Derek Evans Thoughts

Found this on Euronews website and have tweeted it as well. This is the extent of protectionism that maybe we thought was ending at least in what we consider the developed capitalistic world. Well there you go. When the going gets tough the Italians seem to be called foul. But then is the authority of what we Brits also despise, the precedence of European Union law above national edicts and a requirement to come into line, going to prevent this. Somehow I doubt this. But consider this. If the UK took the same view at least of its companies that it considers strategic, would it allow foreign ownership of say Cadbury's, and American CEOs at places such as Barclays. Oh and naturally when the US considers its company's it has certainly blocked takeovers by Chinese companies of US businesses so do not think that in reality the US is nearly as open as we are because that is not the case. Whether you like him or loath him, Murdoch had to become a US resident and committed to that co

Terrific profile of @Ed_Miliband in the Guardian magazine today by Andy Beckett, who (almost literally) puts most of the Lobby to shame This was a statement I saw on a tweet by Stefan Stern yesterday. So I looked it up on the Guardian's website. If you are at all interested in politics in the UK then look at both Stefan's tweets, I use to really enjoy reading him in the FT but that is no more, and also the appraisal made of Ed Milliband. Just like many politicians before him you really do not know the heart and soul of a person usually until he has gone. I got this when watching Brown. Most people around me use to be a little unkind about him but the fact was and is, that Brown, though imperfect was at heart a deeply commited man who was determined to undertake what he believed in but based on logic and rationality. The price he paid was that like most perfectionists around the world, toleration of those who do not show that commitment or a desire to learn and from that learn

Just a short question. What is the difference between David Cameron today concerning actions in Libya with David Cameron on Iraq (to some extent) and Afganistan. Answer: The beauty of power but now the opposition can now say that his ability to hold double standards increases by the day - and see the u-turn on plane requirements to post July 2011 etc following on from the so called cuts that they believe will get the country out of the central government deficit.

So today is the last day and what a contest it has been so far. In a few minutes we have the Scotland v Italy game from Edinburgh. The former must win to prevent a whitewash and dare one say it but the next worse team, whoever that could be would have two wins more. The only thing is Scotland's favour is that Italy do not play well when away from their home ground. The next game in today's schedule is Ireland v England. England are going for the grand slam and therefore win all their games. Ireland need to regain some pride after last week's defeat to Wales. This game is probably the most important one of the three as it will either confirm England's progress towards the World Cup that will take place in New Zealand starting in September, or re-invigorate the planning being made for the same reason by Ireland. An Ireland defeat would bring back concerns about the playing and backroom staff and the impact it would have on expectations at the World Cup. The final game

The publication of school performance tables has been well publiscised and the edition concerning 2010 has been available for a little while. The relevancy for secondary eduction relates to examination results at what is now called GCSE and equivalent which is generally at the age of 16, together with Key Stage 5 which is commonly referred to as A Levels at age 18. These two performance quotes are therefore relevant for academically capable children, and generally those schools which are selective in the students that enrol achieve higher percentages. However, what should also be looked at is the results published at Key Stage 2 which is at Year 2 in Primary school. Again the results are dependent upon the general capability of the children in each year. Therefore, if a particular year has a higher than normal number of children with a statement of special education needs and that if there is an environment where children are not encouraged in their learning outside of school hours t

On March 9th the Department of Education issued a Green Paper changing the method for setting a Statement of Special Education Needs (SEN) for the education and care provision of children and young people. Alledgedly it will give parents a legal right so that the current situation of parents having to pursue strongly the needs of their child for educational and care needs where there are physical and/or mental issues. But is this really a repackage of something that is currently one of negotiation to one where the courts become so involved and therefore costs incurred but there is a period of consultation and comments can be left via the appropriate link.

What is Libya, what is she, to paraphase a song Who Is Sylvia, What is She but the events of the last couple of days implies one thing for definite, a lack of a publiscised plan of action, whatever that might be, with regards to the government/autocracy/dictatorship and opposition in the State of Libya. It is just too quiet. We see that the "Empire Strikes Back" if that is what we define the regime, but the empire could still overrun a lightly armed opposition just because it has the armaments capable of inflicting such severe damage, by way of air strikes and high velocity and long range armaments including missiles. The question that I am asking is what does the outside world define this episode in the history of Libya. Does the opposition have viability or whatever that has entailed that it has been recognised by France or was this done prematurely. Or does this prove nothing. In other words, is this Kosovo and Bosnia, or even Iraq, or on the contrary is this Zimbab

The earthquake and tsunami has brought upon severe issues with nuclear reactors in Japan, their safety and viability. The world awaits if a possible catastrophe is about to unfold and the population be further devastated. At least the population around Chernobyl was not as large as this, so one has to pray or something. However, the question has to be asked and is being asked. Given the population of Japan and its limited energy resources what can it do with regards to the availability of it and to maximise energy efficiency when geographically the incidents of earthquakes is always going to be a threat at this sort of level. The statistics of one in a hundred year event is suddenly becoming more regular than that and so all forms of energy sourcing for Japan is at high risk. Refineries are on fire as well so this applies to carbon and non-carbon fuels. With the plate tectonics mainly to the East of the islands of Japan it would seem to make more sense to source energy as far away

What the hell does the British government think they are doing. That was at least incompetence at worst a botch job on the scale of say Suez in 1956. If the task was to make contact with the rebel command and governmental structure in the "East Zone" then it needed basic contact before sending in a discreet corps of relevant people. This was just plain stupid needing another cringing u-turn of values which is what this government is learning all about. It makes big statements and then learns that it has to repent. So the UK had it coming to it doing the wrong thing at the wrong time. All credibility with foreign policy has gone and behind closed doors our European allies and the Americans are probably sniggering at this, if not laughing. This is therefore a hasty job and the repentance will be long and hard. You cannot trust the Brits to do the right thing and to think that government expenditure in embassies and the like is being reduced by the 20+%. Well there is not going

I have just read the entry made by Robin Lustig of BBC Radio 4 which makes an interesting point of the potential domino effect of these autocratic regimes as seen by their peoples now changing through generally dramatic protest and how it is perceived vis-a-vis the worries of Saudi Arabia and the price of oil which of course effects most of our energy requirements. Although he looks at the knowledge that he has regarding Bahrain and Yemen, we do not seem to have any analysis at this time of the potential for Kuwait, UAE, and Qatar amongst what the "West" perceives as progressive and friendly countries and then also if there are concerns with the unfriendly countries of Syria, Iran and Lebanon within the region we would categorise as the Middle East. Are we in fact at a stage where regimes that are not thought as being overly autocratic can loosen the financial econmonic distribution of funds as a way of maintaining their control, but evidently after financial control comes

It is becoming even more critical as we have moved from Tunisia through Egypt and now in the civil war taking place in the tribalistic environment that is Libya that the actions or otherwise of the military trained forces is crucial in gauging the success or otherwise of the change activities. However, things are not fully quiet in Egypt with some events in Alexandria today but in Libya who has the military hardware and software and the knowledge of using it is why we are in a basic position of stalement, of punch and counter-punch. The non intervention of other nations is to some extent understandable. We are not aware of whether behaviour that best the Balkans crisis is evident here so therefore there is not a human rights precursor to an external impact be it by way of the effective closure of Libyan airspace which would prevent air strikes by the Gadaffi forces that still seem to have the full support of the air force. This therefore limits the ability of what is an effectively lig