Yay.

Govt stop-and-search appeal rejected.

The European court of human rights has rejected an attempt by the UK government to appeal a jugdment over its stop-and-search powers.

The decision means that a January 2010 court judgement which found section 44 of the Terrorism Act to be illegal is final.

It remains to be seen if the coalition will the repeal the act, or if they see it as being quite handy to keep it on the books.

welfare - deforms

Welfare reform: who will suffer most?

Our research shows that bad jobs do not provide a sustainable route out of poverty and that it is not only benefit levels that put people below an acceptable standard of living.

Meanwhile there's plenty of talk of getting tough on claimants - promising moves to cut people's benefits if they refuse an offer of a job (except that's already the case - so they must be promising to do enough of this that it hits newspaper headlines which will no doubt please the Daily Mail and Express readers no end) and wed that to Iain Duncan Smith's bright idea to get people in Council Houses moving around the country to find jobs... and we can expect many a similar scenario in Job Centres up and down the land:

Advisor 'I see on the computer there's a minimum wage McJob going in Outer Bogend-NowhereVille ..."
Client: 'I don't want to move out there, all my family and friends are here, how will I find affordable childcare, my mum helps with that at the moment? and my kid's schooling and their friends?'

Advisor: 'Well - you've just refused the opportunity of a job. We'll have to cut your benefits now.'

Meanwhile - more job cuts are on their way.

Welfare cuts put added health strain on population

Which should be blindingly obvious - except I don't believe the Govt. -this new one or any other gives much of a damn.

A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said: "We are committed to reforming the welfare system to make work pay.

"We know that work itself is the best way out of poverty."

By which they mean cutting the already wholly inadequate and meagre welfare payments to the point where even a 50p a hour job might seem the better bet. They won't be raising minimum wage levels to actually liveable wage levels any time soon. People will be in work - but will be starving too.

Ahem. Work itself is not the best way out of poverty if it's only poverty wages - or if you're a single parent having to pay out child care fees - or whatever. Or if working that extra hour means you'll get your housing benefits or tax credits cut.

Grim fact - most of the poorest people in the UK are already in employment and not on any benefits...


BBC News - Welfare cuts put added health strain on population

65 - 66 - 70 - never.

Not so long ago I remember masses and masses of fuss being made by the chattering classes about 'the pensions timebomb' Apparently people simply weren't putting enough of their own money into private pension schemes - yadda yadda yadda (and most pension schemes depended on dodgy trading in stocks and shares a lot of which have probably since failed anyway. Plus a lot of people simply couldn't afford to put so much money into these schemes - not if they wanted to eat day to day.) so we were all going to retire into utter poverty - or something. Whizz fast forward to today and it looks like the Con-Dems have the perfect solution... they plan to rise and raise and raise the retirement age until no one (except the very rich, who can retire at 55 or whenever they damn well choose) has a pension any more. They'll just work until they drop dead. Problem solved.

Wha....?

I can't believe it. Did Cameron really use the phrase 'welfare scrounger' in a recent speech? Er, OK then - shouldn't we all now start saying 'fraudulent expense claimant' for those MPs who've been found out as such, and 'over-privileged multi-millionaire' for the rest of them - just so we know were we all stand with the name-calling.

There's been a couple of 'fox bites babies' stories lately (one. Two.) Mmmmm. Wonder how long it will take before we see calls for the return of fox-hunting? We already know the Tories are all for that and so is Nick Clegg (apparently the ban on fox hunting was one of the few things he was passionately against).

how does this add up?

Mark Ronson's Version. A few years old now - probably cost £14 when it was first out. Like all first release albums - (and knowing HMV if it isn't in one of their many sales - prob. still costs that) on Amazon uk - £4.93 - what's their download mpg version - oh. the same. Exactly the same. So despite the distinct lack of a physical disk, a jewel case and a nice printed cover - and the costs of post and packaging involved - it costs the same. Um. What does one of the 2nd hand discs cost? 91p... Um...er... this is the sort of nonsense they, the mostly tech/web ignorant never even touched upon when they were pushing through the digital rights bill thingy earlier this year.

US unemployment

USA:

Huffington Post:
Long term unemployed at 46% - the highest ever on record.

But if you're looking for a job: 'The unemployed will not be considered'.

Yup. Same thing here - with yet no one admitting that there are far more people than there are jobs - that's when what jobs there are don't go to migrants.

That ol' capitalist system is falling apart at the seams - no one's 'fesin' up to that either - everyone's scrambling to keep the show going for the want of anything better.

So Inception...

this is sort of 'The Matrix' but without any of the Artificial Intelligent software and robots all out to kill the techno Ravers/hippies then?

Stop and search used illegally against thousands

But is an apology enough? i mean when anyone else does something illegal and they get caught - there's usually a fine or a spell in jail... mmmmm? here they're not getting so much as a slap on the wrist. I can't help but think that having to pay out some compensation might get them thinking about so eagerly over stepping the mark next time.

And if the plans for ID cards had gone ahead can you see how the police and any jumped up petty official would have loved to have gone around demanding to see your card at every turn?

Stop and search used illegally against thousands | Law | guardian.co.uk

'Go for the Jugular'

The collapse of Greece's economy, and its domino effect on Spain, Portugal, and other countries in the euro currency zone, is in many ways a replay of an earlier financial crisis--the break-up of the continent's Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992. Then, as now, Europe's policymakers showed little patience with--or understanding of--markets. Then, as now, Germany often seemed contemptuous of the less competitive economies on the periphery of Europe.

The 1992 crisis came to a head on Friday September 9, when currency speculators forced the devaluation of the Italian lira. By the following Tuesday, Britain was facing the same fate.

And the UK Governments have been running scared of the Markets ever since...

We truly do live in a mad world.

spongeBob designs

a photoset on that flickr