Now there is confidence in the T5 baggage system.
Well it seems that after all this time there are still concerns over the T5 baggage handling systems. 28,000 bags are still lost in the system. I wonder what percentage that is and how many in total were lost?
The bit that I thought was a perfect example of confidence in the system. Despite the claims that everything is now OK it seems that the Olympic torch which was due to arrive at T5 will now arrive at a VIP suite instead. Read
here.
Strange that. I wouldn't have thought that the Olympic torch would not have gone through the T5 baggage system anyway. Just goes to show that those that actually have any influence will avoid T5 when they can. Sadly, us peons will not have that option.
The difference between law and justice.
Imagine the situation. Your daughter goes off to university and while away she dies. After all that trauma you receive a bill for her accommodation for the remainder of the year. How would you feel? I know how I would. I would be devastated and think that greedy rich people were out to screw me and did not care about people in general. Plus some other slightly different words. The injustice of it. Have they not paid enough by losing their daughter?
I then looked at it from the other side as I would imagine the law is on their side. That doesn't make it right or wrong but simply legal. The daughter rented a flat for a year and the parents acted as guarantors. After the start of the university year the demand for rented accommodation must drop and the unemployment in Liverpool is high so the chances are this place could remain empty for months. Who really wants to go to Liverpool? It could mean the difference between bankruptcy and surviving another year. Not everyone renting is a property billionaire. This could be the only option they have.
On the other hand they could be just greedy. Who knows? As it is a private company and not the government it is seen as ruthless. The government does this all the time yet it seems the escape the claim "In all my years in dealing with agencies and officials, I have never come across such a totally unsympathetic attitude.". Clearly Mickey Brady has had minimal involvement with our government in his life.
It is a difficult situation with most of us on the side of the couple. These situations show that life though is not black and white. There is right and wrong in life, justice and law and the right thing doesn't always happen. Read the, surprisingly short, story
here where I notice the name of the agency is missing.
The British disease.
Can we do anything right? Read
here about the cock ups at Heathrow T5.
Why didn't we think of this?
It seems that the Iraq PM has given the militants an ultimatum. They have to lay down their arms or face severe penalties. Read
here.
Now if only we had thought of this. We could have saved billions.
Sometimes the simple way is the best. We shall have to see.
Fighting to the last at our cost.
It seems that the MP's are going to fight to the last over the decision that they have to publish their expenses. They have launched an appeal which will be heard by the High Court. Read
here.
Well it's nice to see they are taking time out from removing all our freedoms to look after their own freedoms. Funny though knowing there was an appeal process and knowing that they won't have to pay a penny it was obvious they would appeal. What have they got to lose by dragging it out to the last? Nothing at all and we pick up the tab.
What a bunch. Bring on the revolution.
Thoughts on Iraq again.
It seems the US death toll for Iraq has hit 4,000. Read
here. I don't know how I missed the 3,000 mark but I don't remember it. Maybe I did at the time and made a comment. Old age settling in clearly.
However, it made me think a bit more about Iraq. We get conflicting news from there on a daily basis from our media. It sounds like the back is broken as the attacks by the insurgents fall off, then it sounds like a new surge is on the way. Not long ago it made is sound like a rare event that would soon run out of steam yet it now seems it is a regular occurrence and is something like the tides. They recede and then they surge in. Each one triggers surprise and a new round of pats on the back or grimaces depending on which part of the cycle we are on.
I was never a supporter of the invasion nor did I believe for a moment the reasons given for the invasion. Something that I think we need to look at with a view to punishing the guilty. It seems government policy to apologise for things they have not done and yet they do not stand up and admit the things they have done. Does that make any sense?
The US is asking for a full investigation of China and Tibet. Why are people not calling for a full investigation into the Iraqi invasion? More people have died and the culprits are still at large. China will be forced by it's own progress into compromises with Tibet and, in the not too distant future, Tibet will be a footnote in history. Iraq on the other hand is going to be made a footnote in history by the might of the winners rewriting history when it has hit two of the milestones for WWII, length and cost, although thankfully not lives lost in battle. Although let us not feel complacent as it does not appear to be any closer to a finish.
Like most things in life I find the questions being asked by our leaders to be next to useless. They seem quite happy to just allow us to continue down a path we prepared many years before. One that has proven to be ineffective and yet we don't seem to revisit it and reevaluate the situation. The politicians know that being protected 24/7 they are unlikely to be targeted and thus have little concern for what is going on. Being much too busy with an expose of their noses in the trough whilst our brave men and women die.
The question is what to do? Many argue that to leave Iraq would send a clear message to the baddies that they have won and that terrorism works. They say it would also mean that they bring their fight to us. Perhaps they are right. However they were wrong about how this was going to work so why should they be right this time? Insurgents fighting in Iraq are not going to find that the techniques work here in the UK or the US and we may have a few terrorist attacks similar to the tube bombings but the chances are that this will happen anyway whilst we are still in Iraq in the current politician climate as the original tube bombings were.
The situation is that despite our feelings of who was right and who was wrong people are dying while the situation in Iraq shows no real improvement. It even seems that they are changing their tack to an attack on democracy and are mainly targeting Iraqi's. As a process introduced by the infidel it is tainted beyond redemption and I cannot see democracy working there unless we commit to spill the blood of our soldiers for a long, long time to come.
Is it not time we looked at the situation and revisited what we can and should do. I'm sure knowing what we know now. Which is even after all this time we do not understand these people we could come up with a better way of doing things. Even if it means picking our troops and support staff, including Iraqis, and coming home. They will never have the infrastructure to fight us here and the money spent on the war can be better spent on repairing the damage we have done to our nations after we went against international laws. It would probably be cheaper to just supply funds to Iraq to provide them a viable infrastructure and get them back to normal. Of course it won't be long before someone rises to power who we won't like. That is inevitable. The history of the middle east is full of this.
The only winner out of all of this is Iran. No matter what we do Iran will have a rallying cry. If we remain it will be 'We need to free our countries' and if we leave it will be 'We defeated them in Iraq'. The real loser here is our western values which have shown that we don't actually follow the rules we dictate that the world follows' The Geneva convention, human right, rule of law. All these, and more, have been pushed aside at our whim whilst we pursued our agenda.
So, stay and fight for at least a decade to introduce democracy in a single country in the middle east in the hope that the others will just decide that they will take it on as well.
Alternatively we can just nuke them back to the stone age... ooops... that's where they are starting from so even further back than that. And when we look at nuking them we need to just do the whole lot at once. No point in waiting for each one to go through the same process.
Or we can just leave them to get on with it knowing the internal turmoil will eventually settle. Someone will rise to dominate and we can then
bribe negotiate with them for the trade. We could throw Blair, Bush, Howard and the others to them as tokens of contrition. At least that way no innocent lives would be lost from the west.
My favourite though would be to select a leader, obviously by democratic means, *snigger*, we seem to have practise lately. Then give them our weapons and supply intelligence from satellite etc. so they can
subjugate bring the country under control. Of course we would need *cough* advisors or as I like to think, the power behind the throne. I like this because there will be little loss of western life, and as far as the middle east is concerned a bloodthirsty megalomaniac would be back in charge. Of course the one in charge would be our nutter.
Personally I wish we could just build a wall around all these backwards countries and just buy the goods, in this case oil, through agreed holes in those walls. We can pass them shiny baubles and gold through as payment although if we really wanted to do ourselves some goods we would airdrop guns and ammunition free of charge. It goes without saying we would drop Blair et al after the place was sealed off.
The reasoning behind that is one day these people are going to come bubbling up from their shacks and come to take us on. They didn't like us in the first place and we have made that a lot worse by this invasion and it will take a lot of blood to resolve the issue. I think that it should not be the blood of my grandchildren. They will hate us for generations and we are not doing a thing to stop it. They see our attempts to help them as a sign of weakness. Why should we ponce about following our self imposed queensbury type rules whilst they infiltrate our society and weaken our already corrupt core.
What a mess. I'm open for other suggestions. Or even someone saying that all is going well. I hope my understanding is way off the mark but why should our government's handling of Iraq be OK whilst everything else they touch just fall apart.
Peak oil is back on the agenda.
Via
Tim Worstall, we see in this
article that the BNP is the political party most concerned about Peak Oil. I left a comment on Tim's site but thought the concept of the BNP having policies was worth exploring so I decided to expand on the comment I left there. Although, to be honest, I never actually knew the BNP actually had policies. Just goes to show even in politics you can be surprised.
Anyway,
I see the BNP with a high score in peak oil because the BNP has hardly any real policies.
1) Kicking every non UK person out of the UK.
2) Keeping their leaders out of prison.
3) Err..... Anyone think of anything else?
I can see it now.
Location : BNP command HQ. (A cafe in Barnsley. Location : Classified. Shouldn't be too hard to find as it's run by a white guy.)
Attendees : BNP high command, Big Jim the cafe proprietor, Doris the tea lady and twenty two undercover reporters.
Scene : One guy poring over a form to submit his party to a new political web site with what the party is about, it's key policies and it's membership. The others watch with interest and he struggles over some of the big words.
BNP 1: 'Guys, it says here what is your parties top policies?' ' I've got two but what can we put down as the third?'
BNP 2: 'What have the other parties got for their policies?'
So they all start looking on the web and in the papers for some policies.
BNP 1: 'How about this one on id cards?' They all shake their heads.
BNP 3, 4, 5 & 6: 'Nope. I've spent my life keeping off police databases.' They all agree.
BNP 5: 'How about this one on single mums and social?' Fists are raised, tattooed muscles ripple and several expletives are cast around and that was just Doris. The others nodded and a lone voice, BNP 4, says 'Does that mean I have to support all my kids mothers?' They look in horror. BNP 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7 say 'Nope not that one either.'
Finally they have looked everywhere but no one has a policy on rounding muslims up and sticking them in camps like the US or even kicking them around a bit. They sit around for a bit.
Finally, BNP 3 says 'I come across something called peak oil. It's on that clown Camerons policies at 10,001.' 'I've been to the Peak District once.' says BNP 1. Nods all around. 'Yes. So have I' 'Nice place reminds me of the moors around here.' 'Plenty of places to hide the bod.... err... Some nice camping spots.' They all nod.
'OK. That's it then. Policy no 3. Peak oil' 'Now we can let Scotland keep theirs. We have plenty here for us and we can get rid of having to put up with the Middle East' 'Hooray!' they all cry.
BNP 1 starts filling in the third policy. A cry of despair escapes his lips as he opens up the form. The others look at him. He screams 'It's not three. They want five policies' 'It's a top five list'. They look at him stunned then 'Bugger that!' says Doris. 'I'm off home it's nearly time for Jeremy Kyle. My brother is on today.' There are nods all around and one by one they shuffle out until all that is left is the proprietor, twenty two journalists and a barely completed form.
'Mmmm' says one of the journalists 'Let's fill in four and five and then get back for our next expose of the BNP.' They all nod. 'I could do with a cuppa though' says another. They all nod and look at the owner. He says 'Come on lads' I'm off to see Jeremy Kyle myself.' 'My brother is on today as well.' 'Talk about coincidence. It's that special on the number of guys who turn gay in prison.'
The journalists wander off to make something up for publishing in the sunday tabloids and the cafe owner closes his shop. He picks up the form and drops it in the bin, picks up the cup's and plates and wanders to the kitchen. Fade to black.
It's official. The UK's balls are the best.
Well it seems the Brits are actually good at something. Finally. We have won the World Marble Championships. Oh! At first I thought it was an award for those that had lost their marbles. But careful thought indicated that it couldn't be so or the UK would have been the reigning champions for at least the last 10 years.
No. Despite all the odds it seems that the childhood game of marbles is, in fact, an international sport. Read
here.
Now clearly my laziness for anything that has sport in the title also extends to games that I wouldn't class as a sport. I have not heard of marbles since I left school and for some reason my son didn't seem to play during his time at school either. I just assumed it was banned due to health and safety rules or that it was too competitive or something. After all flicking a glass ball around sounds dangerous to me. Almost as bad as conkers. Makes you wonder if people care about their kids any more.
Anyway, I was intrigued by this titbit contained in the report. Tinsley Green, near Crawley, is reputed to be the scene of an epic marbles battle in Elizabethan times over the hand of a local maiden.
Now doesn't that get the blood roaring? Helen of Troy had a 1,000 ship army sent for her fair hand and thousands died during that campaign and an entire civilisation changed. We Brits have a game of marbles over our fair maidens. Kind of puts us into our place doesn't it and make you reconsider our understanding of the words epic and battle.
One question I still have though. When is the film coming out? I suggest the working title is 'The Maiden and the Men with the Glass Balls' or something. I bet the scriptwriters are working flat out on this. Imagine the suspense. A six foot six heavily muscled guy with a sword bigger than the average person and over a thousand recognised kills fighting with marbles against the five foot two town nerd over the hand of the fair maiden. ie. Not the town bike. It's all down to the wire and the last game has it all. It's an epic battle all right. I can hardly wait.
Politicians breaking the laws again.
It seems Cameron has been recorded breaking some laws whilst on his bike. Read
here.
Of course there are some plonkers who defend his action. But what would have happened if someone on a car had hit him travelling the wrong way up a one way street? We all know they would have been punished and a claim made against them.
For a point of reference any time a politician breaks a law and it is defended by a third party. That third party is a plonker. No matter how stupid the law is. The reason is that as a politicians he is one of the people that put our laws in place. If they are not be to obeyed by him but he expects the rest of the country to do so then he is a hypocrite.
So, Dave Cameron, hard working machine operator, is nicked for these things. Bag says 'Jeez, have the coppers not got anything else to do?'
David Cameron, pretentious git and current leader of the useless tories, is reported for these things. Bag says 'Well! Why are we not prosecuting him? He clearly has broken the law.'
Now I don't see this as me being being hypocritical. Simply because it is David Cameron, the useless one not the gainfully employed one, who was involved in the law making process and yet does not support it whilst Dave Cameron, has it forced upon him.
Glad we got my bias out of the way. So when can we expect plod to be round with a notice of intended prosecution for David?
Another reason to avoid London.
Reading this about how risks are now commonplace in Heathrow made me wonder what is it going to be like when the new terminal comes to full capacity? From what I have read it is bad enough now. Read
here.
Now I avoid London like the plague atm. It's expensive to move around despite the *cough* tube subsidy and our
tax congestion charges. It's full of politicians and civil servants as well. So despite jobs paying so much more it's actually cost effective to live in a civilised part of the country. So why I don't move there I don't know.
Anyway, this is another reason why to avoid London and one that has the potential to change a lot of lives very quickly. It's difficult to believe that procedures put in place decades ago can be ignored because of convenience. This report shows how easy it is for human lives to be risked for money. It makes me wonder how much more of this will take place before the dice rolls snake eyes and people die. Of course then it will be human error and no one will be charged. Personally after this report if anything happens, even near misses, lots of someones should spend time inside.
Although I wonder how Manchester Airport would fair if a review was performed there.
Sometimes it's best not to ask.
Bush hails victory.... again.
I have this funny feeling. It's called Deja vu. Something about an aircraft carrier and a flight suit.
Read
here as Bush declares victory in Iraq. For the second time this decade.
Does that mean we have beaten the terrorists and now don't have to put up with all those liberty reducing schemes? I'm beginning to lose track.
I knew that paperwork was king in the police.
Well it seems that rather than have our police spending too much time off the street and doing paperwork Humberside police have decided to go for the cheaper option. Getting rid of 13.5% of the police, an expensive resource, and replacing them with a bunch of office based paper pushers instead. Read
here.
First I was a bit shocked as this must have an impact on crime. Less coppers would equal more crime but then the reality set in. These coppers were for all intent and purpose already off the streets. It's just a way to save on their wages. I would suspect that it's impact on crime would be negligible.
Kind of makes a mockery of the official statements though that more police are on the streets and how this government is tough on crime. Crime rates are rocketing yet we are spending more time on processing paperwork rather than getting out there and stopping the criminals.
Still, a bit of a statement when coppers are sacked though. I wonder if any high ranking coppers will take the fall as well? Smaller organisation must mean we need less management. No? I didn't think so.
Why do we still fund the Police indirectly?
I was reading this latest article about the police getting stuck into removing all our rights and freedoms. Read
here about the latest plan for a DNA DB of our children as an example. Now I don't want to go on about this as several, more literate bloggers such as
Longrider and
Mr E, have already done so.
As our police are no longer even interested in chasing burglars and car thieves, unless they speed away of course, but instead put their might behind creating new, easier, work for themselves such as using SO19 to raid a classroom for some kid that may in the future be a speeding driver and forcibly take his DNA then why am I still paying for these useless gits in my council tax? I just got this years council tax through and plain as day it says police, significantly more than those nice fireman, and the firemen come when I want and don't terrorise me every time I am out of the house.
Why can't we fund the police from the fines they get back from speeding, parking and even the more heinous throwing a apple core out of a car? Why do we have to fund them indirectly when in reality we no longer get a service from them at all?
And if we accept that we don't actually get a service from them at all then why is it that they have the privileged position of being the only providers of serf persecution. We could have several companies driving the streets with their centrally validated cameras and providing more jobs. Councils would then have several competing companies to subcontract the DNA removal of any schoolchildren and, if fact, all types of serf persecution could be handled the same way. It would also be self funding. We could reduce our council tax and put the costs where they belong with the
motorists sorry criminals.
Now, I hear you say, what about things like murders, GBH and assaults? Well, I had thought of that. By putting a levy on the suppliers we have just created we can fund that from there. Then our only real police services can be handled that way and funded by real criminals and not just the public at large. Our insurance numbers can be created by a web site specifically designed for that purpose and that covers the other 75% of modern policing. Perfect.
Family friendly.
Family friendly. Another sound bite by that useless git Cameron. Read
here.
Only problem is that following in the footsteps of our current bunch of useless gits it seems that Cameron is also following the totalitarian route.
First of all by giving parents 12 months off work to be shared between a mum, usually not working, and a dad, if you know who he is, who can now claim a year off. Real business friendly that.
Then on to the exploitation of children by retailers. In real terms selling things that kids pressure their parents to buy and because mum and dad don't want to be the bad guys our government is going to force retailers to stop. What about those that actually want that crap?
Not content to just telling retailers they are also going to force the media to kowtow to their family friendly agenda by forcing legislation on to them on what they say and print.
What is going on? No wonder he is not building up the sort of lead against the biggest lame duck government in history and that is saying something. Even Stalin, Pol Pot, Hitler and Mugabe was/is better loved than this lot.
I'm sure that Gordo and Cameron must get together to have a good laugh at this two party system that we laughingly call politics in the UK. Hope they make the most of it because many people are getting fed up.
A very informative business trip.
Just got back from a business trip to Germany and Switzerland and very interesting it was.
First of all on the way out I had to be at Manchester Airport over a hour before the flight because of the security checks. The checks that had me taking off my shoes, not being able to carry a drink and a snack whilst I waited in the terminal. There was even a special look reserved for my textbook on computer security and encryption. However it went quite smoothly and the trip out was relatively uneventful although I think under ideal weather conditions I may have been able to drive in the time it took me to complete the trip.
I arrived in Zurich and what a difference. Walked straight through customs with just a quick scan of my passport. People were all cheerful and everything was delivered efficiently and I was off my flight and out of the airport in 20 minutes and most of that was the bus between the plane and the terminal.
I met up with the rest of the group, they left from Heathrow, at the hotel and our host decided that we should go for a meal in Germany as his favourite restaurant was there. So we all packed up and went to get our passports.
So there we are, a car full of Brits and one Swiss, heading a few miles to the border and as we turn up the German border guard just glanced into the car and to all our surprise, although not our hosts, we were waved through. The car never even dropped below 10mpg, or 12kph or something. We all looked at each other and laughed. Well it's because it's from Switzerland and going to the EU we guessed as we were just lucky.
Well a little later we ended up in a town with a name I can't even pronounce and at an Italian restaurant called Pinocchio after the character. Just like restaurants all over the world it was pleasant and the staff made us all very welcome. We met up with two American colleagues and two Germans who had also arrived for the meeting and were already there waiting due to the miracles of modern technology, cars and mobiles.
The restaurant had two menus one in foreign and one in English for the ignorant Brits and Yanks. The service and meal was excellent although the guy serving us was nowhere near as nice looking as Ruthie. We mainly discussed the Swiss/German way of life and the differences between all our countries. I was surprised to find that although the EU is unliked over there as well it's not with the same intensity as it is over here. Or maybe I just hang out at the wrong places. There are many EU laws that are just ignored in Germany where we seem to get fined for them all. I also learnt a few things about the American way and some of their tax rules.
Then when we had finished and the bill was being paid. I didn't hear what it was in Euros but it came to about £25 each which was extremely good value for money. A good meal and some drinks. Then while the bill was being presented the manager, I think, came around and poured us all a generous shot of Grappa each just as a taster. Our host and one of the Germans declined as they were driving but everyone else gave it a shot and boy now I know why I don't drink it tasted awful. Although everyone else commented on how good it was. Smooth was how it was described although I thought I had just swallowed battery acid. I had one small sip and needed to wash it down with a gallon of apple juice. All gratis as the bill had been totalled and, for the Germans, a generous tip left. Another culture shock. In the US the tipping seems to be between 10% and 20%, with 10% being standard, the base, 15% for good service and 20% for exceptional. One of the many things I learnt from
Ruthie. In Europe tips are much lower, between 2 and 3% according to our host. As the CIO was an American and he was picking up the tab for us all he left a 20% tip. I bet they remember his face next time he is in.
On the way back to Switzerland as we came to the border another cursory look and we were through again. Again we didn't even stop. Where was all this security like we have in the UK and the US, why were we not scanned and catalogued like the serfs we are? Jeez, if suspicious looking characters like my colleagues don't get strip searched then what is the point of having border guards at all?
The next day I was up bright and early to a nice view across one of Switzerland's 23 billion lakes and as I had spent the night in a very luxurious room I was expecting the bill to be high. I had a few phone calls as well so when the bill was shown it said 120 and I thought that was cheap. Then it hit me, it was in Swiss Francs. So was actually about £50 and that included phone calls to the UK and Germany. I don't think I can find any hotels in the UK for that even the ones that are smaller than a shoe box.
So off to the meeting we went. The roads were very good. People let us in when we indicated and gave way when it was needed and all in all it was all very civilised. The only speed camera we had spotted the whole trip was as we were leaving Zurich airport and, this was also like the UK, we didn't see one copper on the roads.
The meeting took place at the factory which was in a small town. They make armoured vehicles there. It was unusual in that the factory had expanded to the other side of the main road and whilst I was there I watched forklift trucks and armoured vehicles appear at one side of the street and then cross the road to the other for additional work. People in cars slowed and let them cross the main road and nobody seemed fazed to see heavy machine guns and several tons of armoured vehicles travelling the main roads with them. The testing tracks were several miles away and they just drove there. Can you imagine that in the UK? I was asked did I want a drive? How much time did I have? Sadly not enough so I had to decline.
At one point two light aircraft flew overhead and I don't know the height but they looked like they were just over double the height of the roof. Apparently the third richest Swiss liked planes and lived nearby. The whole situation was surreal. It was like living in another country. Oh wait! Another time anyway.
After our meeting and after a tour of the factory it was time to go. I was a bit apprehensive because I couldn't get a direct flight back and had to fly to Munich first and then on to Manchester whilst my colleagues had a flight half an hour later direct to Heathrow. Before we knew it I was behind schedule and would arrive as the boarding call was made. I had visions of missing my flight despite my hosts assurances it would be fine.
On arrival I abandoned the car for my colleagues to sort out and ran as fast as my chubby little legs would go. So a brisk walk then. Through security in a minute with no hassle, no strip, no shoes off, and got there just as they called for the plane to board. Waited for the bus to take us out and there I was on the plane for the flight. No problems whatsoever. Had to wait 40 mins at Munich for the next leg to Manchester but again absolutely no hassle and the flight was uneventful. Actually sat next to someone from one of our competitors and we swapped stories for the latter half of the flight. Then we arrived at Manchester Airport.
Bam! Straight off the plane into a queue for passport control. Surrounded by 1 million signs that warned about abuse against staff. It hit home that I had not seen that in any of the other places I had been and yet it is a common sign in the UK. The British have always had a tradition of being aloof and yet two other countries did not see the need at all anywhere to tell people to behave. I wonder why we get driven to the state where we are violent to the poor front line staff? After 30 minutes I got near the end and out of the 10 or so slots only two were active for UK and EU passengers and one for non EU where a Chinese lady was arguing with one of our KGB type immigration officers over an anomaly in her application. And there I thought that the Orientals were inscrutable. Her annoyance at the system was apparent to about 100+ people who had nothing else to do but listen to the exchange while we queued at Her Majesty's pleasure and those useless immigration officers just chatted. 10 minutes later I waved my passport to a nice looking KGB lady who waved me through and out the door. Processing time 30 seconds queuing time 45 minutes. I've had flights less than that.
All and all a good trip but all the bad parts of it were in the UK. Funny that.
So here we are implementing security procedures, id cards and a million and one KGB style security procedures and I understand from my American colleagues the US is doing exactly the same and yet the rest of the world seems to be happy with security as it was pre 911. Why is it that we are implementing this oppressive system based on a worldwide threat that seems to only cover the UK and the US strangely enough the main two who were involved in arranging Iraqi freedom. Although we have been told that it is not linked in any way and far be it from me to question our lords and masters.
From what I understand it is only going to get worse for us as well. Although I now see Switzerland is a good place to escape to.
The laughter curve.
Via the Englishman I
read about the second time I have seen us hit the Laffer curve in the last month. Considering that this curve has been denied for so long is it not strange that we are in so bad a state that we are now hitting it, to my knowledge, for the second time.
The wheels really are coming off the wagon. I am in stitches. It could not be happening to a better bunch and I can't wait for the next one. Obviously we as a people are tightening our belts and the tax take is already at maximum regardless on how much these people are fiddling at the edges and trying to catch more in the net.
That is why the budget was pretty boring really. The usual tax increase on the drinkers, smokers and drivers because they have the cash and little else. Anything else brings people into the position of being better off on the dole and if that happens much more then the tipping point would be reached for the whole economy. Gordo may be stupid but he still has animal cunning.
The sooner that the whole lot crumbles and the whole situation is made clear the better. After the bad weather the crows will need some carrion to feed on.
This look ominous for Iran.
The commander of US forces in the middle east, Admiral William Fallon is retiring from his post early due to differences on the way to handle Iran between himself and politicians. Read
here.
He does not want to use force and therefore we must assume the politicians do.
There could be a multitude of reasons behind this. He might be OK with an attack but think the US is overstretched and they will likely go in alone this time. Gordo only has the catering corp left and they are on a campaign with Jamie Oliver. He might even think the attack could unite the middle east. If I was the Iranians I would be discussing united terrorist attacks on the US with others in the area such as Syria, Libya etc. under the understanding that after Iran they would be next. Everyone loves a common enemy. Perhaps we will never know what caused his decision.
My thought was that this time congress will not be so open to listening to a tissue of lies and there will no report off British intelligence this time. US intelligence has already said they see no threat so it will be on the politicians say so. So Bush must be expecting an attack that he can blame on Iran and start his retaliatory attack without the approval of congress. I can't see the Iranians being so stupid but there must be ways to push them into a corner.
BTW how many commanders do the US have in this area? Every few months we read about the US commander in the area and it's always a different name. Do they normally change so often or are they commanders of different things?
An attack on Iran is not going to be good for anyone even if it goes a lot more smoothly than Iraq and we don't even have a valid exit plan for that yet. Perhaps they are just working on the assumption now that eventually there will be no one left and therefore after the last Iraqi dies they just move in. I suppose in a way that is a plan and even better it will work for Iran too. After all they are almost the same Iraq, Iran just run through the document and replace the 'q' with an 'n'.
Nothing in his world is so bad that politicians can't make it worse.
Explain how this works.
First of all we are sending a gay Iranian home when we know he will be executed because he is gay. Read
here.
Yes we can't send criminals back because they may be tortured or killed. Read
here.
What is it with our Home Office? Do they not have any common sense or compassion at all. We keep the dregs of the world and kick out the people who would fit in. So by the time we are finished only the scum of the world will be left.
Nothing in his world is so bad that politicians can't make it worse.
We go back a few centuries.
It seems like we not only need to be our earning a few bob to keep our heads above water but now also have to look at growing our own staples. Suggestion
here is we grow our own wheat to make bread and, I assume, our digestive biscuits.
After all now we have plenty of spare time and this will undoubtedly save the planet.
Only thing though. I'm going to make fuel with my crop. From what I can gather I can make about 6.8kg of flour which means I'll make enough fuel to make it to the end of the street.
Don't laugh. In a few years that will make me one of the special people. Everyone else will have a donkey or something until they work out how much CO2 donkey waste makes.
More gesture politics.
It seems Darling is going to be targeting high CO2 generating cars in the next budget. Read
here.
Of course we don't know what that means but it usually involves more money into the treasury on road tax.
Years ago I used to think that these guys just don't get it. Another £100 on the rip off that is road tax for high performance cars is meaningless. When I had my BMW 535, best car I ever had btw, I was paying £250 per tyre for new tyres. £300 for a full service and a fortune every week on juice to keep it going. An extra £100 or so was insignificant in the yearly costs of the thing.
Now of course I am more realistic. I know that it is a way to increase taxes without too many complaints. the users will just pay up and the rest of the population will agree it is a job well done.
So now as well as the road tax in their search for more funds they are now looking at a purchase tax. So an extra £2K on a £60K car is going to make how much difference again? Of course it won't. It'll be paid. the plebs will be happy that the guvmint is doing something to these selfish drivers and nobody will really complain.
Expect big increases in booze and cancer sticks as well as car users. So business as usual then in this budget.
Time for a change. Nope, not these..
Just looking through the news and I notice that the Lib Dems seem to be coming out with lots of new policies like
this on a tax reduction for juice,
this on protests over the state of politics and
this on health plans all in the last few days.
The new leader, Glecc or something, seems to be working hard on making quite a few policies and making a stand which is good but does anyone ever see the Lib Dems getting anywhere near being the shadow government never mind the real one.
Does anyone actually know anyone who has voted for these people? People seem too embarrassed to actually admit they vote for the Lib Dems yet people admit they voted labour. I'm trying to work out if that makes them smarter or dumber.
Anyway I watch all this activity and looking at the proposals it is clear that despite having a proactive leader only idiots would vote for them with those policies and all the idiots are currently voting for labour. So what is the point of the all this work, sorry, maybe the question should be what us the point of the Lib Dems?
Well, I was thinking maybe they are actually there just to provide a distraction from the two main parties at key times. To provide an alternative from the two main parties to soak up the protest voters and keep them away from other viable parties. It's the only thing I can think of as clearly they are certainly not a viable government nor by the looks of things will they ever be.
I think this new
Libertarian party is still worth a look though. With the current disgust over our political class then maybe now is the time. I hope so.
It is never acceptable to discipline children. unless...
Well, I think we all know the answer there. It's perfectly acceptable when you work for the state.
Read
here about the abuse of power perpetrated on our children. The same children by the way that are out of control because we are not allowed to discipline them by orders of the state. Our children wouldn't need to be under threat of death in the 'safe' care of our unaccountable state if we were allowed to discipline them reasonably without some state goon with 20/20 hindsight ticking a checklist every time we raised our hand.
I'm sure there were very few people restraining kids to the extent these people do before our nanny state stuck it's beak in and I'm still fairly sure like everything else they have tried to do that kids who were restrained like this by their parents still are being restrained. Obviously they are still better at it than the state as it's been a while since I've read about this in the papers outside state sanctioned deaths.
Can they do anything right?
Sounds like a cover up.
It seems that JD Wetherspoon'ss profits dropped 13% this year. How sad. Read
here for the full story.
Now correct me if I am wrong but I seem to remember that JD Wetherspoons actually banned smoking in their pubs before the rest of the UK and, in fact, publicly supported the smoking ban by our soviet style government. At the time it seemed profits dipped then as well but they assumed that when the rest of the UK was made smoke free their brave decision would work out well. Read
here. I must assume from this latest report that things have got worse for them. Hahahahaaha. It's so difficult to feel sympathy.
Or is it the case that the same people that banned smoking while pubs were full of smokers also screwed up in other ways? Could the loses be due to other decisions and just being blamed on the smoking ban to blend in with the others and as a way to protect some clowns in the boardroom?
regardless though, I think that after this that the shareholders should be looking at sacking all the directors who volunteered ahead of legislation for a smoking ban and who cost them so much money.
Think what these idiots will get up to next with the proposals being bandied about to fix our booze culture if they are left in place.
I think I may diversify into brewing booze. Big potential market there.
This takes some cojones.
For MPs to criticise a third party for bonuses just takes the biscuit. Read
here. Although I do think that their criticism is justified I think that coming from them it's too much like jumping on the bandwagon and getting their faces in the papers.
Don't these people have access to facilities that can spell out the meaning of hypocrite?
No prosecution for Wendy.
Now it looks like Wendy Alexander has
gotten away with it no case to answer for her undeclared donors. Read
here.
It's only fair. Blair didn't have to pay for his crimes, Hain seems covered for his and the MEPs are covering up theirs so I don't understand why we should consider throwing poor Wendy to the wolves. Her crimes, in this case, are insignificant to what these others got away with. Blair in particular.
Next think you know we will be looking at holding our little darlings liable for the promises they make at election time. Brown got away with it in his own courts. Let's see how well they do when the law is not bent as much as they are.
The topic of conversation today was the result of the EU referendum voting. OK, we still had a couple of people saying that was what we paid MPs to do for us but by far the majority including people who are labour supporters were annoyed about the decision. Laughably I think there were more than a few who wouldn't have voted yet they were upset about losing the chance to ignore the voting. Some people.
The temperature in the pot just went up a few more degrees the more volatile among us can't be far from bubbling. Although to be honest I have thought this before but we must be higher up the mountain than I think as the pressure is so low.
Wait till the labour recession hits and see if that makes a difference.
Let us pray.
Well it seems that our traitors in the government have won the right to be the only ones to decide about the
ConstitutionLisbon Treaty. Despite there being widespread calls for a referendum from the public. Read
here. Although in reality this is going to be the same vote. After all, all those that voted to deprive us of a vote only did so because they didn't want us voting against it. So that it is clearly going to be passed by a similar margin. What a bunch we have as our political class. Some democracy this is.
Now I would imagine this will not go down well for the May elections but what do this lot care? The local council elections have often been seen as a popularity contest anyway and Gordo and his band of traitors will have done the deed before they are up for election again. In addition the UK general public are so stupid that by the time we get around to voting for them there will still be areas that will still vote these guys in.
I can only say to the people that votes these clowns in that I wish you would shut up about how much tax you pay and how difficult it is to live nowadays. The cost of fuel, council tax and everyday living expenses. This is your fault. This is what you wanted. You voted them in and now we are all paying.
Now as far as I can see the only option now is to try and replace enough of the traitors with politicians with a backbone. We know who they are. Now I know that is a tall order but if some of them accidentally died then they would need an election to replace them. Although thinking about it we probably couldn't find enough politicians with backbones to fill one of those Smart Cars. What we need is younger politicians who actually might believe that the voters would remember what they voted for and actually don't want to jeopardise a career.
So I propose that we all put our hands together and pray that every one of those who voted that the general public do not have a vote of the
ConstitutionLisbon Treaty die painfully but quickly of some horrific disease and that they catch MRSA if they go near a NHS hospital. That would be a fitting end.
Now I've tested this praying theory before and it didn't work. Blair is still alive. But from what I can see there should be more of us praying for this. Even some of the dozy labour supporters want a referendum. So with all the +ve thinking going into this maybe some all powerful being will come along and do something because of the strength of feeling which will permeate the void for several million parsecs.
Investment opportunities.
Well, I've been spending the last few days trying to work out a way of making money in the UK.
So far I've failed miserably. Everything I think of seems to require so much time and effort most of which is wasted on red tape and rule following so that the little money that is made is eaten up in taxes. So I can't think of anything where I can make a good ROI unless it is illegal, such as drugs, counterfeit goods, gun running, kidnapping or assassination where there seems to be little red tape for some reason.
I did think of going into politics and fiddling expenses etc. but even when I was thinking like a criminal I still have morals so politics is worse than gun running and drugs.
So the dilemma I have is what activity is best? Drugs, guns, porn, counterfeit, kidnapping? or is there anything else? Is there even something legal out there? Politics is out though. I do have limits.
This is a corker of a policy.
Via DK. It seems the Libertarian Party have come out with a corker for their 1st main policy. Read
here.
I like the sound of it already and can't wait for the next one.
To be honest I had never heard of a no income tax policy until last week when I was talking to an American talking about Texas have a 0% income tax policy compared to California's 10%. Now I understand Texas is Republican and California is Democrat so maybe that also links the ideals of the Tories and Labour in a nutshell.
So a party worth looking out for when the electorate finally get fed up of our three part/one policy really system of *cough* democracy.
Politicians are so much like children.
When my kids were younger they used to get involved with arguments with other kids. This was before the days SO19 got involved in playground squabbles though so we were able to keep the kids from having criminal records. However it was not easy. The wife, at the time, was all for going round to Johnny's house and giving his parents a piece of her mind. (At the time that was dangerous. She didn't have much to spare and I thought it may impact on her autonomic nervous system. Such is life.)
I have always been of the believe that unless the incident was so bad that it necessitated adult intervention then best left for the kids to sort out with advice if necessary. The reason being is that experience showed the adults argued, fell out and the next day the kids were best friends again but the adults were not. Sometimes for years. Everyone thinks their kid is an angel.
Now it seems that it's pretty much the same with politics. I see
this being that start of a middle east summit where many countries band together and set up their own MEU (Middle east Union) based around the EU model but based on a Caliphate ideal and not socialism. That won't be good for the West but at the moment tribalism is preventing it. With the thoughts of Iraq in everyone in the ME I wonder if unwittingly we have provided the incentive for this to start with our threats against Iran.
The good news it will be a while before the countries agree on the power structure. The bad news is that already Imams have powers in other countries so they seem to be the ones who could take the lead. That also is not good. We already know how these religious fanatics think.
Time to give the nukes a little polish and check they are all tickity boom. Sorry, tickity boo.
In defence of nurses.
Reading this
article where Lord Mancroft said: "The nurses who looked after me were mostly grubby - we are talking about dirty fingernails and hair - and were slipshod and lazy. Worst of all, they were drunken and promiscuous."
He clearly needs his head examined. OK, Ok, it is true that standards have slipped all over the UK and nurses are no exception. I can accept they are grubby with habits common to many in modern britain. However I see a lot of that being due to the state of the nation caused by useless politicians like Mancroft himself. It was OK whilst it was the general public being treated this way but to have one of our glorious leaders in, god forbid, the wrong hospital and not being treated correctly it is suddenly a big scandal. It's about time someone raised the profile.
But I must protest about the worst was being drunken and promiscuous. Even when the health service was working normally and actually healing people our nurses have always had the reputation of being drunken and promiscuous. Why do you think the sight of a uniform turns so many men on? It's our nurses leading the way in being hot and available.
I actually went out with a nurse in the early 80's and very nice she was too. She was certainly not grubby nor were her colleagues. However every time I visited their sleeping accommodations there were always one or two others being sneaked in as well. It never impacted on their work and they actually healed people at less cost than now.
So Lord Mancroft. Please complain about the important things for a hospital such as cleanliness but leave our hot nurses alone. It's tradition.
The green religion in a nutshell.
Quote - 'This is unintentionally funny. A site based on the proposition that it's possible to model accurately a chaotic and half-understood system like the weather to the degree of accuracy necessary to attribute temperature changes of fractions of a degree over decades to a specific, human generated, cause had to adjust a line on a graph during the afternoon because the predictions of temperature, based on these models, for a very short and immediate time frame - one day, predicted a day in advance - were inaccurate.'
Read the whole thing
here at Freeborn John's. An excellent post that shows the folly of
global warming/cooling climate change.
