Large amounts of pressure by the western-countries has been halted, with the Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin vetoing the policy to intervene in Syria. This means that it is down to the Syrian people to stop this ruthless government taking the lives of the Syrian people.

One way that they are doing this is to hold a referendum on the al-Assad’s position as President . This seems like the perfect modern-day, democratic answer to the uprising. But a boycott has been ordered by the opposition, saying that President al-Assad needs to step down.

But it is not just the Syrian opposition, but the US, that oppose thus referendum calling it ‘laughable’.

What ever this referendum is, it is one line of hope for the Syrians. If al-Assad keeps to his word, and the people have the courage to vote against him, there will be no need for foreign influence.  Music to the ear’s of Prime Minister, who is still trying to get the British troops out of a nine-year old war in Iraq.

Syria is the new middle-east hot spot for civil violence – with threats that it could turn into a civil war. It needs to be watched carefully by all countries, as anymore pointless bloodshed is a disgrace to the modern-day human race.

This pressure to repay its debts, has led it to turn to extreme ways to scrap the money required. Greece  are at their knees, and now take commands from the eurozone minister’s and the IMF. This means that a €130 billion bail out package has been passed, to sort out the Greek deficit.

The bailout package means that there will be less power for the Greek government (led by Mr Papademos), with management and regular check-ups of the Greece economic mangers from the euro ministers. The private bond holders of the Greek debt will loose too, up to 70%.

The bad side of the bailout package is dramatic – neglecting the private sector, which will lift the economy out of this economic downturn. But also that the Greeks have lost all power over their country, and will be a puppet to the euro minsters.

Of course there are some good policies of the bailout, with a separate pot of money which will always contain enough money for the repayment of a up-coming  debt.

But when is it going to hit the euro minsters that you can not save Greece – and anything that you do will slow the growth of successful countries e.g. Germany and push the weaker countries into the black e.g. Spain, with the massive amount of inflation these bailout packages cause.

Instead, two tiers of eurozone countries should be set up, the rich and the poor. This will keep inflation low and make the eurozone stable again.

Greece leaving the eurozone is the only way that they will be able to leave a failing economy and will be able to grow and develop on its own success. This will be better for the people of the bailout countries like Germany and will ‘unleash the eurozone debt shackles’.

But not doing anything is what should not happen, a leader needs to rise out of the Greek economy’s ashes, taking control of the rising threat of strikes and further debt repayment defaults.

But in recent times, the spending has gone out of control, with diluted jobs infecting the institution. As the spending increases, in the financial good times, bringing it back down to a economical level is a challenge.

But Andrew Lansley (Secretary of State for Health) has been set out to tackle the black hole in the British Government’s spending, with a wide-spread reform. Jobs cuts (24,500 jobs – almost 21,000 of them through redundancy) and reforms of power is his plan of action.

Predicting to save £5billion by 2014/15 and £1.7billion every year after, this option seems to be the correct way to reform the NHS. Of course it comes with job cuts but it is so much more than simple balancing the books. It allows the NHS to compete, delivering a cheaper price to the general public and a better quality of service. Competition in any situation is only going to benefit the consumer.

This leads me to the point of the nuclear program which Iran is fast tracking. Currently only using it for an energy source, many countries believe that this will lead to a development in nuclear weapons. But should we be worried, if Iran involve their nuclear plans with the other countries using nuclear power (e.g. France, U.S and U.K) then the threat of secret arms development will be decreased.

But the reality of this is slim, with a clear block in communication between Iran and ‘Western-countries’ – creating this link is un likely.

 

“crisis coming down the tracks”. William Hague Foreign Secretary

Further more – Iran have released two ships into the Mediterranean Sea, showing that some sort of ‘armed action’ is prominent. Leaders fear more that we will slip into a cold war between U.S/France/U.K and Iran. Not what any nation needs to worry about if they are going to sort out their economic troubles.

Worrying times for William Hague and the U.K. We can not afford this new ‘cold-war’ but can not allow a terrorist-ridden country to have the capability to destroy half the planet!

Cameron and Sarkozy to use each others military’s. This is creating a 21st century fighting force,  of over 478,910 active personal. It seems sensible to link up, as the the British government and the French government invest the most out of all European countries.

“incredibly strong relationship based on shared interests”. David Cameron

Not only with military issues are they linking up, but with one-another’s nuclear research. Sharing this research shows a clear motivation that the prime minister wants to move to a nuclear energy source. The way forward I do believe.

But it’s not all that it seems, linking up each other’s armed forces. Who will answer the questions of; what happens if one wants to enter a conflict the other doesn’t want too? This causes doubt of for how long this partnership will continue.

But news today will boost the Democrat

s, with General Motors (GM) announcing record profits in 2011. With a profit of $7.6bn (£4.85bn) over 2011, up 62% from 2010, there is hope that the American motor industry will develop and retain to be one of the biggest economies in the world.

This profit has benefited the economy and the workers, with bonuses up to $7,000 to 47,500 eligible workers across the world – compared with $4,300 a year ago.

But this is one company in the world’s biggest economy, Mr Obama has to continue developing and promoting the industry if he has any chance in retaining bein

But the people of Greece do not realise how much of a state their economy is – it contrasted 7% in the fourth quarter of 2011. This has caused large protests about the cuts, that are trying to save their economy.

But the government has to ignore these protesters if they are going to be able to receive the 130billion euro ($170bn, £109bn) bailout package from international lenders. This package is their last chance to stay in the eurozone. But this package is only available if drastic cuts are made, if not then we will most likely see the end of the eurozone.

With or without the threat of leaving the eurozone, cuts are needed, tackling their diluted public sector. If not we will face the inevitable reality of European and possibly Western-countries going back into a economic depression.

This shows that the cuts need to be more wide-spread and spending is needed to be tightened. Loosing this AAA credit rating will put the UK back into the 2008 depression – something which make it nearly impossible to quickly bounce back from, as the economy is so fragile at present times.

We have to come to turns, as a public body, that we are still in a huge amount of debt and that complaining is doing nothing but slowing our recovery. These activists must be in a different country, a country that isn’t facing the chance of loosing a credit rating which has been the only constant in the recovery.

This message needs to go out to the public, telling them what the reality of our economic situation is. Not trying to ‘sugar-coat’ it or protect the public in bubble wrap from cuts.

Today they have announced £50billion to be pumped into the economy, to ‘boost the UK economy’. This will bring the total amount of QE in the UK to £325billion.

The idea behind it is that it will give businesses more money to start developing and expanding, but this type of financial investment is too top-down orientated, meaning smaller business (which it is targeted at) do not see this money and it is lost like the rest of it.

But in doing this, the Bank of England is lowering the price of the pound sterling, causing inflation to rise. This will force our progress to leave the deep recession to stumble, hitting the working-class yet again. 

This is the hardest hit class regarding taxes and job cuts. Instead of QE they should lower the taxes on the businesses, allowing free growth, not trying to artificially grow the UK economy. Remove the amount of red-tape, which holds back growth – then there will be no need to lower the currency value and increase inflation to support the big businesses.

But today one of the biggest companies in the world, Apple, has been taken victim to these patents. Being sued by Samsung and Motorola Mobility over “essential” patents, even the top have been affected.

But these patents are stopping a free market – not allowing new competition, competition needed to develop and grow any market. Having these patents stops growth, growth which is needed if we are going to get out of this global financial downturn.

But failing to their closest rival, Android, is not what they need as their sales were down than predicted for the release of their new iPhone, the iPhone 4S.

Apple is taking a stand to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), by demanding clear legislation regarding patents. Having a clear system will allow businesses/companies to achieve a competitive market.

This is the right approach in the usage of patents – they are needed in a 21st market, but the clarity of them is poor, making them less beneficial. The ETSI need to act on Apples words – if they want to retain one of the worlds largest technological companies to be able to trade freely in Europe.