But the simple fact is we have all the apparatus and more in place than a certain German Chancellor put in place with disastrous results, all operative this minute. Do you know of the provisions for internal passports / travel control?

What we are most certainly seeing, is a dichotomy of debates. The rich are quietly being reassured their tax breaks won’t disappear (just so long as you can read or employ someone to read Tolley’s Tax Guide, now up to 18,000 pages, oh, and all the interlinking ones in other states) – seriously, very few I know in good positions are panicking – and on the other, I think the rhetoric in all mainstream media, not just The Daily Mail, has shifted substantially. It’s one thing to have a crisis, another to have doom and gloom for so long. Purpose: ultimately curtailing the entitlement system. A convenient excuse in media has been the “dumbing down” of internet page churning. (sorry guys, you just fail at selling adverts). If you stop for a second, and imagine politicians are not the dumbest ninnies on the planet, they are making some very strange choices. Which long term favour certain constituencies. I posit this question: what sane government does not want to send a positive signal to the broad electorate? Even in hardship. So, things are not following normal courses.

I do not have ready access to the database which will allow me to search for metadata on advertising images (interestingly, or maybe not very surprisingly, a Israeli company does that) because I am working on something else. But my overall concern is that xenophobia, and hence racialism, might be the order of the day. Just enough to divide and rule a vote.

Random arguments:

we could buy out Greece easy peasy. Small economy. Save them.

allowing we are sensible I reckon we could double the money flow to reinflate the economy. But, no good if we are being nice to the Hun. Have to be able to refuse that bailout. No idea how they can trade without London. . Keynes did not say stimulus and pork barrel, he said work and industrial assets.

to be expansionist, and that is a real answer to how to deal with finding growth when you have a relatively strong currency, well, you want to go bargain hunting abroad. Again, no sense propping them up.

There may finally have to be a proper cultural integration programme in the UK. Nothing wrong with that, but never attempted, and you need more than the NF vote to back it. My local area is way too ghettoised. No good for anyone.

. . .

My apologies to all for dropping into speculative politics. I am merely trying to illustrate a point, not debate this. Point being, there is always propaganda to policy.

I simply think an awful lot of non obvious policies come down from on high, without warning. Not always for obvious reasons. There was definitely interest in renewable energy sources (wind, etc) in the 50s in the UK at high level. But that would have caused two problems: 1) hypocrisy in selling on our own fossil energy (North Sea gas deposits just becoming recognised then); 2) would not have developed new technologies as much as N tech. Optional third, TPTB like centralised systems. Green energy is not centralised, consider the timing, post war. (based on tech expectations of the time)

. . .

None of the above is conclusive, but my belief is there are certain shifts occurring and although I am not either paranoid about this, nor asserting causality with the advertising, there are lots of ways to manipulate through ads and media. Try the banning of Dire Straits Brother’s In Arms disc, as to broadcast, prior to the Gulf war. My point is, that to participate in any system, one needs to consider they might not be so direct about anything, out of necessity.

I think it’s sufficiently long ago that you can reveal the figures, it will help put today’s wages in perspective.

I recall when Enzo shook JYS’ hand, signing him for 20K pounds in 1970, but Enzo rapidly sobered up and reneged on the handshake.

“He wants the whole of Maranello!” was his comment.

Does anybody ever inform Lewis et. al. of these historic details?

JYS asked twenty thousand pounds for the whole year… think about that Lewis.

Similarly at Red Bull, whatever Lewis might sign there would be short term, because the Austrians will still want to keep on validating their young driver programs and bring on their next talent, and show him (or her) off on the world stage in their own team.

Ferrari? Alonso.

Which leaves McLaren. All the talk about Jenson taking over as #1 driver for the team need to keep in mind that that may have been the case for the 2011 season, where Lewis was making mistakes due to an unsettled environment outside of the cockpit.

He seems to have sorted that out this season, and is currently sitting on 63 points vs Jenson’s 45. Also remember that it wasn’t Lewis who was stuck behind Kovalainen at the last race…

We hear snippets of Lewis’ communications with his team, and he gets understandably upset when the team drop the ball – he wouldn’t be a World Champion if he didn’t, in my opinion. We need to remember that this subtle advertising of Lewis’ displeasure with his team leads to column inches, which keeps Formula 1 in the news, which is good for Bernie. And who chooses which snippets of driver-pit communications we hear during the race coverage?

As for the prevalence of Jenson advertising vs Lewis advertising… well, after seeing Lewis’ latest efforts for Tag Heuer here in Australia, I’m not surprised he’s not doing any more PR…!