and the U-turn against.

I am also concerned about the wasted costs for all the doomed bids. Rather unsurprisingly Manchester and its MP's are not best pleased.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Erik said
"Lebanon was 40% Muslim and 60% Christian; while censuses are no longer taken, the proportion is likely reversed."
Benedict said
"Further more you don't half talk rubbish sometimes. For example you said that Lebanon had a 60% Christian population and now it has a 60% Muslim one.

Both figures are tosh. For a start where did you get your numbers from? When I was there the situation was as ever that there was no majority community but that the Maronite (please note that does not include other Roman Catholics, Orthodox, or any other form) Christian community were the largest of the minorities, Sunni's next, followed by Shia then Druz, then down to the ignored, like other Christians, Jews etc."

The true figures are:-
Muslim 59.7% (Shi'a, Sunni, Druze, Isma'ilite, Alawite or Nusayri), Christian 39% (Maronite Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Melkite Catholic, Armenian Orthodox, Syrian Catholic, Armenian Catholic, Syrian Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Chaldean, Assyrian, Copt, Protestant), other 1.3%
note: 17 religious sects recognized.
So in my book, Erik was correct, and you, Benedict were wrong.
So you lived there, so what?
Let's face it, eriks blogs brought a touch of realism to this place, yours on the other hand bring errors, name calling, and bullshit.

Folly is like fractal, the closer you look, the more there is of it.

Anonymous said...

The point of eriks blog was to point out the folly of allowing a toehold to the "religion of peace", (or is it pieces)
You, on the other hand chose to ignore eriks message.

Is your middle name fractal?

This is my last visit too.

Benedict White said...

Blogerrette, you make my point for me, in part.

Shia and sunni may be Muslim, but they are not one community.

FURTHER MORE he said the situation had changed from 60% Christian absolute majority to 40% minority SINCE the 1950's. That is tosh, as the figures you quote look like they are from the 1932 census, which supports my contention that he was talking rubbish as there was no Christian majority in the 1950's

Erik was not blogging, he was commenting on my blog, and like you seldom about what I was writing about.

If Erik wants a blog, fine, I'll even help set it up for him.

Benedict White said...

Oh, and another thing, ignorant lefties trot out the same numbers to argue that the Lebanon should not have a Christian President.

It somewhat assumes that Shia and Sunni see themselves as Muslim more than Shi or Sunni. They don't in the same way Christians in Northern Ireland see themselves more as Catholic's and Protestants.