Who is the real bad guy?

 Is it the USA, Russia or Ukraine? Or perhaps all the above?

Since the current Russia/Ukraine "crisis" kicked off (it seems like 10 years ago!), I have had some doubts about the whole propaganda issue going on around it. I don't want to take the side of either Russia or Ukraine, so I won't.

However, there a few points that need to be taken into account here; well 2 points to begin with. The whole shouting match seems to have kicked off when Russia was found to have circa 100,000 troops in the area of the Russian/Ukraine border. My first reaction was "So what?" Isn't the area concerned within Russia? And, doesn't Russia have the right to move their troops hither and thither within their own country? If these troops were not on the Ukraine border, they might be on the border of Finland, China, Mongolia or Kazakhstan. What would be said about the any of those circumstances? Probably nothing, although that would depend on where you were finding your news/commentaries sources.

Anyway, 100,000 (said now to be 150,000 as of today). In Russia. But wait; Russia announced some time ago that they have scheduled military exercises with their best mates Belarus and those exercises are currently ongoing. Did the Russian troops involved in that come from the Ukraine border? If so, the current number on the Ukraine border should surely have decreased, rather than increased? Never mind. What about Ukraine troops? How many of them are there and where are they? There are different figures available, mostly out of date but it is probably safe to assume around 160,000. One has to assume the Ukrainians have the home game advantage, while the Russian forces are probably made up of troops far from home.
And, as I prepare to post this, there is news that Russia is sending some of the troops on the Ukraine border back home. I have been saying since this nonsense began that I thought Russia wasn't going to invade anyone. Putin is doing this purely to rattle the chains of the West to what he could provoke. I would say he has managed the West and our politicians perfectly well. Biden has been spouting traditional USA war mongering rhetoric and Johnson has been slavishly requesting updates on "What do you want me to say next, Joe". As for the US pushing the "False Flag" litany; well, who better to identify one of those operations than the US? Over the years, they have become masters of that underhand game.

 Over recent weeks, on multiple dates, Johnson has claimed "There are more people in work now than there were before the pandemic began". The numbers claimed were variously around 400,000 and 500,000. The latter figure of 500,000 was used the day after Johnson received a letter from the Office for Statistics Regulation advising him his numbers were incorrect. Obviously the letter was ignored. It seems there had been a rise in the number of employees in work, based on numbers derived from PAYE statistics. This data covers only people appearing on PAYE figures as "Employees". Totally ignored was the number of those declaring themselves as "Self-employed". Before the pandemic, there was approximately 700,000-800,000 in the number of self-employed. The actual total, while Johnson was making his empty boasts, had decreased by 600,000.
Never mind, what about a recent claim that crime in the UK had decreased by 14%? The chair of the UK Statistics Authority pointed out that crime had actually increased by 14%. How did this huge discrepancy come about? The government explained that the Johnson figures didn't include fraud. Fraud is not just someone selling an American tourist London Bridge. It goes to the thousands of people being ripped off by cold callers, conning people into moving money out of their account, into another "for security" reasons. It goes to the gullible who receive calls from bogus call centres  in India, claiming to be from Microsoft and saying that the victim's computer has been hacked and for a sum of money, "Microsoft" can fix that. (Note: Microsoft have nothing whatsoever to do with this scam). When that dynamic brain box, Kwasi Kwarteng was challenged on this inaccurate crime stat, he claimed it was quite normal to exclude fraud from the crime statistics and Johnson was therefore right with his claim that crime had decreased. So fraud is no longer a crime then? Well, there you go Mr. con man; fill your boots. Scotland Yard will not be knocking on your door as there is "no crime to investigate here".
That ridiculous idea seems to come from the same school of idiocy governing the Met Police. You know, the organisation that until recently was steadfast in its refusal to investigate Downing St piss-ups. The first excuse was that they have not seen any evidence of a crime. Isn't that part of the job of the police? To investigate allegations and determine if there was any evidence and to then examine that evidence to see if it bears scrutiny? Then they started along the track of "Well, we won't prosecute because these incidents happened a long time ago". Less than 2 years is considered by them as "long time ago"? Mr. Jack the Ripper; you can come out now. If you give yourself up, there will be no prosecution as the events of which you are accused happened a "long time ago".
And, tying together Johnson and the Met Police's abject failure to police, we have the arguments in Parliament during which Johnson repeatedly claimed there were no parties at No. 10. Then he said there may have been but no Covid rules were broken. (I seem to remember he referred not to Covid rules but guidelines. They were quite definitely rules when members of the public were prosecuted!) Johnson eventually progressed to referring to cheese and wine knees-ups as "work meetings".
He went on to tell us that all will be revealed in the outcome of Sue Gray's report. Full and unredacted, he said. A clever shyster lawyer must have spotted a wizard wheeze (couldn't have been Johnson as he is demonstrably not clever enough). The wheeze being to shake the Met into reversing their earlier decisions re investigating/not investigating any Downing St party allegations. A clever move as they could then use the involvement of the Met as an excuse to effectively torpedo the Sue Gray report. Claims of "possibly bias inferred from her report impeding the investigation if the report was published, as promised, in full" to the invocation of sub-judice rules. Despite numerous legal sources rubbishing these excuses, the government allowed the Met to get away with this interference. Doesn't the law re "sub-judice" cover crimes? And hasn't the government and the Met repeatedly assured there were no crimes? If there were no crimes, there is nothing to be sub-judice.
Like I said; a wizard wheeze.
STOP PRESS: While writing this, we have had the latest PMQ in Parliament and Johnson has doubled down on his earlier mis-statement on crime figures. Today (9th Feb) he said at the dispatch box that crime figures are down by 17%. He also threw in some random numbers concerning current staffing in the NHS and the police. These are crying out to be fact checked. In the meantime, I would pose this question: Isn't it time we stopped using euphemisms such as "mis-spoke, taken out of context etc" and reverted to the old fashioned "He's lying"? As I remember from my upbringing, to state something as fact, when you know it is not true, it is called a lie. And the person making such statements is to be called a liar. And punished for it.

 PPE; Tired of Reading About it yet?

The UK PPE supply saga rumbles on. This morning, the BBC News web site reports:

"Government writes off £8.7 billion spent on PPE during pandemic". A rough breakdown of reasons for this shows £673million for items that were unusable, £750million for items that passed their expiry date before they could be used and £4.7billion as a result of the government paying more for the supplies than their current worth.

Add to these numbers the £4.9billion lost through fraudulent Covid loan schemes and we end up with somewhere around £13.6billion thrown away by the government. That number is remarkably close to the amount the government say is needed to tackle the issue of a cash starved NHS/Care system and needs to be raised via the much disputed increase in N.I. contributions (tax). How careless of them! But never mind; as Boris the liar keeps reminding us his government has led world beating this, that and the other.

Virtually all of his "world beating" claims are either based on a clever use of statistics, comparing apples with oranges etc or plain and simple lies.

Looking back over the government's world beating ordering of PPE supplies (something being boasted about along the lines of "We took the appropriate measures to obtain PPE kit against serious competition for available supplies"). Or, in the language of the common man or woman, "We had legions of cronies to take care of. Regardless of the cost to the exchequer".

Reviewing data I collected in 2020, when the spending frenzy was reaching a crescendo, I see that, during the months of April, May and June, there were 233 contracts let to cronies, with a cost to you and I of £5.8billion. Picking one of these contracts at random, I noted one for £122million for supply of PPE gowns awarded to a company named PPE Medpro. According to Companies House, PPE Medpro was incorporated on 12th May 2020. The Companies House filing for 12th May 202, the day the company was incorporated, shows total capital of £100. The contract was awarded on 26th June 2020.

So, a company formed on 12th May 2020 with 100 quid from someone's desk drawer (or found behind the sofa?) was awarded a huge contract to supply PPE kit.Firther reference to the Companies House web site shows this company has not yet filed accounts. None. Since incorporation. Surely one could reasonably expect to see accounts showing at least an inflow of some of that £122million award?

The web site "Thelondoneconomic.com" carried an article on this company back in November 2020:https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/handing-122m-ppe-contract-to-tory-peer-associate-is-the-definition-of-corruption-mp-says-204739/ In the article, reference is made to links between this company and Lady Bra, (Lady Michelle Mone), and her husband, David Barrowman. The Guardian took up this case as recently as January 2022:https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/06/tory-peer-michelle-mone-involved-ppe-medpro-government-contracts

The founder of PPE Medpro, Anthony Page,  was previously running a company that managed Michelle Mone's "brand". Well, how about that?

More later...

Daily Wail; a window on the world of some bloody odd people/ideas.

 I am not a regular reader of the newspaper known by many as the Daily Wail but now and then, I will take a look to see what lunacy is being promoted currently. A lot of the daily fare is made up of photographs of various apparently well known and allegedly famous beings of a sub-class known as "celebrities". Oh, and a constant photographic record of Kim Kardashian's arse, size, shape etc. (I wonder if there is a company sponsored psychiatrist on hand in the editorial offices? If so, someone is not doing their job!)

So, what got my attention this morning and caused me to take a look at the online edition? Well, a couple of things; first the ridiculous headline-grabbing quote from  a Tory lickspittle MP, Conor Burns: claiming "Boris was ambushed with a cake".
You couldn't make it up, as they say. No, you definitely could not make it up as we saw Sir Edward Leigh make a similar statement in the Commons yesterday. The popular refrain this morning has the Tory mob chanting "What about getting on with dealing with issues around poverty, increasing utility prices, the NHS etc, rather than be so bothered by all the fuss over Downing Street parties?". Well, to me this is tantamount to saying "Give us a break. We can not multi-task". Shame on the lot of them! They are paid handsomely to attend parliament and deal with constituents' issues of all flavours and varying degrees of urgency.. Nowhere in their job description does it say "but only one issue at a time". And of course, we can always count on that most un-cultured Secretary of State for Culture (and other stuff), Nadine Dorries for pearls of wisdom in times of crisis. She has apparently joined other Ministers in claiming that the gathering of 30 people for Boris's birthday bash could "be seen as an extension of the workplace". They just don't get it; the current crop of complaints & allegations do not relate to people at Downing Street contravening some hitherto unknown law banning the crossing of a line between workplace and non-workplace activities. They all centre around these people flouting rules put in place by themsleves as a defence against Covid19. Rules that have seen Mr & Mrs Public have the police banging on their doors and dishing out fixed penalties. On the BBC news, there was an interview with a man who had 3 friends at his house for a birthday drink in his garden on the same day as the Boris Birthday Bash in London. Within an hour of his friends arriving, the police turned up and fined him for breaking the rules.

And a Labour MP, at the end of PMQ today reminded the House of the nurse, Karen Reissmann who was fined £10,000 (or in bank speak, ten thousand pounds) for breaking Covid regulations while organising a protest against the government's derisory 1 % pay award for NHS staff in April 2021. Regardless of the rights and wrongs, nerit etc, it is important to note the £10,000 in the nurse's case and the possible £60 fixed penalties the Met Police are looking at in terms of the Downing Street fiasco.

Another topic to get my attention in this morning's offering is the Russia/Ukraine issue. I suppose I can be accused of having a jaundiced view of the whole business but my scepticism meter has been steadily rising over the last few weeks in regard to this. So, Russia has 100,000 troops stationed along the border with Ukraine. So what? Those troops are within their own borders. Are we in the West now duty bound to tell Russia where she can or can not station their forces within their own country? And is Russia similarly duty bound to post their forces where the West tells them to? No, I don't think so either. We may all have our doubts and/or suspicions about Russia's intent here but there are ways and means to deal with this sort of argument. And those ways and means do not include the US trying to terrify the West into some sort of panic by claiming that Russia is planning a "False Flag" type of operation in the region with the intention of faking an attack on Russia by Ukrainian forces in order to provide an excuse for Russia to cross the border in retaliation. Well, perhaps we should listen to what the US has to say here. After all, there is no other nation to match the US with first hand experience of so-called False Flag wheezes. There is probably some enterprising so and so in the US selling tee shirts emblazoned with "False Flag? Been there, Done It, Got the tee shirt". I suppose it is fair to say that, given the level of expertise in the US of False Flag moves, we ought to pay attention to what they are saying. Of course, it goes without saying that the UK government are paying rapt attention to what they are being told by the US. After all, it's what they do. Pay attention to what they are told and to do as they are told too!
To go along with the theme; the Daily Wail has a piece by a reporter, Ian Birrell, pretending to show us how we all should be suffering involuntary bowel movements over events on the Russain/Ukrainian border. He has supported his written piece with a series of photographs, presumably to enhance the bowel loosening moves. Small snag though; every single photograph relating to Russian forces comes from within Russia. Best of all is the photograph of a Russian warship. Carrying the tag "Russian Battleship". The actual text accompanying the photo reads "The Baltic Sea's battleship is spotted leaving towards the Atlantic Ocean". Utter bollocks! Since when did the Baltic Sea possess a navy, let alone a battleship? Did they mean to say "Russia's Baltic Fleet"? Anyway, it makes no difference; the vessel shown is this one:

Tarantul Class corvette, Morshansk, Pennant 824.
Photographed at St Petersburg Navy day 2018
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%D0%94%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%8C_%D0%92%D0%9C%D0%A4-2019_%D0%A1%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BA%D1%82_%D0%9F%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B1%D1%83%D1%80%D0%B3_(29).jpg

and at Moscow in 2019:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File: %D0%93%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B9_%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BD%D0%BE-%D0%BC%D0%BE%D1%80%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B9_%D0%BF%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B4_03.jpg

Read all about them here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarantul-class_corvette
Note for those not familiar with warships, there is a bit of a difference between a corvette and a battleship. Google it and check it out.
(The Tarantul Class corvettes came about as a result of their predecessors, Osa Class, being found to be somewhat deficient when British Army Lynx helicopters sank the entire Iraqi fleet of 12 boats in the first Gulf War.)

Finally, returning to the Wail's front page, I see Boris Liar, Liar Your pants on Fire Johnson has attempted to scare the crap out of the Russians. Saying something like "Grr, Bah Humbug phwoar we could send combat troops to Eastern Europe..." What? Both of them? On a Ryanair flight perhaps?

 Well, they can't (help themselves that is). I am referring of course to the Westminster clique going under the nom de guerre of "The government". The roll call of broken promises and obfuscations (or lies as you and I know them) from that organisation and its members goes on and on.

The latest is the thing named ARAP; Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy, alternatively known as ACRS. Back on December 29th  2020, the Defence Minister and the Home Secretary went off for a jolly to Afghanistan where they announced the plan to set up ARAP, to come into effect "next year". The idea behind ARAP was to augment an existing scheme to relocate Afghan interpreters in gratitude for their service. The new scheme as announced by the pair would mean "anyone facing imminent risk such as intimidation or threat to life will be offered priority relocation regardless of their employment status, rank or role, or length of time served". A laudable policy and one could see the need for this, given the parlous state of affairs in Afghanistan at the time.

Roll on to April 1st 2021 when the government formally announced ARAP, setting out details in the ARAP Announcement It can be seen from the announcement that a lot of work was being put into this scheme and it all, on the face of it, seems sensible and worthy of praise. Hah! Don't let the pages of words catch you out! Remember, this was issued 1st April so presumably lots of politicians and civil servants would have been beavering away (government speak = "working incredibly hard") through April and through May, followed by June and July. Then, on 14th August, the proverbial hit the fan and we all saw the scenes on TV of the chaos at Kabul airport. No problem, we would think, the government have been working on their cunning plan to address this and the problems it brings so all they have to do is push a button on a PC somewhere and the organisation will swing into action. Just like that! Don't be so bloody naive, Kelvin! We know what happened. The British ambassador had gone off for his hols and was therefore not to be bothered; misguided staff (presumably at the Embassy) gave those expecting protection and relocation under ARAP instructions to go and wait outside the airport where they could be conveniently blown up by a suicide bomber; a member of parliament in London managed to arrange for an ex-Boot Neck and his dogs to get on a flight out of Kabul, while hundreds of the people that ARAP was designed to protect were left to their own devices. There was even talk of these people being encouraged to get themselves into another neighbouring country (eg Pakistan) where they could receive consular assistance. The UK government encouraging "illegal immigration"! Imagine that!

Anyway, once the dust had died down and the plight of these people left behind was fading from the news, the government came up with another Baldrick style plan, announcing on August 18th the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme. afghan-citizens-resettlement-scheme God knows why they felt the need to come up with this plan, unless it was due to their having just noticed that the one the civil servants & MPs had been working on since April 1st (ARAP) was either unworkable/total crap/non-existent. Probably all 3. There were 6 issues/re-issues of this plan between 18th August and 13th September 2021. The penultimate paragraph is telling. It says "The scheme is not yet open. Please check this page regularly. Further details will be announced in due course." Today is December 15th so progress on this plan is zero over 3 months. And the final paragraph says "If you are a British or non-British national in Afghanistan and in need of assistance, view our support page for details". Do they really think these people, possibly hiding in some mountainous region can just open their iPhone and get a good, useful link to HM Government''s web service? When I personally can have difficulty getting 3G service in London? They really ought to be advised to "take more water with it"!

As of today, it is not known how many Afghan interpreters, servants of HM Government etc have managed to get to the promised land of UK. Some undoubtedly have but it is impossible to say how many of these came pre or post Kabul collapse. It can be safely assumed that none will have made it here under the auspices of ARAP. It (ARAP) is not yet up and running. Up and running or not, the government yesterday made changes to the Immigration rules, essentially narrowing the criteria for eligibility for those mentioned in the ARAP/ACRS schemes for entry to the UK. The former British Ambassador to Kabul has warned this will cost lives. Read about it here: Changes to rules

To summarise; high sounding and well meaning words were used to describe how the UK recognises  the problems that may be faced by UK government employees if a vengeful Taliban should come to power. A couple of apparently well intended Acts were written up and published explaining how the government was planning to implement appropriate measures to take care of these people. Virtually one year after the vacuous Patel and Ben Wallace uttered their pieces to camera, nothing has happened. Other than tightening the rules, ensuring the Taliban's butchers bill will probably increase.

 In the middle of all the current alarm and worry over the way the Covid pandemic is moving, it is rather unfortunate that we have to get our information on progress, moves to address the problem etc from the UK's Chief Clown, B. Johnson. I suppose the idea is; we have to get the info from somewhere and Prof "Next Slide Please" Chris Whitty is an equally dismal choice. To be fair to Prof Whitty though, it has to be said he is a learned gentleman and while his presentations may be sleep inducing at times, the alternative (Johnson) causes raised blood pressure, expletives shouted at the poor innocent TV set and rushes of adrenaline etc. Still, it's Johnson we've got so let's pinch our noses and take a look at him and his benighted Party as they collectively wade, bluster, lie and obfuscate their way through this pandemic.

I couldn't help but notice Johnson today reiterating his claim that he "didn't attend and Downing St parties". The marvellous thing about this was how his nose didn't appear to grow in sync with the movements of his mouth. Nice one, Boris!

In the almost 2 years this pandemic has been running round the earth, we in the UK must have heard a thousand iterations from government politicians phrases such as "Working fantastically hard"; "World leading success in beating back the virus as a result of our fantastic, world leading something or other". If there is a spare superlative around, chuck it in there. Well, let's take a look at how "fantastically" well we, as a country, have been doing.

On March 1st 2020, the UK had 36 cases. France 130, Germany 129 and USA 73

On April 1st, the UK had 29,474 cases, France 56,989, Germany 77,779 and USA 209,315

By June 1st, things were moving "at pace" (another favoured phrase to be trotted out when convenient): UK had 276,332, France, 189,220, Germany 183,705 and USA 1,850,219. So, UK had picked itself up off the floor and had overhauled those foreign Johnnies in Europe in terms of total cases.  Bearing in mind the various countries in Europe have land borders and UK is an island state, one would think that the spread of the virus in the UK would not be as fast as in Europe. That didn't appear to be the case but our government had the answer: Nightingale Hospitals. During March 2020, someone came up with the bright idea of these pop-up hospitals and 7 of them were very quickly built/adapted and readied for service. The first was in London but it didn't take long for people to notice that they were not doing a great deal of business in terms of patients being treated. During March and April 2020, the London hospital treated 57 patients. Then the number was 0 for the remainder of 2020 with 2 patients being treated in February 2021. The Harrogate facility set up to serve the Yorkshire and Humber areas opened in April 2020 and finally closed in March 2021 having dealt with 0 Covid patients. Of course, we all knew that these hospitals could be knocked up and set to work in very short order, using as they did the Army to coordinate and oversee the work. What the rest of us also knew but the politicians didn't know (or knew and were ignoring) was that these hospitals would need staff. In fact, according to the Kings Fund, these hospitals would need around 16,000 staff. Yet, at that time, the NHS was short of 100,000 staff. So really, the whole thing was dead in the water. It could never work without the doctors and nurses needed to operate.

Never mind, we had a suitcase full of "world beaters", "incredibly hard work" going on in other areas so all was going to be rosy, wonderful with sunny uplands etc. In that case a check on the numbers will show how we in the UK are leading the field in efforts to conquer Covid.

A year after the previous numbers, we move to June 1st 2021 and a new set of statistics;                  Now we see UK 4,490,438 cases, France 5,677,172, Germany 3,692,906 and USA 34,129,338. So, those pesky Froggies are falling behind us but the Germans have a lot fewer. What those countries don't have are "incredibly hard working teams", "world beating solutions" etc Otherwise known as blah blah! So, how about now, mid-December 2021? We have had a lot more time now for the "world beating" stuff to take effect:

Today's figures (13th Dec) show UK has 10,870,468 cases, France 8,258, 692 & Germany 6,548,485. That shows the UK is leading the field when compared to the figures from France and Germany. So, how can that be? We are the nation with the "world leading" ideas etc etc. The figures would indicate otherwise. The story is the same when the number of deaths is counted. Personally, I prefer to refer to the figures of deaths per million population; at least this takes into account the differences in population of the various countries. And those numbers show Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, France and Spain all have lower deaths per million than the UK. In fact, in terms of comparisons with European nations, only Italy and Belgium fare worse than us. Aren't we doing well?

 Yesterday, we were treated to the unedifying spectacle of our temporary Prime Minister (temporary? Well, by the time I finish this, he may well be ex-PM!) blustering and rambling during PMQs promising to set his civil servants on the trail of the dastardly Covid Busters. He says Simon Case will conduct a thorough investigation into the events which led to the downfall of his Special Advisor, Allegra Stratton. He reported he was "sick" and "furious at reports of this party/not-a-party that took place/didn't take place in his house on December 18th last year, at a time when the government had decreed that gatherings of more than a handful of people and parties were forbidden as part of the Covid legislation. All good. A proper "drains up" investigation.

Not quite. I learned from the Byline Times today that the investigation would cover only the events/non-events of December 18th. It will NOT cover allegations of a similar event at Number 10 on 27th November which Johnson allegedly attended. Of course, there would not be any point in investigating that one; Dominic Cummings has today assured us on Twitter that there was no party that day:

"There was no party on Fri 27/11. Red herring. A staff member left their job. Walked to press office to say bye, PM bumbled in & started babbling, everyone embarrassed, dispersed. Focus shd be actual party in PM's flat Fri 13/11 reported AT THE TIME but ignored by lobby!" 

https://twitter.com/Dominic2306/status/1468901949970042885

This would be the same D. Cummings who left Downing St on November 13th. Who will forget those TV images of him scurrying through the gathering evening gloom, carrying his worldly goods and chattels in that cardboard box? So, Dom the Departed can assure us that a party at his place of employment which he had left 2 weeks earlier never actually happened?

To summarise;

Illegal party on December 18th. Johnson didn't attend. INVESTIGATE!

Illegal party on November 27th which Johnson did attend. DO NOT INVESTIGATE!

And then we come to that bastion of righteousness, the Metropolitan Police. They are ducking their responsibilities, saying they won't be investigating any historic allegations of Covid regulation breaches. Well, there's a spot of good news for those in London with a propensity to go around stabbing people. Keep your heads down for a year or so and the Met won't bother you. In their words: "It is not our policy to investigate retrospective breaches of the Covid regulations". I presume there must be a dart board in New Scotland Yard with various pieces of legislation at which darts can be thrown and a rigorous process of "Prosecute/Don't prosecute" selection set in motion. For the record; it wasn't always that way. During the period of party/non-party last year they "Prosecute" fairy was running things and the Met handed out penalties ranging from £500 for not wearing a face covering to £10,000 for taking part in a gathering.

Picture the scene in the top floor garret over number 10 on December 18th: "what's that row coming from downstairs dear?" "Nothing Carrie. It's just the mice scrambling around in the skirting boards". "Oh. Mice you say. Does that account for all the cheese I saw going though the back door earlier then?" "Indeed it does dear". Along with the boxes of fizz and vino collapso".

Lessons Will Be Learned!

 It has been a while since I posted anything here. Events over the last few years have persuaded me it may be about time I picked up the habit again.

So, where to begin? Let's be honest, there's plenty of scope out there! The number of things that I would classify as "annoying" to me seems virtually endless. In the end though, everything probably can be distilled down to the actions or even inaction of this poxy government and, in some cases, of previous governments. Take for example the recent tragic case of the 6 year old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes.

Those of us in the UK will be familiar with and disgusted by the barbaric actions of his father and his partner, culminating in his death. Their treatment of this poor soul goes beyond barbaric and inhumane; I struggle to find an appropriate term for either of this pair. They are wastes of space and oxygen thieves. 

Naturally we have had the usual phrases trotted out by politicians of all stripes, main among them being "our thoughts and prayers.." etc. I wish I had a quid for every time I have heard a politician utter those words! This is almost always followed by another favourite; "lessons will be learned". No, they bloody well won't!

Let's cast our minds back almost 20 years to the case of Victoria Climbié. Here, a young girl was systematically beaten and abused, ultimately dying of hypothermia. The subsequent inquiry found lots of people had a lot of responsibility and, of course, lessons were learned. This was the Laming Inquiry which published its findings in January 2003. The inquiry report included 108 recommendations in child protection reform. Plenty of lessons to be learned from that then?

Lessons were so well absorbed and learned that the same local authority involved in the myriad of failings in the Victoria Climbié case appeared in yet another child abuse horror show. That local authority, which had been busy "learning lessons" over a period of 3 years, seems to have been unable to read or understand the lessons. This was Haringey council and in 2006, a woman gave birth to a child who would become famous, known as "Baby P". The child was born in March 2006 and in December of that year the mother is arrested after a GP notices bruises on the child's body. In February 2007 a former social worker wrote to the Dept of Health, expressing concerns over Haringey council's failings in the area of child protection. Remember, Haringey council had been busy, beavering away dealing with "Lessons to be learned" since 2003. Presumably, the lessons had not yet been fully learned. The Dept of Health delegated the Commission for Social Care who had their inspectors meet with Haringey council. Haringey council appear to have responded by affirming that all was well with this case, everything was going swimmingly and they would deal with their whistle blowing former social worker, Nevres Kemal. (Why was Ms Kemal a 'former' social worker? In 2004 she had been reviewing some cases with which Haringey council was involved, alleging possible physical and sexual abuse at the hands of people nominated to take "care" of them by Haringey council.Of course, the council denied everything, all was rosy and she was fired after an unsubstantiated allegation was made against her by a third party. Ms Kemal eventually won an unfair dismissal claim against Haringey. Eventually, in 2008, Haringey council bought off Ms Kemal with a gagging order. So, there's one lesson Haringey seem to have learned over the years: you can bully people into shutting up. If that fails fire them. If you are found to have fired the person illegally, open the cheque book and buy them off.)

Meanwhile, a couple of weeks after the CSC had met Haringey council to discuss Ms Kemal's concerns, Baby P was readmitted to hospital with 2 black eyes and a swelling to the head. No doubt Haringey had found a new lesson to be learned: In Haringey 14 month old children are into boxing! Nothing came of this event. Within a month, the baby is once again admitted to hospital and this time, the mother is arrested. In June, a social worker noticed marks and bruises on the child and on June 4th, the injuries were determined to be due to child abuse so the child was placed into the care of a friend. On 25th July, Haringey council had obtained legal advice, 'confirming' it was nothing to do with them: "threshold for initiating Care Proceedings...was not met". Obviously, the lessons were being learned. At least, the lessons on covering your arse, that is.

On 1st August, the child is back at the hospital where a pediatrician didn't notice the broken back or broken ribs. Nor the gap where a tooth had been knocked out with a punch. Didn't even notice the mutilated fingertips or missing fingernails.(The tooth was found in the child's body during the post mortem). 

On 2nd August, the child's mother is informed she will not be prosecuted (presumably in relation to the earlier arrest in May.

On 3rd August, Baby P is found dead.

Weren't there some great examples of "Lesson learning" throughout this sordid story? It does look as if we may have years of "Lesson will be learned" ahead of us, on a variety of topics. MPs are saying now that lessons must be learned in connection with the disruption caused by the weather in Storm Arwen. 

Boris Johnson is telling us that lessons must be learned in connection with the current disgrace surrounding Arthur Labinjo-Hughes. In this particular case, I would like to see his school, his GP, local government officials, police, family and whole whole raft of others brought before the court of public opinion. I am sure there will be the odd protestation of "I reported what I had noticed to... "substitute the scapegoat of choice here).

Time to storm ...

It is getting close to "Time to storm .." but I am not sure what exactly needs storming. Yet.
What has got my goat this morning is yet another Amazon UK story.
Last year (2012), they reported sales of £4.2 billion, which looks like this:
£4,200,000,000.
They also received a grant from the Scottish government to develop a warehouse in Glasgow, in the amount of £24 million (or £2,400,000).
And they paid tax of £2.3 million (or £2,300,000).
Didn't they do well?
Most people in this country pay around 20% tax on their incomes. £20 for each £100.
Amazon paid 0.1%. 10p for each £100.
Meanwhile, families in this country earning bugger all are being forced to pay £20 or £30 per month for having an "extra" bedroom which they have only because councils can not provide suitable housing to begin with.
It is wrong and must stop!!

IT, as the government sees it

Today marks the start of government's new panacea for ending all the arguments surrounding unemployment benefits (Universal Credit scheme).
There has been a lot of argument, pro and con, over this new plan (when everything around you is failing, get a new plan!). The scheme appears to build on the system of tax credits as introduced by the last government which is designed to ensure you don't end up with less money by taking up employment, compared to what you may have been receiving when unemployed.
Personally, while I can see some merit in that idea, I think it is really a sneaky system of rewarding employers who don't want to pay a decent living wage.
Whatever, the scheme comes into operation today in Ashton-Under-Lyne in the form of a pilot.
I have no idea of the financial aspects of this new scheme but one thing about it which sticks out like a sore thumb is the "Claim on-line only" rule.
Let's imagine someone who has been working on poverty level wages for some time and can not afford broadband costs etc. Are they now expected to borrow money in order to make a claim? No, says the government, use your local library who usually will have internet facilities.
Would that, by any chance, be one of these local governments who have had to suffer savage budget cuts and the same ones that, in order to accommodate these budget cuts, have been closing libraries left, right and sideways?
As the scheme is rolled out nationally over the next couple of years, will the whole unemployment/social security thing end up being on-line? If so, this would surely lead to the closure of what Job Centres that still exist?
Still, the government persists in this blind faith in their mismanaged IT systems.
Remember the National Identity Card IT fiasco? Cost billions in IT costs before the government admitted it was useless and abandoned it.

The NHS has a lot of faith in their IT systems, hoping eventually to join up the entire nation from your local GP to the leading specialist hospitals. The theory is that all the necessary data concerning your health will be available at the click of a mouse to whichever health care official needs it.
Well, here's an example of how well the NHS IT system works.
This week, I received a letter from the NHS offering me an appointment to go and get my Aorta scanned to see if I was hiding any aneurysms. A grand idea.
Except the introductory letter starts off by explaining that this screening is being offered to "all men in their 65th year". As maths currently works, my "65th year" would have been that period between my 64th & 65th birthdays. So my 65th year ended almost 1 year ago. Another publication included in the post was a note telling me how this is offered for men approaching the age of 65.
How did they decide they should send me this letter and arrange the appointment for me?
I would guess their IT system had run through a database, seeking all males born at a certain time. This would then spit out the names and addresses and generate the letters, appointments etc. Their IT system obviously wasn't smart enough to "do the maths". Maybe their boffins don't understand that a person is in their 1st year of life until their 1st birthday arrives. They then enter their 2nd year etc. etc.
Worrying isn't it?
It doesn't stop there though. I recently and reluctantly had to go and see a GP about a mysterious swelling in my leg. The swelling was in the calf but while talking to the GP, I pointed out, more than once, how I had had a mysterious skin discolouration and a a change in tecture of the skin on the shin of the same leg. When this discolouration had begin to fade (after 4 or 5 years), the swelling at the rear of the leg appeared. Did the GP take any notice? Nah!
He arranged for me to have blood tests and an X-Ray. Then he had a sudden change of mind, realising he wasn't sure what sort of blood tests were needed! Once he made up his mind on this, I went off for the tests. A couple of weeks later, I phoned the surgery to say I was concerned that I had  heard nothing from them. "Oh, we don't tell you, you have to contact us to find out the results".
I see. So I went back and saw a different GP who told me there was nothing in the blood test results. She came up with a new theory and sent me to the local hospital for a chest X-Ray. The lady who took the X-Ray told me the pictures would be scrutinised by a specialist who would pass on to my GP surgery any findings and the surgery would contact me to let me know when the results were back.
That was a couple of months ago and I have heard nothing. I know what the response would be if I contacted them; "Oh, you should have called us". How would I know when to call when the hospital themselves couldn't say when they would be done?
What has this to do with their IT systems? Simple really. Spending approximately £12 Billion a year on IT systems, they could simply send an email or electronically generate a form for transmission to my surgery etc. The IT system in the surgery would flag an inbound update relating to patient X and tell the lazy cow behind the desk to call this patient.
Too bloody simple! They expect patients to telephone on a daily basis to see if they have any information. And, when told "not yet", to telephone again and again. Unless, of course the patient doesn't have a phone. What happens then?
If they are unwell, are they to be expected to get a bus just to arrive at the surgery only to be told to try again tomorrow?
Or maybe they should get someone else to do the inquiring on their behalf? We know how that conversation would run; "I can't divulge that information. Data Protection ...blah blah".
Maybe the NHS should leave their IT systems to manage the huge salaries of their "managers" and allow people to manage patient data.
NHS, DfWP or Home Office, the government's record is tragic when it comes to IT.
Sort yourselves out and stop throwing away the taxpayers' hard earned money!

Sleepwalking to Syria

Well, here we go again.
First we had the great Iraq WMD hoodwink.
Remember that? "Eye Rack has thousands of WMD and they can hit the UK in 45 minutes" blah blah.
Followed, many months/years and thousands of deaths by "Well, perhaps the intelligence was wrong".
And then the "If we kick out the Taliban from Afghanistan, we can capture Bin Laden and all the word's problems will go away".
Followed years later by "We really ought to get out of Afghanistan (because we are not winning)".
Then, there was Tunisia. "Hoorah! Tunisia has had a free and fair vote and elected a democratically chosen government".
Followed by "What do you mean, they elected an Islamist government???"
And then there was Libya.
"Now that's an easy target. Let's send in the cruise missiles and finish this all off".
Some time later, we have total anarchy in that country with grateful Libyans showing their gratitude by desecrating the graves of British soldiers.
Egypt? Yep. Same old, same old.
"It is time to ditch our best friend, Mubarak, and pretend to support democracy in Egypt."
Followed by "Oh shit! They have put the Muslim Brotherhood in power. Now what?"
(As I write, I hear Cameron offering weasel words on Radio 4 about having "learned lessons from Iraq...."
Total bullshit!

So, what about Syria?
A quick look at the history of that country will show how it was a fragmented, disorganised collection of  tribal and religious factions, all too intent on fighting each other, rather than trying to make a go of their new country.
In the end, Bashar Al Assad decided enough was enough and pulled the country together, using a mixture of sensible political decisions and some ear thumping. He ended up with a country that seemed to manage OK; some factions accepted that what he was doing was for the greater goo and there were a few who didn't like what he was doing, generally because he was preventing them from dipping their sticky fingers into the till.
Nevertheless, he did manage to achieve some sort of peace and stability.
When he died, his son took over and he began to ease up on some of the stricter aspects of his father's government. With typical Arab perverse logic, this caused people to kick over the traces and he was obliged to bring back some of the draconian measures he had been hoping to relax.
So, as could be expected, other factions protested this action.
Well, you can't please all the people all the time... etc
And so we arrive at the situation today. The many factions who want the largest slice of the pie for themselves began an armed insurrection, financed and armed by "friendly" governments in that part of the world. They are doing this for purely religious reasons; Assad's Alawi sect is a sort of watered down Shia sect, while those governments supporting the insurgents are Sunni. They are not brave enough to take on their larger Shia neighbours in Iraq & Iran so they are using proxies (suckers) to do their work in Syria.

And we come eventually to the governments of the Western powers.
They have been beating an anti Assad drum for many months now. Today, they have increased the stakes, accusing Syria of using Sarin gas against its own citizens.
Personally, I think this is complete twaddle; from what I have seen of the "victims" on an on-line video, they do not appear to be suffering from this or any other nerve gas. They were allegedly frothing at the mouth. And that was it. Well, if you are afflicted by nerve gas, you begin to lose control of bodily functions one by one. Muscular movement becomes uncontrolled, the victim becomes incontinent, losing control of bladder and bowel functions. This is quickly followed by a loss of control of the involuntary functions such as breathing and heart beat. Once you lose control of these, death soon follows.
From what I can gather from the news, in the recent alleged attack, one person was killed but this was hardly surprising as an artillery shell had dropped on this person's house. I could not find any reports of people dying in the clinics following the frothing at the mouth.
So, this no doubt explains the reticence of the US government when it comes to allegations of nerve gas use by the Syrian government. Basically, they don't know. But this is not stopping them from ramping up the propaganda war, either in Washington or in London.
I would suggest that the frothing at the mouth occurs more frequently in Washington and London!
Our 'leaders' are positively straining at the leash to have a go at Syria but are being held back by their own history over the Iraq fiasco, when they were caught red-handed using bogus evidence to start a protracted campaign of killing as many Iraqis as possible. So why is the US so keen to have a go at Syria? What did the Syrians do to upset them? Well, nothing really, other than being allied with Russia and Iran, oh, and standing up to Israel. In typical bully fashion, the Americans are saying "OK, I won't hit you because I am scared you will hit me back. So I will smack your mate instead".
And they also really should develop a better long term memory; Iraq was only the most recent war started on the basis of trumped up charges. Who remembers the invasion of Grenada or the Gulf of Tonkin incident?
During my time in Aden, despite the UK government having agreed a timetable for independence for that colony, the US government was the biggest  cheerleader for the anti-British terrorist groups in the region, maintaining a constant clamour at the U.N. against British 'Imperialism' (soon to be replaced by American imperialism).

Anyway, back to Syria and the uncertain future of that nation. This week, I heard an interview on the BBC with a person from the Al Nusra at a terrorist training camp in Jordan. During the interview, he was quite clear about his ambitions for Syria; he wants to take over the country and turn it into a rigidly Islamist state, operating totally under Sharia law.
Smashing! Just the job! Just what the world needs is another loony tunes nation.
This group is openly pro-Al Qaeda and could be seen as their proxy in the region. They are also gathering in Lebanon, presumably to continue their mischief in that unfortunate country.
Is that what the west needs? More uproar, killing and misery in that region? No. I don't think so, but that is exactly the recipe the Washington & London idiots are facing. The problem is; they either do not understand this or they are hell bent on maintaining instability and strife around the Middle East.
How long, I wonder, before we discover that the US and perhaps the UK, have been secretly arming (directly or indirectly) Al Qaeda's surrogates in the region? Remember, they have form here, having armed Bin Laden and his oppos in Afghanistan before it all went wrong.
As I said at the start, "Here we go again"!

Police

It isn't their day, is it?
Minutes after having a rant about the adolescent idiot "working" for Kent Police, I was re-reading the news about the WPC with Norfolk Police who is suing a burglary victim because she tripped over a kerb, and discovered the following:
The same WPC has previously sued her own police force because she hurt a leg when a Panda car in which she was a passenger, left the road and rolled. Why not sue the plod that was driving the car? After all, it was he who was responsible for keeping the car on the road.
Possible answer; He doesn't have any money but Norfolk Police do.
But, it gets worse:

A detective inspector in Northumberland sued sued his force for £7,000 because "cannabis fumes caused him to start snoring, causing problems in his marriage". And he won!

An inspector in Sussex sued a landowner after he was butted and suffered broken ribs when a herd of cows had a go at him. He claimed the landowner hadn't done enough to protect walkers. What about the fact the whole thing arose from his walking his dog which pissed off the cows? If he was attacked by a herd of cows, it is reasonable to assume he must have been in a field. I wonder of he ever figured out that most fields, well probably all of them, have a fence. A fence is a device that ensures cows stay on one side and people stay on the other. Still, he got £10,000!

A PC with Grampian police sued for sore wrists! He claimed that handcuffs, used during a training course, caused extreme pain and red weals on his wrists. Suing for "extreme pain and subsequent depression", he won £108,000!

A WPC sued her employer, Lothian and Borders Police for £500,000 (yes, that's half a million quid!). What was her problem, you may wonder. Well, she claimed a riot training exercise left her with "a fear of sirens".
A copper afraid of sirens?

Looking at the last case, I can predict it won't be long before we get soldiers suing the MoD because those rifles make a big bang, or fire fighters claiming that excessive use of water has caused them to develop hydrophobia!

Finally, referring back to the Norfolk WPC and the kerb incident, think of this:
She tripped and fell over a kerb. Given that she claims she was injured and had difficulty walking, would she have had to crawl back to her car? And, if so, doesn't that make her a kerb crawler?

I'm off now to Basingstoke police station to see if there isn't a discarded crisp packet I can trip over to help supplement my pension.

Police Yoof Commissioner

A few days back I was amazed to hear an interview on Radio 4 with some 16 year old girl who had just been appointed Britain's first Youth Police & Crime Commissioner.
Amazed and annoyed!
I know I could be accused of being a grumpy old codger but I can not see how or why Kent Police need a young person to advise them on how to police. I am guessing here but I would reckon Kent Police have hundreds of thousands man hours of experience in dealing with wrong doing by both old and young in their county, yet some bird brained idiot saw fit to hire a yob to advise the police on their dealings with youth.
And I mean "hire", by the way. This schoolgirl is to be paid £15,000 a year to "advise" the police!
I think someone ought to report to Kent Police a case of a missing plot! Get a crime reference number and get the bobbies out on the streets to search for it because it has definitely gone missing.
While being annoyed during this interview on Radio 4, I couldn't help but allow another of my prejudices to creep in; what kind of parent would name their brat "Paris"? Having made my own assumptions (rightly or wrongly), I then went on to form an opinion of what kind of brat the parents may raise.
Well, it turns out the old codger's prejudices were not far off the mark after all.
It has been revealed by the Mail on Sunday that, prior to her being employed by the gullible electorate of Kent, she used Twitter a lot. Quite a lot, in fact. They discovered entries made by her going back a few years and they were not pretty.
The most recent tweet appears to have been one she made 3 weeks before accepting this non-job in which she said "I don't condone violence but I'm so pleased that my brother thumped the the fat little ****". I suppose, using the number of asterisks, we can guess what was the missing word!

A description of herself that she added said "I'm either fun, friendly & inclusive when I'm drunk or I'm an anti-social, racist, sexist embarrassing arsehole often it's the latter". (She would be a good fit for the police then).
I am not going to list all the homophobic and pro-drugs messages they uncovered but it is a pretty sickening read.

At the time of her appointment, the silly cow responsible, Ann Barnes, Kent PCC, said "I'm delighted Paris will be working alongside me to build a bridge between the world of young people and policing" plus a few other bits of drivel.
Bet you're feeling a bit silly now then?

Yesterday, in a sort of re-run of last week's broadcast, I was gratified to hear the stupid girl crying her eyes out while trying to plead her case that she really isn't racist, homophobic etc etc.
Now shut up and go and when you leave this new non-job, hopefully very soon, you will take the stupid cow who thought it a wonderful idea to hire you, along with the Chief Inspector from Kent Police who had a hand in the interviewing and hiring process.

Say that again??

This morning, there are reports that a WPC in Norfolk is suing a garage owner for damages after she tripped on a kerb.
She alleges she tripped on the kerb and injured her leg (or her pride, maybe?).
She had been called to the garage after a report of a burglary at the premises.
It seems to me that someone should take her aside and have a (loud) chat with her:
"They are your bloody legs! Take charge of them and make sure they point your feet in the right direction! The public seem able to manage kerbs, why can't you?"
If your feet and legs won't behave themselves and go where you want them to go, what makes you think Joe Public will go in any direction you may order?
Sort yourself out and return to planet Earth!

Even more proof we are mental, part 2

Last week, the met office were predicting up to 2 feet of snow in the mountains of, among others, North Wales.
As forecast, the wind blew and the snow snowed and it was pretty horrible.
In today's news (26 March), it is reported that 3 dip sticks from Northumberland had to be rescued from Snowdon and 3 more from Warwick had to be rescued from nearby Tryfan having found the wind and snow were just too much for them.
No doubt these were allegedly intelligent people who decided that, in spite of the dire forecasts, a walk up the mountains in umpteen feet of snow, accompanied by raging blizzards and temperatures well below 0 would be a jolly good wheeze.
Well, if there was any justice at all in this country, these pillocks would be landed with a bloody big bill for the cost of their rescues!
And this on the day the government tells us that their new contract for rescue services will cost £1.6 Billion over 10 years. Doesn't that equate to £160 Million per annum?
Are they seriously trying to tell us that this is considerably less than the current costs? Remember, the units currently operating these services also have other day to day roles, particularly training etc. so their costs will be rolled up into the amount it costs to maintain and operate helicopter squadrons anyway.
The new contractor, Bristows, was originally a UK based company and retains strong links with the UK. I think it is time for a review of directors, shareholders etc in this company. Who knows what may turn up?

And a bit more; this week saw the last boiler at Didcot A power station being taken off line. Didcot, along with Fawley and a couple of others, is being scrapped because of the emissions resulting from their burning coal.
All over the UK, there is an unseemly scramble to whack up new power stations that burn LNG. Smashing, with only half the CO2 output of a coal fired power station, that must be good. Right?
Well, where does this gas come from? Not a lot coming form the North Sea at the moment so it is mainly imported.
In fact, in today's news it is reported that a big gas tanker, the Zarga, has just arrived in Milford Haven carrying 266,000 cubic metres of gas. And another arrived in Kent a few days ago.
hurrah! Just what we need; massive deliveries of LNG.
And between them, they carry enough gas to heat the UK for . . . . 12 hours!
12 bloody hours! Fast forward a little to a time when we need more of these shipments and there will be a solid, slowly moving line of gas tankers, stretching from Qatar to Pembroke.
Oh, and these tankers burn oil. What does burning oil mean? Co2 pumped into the atmosphere!
What is the point? Am I the only one apparently missing it?

Want proof the entire country is mental?

Well, I can offer some.
In today's news, we learn that a school in Essex (it had to be Essex, didn't it?) has banned the provision of triangular flapjacks to the inmates.
This follows an incident when "during a food fight", a pupil was hit by a flapjack thrown by a fellow moron.
Now this school is run by a headmaster who, presumably, had to demonstrate possession of more than a couple of neurons when being interviewed for his high salary job.
Well it seems even they have deserted him (or her). Think on this, idiot:
The incident arose when the inmates were throwing food about.
Get a grip of yourself! Sort out the discipline problems your school is obviously beset with.
Punch a few of the inmates between the eyes the next time they think it is clever to throw food around.
That will fix your issues faster than banning traingular flapjacks!
Oh yes, you should perhaps make a note to self; "should attend geometry classes".
While banning triangular shaped food items, he (she (I don't know)) has approved the serving of square or rectangular flapjacks.
Jones Minor thinking "Whoa! If I take a knife and cut the flapjack from this corner to the opposite corner, what have I got? A pair of triangular flapjacks. Shit hot!"
To use the term "thick" to describe the head of this school does a great dis-service to the word "thick"!

Want some more proof?
The government is about to dump some of the finest services this country has; the helicopter borne air/sea rescue service currently operated by HM Coastguard, the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. The Coastguard is currently being eviscerated anyway with stations being closed, staff being sacked etc.
Don't worry, the services will not just disappear. They are being given to an American company, Bristows, to operate. They are based in Houston. The current operators of the service, mentioned above are based in the United Kingdom. For now, anyway. Who knows when the government will privatise the Navy? Oh. Hang on. The previous lunatics had already begun that process with the Royal Navy operating 3 River class offshore patrol boats leased from BAE systems. That lease arrangement ran from 2003 to 2013 when the government bought the ships from BAE for £39 Million. Given that they cost an average of £20 Million per year in running costs, they seem a tad expensive at a minimum of £239 million.

And how about the railways? The government announced today they are hell bent on the rail privatisation plan they recently screwed up (West Coast lines?) and their first priority is to get the East Coast line back into private hands. 4 years after National Express walked away from it, leaving the tax payer to pick up the tab.

Brilliant!
I am going for lie down in a dark room.

Huhne

Chris Huhne:
Remember him?
"It wasn't me honest... It wasn't me honest... It wasn't me honest... It wasn't me honest..."
"OK fair cop, it was me. I was only kidding" (or looking for another sap to share the dock with).

Well, I don't know about you but I have noticed over the course of the last couple of weeks a number of prominent people such as politicians, limp wristed luvvies and so-called celebrities saying they thought the sentence was too harsh.
Too harsh? Hmmm.
Forget the speeding offence, he was in court and sent down for perverting the course of justice. If he had a half decent lawyer, he would have pointed out the maximum sentence for this is life. That is life as in many years, lots of years in fact. Never mind 8 months!

Anyway, he has recently been moved to a nice comfy lodging at HMP Leyhill; a nice country estate style open prison where he can expect to live in relative comfort, with a few minor irritations.
Other people have served years for the same offence.
Remember Ali Dizaei? The scourge of the Met. He got 4 years for the same offence.
So shut up, all you tree huggers, yogurt knitters and fellow travellers.
Huhne got what was coming to him.
Now let's see how episode 2 works out when the CPS apply for some massive costs.

Yet more government ignorance

Today's news says that David Cameron will announce tomorrow that local councils will be told to keep immigrants off housing lists for 2 years in order to stop them getting immediate access to 'social' housing.
Immigrants are people who have been granted the right to come and live here. Essentially, they have been told the government are happy for them to come and live, work, pay taxes here etc. So, they should go to the bottom of any council housing lists in exactly the same manner as would a British citizen moving from one council's area to another.
Maybe in his Bullingdon club induced trance, he is confusing 'immigrants' with 'illegal immigrants' and 'asylum seekers'.
It is an easy mistake to make if your are racist, elitist and xenphobic into the bargain.
A bit more difficult to explain when you are supposed to be the leader of the government!

Having mentioned the Bullingdon Club, I have to say, I have just found an allegation in the Daily Mirror that as part of a new member's initiation, they have to burn a £50 note in front of a beggar.
Nice!
Thoroughly good chaps, what!

BBC Reaches New Levels of Silliness

Every day, one of the first things I do is check the BBC News website. Often, I find myself tutting and shaking my head at some of the silly headlines but it seems today, the BBC has reached a new level of silliness.
Reporting this morning on the death of Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky yesterday in the "England" section, the headline is "Berezovsky found at Berkshire Home".
No kidding!
That's a bit like saying "Occupant found in his house".

And how is this for an unfortunate choice of language:
Reporting on an ordeal a British woman suffered in her hotel in Agra recently, when she was terrified that the hotel manager was intent on assaulting her sexually, their headline is "Agra hotel jump woman recalls ordeal".
Think about the use of the word "Jump", BBC!

Today's award for clumsy use of the English language is perhaps "Body of man found in snow by farmer".
How about "Man's body found ...etc"?

Maybe they employ ex Premiership footballers as headline writers ("We gave it 120%....We displayed a lot of grit & determination (after losing 10-0)".

Tax and how it hurts (part 1)

A constant source of irritation in this country is tax, whether it be income tax, corporation tax, council tax or maybe the reviled bedroom tax.
This week, in the Chancellor's budget speech we heard "blah blah blah" (or words to that effect) on the subject of tax.
For example; Corporation tax is to be reduced to 20%. Nice! If you have a company earning you a few millions or whatever, you will pay 20% tax on the profits. Of course, the profits will be managed shrewdly and, dare I say, minimised.
So, 20% tax rate. That is the same as you will be taxed on your hard earned wages.
Never mind, let's ignore the rate for now because, in the case of many companies, it will be irrelevant anyway. Look at the record of Starbucks, Google, Amazon et al.
I know tax avoidance is legal; if the government can't frame a set of rules that cover all the loopholes, rather than create them, then they have no business running an enterprise as large as the United Kingdom.
And to think, most of the numties in Westminster went to expensive schools and colleges, graduating with degrees in the likes of Economics, Law, etc. And they can't come up with a set of taxation rules that stop billions of pounds leaking out of the country annually?
To be fair, we shouldn't put 100% of the blame on the inept government. A large share of the blame should be apportioned to those robbers that once were trumpeted as the "Captains of Industry". It seems to me that their collective record borders on the stupid. They run a company for so long, until their incompetence overtakes them and they find themselves staring at declining balance sheets.
"Hmmm. What can we do to continue giving the shareholders a nice return? I know! Flog the company and distribute the winnings as a dividend".
So the company is flogged off, usually to a foreign investor, the board take a handsome salary/payoff and the government clap hands at the "inward foreign investment".
The new foreign owner immediately takes steps to re-locate to somewhere else and the taxes that had previously been going to the Exchequer now disappear.
Now go to Part 2...