Expect a u-turn in cuts in police funding any day now...
Police could use more extreme tactics on protesters, Sir Hugh Orde warns | UK news | The Guardian
Because 'we're all in it together' -of course we are...
think anyone in Govt. is listening?
It walks like double-dip, talks like double-dip, quacks like double-dip. What else are the latest figures on Britain's economic growth? The gamble recent governments have taken in bailing out banks instead of their customers to heal recession is looking ever more reckless. The VAT rise this month was foolish. The cuts in public spending, though vital to curb a public sector out of all control, seem ill-timed.
Our protection from banks? A pile of ordure called Merlin | Simon Jenkins
George Soros tells David Cameron: change direction or face recession
Mix of tax increases and spending cuts unsustainable.
Shock as UK economy shrank by 0.5% at end
Shock? Really? Didn't see it coming?
You mean the economists and the Tory Govt. got it a bit wrong?
Now there's renewed fears of a double-dip recession? What? After they were all poo-poohing that it couldn't happen, not now the deep austerity measures were here to save us all? Well golly-gosh.
Shock as UK economy shrank by 0.5% at end of 2010 | Business | guardian.co.uk
Big Freeze blamed as economy SHRINKS 0.5%, reviving fears of double dip recession Daily Mail.
You mean the economists and the Tory Govt. got it a bit wrong?
Now there's renewed fears of a double-dip recession? What? After they were all poo-poohing that it couldn't happen, not now the deep austerity measures were here to save us all? Well golly-gosh.
Shock as UK economy shrank by 0.5% at end of 2010 | Business | guardian.co.uk
Big Freeze blamed as economy SHRINKS 0.5%, reviving fears of double dip recession Daily Mail.
Curb the banks?
Two worlds
anyway - I was reading an month old Guardian yesterday - and was interested in this comment piece that revolved around the revelation that back in 1980 Harold Macmillan (a former old school 'one nation' Tory PM) had written Thatcher an eleven page long letter giving her advice not to go too far too fast and not be so divisive... I was on Google trying to find the original letter - I didn't find it but I did find the article I had read - and in it the writer was advising Cameron that he would do well to heed the same letter as good advice to himself - you know, being in charge of what is supposed to be a coalition Government and all...
But then I found the Daily Mail take on the letter which is basically a hymn to Thatcher - and thoroughly nauseating. Apparently according to them she single-handedly brought about a revolution that turned Britain around from the brink of disaster. Jeez. Talk about a revisionist rewriting of history. We'll just turn a blind eye to the cycles of boom and bust and recessions that kept happening as she and her minions kept dabbling with the economy... and which only ended when they had to abandon their Milton Friedman inspired plans because they weren't working, we'll ignore the mass unemployment, whole areas of the country that were laid to economic waste - and which still to this day haven't recovered. But I doubt if the Daily Mail journalists [I use the term loosely] ever travel outside of London - so they won't know about that. I'll bet the nearest a Mail journalist sees of that world is on TV in the form of dimly-remembered episodes of Brookside, and current episodes of Shameless, Coronation Street and old episodes of Rab E. Nesbitt.
I was going to have a mini-rant but this piece sums it up better than I could:
Supermac was right in 1980 and he's right today.
But then I found the Daily Mail take on the letter which is basically a hymn to Thatcher - and thoroughly nauseating. Apparently according to them she single-handedly brought about a revolution that turned Britain around from the brink of disaster. Jeez. Talk about a revisionist rewriting of history. We'll just turn a blind eye to the cycles of boom and bust and recessions that kept happening as she and her minions kept dabbling with the economy... and which only ended when they had to abandon their Milton Friedman inspired plans because they weren't working, we'll ignore the mass unemployment, whole areas of the country that were laid to economic waste - and which still to this day haven't recovered. But I doubt if the Daily Mail journalists [I use the term loosely] ever travel outside of London - so they won't know about that. I'll bet the nearest a Mail journalist sees of that world is on TV in the form of dimly-remembered episodes of Brookside, and current episodes of Shameless, Coronation Street and old episodes of Rab E. Nesbitt.
I was going to have a mini-rant but this piece sums it up better than I could:
Supermac was right in 1980 and he's right today.
Andrew Lansley bankrolled by private healthcare provider
Andrew Lansley bankrolled by private healthcare provider - Telegraph.
The sleazy, own pocket-lining Tories are back again then. No surprise there.
The sleazy, own pocket-lining Tories are back again then. No surprise there.
the US and Human rights in China -ermmm
Chinese President Hu Jintao 'ignores' human rights question...
Mmmm not that I'm defending China, because it's always annoyed me how the West has been looking the other way over China's attitudes over the past few years, and all because the West likes cheap consumer goods - but it doesn't really behove American senators to bash China over human rights. I mean where were the complaints over Guantanamo bay? or the fact the US has the largest prison population on the planet thanks to their idiotic 'three strikes and you're out' policy, or Police tasering people for minor offences, (sometimes to death) and what about the treatment the TSA routinely now hands out to airline travellers? Hmmmm?
Mmmm not that I'm defending China, because it's always annoyed me how the West has been looking the other way over China's attitudes over the past few years, and all because the West likes cheap consumer goods - but it doesn't really behove American senators to bash China over human rights. I mean where were the complaints over Guantanamo bay? or the fact the US has the largest prison population on the planet thanks to their idiotic 'three strikes and you're out' policy, or Police tasering people for minor offences, (sometimes to death) and what about the treatment the TSA routinely now hands out to airline travellers? Hmmmm?
Nick Clegg plans to air differences within the coalition
Air differences?
I imagine it's a case of Cameron says "jump!" and Clegg giggles: "How high? This high? Is that too high? Not high enough?"
Nick Clegg plans to air differences within the coalition government | Politics | The Guardian
I imagine it's a case of Cameron says "jump!" and Clegg giggles: "How high? This high? Is that too high? Not high enough?"
Nick Clegg plans to air differences within the coalition government | Politics | The Guardian
Banks given go-ahead to pay unlimited bonusesan
With not even a token gesture to pretend to curb their excesses? And erm... regarding RSB - don't we own that? So how come the Govt. is powerless to do anything? In the pre-election didn't both Clegg and Cameron go on and on saying saying bankers bonuses were excessive and totally unacceptable and that we should vote for them and they'll make sure it doesn't happen again?
Once the VAT increase and the scale of the cuts start to bite hard later this year I think we're looking at the beginnings of the people's revolt 2.0
Watch for the Coalition suddenly and sneakily deciding to reverse any cuts to police pay within the next few days...
Banks given go-ahead to pay unlimited bonuses | Politics | The Guardian
Once the VAT increase and the scale of the cuts start to bite hard later this year I think we're looking at the beginnings of the people's revolt 2.0
Watch for the Coalition suddenly and sneakily deciding to reverse any cuts to police pay within the next few days...
Banks given go-ahead to pay unlimited bonuses | Politics | The Guardian
2011 Flash Points: Open vs. Closed, Google vs. Apple | PBS
Quick bookmark dump - a nice quick and dirty overview
MediaShift . 2011 Flash Points: Open vs. Closed, Google vs. Apple | PBS
MediaShift . 2011 Flash Points: Open vs. Closed, Google vs. Apple | PBS
the idiot children of Thatcher
When the Telegraph - one of the Tory's favourite supporters is reporting valid fears that there is going to be a slow down in the economy (aka a double dip recession -just after a few months of strongly denying there could ever be such a thing) then... well, the chances are that - there's going to be exactly that. With a fragile - barely-limping-along not-really-a-recovery and then loading on an extra sneaky tax burden everyone will have to bear, well that clearly isn't the brightest idea in the world. (A suggestion: The Tories might think of getting some tax from their rich friends which might help out a lot more - but that's never going to happen, or getting the banks to pay back a good chunk of their bail out money - instead of giving it away in undeserved bonuses - would help but again, never going to happen...) what drives me mad about Tory voters - is that they think, because they're usually rich that Tory MPs are good with money. They're NOT. Most of them inherited wealth (or in the case of Thatcher - married wealth) I don't think any of them actually earnt their millions. So they have no real concept of how the real economy works and so pursue the most retarded ideas it's possible to dream up - fantasying and gambling that everything will turn out for the best. Just like Nu Labour did - and Thatcher's early experiments did before them...
2011: calling time on capitalism
If it isn't blindingly obvious the 30 year long experiment free market enterprise has been a massive failure - then what is it going to take to wake people up?
2011: calling time on capitalism | Richard Wolff | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
2011: calling time on capitalism | Richard Wolff | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
Unemployment forecast brings warning for Osborne
CIPD says pressing on with austerity measures would depress economy and lead to real-term wage cuts.
Eeeer. No shit Sherlock.
Unemployment forecast brings warning for George Osborne | Business | The Guardian
Heathrow
I've been meaning to post this news link from Channel 4 about Heathrow since before xmas...
They cut snow defence by two thirds.
So no wonder they couldn't cope. That's the whole trouble with private companies when they foul up they do so spectacularly. Usually crying to the Gov. for a bail out. Only in this case Heathrow refused the help the Govt. offered.
They cut snow defence by two thirds.
So no wonder they couldn't cope. That's the whole trouble with private companies when they foul up they do so spectacularly. Usually crying to the Gov. for a bail out. Only in this case Heathrow refused the help the Govt. offered.
Windows - tsk...
Yesterday - I tried turning my 'puter off - my big black Acer box... using 'install updates' and there it hung... 'installing updates 1 of 3...' 20 minutes passed then an hour, two hours, then eight before I lost patience and pulled the plug on it. Did a 'Safe boot' - couldn't see anything wrong - went to a last restore point. Told it was corrupted - couldn't be used. An earlier point worked...
What was causing the frozen/hung shut down? It looks like it was the .NET extension for the firefox browser - Microsoft Update Quietly Installs Firefox Extension. Of course I haven't let that extension anywhere near firefox - and I've two year's worth of log saying how it's failed to install, it looks like this was one fail too many and it decided to have a massive sulk about it.
Now I need to find out how to stop Windows trying to do updates for things I expressly do not want.
Oh the irony - the 2nd update on the list is supposedly a fix so you can remove the 'one-click' update from firefox.
Remove the Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant (ClickOnce) Firefox Extension.
What was causing the frozen/hung shut down? It looks like it was the .NET extension for the firefox browser - Microsoft Update Quietly Installs Firefox Extension. Of course I haven't let that extension anywhere near firefox - and I've two year's worth of log saying how it's failed to install, it looks like this was one fail too many and it decided to have a massive sulk about it.
Now I need to find out how to stop Windows trying to do updates for things I expressly do not want.
Oh the irony - the 2nd update on the list is supposedly a fix so you can remove the 'one-click' update from firefox.
Remove the Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant (ClickOnce) Firefox Extension.
US intervened in Michael Moore NZ screening
I'm just shaking my head - G W Bush was just a over-privileged frat boy that never grew up. This is just pathetic...
WikiLeaks cables: US intervened in Michael Moore NZ screening | World news | The Guardian
and here's what MM has to say about it...
Another wiki-leaks cable.
WikiLeaks cables: US intervened in Michael Moore NZ screening | World news | The Guardian
and here's what MM has to say about it...
Another wiki-leaks cable.
Set Knowledge Free: The University as a Public Good « The Return of the Public
Let’s take social science first. What is the most prestigious social science? Put it another way – which social science has a Nobel Prize all of its own? OK. The Nobel Prize for Media Studies? … No. It’s the Nobel Prize for economics. Economics is the top predator – economists are the physicists of social science. And who determines the content of economics and related research in accountancy and business studies? The financial sector. As the financier-turned-reformer Philip Augar has pointed out over the last thirty years ‘finance wrapped its tentacles around the relevant parts of the academic world … under these circumstances it is little wonder that so much academic research was supportive of the financial system’.
So academics supported the financial system and the consequences were disastrous – for the discipline, but, more importantly, for the wider society. Most academic economists had no idea that there was trouble ahead. In the words of Joseph Stiglitz – Nobel Prize-winner in, anyone? – in economics, that’s right –
‘If science is defined by its ability to forecast the future, the failure of much of the economics profession to see the crisis coming should be a cause of great concern’.
Given the performance of the economists it is not clear that the discipline qualifies as a science at all. It is as though physicists spent ages pushing an elephant up the stairs of the physics department and then expressed surprise at what happened when they heaved it off the roof.
Set Knowledge Free: The University as a Public Good « The Return of the Public
Xmas travel chaos
Just a random thought sparked by the recent snow travel chaos thing.
Isn’t it weird?
It just points up how so many of us live so far from home nowadays. Not so long ago (only so far back as the 1960s really) only a small handful of people did that - people used to be born and stayed within a certain relatively small area of their own communities, so before then family Christmases were easy to arrange, when most would live within walking distance from each other. But now every Christmas sparks off a mass exodus in all directions with people having to travel miles across the country (or even to other countries) to get back ‘home’. It’s a historical accident that the Christian Church founders decided that Christmas should take over the pagan Solstice ceremonies - but now hundreds and years later it’s the worse possible weather to be travelling anywhere.
But because it’s tradition (by the way that’s among the worse reasons to do anything) people persevere with it - when, I don’t know, if they feel the mutual need to have a big family get together once a year, then why can’t they arrange among themselves to do it at a time when not everybody else in nearly the whole Western world is all doing the same thing? There’s just too many of us now to be all doing the same thing at the same time - we need to stagger things out a bit - the infrastructure simply can’t cope.
But with people not being sane rational creatures (individuals can mostly be sane and rational - but people hardly ever can) - I guess that's never going to happen.
Isn’t it weird?
It just points up how so many of us live so far from home nowadays. Not so long ago (only so far back as the 1960s really) only a small handful of people did that - people used to be born and stayed within a certain relatively small area of their own communities, so before then family Christmases were easy to arrange, when most would live within walking distance from each other. But now every Christmas sparks off a mass exodus in all directions with people having to travel miles across the country (or even to other countries) to get back ‘home’. It’s a historical accident that the Christian Church founders decided that Christmas should take over the pagan Solstice ceremonies - but now hundreds and years later it’s the worse possible weather to be travelling anywhere.
But because it’s tradition (by the way that’s among the worse reasons to do anything) people persevere with it - when, I don’t know, if they feel the mutual need to have a big family get together once a year, then why can’t they arrange among themselves to do it at a time when not everybody else in nearly the whole Western world is all doing the same thing? There’s just too many of us now to be all doing the same thing at the same time - we need to stagger things out a bit - the infrastructure simply can’t cope.
But with people not being sane rational creatures (individuals can mostly be sane and rational - but people hardly ever can) - I guess that's never going to happen.
Vince Cable: I could end coalition
"'There is a kind of Maoist revolution happening in a lot of areas like the health service, local government, reform, all this kind of stuff, which is in danger of getting out of control. We are trying to do too many things, actually,' he said.
'Some of them are Lib Dem inspired, but a lot of it is Tory inspired. The problem is not that they are Tory-inspired, but that they haven't thought them through. We should be putting a brake on it.'"
Vince Cable: I could end coalition | Politics | The Guardian
So can we all stop pretending that this is coalition Government - and have another election now please?
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