PETER MARTINOVIC

Finally a post after a long time

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 09 May 2007 01:14:00 +0000

1. Big big congratulations to the whole UK Conservative Party on their successful election result. I think that every man and woman in blue feels that it could be even better in the North of England as well as in Wales and Scotland, but we must not be impatient. People's trust can be lost very quickly, but you need to go through a hard time to win it back. However, 41 per cent of the vote is an excellent result and according to the latest news the Tories' gains reached 900 which is fantastic! Labour were slapped in the face and all the pre-election polls that had showed them trailing behind Cameron's Conservatives were confirmed. And with regard to LibDems, this political party led by Sir Ming is just ridiculous. The only thing that casts shadows on the last Friday's elections is a victory of Scottish Nationalists. I'm very curious about Alex Salmond's next tactics.2. Congratulations also to all you, my fellow bloggers (Tony Sharp, Richard Bailey, Robert Rams, Iain Lindley, Peter Smallbone and so on and so on; those not mentioned, please, do not feel offended), who were standing as candidates in these local elections! It doesn't matter whether you were or were not elected, I'm proud of you, because I know what it takes to undergo a campaign. Great job, guys!3. On the other hand, apologies to you, my readers, for abandoning you and for not posting regularly. As I mentioned in my post from April 10, I am in a period of a job-changing, so I need to get accustomed to my new work, my new office and new people I work with and those who I meet on an everyday basis.

Moreover I decided to rebuild my bathroom and toilet, so currently my flat looks as a WWII battlefield with pieces of bricks and tens of kilograms of dust everywhere and a new bath standing in my living room (and craftsmen smoking on my balcony). I am getting a little bit nervous, but I need to keep a stiff upper lip.4. To Damon Lord: I promise I will post more on Czech and Slovak politics, but in view of mentioned circumstances (see number 3) I have not been able to post as frequently as usual. In my April posts I pursued mostly British politics because I could afford to make them short (notes or sketches) which would not have been possible if I had chosen Slovak politics to write about. In that case it would have been necesary to describe situation, relations and other details for you, my UK readers to understand and unfortunately I hadn't have enough time for it. I promise that in 7 or max. 10 days time I will resume blogging at my previous normal pace.

Varieties :-)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 21:28:00 +0000

This is a band.

This is a big band.

This is a maxi band.

This is a mini band.

This is a mili band.

Cameron makes case for retaining the Union

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 14:33:00 +0000

Ahead of the upcoming Scottish elections and awaited triumph of the SNP, David Cameron has written THIS article for today's Daily Telegraph named 'Scots and English flourish in the Union' in which he advocates an opinion that what Scottish people want is delivery, not divorce.

Here is the most important part of his piece:

"... Gordon Brown's speeches about Britishness, telling us to plant flags in our lawns (an idea which is profoundly unBritish), doesn't get us anywhere. Instead of these ludicrous entreaties, and telling Scotland she would be economically weak if the Union broke up, we should explain what we would all lose - politically, culturally and historically. Because the links between Scotland and England have never been stronger: more Scots live in England, and more English people live in Scotland, than ever before; almost half of Scots have English relatives; and travel across the border is at an all-time high.

Our ties are not built on government and constitutional arrangements alone. It is about something much deeper than that: the bonds of kinship and the strength of our individual, and community, relationships which span the border."

Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2006

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 16:32:00 +0000

In this year's Press Freedom Ranking of countries, that was published by Reporters Without Borders yesterday, Slovak republic ranks 8th world's freest country regarding the freedom of press and speech, with Northern European countries (Finland, Island, Norway), Netherlands, Ireland, Estonia and Czech republic at the very top of the table. These countries have no recorded censorship, threats, intimidation or physical reprisals of journalists or other individuals. Last year's press freedom champion, Denmark, dropped 18 places, because of serious threats against the authors of the Mohammed cartoons. United Kingdom comes 27th, which means a slight drop in the Index comparing to the 2005 Report. The RWB's table also mirrors the steady erosion of press freedom in France (35th), Japan (51st) and the United States (53rd). The worst violators of free expression are Saudi Arabia (161st), Iran (162nd), China (163rd), Burma (164th), Cuba (165th), Eritrea (166th), Turkmenistan (167th) and North Korea (168th).

According to the RWB's webpage, organization compiled the Index by asking the 14 freedom of expression organisations that are its partners worldwide, its network of 130 correspondents, as well as journalists, researchers, jurists and human rights activists, to answer 50 questions about press freedom in their countries. The Index covers 168 nations.

100 days in the life of my country

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 20:16:00 +0000

One hundred days in power, it is a reason for celebration, isn't it? The Presidency of the PES (Party of European Socialists) 'congratulated' the Slovak main ruling political subject, Direction - Social Democracy (Smer - SD) yesterday by deciding to suspend its membership from the PES for 10 months due to entering a government coalition with radicals from the SNS.

On the occasion of this jubilee the right-wing Slovak Democratic and Christian Union - Democratic Party (SDKU-DS) , which is our most important opposition party and while in power, managed to introduce many free market reforms, including flat tax and private pension accounts, held a press conference to review the period since General Election in June.
Leader of the SDKU-DS and ex-PM, Mikulas Dzurinda described the last hundred days as a period of "very strong words, but very weak action". It emerged that this government has no conceptual solutions; solutions that can be considered a real alternative to the 'common sense programme' of the previous centre-right Cabinet. Although Socialists became Election winners by commiting themselves to the values of the Welfare state, they are now wavering and failing to deliver their promises. They do not have a courage to introduce the changes they were announcing. Powerful and convincing arguments of the economic analysts and other experts halt them from making an about-turn, so at least they try to distort and damage our successful reforms. According to Dzurinda, our socialist government is on the defensive. "They started like that and they go on like that." In spite of our populist, hesitant and helpless government, I expect our economy to grow fast and I believe that Slovakia's good years lay ahead, he added.