Looking back at Libya

The Libyan war looks like it will cost over £1.7 billion! It's a costly amount but worth while in my opinion. I've always been on the side of the war in Libya, this is why.
Opposed to the other wars in the Middle East the Libya conflict was against a clear foe and with the support of the majority. In the war in Afghanistan the US an its allies took sides with the Northern Alliance that had been in civil war with the Taliban, then quickly ended the current government and replaced it with this new government of militants and war lords. There was little control, it was poorly managed and the Taliban were turned from being in power to being nothing then re-emerging as a hard core terrorist organization with the new Afghanistan government being utterly corrupt and huge division in the country. In the Libyan war it was not power hungry war lords that were seeking to over throw Gaddafi but normal citizens. Equally the support for Gaddafi was relatively small if the country was united then it would not have huge sections of the population that would instantly be cast out.
Another key factor was that we didn't land troops or 'wage war' on Gaddafi, instead our approach was to give the rebels the military backing they couldn't possibly must them selves. 'lending' air support to the rebels helped them counter Gaddafi in ways that they couldn't have done other wise.
Yes we did intervene and while there is no denying that we went further than simply protecting civilians and actually removed the Government, yet there is also no denying if we hadn't intervened then there would have been far worse atrocities. The hidden mass graves slowly being uncovered are tell us that.

If we don't intervene then we become isolationist, if we had just kept our selves to our selves and let it sort out then what kind of country would we be. The people of Libya were asking for our help. I find it hard to tolerate the opinion that we have budget problems so we shouldn't save tens of thousands of lives. Isolationism militarily, politically and economically only leads to war, oppression and economic depression.
I accept that greed played a part in driving this war, oil! I guess to be an economist is to accept that greed can sometimes bring about good, capitalism is built on greed and while there is no doubt ( to most sane people) that unbridled capitalism has huge costs and the beast of greed must be controlled through intervention, along the way it creates great things.
I'm not being naive there are a lot of problems in Libya, a revolution causes lasting damage to a country. First of course being that Gaddafi isn't dead, there is still a risk of Gaddafi extremists but as we've seen actually so far this appears to minimal if existent at all? The biggest problem is of course that their is now an entire country flooded with arms! As a matter of fact the fact that Gaddafi is still fighting has some advantages, it channels the violence at an enemy, it's giving the transitional council time to prepare for when its all over and they need to deal with controlling the country. Essentially the fact that fighting is still going on means the council has yet to deal with it, all though of course I'm sure everyone is hoping that Gaddafi's supporters give up soon. Another risk is the council may also struggle to keep a fair open democracy going. The problem that new countries often end up falling back into the old traps of dictators is a very real risk for Libya although they have an key advantage, the support of powerful nations. Libya is now a close ally to Europe and is located near to Europe. It's quiet developed and willing to be democratic. There's reason to be hopeful.

Looking back at Libya it shows that while war is generally wrong, sometimes correctly managed and well executed with a bit of luck thrown in, it can be a really help to people. Still this doesn't mean we should be bombing the middle east until we've made it more westernized! Every siduation is different, were fortunate that in this case we actually got it relatively right  and made a difference.

Cameron looking smug

Low Swiss Taxes (and a history of Switzerland)

As Ireland falters the Swiss Cantons are seizing the opportunity, but what are cantons and what is going?

A History Lesson
Switzerland contrary to what most people think is not a country as we think of today, it is a confederacy, which is why is official name is: Confederacy Helvetica (which is why you see CH crop up on documents, including in their number plates). 
During the middle ages 3 groups (or tribes) in the region of Helvetica (switzerland) know as The Uri, Schwyz and Ob/Nidwalden rebelled against the largest empire at the time the Holy Roman Empire. Unable to survive on their own they signed a document swearing to work together and protect one another. From that day onward they acted as one to fend off their foes, share resources and increase political leverage. Soon others wanted to join, rich city states such as Zurich joined making Switzerland ever stronger. Each one of these small separate nations or states within Switzerland is known as a canton.  
Because of nature under which Switzerland was formed each canton is very independent and can control is own taxes and most of its own public services (or to economists fiscal policy). 


Taxes
Because of this independence some smaller cantons such as Zug (population of 110,000) can set an extremely low tax rate but by doing so can attract many wealthy people and business HQs so make a huge amount of tax revenue. Taxing 100 people earning £10,000 each at 20% equals £200,000 tax income but taxing 5 people earning 6 billion each at 1% equals £0.3 billion tax income, which is why Zug is very rich. 
Switzerland's tempting tax regimes attract UK firms


Benefiting from Ireland's suffering
Ireland  has also played this game, it's corporation tax rate is 12.5% but pressures are mounting for Ireland to increase its tax to deal with its debt. The EU is also putting pressure on Ireland because it is taking business away from other European countries.
Switzerland however is free from this, not in the EU Switzerland can simply tempt firms away from Ireland with low stable rates! 
Cantonal eyes smiling at Irish Woes


Hollow Irish victory
Even though Ireland appear to have won their battle with the EU and can keep their corporation tax rate down they have had to increase VAT and a new property tax. Also firms are more jittery at locating their HQ in Ireland because of social unrest and threat of future tax hikes. 
Switzerland in contrast, favours bigness, has a history of low taxes, less risk of unrest and have many things directors expect around their HQ (world class food and hotels, lakes with yachts, skiing, high end market shops...). Due to language barriers within Switzerland many of the population speak English as well, reducing language barriers for locating firms.
Locating in Switzerland looks a better option for now and Ireland may suffer for it. 
Irish unveil tough four-year austerity plan  

Mini Skirts sparking a surprising philosophical debate

Italian city banning certain forms of 'inapproprate' clothing.. In particular mini skirts because it says it is indecent. ringing any alarm bells? Far right resricting freedoms maybe.

When we get cultural crack downs it is the first step on the dangerous road, its a slippery slope and telling people what they can and can't wear on their own body can become telling people what they can and can't do or who can and can't live.
Decently laws are considered important to maintain society as we know it but tightening them is alarming considering the trend of restricting freedoms we already have, for example controlling the internet.
The debate is hard, just as we argue over wether the government should intervene in the free market, how far should they intervene in society. Laws are a good thing but too many laws can be even worse than none.
Should laws protect everyone equally or protect the powerful?
How far do laws go before they restrict our rights?
If we police the internet we can prevent disgraceful crimes such as child pornography but it can go too far and nations in China police it to the extent that you can't express opinion against the government.

The reason all of this concerns me is that we have an increasing rise in the far right in Europe and in the UK we have problems such as fixed terms for Government lasting 5 years! A well meaning policy can start a landslide that eventually crushes freedoms and provides the bedrock for a dictators palace.

That skirt is far to short, go back to Rome and change.

Banning Miniskirts:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11617091

European Unrest

Economic collapse -> Strikes -> Riots -> Rebellion -> Revolution

With a bit of exstremism mixed in, its how all the very best dictators gained power, which is concerning considering the dire state of europe.

Greece - Riots

Brussels and rest of EU - Coordinated Strikes

Spain (in particular)- Strikes in Madrid

France - Wide spread prolonged strikes, supply damaged (oil reserves) and Riots:

Greece looked bad but France seems much worse, closer to home. Is this a sign of things to come? Its testing time for European Politics. If Europe continues on this cause I'd say we are going to see the break down of the EU or sterner European Union.

Ahead of our own cut backs and considering Europe is our main trace partner its likely there will be some jittery politicians in Downing Street.