McChrystal out of Afghanistan

As we listen to the budget the news from 'the front' in Afghanistan is appalling. The whole way forward was based on the surge under the American General McChrystal. He only went and gave an interview to a magazine and the views he expressed in his interview have led to his recall to explain his comments.

The whole expedition is a massive error, this is and always was going to end in tears, and our soldiers have been killed and injured, and they have killed and injured for what? To keep terror off the streets of our country, or for the careers of the generals and the officers concerned.

It is time that not only were the generals recalled, it is time to bring the boys home. We left Iraq with our tails between our legs, and no amounts of parades, or church ceremonies will alter that. It is the same with Afghanistan, get out now, we can't afford it in so many ways.

The Arts

People keep talking of cuts. In the meantime I live in Exeter, part of Devon and I pay my taxes to both the City and the County.

Now yesterday I attended a meeting of the Environment, Economy and Culture Scrutiny Committee of Devon County Council. Now this committee were discussing the 'Arts Investment and Culture Projects' and in this there were proposals for various schemes which the County thought it good to fund.

Now individuals can look up these proposals for themselves but as a taster £400,000 goes to the Arts Investment Programme, £65,000 goes to Cultural & Heritage Outreach Activities, and another £65,000 goes to Other Cultural Projects.

This is probably being repeated around this once great country of ours, and it is time to stop. I have earned my money, I have paid my taxes, and I seriously resent any of my taxes, our money, going to a dance company, heritage outreach, or a cultural Olympiad which is just a taster of where money is going.

So the government should close down with immediate the Culture, Media, and Sport department. At his time we seriously cannot afford them, not funded by any taxpayer money at all. So, that is my first suggestion to the government, the Treasury, stop funding parts of our economy which serve no useful purpose at all. You want culture, media or sport, well you pay for it, and that includes the 'arts'.

Chinese Yuan

I would like to hear more from the experts on the revaluation of the Chinese Yuan. There is to be a meeting of the G20 on 26/27 of June and it looks like the Chinese are trying to avoid legitimate criticism of their currency value.

The problem is that with our reliance on Chinese imports these will now have to rise, and we cannot replace their products with our own, because we can no longer manufacture them. Accordingly, the price of Chinese imports will rise substantially, with the effect on our Retail Prices Index. We are just so doomed.