Is The Privatisation Experiment Over?

Labour Party supporters in 1997, of which i was one, were happy as a pig in mud when Labour replaced the nasty party of John Major and with Tony Blair at the helm, introduced the minimum wage and tax credits. Finally we said, a Labour Party that will fight for the little guy and will reverse the worst aspects of Thatcherism where almost everything we owned was privatised. Just got your latest massive utilities bill? That's Maggie’s legacy.
The great start by Blair to rid the country of the Conservatives destructive schemes were forgotten as Blair put his efforts into being the chief poodle for George Bush's mad scheme to force Democracy on the Middle East.
Blair jumped before he was pushed and Gordon Brown came in just as the economy collapsed and left the door open for the nasty party to get a foothold back in power with the assistance of the Liberals Democrats.
So that's where we are today and the Conservatives are back to there old tricks of selling off whatever they can get their grubby hands on.
It is blatantly obvious that privatisation doesn't work, it increase costs and lowers the quality of services because it is impossible for the private sector to deliver the same service for less and make a profit and making a profit is the only reason they are there in the first place.
While the likes of the privatised railway and telephones irk me because they are taking the customers left, right and centre, they are not must-haves but the gas and electric suppliers know that whatever they put their prices to, and each rise is followed shortly by all the rest of the companies, we HAVE to have them. They have us over a barrel and they know that and a few old people dying due isn't going to stop them putting profits first.
Now the Labour Party, supposedly the Party for the working class, plans to return railway network to public control by renationalising the railways.
They have said that the current fragmented system under which we own the track and private companies run trains is failing taxpayers and passengers while benefiting private train operators and their shareholders, who are guaranteed taxpayer funds if profits fall below a certain level.
They estimate that it costs £1.2bn of our money each year as a direct result of subsidising the private companies, money that could have allowed fares to be 18% lower than at present. UK rail passengers, who already pay the highest fares in Europe, face further increases of at least 6% from next January.
Finally, a Labour Party that we need, one that is run for us although i would like to see them start with the utilities where people are actually dying because they cannot affords to pay what the firms demand, but let's hope that this is the first of many and Labour returns to it's ideological roots and we begin rolling back the privatisation experiment now it's been proved to have failed so dramatically, especially before the Conservatives sell off the NHS.

Public Victim Of More Bank Fraud

As if we need any more reasons to string up a banker by their testicles on every lamp post in the country, along comes news that at the height of the bailouts, Barclays Bank was fiddling the interest rates to pay themselves even higher bonuses.
Now they have been fined £290 million by the Financial Services Authority who said that Barclays was working with traders at other banks to make a profit which means that they were all at it. Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds, and HSBC are said to be helping the FSA with their enquiries
Barclays Chief Executive, Bob Diamond, said the actions 'fell well short of standards' and as a punishment, rather than face fraud charges, he will give up this years £2.7 million bonus, which considering his annual salary is £23m means he won't be forced to tighten his belt anytime soon.
Barclays' misconduct relates to the daily setting of the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) and the Euro Interbank Offered Rate (Euribor) which are two of the most important interest rates in the global financial markets and directly influences the value of loans and mortgages and saving rates to the banks customers.
£3.7bn was been wiped off the value of Barclays as it's value slumped 17% and George Osborne called the scandal 'shocking', the same George Osborne who argued that Gordon Browns banking regulation were too tight and needed de-regulating.
Without doubt the whole financial sector is riddled with corruption, and as the financial sector have been bankrolling the present Government it makes your head spin just how far the corruption goes into the seat of power. It was only last month that the Prime Minister was found to be available for a meeting with these same heads of business if the donation to his party was large enough.
We are continually told that the public sector is the bad guy costing us billions but it is plain that it is the so-called heroes of the private sector who are responsible for the mess and it is them who should be vilified.
Nothing that i have seen has shown that unfettered Capitalism works unless you are one of those at the top where you can rip off the public, bring down countries and wreck the lives of billions and just have to forgo a couple of million pounds bonus when you get caught.
I just hope that the way is made clear for anyone who has had a Barclays loan or a mortgage over the last couple of years can sue them for compensation as that would really hit them where it hurts most and if they go bust, good riddance because would we really be any worse off if half of these vile institutions ceased to exist?

Osborne Does It Again

Not many people know that George Osborne's Christian name is actually Gideon but doesn't like it so he announces himself as George instead.
So Gideon, after being educated at private schools and Oxford and a membership of the exclusive Bullingdon Club before a short stint as a towel folder at Selfridges, somehow found himself as Chancellor of the Exchequer and responsible for the countries finances.
In March 2012, as the aforementioned countries finances dipped dramatically once again, he announced VAT on caravans and pasties as well as the removal of age related allowances for the elderly, a 3% rise on petrol and a cut in the top rate of income tax for anyone earning over £150,000.
Within 3 months of this budget which Gideon described as 'a budget for growth', he has reversed his decision on all of the above except one, the one that sees the richest members of society with a large wedge of extra money in their pocket. Funny that don't you think?

Computer Take Over

Due to the 100th anniversary of Alan Turing's birth, there have been quite a few articles and television programmes about the man who is credited with being the inventor of the modern computer in the 1940's.
When you consider that was only 70 years ago and we have gone from computers that took up a whole room to ones that are now the size of a paperback, that's some progress.
What is most impressive is the power they have now, an often repeated statistic is that the Apollo 11 mission that landed on the moon was powered by a computer equal to that of today's calculators.
Almost everything today is run by a computer and when they stop working or go haywire, as the customers of NatWest Bank have found out, chaos ensues and with computers growing more and more powerful and more vital to society, we are heading for a bit of a disaster aren't we?
At some point computers will be cleverer than us and the amount of human interaction needed will reduce, take an aeroplanes auto-pilot, the pilot is just there to start and stop the plane and keep an eye on the computer that is keeping the thing in the air. BAE systems has already tested pilotless fighter planes so we are already moving into a grey area where we are allowing computers to decide whether to take a life and as with most things, it is the military that will make the most terrifying use of the leaps in artificial intelligence and robotics.
It is not hard to see the near future when independent and heavily armed robots and androids will replace soldiers, real killing machines unleashed on fellow humans.
We are so reliant on computers today, from the banking system to controlling the traffic lights at the end of the street that if they were all to suddenly stop, we would be lost so surely building faster and bigger and smarter computers that will slowly take over new roles with more responsibility and decision making capabilities to replaces the older systems, is a bit of a own goal isn't it?
It's quite frightening just how far and how fast we have moved, and how dependent on computers we have come in those 7 decades since Turing.

Nessie Disproving Evolution

Apart from being the most famous person from Louisiana, Reese Witherspoon is widely regarded as an actress who can bring a smile to the lips of the audience with her portrayal of slightly dim characters.
Using their most famous resident as a template, it seems that Louisiana is now looking to churn out a whole generation of people we can laugh at as a Christian school has been using textbooks that claims the Loch Ness Monster is real, which disproves evolution.
The textbook being used by the Eternity Christian Academy in science classes advises the kids: 'Have you heard of the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland?
‘Nessie’ for short has been recorded on sonar from a small submarine, described by eyewitnesses, and photographed by others. Nessie appears to be a plesiosaur and the existence of dinosaurs living alongside humans discredits the theory of evolution, showing there was no gradual replacement of species.
Instead, it confirms creationist beliefs that all animals were created several thousand years ago, but died out because they were not taken on Noah’s Ark, apart from sea monsters who were able to survive in the water'.
On the one hand it's hilarious that an old legend that the Scots have exploited for tourism purposes is actually being cited by so-called serious educators.
On the other hand it's alarming that there are adults deliberately filling young kids heads with such nonsense.
'True science will never contradict the Bible because God created both the universe and scripture. If a scientific theory contradicts the Bible, then the theory is wrong and must be discarded,” claims the Academy who i suppose instead teach the completely rational theory that man was made from a pile of dirt and woman from a the rib of the dirt made man.
Puzzlingly, Louisiana is 48th worst performing state in the US for science and with people like these teaching the subject, I just can't see why.
Next lesson, Geography and how Beelzebub sunk Atlantis.

Zombie Conspiracy Update

Curiouser and curiouser. Just weeks after the US Center for Disease Control publicly denied the existence of zombies, they have been holding large-scale training exercises in preparation for a zombie apocalypse in the state of Maine.
Representatives from several hospitals, public safety and emergency management agencies, the National Guard and the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention gathered to practice how they would respond to an outbreak of a zombie attack.
The premise was a virus that turning the infected citizens of Maine into zombies. Once infected, the virus quickly spread to the brain, and turned the host into a full-fledged zombie looking for brain to eat.
The officials were armed with two vaccines, one which prevented the bitten victim turning into a zombie and another to bring the zombies back to life.
'We have identified in several states, particularly Texas, New York, Illinois outbreaks of these civil disturbances and biting' an official said.
Rumors of a 'zombie apocalypse' have been on the rise after a series of disturbing incidents including true stories of people waking after being certified dead, a husband who ate his wife's arm and a man pulled out and threw his own intestines at police.
Be prepared people, watch Dawn of the Dead, 28 days later and even Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead if you have to because there is a chill in the air, something is coming and it's not going to be pretty.

Is That England In The Quarter Finals?

England play Italy in the quarter finals of the European Championship this weekend and i admit that i didn't expect them to get through the group stage , i don't think many people did.
Even the most fervent England fan will admit that England couldn't have been more jammier against the Ukraine if we had smeared the starting eleven in Robertson's finest and stuffed them into a doughnut but here we are through to face the Italians in the last eight.
Sunday promises another awkward evening for us English after the dull 1-1 with France, the 'we-are-winning-no-we're-not-yes-we-are' 3-2 defeat of Sweden and the 'how the hell did we do that' win over the Ukraine when Rooney managed to head the ball in from millimetres out.
The UEFA website stats page show that England have only managed to muster 15 shots on target in those three games but have scored from 5 of them. Italy have had 30 shots on target in their 3 games and only scored 4 times and they had Ireland in their group.
They have let in 2 goals, we have conceded 3 so we have more accurate strikers than them but they have a slightly better defence but all the stats in the World can't disguise the fact that we have been lucky while not playing particularly well and as any Manchester United fan will tell you, being lucky and somehow getting the result when you are not at your best is how you win things.
If at 9.45 on Sunday evening we are celebrating another England win and we are watching grumpy, arm waving Italians trudge off the pitch and out of the Euro's then maybe this could be our year. If not and it is the grumpy faced English we are watching, then i blame John Terry for being such a git.

Is Kim The Problem With Western Society?

I don't know much about Kim Kardashian but Dr Helen Wright of the Institute of Development Professionals blames her for all that is wrong with Western Society.
"Almost everything that is wrong with Western society today can be summed up in that one symbolic photo of Ms Kim Kardashian on the front of Zoo magazine,' the doc ranted which seems a bit harsh to lay the many faults of the West at the door of a young girl who found fame via a home made sex tape and kept famous by virtue of having a big bum and a very good publicist.
Putting to one side Kim and her bubble butt, there are better targets that could be blamed for what is wrong with Western Society today.
The most obvious is steaming into countries under dodgy pretenses to exploit their natural resources but there is also exporting a faulty capitalist system which collapses frequently and makes the rich richer and the poor poorer.
Then there is an unethical arms industry selling weapons to despots, corrupt politicians, hard drugs, backing some of the most brutal regimes on the planet because it furthers our own interests, privatisation, willingness to pollute the planet, exploitative corporations, the idea that greed is good and removing other countries leaders.
Throw in a sprinkling of jingoistic xenophobia, a spoonful of right wing ideology, a cupful of bias media outlets and a splash of religious bigotry and i think that this list is much more of a recipe for western society's ills than Kim Kardashian appearing on the front of a magazine.

Blame The Meat Eaters

Howdy meat eaters. Been tucking into your share of flesh, veins, muscles, tendons and blood today? Did those bits scraped up off the
abattoir floor that went into your sausages taste good today? Good but you better make the most of eating meat because research from the
University of Exeter shows that unless all you meat-eaters change your ways, the rise in the global population will spell ecological disaster.
Published today in the journal Energy and Environmental Science, the research suggests that in order to feed an expected population of 9.3billion by 2050, we need to dramatically cut the amount of meat we eat because rearing the animals takes so much land leaving insufficient space for crops.
The researchers argue that if we change the way we use our land, recycle waste, and dedicate enough space to growing bioenergy crops we could bring down atmospheric carbon dioxide to safe levels.
'By focusing on making agriculture more efficient and encouraging people to reduce the amount of meat they eat, we could keep global temperatures within the two degrees threshold' said Professor Tim Lenton, 'Bioenergy with carbon storage could play a major role in helping us reduce future levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide.'
'With livestock production accounting for 78 per cent of agricultural land in use today, this is the area where change could have a significant impact.'
So there you have, with every mouthful of cows backside or pigs eyeballs in your McDonald's burger, you are condemning all of us to a slow, painful demise and besides, in response to the millions of times i have heard from meat eaters that Hitler was a vegetarian in order to somehow shut me up about being a vegetarian, he wasn't, he was a meat eater just like you as was Stalin, Attila the Hun, Idi Amin, Pol Pot and Genghis Khan.
Sir Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Gandhi, Thomas Edison, Leonardo Da Vinci, Aristotle, Diogenes, Plato, Pythagoras, Socrates, Voltaire and Lisa Simpson all were though.

No Carr Tax?

Tax avoidance is the latest hot topic thanks to The Times and David Cameron letting the cat out the bag about comedian Jimmy Carr and his K2 scheme where he does god knows what but the final result is he only pays 1% tax and keeps the other 44% in his bank account.
The irony is that much of Jimmy Carr's spiel on shows such as 10 O'clock Live is ripping into greedy bankers and expense swindling politicians and here is exposed as squirreling away £3.3 million annually through some dodgy, but legal, tax scam.
Tax avoidance is wrong and for Carr and his accountant to have to go out of their way to avoid paying tax, especially when the rest of the country is facing cuts because of reduced tax revenues coming into Government coffers, makes me angry and I hope Carr faces the rest of his career being heckled by angry taxpayers despite he latest statement which says will: 'in future conduct my financial affairs much more responsibly.' Now you got caught you will yeah.
Being a comedian who has bashed the Conservative Government over there abysmal record, the Prime Minister casually mentioning Carr and his tax avoidance during a press conference smells of revenge although it is interesting that the other people mentioned by The Times, Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Mark Owen of Take That are not receiving such individual attention by the Prime Minister.
Just a coincidence probably that Gary Barlow is a Conservative Party donor and after the PM called Carr's avoidance 'morally wrong', he declined to comment on news that Barlow and the other two had used a similar avoidance scheme to place a taxable £26 million.
Mr Cameron said he was not going to give a running commentary on people's tax affairs just after he gave a running commentary on Jimmy Carr's but the Conservatives has a history of protecting their own, such as donor Michael Ashcroft who shovelled millions into an offshore account to avoid tax
and still got made a Lord nomination from the Tories.
National laughing stock John Prescott summed it up brilliantly on Twitter: 'So if you're a comedian and avoid tax, the Tories condemn you. If you're a millionaire donor and avoid tax, you get a peerage!.
When even two jags is scoring points off you, you know you are on wobbly ground Dave.