I found myself agreeing with the Senator of Oklahoma who on a television interview said this week, that education, law and order, national security are some the key things that a Government should be responsible for. Tom Coburn thinks proper funding in the US for education should be provided by the government and that  funding education via a lottery undermines virtue. I agree, as I can think of girls turning to lap dancing and such to pay their university fees.

Funding the arts and saving failing banks should not the responsibility of  Government. I completely agree with Senator Tom Corburn when he said  what should have been done was  was a social safety net put in place by the governments in the US and Europe  and to have allowed the casino bankers to have gone bust. Now what

our hapless – or complicit governments, who did not think the whole thing through have done, is create a huge debt for us and for future generations.

So in order to generate income they want to run the education system like a business and saddle students with huge debts like they have currently under the US education system. American university students leave university with a debt of a staggering $120,000 (dollars) on average! This is what our UK and other EU governments now want to follow.

Lisbon Student Protest

Education is not a business. It is an investment in the future of a country. A well educated population will generate economic wealth as well as create social harmony. So it the responsibility of a government to educate it's population.

While Education is not a Business,  I understand that a Government's budget is not infinite.

Education is not a Business

Have a look at this poster below from the London 2010 protests. The placard say 'Defend Every Course, Job an Service'.

London 2010 Student Protest

This is nonsense. While I want University education to be broadly free, I do think we have to wean out some worthless degrees like degrees in 'Media Studies' and 'Rock Stars'.

Today, in the UK many organizations cannot find graduates with the relevant science based degrees. At the risk of sounding like I am calling for the re-introduction of Salazar's elitist policies, I think degrees that provide students with real skills in the work place and for doing cutting edge scientific research should be promoted and be free of charge to students with capability. If someone wants a degree in 'Media Studies' let them pay for it themselves or do something else like a diploma that an employer would want. It was a mistake getting rid of our polytechnics..

 I was fortunate to be able to spend the last month and a half in the Algarve. I hadn't been there since the summer of 2003. In places like Luz it was as I had imagined it would be ten years ago. Acres of holiday homes and holiday complexes and very little else. Humble dwellings and farm plots of locals in the interstices of ostentatious mansions and country, ocean and golf clubs dot the land.

A better view of Luz

All is not well in the Algarve and probably much of Portugal for that matter. What was striking was the number of shop closures. This was endemic all over the Algarve from holiday home complex shopping parades to the main commercial streets of a substantial Portuguese town like Lagos.

It would seem that the good times are at an end in Portugal and the shops are going out of business because locals and visitors alike are spending less. The government and local councils are broke. Progress in the form of pretty cobbled pavements and squares and the laying down of asphalt on almost every insignificant road with borrowed money is one of the things that has put Portugal in quite a pickle. People point the blame at the government but the fact of the matter is local councils and Portuguese people in general were happy to spend the money being dumped into the economy willy nilly without asking themselves how it all was going to be paid for. Yes, that old 'There is no such thing as a free lunch' adage would have been well heeded.

Força Portugal Shop

Well, Portugal is where she is now and we have to look forward. Personally I think two things are killing the Portuguese economy. The first is the Euro. Being in the Euro zone is beneficial neither to tourism nor manufacturing. Portugal has managed to price herself out of the tourism market by becoming too expensive. No too discerning British tourists will as easily go to a North Africa country as to Portugal purely based on the cost of the holiday.

The state of the Portuguese manufacturing is a real tragedy. Portugal makes and can make high quality garments, footware , assorted leather apparel, ceramics and other furnishing at completive prices. Yet the Portuguese government has been very slow to help such unique cottage and medium size industries and has done little to promote them to the younger generation who either want to be 'famous' or get jobs as architects.

The government who spent loads of taxpayers money on ill thought out cutting edge technology projects i.e huge visual display screens displaying adverts at rural bustops to high speed fibre optic network rolled out at a break net pace to recycling projects that are followed rigorous though. These grand projects which look good for the EU and the Portuguese government were of little or no benefit to the people who were actually working and making things in Portugal.

Further damage to Portuguese craftsmanship has been caused by the Portuguese government allowing the markets for Portuguese manufactured products to be severely undermined by allowing the import of similar though arguably inferior garments/products etc from countries like China and Morocco. It does not make any sense. You have big brands in Portugal like Tezeniz and intimissimi purporting to stock Italian products. However on closer inspection one will find most of their stuff is made in Sri Lanka and other non EU places where child labour is rife. Big profits for the Corporations but little long term investment in the Portuguese people. Really, the price of these products is what I think the same item, could easily have been produced in Portugal for. We have the same disease plaguing the UK but I will save that for another day.

All is not lost. The town of Guimarães is leading the way as world renowned as a centre of excellence the footwear it makes. In Lagos if you search through the belts on sale in almost every shop you can find belts made in Portugal. Shops like Chrisbel in Lagos stock bags, wallets etc made in Portugal. But it is always good to verify this is the case when making a purchase. The same goes for Força Portugal who have shops throughout Portugal. In Lagos the staff are very friendly and helpful.

NOVIPEL Shop

Just check the label as some of their stuff is made in China, Morroco and elsewhere. If you are looking for a fashionable leather or cork bag made in Portugal you can't go wrong with shopping at NOVIPEL. It is a small shop at the top of a flight of stairs just past the Lagos Fish Market. The owner is a passionate supporter of products made in Portugal. You can also find the well the now well known

hand painted tiles in many gift shops.

Addresses are below. Let's all hope for a brighter and more sensible future for Portugal and ourselves. The addresses ODF shops for Lagos are below.

Chrisbel

Rua 25 Abril 62, 8600-763, Lagos, Portugal

Força Portugal (Comércio Têxtil Atlantic Sud Lda )

Praça Gil Eanes, 8600, Lagos, Portugal

NOVIPEL

Rua Dr. Faria Silva, 33, Lagos, Portugal

So 'The King' has printed another 50 billion pounds (sterling) and given it to his banker buddies so that they can pay themselves yet bigger salaries and bonuses from it as they are in effect the gate-keepers.

If Mervyn King really wants to help businesses, why doesn't he given the money directly to sound businesses that need it? Like manufacturing which is growing and needs to invest in equipment to get the edge to break into new markets, here and abroad.

What we don't need is these unsound bankers investing the money in their cronies hedge fund schemes and other 'casino-style' investment schemes. And what certainly do not need is us, the public, being encouraged to live beyond our means on credit again as 'The King' seems to be implying that we should to 'stimulate grow'. In addition printing of this money pushes down interests rates which further reduces returns for savers and pensioners reliant on dividend payments.

And no, I don't think it was right that Fred Goodwin was stripped of his Knighthood. A Knight of the realm should be a knight for life in my books once knighted. There have always been plenty of knights in medieval times who didn't quite live up to what was expected of them and still remained knights. Because a recent fall from grace should not and did not erase recognition for earlier valour.

And why only is it Fred Goodwin who seems to have been singled out for public humiliation? What about Gordon Brown who was key in overseeing this entire financial debacle as both Chancellor and then Prime Minister. Where was this much vaunted 'Prudence' of his when it came to guiding our economy?

At first glance the two would seem to have nothing in common. Indeed at first glance they would seem not to have anything in common and are temporally separated by approximately fourteen years.

I however believe the two are linked by threads finer than the finest spider’s web that remain invisible unless you ask yourself why?

For the sinking of the  Estonia here are some points to ponder:

In a nutshell, the Estonia sank in 1994 in the Baltic Sea, costing 852 lives. No satisfactory answer to date has been given as to why she sank like a stone. The official report claimed that she sank after looking her bow visor but makes no reference to the integrity of her watertight compartments which should have kept her afloat even if  she capsized due to a large amount of surface water on the car deck due to loss of the afore mentioned bow visor.

• Why did the Swedish Government try to entomb the wreck in concrete just 3 months after she sank?
• Why will the Sweden Government till today not permit an independent investigation? – the Estonia is only 60 metres down and there are enough unmanned ROVs (Remotely Operated Vehicles) which can collect data samples and take photographs not to mention divers.
• Why have the divers of the Halliburton subsidiary company been sworn to a 70 year ‘secrets act’ regarding what they found on the ‘official’ investigation.
• NATO was in the area carrying out Search and Rescue exercises. Why did they not respond to the Estonia’s May Day call?
• You might like to note that the Swedish Government finally admitted that they had used the ‘Estonia’ to smuggle weapons technology from the former Soviet Union to the ‘West’. I am sure we all know where this smuggled weapons technologies was headed. It’s unlikely Sweden was the final destination.

I recommend you watch the movie ‘Baltic Storm’ (2003). It was made by a German reporter who was gagged from reporting the incident. Oh,  and another curious fact. Several of the survivors who reported themselves as survivors mysterious disappeared from the survivors list. Most of these were senior officers from the Estonia including the off duty second Captain.

Julian Assange and Wikileaks.

Julian Assange has been a thorn in the side to big corporations and the American Government in particular as his informal network of informants frequently exposes Governmental corruption, insider dealings and certainly the ‘Afghanistan 2004-2010 War diaries’ which was written by soldiers and intelligence officers, and mainly describing lethal military actions involving the United States military has not made him a popular man with the American establishment. In addition Wikileaks represents of the vangaurds of freedom of information – using the medium of the internet which governments all over are so scared of and want to effectively censor.

Sweden comes in here, as they are vehemently trying to extradite him to Sweden to face charges for alleged rape and assault.

You can read the charges the Swedes have submitted here>> Assange_Respondents_case

It seems the charges were dropped and them suddenly restarted – at whose behest I wonder.

I put forward before you that the ‘Estonia’ and the Julian Assange extradition attempt are the Swedish Government’s shame in put the interests of certain parties across the Atlantic before that of the Swedes.