Sounds right to me

Bring on iron fist

Apr 4, 2006

The prisons are full. The law-makers in Whitehall have decided the best way forward is to de-criminalise crime.

Under instructions being sent to all police forces, a range of 60 offences including some incidents of theft, assault, arson and burglary, can now be dealt with by a caution.

If we needed any proof that the lunatics have taken over the asylum, it comes in the "mitigating factors" police are being ordered to consider.

For example, a caution may be given in a theft "because of poverty or need"or if an assault is deemed to be impulsive rather than planned. This is a liar's charter.

The policy defies belief. These cautions are intended for first offences. The aim is to keep tens of thousands of offenders out of the courts and possibly out of the crime statistics.

But this state-sponsored leniency will be paid for in untold financial loss, terror and anguish among the victims of these fearless offenders.

The lesson of history is that the softer we are on crime, the more crime we get.

The most successful crime initiative in recent times was New York's "broken window" policy where the police and courts cracked down hard on minor cases of vandalism in order to nip criminality in the bud.

England is moving in the opposite direction, virtually ignoring some crimes and then wondering why our prisons are packed.

We demand tougher sentences, not soft options. And we are not alone.

The abduction and murder of a baby in Italy brought widespread calls at the weekend for the reintroduction of the death penalty there.

A majority of Britons, too, want a system where the punishment fits the crime.

All over Europe, bleeding-heart do-gooders are passing laws which make life safer for criminals and more dangerous for innocent, decent, law-abiding people.

Where are the politicians with the moral courage to say enough is enough?

The kid glove has failed. Bring on the iron first.

Generous gesture teaches a lesson

A fortune shared is a fortune well spent. After a spell in the doldrums, Marks & Spencer is heading for massive profits and will share £60 million among its employees.

And why not? Millionaire bosses and consultants may draw up the grand strategy of success but the people who make it work are the managers, sales assistants, checkout girls and shelf-stackers.

They put in the hours. They deserve a share of the spoils. And nothing is quite as welcome as a bonus in the wage packet.

Well done M&S. What a pity more firms don't do the same.

Pope Catholic, bears defecate in woods Pt II

Denis Donaldson. Photograph: Paul Faith/PA
Denis Donaldson, the former Sinn Fein official who spied for Britain for 20 years and whose mutilated body was found yesterday, had been warned his life was in danger.

The Irish prime minister, Bertie Ahern, today revealed that, in January, Irish police had become aware that Mr Donaldson was living in an isolated, run-down cottage in Glenties, Co Donegal.

Mr Ahern told the Irish parliament that Garda officers had visited the farm to advise the 56-year-old that his life was at risk. This must have been the deduction of the century - the crime awareness of the Garda never stops amazing me.

Back once more please!

The Grand Canyon of course. Desert View Tower to be specific.
Some sadist sent it to me today. Here it is cold and damp. Reminder of the Canyon was just what I needed.

Aged wisdom

Following talks on Tuesday night at Westminster, Mr Blair and Mr Cameron agreed to continue negotiations

People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.
Adam Smith - The Wealth of Nations I.x.c.27 (Part II)

Supporting Tone

At a meeting of the Greater London Council yesterday, T Bliar revealed he would become patron of a London community sports club if 100 other public figures joined him in supporting other clubs.
I do not know if there is a community club that sponsors standing on the bed of the River Lea whilst supporting a heavy weight on one's head but that is the one I'd like to see him joining.
Actually, the weight is optional. From my rowing days I remember that the River Lea is quite toxic and that should do it.

Expert advice needed

I had posted this on a forum of mine. Tied in to the suspicion held by women that men cannot talk to them without looking at their breasts. I opined that this guy was doing a pretty good job of keeping a straight gaze under trying circumstances.
Where expert advice is needed is whether this is a straight shot or Photoshopped? I leaned towards digital manipulation but it seems the man has a bit of a raunchy reputation and could have found himself in this undignified situation.
At least it is less sick making than the images of Jack Straw getting close-up with Dr Rice!

Finish it NOW

Don't. Vote. Labour.

Blair has to go.

Collectively, Labour MPs, councillors, members and activists have the power to make this happen, and right now we have a unique opportunity to unite them.

If Tony Blair is still in power on Thursday 4th May 2006 - DON'T VOTE LABOUR in the 2006 Local Elections. Under any circumstances.

No arguments, no exceptions, no diversions into the long grass.

Contact your local Labour candidate(s) and explain WHY you plan to take this action.

The Backing Blair site has been refitted for the 2006 Local Elections, and there's a brand new video to help you spread the word:

Backing Blair VII - Don't Vote Labour

Go. Do. Enjoy.

Cheers all.

Apache worry

As I sat on the edge of the bed this morning, trying to decide which leg showed the greatest potential to go about it's days business, a phrase suddenly came into my head.

Apache Dance.

I had no idea why. I still do not know what caused this to liberate itself from my brain's disk drive and come to the fore i n this manner. Oh yes, I knew what an Apache Dance was. Way back in the early '50s (19 50s that is), there was only a limited amount of home grown entertainment for the TV schedules. Programmes were put on which had a strong continental European flavour and Apache Dancing figured large in these routines.

It was a strenous dance with a woman dressed in our idea of a Parisian gangsters moll. Tight black skirt with long slit, low cut white blouse and a cravatte-like scarf. Her male partner wore equally tight black trousers and the horizontally-striped shirt of blue and white. Oh yes - we had colour TV. The girl would act as if seeking forgiveness and try to get the man to dance with her but he rebuffed her advances - viciously. Things progressed that he did dance with her but in a violent and abusive manner. He quite often finished things by throwing her into a corner and shooting her. To us - veryexotic and foreign. Just as we imagined those dirty French people would carry on.

All day, I've had my brain trying to work out what was the point behind this journey back in time. I had not been doing anything else that was related to the '50s.

Oh well - all come out in the wash I suppose. But it is puzzling.

Five things! Is that all it takes?

Five things likely to make you happier in the short term

Tuesday, 26 July 2005

Here is my list of things to give you a short-term "hit" of happiness. Of course, these things won't solve your long-term problems, but they are useful tricks to giving yourself some relief when it all seems too much.

Each is virtually guaranteed to give you some satisfaction, but they won't work unless you try them. Sometimes, misery and depression can all become a bit too comfortable. Taking action, however minor, can appear like too much effort. It's so much easier just to hang around the house feeling bad, than doing something about it. At least with your misery, you know what to expect - and even better - it doesn't take any effort. Right?

Wrong.

So before you read my list, make a promise to yourself that you will do one of the below right now. The lazy, miserable part of your mind will almost certainly dismiss them as useless. It will try to suck your energy and glue you to the chair, bed or couch. No matter how much your internal pessimist tries to talk you out of it, pick one of the below and go and do it the very second you finish reading.

If you choose not to, it's time to admit to yourself that you prefer being miserable to being happy, and that is the root cause of your sadness.

Here's the list...

1. Go out for a walk
If there's one thing that's virtually guaranteed to make you feel better, it's going for a walk. Walking is one of the most therapeutic things any person can do. The fact that so few of us do it anymore is probably a big factor for the growth of professional therapy.

I'm not talking about power walking, or a jogging, or even purposeful marching. What I'm talking about is an aimless wander somewhere. Walking for its own sake. Do so for at least half an hour. You'll be amazed how much better it will make you feel.

Preferably, choose somewhere picturesque, such as a park or a beach or up to a hill with a view. Everyone has somewhere nice like that not more than a short drive away. But if you can't make it somewhere picturesque for whatever reason, just go for a walk nearby, even if that means through a suburb or an industrial area.

In fact, promise yourself that you'll take up walking as a regular habit. Spend at least an hour and a half a week doing it. If you can, replace short car journeys with walking. Take a little longer to get where you're going and put it down to health time - both mental and physical.

2. Do something fun that you haven't done in a long time
We all have regular activities that are supposed to be fun. The problem is that sometimes we overdo them. They become so integrated into our routine, that their ability to thrill us shrinks.

Nothing excites quite like something new. So go out and do something fun that you haven't done for a while, or even something that you haven't ever done before. It could be bowling, going to the cinema, playing mini-golf, having a swim in the ocean, going kayaking, learning to sail, having a barbecue or going for a picnic. The most important thing is that it's something that gets you out of the house and that it's fun, not work or self-improvement. Look on the web, in the newspaper, or a book of local activities if you can't come up with something.

Make a day of it. Take a friend if you can, but if not just go on your own.

3. Do something creative
We are creative beings. Among humanity's first achievements were artistic - painting in caves, telling stories, making music, preparing nice food. It is something so deep inside us that it forms part of our souls. There are so many creative things you can do, that it seems silly listing suggestions for you, but I'm going to anyway. Here are some creative acts you can undertake right now:

• Draw a picture.
• Create a story, if you've got children, tell it to them.
• Paint something.
• Do some woodwork.
• Knit something.
• Make some music.
• Write a poem.
• Make some pottery.
• Sculpt something with clay.
• Cook something delicious from a book of recipes.

If you're still short of something to do, go down to your local art and craft store and look for something, they have hundreds of options. Stock up on some of the tools and get going!

Don't worry if you're not good at what your doing, and don't get hung up on trying to do it perfectly. Enjoy yourself with it. If you find you're no good at it, laugh and amuse yourself with how hopeless you are at that activity. If you're drawing, and find your skills are lacking, try to draw the silliest picture you possibly can.

4. Complete some minor chore that you've been avoiding
Now I'm not going to pretend that you're going to enjoy the chore - you're probably not - chores are chores after all. But a chore completed can really help to put your mind at rest.

Tidying and cleaning a dirty room is no fun. But, the feeling of satisfaction and achievement that comes with looking at the result can really lift your spirit.

5. Get in contact with an old friend or acquaintance you haven't seen for a while
You've got their number or email address and you know you really should have contacted them by now. So do it already!

You may feel a little uncomfortable about it - perhaps you've been neglecting their friendship. But what the heck, just give them a call. Ask them out for a drink, invite them over for coffee, arrange to go to a movie with them. You can have a great time with old friends. The warmth of a friendship rekindled is a wonderful thing.

So there they are, my list of five things to give yourself a happiness hit right now. You promised me at the beginning you'd do one of them, so please don't disappoint.

Don't spend too long agonising over your decision for which either. I'm not asking you to buy a new car or anything requiring serious consideration like that. Pick the first one that pops to mind right now and do it.

The alternative is to sit there and remain miserable.

Go on - get going.

Aah. Isn't that nice!

Yes, I know I'm a saddo. I still reckon there is more to this than meets the eye.

Youth of today eh?

Red squirrels being chased out

I think this must be the John Wayne of the squirrel world.

In a way, I agree

This article - here in full as it is on a subscription site - gets itself classified along the lines of the comment about foxhunting of the unspeakable chasing the uneatable.
Here I see it as the idiotic condemning the irrelevant.

Islamic militants have issued a statement denouncing MP George Galloway
for appearing in Big Brother.

The Saved Sect, a group of followers of the banned radical preacher Omar Bakri Mohammad, criticises Galloway’s appearance in the TV series as hypocritical.

The text, titled "There is no dignity except in Islam", claims that Allah caused him to appear on the show in order to expose him.

It also describes people who voted for Galloway at the General Election as "non-Muslims".

"One wonders how voting for Respect is any different from voting for any other kufr (un-Islamic) democratic party, such as Labour or Conservatives, as they all have the same agenda, ultimately being a government which rules by their vain desires and evil ideology (democracy)," it reads.

Warfarin & me

Whilst it may be that this rat poison is keeping me away from the scenario where I exist courtesy of a 13amp wall socket (must remember to have one of those 'please do not switch off' cards ready),it is causing me a lot of aggro in other ways.
My balance seems to have gone awry. I find myself tripping over things that are not there or having serious problems in avoiding going arse over tit because of a matchstick.
The real annoyance is that it has killed off my internal thermostat. I had always been able to ignore the most severe cold weather. Even in Korea. Heat was another thing with which I had little problems. I used to joke that this was due to not allowing myself to think cold or think hot.
Those protections have now gone. I've had to move into my own bedroom so that I can have the extra oil-filled radiator and the two high tog-rated duvet. This gets the room up to about 20 degrees and I can tolerate that with my pyjamas as well.
Mind you, there is a payback. I can have the lights on or off as and when I wish. I can have my music live instead of through earphones. At whatever time I choose. The dvd player is there for as and when it is wanted. Given that most nights are fragmented with no uninterrupted sleep, these are luxuries well worth my self-imposed isolation. I can have more than one book on the go at any one time without being scorned as a lightweight. Plus, things can be 'filed' on the floor. Aah - wonderful. But, on the whole, I'd rather have my thermostat back.

Blog-a-day

This is from a guy who does a blog based upon his job.

Seems right to me

When you are writing a blog, if you want to be ‘successful’ then you need to write something everyday. How you measure success is up to you – pagehits, number of comments left, feelings of satisfaction, or however else you like to measure it. However, what you write has to be of a sufficient quality to get your readers feeling, or thinking about, the subject of the day. When writing for print, I would imagine that you have a couple of days to polish whatever you write. In this way, writing for a blog is much like how I imagine it is writing a report for a newspaper – you have a deadline, you have to write every day and you have to write on short notice.

The difference would be that while most folk speed read newspaper reports without taking much notice of who has written it - This Blog Is Me.

(Which is basically what I’m going to be talking about at the Apple store).

Some days the words just flow off the keyboard – you hardly have to edit the post before hitting ‘publish’. The ideas come rushing at you and it’s all you can do to slow them down long enough for you to type them. You lie in bed and blog posts run through your mind. Every sentence comes fully formed and shining into the world – you reread it and you manage to impress yourself.

Then there are the days (like today) when every word is a struggle, where you go back over every line trying to polish it into some semblance of readability. There are days when your muse has gone on holiday, so you read through the ‘Post ideas for a rainy day’ file for something that might spark your imagination. And nothing does. The blog writing feels like a chore that you’d rather not do.

So what I’m saying is that I have complete respect for those people who can turn in on a daily basis pieces of writing that consistently shine.

Innocent!

I didn't do it.
It wasn't me
I wasn't even here at the time.

Good Time George

My iPod has reached that spot where the George Melly recordings are held. I've been remembering much that was dear to me way back in the early '50s. 'My canary has circles under its eyes', 'Abdul the Bulbul Emir' and 'Sweet Georgia Brown' were hits that I could sing to myself on the long walk home from girl-friends homes. Ah yes, the days when one walked home. He had a style that was not noticed to any great degree but his interpretative skills were on a par with Sinatra. His dress sense was a long way from Old Blue Eyes though; mainly a black track suit as I remember.
He does little nowadays. Still tours but in a very relaxed manner. Writes some extremely good art reviews.
Long may he stay with us. My hooks to the days of my youth are coming undone all too fast for my comfort.

Fatalism

Some days just go...........

Here is an account of a day that went wrong. Oh - and the narrator is in the very last stages of pregnancy.

Sunday, 12 March 2006

Oh me?...I'm fine..... 7:30am : (Wake up to the distant sound of the phone ringing).. "what the? ..is that the phone..oh well it stoped, likley a wrong number..... 7:31am: (Phone rings again)... "ok..thats odd...who would be calling this early?" (attempts to grab the phone but gets to it too late) 7:32am (One ring)... "Oh I bet the stupid car has broken down again and hubby is stuck somewhere between home and work and now I am going to have to go get him... argggg".... 7:40am I slowley sit up in bed, grab the phone and check for a message..there isnt one.. "odd, why wouldn't he leave me a message if he's broken down... maybe it wasn't him after all..." (I dial call return to check what number called....).. "yep it was hubbys cell phone...I guess I'll call him back"... 7:43am (calling his cell)... "why isnt her answering??"... "this is annoying...just pick up".... ok I'll try again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again..... 8:00am... "This doesn't seem rite, hubby would never call here at this time unless something was wrong.. what could be wrong besides the car breaking down...if the car broke down, why isn't he answering to tell me where he is so I can go get him.... I dont suppose he could have had an accident.. no no..your so paranoid...just keep calling"... (calls cell.... again, and again and again and again and again) 8:15am.. "Hello" ????? "(who is this person answering hubby's cell)" "Hello? Who is this?" "Is this Mrs. K?" "yes"(heart rate increases raises signifigantly)"who is this?"... " This is the paramedic " (starts to feel sick but manages to talk). "Oh no, whats wrong?" "Your husband has been in an accident, another car hit, the drivers side strait on, it pushed him over an embankment and he rolled the car several times, he is now on his way to the hospital"......(head spining, tears burning my eyes) "Is he alive?" "yes he is"... "should I come to the hospital rite now or will they move him (not sure why I asked this)... "why don't you sit tight and wait for the hosptial to call you, they can tell you more"..... "ok"... "Mrs. K are you ok".... "oh me? I'm fine.. I just want to know if my husband will be ok"... 8:16am ...I call my parents..no answer... calls again... calls again... calls again... dad answers "hello" "hi, J has been in an accident, please come watch the girl for me I have to go"... "what, slow down, is he ok?".. "i have no idea, just know he's alive and on his way to the hospital... please come quick".. "ok, I'll wake mom and head over"... "are you ok?".. "oh me? I'm fine...please just come quick, I have to get to him". 8:20am.. gets dressed, brushes teeth, combs hair (sort of) and waits.......... 8:25am phone rings.. "hello"..."is this Mrs.K?"... "yes"... "hold on please"... hubby: "hello"... me (silently...thank you God, he can talk, he must not be too bad)... "honey.... what happened, are you ok???" ... "I am not too bad, lots of cuts....can you please come".. "oh honey of course, as soon as my mom arrives to stay with the girl I'll be there" hubby "ok I have to go now".... "ok I'll be there soon bye". 8:26am... WHY DIDN'T I TELL HIM I LOVE HIM?? WHAT IF THAT WAS MY LAST CHANCE? PEOPLE TAKE TURNS FOR THE WORST ALL THE TIME... 8:27am... sits and waits for mom... "what is taking so long?"... hear the girl awake upstairs.. go up and start crying the instant I see her little face and realize that she has no idea what is happening. She smiles and says "hi mommy"... "eyes??" "yes honey..mommys eyes are wet, its ok though".... "mommy?... daddy?".... I can not answer her. 8:30am... hear mom at the door, carry the girl down, hand her to mom and leave 8:31 - 9:00am... drive to hospital and think about all the worst possible thoughts 9:02am...get annoyed that it is so stinking hard to park at the stupid hospital and think of all the time it is costing me 9:04am..run into emergency....down the hall.... 9:05am.... Oh my... (the tears rise to the surface of my eyes)... There he is laying on a stretcher...covered in blood, his face, his head, his neck, his arms. He's holding a big guaze to his eye, his right arm is bent because the Dr. is trying to stich up the huge gash in it. He doesn't see me because his eyes are closed...but the Dr. notices me and my big belly... "oh my" she says, "you should sit down"...I realize she means me... "oh me? I'm fine"... tears brim again, I call him by name and walk closer.. he opens one eye and looks directly into my soul, the same eyes I gazed into when we first dated, the eyes I looked into when we took our vows, the eyes I have gazed into so many nights when we make love, the eyes that looked at me with such compassion when I was in labor with our daughter, the eyes that filled with tears the first time he held her... "thank you God...for letting me look into his eyes again".. I pray this quietly enough for only God and me to hear... The doctor starts to explain that he has suffered too many cuts to count, that his right elbow is very badly beat up and they had to cut a chunk of flesh out of it because it just had too much glass to get out, they are worried about his left eye as they had to pull a big "hunk" (medical term), out of it and they think there may be more, he is covered in mini pieces of glass and the pieces are too small to pick off but big enough to be causing more tiny cuts. The good news is nothing appears broken and his internal organs all seem ok...they are going to do an eye test on him once we finish stitching him up. I nod and hang on everyword...he is ok I think to myself, beat up but ok. A police officer starts talking to us and than I hear what happens. Hubby was traveling north on a two lane road, a car in the south lane started swirving and hit the drivers side strait on with the front of her car, both cars were traveling aprox. 80 - 85 kms/hr and the air bags went off, hubby was pushed up a snow bank and over an embankment,the car landed on its hood in a farmers feild. All the glass on the car was shattered and the only thing that saved his life was his seat belt...."well that and God.." I think this but keep it to myself... hubby NEVER wears his seat belt, never, ever, ever...it is a constant battle between us.... when the officer tells us the other driver will be charged with reckless driving and leaves, i turn to hubby and ask "why did you wear your seat belt today?"... "I dont know" he says," I didn't have it on but I stopped to get a coffee and when I got back in the car I just put it on.."..... I bow my head and hold back tears.... We head to the "eye test room" where the dr shows me with a special light the cut on his eye ball... "that is big".. i think to myself... they don't find any more glass and tell him he will have to return to the hospital tommorow morning to have his eye tested again Next we sit and wait for results from his blood and urine tests... it comes back that he has blood in his urine but they are not concerned as this is common in car crashes of this severity. Just keep an eye on it and if it gets worse come back. 12pm: I get him in the car and we start to drive home.... a long drive to think about all the "what if's" We arrive home, I have to cut his clothes off as they are too glass covered to keep and he can't raise his arm to get them over his head. I attempt (unsucsessfuly) to wash the glass out of his head. The doctor told us she has never seen so much glass on someone...I start to belive her as we wash and wash and wash and still can't get it all. He takes a cold shower because if it is too hot his pores will open and the glass could enter...even after the shower I pull several pieces of glass out of his ears, head, hands, nose...I am starting to think we will never get it all. He is sitting on the bed as I am pulling the glass out of his ears and he says to me "are you ok?".. "oh me? I'm fine...I would like to give you a hug though"... We hug....I feel his arms, smell his skin and I fell myself falling, every bit of me wants to stay strong but as his arms surround me I realize that it all could have been over like that. The tears come than.... uncontrolled... pouring out for what we could have lost today, for the girl who could have lost her daddy, for this unborn child that would have never had a chance to meet him, for me who in an instant could have lost my husband, my best friend, my partner in life, my lover... my everything. He lets me cry and reassures me over and over again that he is ok, that he didn't die, he was allowed to live. Given another day to be with me and the girl. How fast it could have been over, how fast everything about my life could have changed..... Tonight I realize that I need to hug him more, kiss him more, tell him I love him more... thank him more, because tommorow it could all be over and there would be no second chance. He is so brave, so strong, I admire his strength, through rolling the car, being strapped to a stretcher, having glass wiped from his face and chunks pulled from his skin he showed no weakness, but an hour after we were home my mom called and put the girl on the phone, I sat and watched as he took the phone, the girl said "Hi daddy.." and gone was the strong man, instead was a man who had to bow his head and let the tears drip down onto the bed sheets "Hi honey.... I love you".. "nanou daddy".... I than had to wipe away my tears... Now he is resting comfortable...tommorow morning we are headed back to the hospital for another check of his eye... I hope sleep will come for me when I turn in but I doubt it. How am I?... "oh me? I am thankful my husband is alive, I am mad that this happened to him, I am tired because until I sat down to write this I had not stopped all day, I am glad I can do all this for him, I am a mess because I know I could have lost him today, I am scared because I have no idea what I or the girl would ever do without him.... other than that.... I am fine.

Oh to be in England

This coming summer, with a veritable avalanche of culture planned, looks like being a great time for those who retain the belief that our country is the best.

Find a child

What's all this about then?

No public smoking in Scotland.

Going out for the night was not an attractive idea even before the new, almost draconian, rules about public smoking were introduced. Now, in addition to the sort of charms we see here, one will have to be aware of the presence of those deprived of what we are told was as strong as any narcotic.

Redundancy of Parliament Act

How I woke up to a nightmare plot to steal centuries of law and liberty

The Times: February 15, 2006

Legislative Reform

The Times: February 16, 2006

Who wants the Abolition of Parliament Bill?

The Times: February 21, 2006

Another blow to Parliament?

The Times: February 28, 2006

How we move ever closer to becoming a totalitarian state

The Observer: March 5, 2006

A Doomsday Machine for Parliament

The Telegraph: March 13, 2006

The self-neutering Parliament

Daily Mail: March 13, 2006

Fear over plans to cut red tape

BBC News: March 17, 2006

MPs angry at Bill to end all Bills

The Telegraph: March 18, 2006

New powers for ministers are a mistake, PM told

The Telegraph: March 19, 2006

...more

Get it now

Elixer

Once upon a time there were four older ladies who lived in Italy....
They always sat outside and chatted about when they were younger....
One day they pooled their money together and bought a laptop computer...

They always wanted to see what Florida was about and they just happened to click on St.Augustine, FL. and they read about the "Fountain of Youth" that was there...They saved up all they could and sent for four bottles of the magic water....As soon as it arrived, they drank as much as they could....The rest of this story will make you a believer because here they are today....

No, this is really TRUE! Really!
I have a supply of this water available at $125.00 a bottle,
HURRY BEFORE INVENTORY RUNS OUT.
NEXT SHIPMENT WILL COST MORE !!
ONE BOTTLE PER HOUSEHOLD ADDRESS.
DON'T DELAY, ORDER TODAY !!

Doctor GOC

For the "Action this day" pad

This site is - to my mind - a bit what in the old days would have been called Agitprop. Doesn't stop them talking sense though.

Blair: the head, the tail, the whole damn thing

As you can see, it's a beautiful day, the beaches are open, and the folks here are having a wonderful time (and I'm sure you can guess which movie I watched last night)...

New Statesman - The men in grey suits must do their duty: Blair has to be persuaded to stand down. The announcement should take place this spring, with a leadership contest in the summer. (via)

I disagree. For the good of the Labour Party, for the good of the country, and for the good of the whole bloody world, Tony Blair must not leave Downing St voluntarily... and if he does, he must be forced to resign in shame. (And before anybody makes any smart-arse remarks about intervention, I would remind them that this measure is far from pre-emptive.)

Why? Because someone has to be called to account or the next batch of power-mad bastards - here or abroad - will think they can get away with exactly the same thing.

I'll move onto the guts after a few stabs at the heel:

Blair is a pretty straight sort of a guy

BBC - Capita boss quits over Blair loan
BSSC - Crapita Protection Racket
BlairWatch - Was Rod Aldridge Going to Resign Anyway?
Independent - Contractor who lent Labour £1m quits over sleaze fears
Guardian - Capita chairman quits after criticism of loan to Labour

There's a lot to say here this morning, so let me be brief about this particular issue; if the PM approves a scheme that sees a winner of major government contracts *approached* for a loan because it neatly sidesteps a law controlling donations (that they themselves championed; bully for them) then that is corruption. There's no denying it.

Now we lunge for the guts, and we begin with bankruptcy...

The Blair-led coalition currently passing itself off as the face of the Labour Party is bankrupt in every sense of the word. Their finances, their morals, their authority... they have squandered it all and abandoned everything but the facade that keeps them in power.

And we continue to let them get away with it... to the point where soon they'll be able to write their own laws without democratic oversight.

Your right to protest

If you got so mad about this (or anything else for that matter) that you decided to congregate at Downing St this afternoon to protest, there are already laws introduced by this government that allow the police to round you up and shut you up.

Take a look at Belarus and witness your future; it only took riot police 15 minutes to round up 200 protestors who - like may international observers - thought the election was more than a little fishy. But protestors first enabled the authorities by losing their will and dwindling in number. The media helped by ignoring or denouncing the initially 20,000-strong protest... police bullying, the weather and a lack of will did the rest. Then, finally, Lukashenko was confident that he could sort the whole thing out with a dustpan and brush.

Here I wish to make a quick point about precedent and accountability... Lukashenko knew that he would get away with this if he didn't shoot anybody. Here's why.

Now you need to take a moment and look at the worldwide numbers during the most recent protests over foreign policy and consider that we here in Britain only boast one man willing to stick to his guns (so to speak).

The right diet

is very important. Five portions of fruit and all that. We do our bit - no peace until she has her lunchtime apple. The dog that is!

NHS - Cure thyself

Here is a man who seems to talk a lot of sense. Suggests how to cure the NHS problems 'in a day'

Thanks to a lethal mixture of lawyers, bureaucrats and politicians Britain's out of hours medical service is now virtually non-existent. It's as bad as the NHS dental service has been for years.

The NHS has been moribund for years; kept alive by the hard work of a relatively small number of genuinely caring staff and by the hopes of millions of trusting patients. But it's now worse than ever. The NHS is dangerous to your health.

The real scandal is that everything that is wrong with the NHS could be cured within hours. Given complete authority for just one day I could eradicate everything which has damaged the quality of health care in Britain.

Throwing money at the NHS won't solve any of its problems. The sick joke is that the NHS already has too much money. What it lacks is leadership. No one in charge seems to know how money and resources should be spent.

Here's what needs to be done:

1. GPs were offered the chance to hand over all their out of hours work to agencies because of EU laws limiting their working hours. The whole traditional basis of general practice is that the family doctor takes full 365 day a year responsibility for his patients. Without that role, GPs have no purpose and could best be replaced by a combination of walk-in clinics (staffed 24 hours a day) and an enhanced ambulance service. But I'd prefer to see GPs brought back into the NHS. They should, however, be given the authority to go with the responsibility.

Solution: Reintroduce 365 day a year, 24 hours a day GP contracts. Fire any GP who doesn't want to sign up.

2. NHS care and private care need to be separated. At the moment NHS consultants are allowed to boost their income by seeing private patients. And NHS hospitals can boost their income by allowing patients who can afford to pay to jump the queues for tests or surgery. NHS consultants, using NHS equipment and staff, earn thousands, while waiting lists for patients who can't afford to pay extra just get longer. Administrators support this abuse because their hospitals are so bloated with expensive bureaucrats that they need the private fees too.

Solution: Ban NHS consultants from doing private work. Ban NHS hospitals from charging patients for tests or treatment.

3. The NHS has become a bonanza for bureaucrats. There are more administrators than nurses or hospital beds. More than 60% of NHS employees are pen pushers. I recently attended a hospital meeting to discuss my 84-year-old mother's health. There were nine people at the meeting. One of them was a doctor. Eight were administrators. The NHS is being destroyed by administrators. In many NHS institutions there are now more bureaucrats than cockroaches. It will, however, be easier to cut down the number of bureaucrats. When I first qualified in medicine, decent sized hospitals were run (very well) by a matron, a hospital secretary, two typists and as many ward clerks as there were wards.

Solution: Sack 90% of NHS administrators. It probably doesn't matter which 90%.

4. The NHS is laden with committees, advisors and quangos. There are thousands of them. The bill for their tea and biscuits alone would pay for a few thousand more nurses. Any business which tried to cope with the input from so many amateurs would be a disaster.

Solution: Get rid of all the committees. Let the people who get paid take all the responsibility.

5. When the NHS buys loo rolls and envelopes it pays more for them than you or I would pay at our local supermarket. When I exposed this a few years ago the NHS immediately set up an inquiry - into how I found out.

Solution: Hire central buyers for all NHS purchases. Sack them all if they pay more for anything than the price in Tesco.

6. It is absurd that NHS money is spent on providing couples with fertility treatment, women with breast enlargement operations or transsexuals with life changing surgery while thousands of patients are dying because they have to wait weeks for essential, simple diagnostic X-rays. In military hospital units doctors operate a simple but effective system whereby those whose need is greatest get seen first. Similarly, the NHS has to get its priorities straight.

Solution: Life saving comes first. Life enhancing should come second.

7. As many people have found, the NHS complaints system is designed to protect members of staff rather than offer apologies or justice to justifiably aggrieved patients. NHS complaints should, from the start, be investigated by entirely independent experts.

Solution: There are thousands of retired doctors and nurses who could do this job brilliantly well.


None of these problems are difficult to cure. All of them could be permanently solved in hours.

But, for pretty obvious reasons, no one working for the NHS is going to recommend any of the obvious solutions. And, without knowing they've got public support, politicians aren't likely to do any of these things either.

If you think these proposals make sense send this page today to your local MP, demanding that he ask the Government to take action immediately. And ask friends to read this page. Only when people know what's wrong - and how easy it is to put things right - will anything change.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of people die because the NHS is a mess. If we don't act the NHS will continue to deteriorate. Things are bad enough today. But they will get much, much worse. You, or a loved one, could be the next one to die unnecessarily.

We need to do what needs to be done now. Tomorrow just isn't soon enough.


Copyright Vernon Coleman 2006

Chickens come home to roost

Little bit more on THAT rescue and it's background.

After the release of Mr Kember, Mr (Terry) Waite said he applauded their motives but cast doubt on their methods.

He was responding to the news that another member of Christian Peacemaker Teams was planning to return to Iraq.

Jan Benvie, from Edinburgh, defended her right to go to the kidnapping hotspot against Foreign Office advice, saying: "In general, we allow adults to make their own decisions about their lives."

But Mr Waite told GMTV that going to Iraq could end up involving other people.

He said: "The first thing I would say is I applaud the motives of anyone who wishes to work for peace.

"The situation in Iraq is dreadful, the ordinary civilian population are suffering terribly and it is something to be commended to go and stand alongside such people. I question, though, the tactic because I think the situation in Iraq is so vastly different to when I was negotiating 20 years ago.

"It has become so much more polarised and anyone, any foreigner, particularly from the West, given the history of the West in Iraq in recent years, is exposed to very grave danger, not only for political reasons but for criminal reasons also."

Mr Waite added: "The only problem with that is that as you take that stance, you do involve other people in the situation, and in your situation, and that might be a problem. As I say, I applaud the motive but at this stage I question the tactic."

Ms Benvie, who has been to Iraq before, said she would be returning despite what happened to Mr Kember. And she said if she was kidnapped, it should not put British soldiers at risk.

"We make it clear that if we are kidnapped, we do not want there to be force or any form of violence used to release us," she told GMTV.

Well, bully for you lady. Just make sure that your relatives here and the general public are aware of this and know which Church they should use to pray for intervention of a Superior Being.

Insight

Rachel from North London is one of survivors who gave evidence to yesterday's 7 July Review Committee hearings. She's been writing about her life since the bombing on her blog and yesterday revealed more detail of her own experience immediately following the attack:

Meanwhile as I was walking the other way out of the tunnel, I told my frightened fellow passengers 'Keep going, there will be water and nurses and doctors, ambulances and helpers when we arrive, just keep going...'. And we walked, reassuring each other, trusting that there would be help when we got out. There was none, just a white-faced LU staff member handing us water. Outside the station, where I went to look for help, there were angry commuters trying to get in, and people photographing me, with my black face and bloodied stinking clothes, and a Japanese man filming the scene. An off duty nurse called Anna tried to help me, I asked her to go and help the injured inside the station. Someone called an ambulance. It was 9.18am. I looked at the bone poking out of my wrist, the glass and metal embedded in the bone, and I called a friend to get me in a cab. The cab arrived at 9.40am. I tried to get others to come in the cab with me, but they did not hear me. Most people had blood coming out of their ears; they were deaf, like me, from the blast which had gone off in the middle of our carriage. Passengers stayed at Russell Square, in shock, whilst the injured were carried from the bombed train. Station staff, passers by, and blasted passengers tried to help them. I feel guilty to this day that I did not. The grille doors of the station closed behind me. I got in the cab, and almost fainted.

The government and police are keen to tell us that fresh attacks are imminent, so perhaps it would be a good idea to publicly address the shortcomings of the rescue operation revealed through the evidence of people like Rachel. No matter what the outcome of the Review Committee we should already be looking to put systems in place that mean bomb victims don't have to rely on public transport to find medical assistance.

Computerised searches

Amazon came up with this as a recommended book.
Tell me these things sometimes make mistakes - please please please.
Although, might be something of interest there come to think about it!

Read and weep

Shopkeepers get annoyed at gangs of youths who congregate in front of their premises and instal a device to emit noises that can only be heard by adolescents. Works and all is well. All is well that is, until ................

Mother's Day

Whatever you do for Mother's Day, you MUST remember these five essential things:
1. Wear a vest
2. Tuck in your shirt
3. Stand up straight
4. If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all
5. You can never do anything right, and your mother is never wrong

Falsies

The BBC WhistleBlower programme recently showed an expose on Estate Agents. One mortgage arranger was shown fixing a large mortgage for an unemployed man and his services included false payslips and a false passport. All on real headed paper.
I knew the ins and outs of getting the passport but had some doubts about the pay slips.
So, Sheer Luck Holmes back into operation.
Dead simple really. Didn't even have to leave my chair or hang around any dodgy pub. These people offer that very service. What is the world coming to?

Shipman bungler escapes action

He has still to face a drugs handling charge though.

The detective whose failings probably left Harold Shipman free to kill three more times learned yesterday that he will not face trial on a charge of perjury.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has decided there is insufficient evidence to pursue Det Insp David Smith, despite the fact that he lied on oath to a High Court judge.
The decision, which may allow the officer to retire following a two-and-a-half year suspension from Greater Manchester Police, has enraged relatives of Shipman's victims.
Britain's most prolific serial killer had already murdered more than 250 of his patients by the time Det Insp Smith was called in. He failed either to speak to Shipman or to check whether he had a criminal record. He then lied both to his superiors and to the inquiry headed by Dame Janet Smith.
Det Insp Smith, who has been paid more than £100,000 in wages since his suspension on full pay, was also criticised by another judge over his role in a separate murder investigation. David Barnshaw, a drugs dealer, was murdered in 1999. Six men were later charged, but their trial was halted when it emerged that police had deliberately withheld evidence and failed to disclose information to the defence.
During that case Judge Penry-Davey, sitting at Preston Crown Court, accused Det Insp Smith of "not telling the truth''. The officer was suspended in relation to both matters on August 1, 2003. He has yet to appear before an internal disciplinary panel.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission confirmed in January that neither he, nor four other officers involved in the Barnshaw murder trial, would face criminal charges.
A spokesman said at the time: "We will now wait for Greater Manchester Police to submit a decision outlining what disciplinary proceedings, if any, are appropriate.''
Det Insp Smith, 48, was asked to investigate Shipman in March 1998. A partner in a neighbouring medical practice in Hyde, Manchester, had expressed concerns to the local coroner, who called in the police.
During the investigation Det Insp Smith failed to ask for autopsies and toxicology tests on two victims, and denied having been told by Shipman's whistle-blowing colleague, Dr Linda Reynolds, that the bodies would have been available for testing at the time.
The Shipman Inquiry concluded that many of his mistakes were made because of a lack of experience and supervision and that he was "out of his depth''. Dame Janet said he lied about what Dr Reynolds had told him "in an attempt to evade responsibility for his failure to arrange an autopsy".
The detective's failure left Shipman free to kill three more of his patients. Danny Mellor, whose mother, Winifred, was one of Shipman's later victims, reacted with fury to the decision.
"It's astonishing that the CPS had the words of a High Court judge to go on and they still couldn't find enough evidence," he said. "I feel that at least a jury should have been given the chance to come to its own conclusion." Mr Mellor said there seemed to be "an inordinate reluctance" to prosecute police officers.
Jayne Gaskell, who believes she lost both her parents to Shipman, said she was appalled that Det Insp Smith's case had yet to be resolved. "I can't believe that this man has been paid so much for so long to do nothing while families like ours are denied justice."
Mrs Gaskell's father, Sydney, is thought to have been murdered in 1979. Sixteen years later Shipman gave her mother, Bertha, 69, a lethal injection of diamorphine. Mrs Gaskell said: "People probably died because Mr Smith didn't carry out that first investigation properly. He should not be being paid and I'd like to see him cut out without a pension."
A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said disciplinary action against Det Insp Smith was still under consideration. Mr Smith, who is believed to live in the Glossop area of Derbyshire, could not be contacted last night.

Size matters!

Now I have your attention................
This is constructive use of ones time I think.

In the following extract from Words, Words, Words, language expert David Crystal shows how to estimate the size of your vocabulary...

As adults, our passive vocabulary is usually a third larger than our active vocabulary. We understand far more words than we routinely use.

How can we find out what our active and passive levels are? Most people are intrigued by the question, and would like to know how large their wordhoard is. One method of calculation is given below.

i. Take a dictionary, any dictionary...

Take a medium-sized dictionary - one between 1,500 and 2,000 pages. Aim for a sample of pages which is 2 per cent of the whole. If the dictionary is 1,500 pages, that means a sample of thirty pages; 2,000 pages will give you forty. Ensure the sample is exactly 2 per cent, to make the final calculation easy (see below).

ii. Spread the sample

Break the sample down into a series of selections from different parts of the dictionary - say (for a thirty-page sample), six choices of five pages each, or ten choices of three pages. It isn't sensible to take all pages from a single part. If you chose letter U, for instance, you would find yourself flooded with words beginning with un-. But do make sure you include some prefixes. A representative sample would look like this: words beginning with CA-, EX-, JA-, OB-, PL-, SC-, TO-, and UN-.

iii. Check the words

Begin with the first full page in each case - in other words, if you are looking for EX- and you find a few EX- words at the bottom of the page, ignore them and start at the top of the next page.

Go through all the words on each page of your sample. Divide your page margins into two columns. (Alternatively, you can write the headwords out on a separate sheet of paper.) If you think you know a word, but would not use it yourself, put a light pencil tick in the left-hand column. If you think you would, in addition, actively use the word, put a tick in the right-hand column. This is the difference between your passive and active vocabulary. You may need to look at the definition or examples given next to the word before you can decide. Ignore the number of meanings the word has: if you know or use the word in any of its meanings, that will do.

In a more sophisticated version, you can have three columns under each of these headings. For passive vocabulary, you can ask yourself: 'Do I know the word well, vaguely, or not at all?' For active vocabulary, you can ask: 'Do I use the word often, occasionally, or not at all?' If you are uncertain, use the final column.

Make sure you don't miss any words out. Some dictionaries cluster (or 'nest') words together in bold face within an entry, just showing their endings, as in nation, ~al, ~ize. Don't ignore these. They are different words. Also include any phrases or idioms, such as call up and call the tune. Ignore alternative spellings: an example like Caesarean/Cesarean counts as just one word.

iv. Add up the ticks

Add up the ticks in each column, and jot the totals down at the bottom of each page. Then add up all the page totals. Multiply by 50 (if your sample was 2 per cent of the whole). The result will be, more or less, the size of your personal vocabulary.

The procedure, of course, doesn't allow for people who happen to know a large number of non-standard words, such as dialect words, which won't be in this kind of dictionary. And if you are, say, a scientist, it will underestimate your specialist vocabulary too. But the figure it gives will be an approximation of your everyday wordhoard. And it will be larger than you think.

Anecdotage

Reading through a web page about development of language and came across this

Anecdotage

Anecdotal dotage; that advanced age where all one does is relate stories about "the good, old days."

This word really means "anecdotes considered as a whole." But I stumbled across it in the dictionary today, and the "anecdotal dotage" idea just sort of leaped out at me. However, I've subsequently discoverd that The Oxford English Dictionary not only lists this sense of the word — and defines it, succinctly, as "garrulous old age" — but it has a citation that dates all the way back to 1835!

That is me defined then!

That question/

From today's Telegraph.

Could it be that one day, not too far off, the English will embark on a boycott of Scotch whisky, turning instead to the Irish or the American or, if all else fails, the Spanish stuff? Might a time come when English housewives exile Scottish products from their trolleys? Could the Scotch egg have had its day?

I ask these questions as a British journalist resident in Barcelona who has spent time in Britain recently talking to people about the West Lothian question. And I ask not in a fanciful spirit, because I have seen how here in Spain people have set about an aggressive, organised and extraordinarily effective boycott of Catalan goods on grounds rather less pressing than the undemocratic Westminster practice of allowing Scottish MPs to vote on English laws over which they manifestly should have no say.

Plain speaking

Don't know who wrote this - it is an anonymous comment on a blog that I regard as rubbish so I'm not linking it. However, I do agree with what the nameless person says.

That Sadaam was evil, and that life in Iraq under his rule was hellish is beyond denial. But the continued survival of Sadaam accomplished one major thing: a lid was kept on the perpetually bubbling tensions between shiites and sunnis. As in all dictatorships, internecine ethnic/religious conflicts are put on the back burner, as all can at least agree that the man in power is opressing everyone. Once the tyrant is deposed, all those long-simmering hatreds bubble over, and that is the case at present in Iraq. Forget the nespapers that report we are "crawling toward" civil war in Iraq---we are there already, babe. As Iraqi seeks to kill Iraqi, it begs the question, "What are we doing there anymore?" We're certainly not stopping or slowing down the slaughter, as dozens or hundreds die every week through car bombs or rocket attacks. How long can we remain there, before both sides realize that what they have in common a desire to get us out, once and for all? Then, it will be open season on American troops to an extent we haven't yet seen there. Are we supposed to babysit this country for the next several decades? We must at some point say, "Look, we've done all we can do. We got rid of your dictator. The rest is up to you." Will it continue to be a bloodbath there? Of course. But this fight started long before we got there, and buzzwords like "democracy" really don't count for much in an 800-year-old family squabble.

Oh dear!

This does not seem to have hit the airwaves just yet but it seems that dear old Ken Livingstone is being his cuddly self again. This guys stuff is normally - I think I can say this without a problem - kosher and he reports thus:

During the course of a press conference this morning in which the Stratford City Consortium was being discussed, Ken Livingstone apparently expressed the following views on the Reuben brothers - a pair of jewish property developers who are involved in the project:

"If they're not happy here perhaps they could go back to Iran and try it under the Ayatollahs"

I haven't the full context of the quotation: but it seems to be connected to a falling out between two of the property companies involved in developing the Olympic Village site in Stratford: one of which is headed by the Reuben brothers. Ken Livingstone seems to be backing the other property company in the dispute. Some background on that story is here.

This seems to me to be unfortunate, at least, for the following reasons:

1. The "Ayatollahs" have a record of doing this sort of thing to Iranian jews; while Ahmadinejad says this sort of thing.

2. Ken is in the process of appealing against the Standards Board's suspension, which arose from his comparison of a jewish reporter to a "concentration camp guard". A sensible person might think now was a good time not to go round making quips about jews and the sorts of people who might want to do them in.

3. The Reuben brothers were born in Bombay to Iraqi parents of Jewish descent. Indeed, a quick search suggests that they are supporters of the charity Medical Aid for Iraqi Children.

4. It is a bit off when politicians go round telling any immigrant to "go back" to anywhere "if they're not happy here".

I wonder what the Ken spin on this will be. My money is on:

(a) I had no idea that these well known jewish property developers were jews;

(b) They are plutocrats, and the plutocrats supported Hitler, dontchaknow; or

(c) This all is really about Israel.

UPDATE

I've spoken to somebody who was at the press conference.

Basically, the context of this quotation is the business deal that I mentioned above.

Livingstone started by talking about other transactions in whcih the Reuben brothers have been involved. He goes on to suggest that, whereas other property developers he has worked with - and he names two with jewish names - are genuine Londoners, who care about jobs and creating great buidlings - the Reuben brothers are all about "how much money they can squeeze out of every single deal".

In the next question on the Reuben brothers, Ken Livingstone says that they have never come to see him personally. Then he speculates that they are "not happy" and suggests that they go back to Iran and see if they do better under the Ayatollahs.

I expect there will be an official transcript against which this can be checked.

Requiat the cat

RIP Humphrey. The 'house cat' employed as a mouser at 10 Downing Street until the arrival of the B Liars has died in retirement at the home of the civil servant to whom he was banished. Apparently Mrs B Liar said that cats were unhygienic. Apart from having doubts on her ability to recognise hygiene given the company she keeps, I would say that cats are far more hygienic than politicians - they only lick their own arses!

Exercise your mind

4 Noble Truths

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Four Noble Truths (Pali, "cattari ariya saccani") are taught in Buddhism as the fundamental insight or enlightenment of Sakyamuni Buddha (the historical Buddha), which led to the formulation of the Buddhist philosophy.

1. Dukkha: There is suffering and impermanence in life for all beings.
   
2. Samudaya: There is a cause for Dukkha, which is attachment and desire (tanha).
   
3. Nirodha: There is a way out of Dukkha, which is to eliminate attachment and desire.
   
4. Magga: There is a path that leads out of Dukkha, called the Noble Eightfold Path.

This outline form is exactly that used by doctors of the Buddha's culture when diagnosing and prescribing for a disease: identify the disease, its cause, whether it is curable, and the prescribed cure. Thus the Buddha treats suffering as a "disease" we can confidently expect to cure.

Because of its focus on suffering, Buddhism is often called pessimistic. But since Gautama Buddha presented a cure, Buddhists consider it neither pessimistic nor optimistic but realistic.

The Four Noble Truths was the topic of the first sermon given by the Buddha after his enlightenment. He gave the sermon to the ascetics with whom he had practiced austerities.

If I have any readers of these missives, I commend the Noble Truths as worth of further examination. They may use a form of words with which we are unfamiliar but the ideas strike a chord with me. Dukkha only says that life is hard. Don't I know it! The cause of most of this can be established and, once that is done, there is a way to improve things. Go on - open your mind. I dare you.

Nice stamp

Back in the day, when I had to submit police reports and case investigation papers, it would have been nice to have had the ability to add such a stamp to the paperwork.

Are we there yet?

Back in the days, I used to deal quite often with people who were running skim-off funds, slush funds, building improvement trusts - they had a variety of names. What they had in common was a source of funds that was kept very confidential and were controlled by one or a few persons only. Whilst they were fiddles, they were more short-circuits of fiscal controls.
However, sometimes, the guy in charge found themselves in need of a temporary - or longer - boost to their funds. Ah! the good old slush fund. That is when things got dirty. Suppose it still goes on really. Nice young couple find themselves a bit short of the mortgage money. Put in extra effort but still a bit hard-up and not rewarded as they feel they deserve.
The picture is just here as a joke you understand. No connection with the story of course.

Test for the ladies

OK ladies - you've seen enough. Now close your eyes and tell us how many dogs in the picture?

My bleeding heart goes out to....

...these people.

We have been following the little-noted collapse of stock prices on several markets in the Arab world. The New York Sun picks up on an article in the U.K. Telegraph:

It is known for Porsche-driving princes and the lavish lifestyles of the oil-wealthy, but this week Saudi Arabia’s rich kids have been selling their cars and even rushing to the doctor after a whirlwind stock market crash saw huge profits perish.

Heart-attacks, stress, hospitalization, and panic selling are all reported results of the Saudi collapse, which has seen tens of billions of dollars in losses in a fortnight.

This week alone the Saudi market fell by 20%, with only the promise from a prince to invest $2.6 billion temporarily stemming the financial bleeding.

The losses have been particularly hard felt in the share-mad kingdom, where more than a third of the 17 million population dabble in the stock market. With years of soaring profits fuelled by ever-higher oil prices, small investors have rushed to get in on the action. Now panic and despair have hit the almost 60% of Saudi investors who are small dealers speculating with family savings.

“Many individuals have pulled their savings out of banks and put it into local stocks, with many even borrowing to the limit to do so,” a vice-president at Riyad Bank in the Saudi capital, Khan H. Zahid, said.

We indulge in no schadenfreude over the losses of the petro-sheikhs. The people we really worry about have no use for stockmarkets or much else that was invented after the eighth century or so

Useful maxim

This was written about blogs but I feel it has universal truth in many other areas. No - I cannot remember where I found it. Anyway, the nugget of information goes like this:-

A salad bar that’s 5 miles long is as useless to me as one that’s 3000 miles long because I’m getting all the salad I can eat in the first 15 feet.

Just remember not to fill up on the cheap stuff!

Big Business business

When you read this sort of forecast, it is understandable that Google appeared to swallow principles and agree to consorship in China. To me, the forecast becomes even more impressive when one bears in mind the sort of access limits the Chinese have in place. Makes it all the more clearer though why I do not have Google-like financial rewards - too damn thick!

Four Horsemen

No real reason for this being here except I like the image.
However, I wonder if we might rename them?
Peerages, Loans, Mortgage repayments and ID Cards.

Cute idea

Great idea for those places that require registration of your whole life events just to read one scruffy article

Reincarnated

I'm not usually impressed with people doing this to dogs but this looks just so like Arafat that I could not deny myself here.
Ooh! - is this an Islamic cartoon?

Joke misfires

Reading through SEO focused blog entries, Vandetta found an article that explained how to fool Google's news system by writing fake press releases. Sensing an opportunity to experiment and play a joke on his friends, the self-described "Google fanboy" decided to see what would happen if he submitted a fake Google press release claiming the 15-year old New Jersey student was Google's youngest employee.

He managed to get himself his 15 minutes of fame quite early.

Tales from the bedroom

Because Norma seems to spend a fair part of each night singing ‘Oh for the wings of a dove’ when she is not dancing the bossa nova, I have moved my bedroom. We have a nice small room in the attic conversion area and that is now my bedroom. Not too many sloping eaves. Just one smallish Velux window so no fussing with curtains night and morning. I have set about making it into more of a den than a window.
A programmable oil heater keeps it warm and toasty once I am in bed – if I stick to the programme – without overheating the room. I’ve added a time switch extension bar so that my alarm is from a nice soft light coming on and not some raucous bell ringing. This extension also controls the music from iPod and the radio so that I get soft light, music and then news broadcast in that order. My dvd player and a nice selection of films is also conveniently to hand.
Latest add-in was a clock – time signal from the place at Rugby of course – combined with a weather centre. This has a sensor to show outside temperature so I can be in bed and know just how lucky I am to have stopped all that commuting annoyance. There is a barometer feature so I get a little man displaying what sort of clothes I need to find. Any more customizing (something to produce cold gin and tonic sir?) and I’ll have to think about a burglar alarm. Only drawback is that Sable does not like the attic area since the days when it was a pistol range and she will not come up there at all. I felt a bit off colour the other evening and it was comforting to be able to retire with my man flu to my own-design little world.

Scrabble names

In our family, Scrabble generates quite a bit of heat.

This should be OK though

Pholph's Scrabble Generator My Scrabble© Score is: 30. What is your score? Get it here.

Last word - promise!

COPPERSBLOG VISITORS: WELCOME! A warm welcome for those visitors who may have strayed here via the link from coppersblog.
This site was never really intended to be anything more than a shop window for my own particular branch of specialist research and I certainly can't pretend my working day currently provides as much opportunities for dark humour and dry wit as wielding the biro of justice (or even stacking a supermarket shelf for that matter). Nonetheless, if you've made the effort to pay a visit there's a good chance you may have a passing interest in the state of ICT in the police service.
There are plenty of commentators out there volunteering hastily scribbled takes on this subject. Depending on the particular combination of pundit and soapbox, the UK police are either institutionally incompetent, bic-wielding luddites grimly hanging-on to ancient and lucrative Spanish practices, or else they are a dangerous new breed of digitally enhanced super-snoops complicit in the building a sleek new Orwellian state and absolutely itching to start data-mining the reading habits of the middle-classes. Neither stereotype stands up to much scrutiny.
Although there is a fair bit of ground to cover between two such polarised opinions, in truth, much of it will appear dull and featureless to the untrained eye. The Home Office, tripartite police authorities and the 52 forces that make up the service in the UK had been trying to wrestle a coherent national ICT service into place for over ten years, before a public inquiry into a tragic double-murder finally forced the issue. Even today there is probably less chance of over-hearing a canteen discussion between officers on the implications of CorDM and CRISP than there is of seeing the subject emerge as a sub-plot of a Sun Hill cliff-hanger.
Concepts such as 'value for money' and 'cost-effectiveness' can leave a sour taste in the mouth when used in the context of policing. As the Met recently demonstrated, it is the responsibility of the police to step up and take control when our worst nightmares manifest themselves on our streets, and this carries a heavy weight of expectation. The public want their police to be even-handed and accountable as well as an informed, accessible and visible part of their communities, yet they also want them to pursue criminality decisively and relentlessly without a second thought to time or cost.
Car chases and collars are infinately more entertaining than paperwork in triplicate. Even still, I'd hazard a guess that a majority of both the police service and the citizens they serve would prefer paperwork in triplicate over a discussion of how commoditised data-integration techniques and process-based applications can potentially deliver efficient, effective and transparent policing. Spend a little time on this site and you'll probably begin to see why.
So, if you're here because you are interested in what it's like working as a police officer in the UK, I'm going to politely redirect you back to PC Copperfield. If, on the other hand, you are interested in how ICT can be used to protect civil liberties, or are one of the thousands of IT workers involved in the massive program of ICT-led reform of criminal justice underway in this country � have a nosy about this site and, if there's anything you're interested in - or want to put me straight on - drop us a line and let me know.

Hot News! Pope is Catholic! Bears defecate in woods!

Can you imagine working for a company that has a little over 500 employees, yet has the following statistics?

29 have been accused of spouse abuse
7 have been arrested for fraud
19 have been accused of writing bad cheques
117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
3 have done time for assault
71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
14 have been arrested on drug-related charges
8 have been arrested for shoplifting
21 are currently defendants in lawsuits
84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year

Can you guess which organization this is?

They are members of the British Houses of Parliament, that's the same group that produces hundreds of new laws each year intended to keep the rest of us on track.

Tail of a dogs dinner decision

This appears on a blog.

Next week Parliament will get to vote on the Animal Welfare Bill. There is a free vote on whether to ban tail docking. To be honest, I haven't read around this subject yet (I will do on my train journey down to Westminster) but I'm up to be persuaded either way. On the one hand, I think I've voted to ban enough things and activities this year. On the other, chopping of a dogs tail does seem a brutal act. What are your views?

I’m sure I am not the only person who is somewhat surprised to see this admission as to how lightly one Labour politician takes his duties. Hasn’t read up on it, will do it on the train from Midlands to London – what’s that, all of two hours less other phaffing about to be done?
Tom is the Labour MP for West Bromwich East. He has a blog here. Most likely written for him – unless it is something else for his train journey. Quite a busy guy is our Tom. His own account of how his time is spent is also detailed on his blog.
Tom Watson lives in the Sandwell with his wife Siobhan. Following his election to Parliament in June 2001 with a 9,763 majority, Tom was appointed to the Home Affairs Select Committee. In 2003, Tom was made Parliamentary Private Secretary to The Paymaster General, Dawn Primarolo. He joined the government whips office at the end of 2004.
Tom sat on the Standing Committee for the Proceeds of Crime Bill, as well as the Standing Committee for the Communications Bill, the Human Tissue Bill, The Civil Partnerships Bill and the Gambling Bill.
He is vice-treasurer of the All Party Parliamentary Music Group.
He presented the Organ Donation (Presumed Consent and Safeguards) Bill to Parliament in March 2002.
Tom has recently taken part in the Police Parliamentary Scheme. The scheme entailed being attached to the West Midlands Police Force for three weeks.
The issue of tail docking has attracted considerable comment. I summarise it as one where the town dwellers have formed the opinion that a vet’s removal of the tail end on certain types of dog is cruel and unnatural. The country dwellers, in the main and as the people who know why the cropping is done, have tried to explain but, I suspect, to no avail. I have always owned sporting dogs whose tails are routinely cropped and have never noticed any stress from what is done when any bone is still unformed cartilage. I have seen whippets with torn (long) tails and that is not a pretty sight. Still, as in hunting, ill-informed might will win over the minority of those who know what the fuss is about. Doubtless, it will end up a farce just as the hunting saga. Some of the more extreme are likely to cause their dogs an injury such that removal has to be carried out on an adult dog. Wrong on the owners part but a crime that is unnecessary if common sense prevailed.
Not, I would suggest, a decision to be reached as lightly as dear Tom has decided to base his vote.

Ear Ear, whats going on 'ere then?

So, big deal eh? A senior police officer has been making tape recordings of telephone calls to the high and mighty such as the Attorney General and the IPCC. Now follows a media witch-hunt for the copper’s head on a platter. What rubbish!
Firstly, making tape recordings of significant conversations is second nature to any police officer. The first defence of the rogue is to claim that any unfortunate remark he has made was in fact dreamed up by the officer concerned. The rules regarding evidence are quite clear.

Principle

Most interviews at police stations with persons suspected of having committed indictable or either way offences should be tape recorded.
Tape recorded interviews need not be conducted in respect of persons suspected of having committed a terrorist offence or offences contrary to the Official Secrets Act 1911.
If a suspect is charged following a tape recorded interview, a Record of Interview will be prepared. This has traditionally been the responsibility of the officer present at the interview, but in some police forces 'tape summarisers' are now used.
The Record of Interview serves a number of purposes:

• To enable the prosecutor to make an informed decision on the basis of what was said at interview;


• To be an exhibit to the officer's statement;


• To enable the prosecutor to comply with advance disclosure; and


• Where it is accepted by the defence, to be used for the conduct of the case by all parties.

• 
  

Certainly, the Chief Constable was not carrying out an investigative duty when talking with the AG or IPCC. However, something made him take this course. We cannot know the previous conversations that might have taken place un-recorded but it is possible there might have been, at the very least, some ‘misunderstanding’ or confusion as to actual words that were used. Given that this government are masters of spin and obfuscation it is certainly a good idea to have an irrefutable record of discussions. If one looks at the character of Sir Ian with any suspicion, it is only fair to remember that this is the same AG who is finding difficulty in getting his words out regarding the legality of the war in Iraq.
To me, the sad thing about this is that a police officer has so lost his trust in his associates that he feels the need to record his business with them.
The AG has accepted an apology (was this recorded?). We do not know what the IPCC thinks or intends to do - if anything. However, the Indians are circling the wagons.

Police ticker

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