Life will go on...

God Save the Queen.

Two things that caught my eye

Mark Steyn is by far one of the best political pundits on all issues political. Whether is US, UK or Canadian in nature, one can often find his name on an opt-ed piece.

This week was no exception with his column in the London Telegraph on Live 8.
From his article today:

Seven years ago, you'll recall, Sir Paul's wife died of cancer. Linda McCartney had been a resident of the United Kingdom for three decades but her Manhattan tax lawyers, Winthrop Stimson Putnam & Roberts, devoted considerable energy in her final months to establishing her right to have her estate probated in New York state.

That way she could set up a "qualified domestic marital trust" that would... Yeah, yeah, yeah, in the immortal words of Lennon and/or McCartney. Big deal, you say. We're into world peace and saving the planet and feeding Africa. What difference does it make which jurisdiction some squaresville suit files the boring paperwork in?

Okay, I'll cut to the chase. By filing for probate in New York rather than the United Kingdom, Linda McCartney avoided the 40 per cent death duties levied by Her Majesty's Government. That way, her family gets all 100 per cent - and 100 per cent of Linda McCartney's estate isn't to be sneezed at.

For purposes of comparison, Bob Geldof's original Live Aid concert in 1985 raised £50 million. Lady McCartney's estate was estimated at around £150 million. In other words, had she paid her 40 per cent death duties, the British Treasury would have raised more money than Sir Bob did with Bananarama and all the gang at Wembley Stadium that day.

For all of the rhetoric being tossed around by the people behind Live 8, they ignore some pretty basic ideas. Private money proves that people really care about an issue. It forces people to become active in politics (and I do not mean partisan politics here) and care about the outcome of an action.

The government only cares about an issue when the pressure is on. People who give freely of themselves have invested something in the outcome. If the aging rock stars behind Live 8 really want to change the world, its time to step up to the plate themselves before they go asking our governments to do it for them...if they want to lead the charge, perhaps they should march to the front of the line and shows us the way, with their pocket book.

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On topic number, well, I see that some MPs have learned the hard way, sometimes there are consequences to actions. In this article, it would appear that one of the NDP members learned that sometimes you actually have to adhere to Christian doctrine to actually remain a Christian.

Live 8

This will be a very short post -- going out and enjoying the lovely weather.

So Live 8 has come and gone. What's changed? Will people finally see that throwing the money 20 years ago did not solve the problem? Will people see that only throwing money around this time will not likely solve the problem?

Maybe all this energy and focus on the issue will finally spark some real debate on the real issues, rather than the political angle of trying to reach some mythological value of .7% of GDP...we can only hope.