Falling On A Bruise

Passing The Blame

2012-01-26T17:06:00.001Z

Official figures show that the UK economy shrank by 0.2% in the last three months of 2011 and nobody is disguising that a double dip recession is not so much feared but fully expected.
So after 4 years of recession, who's to blame for the continual failure to move us out of it?
When the economy struggled to get above zero previously, the coalition blamed the weather and then the extra bank holiday we had for the Royal Wedding but no such absurdity has been reached for so far so why is the UK economy tanking?
The Labour party claims the blame lies entirely with government policy, cutting too fast and too deep but the Government say it isn't their fault and point at the problems in Europe which is making growth difficult for the UK.
The Europeans in turn are saying it is the global recession that is doing it for them so everyone is blaming each other and there seems to be a lot of people offering advice but nothing seems to be working.
Our Government has slashed with abandoned at the public sector, attacked the welfare system with an axe and poured tens of billions of our taxes into the banking system and still we are in the deep end and have been since 2008. Four years of trying to climb out of the hole and if anything, we are further in it then when we started.
The facts are prices have gone up for the essentials such as food, energy and petrol but wages have either stayed the same or been reduced.
It does not take a masters degree in economics to realise that if prices go up the public stop buying so much of the product which result in the businesses selling less which means they put their prices up to make up the shortfall and the public cut back even more and the vicious circle continues until the inevitable recession and the bankruptcies and the job losses which that brings and we fall even further into the hole.
Rather than the Government giving tens of billions to the banks, the obvious answer seems to be to put more money into the public pocket. A one off £1000 payment to every family would spur a flurry of spending in the local community which would not only boost the economy, stop shops closing and create jobs which keep people in work, but it will still end up in the banking system anyway.
We have tried one way and it blatantly isn't working so what have we to lose going to plan B and giving another idea a try?

Taxing Times For Redknapp

2012-01-25T18:25:00.001Z

To the tune of Fools & Horses:

no income tax, no vat,
got spanked last week by man city,
future's grim,
he's looking pale,
harry redknapp's off to jail........

It was Albert Einstein who said that 'the hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax' which is a sentiment that Harry Redknapp obviously agrees with as he found it all so complicated that he just didn't bother with it.
Now the taxman has the Tottenham manager in court on charges of receiving £190,000 payment into an off-shore account set up in the name of his dog. Harry says it was a bonus, everyone else is saying he just misspelled bung especially as he has admitted to being almost illiterate saying 'You talk to anybody at the football club. I don't write. I couldn't even fill a team sheet in' which explains why Pavlyuchenko can never get a game unless there is a grown up around to help Harry hold his crayon.
As much fun as it is watching the human droopy look-a-like being kicked around by HM Revenue & Customs for tax evasion, there is a dark, sinister side to all this television coverage. I accidentally turned on the high definition while he was being interviewed on Sky News and i haven't been able to sleep for 3 nights.
Arsenal fans are especially happy to see the Spurs man in court, as are the fans of Portsmouth who he left to manage rivals Southampton before coming back amidst much sycophantic pleas to be forgiven by Portsmouth fans before trying his hardest to jump ship to Newcastle and then Tottenham when he spent all the money and the administrators come knocking.
Apart from the chant at the top of the post, there has been a distinct lack of songs about Harry's predicament and football fans are normally quick to rip a fellow manager or player apart when they are in the news.
An overweight Robbie Fowler was subjected to 'I predict a diet' and chants of 'Two Andy Gorams, there's only two Andy Gorams' greeted the Rangers goalkeeper after he was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Who does Harry Redknapp think he was concealing his finances to avoid paying tax to the British government? Tony Blair?

Now Tell Us Something We Don't Know

2012-01-23T23:26:00.002Z

Sometimes researchers discover something that isn't so much earth-shattering as just bloody obvious. So much so that if they had just asked a woman, then we could have saved them tonnes of money and hundreds of hours of research.
Unfortunately in these matters, women are the equivalent of the new Leonard Cohen CD in that nobody listens to us either.
The latest revelation courtesy of Oxford University is that men cause all the conflicts in the World. Duh.
From football violence to world wars, the cause is the male of the species, or rather their instinct for violence that helped early men which was all very well and good back in the Caveman days but in modern times translates into wars and conflicts.
In contrast to men, the female instinct is to 'tend and befriend' and seek to resolve conflicts peacefully.
The Professor behind the study, Mark van Vugt from the Institute for Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at Oxford University, observed that the same male penchant for violence is 'similar to behaviour in chimpanzees'.
So not only are men responsible for almost every war, conflict and dispute, they also act like monkeys too.
Isn’t science amazing, they found that the root of all evil isn't money or religion, it's the gender with the testicles who behave like monkey's.
Yet another reason why men should step aside and go play on the tyre swing and let women get on with running things.
No wars, no conflicts and a mandatory prison sentence for any man who missed the toilet while peeing.

Arts Olympics

2012-01-20T20:09:00.002Z

As if we can forget, London is hosting the Olympics later this year and two sports that won't be seen are baseball and softball which have both been dropped. The Olympic Committee have decided not to replace them so both the derivative of rounders become consigned to the bin of former Olympic sports along with many other events that have been discarded but once earned a shiny medal for the winners.
Events like the one won by John Hughes in 1932 who took top placing on the podium in the Town Planning discipline for his design of a recreation centre in Liverpool. Shamefully Town Planning was removed from the list of Olympic events in 1948, as was Architecture with Adolf Hoch's design for a ski jumping hill being the last recipient.
Other much missed Olympic events include Sculpture, painting (watercolours) and aeronautics.
The Europeans dominated all the music disciplines, one instrument, Orchestral and songs for choirs until it was sadly dropped in the 40's.
German Rudolf Georg Bindoing only managed a silver medal in 1928 for his dubiously entitled song 'Rider`s Instructions to his Lover' but countryman Paul Raur won the gold medal for literature four years later.
The 1928 Olympics saw the one and only appearance of Dramatic works but unusually no 1st or 3rd prizes were awarded, just silver to an Italian for his drama 'Icarus'.
The Olympic museum states that the art competitions were dropped from the Olympic program due to difficulty of determining the amateur status of the artists.
Considering that most of the athletes at the Olympics are far from amateur now, this could be a great time to reintroduce a drawing contest and Town Planning as Olympic events.

Selling Responsible Capitalism

2012-01-19T19:13:00.000Z

An oxymoron can be either when a moron wastes valuable oxygen by breathing, a moron from Oxford or phrase that has contradictory terms. In a rare perfect moment today, all three came together in perfect unison when David Cameron who just happens to be a moron from Oxford University and continues to waste valuable oxygen that could be breathed by someone who isn't an utter twonk, made a speech that the word oxymoron was invented for when he said he wanted to see 'responsible, popular capitalism'.
So after everything has fallen apart, our dear leader is trying to do a PR job on capitalism, to make it all warm and cuddly. Rainbows and lollipops for everyone so we all feel better about things while the people who make the big money carry on making the big money because if capitalism is to survive, people have to believe it is a system worth supporting and while the evidence around us is boarded up shops, massive unemployment and bankers continuing to receive million pound bonuses, it won't be an easy sell.
So how does Dave spin us this vision of capitalism that will change it's evil perception and have us all clambering to back it?
How about.....hmm, that won't work.......maybe if he put it this way...nope......he could point out...boy, they wouldn't go for that....there's always....no, forget that.....no chance of that either......nobody would swallow that for a second....put the coffee pot on Dave, it's gonna be a long session!

Queenies Present

2012-01-17T23:39:00.005Z

Queen Elizabeth II will have been our monarch for 60 years this summer and the Government have been mulling over ideas of what to give the monarch to celebrate this feat, though they have kept one eye the austerity measures they have introduced because we have no money. Heaven forbid they are seen lavishing money on a family we already pay millions a year.
My idea of a £5 book token for Waterstones fell at the first hurdle but the education secretary, Michael Gove, has come up with a corker, a new royal yacht.
In a leaked letter, he explained that 'In spite, and perhaps because of the austere times, the celebration should go beyond those of previous jubilees and mark the greater achievement that the diamond anniversary represents. I feel strongly that the diamond jubilee gives us a tremendous opportunity to recognise in a very fitting way the Queen's highly significant contribution to the life of the nation and the Commonwealth. My suggestion would be a gift from the nation to her majesty; thinking about David Willetts's excellent suggestion of a royal yacht'.
The obvious, and correct, reaction to this news is to spit coffee out your nose while spluttering 'WHAT THE CHUFF!!!' at the thought of us plebs shelling out £60 million so the head of the richest family in the UK can swan off around the World on a luxury liner.
Lizzie has an estimated fortune of £349 million according to the Forbes rich list and it was only a few years ago that she was holding out her hand for the funds to fix Windsor Castle after a fire and the country rose up as one and told her to pay for it herself.
David Cameron, probably because he is not as simple as he looks, has said that no taxpayers money will be used to pay for the yacht and the £60 million will come form private funding. I assume that would be the same people who constantly whine about having to pay the 50p tax rate which goes to help us all but will not hesitate to put towards a yacht for the pampered pensioner and her workshy family.
Maybe a nicer gift would be for her to donate £60million from her fortune to her subjects, the ones who have kept her and her many stately homes, so we can keep open a few hospitals or build some schools. Considering she hasn't even given us as much as a park bench over the past 60 years, it's about time she dipped into her royal pocket.
Failing that i'd settle for Michael Goves and David Cameron's head on a pike outside Buckingham Palace.

Galaxy Song

2012-01-16T17:58:00.003Z

Every now and then the BBC will turn up a programme so good that we forget just how much we resent paying the TV licence fee, almost.
One such show is tonight and for the next two nights with Stargazer, where the mystery's of the universe are shoved before our eyes and some clever dick with a white coat and pens in his top pocket explains it all.
That's what i love about this types of show, the sheer size and speed of everything in the universe that makes it hard to comprehend.
Astronomy is fascinating, but sometimes it isn't easy to get your head around and it doesn't help when scientists talk about something being light years away because many of us don't really have a concept of light years and even if you know that a light year is about 6 trillion miles, it still doesn't really register because it is just too large a number.
So how can we make sense of all this?
As usual, we turn to Monty Python to explain things and although some of their figures are not strictly 100% accurate, they are close enough.

Why Saudi Arabia Dave?

2012-01-14T19:19:00.002Z

Our very own Dave Cameron is in that hotbed of Democracy Saudi Arabia and agreeing to 'strengthen co-operation with Saudi Arabia and discuss the importance of the UK-Saudi bilateral relationship' Downing Street have said.
So why is David Cameron devoting so much time and energy to Saudi Arabia?
After all, a brief glance at our balance sheet shows that it is hardly one of our biggest trading partners, it comes in a lowly 24th, buying a tad over 1% of our exports, far less than places like Turkey or Poland.
The Saudi's don't make the list of the top 25 import sources and we get the vast majority of our oil from Norway and import more of the black stuff from Azerbaijan than Saudi and i have yet to hear of the Prime Minister dashing off to Baku for top level trade meetings.
So why the dash to Riyadh?
Saudi Arabia is the second largest buyer of UK arms, £15 billion annually, and this is important to the Saudi's because otherwise they couldn't support the regime next door in prosecuting doctors and nurses for treating those injured by the very same guns and armoured vehicles.
The Arab spring uprising that we chose to ignore because rather awkwardly, we are supplying the arms to allow them to do it.
There you go Azerbaijan, if you want the British PM to turn up on your doorstep promising to strengthen co-operation with you, or even want to violently put down an uprising, buy our guns.

Amen

2012-01-13T19:13:00.004Z

Our father, who art in heaven, hello be my name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in....oh, hello, you caught me in the middle of my evening prayer. I will finish it later because, to be honest, i don't know the rest of it but i know bread comes into it somewhere but i really should learn the rest of it, particularly as i am a fully ordained minister now.
Yep, i am part of the God bothering crowd now and according to the blurb that came with my free online ordination, i can perform marriages, funerals, baptisms, ceremonial rites, and last rites. I can even start my own church but it is the last two things that being an ordained minister brings that i am most excited about.
Firstly, i can use the title Reverend, Minister, Healer or Educator but the most exciting part is i can absolve others of their sins!
How cool is that, i get to hand out forgiveness and the hail Mary's.
Want to get to heaven but have broken some of the commandments? Took the Lords name in vain while coveting your neighbours wife on the Sabbath? Come see rev Lucy and i'll get you upstairs with the big guy.
My certificate only lasts a year so be quick and get those confessions in early to avoid disappointment.
Amen

Prodding Iran

2012-01-11T23:30:00.000Z

After a decade of military failure in Afghanistan and Iraq, destabilisation of Pakistan and Yemen and slaughter from the skies in Libya, you might hope the US and its friends would have had their fill of invasion and intervention in the Muslim world.
Apparently not because America's best and most out of control friend, Israel, has been stepping up the stealth war against Iran and have been continuing a campaign of assassinations of Iranian scientists, today's assassination being the fifth in the past 2 years.
Iran has pointed the finger at the US and Israel for the murders although Washington deny any involvement, Israel have declined to comment but comes after Israel recently warned Iran 'would undergo more things which take place in an unnatural manner.'
Today's assassination came courtesy of a magnetic bomb attached to the scientists car, a tried and trusted method as it was the same use of magnetic bombs delivered by motorcyclists used in killing the other scientists who worked within the Iranian nuclear facilities.
The latest murder comes at a time of high tension between Iran and the West with the US declaring it will prohibit the global financing of the Iranian oil trade and Iran reacting by threatening to close the strait of Hormuz and cutting off a fifth of the world's oil supply.
Just like with Iraq, we are seeing a ratcheting up of the pressure on Iran and the softening up of public opinion as the threat of another war looms larger despite the case against Iran being so fantastically thin.
There is no evidence that Iran is engaged in a nuclear weapons programme as the US, UK and Israel claim so definitively and the IAEA have once again failed to produce a smoking gun, despite the best efforts of its new director general, Yukiya Amano, who was exposed by Wikileak's as being described by American diplomats as being 'one of us when it comes to Iran'.
The sense of de je vu fills the air. Can it really happen again? Israel, as they have proved in Palestine time and time again, care very little about the civilian deaths they cause, but can America and Britain really be gung ho for a repeat of Iraq or Afghanistan where over a million people were killed for no benefit whatsoever outside of the military suppliers and oil industry?
The propaganda campaign against Iran has now gone so far that even outright murder of Iranian civilians, illegal under international law, is no longer condemned.
The latest Israeli attack is another attempt to provoke Iran until it retaliates which in turn will give warmongering America and its sycophantic British poodle and the vile, murderous Israeli Government the ultimate excuse to send in the troops so if Iran is not building nuclear weapons, it clearly needs to so it can protect its citizens from being wiped off the face of the earth by the usual nations who seem to not be able to satisfy their war lust.

Waving Scotland Goodbye

2012-01-10T22:51:00.004Z

Kingdoms are run by kings, empires by emperors and now Scotland is hoping to be a country which means, ironically enough, it will be run by Alex Salmon who is looking to wrench the cold and wet bit at the top of Britain away from the rich bit down the bottom.
I'm all for Scotland going it alone, i will be waving it goodbye as it removes the Union Flag and hoists the Saint Andrew's Cross in its place, hopefully just as they realise that they might have made a bit of a boo boo.
As an independent country, we would have a perfect excuse to send back all the Scottish languishing down here taking all our jobs, claiming benefits etc etc.
Rod Stewart, you can have him back and the Krankies. Andy Gray can pack his tartan suit case and Billy Connelly, Ewan McGregor, Alan Hansen and Annie Lennox can all clamber back onto your side as well. David Tennant can stay if he likes though.
We can also say goodbye to having to listen to the Scottish football scores because we really care that East Stirlingshire beat Berwick Rangers and it solves our problem of having to shoehorn in 4 Scottish players into our British Olympic football team.
No more of those god awful Scots Guards bagpipe tunes so yep, it's a win win for us except for now having to store our own Weapons of mass destruction somewhere, hang on, we still have Northern Ireland so problem solved. Cya Scotland.

He's Saying What We All Think

2012-01-09T20:36:00.001Z

Obama on Chavez: 'We’re concerned about the government’s actions, which have restricted the universal rights of the Venezuelan people, threatened basic democratic values, and failed to contribute to the security in the region'.

Chavez to Obama: 'You know what, Obama? I feel sorry for you. Just ask the black communities of your country what you mean to them. You are the greatest disappointment of recent years. Go ask the poor people of your country. You are a great disappointment to them'.

The fat South American has got you there Barack and as Mr Chavez delivers free heating oil each winter for 500,000 poor Americans living in low-income neighborhoods and shelters throughout your country, you should be a bit nicer to him as he is picking up your slack!

Implant Profiteering

2012-01-07T16:38:00.004Z

I don't like to keep venting my spleen about how the the economic system that dictates our daily lives seems to be rotten to the core, i want to be writing posts poking fun at Australia or wagging my finger at Americans for actually wanting a country full of gun owners but when it's a constant stream of multinational corporations getting away with tax dodging to the tune of billions or bankers awarding themselves billions in bonuses as people all over the world plunge into poverty and unemployment it's hard to resist.
As i have said countless times here, the system is terminally flawed so that the only conclusion is the capitalist system is no longer serving the human species well and we need a better way of organising ourselves where the interests of more people become relevant and greed is of lower importance.
Before you sigh and say the communist hippy is off on one of her unsubstantiated anti-capitalism rants again, the implant furore makes my point for me.

French firm Poly Implant Prothesis have admitted filling their implants with industrial silicone to cuts costs and then hid what they were doing from inspectors.
Jean-Claude Mas, founder of PIP, told police: 'From 1997 onwards we hid the products used to make the PIP gel. I wasn't allowed to buy these products because they were not authorised. We organised everything to escape being monitored'.
The PIP gel cost £4 a litre while the authorised American gel Nusil was £35 a litre although the implants cost remained the same.
When the deceit was uncovered and Mas was asked about the women who claimed to have suffered health problems after being fitted with the sub-standard implants, he replied: 'The victims are only suing to get money … I have nothing to say to them'.
Investigations have found there is a possible association with leaking PIP implants and a rare form of cancer which have affected 11 French women who had these implants fitted and an investigation has been launched in France into charges of manslaughter and unintentional injury against PIP who are already facing charges of aggravated deception.
The French government have announced they would foot the bill for tens of thousands of breast implant removals, amid cancer fears while the British Government have said that women who are concerned about breast implants made by PIP will be able to have them removed for free by the NHS if they were put in by the NHS due to reconstruction surgery but if the implants were due to cosmetic surgery, the women will have to return to the private clinic where they had the initial operation to arrange for them to be removed or replaced.
The reply from the private clinics? A number of private clinics are resisting removing the implants for free, saying they will go under if they have to fund surgery, while others are charging women thousands of pounds to have the substandard implants taken out or replaced.

Proof once again that profit making is king and any health concerns, from the cynical gross negligence of PIP to the exploitative opportunism of the private clinics, is a secondary concern.
As for the Conservative idea of privatisation of the NHS, this should kill that stone dead because it is proof that the NHS may not be perfect, but it is a hell of a lot better than the money grabbing private sector where the ability to pay is the only factor in deciding if you get any treatment.

Overrated People

2012-01-05T22:23:00.006Z

The BBC are going all out to cause an argument by offering up a dozen of the most overrated people in history and it's quite an impressive list.
They may be among the most famous figures from history, but the likes of Henry V, Charles Darwin, Oscar Wilde, Napoleon, Malcom X and Winston Churchill just don't hack it so far as the historians who were consulted are concerned.
I'm sure the last two will strike the most debate but history is littered with people who i have always thought received plaudits far in excess of that they deserved and would have made my personal overrated list.
People like Vincent Van Gogh who sold just one painting to a relative while alive and it is obvious to see why. Another painter that i never understood why everyone thought so highly of was Picasso.
Further back in history, just why is Columbus so highly regarded? He thought he was in India and why is Oliver Cromwell regarded in such high esteem that he is worthy of a statue in Westminster? He was such a tyrant that he banned pretty much everything including Christmas, sport and make-up.
Elizabeth II is one of our most loved Monarchs but apart from a bit of waving, what else does she contribute? Princess Diana was the 'Peoples Princess' but was off bonking rugby players, surgeons and assorted ginger haired army officers while complaining about Charles making eyes at his former girlfriend.
Thomas Edison is credited with many new discoveries but mostly stole them from other people as did Marconi who it is widely considered invented the wireless radio but just nicked the idea from Tesla and used his friends in high places to void Tesla's original patent and history remembers the sneaky Italian as the radio inventor.
Joan of Arc is a hero in France but all she did was pick up a sword, get caught and set on fire by the English.
There are many modern day people who have me scratching my head over just what other people see in them.
Never could stand Bono or Phil Collins and what is so good about Mick Jagger? Or Jim Carey?
Obama still has some fans although they are dwindling fast but my all time overrated person has to be Jerry Seinfeld, as funny as Winston Churchill was sober.

Film To Avoid

2012-01-04T23:41:00.002Z

If there is one film to avoid this year, it is this one - The Iron Lady - coming to cinemas January 6th. Certificate 18 - contains scenes of a Conservative government that some people may find distressing

The numpty Tories among us will be wetting themselves in anticipation of a film about General Pinochet's best buddy but the rest of us with act with dignity and decorum and just satisfy ourselves with vandalising the movie posters.
Besides, she was such a figure of hate that even the distance of time has failed to soften her image but at least it gives us a chance to dig out all those old Maggie Thatcher jokes that have lain dormant since 1991.

The Pope and Margaret Thatcher are on the same stage in front of a huge crowd.
The Prime Minister and His Holiness, however, have seen it all before, so to make it a little more interesting, Maggie says to the Pope, 'did you know that, with just one little wave of my hand, I can make every Conservative in the crowd go wild?'
He doubts it, so she shows him. Sure enough, the wave elicits rapture and cheering from every Conservative in the crowd. Gradually, the cheering subsides.
The Pope, not wanting to be out done by such a level of arrogance, considers what he could do.
'That was impressive, but did you know that, with just one little wave of my hand, I can make every person in the crowd go crazy with joy? This joy will not be a momentary display, like that of your subjects, but will go deep into their hearts and they will forever speak of this day and rejoice.'
Thatcher seriously doubts this and says so. 'One little wave of your hand and all people will rejoice forever? Show me.'
So the Pope punched her.

Choices For The America Voters

2012-01-03T22:17:00.004Z

American kids grow up hearing that anyone can become President and 43 people have done it so far so as the Presidential race begins proper in Iowa tonight, just what do the American kids of today have to do to get the keys to the White House tomorrow?
Most obvious is be male and white as all have been men and 42 of the 43 different men have been white.
Holding a law degree is an advantage as out of the 43 presidents, 25 have been lawyers and make use of the razor as America has only had five presidents with facial hair and the last one was 99 years ago.
Mostly, what you need is money and lots and lots of it.
All of the candidates aiming for the White House in 2012 are extremely wealthy, not one of them has less than a couple of million dollars loitering in their personal bank accounts which puts them all in the 1% that the 99% have been protesting against recently.
The chances are that Obama will stay in the seat and his personal fortune of $10m means he can continue to understand the pressures of the 4 million Americans who earn below, or equal to, the minimum wage who struggle to pay their bills each month.
The favourite among the Republicans is Mitt Romney who has a personal wealth of $250m which of course won't deter him from feeling the hurt of the 45 million Americans living in poverty.
A surprise second choice is Dr Ron Paul who is worth $5m and as a doctor, who better to understand the worry of the 50 million Americans who cannot afford Health Insurance.
Rick Santorum may be worth $2m and live in luxurious Penn Hills, Pennsylvania but his real concern is probably the 672,000 homeless Americans.
The 13.5 million unemployed Americans can be assured that if elected, they will be in the thoughts of Newt Gingrich who has amassed a fortune of $30.1 million although he hasn't actually ever been unemployed or had to pawn his jewelery to pay for food.
Likewise Jon Huntsman who is worth $71m but you know despite having no experience of the depressing situation of having his house repossessed unlike the 1 million + Americans in 2010, he will be doing all he can to alleviate your pain.
Less likely to be top of the tree come the end of the year are Michele Bachmann with an estimated wealth of $2.15m or Rick Perry who has a healthy $3 million in his bank account but rest assured Americans, that whichever of these incredibly wealthy people you vote for, they will be doing the very best they can for you because who better than a member of the multi-millionaire 1% to empathise when you lose your house, savings, job or fall ill.

Depleting Our Non-Renewable Resources

2012-01-01T23:54:00.005Z

In the latter stages of the Twentieth Century, the Environmentalist message that we are destroying our planet with man made emissions raised public awareness so that we have now reduced the amount of emissions we pour into the atmosphere.
There are some who disagree that we are responsible, the oil companies for example, but maybe it is too little too late as the globe continues to warm but while we have been concentrating on renewable forms of energy such as solar and wind, we have been merrily depleting our non-renewable natural resources and the problem with non-renewable resources, as the name implies, once they are gone they are gone for good.
We know about the dwindling supplies of oil and gas and how the easy to reach sites are running dry which means having to drill wells many miles under the sea-floor to access what's left but there are plenty of other natural resources that we take for granted that are close to exhaustion.
So just how much of these resources that are used in the manufacture of everyday items have we got left left to work with?
All the figures are based on known and estimated reserves and assume current consumption stays the same. Of course, more reserves may be discovered in the future but the figures do not take into account the rising world population which is projected to rise rapidly.

Silver: 13-29 years worth
Indium: 13-18 years worth
Palladium: 15-20 years worth
Gold: 17 -45 years worth
Tin: 17-40 years worth
Zinc: 17 - 46 years worth
Lead: 20-42 years worth
Copper: 31 -67 years worth
Uranium: 32 - 59 years worth
Nickel: 40 -90 years worth
Platinum: 56 - 360 years worth
Natural Gas: 60-70 years worth
Iron: 70-80 years worth
Cobalt: 100- 112 years worth
Tantalum 116 -120 years worth
Aluminum: 150-1000 years worth
Coal: 100-150 years worth
Phosphorus 300-400 years worth
Lithium 400-600 years worth

This is not to say that we will be completely out of indium which goes into making our flat screen televsions or palladium used in our cars catalytic converters within a couple of decades, but as we presently have no new source for it, when there is no more to be mined, we will have to make do with whatever resources we can scrape together through recycling or find new ways of creating essential things like batteries, wiring, dental crowns and plumbing.
What with the devastated environment and the depleted resources, it does make you wonder what future generations are going to make of what we have left for them to inherit.

Sources
US Energy Information Administration
U.S. Geological Survey
Scientific American
New Scientist
Science et Vie
Environmental Thinker

2012 Psychic Predictions

2012-01-01T17:54:00.002Z

When someone declares that they are the Psychic that all other American Psychics go to for help, then you know that LaMont Hamilton has to be good so he is the obvious choice to see what we can expect to happen in 2012.
His biography on the World Psychic Website tells us that LaMont is respected all over the world as a top Clairvoyant/Psychic and he has been having psychic experiences since he was 8 years old and considering that he charges $65 for email consultations and $55 for a half hour phone reading, and he offers his services to any United States Federal/State/Military Agency that would like to employ his services to Protect the interest of the United States of America or its Constitutional Citizens, i have high hopes for him.
So on to the predictions:

#1: Accident seen around US President Obama as he trips or falls in the early months of 2012.
#2: Iranian revolution seen in 2012 where Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad removed from power.
#3: Japan embroiled in dispute with China where military action will be threatened against Japan or a partial Naval blockade will occur.
#4: Threats or a rumor of an assassination attempt against Nicolas Sarkozy in a foreign land will be reported.
#5: Russia will encounter two setbacks in its space program in 2012 due to accidents or explosions with their launch vehicles.
#6: South Africa will prosper after the discovery of a major new gold/diamond mine.
#7: President Barack Obama will face conservative Republican, Mitt Romney as the US Presidential choice after the 2012 primary elections.
#8: Iran will see a nuclear related explosion to one of its 2 reactors this year due to an accident or sabotage.
#9: A conflict or battle in outer space will occur this year between 2 countries, most likely involving Russia or Iran.
#10: French President Nicolas Sarkozy & wife Carla will have a new son.

We will come back in 12 months to see how many Mr Hamilton has got right and whether any US States Federal/State/Military Agencies that have handed over money to him for his services have been rolled over.

2011 Predictions Results

2011-12-30T17:13:00.000Z

2011 was all about the Arab Spring, Japans earthquake, Anders Breivik, the Libyan War, Amy Winehouse dying and the London Riots. Fair enough, all major events i agree but 2011 was so much more than overthrowing Arab leaders and teenagers stealing trainers from JJB so it's that time again, where we need to look back at what we were told to expect in 2011 and how the predictors fared.

I don't recall any bookies offering odds on Charlie Sheen losing the plot and locking a prostitute in a cupboard but the bookies did make a lot of predictions about other stuff.

The ones they got correct were New Zealand to win the rugby World Cup, Barcelona to win the Champions league, Manchester United to win the Premier League, Sebastian Vettel to take the Formula 1 Championship. They also got right that Beyonce would announce her pregnancy, Michael Higgins would win the Irish election, the Icelandic volcano Grimsvotn will erupt and The King's Speech would win the best picture oscar and Colin Firth would pick up the best actor gong.

What they got completely wrong was Manchester City to bring home the Europa League Cup, Wolves to be relegated, Ralph Nadal to win both the US Tennis Open and Wimbledon with the New England Patriots bringing home the Superbowl. They also incorrectly predicted the winners of the Bulgarian and Danish elections and the the UK Government didn't fold. They also got wrong the colour of the Queens hat
at Will & Kates wedding and Annette Bening did not pick up the best actress Oscar.

Call me picky but it seems they go the big ones right but i think we could have guessed the big prizes going to New Zealand, Barcelona, Manchester United and Kings Speech.

Not a great return , i was expecting a few more hits so it's back to the psychics for the 2012 predictions.

Don't Come Back Thierry

2011-12-29T15:41:00.002Z

Everyone has a secret singer or band that they listen to when they think nobody else is around although would never admit to being a fan unless they were having their toenails removed with pliers.
I came out as a Billy Joel fan a while back, a legacy of having parents who would continually play the Piano Mans albums on a permanent loop in my formative years.
One of my favourite Billy Joel songs is 'Scenes from an Italian Restaurant', mainly because halfway through it changes to a completely different song and then ends up back where it started and the two in one songs always seem to appeal to me. A decent psychiatrist would probably be able to explain what that means but in this particular Billy Joel song about Brenda and Eddie in the summer of '75, there is a line about you never being able to go back again and if i could somehow get a song into Thierry Henry's head, it would be this one with that particular line repeated over and over again.
When Thierry left Arsenal for Barcelona in 2007 he was a legend, the club's top goal-scorer of all time and top of the Arsenal greatest players poll.
Now 4 years later and aged 34 Thierry is considering a two month loan spell with Arsenal while on a end of season break with MLS side New York Red Bulls.
As much as i would love to see Thierry Henry in an Arsenal kit again, i really wish he would decline the offer and keep his legend status intact.
Some Arsenal fans may disagree with me but the Thierry Henry of 2011/12 is very much different to the prolific Thierry Henry that we remember marauding down the left wing before cutting inside and curling the ball beyond the reach of the goalie.
I want to remember the Theirry Henry running the length of the pitch before tiptoeing through the Tottenham defence and almost taking the net off the goal-frame or the Henry flicking up and volleying the ball into the Manchester United goal from the edge of the box.
What i don't want to see is the Thierry Henry spend January and February with half the pace he once had struggling in games that he would have dominated in his pomp which will taint his image amongst Arsenal fans who have already seem to have the Thierry Henry rose tinted glasses on.
It is a lose-lose situation for you Thierry, all you can do is diminish your perfect reputation amongst Arsenal fans so please take the hint from Billy Joel and don't go back as you belong with Bergkamp, Ljungberg, Petit and Viera in another era and that time is passed.

NHS Disappearing Under Tories

2011-12-28T15:19:00.003Z

Not for nothing are the Conservative Party known as the nasty party and as expected, they are living up to their reputation of hacking away at everything good and then selling it off to their friends.
Remember the pre-election pledge that the NHS was safe in their hands, Cameron even used his disabled son as proof that the NHS would be safe in his hands, well that was 19 months ago and their pledge immedialty fell by the wayside as the Government forced tens of billions of NHS cuts which closed hospitals, made nurses redundant and closed support facilities.
A recent Guardian poll shows that 79% of Health Professionals state that NHS cuts have had a detrimental affect on patient care and many see this as a taste of things to come as the NHS gets run down, sliced and diced and then the most financially profitable bits privatised just like the Prison Health Contract.
This was once supplied by the NHS, then its £53m contract was awarded to Care UK, a private health company who it later emerged had made a £200,000 donation to the Tories before the election, including £21,000 to Health Secretary Andrew Lansley, the very man in charge of awarding the Prison Health contracts.
Now Mr Lansley's latest wheeze is to let the NHS raise up to 49% of their money from private work, meaning even longer waiting times as those who have paid for their operations take priority in the allocation of beds.
A two-tier system with those who can afford to pay being given priority over those less well off but nobody can pretend to be surprised that the Tories are back to their bad old ways of privatising everything and using the cover of austerity measures to achieve it. They even tried selling off the forests a while back until a public backlash forced them to rethink the strategy.
The National Health Service was always the big one and Cameron and his buddies were always going to find a way to cut off the good bits and sell it off to their pals and donors.
Just hope that public outrage forces the Conservatives on another U-Turn but that's unlikely as this is the holy grail of Tory ideology, an American style health system where your ability to pay decides the treatment, if any, that you receive.
Any ring-fencing has been around the banks and not the NHS, Cameron even jeopardised our future in Europe to avoid any regulation of them, which should be enough to go on for any sane voter at the next election.

Sanitising The Image Of The Military

2011-12-27T23:26:00.005Z

The UK Christmas Number One this year was 'Wherever You Are' by the Military Wives, a feat that the brainchild Gareth Malone said showed that 'The support of the British military has been fantastic' but to me shows just another step in the unhealthy propaganda to normalise the view our military and their ill-advised adventures.
Recently there are soldiers everywhere in the media, on talent shows, being paraded before football matches, being squeezed and fawned over by celebrities in photo opportunities and rattling Help for Heroes collection buckets at us in town centres.
I have always felt a bit uneasy with the term 'Hero' when it comes to describing the military, victims always seemed more appropriate because there was nothing heroic about the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan and the soldiers being killed and maimed are victims of the politicians decisions to send them into wars they had no place in being involved in.
When the Iraq War first began, there was an attempt by the more war hungry around us make anyone who criticised the war to appear somehow unpatriotic and paint all our brave boys as heroes.
It didn't work then but gradually the military has become part of our everyday life and as the duplicity and lies of the inception of the wars fade further into memory, an acceptance has evolved that what we did in Iraq and are still doing in Afghanistan is a good and decent thing.
The Afghanistan War has been going on for so long that i have teenagers who were mere toddlers at the time of the Wars outbreak asking me what it was all about. They are told to blindly support the troops but have no idea why.
The reasons behind the wars are no longer discussed, nor the reason why we continue to be there, just the propaganda that we must blindly support the troops who are there for our benefit defending our freedoms and protecting our way of life which is jingoistic nonsense.
The integration of the military into our everyday lives is a cynical ploy by the government and sectors of the media to sentimentalise the military, cast us as the good guys and stop us questioning the real issues of why we are there.
To read a newspaper today or watch a news broadcast, you wouldn't know that we were currently at war so maybe what we need are a few more reminders of the violence, death and destruction of War and to not allow a sanitised image of what the military do, and what our politicians did, to take hold in the public eye.

Joyeux Noel

2011-12-23T18:19:00.004Z

Almost Christmas Eve and tomorrow i will be busy making sure bells are jingled and dongs dinged merrily so will be unable to get near the computer so i wish to echo glam rocker and professional sideburn wearer extraordinaire Noddy Holder in saying Merry Christmas Everybody!
Hope everyone has a great Christmas and see you all the other side of Boxing Day and remember fella's, KEEP THE RECEIPT!

Banning Suarez

2011-12-21T17:59:00.007Z

The reaction from Liverpool to Luis Suarez's eight match ban for 'using insulting words about the colour of Manchester United's black defender Patrice Evra' is a confusion of mixed messages.
In a statement, they say that they are 'disappointed' with the 'extraordinary decision' to find Suarez guilty of aiming racist abuse at black player Patrice Evra. Manager Kenny Dalglish even tweeted that Suarez would get his full support while stating that Liverpool stand against any form of discrimination.
Suarez's defence was that he calle Evra 'negrito', Uruguayan for 'little black man' and that in Uruguay, it is not offensive.
Maybe if he had been in Uruguay when he said it he might have a defence but he was in England, where it is deeply offensive to call someone anything which may be interpreted in a racist way and it is never for the speaker to deem what is racist or not, that is dependent on the hearer and how they interpret it.
His claim that it was aimed at Evra in a friendly, amicable way further strains credibility as it came during the heat of battle between two fierce footballing rivals.
Facts are, despite what Kenny Dalglish and all the bone headed Liverpool fans are saying on the news boards, Suarez DID use insulting words about the colour of another player and admitted it himself so he is fully deserving of an eight match ban. To try and justify it or explain it away with cultural differences is nonsense and Dalglish is taking a risk in defending Suarez so vigorously and so frequently especially as he has now been found guilty of racist abuse.
If they, and Suarez, are serious about their claims they'll launch a civil case against Evra for defamation and slander and if not, then shut up, and stop backing someone who whispers racial slurs to black players on the football pitch. If he appeals, i hope it's extended.
Talking of which, I wonder how another premiership footballer is feeling on hearing this verdict. If Suarez got an eight match man when the only evidence you used racist language is one person's word, he must wonder what he is in for when the whole world has clearly seen you shouting it especially as 'I have many black friends so i can't be racist' is his latest defence.

Kim Jong Il now Kim Jong Dead

2011-12-19T14:19:00.003Z

Amused me no end that on the death of Kim Jong Il, all everyone wanted to do was talk about him being ronery and making jokes about Kim Jong il now being Kim Jong dead.
It almost seems fitting that one of Kim Jong Il's final rantings was to threaten to shoot at the South Korean tower that was shaped like a Christmas Tree.
He may well have left nuclear armed North Korea diplomatically isolated and economically broken but when it comes to evil masterminds, this guy was a gift that kept on giving.
A tyrant he may have been but the safari suit, huge geek glasses and platform shoes condemned him to never being taken seriously although he had the capability to wipe out most of the countries around him.
Now his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, has taken up the reins and the heavily militarised country has been left in the hands of what looks like a pudgy 12-year-old.
It is not known if Kim the younger has inherited his fathers golfing skills who once shot 11 holes-in-one in a single round on a North Korean golf course in 1994, a feat witnessed by his 17 security guards who verified the accomplishment so it must be true.
The World may have one less evil tyrant polluting it and some will concentrate on his human rights abuses while others will want to discuss the possible implications and uncertainties of a transfer of power to his son but most of us will just be humming the 'I'm So Ronery' song.

Bye Chris

2011-12-16T20:28:00.003Z

There were many things to admire about Christopher Hitchens, his sharp mind and even sharper writing skills were as good as anything i have ever seen in journalism, but it was his mile wide maverick streak that i found most compelling.
To go from a hard left Trotskyist to a right wing George W Bush admirer is not an easy trip to make but if you could overlook the betrayal, he was always a great read and one of the most provocative, arrogant and entertaining intellectuals of his generation.
Whether you disliked his brash and smug personality, disagreed with his beliefs or found his fondness for attempting to obliterate his opponents vulgar, the loss of such a cerebral speaker is a loss for us all in today's dumbed down society.
I agreed with his views on religion and the Palestinians, cringed at the way he pandered to the Bush administration and bristled at his support for America's wars but never did i turn off a show that he was appearing on.
The right wing were right not to embrace him too firmly because he was always liable to turn on his own, his strong criticism of the rights darling Ronald Reagan and the onslaught against religion proved that.
Stephen Fry probably summed it up when he said 'Goodbye, Christopher Hitchens. You were envied, feared, adored, reviled and loved. Never ignored. Never bested. A great and marvellous man'.
A magnificent bastard indeed.

Time Got It Right

2011-12-15T17:54:00.003Z

Time magazine has named The Protester as its person of the year for 2011 which is probably a decent choice considering the amount of protests there have been around the World this year.
The Arab Spring should be singled out as the most far reaching with a posthumous mention for Mohamed Bouazizi who was the Tunisian street vendor who set himself on fire for having his fruit cart confiscated by the authorities which acted as the catalyst for the Tunisian revolution and the wider Arab spring.
So if Time got it right and pretty much everyone i asked has agreed, and the protesters are a clear winner for the person the of the year, maybe we should be looking for a villain of the year and 2011 gave us a good choice of candidates.
Rupert Murdoch and his newspapers hacking of dead and missing children's phones was a particular low point but Colonel Gaddafi was much maligned and then much murdered this year so he must be in with a shout.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been shooting protesters since April and Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik took his right wing politics to a youth camp and then opened fire on the unarmed adolescents present, killing 69.
All bad guys but in keeping with the Time award of handing the award to a group rather than an individual, the villains of the year must go to the 1% for contributing so little to keeping this World ticking over so peacefully and fairly.

Obama Rewriting History

2011-12-14T23:16:00.004Z

The Iraq war is over Barack Obama has declared with Americans troops leaving behind 'a solid, stable, representative Iraq. The greatest fighting force in the world was leaving Iraq with its head held high.'
The election campaign is swinging into action and this is exactly what is needed, a nice healthy dose of drivel to obscure the fact that the whole thing has been a disaster.
Maybe Obama didn't get to hear of the car bombs going off yesterday in Tal Afar or the shootings in Baghdad and Mosul or, more likely, he conveniently overlooked them. Democracy is messy as Donald Rumsfeld told us and so is this attempt to rewrite history.
The truth is to those of us who remember the events of 2003, the Iraq Invasion was folly from start to finish and how Obama can boast of success is insulting and shows just what little value the man who we foolishly thought was bringing change, puts on the lives of people in Iraq, that he can even think of claiming success in the wake of so many lives lost but then we have seen in Afghanistan just what Obama is about when it comes to the deaths of non-Americans.
This disastrous war may be over but the one in Afghanistan continues and there are others in the pipeline against Iran and possibly Syria.
Rather than holding it's head up high and attempting to whitewash history, the American military, just as the UK military did, is slinking off with it's tails between its legs after yet another calamitous military intervention under its belt and no amount of deluded cheer leading from the under-pressure Commander in Chief will disguise it.

Die Hard: Not An Xmas Film

2011-12-12T19:25:00.003Z

Las Ketchup had a song out in the summer of 2002 which was forever on the music video stations and a few years later, in the best Christmas tradition, they threw a few jingle bells into it, reshot the video in winter and called it a Christmas song.
Now a few jingle bells does not a Christmas song make, especially not one that you last heard while sweltering in 32C heat with your face covered in after-sun and the same goes for Christmas films.
When i think of Christmas films, my mind turns to the like of A Christmas Carol, Miracle on 34th Street and It's a Wonderful Life. Feel good films with a happy ending and the vital ingredient of being Christmassy and not people with machine guns throwing other people from the top floor of a building.
Possibly in the directors cut of Wonderful Life, a heavily armed George Bailey runs amok in Bedford Falls after international terrorists take over the Savings and Loan, but its unlikely so how does Die Hard qualify as a Christmas film in most Top Christmas Films Google searches?
I concede that it is set on Christmas Eve and at one point a dead terrorist turns up in an elevator wearing a Santa Hat but a Christmas film? Nah.
Most importantly, it came out in July and I don't need to check my Cagney & Lacey calendar from 1988 to know that even back then July was not generally associated with Christmas.
Adding a jingle bell to a song does not make a song a Christmas song as tagging Dean Martin warbling about letting it snow at the end of the film does not make it into a Christmas film. Yippie Ki Yay Mother Christmas.

Ode To Poets Everywhere

2011-12-11T17:27:00.006Z

For some strange reason, there seems to be an outbreak of poetry on blogs lately so not one to miss out on a fad, i have composed my own poem entitled 'Ode to Poets Everywhere'.

To poetry writers everywhere
You may find this post unfair
Your cloud may wander lonely in the air
But for your writing i just don't care

I don't want to be misunderstood
Just I don't think poetry is very good

This art form once had a romantic air
Elaborate men with passion and flare
If, The Raven, a wonderful pair
But now decent poems are very rare

I don't call all poets unexciting
Just your chosen form of writing

It's adolescents with floppy hair
With broken hearts they must repair
Their deepest thoughts that they must bare
With rhyming couplets laden with despair

I am not mocking lovers dismay
Just write things in a normal way

So to bloggers to make you aware
This recent outbreak of poetic fare
Is pretentious and a little bit square
And not a practise that i will share

We all get passionate about things some time
Just we don't make it into a bloody Rhyme!

As Poe once said from his reclining chair
His nerves all shredded and his whitening hair
It wasn't the Raven that gave him the scare
T'was the thought of a poet standing there

So take a lesson from the Raven on Poe's Door
And make words rhyme..'Nevermore'

Thank you

Mithra & Jesus Story Just A Coincidence

2011-12-10T18:36:00.001Z

The mince pies are out and there is the smell of Christmas in the air.
That time of the year when we sing carols and give and receive presents in memory of the small child born on the 25th December to a virgin and wrapped in cloth and placed in a manger with only shepherds in attendance.
The young baby who grew up to perform miracles and lead 12 disciples before sacrificing his life for the benefit of mankind with Sunday being his sacred day.
Yes, good old Mithra who was one of the religions of the Roman Empire which was derived from the ancient Persian god of light and wisdom.
You thought i was talking about who? Oh, the virgin, manger, shepherds, 12 disciples and dying for the peace of mankind bit. I understand now.
No, this is Mithra who pre-dated Jesus by centuries.
Yes, all the similarities are a remarkable coincidence i suppose and Mithraism was around a long time before Christianity so that makes it all the more remarkable that the two stories are almost identical.
No, i'm sure the early Christians never and just embellished it. Just enjoy your mince pie and don't think about it.

Has Cameron Doomed Us?

2011-12-09T17:25:00.000Z

In the words of the Sun, David Cameron has told Europe to shove it and walked out of any plans to save the Euro and it seems nobody knows what to think of that.
The anti-European right wing press are lauding him for his actions while the left wing press are scolding him for isolating us and turning our backs on our Europe brothers and sisters.
My own sympathies are somewhere in the middle and i'm uncertain what Cameron has done is a good thing or not.
If we had signed up to what the French and Germans are demanding, then it would have cost us tens of billions for countries that are not going to be able to claw there way back from the brink they are balanced precariously on.
Harsh to say but the PIIGS are doomed and further bail outs are futile, not that we could afford to dig out Spain or Italy without bankrupting us all anyway so i'm with Cameron on that score.
Where i think Cameron fell down was setting his face against Europe and going in with a list of demands and threatening to walk out if he didn't get them. No negotiation, this is what we want and we will take our ball home with us if we don't get them.
Now he has done that, we are on the outside with no input into how the European system evolves, a European system that we are heavily reliant upon for our own survival. France and Germany now get to make all the calls and mould it into the system they want and we have to just go with the flow.
I have always maintained that what we have is a halfway Europe, with everyone looking out for their own interests and that is never going to work. It needs to be all or nothing along the lines of the US model, an United States of Europe with one person calling the shots rather than 27 separate leaders squabbling.
Now we are outside and in the immediate term, you could argue that Cameron has saved us a fortune but in the long term, we have managed to remove ourselves from the decision making process of a system that we are eventually going to have to join with if we are ever going to have an influence on the World Stage.
The future is China, USA and the EU, Britain on it's own will be sidelined and ignored so it's a case of Cameron saving us a few pound today but we will sure be paying dearly for it tomorrow.

Anarchy, The Only Way To Be

2011-12-06T20:02:00.001Z

If you travel up from France and take a right at Calais, you end up in Belgium or to give the country it's full name, 'that place that nobody can name 3 famous people that hail from it without resorting to Google'.
Belgium has always been a bit of a strange country, known as boring and flat, it gained it's independence from the Dutch after an uprising followed an opera which is not the most obvious of sparks but it literally was over for the Dutch when the fat lady sung.
Thanks to stubborn politicians refusing to agree on how to form a coalition, Belgium had been without a government since June 2010 and in a state of anarchy in the original meaning of no government.
No government!? Well then there has obviously been massive riots, chaos, lawlessness, buildings on fire, or any of the other apocalyptic scare scenarios of a state of anarchy, only there hasn't been.
Daily life continued almost the same as before with everything still functioning except with one notable exception.
Without a government, none of the stuff all the other governments around the World have been doing could go on so no cuts, redundancies or austerity packages. In the absence of anyone with a mandate to slash and burn, Belgian public sector spending is tootling along much as it always has and much to everyones surprise, the Belgian economy is experiencing slightly healthier growth than most of it's European neighbours.
In the second quarter of 2011, Belgium grew at a meagre 0.7% but that beats the 0.1% growth for Germany, 0.2% for Britain and the disastrous 0.0% for France.
The country appears to be benefiting from its accidental immunity to the austerity fever that’s sweeping Europe so from the economic point of view, a country with no government is doing better than those with a government.
Alas, the heady times of Anarchy have now come to an end as the Belgian politicians have finally sorted out their difference and from today a Belgian Prime Minister has his hands back on the rudder again but boring little Belgium has left us with an interesting thought that won't be promoted by any Government anytime soon.
During hard times, could the best form of Government be no Government at all? Johnny Rotten may have been onto something all those years ago.

Cheer Up, It's Nearly Christmas

2011-12-05T17:34:00.001Z

It seems that every year the amount of people complaining about Christmas being an excuse to pump consumers into buying a lot of crap grows.
Miserable buggers are only one step short of the Scrooge refrain of boiling in their own pudding and burying them with a stake of holly through his heart anyone who has the words Merry Christmas' on their lips.
Bah Humbug to the lot of them because I'm with Andy Williams in declaring It's the most wonderful time of the year.
To a Christian it is about the birth of Jesus, to an atheist which to be honest is the vast majority of us, then Christmas is whatever you want it to be.
If you don't like the commercial side of it then no-one is forcing you to spend a fortune in the shops and if all you are going to do is moan throughout the whole period then you only going to be grumpy and a pain to be around anyway.
Christmas, to me anyway, is about the decorations, the carol singers, advent calendars, Christmas films, the school nativity play, holiday from work, Christmas pop records and the general feeling of goodwill that builds as the days in December get crossed off the calendar.
If you are one of those people who use Scrooge as a template for celebrating Christmas then as the nephew said to his uncle Ebeneezer, 'Christmas is as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.'
Now shove a mince pie in your miserable face and get some Christmas spirit

Career Change

2011-12-01T17:47:00.007Z

I have been considering a career change for some time now and after some thought, i have decided to apply for the position of manager at Sunderland AFC.
Not that i am particularly a Sunderland fan but a couple of seasons playing football manager 2011 has shown i have a natural talent for running a football team as steering Reading from a mid-table Championship side to second place in the Premier League and successful negotiation of the group stages in the Champions League has shown. Flushed with this recent success, i have emailed Sunderland with my application as follows:

--
re: The Sunderland manager vacancy

Please can i be considered for the current managerial vacancy at your football club.

I have successfully steered Reading from the Championship to 2nd in the Premier League and to the group stages of the European Champions League on Football Manager 11 and feel i could repeat this feat with Sunderland. Admittedly i did use the editor to move Messi and Xavi to my team but they were both injured a lot and did not really contribute.

Thank you for your consideration

Lucy
--

I know i face stiff competition from Mark Hughes and Martin O'Neil and the fact that i cheated by making use of the Editor beforehand which may go against me but Hughes going mad and paying £20m for the hapless Brazilian striker Jo should discount him and Martin O'Neil's £120 million spending spree during his time at Aston Villa should suitably put the willies up the club owners in these austere times.
Up the Black Cats and while they are considering my application, i will be in training for my second choice career move as God with some Civilization 4.

Reply from Sunderland AFC

--
Dear Lucy

Thank you for your recent letter regarding the vacant managerial role at Sunderland.

I’m sure you will understand that the calibre of candidates for the role has been very high and we will therefore unfortunately be unable to progress your application further.

Thank you for your interest in Sunderland AFC and may we take this opportunity to wish you every success in your career in the future.

Yours sincerely,

Sunderland AFC
--

Public Servants Are Not The Bad Guys

2011-11-30T19:30:00.008Z

Approximately 2 million public servants didn't turn up for work today and the Government has been attempting to turn the private sector against them in a divide and rule movement.
They tried this before with some success when they moved the argument away from bankers bonuses and got the public condemning those on benefits and disability benefit instead.
Now they are attempting to pit the private sector against the public sector with the cry of 'Look, they have better pensions then you, the bastards!'
The Governments argument is that the public servants strike to resist the 20% reduction in their pensions is unjustified because those people who don't work in the public sector have even worse ones.
Rather than work to drag up the worst pensions to the level of the decent public servants ones, they are looking to bust the decent ones down to the worst level.
Things are really bad but what they would really like is things to be bad for everyone, yes everyone suffering equally, that's the ticket and logical if you are a Conservative Prime Minister.
The nurses, policemen, firemen and teachers are not the bad guys here, it's a right wing Government using the excuse of a a weak economy to fulfil their political ideological dreams.

British Embassy Ransacked

2011-11-29T18:48:00.003Z

Hundreds of Iranians have stormed the UK embassy in Tehran, chanting 'down with England' and 'down with America' and 'down with Israel' which is outrageous. America and Israel are much more evil than us, they should be down with first.
My two personal highlights were the protester who was filmed running away with a picture of Queen Elizabeth II freshly nicked from our Embassy and the looter who was spotted scampering away clutching a large picture of Pulp Fiction.
Now i can see how a picture of the Queen might be hung in the British Embassy, but Vince and Jules?
The British government has confirmed a serious incursion at the UK embassy in Tehran and asked the Iranian government to make every effort to end the crisis immediately. Surprisingly the Iranian Foreign Ministry didn't tell us to go do one over our tightening of economic sanctions, but replied that it regrets the attack on the British embassy and is committed to ensuring diplomats safety.
There were the usual scenes of men dancing around Union Flag's that had been set on fire and even a man sat on the wall waving a satellite dish which is either a protest against western media pumping anti-government propaganda into Iran from outside the country, or he had just nicked it off the side wall. Either way they won't be watching The Simpsons in the Embassy tonight.
Just as a pointer to the Iranians for future ransackings of our property, it is the British Embassy, not the English Embassy. I'd hate to think that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are getting away with the hatred and i would like to repeat my earlier point that in any order of evilness and countries that should be downed, Israel is first, then America and then us. We are just America's poodle so leave us and our Pulp Fiction pictures alone.

X-Factor Advert Breaks

2011-11-27T22:27:00.002Z

While watching a two-hour special of Mythbusters, i noticed that the actual running time of the show, once it had the adverts taken out, was 1 hour 26 minutes meaning over a quarter of the show was advertisements.
I don't know who runs the television rules in America but here we have Ofcom and they have been getting bashed for the amount of advertisement breaks in the X-Factor programme.
For commercial television, which has seen a heavy reduction in advertising income recently, a blockbuster show like X-Factor offers mouthwatering opportunities. Aside from the traditional advertising spots, there is the chance to sell sponsorship bumpers which top and tail the commercial breaks.
Ofcom have denied that it has increased the amount of advertising time available for ITV from the standard 12 minutes per hour which is true, sort of.
The situation becomes complicated because the bumpers at the start and end of the break are counted as programming minuteage rather than as part of the ad break. Similarly, trailers for other ITV programmes are outside of the 12 minutes also.
So no, strictly there are not more advertisement breaks in X Factor, it still has the standard 12 minutes, but the advertisement breaks are longer because the Talk Talk adverts bookending the adverts and the ITV trailers mixed in with the adverts for toilet paper and margarine don't count so they can have 6 breaks 2 minutes long with all the trailers and bumpers slotted in to bloat the break time.
In the eyes of the Ofcom regulations, ITV and X-Factor are within the rules but to the viewing public, for whom the adverts start when Dermot O'Leary announces they will be right back and lasts until he welcomes us back, the adverts are actually more in number and last longer with the actual programme shaved a few minutes shorter.

How To Solve The World Economic Crisis

2011-11-26T19:33:00.000Z

UK owe to US 578 bn and UK due from US 834 bn
UK owe to France 209 bn and UK due from France 227 bn
UK owe to Spain 316 bn and UK due from Spain 74 bn
UK owe to Ireland 113 bn and UK due from Ireland 104 bn
UK owe to Japan 122 bn and UK due from Japan 101 bn
UK owe to Germany 379 bn and UK due from Germany 141 bn

Football teams have a tried and tested method of moving huge amounts of money between themselves in the transfer market. Put simply, Team A buys Smith from Team B for 10m paying 2m a year for 5 years. After 3 years, they sell Smith to Team C for 15m. Team A have already paid Team B 6m so they request Team C to pay them 11m and for Team C take over the 2m payments per year to team B, therefore paying off their remaining 4m. All three teams pay and receive what they are due and the books balance.

In the economic world, everybody owes, and is owed, money by each other. For example the UK owe France 209 bn, but then France owe us 227 bn. Why can't Cameron phone Sarkozy and suggest he take off the 209 bn we owe them from the 227 bn they owe us and then you just pay us the remaining 18 bn.

Then he can telephone Obama and say you owe us 834 bn, we owe you 578 bn, so let's just cancel out each others debt and you then just owe us 256 bn.

If all the countries of the World got on the phone to each other and worked out who owes who in this way then most of the countries deficits could be slashed. If we then juggled things around like in the football transfer scenario above so after cancelling each others debts, any outstanding balance is paid to another on behalf of someone else, we would clear up this whole mess or at the very least, drastically reduce the amount of debt held by each other.

Seems very simple to me which probably means there is a huge hole in my thinking but with a growing number of countries on the verge of going bankrupt, creditor nations are facing receiving next to nothing anyway so at least this way they will get what they are due.

It seems crazy that we are demanding someone like Japan pays us the 122 bn they owe us while Japan are demanding that we pay them the 101 bn we owe them with all the massive interest payment involved to both countries when we can just agree to them owing us the 21 bn difference instead.

Court Finds Bush & Blair Guilty

2011-11-25T19:41:00.000Z

Since they both moved into political retirement, Bush has kept out of the limelight and stayed in Texas while Blair had a go at remaining in the spotlight before quickly realising amid a deluge of insults and shoes that he had better keep his head down also.
While there are relatively few places that the unpopular pair could go on holiday and not be abused, if they had any plans to soak up the rays in Malaysia they had better think again because a court in Kuala Lumpar has declared them war criminals.
Though the verdict of the court carries no legal weight, the court held a trial and the decision was that:
'The Tribunal came to the unanimous conclusion that a prima facie case exists that President George Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair committed a crime against peace by their decision to invade and conquer Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein'.
The judge continued that 'Nothing in the United Nations Charter permits the actions undertaken by President Bush and Prime Minister Blair. The idea that the United States or United Kingdom was threatened by Iraq is preposterous.
The invasion of Iraq was an unlawful act of aggression and is an international crime. They acted with deceit therefore they are guilty as charged'.
The Court then recommended filing reports with the International Criminal Court against the two accused and that they both be included in the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission’s register of war criminals.
Luckily for the unloved duo, the Court has no power to enforce their decision but it is proof that their crimes have not been forgotten or forgiven and the pressure on them is ongoing.
Next up for trial is Donald Rumsfeld, the US Secretary of Defence during the Iraq War and the most smug faced person on the planet.

Whatever Happend To...

2011-11-22T18:19:00.003Z

While moving around some of the right wing sites on the internet, you do tend see quite a bit of amusing rhetoric regarding the protests in America. I was reading one recently that urged it's readers to arm themselves and fill their pantries in preparation of the oncoming Anarchist Socialist revolution. Wonderfully insane and i mentioned recently how Communism, Socialism and Marxism are all jumbled together in the minds of the enlightened right wingers who warn of the coming Soviet take over.
Stalin and Lenin are the usual historical bogey men the brickbats are thrown out but for some reason, the third of the revolting trio seems to escaped unscathed.
Apart from a mention by The Stranglers in their song 'No More Heroes', poor old Leon Trotsky hardly ever gets a mention, it's always those other two hogging the hate which is even more stranger when you consider Trotsky was the one who advocated permanent revolution which would have spread Communism worldwide. The other two lightweights were content to hold what they had.
If it wasn't for the occasional joke about ice picks, Trotsky would just never be mentioned and he was as much part of the Russian Revolution as Joseph and Vladimir.
He got one of the main roles in George Orwell's Animal Farm as Snowball who was later forced out of the farm by Napoleon after overthrowing Farmer Jones and yet he is spared the wrath of nutty right wingers who warn that people protesting against banks will lead to a re-run of the Great Purges from Maine to that place down the bottom full of oranges, old people and voting machines that don't work properly.
I say Trotsky should be treated with as much laughingly bad hyperbole as Stalin and Lenin by right wingers who want to scare their readers and i'm sure Barack Obama would agree, and he's a card carry Communist. Apparently.

Brutal Oppression In America

2011-11-20T22:46:00.014Z

As in the Arab Spring back in March, the Egyptian protesters today were holding up gas canisters with 'Made in USA' stamped on them. The cameras cut away to Egyptian riot police launching another brutal baton charge to disperse the crowd, dismantling their tents and tearing down their banners.
If you had left the room and came back a minute later, you would still be seeing riot police brutally assaulting protesters and you would assume this was the same story, but it wasn't, these uniformed thugs were American police.
Among the victims of what was charitably described as 'heavy handed policing', a pregnant 19-year-old girl was pepper-sprayed as was Dorli Rainey, an 84-year-old woman. The reaction from the Police Department was a dismissive statement that Pepper Spray is 'no more dangerous to someone who is 10 or someone who is 80.'
The most disturbing scene was the policeman, Lt John Pike, calmly pepper spraying a line of unarmed students who were taking part in a peaceful campaign in California. Not only did he spray them at point blank range once, but then he walked back along the line to dish out another dose.
The police are there to protect and serve, but who exactly are they protecting and serving? Not the protesters obviously, but to use pepper spray, baton charges, tear gas, rubber bullets and sound canon against unarmed civilians posing no threat is just wrong in every way.
Over 1500 citizens so far have been arrested with journalists being threatened, beaten and arrested, 26 at the last count, for reporting on the police action. If this was anywhere else we would rightly be condoning it and branding the leadership a brutal regime, but there are people defending this action.
It cannot be simply written off as an over reaction of the police to something non-life threatening, non-deadly or a few bad apples which is a useful cover-all in the UK when police are caught out.
This is showing that in America, those that seek to protest against what they disagree with, will be put down with brutal force. If the protesters take up arms, as they did in Egypt, Iran, Libya and now in Syria, the Obama reaction would be exactly the same as Mubarak, Ahmadinejad, Gadaffi and Assad. Widespread slaughter because if they do this to unarmed civilians, and heaven knows how there has not been any fatalities yet, they will hit harder with lethal force if the protesters come armed next time.
In America of all places, it seems that if citizens peacefully seek to voice their grievances with the government, they will be threatened, ridiculed, bullied, attacked, assaulted and then arrested.
If this is how America deals with it's own version of citizens protesting, brutal oppression, then it has even less right to lecture any other country on how they should be behaving.

Osborne The Techno-Prat

2011-11-18T17:27:00.002Z

We have heard the term 'technocrats' quite a bit recently with the news that the Italian Government has been cleared of all politicians and replaced by people with an economic background.
The theory is that people with experience of high finance are the best people to get the Italian economy back on its feet and it is a theory that i have some sympathy with even if i have misgivings with the Democracy side of things being swept to one side.
Whether this works or not we shall have to wait and see but it is obvious that in the UK, we do not have Technocrats so much as, well, idiots like George Osborne as the latest news from Northern Rock demonstrates.
The bank cost the Government £1.4 bn who then priced it at £1.12 bn but have now sold it to Virgin for £747m who had an original bid of £1.25 bn turned down a few years ago.
The Chancellor described the sale as 'The best deal for the British taxpayer' while his fellow Tory colleagues said it had been 'sold for a song'.
How the man in charge of our finances can call selling something for £400m less than the asking price a good deal is baffling, especially when you hear that what Virgin has paid for is only the profitable parts of the bank, we have helpfully broke off and keep hold of the parts of the bank that holds the £20 bn of toxic assets.
The idea of having people in charge who have an idea of what they are doing is sounding attractive so expect to hear how the Conservative Christmas Party at the local brewery has been cancelled this year. George Osborne is organising it. Smug faced moron.

Star Spangled Banner Rewrite

2011-11-15T23:33:00.002Z

Oh, say! can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed as the riot police came steaming;
With drawn guns under the stars, fought the perilous fight,
O'er Zuccotti Park we watched protesters start screaming,
In the pepper sprays red glare, nightsticks fly through the air,
By daylight the proof that no protesters left there:
Oh, say! does that first amendment banner still wave
In the land of the free o'er the tents of the brave?

Katie Get Your Gun

2011-11-13T17:58:00.002Z

A few years ago the Queen was on the end of much praise for putting a badly injured pheasant out of it's misery by wringing it's neck. What wasn't mentioned was that the injury was caused by Her Majesty blasting the bird out of the sky in the first place.
Our Royal family do like a bit of bloodsport, it if isn't taking pot-shots at harmless creatures for a bit of a lark, they are leading packs of dogs to rip apart foxes or rather they were until those bally commoners ruined their fun.
Now the Royal firing squad has another member to add to their team, Princess Kate, who has been having some private tuition in the art of bravely standing a hundred feet away and shooting at living things in preparation for the Boxing Day pheasant shoot at Sandringham.
Kate will spend her first Christmas with the Royal Family and is having the extra tuition because 'she is not the best shot'.
My first thought was to suggest a novel idea to her that she graciously decline the invitation to shoot at things but then on reflection, a loaded shotgun in the hands of somebody with lousy aim and a field full of Royals.
I say give her a gun, actually, give her two and get her some intensive training from that Cheney fellow.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's Prince Andrew gingerly picking buckshot out of his backside Boxing Day Eve but i will be happy with any of them being unable to sit comfortably at the News Years celebrations.

Another Leader Bites The Dust

2011-11-12T23:29:00.004Z

If i were being charitable, i would describe the now former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Burlosconi as a colourful character. In a less charitable mood, i would say he was an imbecile of massive proportions.
Although Italians should be celebrating the end of Burlosconi, the way he has gone leaves a bitter taste in the mouth because it wasn't the Italian people that booted him out, he was forced out by the markets and the leaders of France & Germany, the second leader they have removed in a fortnight.
Greece neared default and the elected Prime Minister was shunted aside and replaced with the unelected Lucas Papademos, a former Governor of the Bank of Greece and Vice President of the European Central Bank. Now Italy are heading towards a Greek style meltdown and Burlosconi is eased out and the unelected former European Commissioner, Mario Monti, foisted upon the Italian public.
The proper thing to do would have been for Greece and Italy to hold snap elections but it appears the EU doesn't do democracy, you know that thing we invade other countries for not having, but it certainly likes putting it's 'friends' in power.
I am amazed that the Italians & Greeks have just allowed someone else to decide who can and can't run their country, regardless of how bad a job they are doing. There have been protests calling for Burlosconi to go for the past few years but he managed to stay and then last week the banks and brokers got worried and he is gone in a week.
Without doubt Burlosconi has been an awful Prime Minister and racked up a wide range of scandals including being found guilty of lying in court, bribing tax inspectors, false accounting, consorting with minors and is currently under trial for paying a juvenile prostitute.
Certainly he was a liability and yes he was a moron who shouldn't have been within a mile of power but that should be up to the Italians to decide, not those sitting in bank managers chairs and the leaders of France and Germany.

FIFA Wrong In Poppy Backtrack

2011-11-10T18:47:00.002Z

I feel a bit disappointed that FIFA has backed down in the great Poppy row that has blown up over the England football team wanting to wear a poppy on their kits in the match against Spain this weekend.
I'm not sure why the English FA decided this year in particular to make such a fuss over it, the FIFA rules regarding the non wearing of symbols on countries shirts has been respected since the World Governing bodies creation but this year the Prime Minster and Royal Princes have not just asked but arrogantly demanded that England are treated as an exception to the rule despite it being a long established rule that has failed to perturb the FA in decades of previous Novembers matches.
Fifa's reasoning for turning down the FA's request to have the poppies on the kit was that it would 'open the door to similar initiatives across the world, while jeopardising the neutrality of football'.
I wanted to hear FIFA say no and keep with it but now a precedent has been set for any of FIFA's 208 members to use their footballers for political or religious reason.
This does seem to be a part of the hysterical furore that has grown around the wearing, or non-wearing, of poppies over the last few years.
For some, not wearing the symbol is an act of betrayal, spitting in the eye of all those who have died in wars and conflicts through the ages and the whole thing seems to have been hijacked by vocal people insisting that it is a patriotic display of support for 'our heroes'.
The English FA, Prime Minister and Prince William were wrong to make any demands of FIFA to treat us differently to every other country in the world and FIFA were equally as wrong to give in to our childlike demands.
Will the same people screaming for the inclusion of a poppy be quite so vocal if the Indians wanted to wear a symbol to commemorate the millions killed in the reign of the British Raj or the Afghanistan team wanting do something for all those who have died under the recent Western occupation?

White House Say No ET

2011-11-08T21:54:00.002Z

Barack Obama's administration has said it has no evidence that extraterrestrial creatures exist in response to a White House petition signed by over 5000 people demanding that the White House disclose the government's knowledge of extraterrestrial beings. More than 12,000 signed another petition seeking answers to the question of an extraterrestrial presence engaging with us humans.
In response, Phil Larson of the White House office of science and technology policy, said that the US government has no evidence that life exists outside Earth, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted any member of the human race.
As someone who strongly believes that out of the trillions and trillions of stars, it would be improbable that there isn't life evolving on one of the rocks circling them although many disagree. The main reason being why have we not seen them?
I answer simply because if they did take a look at us, they would keep their distance because to an outsider we must look like the last race in the Universe anyone would want to to make contact with.
Taken as a whole, we are not a peace fearing people by any stretch of the imagination. Our whole history is one of war and oppression and developing bigger and better weapons to kill each other with. We have wiped out entire species and been daft enough to seriously pollute our own environment.
If we came across another species and it was setting about doing the same thing as us, we would back off and avoid it and if the aliens have any sense at all, they have done the same thing and scarpered back to whence they came with the message of giving that blue planet a miss, they are crazy.

Socialism In A Nutshell

2011-11-07T17:31:00.007Z

Rather predictable that the right wing is against the Occupy Wall Street protests that are currently sweeping not only America, but the Western World, but the Fox News team really outdid themselves this weekend.
Not only did they manage to accuse the protesters of being anti-Semitic because they are in support of the 99%, which leaves 1% which is roughly the percentage of Jews in the population, but wheeled out the usual insults of the protesters being anti-Americans, Marxists, Anarchists and Communists.
The Communists and Socialists insults crop up quite a bit in right wing rhetoric and Fox News had a helpful analogy to explain to it's viewers just what a Communist regime would mean for Americans.

Under Capitalism:
10 workers get paid £10 an hour and it takes them 10 hours to make a car. The car gets sold for £10,000. They all get paid £100 each and the remaining £9000 goes to the boss.

Under Communism:
10 workers get paid £10 an hour and it takes them 10 hours to make a car. The car gets sold for £10,000. They all get paid £100 each and the remaining £9000 go to the Authorities.

And now the part Fox failed to mention - Under Socialism:
10 workers get paid £10 an hour and it takes them 10 hours to make a car. The car gets sold for £10,000, They all get paid £100 each and the remaining £9000 is shared amongst them.

So Fox is correct that under Communism, all profits do go to the State as the State owns everything but they neglected to mention that under Socialism, the workers own everything so the profits are shared amongst them. The only difference between Socialism and Capitalism is who is the boss, a board of shareholders who take the profits or the workers who take the profits.

Despite the cries of the Right Wing, Socialism is not the Soviets under Stalin or North Korea, it is simply a system where the financial rewards are more evenly distributed and who wouldn't want that?
Think it wouldn't work in the real world? Department Store John Lewis’s is owned by it's staff, all 70,000 of them, and last year they shared just over £100 million profit between them, each receiving a bonus of nearly seven weeks’ pay. Last year each worker received the equivalent of 10 weeks pay.
Because John Lewis is owned by its staff from the boardroom to the shop floor, each receive the same percentage payout. This year it is equal to 13% of basic salary and that is Socialism in action and this proves that it works.
Now imagine if the banks did this with their tens of billions of pounds of profit, profit that at the moment go to the shareholders. What the Occupy protesters want are the profits of Capitalism to not go to the handful of companies shareholders but to be shared out amongst the people so Society as a whole benfits.
Don't let those who try to discredit the Occupy Protests with their talk of anarchists and Communists wanting to turn the West into North Korea, they are out to protect themselves and their bank balances and they will try to convert as many useful idiots to their cause as possible. Don't be a useful idiot for the right wing.

Same Old Faces Threatening Yet Another War

2011-11-03T19:50:00.014Z

Western intelligence officials are saying that it will take Iran two or three years to get the bomb but we have been told that Iran was two or three years away from building the bomb for the last three decades.
Not that we have ever let a small thing like evidence get in the way of a bout of anti-Iran propaganda, we are again being warned that Iran gaining nuclear weapons capability is imminent and such a possibility would spell disaster for America and Israel with only there 5500 nuclear warheads to defend themselves with.
Reports are being circulated that the UK is examining contingency plans which involve aerial attacks on Iran's nuclear enrichment plants, in dealing with Iran and it's nuclear ambitions. The same people that bought us the Iraq, Afghanistan and Libyan wars are openly talking about attacking yet another country.
These same countries are saying to Iran 'We may have thousands of nukes, have invaded more countries than you under false pretences but you can't have nuclear power stations because you might try and develop weapons at some undetermined point in the future like we've had for years'.
As anyone who has been paying attention for the past ten years will know, it is obvious why Iran might want a bomb of its own. If the fate of Saddam and Gadaffi showed us anything, it's that the Wests enemies should not give up their nuclear weapon programmes. If you've got oil, we are coming for it and we won't be diverted by heavy civilian casualties (although the death of our own military personnel might cause a few wobbles), nor the potential that the war would quickly escalate from Iran to bring in Syria, Hamas and Hezbollah to reap havoc.
The irony is that if Iran did comes out and say they had developed the bomb, it would probably save millions of them from being slaughtered by the West and Israel who seem to have carte blanche to commit any atrocity it likes with unreserved support from America.
Unlike the Labour Party under Tony Blair in 2003, we can only hope there are enough voices in Government to tell the Prime Minister, and in Washington to tell the President 'Stop listening to the dangerous rubbish from Netanyahu, who is legendarily untrustworthy, and don't get involved in yet another stupid war'.
If the Americans are dumb enough to continue the gunboat diplomacy on behalf of Israel, the very least Britain should do is take a leaf from Harold Wilson's book when LBJ was asking for Britain to join the fight in Vietnam and tell them to take a hike.
Of course we won't and the trio led by a compulsively lying warmonger, an out of touch rich kid and the Nobel Peace Prize winner will be merrily killing in another avoidable war.
Isn't it obvious yet that the biggest threats to peace are in Washington, Tel Aviv and London, not Tehran.

Beiber Baby Bruhaha

2011-11-02T17:46:00.000Z

Teenage pop star Justin Bieber has said that claims he fathered a child with a woman he met at one of his shows are 'demonstrably false' and he will 'vigorously pursue all available legal remedies' in response to the claim.
The 20 year old woman, Mariah Yeater, claims she had sex with Bieber after a concert in October 2010 and said she is sure that he is the father because 'there were no other men she had had sex with at the time' and is demanding a paternity test.
Someone, is obviously lying and whoever it turns out to be, they are obviously being badly advised because after the paternity test the truth will come out.
Unless he has never had sex with this women, then he should not be making any claims that he is not the father as if it turns out that he is this will only come back to slap him in face twice as hard.
If this woman is making false claims then she will be forever branded a gold digging harlot and face a counter claim for trying to extort money.
Her lawyers claim 'There is credible evidence that Justin Bieber is the father of her baby' and pointed out that Bieber has not denied he had unprotected sex with Ms Yeater following the concert.
Bieber tweeted that he was going to ignore the rumours and asked he be judged on his music instead which is a strange thing to ask because to anyone who isn't a 12 year old girl, if he is the father his music is rubbish and if he isn't the father, his music is still rubbish.

UNESCO Vote

2011-11-01T23:11:00.000Z

Heaven knows the Palestinians haven't had much to cheer about. Oppressed, downtrodden and bullied by their stronger, aggressive neighbour, it will take any victory and the UNESCO vote was a small victory.
The big UN vote for membership as a full member state is pencilled in for November 11th and the US has veto power at the Security council and has threatened to use it but it had no such power at UNESCO so instead lobbied hard to try and force the Palestinians to back down.
It threatened to cut all US funding for UNESCO, 22% of its annual budget, but UNESCO members have put politics before money, voting by 107 to 14 for the Palestinian bid.
This was not only a welcome failure of US power, but shows just how isolated America and Israel has become.
In the No column were Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Israel, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Palau, Panama, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Sweden, United States of America and Vanuatu. When all the support you can muster is a handful of island nations and a few 'proper' countries, you must realise that you are backing a loser and Israel is hemorrhaging worldwide support.
It's response to the UNESCO vote was to suspend the transfer of tax money which it collects for the Palestinian Authority and to accelerate the construction of 2000 settlements on land where the Palestinians aim to found an independent state.
A small victory for Palestine maybe but a massive loss for the American and Israeli policy of keeping Palestine down with never ending talks which only achieve more Palestinian land illegally grabbed by Israel.
Now onto November 11th and the anticipated American veto in support of an increasingly isolated, and rightly maligned, Israel and the vitriol that will bring.

Prohibitive Thinking

2011-10-31T18:08:00.000Z

It may be a truly horrendous cliché muttered by management types, but I have been attempting some 'blue sky thinking' and i have come up with a way to save us billions of pounds and thousands of lives. Surprisingly with those benefits, it might be a bit controversial.

This thing costs the overstretched NHS £2.7 billion annually and is implicated in 33,000 deaths a year in the UK. 3.2 % of all deaths worldwide

The British Crime Survey shows 53% of all violent acts are caused by this and 44% of acts of domestic violence

It is second only to tobacco as the major cause of premature death.

It kills 778 UK drivers annually (1 in 6 deaths on the road) and injures almost 20,000.

Crime related incidents directly from this costs police over £7bn a year.

It is attributable to 47% acts of criminal damage, 17% of muggings, 13% of sexual offences, 17% of burglaries and 12% of robbery's.

It costs the economy £1.8 billion annually in lost Working days.

It doesn't have any tangible benefits except raising approx £8 billion in revenue per year.

So with all this against it, why isn't alcohol banned? Apart from the drinks industry, who would lose out from a bout of prohibition? The £8 billion we lose from tax revenue would be dwarfed by the £2.7 billion savings to the NHS, £7 billion to the police and £1.8 billion to the economy lost through drink related absenteeism. That's a net saving of £3.5 billion not to mention the 33,000 lives saved.

The Government has long tried to restrict the ability of people to drink to excess by controlling the cost and availability of alcohol so why not just go the whole hog and slap a ban on it? If someone came up with the idea now it wouldn't make it past the planning stage so why persevere with something that costs so much socially and financially, something that if it was removed would not be missed and could only benefit society and the country's coffers?

Oetzi's Revenge

2011-10-30T17:25:00.004Z

All Hallows Eve. The night when the veil that separates our world from the Other world is at its thinnest and the one time in the year when we glimpse for a moment the dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension where shadow and superstition lies, the dimension of imagination. Don't be afraid, take my hand and follow me through the veil into that other place.

It's 1991 and two German tourists, Helmut and Erika Simon, discover a 5300 year old mummified corpse and direct a team of archaeologists to the site in the Alps between Austria and Italy.
The body is encased in ice and the evidence shows that the man, nicknamed Oetzi after the area in which he was discovered, met with a violent death, having been shot with an arrow before having his skull smashed.
Then, the people associated with his discovery begin meeting with mysterious ends.
The first death occurred when the man who had who put the caveman's body into the body bag was killed in a car crash on the way to a presentation that he was due to give on the discovery of the dead man.
Then the mountain guide who lead the team to the frozen body died in an avalanche. On recoevery of the body, it was discovered that among his many fatal injuries, his skull was smashed.
Next was the cameraman who had filmed the recovery of Oetzi, collapsing and dying of an undetected brain tumor.
Helmut, the man who had actually found the Iceman, was then found dead, laying face down in a stream, where he had landed after falling off a 300 foot cliff. Was it a coincedence that when death came for him, he was face down in water with his skull smashed just like Oetzi?
In another macabre twist, the man that found Helmut in the river, then dropped dead himself, suffering a heart attack on the way home from Helmut's funeral.
The sixth person who had been there on that fateful day when the iceman was discovered died from complications with a medical condition and the final death (so far) was when the scientist who first examined the corpse, died of a blood disease.

Maybe there is a practical explanation for why all these people died, maybe it was all a bizarre coincidence or maybe it's a warning that there's a place between light and shadow where the dead can reach out and touch us. A night like tonight perhaps when the curtain between the living and the dead is tantalisingly pulled aside for the briefest of moments.

Was that noise outside your window really the wind? Somewhere, the dead eyes of a 5300 year old corpse are looking for it's next victim. Stay safe tonight.

WWJD?

2011-10-28T16:49:00.005Z

On the side of one of the 250 tents pitched in the grounds of St Paul's Cathedral is scrawled 'What would Jesus do?'
What we know of Jesus is that he was a socialist and as such was no fan of the money men, even going so far as to chasing them out of a temple and judging by this picture, handing out a sound thrashing to one of them.
This makes it even more ironic that officials from St Paul's want to force protesters to remove their impromptu camp site as it is costing them around £20,000 a day in lost visitor revenues.
The Church of England website funding page tells us that the CoE raises just over £1000 million a year and has assets of £4.4 billion.
My guess would be that what Jesus would do would be to ask the Church what part of the rich man/camel/eye of the needle analogy it didn't understand and then probably punch the Archbishop of Canterbury in the face and tell him to stop being such a dick. Just a guess.

More Nonsense From The Tories

2011-10-27T22:15:00.003Z

In these difficult times, the Government has been looking at ways to free up business and boost economic growth so commissioned businessman Adrian Beecroft to look into ways to achieve this.
His report to the Government has been leaked and his big idea is that if it were easier for businesses to fire employees, they would be more willing to hire so all rights to claim unfair dismissal should be removed, citing current employment protection laws and the inability for business to just be able to sack their staff hampering their ability to recover from the worst economic downturn since the 1930s.
His other conclusions suggest scrapping parental leave, scaling back flexitime working and reducing maternity pay to lift the burden on business.
Earlier this year Mr Beecroft recommended a delay in pensions reform, told No 10 that the NHS cuts should go even further and slash research support for medical charities.
So who was is Adrian Beecroft who wants to be able to sack anyone he doesn't like and wants the NHS slashed to the bone?
It should not be a surprise that he is a multi-millionaire businessman who has donated almost a million pounds to the Conservative Party over the last few years which immediately raises the question of cash for Government influence but if we dig a bit deeper we find something more interesting than a major donor being placed into a influential position by the Government.
Adrian Beecroft interests include wonga.com, an online company offering payday loans at huge rates of interest. A recent probe by the consumer watchdog Which? condemned the 4,394 per cent annual interest rate it charged.
Obviously, a business that lends money to those finding themselves short would only benefit from a constant round of employee hiring and firing but the real controversy is with his call to cut back further on the NHS.
Although he is no longer employed by them, Mr Beecroft retains interest in a firm named Apax where he worked as the senior investments officer. The company owns or manages healthcare companies such as General Healthcare which stand to benefit from the increased use of the private sector inside the NHS.
The Government can justify any move, no matter how absurd, as necessary for the economic recovery but to get their friends who are blatantly only in position because they donated large amounts of money to the Government and are using their influential position to further their own business interests is yet another reminder of why the Conservative Party should be removed before they do real damage.

Why Nobody Believes John Terry

2011-10-24T22:23:00.000Z

Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas has launched a defence of his centre back John Terry over his 'alleged' racist slur against QPR defender Anton Ferdinand.
Terry, the England captain, has denied racially abusing Ferdinand, explaining that what he actually said was 'Oi, Anton, do you think I called you a black ****?’
Ferdinand has yet to come out in support of that chain of events and is actually pushing for is club to make a formal complaint but Chelsea boss, Villas-Boas, has already come out saying Terry has his full backing and pondering that he finds it strange that 'people don't trust the words of a representative from your country.'
Ah, the old he-plays-for-England-so-he-must-be-okay defence.
So where to start with why nobody trusts the word of the English representative.
For the benefit of the new Chelsea manager, allow me to present the case why the country collectively rolled it's eyes when Terry declared his innocence.
In 2001, on the 9th September, in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on New York, John Terry was fined for mocking American tourists at Heathrow Airport and in 2002, he was arrested for attacking a doorman in a nightclub and again in 2007 for damaging the scooter of a photographer.
His last appearance in a policeman's notebook was when he was fined and gained an extra 3 points on his licence for speeding.
Being a drunken lout off the pitch is not evidence that John Terry, England's captain, is a lying, cheating piece of pond life but having an affair with your best friends wife goes a long way towards it. Throw in the quotes about 'I've never cheated on Toni and I never would' before the news broke fulfills the lying, cheating part.
As does his taking £10k a time backhanders from a renown ticket tout for unofficial tours of the Chelsea training ground but being a womanising, lying cheating scumbag off the field is one thing but his on-field behaviour is not much better.
In the Champions League Final in 2008, John Terry was filmed having a word in Carlos Tevez's ear before filling it with a mouthful of spit.
My evidence ends in 2006 with the allegation that Mr Terry told Ledley King to 'Shut up you lippy black monkey' before getting sent off.
So did Terry call Anton Ferdinand a ‘black ****,’ on Sunday? Don't know, the TV evidence sure looks like he did and that is why Mr Villas-Boas, nobody trusts the word of this representative of our country but feel free to continue backing him and picking him for Chelsea because apart from being a Grade A sleazeball, he is also over the hill and it's my teams turn to run him ragged this weekend.

Wall Street Occupiers Make Their Move

2011-10-22T16:23:00.002Z

Anybody watching coverage of the demonstrations against the banks and financial institutions must have noticed the moustache and pointy bearded masks of the protesters, a stylised depiction of our very own Guy Fawkes.
The same masks were used by hacking groups a few years ago and have now been adopted by the occupy movement. The masks are from the 2006 film V for Vendetta where one is worn by the films hero, a revolutionary who uses Fawkes as a role model in his quest to end the rule of the British Government where he destroys the Houses of Parliament by blowing it up, something Fawkes had planned and failed to do in the 17th Century.
If you were looking for a revolutionary, Guy Fawkes would be one of the best you could pick and to be honest the mask is damn cool so i am glad that the younger generation have got their own identity and not gone for the obvious revolutionaries like Che Guevara.
Because of the link with Guy Fawkes, the Occupy Wall Streeters have designated 5 November as 'Bank Transfer Day', an idea that i mooted last week although they have opted to do it all in one go rather than what i would have thought would be a better approach of doing it bank by bank over time to bring about maximum panic within the banks.
The plan is for bank customers to transfer their money out of large banks, close their accounts and move to smaller banks and credit unions who are not-for-profit financial cooperatives.
The Occupy facebook page here declares: 'Together we can ensure that these banking institutions will always remember the 5th of November!! If the 99 percent removes our funds from the major banking institutions on or by this date, we will send a clear message and give the 1 percent a taste of the fear that we experience every day when we aren’t able to pay for our rent, food, medication, utilities, student loans, etc.'
The website here gives a step by step guide on how to go about things that day.
We know that this way of sticking it to the man works so hopefully, this particular group of Guy Fawkers will be more successful then the original one who ended up being quartered and his body parts sent to different parts of the kingdom. Ouch.

Gaddafi Killed & Western Appetite Restored

2011-10-20T23:15:00.000Z

Since 2006, the West have wiped Saddam Hussein, Bin Laden and now Gaddafi from the face of the Earth. Some are regretting that the former Libyan leader was not taken alive and put on trial but the instigators of the conflict, Britain, France and America, are just relieved that the job has been done without turning into the debacle that is Iraq and Afghanistan.
All three leaders, Sarkozy, Obama and Cameron, were quickly on the television congratulating themselves on a job well done and the worry is that this success will lay to rest the ghost of Iraq and Afghanistan and fuel the perception that such Western intervention operations are the way forward.
The temptation will be for success in Libya to be cited as justification for military interventions elsewhere. In the orgy of back slapping that will surely ensue, the dubious interpretation of the UN resolution on the use of air strikes to protect civilians should not be forgotten and will hamstring any other attempt by anyone to make the same argument in support of a similar UN resolution in future.
For the past eight months since the conflict began, the Western trio of leaders have been at pains to stress the thousands killed by Gaddafi but there is no talk of the thousands, 15,000 at the last count, who have been killed by them during this latest military adventure.
The impression has been created that this was a 'clean' war with no French, British or American fatalities and that this was a revolution to overthrow a brutal dictator who had been oppressing his people for 42 years although for a lot of that time the very countries that would remove him, were arming and supporting him.
Leaving aside, or just not mentioning, the Libyan death toll, the idea has now been sparked that intervention in other people's revolutions or civil wars has a future, to help 'the people' overthrow dictatorial leaders wherever they be or rather in countries where the leadership is not sympathetic to Western interests.
With the fall of Gaddafi, the leadership in Tehran and Damascus will move strongly into the Western eye line and the niggling thought amidst all the celebration is that the West has got its appetite back for invading weaker, mineral rich countries under the guise of humanitarian intervention and introducing Democracy although the reasonable question to be asked is can there ever be Democracy in the Middle East and North Africa unless the West pick those countries leaders?

Replacing Obama: The Others

2011-10-17T20:56:00.012Z

On Tuesday, November 6, 2012, America will elect it's 45th President and the smart money is on it being either Obama again or a Republican but America has some third party candidates and with the Republicans fielding a weak team (Rick Perry. Really?) and Obama more dope than hope, the others have a great chance of making a impact but just who are the other parties. Using our previous left wing criteria of Foreign Policy, the Environment and Israel, who is acceptable to the resurgent Left?

The Constitution Party was the largest party outside of the Reps and Dems and received 0.15% of the total popular vote in the 2008 election and their foreign policy of isolationism and not intervening in foreign countries affairs sounds acceptable but their refusal to accept man made climate change doesn't bode well for vote wielding lefties. 1 out of 3.

The Green Party took 0.12% of the vote last time out making them the 4th placed party but apart from a Green policy, what else do they offer? The Green Parties website states: 'Our government does not have the right to justify pre-emptive invasion of another country on the grounds that the other country harbors, trains, equips and funds a terrorist cell' which is a sound Foreign Policy but seems aimed at Afghanistan and America has invaded two other countries since then. It does, however, reject U.S. political support for Israel and demand that the U.S. government end its veto of Security Council resolutions pertaining to Israel. 2.5 out of 3

The Libertarian Party received 0.4% of the national vote in 2008 and the manifesto on their website includes a Foreign Policy of a non-interventionist position. Its Environmentally friendly, supporting a clean and healthy environment and sensible use of our natural resources and opposes American taxpayers' funding Israel, condemning its aggression and confiscatory policies. 3 out of 3

The Boston Tea Party received just 2,422 votes in 2008 and their website puts their only aim as reducing the size, scope and power of government at all levels and on all issues, and opposes increasing the size, scope and power of government at any level, for any purpose. They do have a great tagline of 'Time to party like its 1773' though. 0 out of 3 but kudos for the great slogan.

The Party for Socialism and Liberation should chime well with the Wall Street Occupiers and if the anger aimed at Capitalism remains high next November, they should improve on the 6808 votes they polled last time out. Being an anti-war party, it is no surprise that its Foreign policy includes the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and Iraq, and an end to the war in Libya. It also wants all U.S. military bases in other countries to be shut down. Regarding the environment, it wants the implementation of environmental laws and to impose huge fines on those who defile the environment. It is also backing the immediate end to the occupation of Palestine. 3 out of 3.

The Socialist Party USA gained 6528 votes nationally and is anti-war and wants all U.S. military forces withdrawn from Iraq and Afghanistan. It would sign the Kyoto Protocol, limiting carbon emissions, and would accept a major role in worldwide efforts to control global warming. It's website states that: 'The United States bears direct responsibility for the Israeli aggression in the Occupied Territories. It was U.S. military and economic aid that made Israel into one of the most powerful military states in the world. The United States should terminate the five billion dollars a year it gives the Israeli government'. 3 out of 3

After a trip through the political field of American politics, the options so far of the lefts choice for the next Party to take the keys to the White House is out of The Libertarian Party, The Party for Socialism and Liberation or the Socialist Party USA. The Greens are in with a shout if they can nail down their foreign policy but we still have a year to go to narrow this field of 4 down to 1.

Out of the Republicans on offer, Ron Paul is the least worst although the CBS News Poll puts him way behind in 5th place for the Republican nomination.

Interesting Links

2011-10-15T23:58:00.002Z

Although the resignation of Dr Liam Fox did not come as a surprise, you can't help wondering if further digging into his dealings would have thrown up some dirt on the bigger players in the British Government. The shadowy Atlantic Bridge Charity for example which Liam Fox chaired could have been a rich source of embarrassment, especially as it was swiftly wound up after the Charity Commission demanded that its "current activities must cease immediately" because "the activities of the charity have not furthered any of its other charitable purposes in any way".
A charity that was set up but was shut down 14 years later because it hadn't actually done any charity work?
Unfortunately the Atlantic Bridge website has been closed so we can't actually get to see what it was all about. At least we can't unless we have a trip through the websites archive.
The Our Aim page shows the Mission statement as: 'to preserve and promote the Special Relationship exemplified by the Reagan-Thatcher partnership of the 1980s. Its goal is to become the premier Anglo-American voice advocating free market principles to a broad range of common issues. To those ends, The Atlantic Bridge works to re-establish and foster a strong, well-positioned network of like-minded people in business, politics, academia, law and journalism on both sides of the Atlantic.'
So who was in this special club?
The UK Atlantic Bridge Board Members were headed by Honorary Patron Margaret Thatcher while ministers, George Osborne, Michael Gove, Chris Grayling and William Hague were all on its advisory council alongside Fox, its UK chairman .
In 2007, things get interesting. An apparently unconnected US-based lobby group known as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) set up a sister charity in the US - also known as Atlantic Bridge.
"Washington, DC-The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is pleased to announce the launch of The Atlantic Bridge Project as the latest component of its International Relations Program. The project aims to foster positive relationships between conservatives on both sides of the Atlantic, so that they may further the ideals exemplified by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.'
ALEC is supported by the likes of Exxon Mobil, tobacco manufacturer Philip Morris, pharmaceutical giants GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer and Koch Industries Ltd. All interesting bedfellows but especially the Koch Industries, whose founders, the oil barons Charles G Koch and David H Koch, have funnelled tens of millions to climate-denial front groups.
On the Atlantic Bridge Executive committee we have Scott Syfert, a lawyer with Moore & Van Allen, which represents military, chemical and energy interests. Also on the executive board is Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Gaming Association, which represents casino operators and Michael Hintze, who has donated more than £1m to the Tories and whose firm, CQS, deals with defence contracts.
Far from being a small, conservative talking shop, the Atlantic Bridge was a well connected networking club linking most of the UK cabinet to powerful business interests.
The man who bought down Fox, Adam Werrity, had links to a company called Pargav who financed his trips abroad. Pargav was partly funded by Tamares Real Estate, an investment company owned by Poju Zabludowicz, chairman of Bicom, the Britain Israel Communications & Research Centre, who are 'dedicated to creating a more supportive environment for Israel in Britain.'
Interesting connections indeed between our Government and those with very deep pockets and a vested interest in influencing UK policy.

Dr Fox Hunting

2011-10-14T17:05:00.000Z

The British media has been through a torrid time recently but this week has shown what it is good at and why the powerful see to limit it's powers.
Dr Liam Fox, the Defence Secretary, has been forced from Government over revelations of his close friend gaining access to his Government department and accompanied him on foreign visits when he had no official role.
Waking up this morning with one less Tory right winger in a position of power should be regarded as a good day but nobody should be surprised that Fox is out of the cabinet, with his recent record he is lucky to still have a job at all.
Fox somehow survived the expenses scandal last year when he had to repay over £20,000 he had claimed in a dubious mortgage interest payments claim.
Immediately afterwards, he was caught up in another scandal for breaking parliamentary rules on two occasions by visiting Sri Lanka on a trip paid for by the Sri Lankan government without declaring it in the official register.
Now, at the third time of asking, he has fallen over taking his close friend into meetings with senior figures in the defence world, what he admitted was 'a mistake' but didn't stop him doing it anyway.
The British media is not perfect and the likes of Rupert Murdoch drag it through the gutter on occasions but it should be feeling quite proud of itself today.

Blueprint For The Wall Street Protesters

2011-10-12T17:13:00.005Z

I expected the Wall Street protests to have fizzled out by now but they are still there making a noise and waving their banners but deep down inside they must know that nothing is going to change unless the few thousand turn into a few million and even then the Government and finance houses won't be overly concerned.
What will make them take notice is if the throng becomes organised because there is a way for them to change the system as we have seen recently.
Customers of the Dutch bank DSB forced it into bankruptcy by withdrawing £550m of their savings, Northern Rock in Britain was on the verge of collapse after customers withdrew their savings so how much more of a blueprint do the Wall Street protesters need?
Target one bank, and on mass, withdraw your savings. Panic ensues, share prices of that bank slump and you have landed one almighty black eye to the very people you are shouting and waving placards at.
After the first one, target another and the same tactic and that's another finance house with sharply reduced shares and directors facing a nervous board.
After the first few teeter on the brink, the rest will quickly take note and be desperate to avoid the same fate.
There are 320 million of you Americans, if even half of that many are angry at the banks living it up at your expense, that is the only way you have at giving them some of their own pain.
You can stand in Wall Street until this time next year and nothing will change, they can ignore you quite happily, but hit their profits by withdrawing your business, after all if they have less of your money to lend out, the less profit they will be able to make, and they will be forced to comply or face unprecedented upheaval.
As we have seen, it works and all it takes is one of the big name Wall Street supporters such as a Michael Moore to organise it, pick a bank, pick a day, and watch the banks scamper.
You are the 99%, you have all the power if you can focus it. The alternative is to stand around in the cold achieving very little.

Ig Nobel Award Time Again

2011-10-10T22:23:00.005Z

I was going to write about the recent spate of Amish-on-Amish violence resulting in some shoddily cut fringes and beards but on looking at the pictures i discovered that shoddily cut fringes and beards was the standard look anyway. Those zipper shunning Amish do make me smile though, easily my favourite bunch of crackpots.
Leaving the Amish to their hair cutting outbreak, the winners of the 2011 Ig Nobel Prize, an award for useless discoveries, have been an announced and there has been a wide selection of bizarre recipients this year.
The prize for Chemistry was grabbed by the Japanese team who determined the exact amount of pungent horseradish needed to be pumped into a room of sleeping people to wake them while the Psychology winner is the University of Oslo for their steadfast work in why we sigh.
This years Physics winners are the group of European scientists who determined that discus throwers become dizzy because of the spinning they do which must have come as a shock to discus throwers everywhere.
The much sought after Physiology award went to the team who, after much patience, revealed that there is no evidence of yawning being contagious in the red-footed tortoise.
The Mathematics award was claimed by a whole group of people for predicting that the world would come to an end in 1954, 1982, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1997, 1999 and 2011 although to be fair the jury's still out on that last one.
The gold ribbon award is the Peace prize and this was claimed by the mayor of Vilnius, Lithuania, for demonstrating that the problem of illegally parked luxury cars can be solved by running over them with a tank. Problem solved.

America Issuing More Threats Over Palestinian Bid

2011-10-07T16:06:00.000Z

In 2009, President Barack Obama stood at the podium in Cairo and declared his support for a Palestinian state, explaining that: 'The Palestinian people have suffered in pursuit of a homeland. For more than 60 years they have endured the pain of dislocation. Many wait in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, and neighboring lands for a life of peace and security that they have never been able to lead. They endure the daily humiliations—large and small—that come with occupation. So let there be no doubt: The situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable. And America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own.'
Fast forward two years and it was with some degree of awkwardness that Mr Obama last month directed his representatives to vote against a plan that would lead to Palestinians achieving the dignity, opportunity and a state of their own.
The US president must be acutely aware how hypocritical he must appear in voicing support for democratic transitions across the Middle East at the same time as scuppering Palestinian aspirations for recognition. Americas reputation in the Middle East is in tatters already so Mr Obama would hardly wants to be seen as being on the wrong side of the change sweeping through the volatile Arab world.
The threat of veto followed by news that Congress has blocking $200 million of aid to the Palestinians as punishment for their UN bid (admittedly Obama is attempting to get this rescinded) hardly shows America in a good light.
Now, after the Palestinians have asked to join UNESCO, the UN's cultural organization, the Obama administration is warning UNESCO to stay out of the question of Palestinian statehood or face the consequences, as America threatening to withhold tens of millions of dollars in U.S. funding if the organization agrees to admit Palestine as a member.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called UNESCO's deliberation on whether to admit Palestine 'inexplicable' at a time when the Palestinian bid for U.N. recognition and membership was being examined by the Security Council stating: 'I would urge the governing body of UNESCO to think again before proceeding with that vote.'
One good thing to come from the veto threat is that America is being asked to justify its failure to support a democratic state in the face of an illegally occupying military force and why it feels it has to issue bribes and threats to vote no and avoid the gathering of the nine votes for the resolution which would force Obama to have to cast the veto leaving the world in no doubt that despite it's fanciful talk about backing the Arab people against tyrants and repressive regimes, it is supporting the illegitimate military occupier and it will be yet another shameful day for America.

Thanks Billy

2011-10-06T23:28:00.006Z

I have long argued that when it comes to economics and getting us out of recession, leaving it to the very people who got us into the mess is madness.
If i had a spot on a BBC political show i would make this very point and argue that if you are going to hand out £75 billion to anyone, it should be the people of the country and not the banks but as i still haven't been invited onto BBC Question Time, i rely on 80's musicians to do it on my behalf so a big thank you to Billy Bragg for making my point for me.
My notion has always been that if you handed out the money to British citizens, £75 billion is approximately £1250 each, then they would spend it in the local community which would boost the local economy, stop shops closing, create jobs and keep people in work.
Instead, the £75 billion goes to banks with the idea that they will then lend it to small businesses and dole it out in loans but what happens, as happened when we gave them £200 billion in 2009, is they who keep it on their balance sheets and use it to pay bonuses.
It doesn't trickle down and the only people better off are the bankers who get yet another massive cash injection, a bail out in any other language, and the little guy sees no benefit from the extra billions injected into the economy.
It really isn't hard to think that the world we live in and the economical system that dictates our daily lives seems to be rotten to the core and run by people who don't have a clue what they are doing.
After £200 billion of our money and crippling austerity measures that we are continually told over and over again are needed, the Bank of England is warning that we may still be heading towards the worst recession this country has ever seen.
To quote another singer 'Send in the clowns, don't bother, they're here'. Yep they are and they are running the country. Thanks for trying anyway Billy.

Don't Trust UK Or US Over Syria

2011-10-05T23:20:00.002Z

In one of his more articulate moments, Gerorge W Bush said 'Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again' which is exactly what Russia and China have said to America and Britain with their veto of the UN security council resolution calling on increasing pressure on Syria.
British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, described the veto as 'mistaken' and the US ambassador, Susan Rice is said to be 'outraged' over the decision from Moscow and Beijing.
After the West demonstrated in Libya that they cannot be trusted because of the way they persuaded their fellow veto holders to back a resolution on a no-fly zone and promptly proceeded to abuse that resolution to justify their own agenda of regime change and act as the air force for one side in a civil war, why are they surprised they are no longer believed when it comes to humanitarian intervention?
This is what happens when previous trusts has been abused but what why did Russia and China get the West hot under the collar?
The US, Britain and France were pushing for a UN vote on a resolution threatening “targeted measures” if the Syrian regime does not halt its crackdown against civilians but Russia, China, India, South Africa and Brazil were opposed with the Russians stating they could not support the Vote unless a clause was inserted that there will be no military intervention of any kind by any external force and no opposition to the Syrian regime will be armed by external countries.
This was rejected by the US, UK & France and led to Hague and Rice's outrage.
So the usual suspects who made such a fine job in Libya recently (15,000 dead at the last count), refused to agree to no military action against Syria and raged at those opposing it from invading yet another Middle Eastern country out of love for freedom, justice, democracy and liberty.
Even Hillary Clinton has got in on the act, saying the UN had 'failed in its responsibility to maintain international peace and defend civilians'.
She even criticized Russia and China for failing to stand with Syria's protesters while they brave the streets to voice their opposition to Bashar Assad's regime and criticised countries still sending weapons to the Assad regime even as they are turned against innocent men, women and children.
Something America is dead against, unless the brutal thuggish regime is ruling over Bahrain who are on the brink of receiving $53 million's worth of weapons, mostly armoured Humm-Vees, perfect for use against those pesky demonstrators who annoyingly keep braving the streets to voice their opposition to the ruling regime.
Seems some Governments are to be overthrown when they brutally repress protesters and others are sold weapons to kill and wound even more.
The UK, US and France are not to be trusted when it comes to oil rich countries and UN Resolutions and even George W Bush almost knew that which is why he never bothered trying to get one in either of his wars.

Knox Not Guilty But Not Innocent Either

2011-10-04T23:20:00.000Z

If Amanda Knox was innocent, she has been rightly released and gone home and we should hope that she can get on with her life. If she was guilty then she has got away with it, or got off lightly, with a 4 year sentence but the only people who really know the truth about what happened that night are sadly Meredith Kercher, Knox, Sollecito & the convicted murderer Rudy Guede.
There are certainly many questions to be answered but it seems to me that, guilty or innocent, Knox brought a lot of her nightmare down upon her own head.
It was odd behaviour for a young girl whose flatmate had been brutally murdered to be performing the splits and doing cartwheels while waiting to be questioned by the police. It was appalling how she incriminated her employer, who was only saved by the number of customers in his bar that evening that gave him a watertight alibi. A slanderous crime that she was convicted and served 3 years for. A crime that seems to have been overlooked in the rush to declare her innocence.
Her own changing alibi which first had her there in the kitchen, covering her ears from the screams of the tortured Kercher and then changing her mind and remembering that she was at her boyfriends that night watching a film. An alibi that Sollecito didn't support until later, he originally stated that he was home alone fixing his computer that evening.
From from being found innocent, Knox was released because the case against her killing Kercher was unproven, which is fair and should be the cornerstone of all criminal trials the world over, but guilt not proven is not the same as being found innocent of the charges.
What was proven, was the fact that she tried to frame an innocent person, for a very serious crime, which shouldn't be forgotten when she does the talk show roundabout and earns millions for her book rights.
When a person is not proved guilty of murder, as Knox wasn't, freedom must be the only just outcome but the smiling Knox receiving a hero's welcome back home in America does not sit right with me.

Don't Always Believe The Textbooks Kids

2011-10-01T20:47:00.007Z

If, on a pub quiz night, you were asked who invented the radio, the telephone and the light bulb, you would answer Bell, Marconi and Edison and receive a big red tick for each but really you are just a victim of mass deception.

Take the radio and Guglielmo Marconi. In 1897, Nikola Tesla filed a patent application for wireless telegraphy. Marconi filed for a patent for the same thing in 1900 and was turned down because it was too similar to Tesla's patent. Marconi tried unsuccessfully for the next three years to have his patent accepted and was rejected each time for the same reason.
The Patent Office made the following comment in 1903: 'Many of the claims are not patentable over Tesla patent numbers 645,576 and 649,621, of record, the amendment to overcome said references as well as Marconi's pretended ignorance of the nature of a "Tesla oscillator" being little short of absurd... the term "Tesla oscillator" has become a household word on both continents [Europe and North America].
Tesla was unconcerned about Marconi's chances of getting the jump on him in the radio stakes despite the Italian continued work in wireless technology, stating 'Let him continue. He is using seventeen of my patents."
In 1904, the U.S. Patent Office suddenly reversed its previous decisions and gave Marconi a patent for the invention of radio. Tesla was furious and sued the Marconi Company for infringement but was in no financial condition to litigate a case against a major corporation. In an ironic twist, in 1943, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Tesla's radio patent number 645,576 restoring the priority of Tesla's patent over Marconi but by then the name of Marconi was intransigently linked with the invention of the radio and the real inventor forgotten.

Graham Alexander Bell, the man behind the telephone. Or was he?
In 1860, an Italian named Antonio Meucci first demonstrated his working telephone and filed a temporary patent on his invention. In 1874, Meucci failed to send in the $10 necessary to renew his patent and two years later, Bell registered his telephone patent. Meucci attempted to sue Bell for stealing his idea by retrieving the original sketches and plans he sent to a lab at Western Union, but these records, quite amazingly, disappeared. Where was Bell working at this time? Why, the very same Western Union lab where Meucci had sent his original sketches.
The continuing case of Meucci versus Bell only ended when Meuicci died but in 2002, the U.S. House of Representatives said 'recognition of Meucci for his contributions to the invention of the telephone reported: 'the resolution said his "teletrofono", demonstrated in New York in 1860, made him the inventor of the telephone in the place of Bell, who had access to Meucci's materials and who took out a patent 16 years later'.

The story is well known of how of Thomas Edison offered his assistant $50,000 if he could he improve his faulty DC electricity system.
After months of slaving over Edison's electronics, the assistant came up with the far superior AC electricity system and got shafted by Edison when asked to pay up by claiming it was just a joke and he wasn't actually going to pay him. The assistant was Nikola Tesla, soon to be on the not inventing the radio non-fame, but who else did Edison dump on?
Step forward Joseph Wilson Swan who invented the incandescent light bulb and received the first patent in 1878. In 1880 America, Edison had been working on copies of the original light bulb patented by Swan, and obtained patents in America for a direct copy of the Swan light, and started an advertising campaign which claimed that he was the real inventor. Swan, without the finances to sue Edison, agreed that Edison could sell the lights in America while he retained the rights in Britain and established the Swan Electric Lamp Company.
Edison's company went into business with Swan forming the Ediswan United Company and effectively buying Swan's patent.
Soon enough, Edison bought out Swan completely leaving all records of the light bulb under the care of the Edison Company and leaving every school textbook incorrectly stating that Edison was the father of the light bulb.

Don't believe all you read in the textbooks kids!

Amanda Knox Appeal

2011-09-30T16:58:00.001Z

The appeal of Amanda Knox's murder conviction is expected to reach its conclusion on Monday and the general feeling is that the conviction for killing her fellow student, Meredith Kercher, in Italy in 2007 will be quashed. Her friends and family seem very optimistic having hired a private to fly her back home from Italy to America straight after the ruling.
The two key pieces of evidence against Knox was DNA tests and that have been shown to be shaky at best.
The bra clasp of Meredith's said, to have been cut away during a struggle, was not found until six weeks after the murder and the murder weapon had Knoxs handle and Kercher's DNA on the blade. Italian forensic experts now tell the appeal court they could not be certain that the DNA traces found the knife were those of Kercher.
Against her are the bloody footprints of Knox found near the murder and in Knox's bedroom, the badly staged burglary in Meredith's flat and the changing alibi of where she was on the night of the murder.
Originally she confessed to being in the flat and blocking her ears to shut out the sound of Kercher's screams. She later denied being in the flat and had spent the evening at her boyfriends house all night. Her boyfriend, the co-accused Mr Sollecito's, claimed that he had been working on his computer at home while Miss Kercher was being murdered but police say tests on his PC state his computer had not been access that evening.
Knox initially accused a Congolese bar-owner, Diya Lumumba, of the murder and he was held for two weeks before being released without charge.
If the other evidence is the main factor, then i expect her to complete the 26 year sentence that was passed down in 2009. If the decision of her guilt comes down to the DNA evidence, i expect her to be freed.

Hassle Free Tax Refund

2011-09-30T01:21:00.002Z

Have you seen those adverts on television and in the newspapers for companies that will get you a tax rebate? Companies like 1st Contact, TaxBack.com, Taxrebateservices.com, Refunds Direct and many more who offer a no win, no fee basis and promise to get you back overpaid tax for a fee. A fee that could be as much as 40%.

After a conversation with a tax officer today, it turns out these people are taking a large wedge of your tax rebate for 30 seconds work and doing what you can do yourself for a price of a stamp and half a minute with a calculator and a pen.
How it works is these companies request your P60s and P45s and after working out how much of a rebate you are due, and their share, they just post your forms off to the Inland Revenue requesting they assess the necessary years and wait until the cheque comes back, take their share and send you the remainder. If you are due £1,000, you are happy because you get £600, they are happy because they earned £400 for a minimum amount of work but how much happier would you be if you got the full £1000?

They will tell you it is hassle free and even that they can get any refund quicker but the only hassle you have is rounding up your P60s/P45s and writing a letter requesting the Inland Revenue check to see if you have overpaid Tax for the last few years and request they repay it if you have.
That's it and you either get a repayment six weeks later or a letter advising that you paid the correct amount of tax.
The refund companies have no special line to HMRC that gets it dealt with any quicker no matter what they claim, all post is dealt with in date order so regardless if you or the refund company send it in, it will dealt with at the same time. If an Agent is seen trying to jump the queue, they face a lengthy investigation process and security checks which hold up any repayment even further.
These companies don't do anything that you can't do yourself, the only difference is whether you get the full rebate you are due or you pay someone 40% to do it.

To work out if you are due a rebate, and this is the 30 seconds the refund companies make you pay so dear for, is a simple formulae if you earn less than £35,000 a year.
On your P60, find your earnings for the year (eg 20,000), find your tax code (eg 747L), add a 5 on the end (eg 7475) and take that away from your annual wages (20,000 - 7475) and that leaves you the amount you are taxed on (eg 12,525).

Minus 80% (the current lower tax rate is 20%) from the amount (eg 12,525 - 80%) and that is the amount of tax you should have paid (eg 2,505). Look at your P60 and if you paid more than that then grab a pen and write to HMRC and request they assess that years tax paid and make a repayment if necessary. If you are not sure, send in your P60 with the letter anyway and they work it out for you.
It really is that simple and exactly what the refund companies do and charge you an extortionate 40% for.

As the advert says, tax doesn't need to be taxing and as i say, don't be a mug and give away money when you don't need to. Hell, leave your pay, tax and tax code details in the comment box and i will work it out for you and all i will charge is a voluntary donation towards the price of my daily caffè latte.

What's Behind The 80mph Increase?

2011-09-29T21:54:00.008Z

For the first time in 16 months the UK Government has done something that at first glance could be described as sensible, and then they go and ruin it all by trying to put a spin on it.
The motorway speed limit will increase from 70mph to 80mph and as the owner of a lead foot on the accelerator, i'm fine with that but they went too far by trying to dress up the reason they are doing it is because it has 'significant economic benefits, worth hundreds of millions of pounds per year'.
The inner cynic says yeah, but economic benefits for who exactly? Tax revenue from fuel sales has been reducing because people are filling up less due to the high cost of petrol so by allowing us to drive faster, which burns more petrol, drivers need to buy even more fuel. Kerching go the Government coffers!
The Department of Environment claim that for every 5 mph you drive over 65 mph, it provides a 7% decrease in fuel economy so driving at 80 mph increases petrol consumption by 21% and with the limit + 10% rule, the unofficial limit of 88mph will mean your petrol tank will be running dry almost a third quicker. Suddenly what seems a good idea becomes yet another Government ploy to make us cough up even more.
Although the move may be welcomed by the majority of drivers, the RAC is not convinced stating: 'Drivers travelling that 10mph quicker might reach their destination sooner, but there is likely to be a slight increase in road casualties'.
The RAC are backed up by the Parliamentary Advisory Council on Transport Safety who say raising the limit to 80mph would increase motorway casualties by between 5 and 10 per cent, pushing up the average of 150 deaths annually on British motorways by 10-15 people.
So the plan becomes a thinly disguised ploy to make us buy more fuel by allowing us to drive faster in order to raise revenue despite the increased danger. Sneaky these Tories, you have to watch them all the time.

Shocking Mental Health Figures

2011-09-27T22:52:00.002Z

The Scottish Government have announced that 11% of Scots aged over 15 are taking anti-depressant drugs, the highest level since records began.
That is a staggering amount of people but according to the World Health Organization (WHO), 1 in every 4 people globally are treated for one or more mental disorder at some stage in their life and mental health problems represent 50% of all disabilities worldwide.
An even more worrying figure from the WHO report is the 3,000 people who commit suicide every day in the world and for every person that succeeds in taking their own life, there are at least 20 more who thankfully survive.
The global suicide rate is up 60% over the last 50 years and in 90% of cases, mental illness is the attributing cause.
So what is it over the past 50 years that has led to such a dramatic increase in mental health problems that a quarter of the planet are having to take drugs to cope with just living?
One theory suggested is that as psychiatry has evolved from the days when anyone showing mental illness were given electric shock treatment and institutionalised, a more efficient diagnosis is available and we are finally recognising the true figures of mental illness in society.
Another theory is the increasing availability of alcohol and illegal drugs which have become more readily accessible in this day and age and contributing to mental and emotional imbalance.
Perhaps the criteria for being labelled 'mentally ill' has changed and more people are finding themselves meeting the criteria with doctors becoming rather prescription happy when it comes to dishing out the anti-depressants.
There are certainly more additives, chemicals, colourings, sweeteners and heaven knows what being added to our food nowadays and research has shown that these can have an effect on peoples behaviour or maybe it is down to today's fast paced lifestyle and pressures.
I don't know what the reason is that so many of us are not coping with modern life, i would suggest a combination of all of the above but it seems the World we have created is not good for our health and I can't see things getting any better as the population rises and our personal space grows ever smaller.

Which Republican To Replace Obama

2011-09-25T23:07:00.004Z

Barack Obama has not been the President we have hoped for and after his craven and spineless betrayal of the Palestinians in order to appeal to the American Christian voters and gain a second term as President, i am hoping against hope that he is turfed out of the White House next year but as it is highly unlikely anyone will challenge him from the Democrat Party, we should look at which of the Republicans would be an acceptable replacement to the left for the disappointing dud.

The BBC website lists the nominations as Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Jon Huntsman, Rick Santorum, Herman Cain, Gary Johnson, Thaddeus McCotter and Fred Karge. Sarah Palin and Rudy Giuliani are pencilled in but have yet to declare whether they will run but what of the men and woman who are in the game already on key left issues of the Environment, Foreign policy & Israel.

Current favourite is Mitt Romney who scores quite high on environmental issues, favouring fining businesses who exceed emission limits but loses out with views that include increasing the size of Guantanamo Bay, doubling the level of US military spending and being a strong supporter of the dividing wall between Israel and the West Bank. Left rating: 1 out of 3

Next up is Rick Perry who scores nil for environmental issues, calling climate change a 'contrived phony mess' and another zero for his policy on Israel which he supports for religious reasons, stating: "I'm a big believer that this country was given to the people of Israel a long time ago, by God". His foreign policy is not widely known but he has been quoted stating that North Korea and Iran present an imminent threat and leftists in Latin America are threatening democracy and all of them require attention. He also advocates sending the US military into Mexico to control drug violence. Left rating: 0 out of 3

Michele Bachmann is no environmentalist, describing Global Warming as a hoax and stating strong opposition to the Environmental Protection Agency and supporting increased domestic drilling of oil and natural gas, as well as being a strong proponent of nuclear power. Bachmann says in dealing with Iran, 'diplomacy is an option, but that other options, include a nuclear strike, are on the table'. She has also said that she is a long time supporter of Israel and America should defend it regardless. Left rating 0 out of 3

Newt Gingrich thinks that Israel has every right to maintain a blockade of Gaza, maintaining that there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza but merely a political effort to undermine the safety of Israel. His foreign policy is one that is clear about the evil America faces as 'we are still the last, best hope of mankind on Earth' which doesn't sound very welcoming although he advocates a more robust approach to climate change. Left rating: 1 out of 3

Ron Paul has a long held foreign policy of nonintervention and opposed the Iraq War, is against any potential war with Iran and criticised U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. He called Israel 'our close friend but it should not be the place of the United States to dictate how Israel runs her affairs'. A promising start is tripped up by his views on climate change which he regards as 'not a major problem threatening civilisation.' Lefty rating 1.5 out of 3

That is the five main runners at the moment and quite a sorry bunch they are and we can't garner much hope from the remainder of the field which include Rick Santorum who is seeking to promote the teaching of intelligent design and questioning evolution.

Not good so maybe we should look outside of the main parties next.

REM & Nirvana Still Linked

2011-09-24T16:39:00.008Z

Kurt Cobain once said that REM were the greatest band ever and for a brief time in the early 90's you could have made a strong argument for the case but a couple of decent years out of the 31 REM were around with a total of 3 or 4 songs that could be described as classic songs is not a brilliant return for anyone with ambitions of being the greatest.
It is a quirk of the rock circle of life that REM have decided to pack away the instruments for the last time to much glorification of their career at the same time as we are unable to open a newspaper without pictures of Kurt Cobain grinning back at us and columnists showering Nirvana with toe curling platitudes in the midst of the 20th anniversary celebration of Nirvana's Nevermind album.
Michael Stipe of REM is the godfather of Cobain and wife Courtney Love's only child, Frances Bean, and after years of a public mutual-admiration society between them, an REM/Nirvana hook-up was in the planning when Cobain took his own life but was either band worthy of such admiration?
Nirvana's Nevermind album was majestic and the singles from it almost perfect but the follow up 'In Utero' was disappointing, the first album 'Bleach' re-released in the aftermath of Nirvana's success was weak and the MTV unplugged album a huge mistake.
Just like REM, Nirvana just had enough decent material to ride the wave of greatness for a short time and then just ran out of steam and never got close to those dizzy heights again.
Nevermind was a classic album and Cobain, Grohl and Novoselic all deserve praise for it, especially the song Smells Like Teen Spirit, but both Nirvana and REM fall way short of being 'the greatest'.
Neither were trailblazers in the way of The Sex Pistols or The Beatles or were consistently churning out chart hits year after year like Queen or ABBA.
Both were creators of a few albums that should rightly be celebrated on the anniversary of their releases but i'm left wondering if Nirvana & REM were both punching seriously above their weight for a brief, brilliant period of time or were genius's who just lost their musical way after their success. I would strongly suspect the former.

Einstein Wrong

2011-09-23T17:31:00.004Z

Particle physicists have detect neutrinos travelling faster than light, a feat forbidden by Einstein's theory of special relativity. Pffft, Einstein, what did he know.
According to the more scientific amongst us this is a big deal, a Copernicus moment that raises the possibility of time travel and with no DeLorean or a flux capacitor in sight.
What i don't really understand is why does going faster than the speed of light mean going back in time? I wish I had paid more attention in Science lessons at school but it all seemed very boring at the time.
Prof Mark Lancaster of the University College London Physics and Astrology department explains.

Imagine the neutrinos which are travelling faster than light are a clock and we tell the time by photons light being emitted by this neutrino.
So the neutrino ticks and emits a photon at say 12:00 which takes some time to get to us travelling at the speed of light and it hits your eye and you go OK it's 12:00. The neutrino/clock though is itself moving quicker than the photon in emitted and so will overtake it on the way to you - let's say it overtakes the 12:00 photon and ticks again and emits the 12:01 photon - the 12:01 photon will then reach you BEFORE the 12:00 photon so you are seeing time tick backwards ie you see the clock going 12:01, 12:00, 11:59

Still boring then but like Jennifer Anniston on the L'Oreal adverts, you don't need to understand the science bit to have shiny, beautiful hair or in this case, to go back in time with the weekends European lottery numbers or persuade Simon Cowells grandfather to wear extra tight underpants or even find the man who gave Celine Dion a recording contract and flail him alive before he she gets to sign on the dotted line.

Proof That Nicholas Cage is One Of The Undead

2011-09-20T21:28:00.004Z

Nicholas Cage is reported to be the owner of the most haunted house in America where hundreds of slaves were tortured and murdered in the 19th Century and a head carrying vision roams the corridor. Scary indeed but not as frightening as some of the stinkers that Cage has appeared in during his career but he has plenty of time to make some decent films seeing as he is one of the undead. Allow me to explain.
Notice the black and white photograph of the unidentified man above? This photo was taken around the time of the American Civil War, 145 years ago, and notice any resemblance to a certain Hollywood star last seen being arrested for assaulting his wife?
Antique image dealer, Jack Mord, believes the photo is proof that Nicholas Cage is a member of the walking undead.
'Personally, I believe it’s him and that he is some sort of walking undead/vampire who reinvents himself once every 75 years or so' he explained, '150 years from now, he might be a politician, the leader of a cult, or a talk show host.'
He found the photo at the back of an album of Civil War-era portraits, but his suspicion was aroused when he noticed that this was the only picture in the book that did not have a name beside it.
Conclusive proof then that Nicholas Cage, as he is calling himself these days, is one of the walking dead.
Now if only we can find proof that Jean-Claude Van Damme ISN'T one of the walking dead.

Cheering The UBS Rogue Trader

2011-09-18T21:49:00.005Z

I'm not really sure what trader Kweku Adoboli got up to at the Swiss bank UBS to run up debts of $2.3bn but whatever he was doing, he wasn't very good at it.
As we learnt to our cost a few years ago, traders receive a bonus that reflects the amount of profit they made for the bank during the course of the year, and this creates an incentive to take reckless bets with other peoples money.
Of course when it all goes wrong, the banks yelp and we come running with suitcases full of taxpayers cash to bail them out and we sack 500,000 public servants to pay for it.
Funny just how Socialist the Capitalist system can be when it is in trouble but anyway, UBS are $2.6 bn in the hole and we are left asking 'Who's gonna pay that then?'
In the 2008 case of Jerome Kerviel who massaged the books and cost his Bank Société Générale $7bn, a French court ordered him to repay the amount but he pleaded poverty and it was the banks shareholders that had to pay up through foregone profits and dividends.
Some of the losses were also borne by Kerviels colleagues, through reduced bonuses and the taxpayer money was left untouched.
Experts are predicting the same scenario for UBS but as they made a $6.4bn profit last year and have accrued a $4bn bonus pool for its employees, it shouldn't be a problem.
The brilliantly funny bottom line is that one of the banks got seriously burnt by one of it's own and it is the shareholders and Adoboli's colleagues that are going to have to take a hit to their obscene pay pocket to repay it. It doesn't cost us anything so every ones a winner except the bank and who gives a hoot about them now anyway.

Look Out Below

2011-09-17T23:38:00.007Z

Take a good look at the photograph of the satellite over there on the left just so you recognise the hulking great lump of metal that could be smashing its way through your roof next Friday.
NASA's six and half tonne Upper Atmospheric Research Satellite (UARS) is returning home the quick way and they are predicting that it could land anywhere south of the Arctic and north of the Antarctic which doesn't really narrow it down any but the boffins at NASA are not overly concerned, 'Look at how much of Earth is covered with water' one said, 'There's a really good chance it's going to go straight into the ocean.'
NASA are keeping a close watch on the falling satellite, but will only be able to pinpoint its actual crash zone to within about 6,000 miles about two hours before re-entry and put the chances of one of us humans being brained by the orbitally challenged object as 1-in-3,200 which makes it more likely that on the 23rd you will be killed in a car accident (1 in 100) or die in a fire (1-in-1,116).
If by a twist of fate you do wake up to find a smouldering piece of space junk in your kitchen, you are not allowed to keep it or sell it on eBay, as it remains the property of the US government which is also the place to send your roofing bill to.
For the latest information on which country needs to issue warning to its citizens to don hard hats, the NASA website are posting updates on where and when but i have my fingers crossed for 10 Downing Street.

Vote Looms For Palestinian State

2011-09-14T01:21:00.000Z

It has been a rough time lately for Israel. A UN report found Israel’s effort last year to stop a flotilla of ships from reaching the Gaza Strip 'excessive and unreasonable' while Turkey has downgraded its relationship with Israel and the Arab spring has replaced some of Israel’s friends with potential enemies, most notably in Egypt where the Israeli embassy has been the target of demonstrations.
Things could get significantly worse for the Israeli Government after September 21st as the Palestinians seek full membership state representation at the United Nations.
The Palestinians have long sought to establish an independent, sovereign state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem - occupied by Israel since the 1967 Six Day War. However, decades of on-and-off peace talks have failed to produce a deal with the latest round of negotiations breaking down a year ago when Israel refused to stop building settlements on occupied Palestinian land.
The U.S. has pledged to veto any bid in the 15-member United Nations Security Council, however, they cannot veto the second vote in the 193-member General Assembly that would make Palestine a non-voting observer state at the world body. Not full membership but it would afford the Palestinian state entry to join many United Nations agencies and groups, most importantly the International Criminal Court, where it could take up the legal case against Israel for war crimes and challenge the settlement building in the occupied territories.
The Israeli and Americans claim that recognizing a Palestinian state would complicate the prospects of resuming peace talks is a piece of misdirection aimed to muddy the political waters as no peace process worth talking about exists to be revived.
The U.S. and Israel are continuing last-minute diplomacy to dissuade the Palestinians from seeking any form of action, even threatening to withdraw aid, while urging other countries not to support the measures but support for the Palestinians is very strong.
The Council needs nine votes out of 15 and no veto from any of its permanent members to pass a decision. However, the US has made clear it would wield its veto power so the vote would then go to the General Assembly where the Palestinians would require 129 votes from the 193 members. To date, 122 countries are said to be willing to vote in the Palestinians favour but the Palestinians are expected to easily pass the 129 figure on voting day.
The very real possibility that Palestine will be admitted to the UN, if only with observer status, puts America in a very difficult position.
If the U.S. does use its veto and appear to side with Israel over supporting the Palestinians chance of their own state, it will face major protests in a region where it is already treated with suspicion.
Saudi Arabia, a major American ally, has said the kingdom would ‘no longer be able to cooperate with America in the same way it historically has if it vetoes the bid for statehood. A veto could cause the U.S. to lose a key strategic ally. The special relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States would increasingly be seen as toxic'.
Israel have flaunted, ignored and defied many UN resolutions over the decades and have taken every opportunity to drag their feet over negotiations while they continue the land grab so Israeli arguments that 'Peace can only be achieved around the negotiating table' is yet another attempt at stalling any Palestinian state so Israel can maintain the status quo which suits them fine.
If there is any justice then the Palestinians will gain there UN Status and have the full weight of the International Courts in their corner in any future dealings with Israel who have shamefully been left alone for far too long to continue their outrageous treatment of the Palestinians and if America does side with Israel and use its Veto, then it’s already tattered reputation in an area where anti-American sentiment is never far below the surface, will deservedly sink to a new low.

A Week In September 1991

2011-09-13T16:49:00.005Z

The last thing i want to come across as is one of those clapped out old 40-somethings venting her fury on the bands of today not being as worthy as the bands of yesterday. The real shame is that the bands of today are NOT as worthy as the bands of yesterday so us 40 somethings have no choice but to vent our fury on the subject. It's your fault kids of today, not ours.
We should have put away our ripped, faded jeans and converse trainers a long time ago but since the early 90s there has been a void in music, a couple of decades of insipid pap offered up and Kurt Cobain predicted it, stating: 'It's sad to think what the state of rock'n'roll will be in 20 years from now'. Well here we are 20 years on Kurt and the state of Rock n roll is depressingly in the hands of Simon Cowell.
As evidence that our oldies music rule and your kids music suck, I offer two of the best albums ever to be shoplifted from HMV and both were released 20 years ago this month within a week of each other, the pinnacle of music coming down to a week in mid-September 1991.
First up was Nirvana's Nevermind on the 17th followed by Use your Illusions 1 & 2 by Guns N Roses on the 24th.
You would have to wait a long time to find another album that came close to Nevermind and songs like Smells like teen-spirit, Lithium, In bloom and Come as you are or, as it turned out, you had to wait a week because Use your Illusions 1 & 2 was released at midnight the following weekend.
Who have the kids today got who can compare to Kurt Cobain, Axel Rose and Slash? Olly Murs? Lady Gaga? The last winner of X Factor?
Of course you can't really blame the kids, they can only buy what is served up to them and we are in a depressing cycle of reality show contestants polluting the charts with bland, plastic pop but with music being so fragmented into so many genres, i can't really see another grunge or punk movement happening which is a shame because it gives people like me the opportunity to say 'your music sucks' to the kids which is exactly what my parents said to me and i hate the way today's uninteresting music and musicians has turned me into my parents.

And Now For The Weather With Lucy

2011-09-11T22:13:00.002Z

My local Radio station's weather forecast usually consists of 'clear spells with a chance of rain and average temperatures' which pretty much covers everything but to be fair, predicting the weather isn't easy.
By looking at the wind direction and the present weather out in the Atlantic or over the continent, forecasters can only predict with any real accuracy two days in advance. After that, using traditional methods, it becomes a best guess but there has been a rise of long term weather prediction recently where solar activity is used as a clue of what the upcoming seasons will bring.
I'm not sure of the past success rate of this type of prediction, when astrophysicist Piers Corbyn began his business WeatherAction over a decade ago where he based twelve months weather on particle and magnetic effects from the Sun, it was treated with the same seriousness as the people who predict the weather using fir cones and how much their bunions are hurting but more people are beginning to take note.
Being a business, WeatherAction charge £15 for a 30 day and £25 for a 45 day prediction but there are other solar prediction services that provide free forecasts such as Exacta Weather and they are predicting bad things for this Autumn and Winter.
Due to low solar activity, the UK can expect a notable increase in usual wind strengths for this time of year that will result in frequent and potentially damaging gale force winds. After a largely wet and very windy Autumn, it will turn progressively colder with an early start to Winter. Moderate to heavy snowfalls as early as October or November in certain parts of the UK with prolonged periods of extreme cold and snow in December, January and February across the length and breadth of the country.
Predicting it being very cold and snowy in the UK during Winter is hardly earth shattering but it might be handy to know that the thermals may need to come out earlier this winter but worse things are predicted for the Northeastern and Midwestern parts of the US with record breaking extreme cold temperatures.
I can hear the global warming deniers screeching the 'Where's your global warming gone then' speeches already. Wrap up warm people.

Association With Tyrants

2011-09-10T23:30:00.001Z

French fashion label, Lacoste, has asked Norwegian authorities to prevent Anders Behring Breivik from wearing it's clothing as the mass murderer wearing their gear may damage their brand. Nobody likes being associated with a mass murderer after-all.
Of course it is unfortunate for the company concerned if a maniac decides he likes what you produce, but even worse is if a company chooses to do business with a mass murder and during the 2nd World War many companies decided that the Nazi's money was as good as anyone elses.
Companies like IBM who built the Third Reich custom-made machines and punch cards so they could keep track of who was filling up their concentration concentration camps making the Nazi's much more efficient in their mass slaughter.
Another friend of the Nazi's was Coca-Cola who played both sides during World War Two, supported the American troops but also making sure the Nazi's never got thirsty either. After the Coca-Cola factories ran out of syrup in Germany due to wartime restrictions, they invented a new drink just for the Nazis and called it Fanta. Thirsty work killing all those millions so nice of Coca-Cola to keep the Germans spirits up.
Kodak did business with the Nazis, buying chemicals and camera parts from the Nazis as did Ford who provided the raw materials for Nazi vehicles. Nestle fought for, and won, the contract to supply the entire Nazi army with chocolate.
Siemens not only funded the Nazi party but constructed the gas chambers but the prize must go to Hugo Boss who got its start in the fashion business by designing and making the uniforms for the Nazi's.
Lacoste may be worried about there brand becoming associated with Anders Breivik but a bit of association with murders never harmed some of the other big names and anyway, being caught pumping deadly chemicals in the Chinese Yangtze and Pearl Rivers as Lacoste were this year should worry it far more.

Bye Bye Super Rich

2011-09-08T21:00:00.004Z

Some of the richest people in France recently asked to pay more tax as President Sarkozy said he wanted to cut the French public deficit.
L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, the head of Air France and the boss of oil giant Total are among those who have signed a petition calling for a 'special contribution' from the wealthy saying 'When the public finance deficit and the prospects of a worsening state debt threaten the future of France, it seems necessary for us to contribute.
Compare that approach with the whinging coming from the top 1% of UK earners who are stamping their tiny feet at the 50% tax rate they are forced to pay on earnings over £150,000. Twenty of them have written a stern letter to the media highlighting the injustice of very wealthy people paying more tax than not very wealthy people and insisting that the 50p tax rate is unpopular amongst people who pay the 50p tax rate.
Conservative minister, Eric Pickles, was quick to support the super rich stating that: 'I think there is a strong and reasonable case to say, 'Come on, this is not actually contributing very much'. Not sure what World Eric Pickles lives in if he considers £2.7bn a year not very much but the chancellor of the exchequer has agreed that the top rate will stay for now, mainly because he would face a backlash if he is seen giving money to the rich while the rest of us continue to get shafted at every turn.
I expect we will hear the usual bleating about the most well off wanting to leave the country because of the amount of tqax they pay so if someone wants to pass a hat around to charter a few dozen planes to escort them off our green and pleasant lands, i would be happy to contribute a few quid. As long as it's tax deductible that is, the belt seems to have become a bit tight lately for some reason.

Hiya Max Keiser

2011-09-07T19:50:00.002Z

Over the years the political left have had some very good representatives such as Michael Moore, George Clooney and the Green Day boys while the political right has Sarah Palin, Phil Collins and that guy who played Chachi in Happy Days.
Now along has come another left winger, rising to the challenge of putting the right wing back in its place. That place being sat mumbling to themselves in a corner somewhere.
Step forward Mr Max Keiser, economist, green activist and scourge of the big global corporations like Coca-Cola by once setting up a scheme for making money by short selling their stock and distributing the proceeds to victims of Coke's business model in places like India and Cambodia.
Apparently the idea was a bit of a flop and Coca-Cola is still going strong but attempts to knock the big boys are always gratefully received.
Max has his own show on the RT Network, BBC Radio 5 and has began popping up whenever a lefty slant is needed to equalise the usual right wing 'don't hit the rich' mantra.
The devil may have all the best tunes as the saying goes but the left has all the cool people so what will Fonz's cousin have to say about that?

Another Conspiracy Theory Busted

2011-09-06T23:02:00.002Z

It is a well known fact beyond any shadow of doubt that Princess Diana was murdered by the Royal Family, that Global Warming is a fraud, John F. Kennedy was assassinated by either the CIA or the Mafia and that 9/11 was planned by the US Government.
The secret of a good conspiracy theory is that it has to be so absurd that it just has to be true and probably the biggest is that the Apollo Moon Landing was faked by NASA.
As long as i can remember there have been very boring people pointing to the angle of shadows of rocks or how the astronauts could not have survived the galactic ambient radiation. Yawn.
I always wondered why the Americans didn't get one of their unmanned crafts to take a snap of the landing area on its way elsewhere to shut up all the conspiracy theorists once and for all so that's exactly what they have done.
A NASA lunar reconnaissance orbiter circling the moon has snapped photographs of the tracks and debris left by Apollo astronauts and clearly shows the spacemen's path when they walked on the moon. The photos also show ruts left by a roving vehicle and even ditched backpacks.
Hopefully, this is another nail in the coffin that the US moon landings were staged on a movie set by Americans eager to outstrip the Russians in the space race.
Now Roswell, that's another story. You really expect us to swallow that weather balloon baloney?

Hugo Is Back

2011-09-02T09:59:00.002Z

Silly season turned out to be not quite so silly this year as the summer months bought us the London riots, war in Libya, Rupert Murdoch's downfall, the Norwegian massacre, slaughter in Syria, NASA closing it's doors, Greek meltdowns and the death of Amy Winehouse.
Thank you to Hanz for keeping the blog ticking over during the summer, a rich seam of stories and even the odd one where he had obviously been sniffing the high factor sun lotion like 'Why women should not run the World'.
One story that wasn't covered and gained very little coverage in the media due to the News of The World closing at the same time was the Hugo Chavez illness.
Now Mr Chavez is the kind of man that the right wing would have nothing good to say about even if he sacrificed his own life to save a drowning bag of kittens after single-handedly ending world hunger but i like him and what is so great about this story is that it bought together the two arch-enemies of those who treat Fox News as a proper, grown up news provider.
Fidel Castro has driven America nuts for decades and it was towards the bearded one that Chavez turned when he had an operation to remove a cancerous growth from his pelvis.
I am happy to report that, although visibly thinner, the treatment did not affect Chavez's ability to hold forth speeches for several hours on end and he is now back spreading his evil message of sharing, helping the poorest in society and generally giving America a kick in the swingers at every opportunity.
Big business must have been rubbing their hands at the thought of him stepping down due to health reasons but one of his first actions when coming out of hospital was to nationalise Venezuela's gold mining industry.
Welcome back Hugo and we all wish you a full recovery.

Transfer Deadline Night

2011-09-01T00:02:00.002Z

Andre Santos, Per Mertesacker, Chu Young Park, Mikel Arteta and Yossi Benayoun with the added bonus of Nicklas Bendtner and Armand Traore out the door.
Arsenal are back in the game although you had us doubting you for a while there AW!!
I do love transfer deadline night with the brinkmanship, the late dash for players and hearing Manchester City fell for the 'look-how-fit-i-am' video of Owen Hargreaves and signing the permanently injured midfielder. Owen meet the physio. Physio, meet Owen. I'm sure you will be seeing a lot of each other.

All summer long

2011-08-31T18:27:00.002Z

The Met Office regard today as the last day of summer and therefore my last day of scribbling on this blog and as most of what i have written about over the last 12 weeks concerned what is happening in Libya, it seems apt to end on it as well.
I never agreed with the intervention, invasion or whatever we deem to call it to try and make it sound more palatable. I agree with it even less now that the death toll has been put at 50,000 and we seem to be ending up in the exact same position as the reason we went to war against Gaddafi in the first place with a Libyan city encircled and threatening a massacre.
Only NATO won't be stepping in to stop this massacre, they are actively participating in it, bombing 134 sites in Sirte in the past six days.
Sirte, a city with a population of 100,000, who should come under the original UN resolution to protect its civilians from attack as part of the 'no fly zone' which ironically is being pounded from the air by NATO planes.
Following the deaths of tens of thousands, the destruction of infrastructure, the double standards of NATO with regard to the protection of civilians, the discrediting of the United Nations as its resolutions can be so easily perverted and the installation of a Libyan Government with no popular support and run by men with links to Al Queada, this intervention has been, and will be, a complete disaster for the Libyan people.
The West has inflicted yet another Iraq and Afghanistan because once the rebels are in control, the whole country will descend into civil war and recriminations with a Taliban style insurgency going on for years. Another country we are happy to leave in turmoil as long as get our share of Libya's resources.
Unless something happens very soon, Sirte will be stormed and many civilians killed in the crossfire and nobody will criticise us or the French or Americans because us dropping bombs on Libyans is not the same as Gaddafi doing it. Not in our blinkered eyes anyway.

Cya, Hanz

Arsenal crisis

2011-08-29T16:46:00.006Z

Tottenham being hammered 5-1 by Manchester City gave all the Arsenal fans a good chuckle, or at least until the final whistle went at there own match when their team was on the end of a 8-2 shalacking by Manchester United.
Not a good afternoon for the two North London clubs but i would be more worried if i was an Arsenal fan rather than a Tottenham fan.
The glaring truth is that after selling Fabregas, Nasri, Eboue and Clichy, Arsenal are a weaker team than last year, only bringing in Gervinho and a couple of teenagers who may or may not come good in a few years.
The best players gone and not being replaced, or being replaced with cheaper, less talented players, sounds dangerously like asset stripping to me.
Even when the bigger names return from injury and suspension, you can only see Vermaelen making that much of a difference.
If it is all down to Wenger not spending, then sacking him and getting in someone who will spend is a pretty quick fix. Ancelotti is currently available and would be a great replacement.
If the reasons are at board level, and the likes of Stan Kroenke, then unless they can force out the board a la the Liverpool fans with Hicks & Gillette, Arsenal fans had better get used to finding themselves in the company of Everton and Aston Villa in mid table.
Another reason could be the reluctance of Arsenal to pay the wages the top players command which is very principled but means your season will be over by January every year.
As us Pompey fans know, it is a shock when the rug is pulled away from under you (thank you Harry) and you suddenly drop from the dizzy heights and although i can't see Arsenal joining us anytime soon in the Championship, European Nights at the Emirates may be few and far between for a while after this season.

Hanz

Sex with Neanderthals

2011-08-26T16:01:00.005Z

Over time the religious have amended their beliefs as science has debunked their explanations of things but one idea that seems to have hung about is the creation story. God swooped up some dust, made a man and called him Adam and then took
one of his ribs and made a woman and called her Eve. Throw in a talking serpent and a Tree of knowledge and that's a pretty wacky way to explain how things began but hundreds of millions believe it.
The alternative theory is that man evolved from other mammals and at one point we climbed down from the trees, lost most of our body hair and began walking on two legs.
Not much evidence for the first scenario, plenty for the second including DNA evidence that homo sapiens and other related species not only existed at the same time but interbred.
According to a report, the Neanderthals contribute up to 4% of modern genomes, while the Denisovans contributed roughly 4-6%.
This leaves the admittedly already fragile Adam & Eve story flapping in the wind unless the religious amongst us can come up with an explanation of why our DNA contains bits and pieces from another related species not created by God.
While they ponder on that, this is unmissable chance to mention that us having sex with another uglier, less intelligent Neanderthal like species is not unique to prehistoric times, the wives of Southampton supporters are still doing it today!

Hanz

Best comeback ever!!

2011-08-24T17:21:00.001Z

The football season is only a few weeks old but i have my favourite moment already and it didn't even happen on the pitch.

Benni McCarthy used to be a pretty decent striker but after he transferred to West Ham he pick up a lot of injuries and gained a lot of weight. After 11 league games and no goals in a season and a half, West Ham payed up his contract and the South African returned home to play out his career.

West Ham’s Vice Chairman, Karren Brady said his signing was a big mistake and he was more committed to filling his belly than filling the net.
An obviously narked McCarthy replied, "It makes me want to throw up. She's the devil with a pair of tits". Brady's brilliant comeback "But Benni, I'm meant to have tits, you aren't".

A classic and now one of my all time favourite comebacks along with the Australian bowler asking the Zimbabwean batsman "Why are you so fat?" and the reply "Because every time I make love to your wife, she gives me a biscuit" and another cricket zinger between Ian Botham and Rod Marsh where Marsh welcomed Botham to the crease with "How's your wife and my kids?". Botham returned "The wife's fine. The kids are retarded."

What were our motives in Libya?

2011-08-24T16:44:00.005Z

Of course it is a good thing that another despot has been removed from power although there are a few causes for concern.
The first is that the rebels only stopped fighting each other to take on Gaddafi and now that he is gone, the possibility that they will go back to warring against each other as they divvy up the seats of power must be very high. Libya may well have jumped out of the Gaddafi shaped frying pan into a rebel shaped fire.
My other concern is that once again the United Nations was duped by leaders with ulterior motives.
The UN Resolution was to enforce a no-fly zone to protect civilians but it very quickly slipped into being about regime change and NATO being the air support for the rebels.
This is the second time in recent years that a UN Resolution to go to war has been sold to us as one thing only for it to be stretched way beyond its intended purpose. How can we trust anyone the next time they go to the UN wanting to launch an offensive under humanitarian grounds? We won't be able to, especially if the country concerned has oil beneath its sand as Iraq and Libya both have.
What also looks suspicious is the way Gaddafi's throne is still warm but the oil companies are already negotiating with the rebels regarding oil contracts while the French, British, Italian and American government representatives are discussing reconstruction contracts and even future arms sales. Obviously the competition to get in first is intense but it looks distastefully quick.
The third cause for concern is the way that the West have responded to the Arab Spring. With the action in Libya, the West seems to have been a guiding hand in deciding for other nations who can run their country, a complaint that has been coming from that area for years. In the past decade we have removed the ruler of Iraq, Afghanistan and now Libya while doing our best to take down the rulers of Iran, Palestine and Syria. We have shored up repressive regimes in places like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Tunisia and how we continue to back Israel in its murderous repression of the Palestinians is criminal.
The Arab spring looked as though it would sweep away the oppressive Western backed leaders and replace them with democratically elected Governments who would not curtail human rights of their own citizens in order to appease the West but it seems we are again meddling and deciding which leader to back and which to help remove according to our own interests. Even the Arabs must see that we are not doing this out of some altruistic motive, we demand our pound of flesh for helping and that generally involves providing a reliable source of oil, buying our military hardware and bending over and just taking it when we demand.

Hanz

World leaders qualifications

2011-08-22T22:49:00.006Z

In the previous post i pondered on the qualifications of the men and women charged with making the big decisions. You would expect these people to be packing some serious qualifications so let's have a look at who from the G20 countries have the educational background to guide us through the choppy waters of yet another world wide recession.

SARKOZY (France) - Masters degree in Private Law
OBAMA (USA) - Degree in Political science, Degree in Law
MERKEL (GERMANY) - Masters degree in Physics
CAMERON (UK) degree in philosophy, politics & economics
HARPER (Canada) - Masters degree in economics
ZUMA (South Africa) - No formal qualifications
FELIPE CALDERON (Mexico) - Masters degree in economics
FERNANDEZ DE KIRCHNER (Argentina) - Degree in Law
ROUSEFF (Brazil) - Degree in Law
HU JINTAO (China) - Degree in engineering
NAOTO KAN (Japan) - Degree in Law
MANMOHAN SINGH (India) - Masters degree in Economics
SUSILO BAMBANG YUDHOYONO (Indonesia) - Military qualifications
MEDVEDEV (Russia) - Degree in law
RECEPP TAYYIP ERDOGAN (Turkey) - Degree in Business Administration
VAN ROMPUY (EU President) - Degree in philosophy, Masters degree in economics
BERLOSCONI (Italy) - Degree in law
GILLARD (Australia) - Degree in law
KING ADBULLAH BIN ABDUL AL SAUD - No formal qualifications
LEE MYUNG-BAK (S Korea) - No formal qualifications

Twenty World leaders and between them they muster 2 qualification in Politics, 5 in Economics and 8 in Law. Helpfully, 4 have no educational qualifications whatsoever.
When you see who is the majority group running things, Lawyers, it explains everything!!

Hanz

Why the UK economy is failing

2011-08-21T12:53:00.003Z

The markets are in turmoil apparently and the guys in the suits on the news are talking about a double dip recession so the only conclusion that we can reach is that whatever the Worlds politicians have been doing for the past 3 years, it hasn't worked.
Jobs have been slashed and services removed all for nothing. Nice one guys.
The man responsible in the UK for running the economy is George Osbourne, a proud owner of a degree in Modern History from Oxford University. Great if you want to know about the Age of Enlightenment but not so good if you are in charge of a tanking economy.
After leaving University, Boy George had a job entering the names of people who had died into a National Health Service computer and then worked for Selfridges, re-folding towels before taking up a job at Conservative Central Office.
So there we have the man who we entrusted to guide us out of the choppy waters, a History graduate with NVQ Level 1 IT skills and can fold a towel but no qualifications or experience in economics.
If i took my tax return to an accountant and he told me he didn't actually have any knowledge or experience of accounting but he would give it a go anyway, I wouldn't even open the door I would be out of there so quick so why are we willing to leave such huge decisions that affect the whole nation to such a man?
Why not appoint someone like the Liberal Democrats Vince Cable who has a PhD in Economics hanging on his wall and lectured at the University of Glasgow and the London School of Economics.
If i had to ask one of these to look through my accounts and another to fold my towels, i know which one i would be handing my receipts to and who would be directed to the airing cupboard.
It would be interesting to see how many of the people making the decisive decisions around the World have qualifications or even previous experience in Economics.

Hanz

1st experience of camping

2011-08-15T18:30:00.004Z

I have always managed to resist the temptation to pitch a tent and sleep in it for a couple of nights but i was finally persuaded this weekend we packed up a tent, the youngest daughter and a 24 pack of Carlsbergs and headed out into the New Forest.
Luckily the others we were going with were far more organised and what we didn't have (kettle, spare gas bottle, frying pan, lamps) we shared out between us.
Like something out of a Western film , we circled our tents, set fire to a metal dustbin lid full of dry wood, drank beer, ate burgers and realised just how dark it gets in the country away from the city lights.
Being a town dweller, there are lots of things about the country i never realised. As well as the darkness, the silence is almost eerie and when you run out of cigarettes or milk, you can't just nip down to the local 24 hour store.
When you hear the sound of rain hitting your tent it is too late to wonder if you fixed the ground sheet properly and there is no WI-FI, telephone signal or internet on your mobile which can be very frustrating when you are trying to find out the football scores or your wife is desperate to know if Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri had left yet so she can slate them without having the egg on her face if we come back Monday afternoon and they had undergone a change of heart and were both still Arsenal players.
The nighttime sky is host to more stars than i had ever seen before although i still seemed to be always looking the wrong way when the shooting ones appeared.
All in all a great weekend and i'm a converted camper, the decision to cut ourselves off completely from all other life except from those of us on the campsite was surprisingly easy and refreshing although i did notice we all make a beeline for the newspapers when we stopped at the services.

Hanz

2011/12 Season Predictions

2011-08-11T22:43:00.004Z

The Premier League starts this weekend and every man and his dog are making predictions but although each season throws up a few surprises, it doesn't take a footballing genius to have a good idea of where the winners and losers will be coming from.
The champions will only come from a shortlist of three, Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City.
The clubs relegated come May will be perm 3 from Swansea, Norwich, West Brom, Newcastle, QPR, Wolves or Wigan.
Of the teams left, they even break down into teams who will challenge for the 4th Euro spot (Arsenal, Tottenham, Liverpool), those who will finish just outside the UEFA Cup places (Everton, Sunderland) and the rest who will stay safely in the middle not threatening the top or the bottom (Fulham, Aston Villa, Blackburn, Bolton, Stoke).
My hunch is for Manchester United to take the crown again due to their boring efficiency although if Manchester City click and they don't implode as they always seem on the verge of doing, they could be serious challengers.
Arsenal, if anything, are weaker than last season and if Fabregas and Nasri both leave as looks likely, it will be optimistic to think they will finish in the top 4.
Hard to look past Swansea, Norwich and Wolves to be relegated and join my team in the Championship next year. If we are not relegated by then.

I predict:

Man Utd (C)
Chelsea
Man City

Liverpool
Arsenal
Tottenham

Everton
Sunderland

Fulham
Aston Villa
Blackburn
Bolton
Stoke

Wigan
Newcastle
QPR
West Brom

Wolves (R)
Norwich (R)
Swansea (R)

Hanz

Reserve currency explained for idiots like me

2011-08-08T21:28:00.002Z

The more I learn about the economy the more I don't understand so I asked someone who understands these things to explain it in the most basic of basic terms and here is their reply.

- -
In very basic terms being the holder of the reserve currency allows you to buy things cheaper than anyone else as they have they added cost of changing their money into your currency first.

For example, if a 42 gallon barrel of oil costs $6, America gets it for $6. For that same barrel, the UK has to pay $6 and $1 to change the pound into dollars first.
So America can sell that barrel of oil to the Americans for $14.28 per gallon. The UK has to sell it at the equivalent of $16.66.

So cheaper petrol costs means it is cheaper to deliver something 10 miles in America ($142) than in the UK ($166) so the item being delivered, once delivery costs are factored in, is always going to be cheaper in the US. (Taxes, inflation etc must also be considered but ignore those for this purpose)

Now imagine the pound became the reserve currency and it got its 42 gallons for £6 while America had to pay £6 plus £1 to convert its dollar into pounds first. Petrol prices should fall in the UK while prices would definitely rise in America and the cost of delivering the items by ship, plane, car van etc would rise due to the added cost of the fuel.

So basically, the reserve currency allows you to be cheaper than anyone else in the World so prices are kept down. Take that away and prices go up, budgets get squeezed, jobs are lost, unemployment rises and Government raises less revenue and basically it all unravels.
- -

It's easy when someone explains it to you without all the blinding economic talk.

Hanz

Panic on the streets of London

2011-08-08T15:00:00.002Z

The circumstances surrounding the spark that kicked off the rioting in Tottenham at the weekend is still rather cloudy but the facts as we know them are that a young man, Mark Duggan, shot at armed police who then returned fire and killed him.
That was on Thursday, and on Saturday, the family of the man held a protest outside the local Police station as the Police were not communicating with them, they had to read of his death in the local newspaper.
As the protest went on, more people turned up and someone set fire to a police car and then things escalated and shops, vehicles and homes were looted and left burning.
That is the jist of events, a load of idiots looting and trashing their neighbourhood because one of their hoody mates got wasted when he shot at armed police.
This is not brain surgery, everybody knows the consequences of walking around town with a gun, armed police turn up to disarm you. If you then shoot at the police, you don't get a chance to take another shot.
Some reports have tried to make this about poverty or injustice or Government policy but that's nonsense and just being apologists for a mob of thugs who think that it's OK to smash shop windows and loot them and to think that it's OK to set fire to buildings and destroy people’s lives and possessions.
It is ridiculous for anyone to think they are being victimised if police shoot back after they have shot at police, i hope anyone who shoots at anyone else would be met with force, fatal force if necessary.
Riots are never justified but happen because people, like those in Greece or Syria, because they have no job, no education, are poor, downtrodden and generally screwed over.
They do not manifest just because some tosspot got what was coming to him so the blame will be shared around but the reality is the killing was an excuse for a riot rather than a reason.

Hanz

Communists berating the Capitalists

2011-08-06T17:48:00.004Z

Kinda funny that Capitalism beat Communism back in the 80s but today it is a Communist country telling the Capitalists to sort their houses out. Ooo the irony.
China has called America short-sighted & demanded the United States address its structural debt problems. Things must be in a bad way when the US is now being lectured by China, arguably one of the most corrupt countries on the planet. Seems to me that the Chinese have played a blinder over the past decade or so, keeping quiet while the Westsern Governments, bankers and financial houses have led us down the path of its own decline.
It even, quite sneakily, helped by lending the US the money to do it so American citizens were up to their eyeballs in debt and waited for the whole thing to implode, as it has.
Now they move in and suggest a new reserve currency.
China may yet overthrow the US and do it without a shot being fired. It just gave America enough rope and it did the rest itself. It obviously already runs the World economy now and it isn't America who, bankrupt and careering downhill fast, are today's USSR of the late 80's early 90's.
You had from 1989 to 2011 when you were the unchallenged World leaders, but the worst aspect of Capitalism, greed, has bled you dry.
Now it looks as though China will usurp America but before those who will inevitably be cheering Americas decline, do they really think China will be any better? They will be just as two faced with their friendly dictators, just as ready to fight amoral wars and just as quick to build up their friends and demonise their enemies as America.
The World could be a very different place in a decades time and the side that lost in the 80s and early 90's, could become the eventual winners. Sneaky guys those Commies.

Hanz