Britain Becoming more Conservative, survey suggests

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7002262.ece

Britain exits longest recession in known history

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article7002715.ece

Britain, although coming out from the longest recession ever, did not rise as much as was suspected, gaining only a mere .01% instead of the projected .04%. Luckily, this is only the first of three readings by the ONS, so future readings may be more positive. Only time will tell. Sadly, if this reading proves correct, it may keep the country in recession because it was so low.

Britain is the last of the power countries to pick itself out of the depression that has hit the globe of late. The US, France, Germany, Japan and China were all a quarter ahead.

It is likely that the next election will affect the GDP, but unclear whether it will in a negative or positive way. What is abundantly clear is that the British government is going to have to work very hard to keep it's country afloat. The only parts of the economy which helped contribute to this minute rise are the retail and the motor sections, and the government has been heavily propping them up.

Recently, the pound had fallen, and it is only worth about $1.60 to one pound, instead of it's approximate 2 pounds per dollar rule of old. The euro has suffered as well. Britain had faced six straight quarters of a falling economy. Because the definition of "recession" only calls for two straight quarters of negative growth, it would appear that Britain has been undergoing a triple-depression. Bummer.

However, in this new wash of hope, over-optimism (the Treasury is claiming an imminent 3.6% raise) threatens to crush the little growth they have had. Projecting too high an increase screws mightily with mortgages and jobs and could even threaten to kill the recovery! Their main concern is debt reduction.

"Pressure on Blair as he makes final stand on Iraq"

The Chilcot Iraq War Inquiry

By Elizabeth Cutbirth

(See the actual Inquiry video here: http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/ )

The Iraq inquiry is not a trial to prosecute representative officials for their actions in war in Iraq, but an array of public hearings with the purpose of education, and investigation of what instigated the war and its legality, “It will consider the period from the summer of 2001 to the end of July 2009, embracing the run-up to the conflict in Iraq, the military action and its aftermath. We will therefore be considering the UK's involvement in Iraq, including the way decisions were made and actions taken, to establish, as accurately as possible, what happened and to identify the lessons that can be learned. Those lessons will help ensure that, if we face similar situations in future, the government of the day is best equipped to respond to those situations in the most effective manner in the best interests of the country."

The Tony Blair inquiry began on Jan. 29^th, 2010. The information derived from Blair included that Bush and Blair had meeting discussing the Saddam Hussein as a potential threat before 9/11 and much more so post 9/11. Blair had stated that, “In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, he firmly believed that he could not run the risk that Saddam would reconstitute his banned weapons programs. "The decision I took – and frankly would take again – was if there was any possibility that he could develop weapons of mass destruction [WMD] we should stop him. That was my view then and that is my view now."

Blair also stated, “that there was no real difference between wanting regime change and wanting Iraq to disarm: regime change was US policy because Iraq was in breach of its UN obligations. "It's more a different way of expressing the same proposition."

The strength of the evidence by the joint intelligence committee “presented at the time” in 2002 led Blair to believe “beyond doubt” that Iraq had weapons of mass-destruction. The weapons, however, were battlefield weapons not long-range missiles. Blair comments, “It would have been better to have corrected it in the light of the significance it later took on,".

Bush also declared that a second UN resolution was unnecessary, and America told its UK ally that if it had to bow out of a possible war, it was okay to do so. The Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith however, a week before the war, had stated that the war was legal. If he had said it was unlawful, the British would not have entered the war, “He thought he could have got the nine votes necessary for a security council vote in favour of a second resolution if it had not been for the French and the Russians making it clear that they were vehemently opposed”.

As for the aftermath of the war, the article finished with, “Blair blamed Iran and al-Qaida for the problems with postwar Iraq. He insisted there was an immense amount of postwar planning, which centered on the possibility of a humanitarian catastrophe. "People didn't think that al-Qaida and Iran would play the role that they did. It was really the external elements of al-Qaida and Iran that really caused this mission very nearly to fail." The absence of a functioning civil service also created difficulties. Blair said the overall figure for deaths was around 100,000. These were caused by the groups attacking the British and Americans, he said. He said he was shocked when he saw the pictures from Abu Ghraib. These inflicted damage to the coalition cause, he said. He added that it would be "worth looking at" the case for having a single cabinet minister in charge of postwar Iraq”.

The Chilcot Inquiries have a long way to go. This tedious task of investigating officials and piecing together evidence is arduous and significant evaluation and an official release of all this information will not be ready by Summer 2010.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jan/29/tony-blair-iraq-inquiry-key-points

Great Britain in a Nutshell

Elizabeth Cutbirth

The first Celtic tribes, the Goidels or Gales are believed to have come to the British isles between 800 & 700 BC. Two centuries later they were followed by the Brythons or ancient Britons after whom the country was called Britain.

The first Roman invasion was led by Julius Caesar in 55 BC. But Britain was not conquered until some 90 years later, under Emperor Claudius, in 43 AD. Although the Roman occupation of Britain lasted nearly 400 years, it's effects were few. The people did not adopt the Latin language & so Latin did not displace Celtic.

In the middle of the 5th century, three Germanic tribes - The Angles, Saxons and Jute's invaded Britain from the continent. From the 8th century the Anglo-Saxons had to face Scandinavian invaders - the Danes and the Norsemen sometimes refereed to as Vikings -who occupied parts of Britain & made some permanent settlements. The Scandinavian invasions continued till the 11th century. The Anglo Saxon period can be characterised as a period of transition from a tribal to feudal organisation of society.

The period of feudalism started around 1066 and lasted to the 15th century. In this period the modern English nation and language came into being. It was a period of struggle for power between kings & between powerful nobles a period of frequent wars, bloodshed & suffering. But it was also a period in which the development of the wool trade and the early decline of feudalism prepared the way for England's rise as a world power.

The period between 1485 and 1603 is known as the Tudor Period. It was a turning point in English history. England became one of the leading powers. The two famous rulers of the House of Tudor were Henry VIII. and Elisabeth I. The Elizabethan age produced the world's greatest playwright William Shakespeare.

The first 40 years of the 17th century can be characterised as a period of growing conflict between the King and parliament, representing the interests of the bourgeosie. The conflict let to the civil war in the 1640 which resulted in the abolition of the monarchy and in Cromwell's military rule in the middle of the century. This period ended in the Glorious Revolution which marked the end of the English bourgeoise revolution.

In the period of 1688 to 1760 England definitely took the lead in European commerce created the conditions necessary for the establishment of an empire and prepared the way for the industrial revolution.

During the Industrial Revolution (1760 - 1850) Britain became the first industrial power in the world, "the workshop of the world." The Anglo- French rivalry for world domination which had started in the previous period continued and culminated in the Napoleonic Wars (1803 - 1815).

The Victorian era which comprised the second half of the 19th century, called after queen Victoria, was a period in which Britain became the strongest world power: besides being the greatest financial and commercial power, the greatest sea power and the greatest colonial power. In was the era of the greatest colonial expansion, especially in Africa.

The 20th century is a period of the decline of Britain as a world power a period of crises of the two world wars, from which Britain emerged as a victor, but greatly weakened. It is characterised by the disintegration of Britain's colonial empire and the effort to adjust Britain to the new situation by joining the other developed capitalist countries of western Europe in EEC