Tuesday 31 July 2012

We Don't Want No Education

Many very good schools have teachers who have no formal teaching qualification. They are just very good teachers. This is to be extended by government decree and has the teaching Unions howling with outrage, though over what they seem a little vague.

Clearly though the objection, as ever, is about Union power. If they control teacher training (which is used for Left ideological propaganda) and then maintain a grip on teachers, they are powerful. If this stranglehold is broken, then so potentially is their power. You will notice that the interests of the child haven't cropped up anywhere.

The Unions of course say that no formal qualification means a lack of ability (I wonder if Beckham ever thought to get a 'formal qualification' in ball kicking?) and so children will be educated to a lower standard. It seems unlikely that the perfect storm combination of Tony Blair and the NUT could ever be bettered for lowering standards. Children in this country deserve better and Christine Blower deserves to be unemployed.

Not Just The NHS

It was interesting to see in addition to the praise heaped on the NHS, that manages to limit the unnecessary deaths it causes to 'only' 1,000 a month, at the opening ceremony for the Olympics there was also a mention for Social Workers. It was perhaps a little obscure, if accurately rendered. The television commentary referred to a man in black driving a prison van with horses, as a character from children's fiction, but of course today the most prolific child snatcher is the State.

Social Workers, with the connivance of the police and hiding behind the cloak of secrecy provided by the way family courts work, have become very active in taking children away from their parents. This usually involves children who are at no risk, because the parents of such children are not rude and threatening towards social workers, unlike those who actually abuse their offspring.

So much better and easier, to deal only with pleasant, conforming people who were brought up to respect 'authority' (it used to deserve it) and the rule of law. Naturally quota's come into it and breaking the law themselves rarely seems a problem for social workers, either morally or in the eyes of the courts. Much of the media don't care about this, so it isn't widely reported. Find out for yourself and you will be horrified.

And I mean horrified by the little you are allowed to know, not the full extent of what they are up to.

Sport In Britain

When I speak of Sport in Britain, obviously I'm excluding football, as the leading participants don't see it as a sport so why should we? There was an interesting point made on BBC Breakfast today by a member of the British gymnastics team (Silver medallists who got Bronze). He said that since Louis (Smith) won Bronze in Beijing, funding for his sport had increased and this had really helped.

So, after this increase in funding Britain gets a medal in his sport for the first time in a hundred years. For me there is another way of looking at that and of course it is that clearly a lack of funding is holding back sport in this country, the talent exists we just can't find it and develop it. This is the result of two things working together; a lack of leadership from politicians and a lack of money from massively rich corporations.

The cosy and largely corrupt relationships between Ministers and business usually mean higher taxes due to incompetence and inattention, high paying sinecures for the politicians and higher prices for consumers. In sport it means people who already work hard at their training have to have a job as well, only have access to (usually substandard) facilities in the early hours and often, nowhere near where they live.

We've seen what happens when the will is there (the Olympic facilities) so it is clear it is just that, once again our politicians really, really don't care about anyone but themselves. Remember, the arch bluster-over-substance merchant Blair 'remained neutral' over whether to bring the Games here or not. That is the level of commitment; even a wuckfit chancer, basing his politics on spin (lies) and PR won't support our athletes.

Monday 30 July 2012

Fair Play

So we learn an important new fact about Olympic gymnastics. An appeal was made after poor marks were awarded to Japan as one of their team fell off the pommel horse. He was dismounting they said and you cannot mark down like that for a dismount.

Funnily enough the chap was still turning when his elbows gave way and he fell almost sideways off the horse, just managing to stay on his feet on the mat. Their claim I guess was that he was actually in the act of dismounting and was not still doing a one hand push off or anything fancy. Certainly the exceptionally safe routine conducted would support such an assertion, but he still fell off the horse, his arms collapsing before he came off. He was not in control of that.

The corrected points gave Japan the Silver-for-falling-off award and ditched a deserving Ukraine out of the medals. No-one else fell off I think. The little people like me think that should be important and that fair play ought to be important to the organisers, but then hey, we are not rich for no discernible reason either I guess. So what do we know.

Politicians

The reason our country is in a mess is because the politicians do too much and too little. As most power now resides with Brussels, UK politicians don't have much of a real job to do, so they fill in by making stuff up.

They pay no attention to things that need doing, probably as it would entail much complicated work, restricting themselves to pointless or dangerous initiatives. The most important things required today are the protection of the people from predatory, monopolistic companies and councils, shrinking the size of the state and reducing taxation.

Instead the concentration is on vested interest politics, subsidies for 'renewables' due to non-existent Man Made Global Warming, homosexual issues and 'aid' (by which they mean payments to corrupt regimes). A long time ago it was realised that the West would see a threat rising in the form of developing nations. Much has been done, particularly by the EU to stunt their growth, but it is happening anyway.

What we didn't perhaps, perceive was that the West would be gripped by institutionalised stupidity at the same time. Naturally both the EU and the rest of the West has been in thrall to Left ideology for decades and this is what seeded the lack of ability and the crazy ideas. It is as if the West is now run by the same kind of person who ran Unions in the UK in the Seventies.

All of the madcap schemes and ideas which strangle our country and the West's economies, such as all those listed above as things politicians actually work on, are ideologically of the Left. They are communist in essence and designed only to undermine Western civilisation. How would you say they are doing?

Sunday 29 July 2012

Ah, Football

It struck me, watching the men's GB team in their first game, limply running around and kicking the ball in desultory fashion, that the Olympics must be a titanic shock for them. Rarely can they have come up against people who actually cared about the game they were playing, were proud to represent their country and were, for heaven's sake trying. I mean, it is all so childish, it is not even as if they are getting paid.

And so it has been confirmed with Pearce talking of the players surprise seeing exercise equipment in very active use by the other athletes, their 'jaws dropping' apparently. This perhaps is the final and best confirmation that British players see their talent in terms of the amount of money they are paid by their clubs. They cannot play with each other because there is ego and points-scoring to overcome first.

And a footballer never gets past his ego. The other thing that has become blindingly obvious in these Games is attitude. Any of the sports people the media interview, any of them are a) more intelligent than our footballers, b) possessed of a massive weight of humility compared to footballers, c) much more committed to their (punishing) training schedule and d) pleasant people with a sense of humour.

It shows up for all to see, in sharp focus just what a terrible beast we have created with our Premier League and its money. Our reward for our 'investment' is a boorish, careless bunch of men, who do enough to get paid by their clubs and nothing more. They are ignorant and an insult to our nation.

The Good The Bad And The Ugly

Thank goodness the British Olympic kit for the opening ceremony wasn't designed by Stella McCartney. I may not be a dedicated follower of fashion, but I think she has done very well with the activity wear for the teams and couldn't possibly be responsible for that. She wasn't, it was Next.


Ideal Chav-wear of white with gold patches, they were presumably designed by the Dale Farm branch, in the style of a particularly awful handbag. Only someone from the 'Traveller' community, the big fat Gypsy stylist, a community famous for recycling scrap metal -sometimes stuff you hadn't thought of recycling- and lucky heather, could have put gold armpit patches as a highlight.

Genius is an overworked word, but my God it was taking a rest whilst the British opening ceremony uniforms were being designed. Someone of course accepted the design, but then with the 'fame' of the entirely taste-absent Emin, I'm sure the 'artistic' world has a surfeit of blind judges.


Saturday 28 July 2012

Olympic Language

What is the biggest piece of nonsense associated with the Olympics? Without doubt the obscure and little used language that preceded the English announcements. The French continue to insist they run everything but they don't (otherwise everything would be as bad as the EU). It made the announcements really annoying. The sooner the body running the Olympics grows up and ditches this archaic regional language from the Games, the better.

The Ceremony

It is now essential to have a spectacular opening ceremony for the Olympics and hosts now feel obliged to outdo all previous events. London 2012 was an amazing show of technical brilliance and an example of how to choreograph on scale. The subject matter was a little painfully worked though and I'm sure would have mystified many foreign viewers.

The bizarre eulogising of the NHS was typical Leftie nonsense, only they believe it is the envy of the World. Many people in this country are worthy and some are doctors and nurses, but the Left only deal with ideology. It is a pity such overt (and ridiculous, as ever) political statements dot anything you let the arty Left loose with. Luckily it didn't overwhelm the genuine talent that these people have and the commitment and dedication of the actors, both professional and amateur volunteer.

Highlights were of course the humour, Mr Bean and Her Majesty allowing herself to be included in a Bond skit. Much praise to the orchestra for playing so well whilst a focus is placed on the comedy amongst them. The lighting and the fireworks, again were examples of technical excellence.

Picking the music, of which Britain has an enormous outpouring of immense quality, was poorly done. Too much mediocrity (Arctic Monkeys?), forgetting to emphasise quality. Picking a group to give some focus on, who are popular with a narrow age group of late teens was a mistake. A bit like whoever decided to play a recording of McCartney singing Hey Jude, whilst the man himself was performing. Luckily, despite the hour he was allowed to play on.

Overall, a very fine spectacle and something to be proud of; Let The Games Begin! (Oh, they have!)

Friday 27 July 2012

BBC By The Thames Again

Turning on the telly at lunchtime was a seriously bad idea. The BBC were broadcasting from the Thames again. It was a disaster last time and they were clearly responding to the criticism. The presenters today were from a more serious mould, had little idea what they were doing just the same, talked rubbish mostly otherwise wittering aimlessly.

But, they were talking excitedly. That was the big difference, they were absolutely bursting with excitement for the Olympics and wanted to pass that on to the audience. Clearly the state broadcaster doing its bit to big up an event of national importance. Surely no one is afraid that it might be a bit of a flop?

I think there is genuine pride with most people that Britain has the Olympics and real interest in the sport. It's just that the government and media keep asking if we are 'excited'. We are not children, though it does seem, often that politicians haven't progressed beyond that stage.

Start Of The Olympics

Today is the day of the opening ceremony for the London 2012 Olympics. the countdown clocks have almost finished their work, the stadia are ready, the athletes arrived. Tonight a spectacular show will start the Games. Well, discounting the games that happened before the Olympics started, but were part of the Olympics. Seb Coe said so. He said just before the ladies GB football team played New Zealand that this was definitely the start of the Olympics, although the opening ceremony was in two days and then the Olympics would start.

Or something. It was pure magic watching him try to claim both things and it was only because his interviewer didn't press the issue that he didn't get in a complete mess. The football always starts before the Games officially begin, it's no big deal, but because the jumped up, self interested boobies who 'run' the show make it a big deal, so they hoist themselves on their own petard.

It is entirely possible to watch and enjoy the Olympics without all this grandstanding and posturing by people who tell you they are important. But with special lanes for VIP's vehicles and all the sponsorship crap and the corruption around tickets, these people will always be around to blight the spectacle. International Olympic Cretins.

Thursday 26 July 2012

Olympics

Am I OK to mention the Olympics? Maybe the word itself is under state control. Anyway, with the British propensity for stupidity (enshrined under the hands-on leadership of Tony Blair) I reckon we can expect some cock-ups at the Games.

I must admit to being amazed the complex has been built on time and that the swimming pool hasn't turned out to be 3 feet too short. But we have had our first hiccup, although to blame London 2012 when it happened in Scotland, now the leading sector of the UK in stupidity, is perhaps a little harsh.

The North Koreans were faced with a South Korean flag. Bit of a schoolboy error that one and there is no excuse. If you aren't that good at flags, then you should already be aware you need to check and check again. If you know you are an authority on World flags and don't need to check, then you have just been exposed as an arrogant twerp. Which one is it?

What I am really expecting though is a calamity within the orbit of our wonderful armed police. Hopefully they won't be loosing off rounds, but rather limit their professionalism to mislaying their weapons perhaps, to be found by an 11 year old who has the presence of mind to use his phones' camera and also has the number for the Daily Mail.

Maybe they will get lost or turn up in numbers to guard an event the day before it is happening. Something like that. With the numbers present and with their record to date, I'm sure they will deliver. And of course with such a high profile event, senior officers will be about in abundance (it is strange how important it is for senior officers to keep an eye on the actual participants, participating), so there will be many more opportunities for them to start the stupidity.

Reports Of A Mugging

British Gas has reported a profits increase of 23%. How do you suppose they managed that? My money (literally) is on increased prices. When the government OK's mugging, you get mugged. Or to put it another way, for evil to flourish all that is required, is that a good man does nothing.

Newspeak

I know that I am just a straightforward, liberal minded person so completely out of touch with modern authoritarianism, but I still am amazed at how out of touch I am. Take the Greek athlete's tweet that saw her sent home. It was a racist tweet apparently. Here it is, tell me in what way it is racist.

'With so many Africans in Greece, at least the West Nile mosquitoes will eat home made food'.

I'm guessing that a Greek national is not allowed to have an objection to foreigners coming to her country, illegally or otherwise. She may see how their arrival in large numbers affects the finances of an already challenged country, more people chasing fewer jobs, more social benefits to pay out. Naturally, real world concerns such as these are outlawed and with good reason, as er, to believe in these things would er, probably mean resolving problems.

That can't be right. And anyway, how can the EU delete Greece as a nation state if the Greeks are proud of their country and their nationality? They really must stop seeing it as their country. You wouldn't catch a senior politician in Britain standing up for their country.

Maybe I'm wrong though. Maybe the racism is in mentioning mosquitoes, or that mosquitoes feed on blood? I don't know, the whole construct of objection is beyond me.

Always bear in mind though, that racism mainly exists in the minds of the race industry. They work very hard to ensure that you believe racism is rampant. I saw a woman on the television who was black (the universal phrase for any non-white person whatever their actual colour), who described her hair as 'Afro-Caribbean'. Listening to her, I would guess she was British, but her hair apparently has roots.

Clearly, if the logic the race industry insists on is followed, she should just say African, the belief being that all 'black' people must have come originally from Africa. Putting aside the current anthropological belief that we all came out of Africa, which kinda stunts the race industry's racism, it is a reasonable supposition. But the Caribbean bit is added as that was their most recent, historical location (even if they have no connection to the region) and they were only there of course due to slavery. White slavery.

Well, white slavery that took them there and imprisoned their lives. Their own people often sold them into slavery, or other blacks, or Arabs. But none of that is relevant; it doesn't contain the word 'white'.

Me, I don't care for the colour of skin, I care about the person. I am proud to be British and know we have many fine traditions of which we can be justly proud and anyone else who is British and believes likewise is fine by me. What I dislike is the person who comes here and orders me to bend to their will.

The Left of course use the race industry to sow discord, to undermine Western civilisation, it is just one front in their many fronted attacks upon the people who tolerate them.

I haven't ever traced my roots back through time, but I might start calling myself Norwegian British, or maybe just my hair.

Cameron's Gay Pledge

I really don't understand the eagerness of all politicians to appease the political demands of the homosexual lobbyists. It is easily as perplexing as their gullibility over Global Warming. Now Cameron is saying he will introduce 'Gay marriage' by 2015. He fears (apparently) that churches will 'lock' people out, which it would seem, he feels is more properly the role of his government.

Homosexuals should not be persecuted and that's it. There is no need for any politician to assume God like powers and claim they can change the order of the universe. The human race may one day be able to manufacture babies and that will no doubt be a marvellous step forward (you can see why sci fi films so often  use the theme of intelligent machines created by us, wiping out humans as inferior), but will not have any meaning.

Humans whether by God's will or happenchance perpetuate through sexual reproduction. Marriage is to build a unit that raises children. We already make enough of a mess of this without pretending that the world works much better with no limits or discipline placed upon it.

After decades of social meddling by Leftist morons, we are slowing coming to realise that both child and parent (and society generally) benefits when a child has boundaries imposed on it. This applies all the time everywhere and not just to a child. To fall for the communist tricks, aimed at destabilising our society and to do so repeatedly does not suggest that those so lacking in understanding, let alone moral fibre should hold positions ostensibly leading this country.

Wednesday 25 July 2012

Double Dippy Recession

News in that the UK has had another negative quarter and for once Balls is right about something. He has said that the Chancellor needs to recognise his plan isn't working and that he needs to change tack and this is right. Whilst Osborne has talked about cuts the government has continued to borrow ever more money, so the Chancellor is actually doing what Balls has always proposed; ignore the crisis and just keep spending.

This however isn't working and so Osborne must do what he said he was going to and cut back spending. He could dodge the comedy bullets of Labour and its Union controllers, by just cutting what we don't need rather than let the Leftie bureaucrats of the Blair era pick where to cut; always the important front line.

That Osborne is starting to talk of reducing subsidies to companies employing MP's (yes Tim Yeo, that means you), is a good sign but not enough. He needs to become a realist. This means asking why we are in the EU. There isn't an answer to that. Why do we believe Green lobbyists wailing about the end of the World? We didn't pay much attention when the sandwich board man said the same thing, with identical justification.

There is no Man Made Global Warming, or Climate Change, so yes, ditch all the costly crap about carbon credits, subsidy and 'renewables' and just start using shale gas. Even then we need a miracle of government to see them ensure the massive (like 50%) drop in energy costs are passed on to consumers.

Monday 23 July 2012

Damning The Conservatives

Every time (every time) a Labour government has been in power it has wrecked the country. A Conservative administration then follows and sorts things out, bringing prosperity back to the country (and usually good order too, as they do not follow the instructions of the Unions).

This has been the way of things but perhaps now we are seeing a change. Labour have very fully filled their role and left the UK in a cataclysmic mess. They ruined the finances as usual, reduced the institutions such as education to a shambles and even assisted the resurgence of Union militancy. But the Conservatives under the Labour leaning David Cameron couldn't win an election outright, so signed a coalition deal with the Lib Dems!

We are perhaps now seeing the first time a Conservative administration is not replacing Labour to save the country. That the reason for failure is blatantly obvious (lack or real Conservatism) doesn't seem to impact on the lightweight politicians of today.


Retail Ikea

I've just been to Ikea. It's OK it wasn't for me; Elder Boy is setting up home and Ikea is the store that has the most, apparently. I don't deny it has an attractive range of goods and offers attractive prices, but it is years since I had last entered a store. Saturday was the day. Oh my God.

The place is vast, which shouldn't be a concern, it is their choice and right to decide on the size of their store. But we wanted one thing, a TV stand (OK we got a clock too) and Ikea have ideas about the way you should live your life that go beyond being slavishly tied to their brand.

We took a flatbed trolley in, fought up the one-floor-at-a-time lifts and 'progressed'. At the display of the item required we couldn't find where it was in the self-service warehouse.This is another intimidating aspect of Ikea; you have to find out how the store works, how to buy things in there.

And that a wardrobe is not a wardrobe in their eyes. It is a cupboard that can be a wardrobe if you buy the appropriate fittings, which are sold separately. Maybe they should teach 'Ikea' in schools. Heck, maybe they do. A member of staff told us the warehouse location and off we went. Wheeling our trolley around corner after corner of endless displays. All stuff we had no interest in.

Then found that you cannot take a trolley such as ours down on the sloping moving floor (do they have a name?) and as the lift was out of action, abandoned the trolley and made our way down. Now to find a trolley and get the box, remembering to place it with the label showing, for the ease of the staff at the till. You rapidly come to understand on entering a store, everything is about Ikea, not you.

At the checkout the lad happily used his scanner on a wire to scan the heavy box on the trolley, but we had to put the clock on the conveyor belt to be scanned. Stupid. But we were away.

Let's be clear what is wrong with Ikea; it is a deliberate pain in the backside. No matter what you want you have to walk through the whole store, which is irritating to the nth degree and made worse by their arrows ordering your direction of travel. These don't have any impact on the morons (who it has to be said on my visit, exclusively didn't speak English) who were wandering aimlessly about, in any direction when they weren't blocking the isles with their trolleys and kids in buggies.

You actually had to make yourself known before they felt any obligation to, reluctantly it seemed, move out of the way. Ikea are responsible for this because of the store layout, forcing people to traverse the entire place and for marketing to morons.

Harsh? Maybe not. In days we no longer have, when thinking for yourself was a common activity, any store that tried to do what Ikea do would have been empty. No matter how tempting their wares, no-one would have been seen dead in a shop with such an arrogant attitude.

And that is the crux of it; people don't think for themselves these days and are happy to walk round like zombies, doing exactly what they are told, buying because it's Ikea and so must be stylish. I don't know who are the more moronic, Ikea Executives for their selfish, high-handed, rude stores, or the people who flock there and endure its insults as if they were blessings.

Don't get me wrong. A lot of what they do is fine. I have yet to find a better, cheap bookcase than Ikea's Billy. It is fit for purpose in a way even much more expensive ones aren't. But much of the 'chipboard' from which Ikea flat pack furniture is constructed is of very poor quality and the finish is sometimes barely acceptable.

If you want something you feel Ikea may be able to supply, go online and order it for home delivery. Don't ever even consider going to a store. I for one hate them and hate is a strong word.

Tuesday 17 July 2012

Flabbergasted

I have decided that the continuing appearance of a new found level of incompetence amongst the British (well, mainly it seems the public sector British) will attract the sobriquet 'flabbergasted' henceforth. And so it is I am, once again.

We have had a spate of incidents recently, where the emergency services have attended various incidents as sort of official spectators, leaving the victims very much to their own devices, in case safety rules were transgressed. But now we have a new twist. A couple have died after their car was buried under a mud slide. Our heroes in uniform (including the councils Highways department) of fluorescent yellow attended and decided it was a lot of mud, was completely blocking the road, so perhaps the road should be closed.

The genius of these people was not compromised by any thought that the road might have been being used at the time of the mud slide for the purpose for which it was designed; not by a car or, heaven help us, a dog walker. Nope, adhering to the incompetence directive essential to the consistent running of any state service, they checked for adverse outcomes as a result of the event in no way at all and went home for tea.

Not a problem though. Just a couple more deaths due to public sector incompetence. It's not something as outrageous as say, asking public service workers to actually pay for their pensions, like everyone else. It should not dent the image of the saintly people who work in the public sector (an image invented and promoted by, the public sector).

We have an inquiry if a train crashes and kills 50 people, but the NHS kills at least that many every day and we claim it is a health service the world envies (but strangely, no one has copied). I have an idea. Maybe we should require higher standards, you know, in general not just of public sector workers.

G4S

That is all you have to say, G4S. You know immediately what it refers to; a failure on Olympic security. The scandal, according to the papers rages around the lack of required numbers, who knew what, when. But what I particularly liked was that apparently, someone realised in December last year that we didn't need 2,500 security guards, but in fact 10,000. How does that happen?

To be fair to G4S they had offered roles to lazy, feckless, work-dodgers and how were they to know they wouldn't turn up for training (or even work)?

Thought for the day though; why so little fury? Security of course is one of the major obsessions of our age, you know, to prevent terrorism. But the government don't seem too fussed, or angry with G4S. The security company itself is mild in its criticism of the government and has quickly put its hands up to failings. And Labour just seem to be going through the moaning motions. There is more to this than we currently know.

Women's Football

As everyone must surely know after the continual barking of the BBC, the Olympics start on the 27th July. We expect much fanfare and bluster to accompany it. But are Locog and the IOC sexist? The women's football starts on the 25th. Do they not see it as a part of the Olympics? Not a proper evocation of sport? What?

As we see from the stupid sponsor protection and the Olympics roads, it is a corruption of the original ideal, run by complete and utter morons. Why we had to get a group of people, some of whom we used to respect, to form Locog and engage their own version of this stupidity, I cannot begin to guess.

I hope the sport survives through it and it isn't marred by more Olympic scale nonsense and triviality.

What Would Marx Have Done

Karl Marx wrote something that inspired a great many people to believe some amazing things and some to murder large numbers of people. I'm sure that is not what he meant. Marx of course was an arch sponger who deplored the idea of work (or at least, him having to do it) but was keen on wealth. Truly a New Labour man.

He believed in the inevitability of communism taking over the world. It was just one of those counter-intuitive things that excite people of a traditional 'Left' leaning. Why would any rational person believe what the Green lobbyists and activists have been saying about climate? It wasn't really based on anything and couldn't be substantiated.

Further, it was never a consensus scientific point of view, it was that those who dared speak out were vilified and threatened that held the line for this daft idea. As usual, the Left seized the institutions, here the 'scientific' media and the UN panel, before acting. Able to control the flow of information meant that they controlled minds. When has the Left not used propaganda? Hitler, as a militarist socialist used it directly and Stalin used it via the useful idiots.

And of course the fear that Marx might be right led to the depth of the Cold War and to events like Korea and Vietnam. For their part the Soviets accepted it and worked through violence to accelerate it and the West reacted strongly to contain it.

Yet communism is so at odds with human nature that it could never last itself. Sure we should always be alive to the dangers inherent in the ideology, look at the Global Warming scam and its costs, but also we should not fear it overall. It eats itself.


Wednesday 11 July 2012

Floods

Has it rained recently where you are? Bloody well has here. Thankfully the government induced 'water shortage' is over and we can use hosepipes between showers. (In case you are unaware, the cause of the water shortage in the UK is the lack of reservoir capacity. Whilst the population has grown somewhat, politicians have followed an EU edict to not increase storage capacity but, through cost increases and legislation to cause usage to fall. We need to be more efficient with our water because soon there won't be any due to global warming. No, that is seriously what they claim).

Needless to say the excessive bounty from the sky has led to flooding. Now flooding can have many causes; too much rain too quickly and existing water courses can't cope, already sodden earth cannot absorb more and so it washes over and the simple flat areas around rivers will 'flood'. The one the 'experts' like though is that patio's and decking cause floods. Well yes, because they too shrug off water.

The one thing we don't seem to hear mentioned too often though is the regularity with which planning authorities have allowed house building on known flood plains. Flood plains are those areas near rivers that are prone to inundation when rivers exceed their usual capacity. So whether it is falling for some obvious scam, like 'climate change', or allowing building in dangerous places, government incompetence and lack of oversight or care, are behind most of our problems.

And it's just started raining again.......

Tuesday 10 July 2012

Should Osborne Apologise To Balls?

After the little local difficulty between Ed Balls and George Osborne, during which Balls mistakenly suggested he has some integrity that can be impugned, a Tory MP no less calls on George to apologise. It seems that the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England has said he wasn't pressured by government to pressure Barclays to lie about their Libor rates.

So not only is the apology rooted in a government official not implicating himself, but also in something Osborne hadn't said. At what point did Osborne say that Balls had pressured Tucker? That's right, nowhere. If you don't think that the Labour government was up to its neck in this whole shebang, then you plainly are easily taken in.

Why, for instance did Gordon Brown, personally and with some urgency, talk Lloyds into taking over HBOS, before it could do proper due diligence? Not least with the bag of worms that is HBOS. There is an awful lot of Scottish involvement with the corruption of the banking system. Presumably it is the rock on which Salmond planned his future.

We haven't got to the bottom of it yet, but we know how the financial crisis was motivated. Firstly, Clinton ordered US banks to give mortgages to people who 'couldn't traditionally get one'. You will know these people as those who cannot afford a mortgage. But, taking the lead from the government, clever and very greedy banking types, came up with a scheme.

Make the mortgage affordable long enough to get a bonus for selling it. After that, who cares what happens? If the buyer can't afford it, caveat emptor. If the bank is at risk, due to non-repayment of loans, bundle the good and bad mortgages and sell them to someone else. Who cares when the music stops, when you have already unwrapped your present and are currently sunning yourself in the Bahamas?

All that was needed for this all to happen was to have supremely stupid and vain politicians in power. Clinton and Blair, that will do nicely. Easily ignored regulators, due in large part to the aforementioned and finally, bosses of banks who are so weak and lacking in quality, that they rely on bonuses whether they succeed or fail, rather than working for a living. With all this in place it was as if the cash register had been left open.

So let's hold off on the apologies, let's really pursue this matter and find out who really did what, when. And please don't recoil in shock when you find out what Labour did with Libor and much else. Mind you, for some mysterious reason we couldn't have an a proper enquiry into the murder of a government scientist, so maybe Balls is right to protest his innocence. He may never be found out.

Friday 6 July 2012

High Noon On The M6

You heard about the police response to someone having an electronic 'cigarette' on a coach on the M6 I suppose? The care-in-the-community senior officers that run policing in Britain today have very quickly pointed out that the response was 'proportionate'. They are quick to say it to hopefully plant that thought in your mind, before you think about it for yourself.

Because if that was proportionate to a no-credible-threat scenario, we must presume that if a bomb was actually known to have been on the coach, the police would have used a nuclear strike to 'neutralise the threat'. Proportionate I'm sure you'll agree.

I said above that there was no credible threat and I used this phrase because the police have said the exact opposite.To them 'some vapour' on a coach is clear evidence of a terrorist plot. Probably with the caveat that it is 'better to be safe than sorry'. Of course, bearing in mind the reckless way the police handle firearms, I don't think allowing a group of them to point guns at a coach-load of innocent people is a 'safe' option.

What the police are saying is, that Britain is a country so constantly threatened by terrorists, that anything like this has to be assumed to be a real and plausible threat. Whereas, back on this planet, the balance of probability sits firmly on the side of no likely threat. Generally, the population isn't a seething mass of bombers (evidenced by the almost complete lack of bombings) and proof of such intent needs to be firmly established.

Someone had phoned from the coach. Was it a bomb expert? No. So, you get a load of back up ready, but you stop the coach with one marked car. Previously, you have gone back to your source on the phone and told him that an officer will enter the coach and ask for 'Dave Biggar' to make himself known. The informant raises his hand and the single officer (the other waiting by the coach door) makes his way down the coach. As 'Dave' perhaps walks with the officer past the suspect he indicates and the officer grabs the man's hands, the other officer is summoned and more cars move up.

Because the suspect thinks the police are there for someone else he is not alert and should be easy to contain. This is just one idea, another might be to stop the coach because 'smoke is coming out of the wheels' as the brakes might be stuck. Whilst evacuating the coach 'for safety' the police grab the suspect.

But no, the great idea our proportionate minded police have is to deploy fire engines, erect decontamination tunnels, ambulances, armed police by the squadron and bomb disposal. Just to find out what is actually going on. It is similar to having police burst through windows and doors of a suburban semi, shouting with a helicopter hovering overhead and police dogs barking, because raised voices had been heard.

'Everything alright?' the officers would say. And once it is discovered that in fact all is in order they would troop out, without a hint of shame, merely pausing to add, 'you might want to turn your telly down a bit'.

It is clear from incident after incident that the police don't have a plan (apart from how to get to work in the morning and that is taxing enough), for any eventuality and they are supremely poor at making one up as they go. It is also quite clear that they are very, very keen on weapons and having them, want to deploy them whenever possible.

It used to be that you had to try to keep police officers from getting too excited by the blue lights and sirens, now it is the most senior officers who have a fetishistic love of drama and display. A dangerous place to be, when we also have such dilettantish politicians.


Thursday 5 July 2012

Barclays Defence


The papers were full the other day of rumours that Bob Diamond was going to unleash a righteous fury on politicians and the Bank of England.

Yet he turned out to be an insignificant pipsqueak in his own production. His repeated attempts to avoid questions by saying that he agreed a handful of traders had done reprehensible and wrong things (how many times did he feel he had to say these things?), just annoyed the Committee who told him to answer properly; they were not interested in hearing his bleatings again.

Pursued until he answered, we found that Mr. Diamond had only found out about the rate rigging this month. Yet there was a massive investigation going on, costing £100 million apparently, of which he was 'aware' (surely something that big would catch his attention? Or is £100 million really such a small matter?) and then there was the legal action against Barclays.

It was drawn from him that a matter of the bank being the subject of legal action would have been brought to the boards attention. and that the bank was in fact subject of such an action, in April, for £36 million over damage caused by rate rigging. Yet this had no impact on the wonderful Mr. Diamond?


It was also mentioned that once a trader had stood up and shouted that he was going to under quote rates and asked if anyone had a problem with that. I'm pretty sure that if there wasn't a general acceptance that this was going on, if it was not part of the culture of this bank and indeed banking in general, then I would hazard that this man would not have been so public.

The implications of this event however, seemed to entirely evade Mr. Diamond; he continued to deplore the actions of fourteen among many thousands. He was unaware of the rate rigging. He abhorred it. Similarly, he didn't seem to see any responsibility by implying that these people were acting in this horrific way, merely for their own benefit, their own greed, as if the bank, his bank, the one he ran hadn't set up the way the bonuses worked.

At every turn Diamond came across as a pretty close rendition of an idiot. In fact I feel I would make a good replacement for him; I too know nothing of the workings of Barclay's Capital but I am not a corrupt or greedy person. That puts me streets ahead I think.

Although I do have some insight into the City, anecdotal but revealing nonetheless I feel. In the Nineties I worked for a company that was a preferred recruitment supplier to Barclays Capital. They made us jump through a few hoops to get the status, as of course, they were a prestige client. So we signed a contract and they gave us regular lists of their 100+ IT vacancies.

Then the list stopped coming. We chased and chased, phoning and leaving messages but with no success. Eventually, one of the HR people took the call and said we had been removed as a preferred supplier due to non performance (we hadn't been doing well, quite honestly). I asked why no-one had called us about the issue, called us in for a meeting? She said, they didn't want to tell us because they thought we might argue! This was the powerful HR department of the prestige client Barclays Capital! And they did this even though the contract included a month's notice, which of course hadn't been honoured.

That was the quality of Barclays Capital. On another occasion I attended a 'recruitment day' at a bank (possibly Deutsche) where a succession of IT Managers talked about their departments and their needs, to a room full of recruiters (and their HR). I remember one, the Network Manager quite well. He was a right geezer. In a broad Lahndun accent he described his group. He wanted people who were motivated and talented and he kept talking about blokes, until he corrected himself saying, 'it could be a girl, if they are OK abaht a bit of banter and muck in an' 'at'.

Methinks their houses were built on sand.

Tuesday 3 July 2012

Higgs Boson

How's this for swimming against the tide? With all the news being that Cern are going to confirm they have found the Higgs Boson tomorrow, I say it doesn't exist.

We have got something fundamentally wrong with our understanding of the physical universe. The Higgs will help explain Dark Matter and the missing mass in the universe, but will it tie together Quantum physics where the large and the small don't agree?

There is no Dark Matter and the Higgs will be a chimera. If they say they have found it.

Argentina

I've been thinking about the maniacal rantings of the woman who passes as the leader of Argentina and I've come to a conclusion. I think that she is right about colonialism and that regarding Argentina it is something we should consider correct. So I suggest we give Argentina back to Spain and hopefully, it will help the Spaniards recover.

Although with Argentina's record on economic competence, it's more likely to drag them down.

Bob 'Diamond' Diamond

Iain Martin in the Telegraph today says he has a sliver of sympathy for Bob Diamond because Nick Clegg has had a go at him. Pretty stupid remark to make really, even if the actual intention was to say that Nick Clegg is wrong about everything (true though that may be). He supports his anti Clegg rant by saying (even more stupidly) that Bob Diamond built up Barclay's Capital from scratch.

Not perhaps in the same way Virgin was built from scratch. When a mainstream, 'big four' (as they were) bank decides to set up a new arm they don't start with a market stall. Anyway, enough of not very bright remarks by people who are paid for their comments.

Bob Diamond has resigned to spend more time with his lawyers. Sometime soon we are going to be treated to the vanishing job role that we always see in such cases. Bob Diamond gets paid the big bucks because he is the inspiration in the company, he makes it successful (let alone built it from scratch), right up until something untoward happens. Then, his job doesn't involve him knowing what the company does day to day or where the money comes from.

In fact you would have a job pinning down exactly what he does do at Barclays now. He once said that the buck stops with him, but I'm guessing that is not the reason he has resigned, no noble and principled stand involved. No, I'd be willing to bet that he has checked the wind and knows that this is the scandal the politicians have been waiting for.

Similar to their expenses scandal, involving as it does a sort of institutionalised theft through an entitlement belief, but one for which they can act outraged. Naturally they didn't want (nor understand) the fuss over their own misdemeanour's, but bankers make an excellent foil.

Politicians generally tried to keep a lid on the banker bashing over the financial collapse because they were too closely associated with it to make capital (no pun intended). But now, they are hoping they have a stand alone reason to attack someone, anyone to focus national anger, as a sort of cathartic process.

So Bob knows that the politicians will be happy to see him locked up and has exited the scene of the crime early. He may well even be looking for somewhere with no extradition agreement with the UK or the US, as they seem pretty annoyed too. Or won't it come to that? Is a fix under way behind the scenes?

It seems inordinately difficult to find a law that stops banks from lying and ripping off it's clients. Strange, because there are laws that cover everything the common man in the street does down to how he is permitted to think. Strange 'oversight' don't you think? Hints at that awful word collusion again does it not?

The Left has ruled the roost politically for a long time now, with a particular line in claptrap aimed at the 'failure of capitalism'. It isn't capitalism that has failed it is the rise of corporatism, which sees ultimate form the the cosy relationships of Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and the likes of Bob Diamond. We know what needs curing, it is just that the people who benefit from the corruption are the ones with their hands on the reins of power. A powerful reason as to why the parties control politics and why there is almost no difference between them.

Monday 2 July 2012

Banking

The recent 'discovery' that banks have been rigging the market they operate in has caused a storm and the politicians are outraged. After not finding anything terribly wrong in anything they have ever done themselves, politicians are seized with righteous fury over the actions of banks.

There is talk of 'something going wrong with the culture' and this is more the point than many realise I suspect. The culture of course, is based on what they think they can get away with, what the regulators will turn a blind eye to. Regulators working for the politicians. No need to wonder why the likes of Lehman's got Gordon Brown to open a new building of theirs.

The cosy nature of the relationship between big business and government has gone on too long and the greed involved is starting to spill into the light. Energy prices, the renewables subsidies, the green scam. supermarket success is all due to the love-in between the corporates and the politicians. And you pay.

Is there even the merest hint that a government might get this straightened out? What, when Cameron can't even do the right thing over the EU? Cameron would be talking of the benefits we receive from being part of a mugging-inclusive society, whilst watching a friend robbed.