2005 UK General Elections

Re: # 1

Cayenne

Your sweepingly grandiose myopia such as “Britain is an irrelevant island full of irrelevant people” smacks of racist xenophobia. You are single-handedly tarring the brush of all the Muslims and South Asians with dual identity who live on this island. Who bequeath themselves with a British as well as an Asian background, and form an imperative entrepreneurial backbone to the spine of the UK .

Admittedly not all of Great Britain`s policies are well-perceived or garnered in equilibrium, but cease living in an Elysium. Which country, in the comity of international relations is perfect?

Real bore.Who cares.Britain is an irrelevant island full of irrelevant peoples.If not for american money and investment the British would have to clean toilets and fold bedsheets for the rich arabs to make a living.I give them credit for the past.No doubt.But we live in the now, and the now for the british is pathetic.God save the Queen!.

Re: # 28

Cayenne

Another feather in the cap to Mittal Steel, at the helm of it Britain`s most affluent magnet. With an ``official`` net worth of $2.2 bil surely if this country were in the pits, as you so sorely suggest, then why would Lakshmi and Usha Mittal still be here ? You are a living paradox. Yet again contradicting yourself.

Surely the fact that ``some`` South Asians are towering like minarets in Britain is a salutory emblem of their hard work and enterprise. I think for once we both concur: deservedly so.

My firm helped organise Amit Bhatia and Vanisha Mittal`s wedding in Versailles. Renu and Arun Bhatia were up-to-the minute and exemplary. The wedding extravaganza took six-day long, which saw over 1000 guests, ceremoniously concluding at the Grand Intercontinental in Paris.

Re: # 4

Ozer K, my brother, 3.2% of 59.6 million ain`t still a whole lot of people.Russia celebrates it`s 60 years v-Day celebrations as i type.Fifty world leaders invited, Bush, Hu-Jintao,Chirac, my man Dr.Manmohan who`s having a meeting with both Putin and Bush and other worthies, but no Blair and no Mushaaraf.You see the world doesn`t invite hired hands.Only lawfully elected leaders.Britain is `a second rate power` as an indian politician so delicately put it, when QE II came calling on New Delhi a few years ago.I wish all south asians well, wherever they may choose to live or were born in.My issue is with Britain`s status in the world and at present it is way down the pecking order.It may change and i certainly wish them well.

To give you an idea of where Britain is economically:

1 World $ 55,500,000,000,000 2004 est.
2 United States $ 11,750,000,000,000 2004 est.
3 European Union $ 11,650,000,000,000 2004 est.
4 China $ 7,262,000,000,000 2004 est.
5 Japan $ 3,745,000,000,000 2004 est.
6 India $ 3,319,000,000,000 2004 est.
7 Germany $ 2,362,000,000,000 2004 est.
8 United Kingdom $ 1,782,000,000,000 2004 est

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2001rank.html

Hey, we indians might even bail out the british in a few years, say what??.Say hello to Lakshmi Mittal for me won`t ya??.Cheers.

Re: # 3

Cayenne

Let us refrain from “Eminemishly” tit-for-tatting at one another. Surely Chowk is too mature a forum for school-boy scoundrel antics to be deployed. Too facile a game to play.

A few corrections are in order. From where did your cerebral cortex assume that I claim myself to be “superiour” to you? Or anyone else for that matter? Stop throwing assumptions from thin air.

For they wither like the aged leaves of autumn.

This is not an ego-battle on an 8 mile road. The problem with your “plain-speak” is that it is raw over-simplification ebbed in error. Let’s be pedantic: Britain’s population is not 50 million as you conveniently conjecture but 60 million. Asians form not 2% of the entire British population but 3.2%, including multi-cultural variants such as myself.

Your maladroit history lecture suggests a 19th century Golden Age for Britannia, when, let me enlighten you, British dexterity flaunted its muscle in the 20th century !! Get those facts straight-wired into your cranium.

You anxiously quote American prowess, which I never deny: however whilst so doing you hasten your over-stretched belt to cite MG Rover. That is meager and portrays a faddish example of you name-dropping “one firm” just because you pressingly picked up an FT and doggedly browsed it after a couple of years in the lurch.

Your naïveté overlooks the verity that for every MG Rover there is an Enron Corp., Tyco International Ltd. and WorldCom Inc, degradingly entangled in accounting scrape despite the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

There exist a plethora of British firms who are fiscally sound, solvent, exhibit profitability, liquidity and a healthy capital structure.

Stop playing the “Self-Victimization” card. I will no longer waste my time. I have bigger fish to fry in the ocean of life. For the record labeling “Britain as an irrelevant island full of irrelevant people” IS RACIST to anyone possessing an atom of IQ.

Cayenne this is not an EGO-GAME. If you do childishly want to flaunt your final word go ahead and brazenly sooth that entrapped insecurity.

For it too one day will melt in a molten sky.

#2 by ozerkhalid on May 8, 2005 3:06am PT
Re: # 1

``all the muslims and south asians`` as you so grandiosely put it , my friend, make up about 2% of the total population of 50 plus million.There is no racist xenophobia on my part.Infact there is every reason for me to accuse you of the same.Just because you are in the Uk, and that you work hard( all laudable qualities), does not in any way make you a Briton, or an european or `superior` to your fellow south asians, that you cannot accept `plain-speak` from one of them, in this case, moi.

I do not deny and respect british prowess during the nineteenth century.We`re in the 21st.Things change.Britain is irrelavent now.Period.If not for american money, britain would have gone bankrupt decades ago.Just like MG Rover.

Not dissimilar to the Green Card scheme heralded by Germany for the shining cyber-boys of Bangalore.


Do I detect a tinge of envy?

Re: # 6

Arjun

Despite your signalling radar, what you should be detecting is a ``tinge of praise`` for the boys of Bangalore.

#4 by ozerkhalid on May 8, 2005 5:05am PT


Surely Chowk is too mature a forum


you`re new here, aren`t you?

Re: # 8

Labyrinth

Your “Brummien” point of view hits the nail on the head with meticulous precision. Labour, in Birmingham and elsewhere, takes a leaner slant on immigration and Visa processing, therefore remains a vote-winner amongst ethnic minorities. As for Galloway, he took a bold stance and his actions righteously earn him approbation amongst voters throughout the UK and the Commonwealth.

Only one point puzzles me in your reasoning, Salma Yaqoob`s laudable anti-war stance is exemplary, how is she pinching you by becoming a lady which you despicably hate ? Is it because of her bold stand ?

Or the truth resonating in her vocal chords ?

Labyrinth, without seeking to flog a dead-horse, was it truly necessary to unilaterally invade Iraq without appropriate UN sanctions? Surely unilateralism is a malady that plagues our society: a dire infringement for social development?

Weapons of mass destruction, as if by a Houdini-magic wand vanished into thin air? They were never found. Labyrinth a stark reality is that the weapons didn`t exist and were largely (if not totally) destroyed during the 1991 Gulf War.

We need gutsy spokeswomen like Salma Yaqoob to neutralize a male-laden neo-imperialist political landscape fraught with bravado.

Re: # 35

Syke,

Merci beaucoup for the statistical correction on the Lib Dem vote numbers. By the way what is your take on Galloway`s anti-war stance ? Dirty politics, but sometimes means do justify the ends ?

As for Charles Kennedy Junior well the apple never falls far from the tree...who knows maybe in a generation`s time he churns out more effectively an evolution that his dad kindled ?

Re: # 35

syke

what dirty tactics did galloway actually deploy ?

Re: # 8

Did any of you bother to read the manisfesto`s before voting??

Liberal Democrat had a very good chance of securing more votes, but i feel they didnt campaign strong enough. If they had any chance of getting more seats in the parliament then it was now, but Charles was too busy attending to his baby...

Respect party didn`t just do well in Birmingham but what about George Galloway...him knocking out Oona King proved....dirty politics is the only way to go.
Conservatives lost out to Lib Dem in Solihull Constituency for the first time since 1945 that`s when Solihull actually became a constituency..now thats Sayin something.Glad to see my vote Did Count!!...it made HISTORY!!

By the way great article....Lib Dem got 62 seats though..not 56.

As someone who lives in Birmingham ... lemme give you guys from a Brummie`s point of view ,
Birmingham had always been a Labour safe ground thanks to Pakistani community there who always supported Labour from years but this time was different because of Iraq War ...... we had this Respect Party of George Galloway campaigning in Birmingham who created quite a fuss in England and specially in Birmingham ... Respect`s candidate was Salma Yaqoob a lady which I hate to admire because of her bold stand against War in Iraq although she lost but took 10,000 of Labour`s precious votes from Sparkbrook Area of Birmingham. Labour lost a seat in Yardley area of Birmingham to Liberal Democrats a party which is projecting there party as a mixture of Tories and Labour - Liberal Democrats snatched atleast 7-10% of Labours votes from all over UK.
Here I would like to add that Pakistani Community voted Labour anyway because Labour still advocates immigration and Labour specially Tony Blair eased marriage - visa process when he came into power.
There this thing in UK Politics that Tony Blair will in a couple of years time will hand over No. 10 to someone else ....maybe his chancellor who had always longed for No.10 for years.... As a Pakistani , I see British Politics as a role model because here politics is done on issues - council tax , tax relief , immigration and anti- social elements plus law and order situation were the main issues in this election. I would also like to say that in this election specially the Pakistani Community played a very positive role and systematically voted for MPs who opposed war in Iraq and advocated for the solution of Kashmir cause.

for the sake of correction ,
still its the British Oil Company ( s ) who are the biggest land owners in US...

Re: # 10

B Babu you raise some constructively healthy issues. You asked me to name you “one” top UK-based technology firm. I will push the envelope much further and mention “entire” British industries, namely biotech and pharma, which have technology as their handmaiden and are fusing cutting-edge science to revolutionize the health of humanity at the threshold of the 21st century.

Babu, a much-discussed symbol of the UK`s entrepreneurial renaissance is the so-called “Cambridge Phenomenon” - a marriage of science and technology based enterprises mushroomed in and around Cambridge University. This cluster aka the ``Cambridge Science Park`` is blessed with razor-edge information technology, both hardware and software, and several of the new firms enjoy close links to leading universities; A case in point is Herman Hauser, championing Acorn Computers, a personal computer manufacturer, who innovatively worked at the Cavendish laboratory, and is recognized amongst friends and foes as a doyen of his trade.

British universities and government research laboratories have a stupendous track-record in the sciences on which biotechnology is based. This is crucial because in biotechnology, to a greater extent than in semiconductors or electronics, commercial success depends on an intimate continuum between corporate-based research, due-dilligence and science.

Second, biotechnology is inextricably linked to pharmaceuticals, and in the latter, the UK is comfortably nestled amongst the creme de la creme.

Well perched on an entrepreneurial apex.

Thanks in part to a favorable regulatory regime which lubricates the wheels for incentives and innovative research, there are strong nationally-owned companies such as AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline as well as an overabundance of foreign outfits which have located research and production facilities in the UK.

Skills have been spruced-up over many years by the pharmaceutical industry - for example, in clinical testing, highly relevant to humanity`s future. The big pharmaceutical companies are vital customers and partners for biotechnology firms, nourishing and feeding off each other.

The success of this and other Cambridge firms engagingly sees “Silicon Fen” not as a rival to Silicon Valley, but a complement, where cross-Atlantic information-sharing has been second to none .

As made clear earlier to Cayenne, I do not for a nano-second deny American leadership in technology/electronics which has its nucleus in the sheer size of the domestic consumer market, extensive White House support emboldened through the Pentagon`s defence programme, a sector you were nippy to pin-point.

US technology is oxygenized by intense internal competition, the anti-monopoly laws on operating systems are instructive, and a set of supportive institutions which include a robust science base, easy interchange of personnel between the IV League and Wall Street, and a gargantuan, albeit hobbled, venture capital industry.

Babu what you do renege to observe is that the UK has witnessed a biotechnology/pharmaceutical renaissance, acknowledged by leading technologists, scientists and analysts, which may not be as deep-seated as in the US , but is profound nonetheless.

Before dismissing the US` Trans-Atlantic rival/partner do acquiesce to these milestones.