Richard confuses me. Right-wing gayers always do though.
Richard Fairbrass (RFairbrass) on Twitter
UK economic growth overshadowed by US data - Channel 4 News
Perhaps one day the UK Government (it doesn't matter which party) will wake up and stop trying to be the unofficial 52nd State of America and start to act independently and do things that aren't just blind copying of whatever America is doing... because that why we keep getting into the exact same messes -over and over again.
So many other European Countries haven't got themselves into a big a pickle as the UK repeatedly has -funny that.
UK economic growth overshadowed by US data - Channel 4 News
So many other European Countries haven't got themselves into a big a pickle as the UK repeatedly has -funny that.
UK economic growth overshadowed by US data - Channel 4 News
Time to admit budget hits the poor the hardest?
Channel 4's Faisal Islam's blog on economics:
Time to admit budget hits the poor the hardest?
Yeah - I left a comment. I'm posting that full comment here - because 1. there's no guarantee it'll get posted. 2. I ran out of words.
I could add that -apparently the only alternative to this is a couple of brothers - neither of which have had any 'real' jobs outside of politics...
This worries me a lot - because we now have an entrenched bunch of career politicians - people who will sing any tune they are told to by anyone who waves a hefty party donation their way...
This isn't what democracy is supposed to be about. Is it?
Time to admit budget hits the poor the hardest?
Yeah - I left a comment. I'm posting that full comment here - because 1. there's no guarantee it'll get posted. 2. I ran out of words.
I always get annoyed when I hear people talk of the mess Blair/Brown got the economy into - because it blatantly flies in the face of the facts that New Labour were only continuing down the path set out by Thatcher and Major before them, one of privatisation, and various part-state part-privation schemes- of the ever increasing deregulation of the banks & financial sector, the encouragement of unfettered globalisation, allowing uncontrolled immigration of European workers and introducing pointless 'competition' into the public sector (hospital against hospital, school against school etc.) We're now reaping the results of all these misguided ideas - and yet the only way forward seems to be to make the poorest of our society suffer even more deprivations - so we can eventually, hopefully crawl back up onto the very same path that caused so much trouble in the first place...
We're suffering from a severe lack of real political vision and ideas in this country (actually there only seems to ever be one idea – 'what are the Americans doing? Oh – let's do that then.') But then we've now governed by a PM whose only real job was in PR (and to think how New Labour was lambasted over it's over-reliance on spin-doctors. Now we have a spin doctor for PM) a Chancellor who knows more about English literature than he does about economics and a whole Lib-Dem party that are acting like deer-in-headlights – still so incredulous at their luck that they're on the other side of the house for the first time in decades that all they can currently do is mouth apologises for the Tory cuts - having totally abandoned absolutely everything they were supposed to stand for in their election manifesto.
I could add that -apparently the only alternative to this is a couple of brothers - neither of which have had any 'real' jobs outside of politics...
This worries me a lot - because we now have an entrenched bunch of career politicians - people who will sing any tune they are told to by anyone who waves a hefty party donation their way...
This isn't what democracy is supposed to be about. Is it?
Clegg rejects budget 'poorest pay most' claims
Clegg rejects budget 'poorest pay most' claims - Channel 4 News
He then went onto to dismiss claims that black is black and white is white - and later knocked over a pedestrian on a zebra crossing when driving home.
He then went onto to dismiss claims that black is black and white is white - and later knocked over a pedestrian on a zebra crossing when driving home.
David Rowland: red faces at Tory HQ as next treasurer quits | Politics | The Guardian
Mmmm interesting...
one multi-millionaire down - how many more to go?
Seriously - it does piss me off all this talk of austerity Britain coming out of millionaire MPs mouths.
'We're all in it together' - yeah right.
David Rowland: red faces at Tory HQ as next treasurer quits | Politics | The Guardian
one multi-millionaire down - how many more to go?
Seriously - it does piss me off all this talk of austerity Britain coming out of millionaire MPs mouths.
'We're all in it together' - yeah right.
David Rowland: red faces at Tory HQ as next treasurer quits | Politics | The Guardian
We Killed The Goose
This sounds depressingly familiar - the UK has been blindly copying everything the US has been doing for decades - and so we end up with the exact same problems. Do we learn from this mistake? Hell, no, we just copy the same solutions that America tries - and which don't work.
We Killed The Goose That Laid The Golden Egg And Now The Number Of Americans Receiving Long-Term Unemployment Benefits Has Risen A Whopping 60 Percent In Just One Year
We Killed The Goose That Laid The Golden Egg And Now The Number Of Americans Receiving Long-Term Unemployment Benefits Has Risen A Whopping 60 Percent In Just One Year
100 days
100 facts about the coalition's first 100 days
Social cleansing.
This article goes on about expensive central London rents -while ignoring that this applies everywhere in the country. The completely arbitrary and totally unfair decision to cut housing benefit by 10% after someone has been unemployed for a year - by which point someone's resources (if they have any) will be completely depleted will cause a lot of hardship - if not homelessness - people forget it actually costs a lot money to move, there's removal costs, the deposit for new flats, etc. Where's that money going to come from? Not to mention the social cost if you end up moving away from your network of family and friends. Housing policy in general in this country is a disgrace - for many reasons.
Clegg turning his back on the very people who voted him into power - the Forgemasters loan fiasco.
I'm keeping a countdown to when we get our first riots. Any Tory Govt. isn't happy until things end with riots in the streets.
Social cleansing.
This article goes on about expensive central London rents -while ignoring that this applies everywhere in the country. The completely arbitrary and totally unfair decision to cut housing benefit by 10% after someone has been unemployed for a year - by which point someone's resources (if they have any) will be completely depleted will cause a lot of hardship - if not homelessness - people forget it actually costs a lot money to move, there's removal costs, the deposit for new flats, etc. Where's that money going to come from? Not to mention the social cost if you end up moving away from your network of family and friends. Housing policy in general in this country is a disgrace - for many reasons.
Clegg turning his back on the very people who voted him into power - the Forgemasters loan fiasco.
I'm keeping a countdown to when we get our first riots. Any Tory Govt. isn't happy until things end with riots in the streets.
Under Surveillance free comic book
With Cameron giving the go ahead to start using private companies to go data mining on the UK's citizens, just in case they're claiming benefits they're not entitled to (oh, the irony) - here's the EU who are educating young people about the dangers of the increasing Surveillance Society. Odd that.
Comic Book - Under Surveillance | EDRI
Comic Book - Under Surveillance | EDRI
Blunkett joins the Tories...
this comes as no surprise to me...
David Blunkett set to join Tory war on dole cheats
I could never see what he was doing in the Labour party anyway... maybe he signed the wrong party membership papers by mistake?
See how there's now a steady constant drip-drip-drip of mentions by the media of tackling 'dole cheats' and 'scroungers'. Soon to make a claim for anything no matter how legitimately - you're going to be branded as that.
Yet mentions of how they hope to create more of these jobs that they're expecting these unemployed to be going off benefits to fill - well, you'd have a hard time finding any. Funny that. What with the two having to go together - being basic common sense. Mmmmm.
David Blunkett set to join Tory war on dole cheats
I could never see what he was doing in the Labour party anyway... maybe he signed the wrong party membership papers by mistake?
See how there's now a steady constant drip-drip-drip of mentions by the media of tackling 'dole cheats' and 'scroungers'. Soon to make a claim for anything no matter how legitimately - you're going to be branded as that.
Yet mentions of how they hope to create more of these jobs that they're expecting these unemployed to be going off benefits to fill - well, you'd have a hard time finding any. Funny that. What with the two having to go together - being basic common sense. Mmmmm.
Where’s the benefit...
Where’s the benefit in private sector chasing welfare cheats?
Where's the benefit? -well, for one it whips up support (hysteric support at that) from those core Tory voters the Daily Mail and Telegraph readers. It divides the people into squabbling amongst themselves - when in fact both are victims of the current system, and distracts them from identifying the real culprits as to why we are in this mess. (Clue: it isn't the long term unemployed people's fault.)
And it lies some groundwork for a privatised surveillance society. I have no doubt that the Tories actually secretly liked the idea of the ID card/database system Labour was going to inflict upon us - but being the cheapskates they are - simply didn't want to spend the money on it - not when they could see there are existing companies that already hold a lot of that information over our heads. So why not co-opt them?
This is just the start of a thin wedge.
Where's the benefit? -well, for one it whips up support (hysteric support at that) from those core Tory voters the Daily Mail and Telegraph readers. It divides the people into squabbling amongst themselves - when in fact both are victims of the current system, and distracts them from identifying the real culprits as to why we are in this mess. (Clue: it isn't the long term unemployed people's fault.)
And it lies some groundwork for a privatised surveillance society. I have no doubt that the Tories actually secretly liked the idea of the ID card/database system Labour was going to inflict upon us - but being the cheapskates they are - simply didn't want to spend the money on it - not when they could see there are existing companies that already hold a lot of that information over our heads. So why not co-opt them?
This is just the start of a thin wedge.
Britain looks into in-flight surveillance cameras - RT
So it's not enough that if you fly you have to undergo an electronic strip search - now they're planning to cctv you all the time you're on board?
If there were terrorist attacks every month or so - I might understand - but it gets more and more ridiculous. And at the end of the day it only really benefits the companies that are making all this spy equipment.
Britain looks into in-flight surveillance cameras - RT
If there were terrorist attacks every month or so - I might understand - but it gets more and more ridiculous. And at the end of the day it only really benefits the companies that are making all this spy equipment.
Britain looks into in-flight surveillance cameras - RT
big brother watch
Body scan images retained by the thousand.
Town asks 'volunteers' to man the CCTV room
"The kind of people who would want to spy on their neighbours are exactly the sort of people you don't want watching a town's CCTV network."
Town asks 'volunteers' to man the CCTV room
"The kind of people who would want to spy on their neighbours are exactly the sort of people you don't want watching a town's CCTV network."
jobs for the boys
Topshop chief Sir Philip Green to conduct review of coalition spending cuts. I thought it was bad enough when NuLabour brought in Alan 'you're fired' Sugar as an advisor - and when Mandelson was swanning around on various multi-millionaires' yachts.
Mobile disco: how phones make music inescapable
"I was recently at a friend's house with a number of young club music producers, including Ikonika and three DJs from Rinse FM, the UK's leading pirate station. Someone jokingly said 'let's make a tune', and this quickly devolved into the strangest jam session I've ever seen. DJ Bok Bok used an 808 drum application on his iPhone to lay down a beat, Ikonika and Optimum both used synthesiser applications on their phones to play keyboard melodies, Manara played and replayed a spoken-word 'sample' from a YouTube clip on her laptop, and Jam City played the cymbals on a £10 battery-powered 'finger drumkit'. So that's three mobile phones, a YouTube video, and a £10 toy as the tools for some of the most cutting-edge musicians in the country. Remarkably, it even sounded pretty good."
All so very 'Nathan Barley'.
All so very 'Nathan Barley'.
Homeless Poles living on barbecued rats and alcoholic handwash
WTF.
Homeless Poles living on barbecued rats and alcoholic handwash | UK news | The Guardian
But give it a year or two and their numbers will be swelled by a mass of new UK homeless folk. That'll be when people who've been unemployed for longer than year will get their Housing Benefit automatically cut by 10% - for no very good reason other than the Tories are complete c*nts and want to appease Daily Mail readers.
Homeless Poles living on barbecued rats and alcoholic handwash | UK news | The Guardian
But give it a year or two and their numbers will be swelled by a mass of new UK homeless folk. That'll be when people who've been unemployed for longer than year will get their Housing Benefit automatically cut by 10% - for no very good reason other than the Tories are complete c*nts and want to appease Daily Mail readers.
state sponsored snooping
Chris Grayling defends plan to use credit rating agencies to help catch benefit cheats.
No chance of using the same techniques to sniff out tax evaders? You know - given how much more tax revenue that will actually bring in?
Every week they come out with yet another plan that's targeted against the poorest and most vulnerable. [Share the pain? Haven't seen any signs of that.] No doubt when the removal of 10% worth of Housing Benefit kicks in for the long term unemployed - anyone who isn't made homeless or who hasn't starved to death after a month or two because they can't make their rent payments any more will be automatically deemed guilty of benefit fraud.
No chance of using the same techniques to sniff out tax evaders? You know - given how much more tax revenue that will actually bring in?
Every week they come out with yet another plan that's targeted against the poorest and most vulnerable. [Share the pain? Haven't seen any signs of that.] No doubt when the removal of 10% worth of Housing Benefit kicks in for the long term unemployed - anyone who isn't made homeless or who hasn't starved to death after a month or two because they can't make their rent payments any more will be automatically deemed guilty of benefit fraud.
Vince Cable: 'What we're managing is quite a difficult situation' | Politics | The Guardian
The risk of a double-dip recession remains, he acknowledges, very real – perhaps a little more so in his mind than the Treasury's. "As I recall," he says, "the government's own forecasting risk puts it at something like one in four, one in five." But asked for his own estimate, he says, "Well, you know, certainly well below 50-50," which sounds somewhat higher than one in five.
Vince Cable: 'What we're managing is quite a difficult situation' | Politics | The Guardian
whoever won the last election - the unemployed were set to lose whatever
Labour's plans in 2009:
Labour's latest attacks on unemployment and disability benefits.
The current coalition plans:
Hitting those on benefits hardest.
But never mind eh, at least the banks are now back in profit. That's THE important thing. Woooo!
Labour's latest attacks on unemployment and disability benefits.
The current coalition plans:
Hitting those on benefits hardest.
But never mind eh, at least the banks are now back in profit. That's THE important thing. Woooo!
Naked Body Scanners: Monumental Cover Up Exposed
"Declan McCullagh of CNET reports that “The U.S. Marshals Service admitted this week that it had surreptitiously saved tens of thousands of images recorded with a millimeter wave system at the security checkpoint of a single Florida courthouse.”
"The level of intimate detail captured by the scanners prompted the passage in the House last year of an amendment brought by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) to ban “strip-search” imaging at airports, a proposal he has reiterated his support for since the failed bombing attempt.
“You don’t have to look at my wife and 8-year-old daughter naked to secure an airplane,” Chaffetz said at the time."
Naked Body Scanners: Monumental Cover Up Exposed
A Welfare State for Landlords: Who Benefits? | HumanRights TV
And to think Mr Cameron wants to mess about even more with council houses.
A Welfare State for Landlords: Who Benefits?
A Welfare State for Landlords: Who Benefits?
firefox add ons
I might have to reinstall firefox - it keeps giving me endless stupid 'this script has stopped responding messages'.
Here's the plug-ins I can't do without:
the Googlebar.
Downloadhelper.
Greasemonkey.
Flickr Photo Page Enhancer
Yahoo! User Persistence Thing
Here's the plug-ins I can't do without:
the Googlebar.
Downloadhelper.
Greasemonkey.
Flickr Photo Page Enhancer
Yahoo! User Persistence Thing
BBC News - Poole council loses school catchment 'spying' tribunal
WTF? Seriously - how much did this cost and how many man hours were wasted simply to see if a little girl was eligible to go to a certain school?
Moreover, why are local councils even given access to these powers? If it's legislation that was brought in to counter serious crime and terrorism - then surely only the police should be allowed to use them.
Makes me wonder how far we were (or possibly still are) going down the path of East German style Stasiland.
BBC News - Poole council loses school catchment 'spying' tribunal
Moreover, why are local councils even given access to these powers? If it's legislation that was brought in to counter serious crime and terrorism - then surely only the police should be allowed to use them.
Makes me wonder how far we were (or possibly still are) going down the path of East German style Stasiland.
BBC News - Poole council loses school catchment 'spying' tribunal
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)