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Written by Colin Breed on Tue 12th Aug 2008
Recent events in South Ossetia have clearly demonstrated that seventeen years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, this region is still far from stable. In less than a week, Georgian forces have gambled on re-entering a breakaway section of their territory, and have been violently forced out by the region's undisputed power, Russia.
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Written by Colin Breed on Mon 4th Aug 2008
This weekend sees the opening ceremony for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing when the world's attention will be focussed directly on the Chinese authorities. There has been much speculation in the media about whether human rights will be an issue in the next few weeks, and the rules and regulations governing the event have caused far more of a stir than any stories about potential medal hopes.
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Written by Colin Breed on Tue 29th Jul 2008
The visit by Presidential hopeful Barack Obama to Europe, which ended with a meeting with Gordon Brown, was always going to be seen as more important to Europeans than to the American people. Presidents are most often elected on domestic economic issues rather than foreign policy, although it might be different this time. The infamous slogan, "it's the economy stupid" served Bill Clinton well for his two terms in office. However, for most Presidents it is their foreign policy decisions that have most affected world events - Richard Nixon's ground breaking trips to China, Ronald Reagan's nuclear disarmament summits and the father and son Bush presidencies, to name but a few. That is why so many commentators and politicians have been analysing Obama's speech for clues to future foreign policy. Globalisation has introduced new opportunities but also new challenges. Whilst there remain some physical barriers, most notably between Israel and Palestine, greater attention is now being given to invisible barriers which separate people, communities, nations and religions. These are economic, cultural and social, and are far more difficult to bring down than the Berlin Wall.
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Written by Colin Breed on Tue 22nd Jul 2008
The last time Parliament headed off to its summer recess, the Northern Rock crisis was just around the corner. One year later, there remains a degree of nervousness that a similar situation may still appear somewhere. The continued reporting of bank losses, downgrading of construction company values, steady reductions in house prices and inflation fears all add up to a very worrying time for Government.
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Written by Colin Breed on Wed 16th Jul 2008
It will not escape many in Cornwall of the irony in the same week as the Government publishes its annual report into the state of the countryside, they announce massive closures of Post Offices which are often the life blood of rural communities. The full list of closures was greater than expected or indeed that we had been led to believe. If the Government really understood the needs of people living in rural areas rather than just commissioning Reports and then ignoring them, then the list would have been much shorter. I have never argued that some offices would have to close, or hours changed, but that it should be seen within a clear strategy to provide accessible services for all who need them. Instead, the Post Office has used a crude commercial test in order to save costs and have put only a small value on the social benefit, as opposed to the economic cost.
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Written by Colin Breed on Thu 10th Jul 2008
Members of Parliament are often asked to join various campaigns, organisations and charitable bodies in order to further their cause and provide some impetus to their work. So it was soon after I came to Westminster, I was approached to join a very small band of volunteers, who had established a charity to raise the awareness of the dangers of carbon monoxide gas poisoning. As is often the case, it had a driving force who had brought together victims of CO gas, where relatives and friends had been killed or seriously injured by this odourless and colourless gas.
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Written by Colin Breed on Wed 2nd Jul 2008
The meeting of the African Union (AU) immediately following the sham election of Robert Mugabe as President of Zimbabwe places very considerable responsibilities on the AU, which has been struggling to reform its governing bodies and obtain some credibility in international circles. The AU was formed in 2002 from the vestiges of the Organisation for African Unity (OAU) which had become unworkable and was brought down by internal disagreements. The AU has been somewhat more successful and has played an increasingly high-profile role in peace keeping. Most recently, it sent peacekeepers to Somalia and Darfur, the latter as part of a joint operation with the United Nations. It has launched several other interventions but with mixed success.
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Published on Wed 18th Jun 2008
When MPs received the pager message that David Davis had resigned the immediate thought was that he must have committed some misdemeanour or heinous crime. However, as more news filtered out that his reasons for resignation centred on the previous nights vote on detention without charge for 42 days, there was even more incredulity as no-one could believe he had done anything so bad as to force his resignation. Naturally, there will be a spectrum of opinion on his motives, a good deal of political spin and a large measure of media hype, but whatever the truth I for one am very glad he has tried to focus the country's mind on the current state of civil liberties which have been constantly eroded over the period of this Labour administration.
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Written by Colin Breed on Wed 11th Jun 2008
Last week I wrote about the need for a tax system re-designed to take account of the new circumstances which have arisen in our country in recent years. Persistent tinkering and the introduction of targeted benefits through a tax credit regime have brought about complexity and confusion. This week I want to consider the UK's position within international financial markets in the light of the new circumstances of rising oil and food prices, potential or actual recession in the US, the slow down in international trade and the growing problems of less developed countries.
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Written by Colin Breed on Wed 4th Jun 2008
The return to Parliament means political difficulties for the Prime Minister but to me and some other MPs it means a return to the Finance Bill Committee which takes up many hours each week. The Bill is of course the legislation which implements the Budget and has already been subjected to amendments whilst on the course of its consideration. As we examine in rather minute detail various clauses, some of which are almost incomprehensible, it occurs to me that there really has not been a proper examination of the whole UK tax system and with it the benefits system, as their interaction is now so fundamental to the process. The UK tax/benefit system has evolved over many generations and is now used for purposes that go well beyond its historical function of raising revenue. It has become an economic tool to promote efficiency, a political tool to achieve redistribution of income and wealth and a social tool to encourage welfare and development. More recently it is being used to achieve environmental objectives all of which make it increasingly difficult to define and achieve fairness, efficiency and transparency - the hallmarks of good taxation policy.
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Written by Colin Breed on Wed 28th May 2008
In a week which included a by-election and controversial legislation, two rather important issues were given little attention or coverage. Firstly, the Government signalled a welcome change of policy concerning the manufacture, storing and use of cluster bombs. An international conference in Dublin, attended by 100 countries, has been trying to get agreement to ban these weapons. This had been opposed by both the USA and the UK; both of course possess large arsenals of such weapons.
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Written by Colin Breed on Wed 21st May 2008
There has been much comment recently concerning standard assessment tests or SATs which are taken by Primary School children twice whilst at school. Ostensibly these tests have two objectives; the first to assess the progress of the child and the second to assess the quality of the school teaching and putting them in a league table so that parents can use the relative merits of local schools.
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Written by Colin Breed on Wed 14th May 2008
The House of Commons is often at its best when debating controversial issues where strong views are sincerely held by Members and where a free vote has been agreed. We all knew and expected to have such a debate when considering the Second Reading of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.
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