Should Labour follow the Housing Policies of Europe’s most successful Conservatives?

Fascinating post here by Steve Hilditch on Labour Housing Group blog "Red Brick" about Housing policies in Germany. There is a long tradition of rent controls in what is arguably Europe's most successful capitalist society.  The new Government coalition led by Chancellor Angela Merkel have agreed further powers for new developments to restrict rents.

Steve contrasts the German experience with the almost total opposition in the UK by our Conservatives to practically any form of rent regulation. Unless of course, David Cameron makes yet another "U" turn.

The NHS in 2010 Compared to Franch, Germany and the US

So why have the Tories decided to wreck arguably the most successful and cost effective health service in the world? ‪#‎nhs299‬ Hat tip Our NHS Our Future.

"Bomber Command and conquering the Nazi war machine"

I would recommend this posting by Geoffrey Goodman who is a former industrial correspondent for the Daily Mirror and also served in the RAF in Bomber Command during the Second World War. Hat tip Tribune magazine.

"I suppose it was a most poignant moment for me. Having served with the RAF during the war, I attended a service at St Clement Danes, the RAF church in central London, some 20 years ago where the Queen unveiled the statue of Sir Arthur Harris – Bomber Harris as he is usually labelled. That event was accompanied by jeering protesters whose unapologetic cry was: “Harris was a war
criminal”.

I was both shocked and surprised at the outburst of venom against Sir Arthur Harris. The raucous tones pierced like shrapnel. As a non-believer, I had come to that church two decades ago simply to salute comrades who had been among the 55,573 bomber crewmen killed as they flew to counter-blitz Nazi Germany. That was 44.4 per cent of Bomber Command’s entire aircrew force of 125,000. Were we war criminals, simply obeying orders regardless? Was the whole thing an astronomical waste of lives, British and German? Could it be that some of our fellow citizens actually regarded our war-time service as an act of murder?

Many of my fellow RAF mates, like me, were committed socialists. So was everything we did in dropping bombs on German towns, cities as well as specific military targets an unpardonable debasing of our socialism? Had we simply conformed by obeying orders? More to the point, I wondered those 20 years back, did these protesters believe there was an alternative, apart from surrender? Were we being accused, by definition, of being accomplices simply by obeying orders from this man Harris – whom some of our crews used to label “Butcher Harris”?

In fact, was the entire Bomber Command an army of “war criminals” submissive to leaders such as Harris? Such were the reflections which, inevitably, sifted through my mind during that St Clement Danes Church service two decades ago.

All of which tended to emerge again, recently, when the same Queen, 20 years older, unveiled the magnificent, long overdue, monument to Bomber Command on the edge of London’s Hyde Park.
Except, this time there were no protesters crying out “murderers”. Check out rest of article here.

Let them eat Schwarzwälderkirschtorte

This is a great fun steal from Socialist Unity. The German trade union IG Metal is responsible for this site where you click on a cake and throw it at leading German Politicos. 

You even get points for each successful hit (see left).

Click here and enjoy!

For some strange, strange reason I feel that I must send this link to Dave and Alex (and Stroppy, David, Robert and Monty...).

Let them eat ...Lobster

Another enjoyable short that speaks for itself - it’s about a story in Tuesday’s Guardian .

That morning I was running around to get to work (late as usual) when BBC news announced that they would be running a News item later on “Lobster Eating” in Germany. I thought at the time “what’s that about?” But never got to hear it.

Turns out that Sahra Wagenknecht a “photogenic MEP for Germany's Left party” was photographed at a resturant eating lobster. She later thought that this may harm her media image, so she gets her assistant to lie and get hold of the camera to delete these pictures. She claimed she did this not because she was embarrassed but because she disliked the photos!

"I don't do anything that I say others shouldn't do," she told the daily TAZ.

"On the contrary, I'm fighting for a society in which everyone can afford to eat lobster."

Lovely stuff.

Hat tip Vino Political