Transitions in transit

‘OBAMA coordinates Syria transition with Turkey’, announced a recent headline.  Much as Syria deserves a transition, who knows if the aftermath of Al Assad’s removal will lend itself to coordination?

 Who, apart from Obama, can be sure that Turkey’s assistance would be welcome? Libya’s transitional government is already displaying symptoms of disunity in a reminder that too many North Africa and Middle Eastern factions are more interested in conserving power than sharing it with the society they liberated from tyranny.

Two sides of the same coin

THE markets, now more powerful than governments, are the stamping grounds of casino bankers. 

Although they are all rogue traders according to former Lib-Dem Treasury spokesman Lord Oakeshott, unlike UBS employee Kweku Adoboli they are seldom exposed. 

There is little doubt that if Adoboli had been better at placing his financial bets instead of losing £1.3 billion, he would be on a bonus, not remand.

Slap bang in the middle

ANYONE in work is now regarded as middleclass, a description which would once have raised bourgeois eyebrows. 

But the label is apt, because people with jobs are crushed between the unemployed on benefits and the rich who pay accountants to avoid as much tax as possible. 

Wealth taxes come and go, but it is the money of the non-wealthy that makes the world go around.