WikiLeaks- Were They So Disasterous?

[Freddie Campbell]

...I guess once the smoke of the storm dies down normal service
will resume between the Diplomacy of Nations(N Korea etc). And
with regard to N.K.perhaps the China leak has done the World a Service? YOUR THOUGHTS...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Time will tell. Sometimes people and institutions deserve to be exposed. But there are people around who may use it to their advantage.

[scottycelt]

A bit of a damp squib, imo ... it's all really been like office politics writ large. So far, there has been nothing particularly surprising. We all know diplomats are, er, diplomatic to each other whatever they think and say privately. Poilticians rarely mean what they appear to say in public .. and Prince Andrew was just being the Duke of York, who everyone knows (apart apparently from a shocked American woman) is royalty's equivalent of the local bar loud-mouth.

I found our very own Blair-Brown rivalry in Government, almost bordering on hatred, much more strange and remarkable ..

[Freddie Campbell]

...But overblown by the Media surely,Scotty?

[scottycelt]

I'm not sure about that, Fred ... that was my feeling originally, but the Blair-Brown thing was something the media appear to have got broadly right, though, of course, we're unlikely to ever learn the whole truth about this very strange relationship.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

...one thing the wikileaks provide is insight into the terrifying extent of gangsterism and the growing link between Berlusconi & Putin .... i once won a three day marathon game of diplomacy by invading Italy! [those were the days!]

i feel strongly that gangsterism is grossly underestimated and unaddressed .... and i do not refer solely to the human and drug trafficking ovious stuff, but to the wide spread corruption of government officials around the globe, and the licensing of what are in effect ganster operations in the major financial systems, essentially tax farming mechanisms, 'we will be totally relaxed about you being filthy rich, provided you give us £XBn tax, so Gordon can build schools/invade Afghanistan/give money to GPs etc [the tribal politics are irrelevant the Coalition are at it too] ...

the story under the stories might just emerge as a revulsion to just how sordid it all is behind the facade ... the wikileaks look set to be one of the major spectacles of the century ... implicated in all sorts of ways in our future troubles .... ok so 'every one knows' is not a bad put down and to some extent true, but every one 'knowing' the sordid truth is one thing, having it displayed in an astonishing burst of media son et lumiere is another ...

[Flosshilde]

and Prince Andrew was just being the Duke of York, ... royalty's equivalent of the local bar loud-mouth.

But he gets paid around £4,000 [I]a week[I] in expences, & is able to indulge in his favourite pass-times of falconry in Morocco & big game hunting in Tanzania. In his own words - "I'd love to be able to say I've been responsible for £10bn of business or for another 250 jobs [but sometimes] the companies themselves don't know"

I seems to me to be a case of 'we've got this rather useless individual hanging around, lets find something for him to do'. Perhaps his services should be dispensed with for a couple of years, & then we would see what impact they had.

[scottycelt]

For once, I don't necessarily disagree with you, Floss ...

[Freddie Campbell]

...Well it will all have to change & reduce when Charles takes over...

[Uncle Monty]

And moreover, this is an area where "research" can take us only so far anyway.

Something radical is clearly happening, and happening fast, but just what it is we can see only in its daily manifestations.

Lateralthinking1's post is interesting, but altogether too optimistic for my taste

I suspect we should all be pondering just what it means to moan about politicians not complying with "the will of the majority". I thought this was why we have a "representative democracy" -- to save the country from the whims and caprices of tabloid-fuelled anger. I never thought I would catch myself agreeing with Kingsley Amis on anything, but I do wonder how happy most of us will be when "the yobs have taken over"?