The Ross and Brand Affair

One aspect of the Ross/Brand affair that hasn't been mentioned is that it happened on Radio 2 which has a very different demographic make up to other BBC radio stations. I suspect that if Ross/Brand had made those stupid comments on - say - Radio 1 then the response could well have been very different (a clue was given last night by the replies given by two different age groups waiting for the recordings of BBS programmes - an older audience waiting for Alan Titchmarsh and an very much younger one queueing for "Never mind the Buzzcocks".The older generation expressed outrage whereas the younger one said "so what?") but on safe cosy Radio 2? The station of Wogan, of Bunty .....

It was a misreading of the target audience that was the one of the biggest mistakes ....

On final thought: apparently Brand's production company is called "Vanity Productions". How appropriate.

Pour encourager les autres

"Dans ce pays-ci, il est bon de tuer de temps en temps un amiral pour encourager les autres" (Candide - Voltaire)

I get the impression that the prosecution of the MoD official was done very much to make an example of "someone" for all of the data leaks that have been endemic in the last few months.

Tardebigge

Had a break over the weekend to celebrate my wife's birthday and so - with three friends - the complete family hired a boat on Friday and attempted what is, for most UK canal people, a rite of passage - the Tardebigge flight.

The Tardebigge flight for those who are not familiar with it, is the longest flight of locks in the country - 30 locks in a fraction over two miles - and are backbreaking work even with a well trained and disciplined lock crew. However, it was an extraordinary experience - going straight out of one lock, through a very short pound into the next .. for lock after lock after lock ....

The problem is that the flight really doesn't stop at Tardebigge bottom lock since only a few hundred yards on is the start of the Stoke flight .....

We managed to do the Tardebigge flight in just over 3 and a half hours which we thought was pretty good ! The only thing was - we had to repeat it all the very next day ....

BBC getting hammered

I commented yesterday about the very obvious bias in the reporting by the BBC over the Osborne affair. It seem that am not alone if the response to Nick Robinson's blog here is anything to go by. The astonishingly weak blog by Steve Mawhinney has damaged the BBC's integrity even more. The comments are overwhelmingly hostile and point out the complete lack of balance between the accusations over Osborne and Mandelson's behavior as an EU Commissioner.

What bugs me even more it that I get the impression that the BBC actually know that they cocked it but haven't got the guts to admit it.

Funny how the media is reporting Osborne

Osborne has been a pillock - no question there - and his judgment is rightly being seriously questioned but why is Mandleson not being hammered - esp by the BBC (Robinson and Peston have been relatively silent on this) - concerning his extremely dubious meetings with the Russian billionaire who has a very dodgy background?

Now this I must see...

"Bendy-buses with the slogan "There's probably no God" could soon be running on the streets of London. " (here)

At last the Humanists are beginning to take their arguement to the public at last ...

Completely tasteless but brilliant!

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/10/21/humping_dog_brando/

Enough is enough

I read this in the Times this morning with a sinking heart. Our civil liberties that have been accumulated over centuries - sometimes with bloodshed - have being trampled upon with every increasing gusto by the Government. I am appalled by the latest news that all purchasers of PAYG mobile phones will need some form of official identification (and what about all of the under 18 kids for who mobiles phone access is de rigour? ) and that that information will be added to the "Big Brother" database being mooted by GCHQ. Apart from the technical issues (see Dizzy passim) which are considerable, this really really take the piss out of the old Elgar song with the lines "Mother of the free" ha ha bloody ha!.

The Tories must stand up and say "No more of this" The Government must get out of peoples lives. It won't help the fight against terrorism - the bad guys will just find ways around this (car boot sales of mobiles, reprogramming the IMEI, stolen phones etc) - but it will be an abhorrant interference into peoples private lives.

We are not drifting into a surveillance society - we ARE a surveillance society and it is getting worse.

Update: It gets worse ... I wrote the above before discovered this: http://p10.hostingprod.com/@spyblog.org.uk/blog/2008/10/home-secretary-jacqui-smith---discussing-remote-searches-of-computer-hard-drives.html

Blue Peter at 50

I feel extremely old at the moment watching Blue Peter at 50. I remember Val Singleton, Chistopher Trace but the presenters I really remember are John Noakes and Peter Purves who seemed to dominated my childhood in the late sixties. What I hadn't realised was how awful were the fashions then .... truely vile .....

Gorbals Mick Investigates ...

Not a title of a second-rate TV show but hard-hitting fight against corruption by our fearless and intrepid Speaker of the House of Commons. Apparently he is to lead an investigation to see whether "I'm a straight sort of guy" Blair misled Parliament in his answers to the Bernie Ecclestone affair. It seems that Blair personally intervened to exempt Formula One from the tobacco advertising ban within hours of meeting Ecclestone - who coincidentally was a major Labour Party donor - but then "lied" to Parliament.

Now you call me a cynic but what are the odds that Blair will be fully exonerated by Gorbals Mick without a stain on his character?

Bad Money

This crisis is a classic example of the old adgae about bad money driving out good. Until the underlying problem of bad debt - and frankly no one has a clue where it is since it was bundled up into various schemes that were traded between the banks which was fine as long as the house prices didn't crash - is removed then the current problem will remain. So we have the following solutions:

• Even if the banks could start to trade again so that they start to lend to each other won't help. It might make the problem worse.
• Don't even think of writing the debt off. The money supply would dry up in seconds ....
• Print more money ? Galloping inflation here we come ....

Pratchett Nails It

From "Going Postal"

"The city had been saved not by heroes but by Gold. In fact, not even gold but the promise of gold, or more accurately the fantasy that somewhere at the end of it all there was gold, and there always would be, as long as you never went looking for it of course. This is Finance".

Ignobel Prize

Wonder who and why someone will get the Nobel Prize for Economics tomorrow.
If I were them I might well keep a very very low profile at the moment!

Look on the bright side

The world is in financial meltdown, G7 heads are in crisis meetings in Washington, savings are going down the pan ... but hey - its a lovely day, the robin in the garden hopped up to me ...its not all bad ...

This week's Economist

Thought for the day ...

My brother sent me this gem:

"What worries me most about the credit crunch, is that if one of my cheques is returned stamped "insufficient funds", I won't know whether that refers to mine or the bank's!"

Why Labour has failed

A colleague (Thanks BC) posted this on an internal news group ...

"No action following IMF warnings in 2002 saying UK credit is getting out of control.

No action following BBC Panoroma programme in 2004 saying that sub-prime mortgage loans were being awarded against dishonest income statements.

Removal of the BoE's teeth to intervene in banks with poor operating controls.

Restructuring the inflation calculations to keep IRs low.

Establishing the FSA without an understanding of how it would operate in a crisis, or even what its responsibilities are.

Appointing interest rate doves into the MPC to continually vote for cheaper credit.

Not reacting to understand newly created investment vehicles and their risks.

Not reacting to understand the carry trade risks.

Dithering over Northen Rock allowing a bank run to collapse the bank.

Holding talks with Lloyds to take over HBOS then allowing this news to leak
thereby destoying HBOS in the market and making a takeover a forgone conclusion.

Causing a silent run on banks by meeting with the heads of the high street
banks with no plan and taking another 48 hours to come up with a bail out
plan whilst work markets implode.

Allowing unregulated 115% mortgages.

Destroying pensions so that people turned to housing for investment.

Removing MIRAS so that private BTL could outcompete owner occupiers for housing stock.

Giving TAX incentivies to private BTL landlords.

Bottom line is this entire crisis is caused by out of control house prices.
Gordon's economy over the past 10 years is based on over priced housing."


Nice summation I think ......

Nobel Prizes

I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that it is time for the Nobel prizes as the stand to be retired. The days of a single scientist making key discoveries is almost gone. There are exceptions - Kary Mullis is an example - but most scientists are now members of large research teams and the awarding of Nobels to individuals is invidious.

When a country goes bankrupt

It seems that Iceland is in deep trouble - inflation of around 14% and interest rates even higher - and it seems that they are looking for a bail out.....

Peter Mandelson

The sound of a barrel being scraped ....

The Met needs restructuring

Although I applaud Boris's vote of no confidence in Ian Blair and the latters subsequent resignation it does bring up some serious issues about the split role of the Met where it deals in national and local matters. The Met is responsible for policing in London in the same way that any other regional force does but it has a national responsibility for terrorism and such.

I cannot believe that it is right for the Mayor of London to exercise a veto of such national issues so there is an urgent need for anti-terrorism to be placed on a national basis and split away from the Met and to be declared a separate police force with its own chief constable responsible to the Home Secretary.

Iain Blair

I am writing this whilst waiting for a "significant statement" to be made about his future. I really hope that it is his resignation. Blair has become far too political and too closely allied with Labour. The extremely damaging row with Tarique Ghaffur has further weakened his tattered credibility. His judgement has been questioned frequently and there always was a view that he refused to accept responsibility for the death of Jean Charles de Menezes. So if he is to go then it will be for the best for the Met and his successor will be able to rebuild a fractured relationship with Londoners.

Cameron's Speech

So far - from what I can tell over a flakey internet connection - it has been good. Short on policy but to be honest that was expected - the times are just too turbulent at the moment - but on the whole I liked it. He must be careful in not over-helping Gordon Brown - just enough to pull us out of the mire but nowhere near enough to actively prop up the mess that Labour has, partially at least, got us into.