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Notes from canvassing (in the 2007 Irish election)
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Somehow this had passed me by when it was released: Nena looking fantastic at 49, revisiting her classic in an idiom of video games. Compare also the original at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQYQTFudrqc (she was 23 then).
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There are good examples of good practice in political communications, and there are bad examples. Yesterday’s performance by the UUP was the absolutely perfect representation of the bad examples. In fact, the UUP contrived to oppose banning sectarian chants at football matches, and then its Health Minister managed to find a more pressing engagement than discussion of the Autism Bill. Now, it is just about possible that Ulster Unionists privately had some reservations about the exact wording of the relevant bills. However, the public at large sees only: “sectarian party doesn’t care about autistic children“.
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Two roads diverged in a yellow wood. And Robert Frost took the one less traveled. Of course, he also heckled his rivals and started fires to disrupt their poetry readings. But that makes for a terrible motivational poster. Unless you're a petty pyromaniac. In which case, here you go.
The “Shrinking Modern Military” piece leaves out the capability side of the equation, the obsolescence of some of their comparators, and doesn’t give enough depth to the costs of manpower.
For example, the fact that the French Navy had 7 battleships in 1939 means little – battleships being made obsolete by the demonstrated effectiveness of the aircraft carrier. Also, the aircraft carrier in 1939 – the Bearn – was an obsolete experimental ship from the 1920s. Hardly a good comparison for the Charles de Gaule that graces the Marine Nationale today. In a similar fashion, the MNs frigates and submarines are so much more capable than the rest of the ships in the 1939 list. Rather tellingly, the author leaves out the 20 French light frigates and corvettes. Exocet-armed, they would be more than capable of sinking a pre-war French cruiser.
The same points could be made for the rest of the technological markers the author uses. He also forgets that whilst riflemen might need eight times more money to equip than his WWII predecessor, the equipment makes for a more effective (and survivable) soldier. It also has to be noted that US GNP has increased by over a factor of 10 since WWII.
Whilst there are some good points of costs of manpower in the piece, I feel that a comparison with the US, with its ridiculously over-priced care and benefits industry is perhaps not the best illustrator to be used.
As for small forces, Norway’s Hercules loss whilst seeming great (25% of the Hercules force), is again not a great comparator – from 1969 to 2008 they had only six of an earlier type of Hercules, which were replaced by the 4 mentioned in the article. It is hard to see how a move from 6 of an older type of aeroplane to 4 of a more modern type is a loss of effectiveness as asserted by the author.
All in all, this article needs more depth – rather than cherry-picking some points to support its main thesis.