Category Archives: Politics

My post-EU election advice to the UK Labour Party leadership

27 Monday May 2019

Posted by in anthropology, Brexit, Economics, Europe, European Union, leadership, Philosophy, Politics, UK

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003Martyn Richard Jones

Bruxelles 27th May 2019

My post-EU election advice to the UK Labour Party leadership

As I commented to Keir Starmer today “Labour are making a fundamental mistake and it ain’t working, Keir”.

Labour’s approach to Brexit is completely the wrong strategy and it’s doing nobody (apart from Nigel Farage) any favours. No Brexit will benefit the immense majority of the country, we know that, and we know that the EU is not going to cut a better deal for anyone, regardless of their political flavour, because that’s just the way it is.

Like it or loath it, but, Theresa May probably struck the best Brexit deal that the UK can aspire to, and it was roundly rejected, for various reasons, by Westminster. No, the best Brexit deal is no Brexit at all.

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Consider this: Huawei, Google and the USA

20 Monday May 2019

Posted by in 4th generation Data Warehousing, anthropology, Economics, Philosophy, political science, Politics

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Huawei2Martyn Richard Jones

Bruxelles 20th May 2019

Listen up!

I have just read Simon Jenkin’s article, published in The Guardian, on the current barney between the USA and China – “Google’s Huawei ban is good news: tech giants shouldn’t always get their way“.

This is one of those rare occasions when I don’t agree entirely with what Simon has to say, but, the piece still carries a lot of good sense and finely tuned criticism.

For me, this quarrel isn’t fundamentally about security or reining in big-tech. This is essentially about trade wars, base protection, maintaining power and imposing influence. In short, it’s about hubris, intimidation and violence on the global political stage.

But, at the bottom of all of this is the Trump administration’s Homeric ignorance and epic ability to simply fanny-around.

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Consider this: Clueless in IT: Can‘t listen. Aren‘t learning. Won‘t win.

19 Sunday May 2019

Posted by in 4th generation Data Warehousing, IT Circus, IT fraud, IT strategy, IT World, listening, Philosophy, Polemic, Politics

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Aranjuez, Spain

Martyn Richard Jones

Bruxelles 19th May 2019

Listen well

I am a big fan of listening well and in continually improving listening skills. Yes, there are times when we can over-listen but this is also linked with skills of diplomacy and politics. How we listen should inform us a lot about what we and others really are.

So, whilst I am a big advocate of listening well I see that the world of business, and especially the sub-world of IT, is plagued with vain, impulsive and badly informed vote-takers who stubbornly resist the need to listen well and who will attempt to deftly fill the whole of the available time bashing their gums in communicating what are to all intents and purposes vacuous inanities and long litanies of meaningless clichés, full of terms that they either abuse or misunderstand; or even a bit of both.

And, as anyone who has worked with IT will know, I am not making this up. We used to call this charlatanry now we simply call it consulting. It still isn’t turning a pig’s ear into a silk purse, no matter how much people insist. But, there it is, in all its magnificent mediocrity.

Some people tell me it’s because IT attracts people with autism and Asperger’s syndrome; whatever that is.

I tend to put this refusal to listen down to other things; my money is firmly on arrogance and ignorance.

But, they just don’t get it, do they? Continue reading →

Labour’s Brexit Strategy for Idiots

23 Sunday Dec 2018

Posted by in Assets, awareness, behaviour, Best principles, Brexit, ethics, goodstrat, Martyn Jones, Martyn Richard Jones, Offshoring, Outsourcing, Politics, Remain, statistics, The Guardian

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Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Martyn Richard Jones

Madrid, Sunday 23rd December 2018

What’s all this fuss about Jeremy Corbyn and Labour’s Brexit strategy?

Despite Liberal Democrats, Blairites and most of the national media ramping up the righteous outrage about Corbyn stating the bleeding, bloody obvious (see e.g. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/23/labour-remain-jeremy-corbyn-brexit  ) nothing has changed.

So, what are the facts?

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Brexit and the Will of the Woolly

21 Friday Dec 2018

Posted by in Ask Martyn, Brexit, goodstrat, Martyn does, Martyn Jones, Martyn Richard Jones, Politics

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Picture6Martyn Richard Jones

Madrid, Friday 21st December 2018

It feels like Brexit is in the lap of the gods. But, I hope that eventually (and that’s very soon) it will be dragged kicking and screaming to an almost certain fate. Meanwhile, as it faces the dying of its light it continues to bring out the best and the worst in our politicians at Westminster, those who work in the media and those with strong views.

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Bullshit in Barcelona: How not to serve your constituents

08 Sunday Oct 2017

Posted by in 4th generation Data Warehousing, nationalism, Politics

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Martyn Richard Jones

Gif sur Yvette 7th October 2017

Let’s face it, the recent fake referendum in Catalonia has been end to end bullshit.

It’s bullshit because that’s what you call a referendum that has no constitutional guarantees, that does not allow for an informed and plural debate and dialogue, and which is not the culmination of a process that leads to a consensual ending in the form of a collective and democratic plebiscite. It’s bullshit, because in calling the referendum and then insisting on the referendum the Catalan government have placed the public in harm’s way. Continue reading →

UK Government? Global Charlies!

31 Thursday Aug 2017

Posted by in 4th generation Data Warehousing, European Union, Good Strategy, Martyn Jones, Politics, UK

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Picture6Martyn Richard Jones

Bonn 31st August 2017

It doesn’t matter where you are in the world, the view of the UK government doesn’t get any better.

Edinburgh, London, Brussels, Beijing or Washington. It’s increasingly obvious that Theresa May and her cabinet are a painfully embarrassing and unfunny joke.

They stand as an obdurate aberration where once there had been some semblance of cultured diplomacy, breadth and depth of intelligence and strategic thinking. They defy the laws of reason, good sense and decency. They are the Keystone Cops, the Chuckle Brothers and the Carry On Camping of governance. Continue reading →

Brexit: A question for Jeremy Corbyn

28 Monday Aug 2017

Posted by in 4th generation Data Warehousing, Brexit, business strategy, Economics, Europe, European Union, Good Strategy, Politics, Strategy

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Image1Martyn Richard Jones

Bonn 28th August 2017

In my opinion, Brexit, any Brexit, could spell economic, political and social disaster for the UK. Brexit could ensure the demise of the Good Friday Agreement, with seriously damaging consequences. It could see the independence of Scotland – not necessarily a bad thing for Scotland, but yet another unintended consequence of Brexit. And, it could significantly deteriorate the rights and conditions of workers in the UK.

So, I wish to put a Brexit question to Jeremy Corbyn.

Will the working people in the UK be better off if the UK leaves the European Union?

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USA: What Trumped Hillary?

16 Wednesday Aug 2017

Posted by in 4th generation Data Warehousing, business strategy, Good Strategy, Politics, Strategy, USA

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Picture2Martyn Richard Jones

Bonn 16th August 2017

US liberals still don’t get it, do they? I was particularly unimpressed by The Guardian’s US correspondent, Richard Wolffe, who wrote this of Trump “He is the very man Hillary Clinton warned us that he would be.”

Like as if we really need the advice of an entitled and arrogant warmonger about any other unhinged member of the globalised political circus. Continue reading →