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News to me

Saturday, May 31, 2008
Inspired by the news that the hoopoe has been crowned Israel's national bird, I have gone in search of national birds for other countries, and some random bloke on the internet says that our national bird is the robin. Well, it is as good a choice as any, but how and when was this decided, I wonder?

Elsewhere, and rather unsurprisingly, the French lay claim to the cockerel, while Germany goes for the white stork and Sweden for the blackbird. Our American friends insist on having birds for all 50 states, but with the bald eagle top of the heap. Then that was about as predictable as Australia going for the emu and New Zealand the kiwi. Mauritius has the dodo, which is a bit silly, frankly.

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Diplomatic spat of the week

"Chile and Peru have for some time been embroiled in a dispute over the origins of the potato. Chile's latest claim to be the region where potatoes first grew is being hotly refuted in the Peruvian press....However, the controversy is not over by a long chalk. Researchers in Bolivia say they have found traces of the potato which are more ancient than those found in either Chile or Peru". Source

And to think that there are people who deem the British press shallow.

Anyway, 'like a sack of old potatoes, the night has a thousand eyes'.

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">"Someone set up us the bomb"

Friday, May 30, 2008
Anyone who has read a half-way serious newspaper etc in the last few days will be well aware of the treaty on cluster bombs etc, and that the US, China and sundry other military heavy hitters have not signed it. After a couple of days of fruitless digging, I have laid hands on the list of those entities that have signed it.

And lo, and indeed, behold, by my reckoning only nine of the 25 biggest military spenders have signed on the line, and 118 out of 221 or so entities that either have full sovereignty or are self-governing to some degree. This includes British and French territories like the Falklands and St Pierre & Miquelon.

So, here are some of the military super powers that have signed up.

  • The Vatican - no armed forces. It employs Swiss mercenaries. While cluster munitions do not have to be air dropped, that is the preferred delivery mechanism. His Holiness would find that St Peters does not provide much scope even for short take off and landing.
  • Niue - has a population of 1700 and "Having no military or the resources to maintain a global diplomatic network, New Zealand retains responsibility for the foreign affairs and defence of Niue". Source. New Zealand scrapped its air force a while back.
  • The Cook Islands - Much the same story as Niue, although there are about 19,000 cooks, and thus in dire danger of spoiling the broth.
  • Nauru - "Though Nauru has close ties with Australia, there is no known defence agreement between the two nations". Source Population does not reach five figures.
  • Liechtenstein - "Abolished their army in 1868 because it was deemed too costly. Army is only permitted in times of war, but this situation has never occurred. According to the CIA World Factbook, defense is the responsibility of Switzerland. However, official sources of both Switzerland and Liechtenstein do not provide any backing to this claim and no defense treaty is ever mentioned". Source
  • Palau - "Defence is the responsibility of the United States". Source.
  • Marshall Islands - ditto
  • San Marino - total military expenditure $700,000 in 2000/1. It does have a crossbow corps though. Source.
  • Vanuatu - "Vanuatu's military consist of a small, mobile, corps of 300 volunteers". Source.

Not all of the world's microstates felt the need to sign up, with Andorra, Monaco and a plethora of West Indian islands not bothering. I do wonder whether Niue and the like were contacted via some sort of Facebook system for states and neo-states, and just could not resist the temptation to join the 'cluster bombs are nasty' group.

As a point to note, by the time one gets to the 71st biggest military spender, that is about 1% of the UK's outlay and 78 of the 118 signatories spend that one per cent or less.

(My headline refers to the All Your Base craze of 2000 /2001. More here.).



As an addendum, here is a map of the Middle East - the world's dodgiest neighbourhood? - with signatories shown in black, these being Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait, Qatar, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Bahrain has signed up too, but is too small to show clearly


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Headline o' the day

From Italian news agency ANSA:

"Pork strike set for June 1".

Pigs have not become highly sentient and rebelled against farmers in the best Animal Farm tradition, but rather the farmers are on strike. I expect the pigs are delighted. Meanwhile, there is an ample supply of prosciutto in my fridge.

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Words fail me. Almost

Verity having pointed out the following "Hans Christian Andersen is the spitting image of a 19th Century British writer but I can't think who. Maybe George Elliott ... or one of the Brontes. Or someone else. But he is the spitting image of someone", I have been sniffing around the internet in search of the match. No luck so far, but look what I've found:


Why, yes - it is the Jane Austen action figure, as sold by the Library of Congress thusly:

"Jane Austen was one of the greatest English novelists in history. Despite a rather sheltered life, she was able to capture the subtleties of human interaction so perfectly that her novels continue to be immensely popular to this day. This 5-1/4" tall, hard vinyl action figure comes with a book (Pride & Prejudice) and a writing desk with removable quill pen!"

Yours for $8.50.

Other writers available are Poe - "with a hauntingly pale complexion and a removable plastic raven" and Shakespeare. Nominations for the accoutrements that would suit other writers, should they be immortalised in hard vinyl, are welcome - Solzhenitsyn's foot cloths maybe or De Quincey's laudanum bottle.

However, it would be selfish of me not to point out the star attraction:

"If you just can't get enough of the Dewey decimals or if you go bananas for books, chances are you have a Librarian Action Figure. Nancy Pearl's likeness made history as the best selling Librarian Action Figure of all time".


Looks like Nancy can move her arms but lower body movement would appear to be beyond her.

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Making the same anouncement twice

As is well known, ministers in this government would make drums out of the skins of their own mothers the louder to sing their own praises, and announce the same 'announcement' every six months in the hope that the gullible and the complicit will report it as new money.

So much for the history lesson. Now the same press release is attributed to two different departments on the same day:

So DEFRA has this to say - "A raft of new Government measures to help vulnerable consumers and especially the elderly make their homes warmer and more energy efficient are announced today". It goes on to quote the Wickser, Woolas and O'Brien.

And the DTI BERR has this to say: "A raft of new Government measures to help vulnerable consumers and especially the elderly make their homes warmer and more energy efficient are announced today". Guess who it quotes.....

Both were released into the wild at one past midnight according to the DEFRA and BERR websites. However, the ever useful thegovernmentsays.com tells a somewhat different story, detecting BERR's release at 3.12 and Defra's at 4.44.

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Oh dear....

Thursday, May 29, 2008
Sticking to the topic of vanity projects cooked up by superannuated politicians who just will not let go, that Mr Tony is back. With a bang.

Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, brace yourself for "The Tony Blair Faith Foundation". Yes, really.

"On May 30 in New York, Blair, 55, formally unveils The Tony Blair Faith Foundation, which, among other things, is dedicated to proving that collaboration among those of different religious faiths can help address some of the world's most pressing social problems".

Doubtless this will end up as being about as significant as The Elders, but meanwhile time to engage in a little light kremlinology to see what Tone has to say about Brown:

"The worst thing in politics...is when you're so scared of losing support that you don't do what you think is the right thing. What faith can do is not tell you what is right, but give you the strength to do it.”

Ho ho ho.


Elsewhere, we discover that Ruth 'wrong crowd' Turner is heading the TBFF (1), and that the writer thinks 'Blair's wife is a devout Catholic'. I think the Pope might have something to say on that score. Blair wants to end malaria, a laudable aim: "If you got churches and mosques and those of the Jewish faith working together to provide the bed nets that are necessary to eliminate malaria".

Consider, however, the map below:

Not many Jews or Muslims in some of those areas, are there?

Further digging shows that the foundation's site is live, if not very lively. Turns out that 'The foundation will work with Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists', which is a bit raw on Taoists, Zoroastrians, Jains, Ba'hais etc etc. Let alone the 800 million adherents of Chinese folk religion.


(1). Which also stands for The Bahamas Film Festival, Taipei Book Fair Foundation, Texas Black Film Festival, Thunder Bay Fly Fishers and the Thomas B Fordham Foundation.

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Gorbachev to anyone listening - 'I'm not dead'

And furthermore declares, 'look at me'.

As noted the other day, ol' splodgetop was due to attend the Energy Globe Awards, the 9th no less, and indeed did. And hung around for a good old moan the day after.

So what did the man dubbed 'a blow-dried bolshevik' (can't recall the origin, but trust me on this one) have to say, beyond my précis?

Well, firstly an epic re-writing of history:

"1990 Nobel laureate Mikhail Gorbachev, also speaking at the conference, drew on personal experience - both as a young man growing up in Stavropol (1)and a rising star in the Communist Party - to explain how his understanding and appreciation of climate change grew over the years (leading him to found, in 1993, Green Cross International(2), an advocacy group. Europe, he later argued, had a lot to learn from the experience (and errors) of the USSR, where - by the mid-80s, under Gorbachev's glasnost - the "number one issue [on people's minds] was the environment (3)".

1 - Let's be really generous and take 'young' as being under 30. That takes us to 1961 at the outside. Are we believe that he had the jump on new ice age, global warming cough the 'climate change' lobby by at least ten years?

2 - Who would have thought that road safety campaigning has gone international? Maybe Misha the Olympic bear runs the equivalent of the Tufty Club.

3 - I'm calling BS on that one. Not the cost of living, lack of civil rights, the Afghan war etc etc?


And there's more:

"Complaining about the attitude that the West took vis-à-vis the Soviet Union and the challenges it faced throughout the 1980s, he warned: “if we take the same attitude towards developing countries as we did towards the USSR”, we will face "a catastrophe."


This 1980s Soviet Union was a nuclear-armed totalitarian behemoth, and not exactly on the West's Christmas card list. If it could afford to invade Afghanistan, and fund trouble worldwide then improving the air quality in Magnitogorsk was for it to do, not us.

Meanwhile, "A special award went to Mikhail Gorbachev in recognition of his work with the "Green Cross Foundation".


Said Foundation is not exactly high profile (no wiki page), or maybe lacks the tender attentions of search engine optimisation, as the lead google hit is for an American "Academy of Traumatology, established in 1997 to bring together world leaders in the study of traumatology for the purpose of establishing and maintaining professionalism and high standards for this new field".

However, it does exist and has a fairly snazzy website. The Board has Gorbachev himself, one of his mates from the glory days back in the Kremlin, a Polish investor, a Swiss brigadier and a Portuguese Socialist. The honorary board is quite a list of the usual suspects, most of whom appear not to have done a damned thing since 2001, or perhaps have not had their biographies updated. I very much doubt that 99 year old Rita Levi-Montalcini is that active on the board. There is also something of an outbreak of the use of rather old photographs to depict both Robert Redford (when did he last make a half-way decent film?(4)) and 65 year old Pat Mitchell.

(4) Brubaker. 1980. However, we both have accountants for Standard Oil as fathers. Fascinating, eh?



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The easily pleased fan of Javier Solana

Here, in all its glory, is a youtube clip of Solana shaking hands and enquiring after the health of the President of Moldova, Vladimir Voronin. Voronin does not give an audible response, but looks contented



It is not the most exciting youtube vid I have seen, nor does it have exceptionally high production values, but at the time of posting, someone had gone to the effort of logging in to rate the video, and gave it five stars. If it was Javier, shame on him, and if not, the rater needs to check a few other videos to establish a benchmark for star ratings.

Also, youtube user Solana is friends with EUTube and EUSecurityanddefence, which is nice.

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Infantilising the population

Taking prissiness to new highs, certain Danish supermarkets are refusing to stock fizzy drink bottles that have been boosted from half a litre to 600 mililitres, because ''It is the wrong signal to send'.

The signal in this case is in connection with the 'obesity' battle, so perhaps the retailer will also stop stocking sugar, sweets, cakes, alcohol or just about anything other than brown rice and tofu.

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The job so important it takes three months to replace a resignee

Wednesday, May 28, 2008
From the EU site:

"Following the resignation of Mr Markos Kyprianou from his post as a member of the European Commission, the Council of the European Union, by decision of 29 February 2008, acting in accordance with the Treaties, has decided to replace him for the remainder of his term of office. It has appointed Ms Androula Vassiliou".

Markos had his priorities right in that he would rather be the Cypriot Foreign minister. Cypriot politics would appear to be a very small pond in that Markos's pa was Cypriot president a while back, and Androula's husband has been El Presidente too. And both studied law in the UK. However, to muddy the waters somewhat, she is linked with the United Democrats, and he with the (presumably faction riven) Democrats.

Given that there cannot have been that many qualified Cypriots - and it had to be a Cypriot, EU Commissariats being what they are - why did it take three months to drag Mrs Vassiliou away from the delights of Nicosia and off to Brussels? Is it, whisper it low, possible that despite the lack of an active Health Commissar there were no outbreaks of pneumonic plague, consumption, dropsy and who knows what else?



A bit of further digging suggests that she had taken up the reins previously, and this is just a rather silly ritual, but having got that far into posting I was damned if I was going to scrap it.


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Asking the firing squad to reload when the first volley missed

Tuesday, May 27, 2008
What else might one use as a metaphor for this?:

Greenlandic politician Palle Christiansen - "Greenland already has close relations to the EU through the OLT system, but these should be even closer. A self-ruling Greenland or an independent Greenland in the future will not survive in political isolation but through political co-operation. That could very well be through the EU....I don't see any problems with becoming a member of the EU. The advantages Greenland has economically, in educational matters, on health issues and so forth could be strengthened with membership in EU".

Any problems? Blimey. Even the EU's Amen Corner would struggle to describe it as a perfect union.

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Yet another reason to hope Mugabe loses

"The Ethiopian Supreme Court has sentenced the country's former dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam to death...The former leader is, however, unlikely to face execution as he has lived in exile in Zimbabwe since he was ousted from power in 1991. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's government is not expected to extradite him". Source

A brief anecdote to give the man's measure: "He shouted "Death to counterrevolutionaries! Death to the EPRP!" and then produced two bottles of what appeared to be blood and smashed them to the ground to show what the revolution would do to its enemies". Source

More substantially, the toll from the 80s famines lies at squarely at his door as does the Ukrainian 'Harvest of Sorrow' at Stalin's.

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The Scandinavians and their traffic lights

The Danes have decided to follow the Swedish example and mess about with traffic light iconography. Whereas the Swedes have brought in female stick people at pedestrian crossings because it is sexist etc etc to only have men (they could be flat chested women in trousers, couldn't they?). I am NOT making this up.

Anyway, despite the Danish equality quango "'calling the plan 'strange' and 'a waste of money'", Copenhagen's council is pressing ahead regardless, as this business "was not about equality for the sexes but more about creating debate and a bit of a stir". Doubtless Copenhagen has no crime, education, health etc problems, and its councillors are thus free to ruminate on more abstract issues.

While it would be tempting to fulminate in best 'Disgusted of Croydon' fashion, that would be a tad predictable, so rather I will focus on other Danish traffic light oddities and ponder on British possibilities:

In Odense the lights depict Hans-Christian Anderson and in Fredericia local statue 'the brave country soldier'. And here they are. I imagine readers will work out which is which



First things first, how can either of those images be stripped down to one colour and still be instantly recognisable as who they are and to suggest walking / not walking? Any field reports showing Odense or Fredericia traffic lights will be gratefully received. Always supposing the Danes have cracked the challenge I posed, I am looking forward to having my town's traffic lights depicting David Lean.


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Taking one's sugar daddy for granted

Monday, May 26, 2008
That Taiwan hoses down its friends with money is hardly a revelation, but they are pushing their luck in Paraguay:

VP elect Federicao Franco: "I’ve met with authorities at the Taiwanese embassy and they confirmed to me that they will donate US$71 million to the country when the [Fernando] Lugo government assumes office on Aug. 15".

And this is what Taipei has to say:

"The incoming Lugo government has expressed its wish [for the donation], but we haven’t discussed any details yet".

And $71m is more than double the money Taipei was waving at Port Moresby, as noted earlier in the month.

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Where your money goes

The EU meeja commissariat is rather pleased by how some of its part funded projects have fared at the Cannes film festival. Rather thoughtfully, one line synopses of the winners have been included. And they are beyond parody:

Le silence de Lorna - "An Albanian woman marries a drug addict in order to obtain Belgian residency". This got €202,500 of our money.

Eldorado (aka Léa) - "Yvan grows a strange affection for Elie, an adolescent who breaks into his house, and decides to drive the teenager back to his parents". €51 000

Gomorra - "A Neapolitan mafia drama based on a novel by Roberto Saviano". Doesn't sound too bad, all things considered, and this was the the Culture Commissar (the deeply irritating Viviane Reding) and her entourage chose to watch. €45 000.

Tulpan - "Bulat has done military service in the Russian Navy and returns to the Kazakh step (sic) to become a shepherd. For that, he has to learn the shepherding trade and get married". €40 000.

Entre Les Murs - "The story of a French teacher at a secondary school in a difficult area". €30 000.

Les Bureaux de Dieu - "Day-to-day functioning of the family planning centre where women come to inform themselves about a choice they have or want to make". €16 000.

They put out a similar release this time last year, which also received some mockery here.

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Not coming soon to a television near you. I hope

And if it is, head to the hills with the greatest of despatch:

"The 9th Energy Globe Awards for local environmental projects will be presented at a ceremony in [the EU's] Parliament's plenary chamber on 26 May, starting at 20.00".

And there's more:

"Projects from around the world promoting the use of clean and renewable energies will compete in five different categories: Earth, Fire, Water, Air and Youth". What, no 'wind'? I can't help but think that putting 'youth' on treadmills could both clean up our streets and provide energy.

The bunfight will be presented by the not uneasy on the eye Luxembourgeoise actress Désirée Nosbusch (careful with google image searches if at work or anywhere near a jealous spouse etc), and in possibly the worst act of parenting since Saturn, "Mikhail Gorbachev will receive a lifetime achievement award. Mr Gorbachev's daughter Irina Virganskaya will also attend".

Dionne Warwick must be rather down on her uppers, as she will be singing, along with Zucchero and Alanis 'I don't understand the word 'ironic'' Morrisette.

Possibly the most amusing part of the entire press release is this bit: "Parliament, Commission and Council presidents Hans-Gert Pöttering, José Manuel Barroso and Janez Janša are expected to present the awards". This suggests to me that all three would rather be watching paint dry.

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A bridge too far?

Sunday, May 25, 2008
The Italians have decided that they want to bridge the Strait of Messina, that which separates Sicily from the mainland.


In contrast to the rather half-baked (1/8th baked would be nearer the mark) Channel Tunnel, Rome seems intent on doing things in style:

"The 3,690-metre-long bridge has been designed to be able to handle 4,500 cars an hour and 200 trains a day."

And how much? A mere bagatelle at €6.5 bn. The Chunnel cost £10.1 bn in 2007 money, but that was an 80% cost over run, so do not expect the final bill to bear much resemblance to €6.5 bn....

Still, it is quite amusing to think that one could visit all of the Norman conquests - bar Malta, and the Isle of Wight etc - without getting one's feet wet.

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Looks like a post UN Ban-ki Moon won't be on the Exxon board...

Or be very welcome in Riyadh, come to that:

"We must kick carbon habit, Secretary-General stresses"

"Addiction is a terrible thing. It consumes and controls us, makes us deny important truths and blinds us to the consequences of our actions. Our world is in the grip of a dangerous carbon habit".

And then some very dodgy science:

"Our dependence on carbon-based energy has caused a significant build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Last year, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change put the final nail in the coffin of global-warming sceptics. We know that climate change is happening, and we know that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that we emit are the cause".

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Another EU landgrab in the offing?

Saturday, May 24, 2008
I can't say I was familiar with Joaquin Almunia, the Commissar for Economic and Monetary Affairs. However, the Spanish Socialist is far from shy when it comes to expressing opinions on matters wholly outside his purview.

He does not like some executive pay awards, as reported by the FAZ: "In my opinion some salaries are completely irresponsible".

The man has form as a leftie, including a stint as director of the research program on 'Equality and redistribution of income'. I think it as well to concentrate on baking the cake before worrying about who gets the biggest slice. Naturally, he has never worked in the wealth producing sector .

While it is dispiriting that the Economic Commissar thinks this way, consider also Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the Eurozone Finance Ministers group, and the head of what counts as the right wing party in Luxembourg:

"On May 14...[he] said his colleagues were considering ways to clamp down on “scandalous” pay packages for senior executives. Terming huge compensation schemes “quite scandalous” and a “social scourge,” Juncker said finance ministers were in particular looking to plug loopholes that allowed tax deductions on generous severance packages in many countries".

Good grief. If Luxembourg Christian Democrats do envy politics and fancy a maximum wage, I fear to think what their socialists are like.

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Non-partisan fun for all the family

The American Worst Political Advertising Awards:

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Life imitating art

Friday, May 23, 2008
This unfortunate business in Exeter does rather smack of the plot of Conrad's 'The Secret Agent', doesn't it?

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The French and their surveys

Yet again I am indebted to the French media for the frankly bizarre surveys that they commission. Today's curiosity is a survey on which of a list of over 50s has had the most positive impact on French society. The commissioning title is a mag for the retired, I think.

Anyway, top of the list is Nicholas Hulot, a sort of French David Attenborough only with a little more bite. He is followed by Simone Veil, who continues to amaze me by not being dead yet. She was behind the legalisation of abortion and freeing up the availability of contraception. So far so not too silly, but number three with a bullet is Johnny Hallyday. Yes, really. The top five is rounded out by Sarko and Chirac. The foreign minister / founder of MSF Bernard Kouchner, Bernie Chirac (Why? What has she done, ever, apart from being married to the former pres?), footballer Platini, Ségolène Royal and football coach Aimé Jacquet. Charles Aznavour makes 11th, Bardot 14th and Belmondo 28th. The still divine Catherine Deneuve is edged out by that old fraud Foucault for 43rd.

Hulot takes the spoils for the 50-59 sub group, Hallyday for 60-69, Chirac for 70-79, and Simone Veil for the 80+.

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Old but good

Thursday, May 22, 2008


I still can't watch the intro to the BBC News without thinking of this.

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We're winning the war on terror

"Contrary to “expert consensus”, the threat of terrorism -– however defined -– was declining, Andrew Mack, Director of the Human Security Report Project said at [UN] Headquarters today". Source

"Mr. Mack, a former Director of the United Nations Strategic Planning Unit before starting the Human Security Report Project, said all three data sets included civilians killed by non-State actors in civil wars, but not consistently so. Some 81 per cent of terrorism victims were from Iraq since the 2003 invasion, but the data sets did not include victims of civil wars in sub-Saharan Africa or Darfur. If the Iraq situation were removed from the data, there would be a 40 per cent decline in the incidents covered in two data sets, with the third still showing a small increase. However, new data from the National Counterterrorism Centre for 2007 showed a decline.

He said part of the decline was due to tactical successes in the “war on terror” -- sanctuary denied, leaders killed and networks disrupted -– but mostly because Islamist terrorist organizations had “shot themselves in the foot”. Al-Qaida in Iraq, for instance, had angered even Sunni Iraqis by its indiscriminate violence against civilians, and some recent polls showed that “100 per cent” of Iraqis thought the attacks were unacceptable.

Just 1 per cent of Afghans felt strong support for the Taliban, and in north-west Pakistan, Osama bin Laden’s popularity had dropped from 70 per cent in 2007 to just 4 per cent in 2008, he said. That could lead to the conclusion that, as terrorism went up, support went down. The fact that about 2,000 people a year were killed in terrorist acts should be put in perspective. An estimated 500,000 people were murdered annually and one million died from traffic accidents. The threats of Al-Qaida were real, but terrorism posed no threat to civilization.
...

Stressing that the drop in terrorism was a net decline, he said incidents in Algeria and Pakistan had gone up, but terrorist activity in Algiers was small compared to what it had been in the 1990s. Islamist terror groups lacked the support they had enjoyed in that decade as they had alienated the population to such an extent that it had started to cooperate with the authorities. He said he did not know whether or not the Iraq war remained a recruiting tool for terrorists, but the flow of foreign fighters into that country had declined. The diaries of captured or killed jihadists had mentioned a lack of morale for some years now and it had become increasingly difficult to recruit people for what seemed a losing cause. Asked about 'Palestine', he said that was the only area where support for suicide bombers stood at 50 per cent, simply because the bombers did not target fellow Muslims".


So, good news. Not that I expect to see this reported by a certain state controlled broadcaster, even though the study was part funded by DFID. More once I've read the report, and not just the UN press release.

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Incitement to class hatred...

Continuing on from what I was saying yesterday, here is a filleting out of salient comments from a Brendan Barber speech last night:

"Britain's workers increasingly feel an acute sense of unfairness - aware that the spoils of corporate growth, of record profitability, are being creamed off by a tiny elite while pay rises for everyone else struggle to keep pace with the true cost of living".

....

There is a growing sense that the Square Mile is enjoying almost limitless power; yet sometimes behaves without responsibility. A small City elite of investment bankers, hedge fund managers and private equity partners are enjoying riches beyond the dreams of avarice, while outsourcing the risks to the rest of us - taking one way bets they know they can't lose'.

And ordinary working people - whether they are heartland trade unionists or Daily Mail readers in marginal seats - increasingly feel they have no stake in this casino capitalism. They are angry that they are struggling to pay the bills as a super-rich minority is allowed to float free from the rest of society. Angry that they pay proportionately more tax than people whose earnings are a hundred or even a thousand times greater. And angry that they are now paying the price for the profligacy of others, with public money propping up the markets while billions are still being paid out in bonuses.'

I would unpick all of the errors of fact but lack either the time or the energy. However, as a short cut, try changing 'elite' and 'minority' with the demographic of your choice and see how it reads.

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Nice work if you can get it

From whichever glove puppet is Brown's spokesman this week, referencing the Man U / Chelsea game last night:

"Asked who was representing the Government in Moscow, the PMS said that it was Andy Burnham and Gerry Sutcliffe".

Quite why it was necessary to send anyone 'to represent the government' is the unanswered question, let alone two. Burnham represents a Mancunian constituency but follows Everton. Sutcliffe's loyalties are unknown, but he is a fellow grammar school boy and therefore can't be all bad, his being a socialist notwithstanding.

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A modest proposal

Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Straying quite some way from what the Tolpuddle 'martyrs' or, come to that, Len Murray would think of as the TUC's remit, Brendan Barber has got quite agitated about 'vicious hate crimes against disabled people'. Although he comes up with some anecdotal evidence, I think his is a solution looking for a problem, for shameful though his examples are, they smack more of random victims rather than gangs of psychopaths roaming the streets looking for people with walking sticks, cerebral palsy or whatever that they might beat them up. Still less are there - as far as I am aware - papers, websites etc calling for the able bodied to rise up and attack the blind, the deaf or the club footed.

Anyway, this is what I consider the most intriguing part of Barber's intervention:

"The Government has begun to recognise this is a serious problem, and has introduced legislation to outlaw incitement to hatred on a growing number of grounds. But more needs to be done to fill in the remaining gaps. 'The police and law enforcement bodies need to understand, recognise and respond to hate crime - and attitudes in society that give rise to such violence need to be challenged head on".

OK, Brendan. What about incitement to class hatred?

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A history lesson for Jacques Rogge

With one eye on his first class air travel, accommodation, chauffeur-driven limousine etc etc for this year's Open Air Steroid Abuse Festival in Beijing, Jacques Rogge had this to say:


"You don't obtain anything in China with a loud voice. That is the big mistake of people in the West wanting to add their views. It took us 200 years to evolve from the French Revolution. China started in 1949," Rogge added, noting that was a time when Britain and other European nations were also colonial powers, "with all the abuse attached to colonial powers". "It was only 40 years ago that we gave liberty to the colonies. Let's be a little bit more modest."


Since 1968, the UK has given independence to these jewels in the crown: , Antigua & Barbuda, the Bahamas, Brunei, Dominica, Grenada, Kiribati, Mauritius, the Maldives, Nauru, St Vincent & the Grenadines, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, Samoa, the Seychelles, Solomon Islands, Swaziland, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. We sold Hong Kong down the river in '97 of course. The French empire was effectively a dead letter by 1960.

Belgium gave independence to the former Belgian Congo in 1960, or more accurately ran away and left it to anarchy.

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The world's most useless intelligence service

I nominate the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, or the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the German equivalent of MI5.

In a truly astonishing finding, it has worked out that Die Linke - the German Left Party - has extremists in its midst. Die Linke is a newish party formed by Oskar Lafontaine's mates (the hard left of the SPD) and the soi disant, cough, Party of Democratic Socialism, the successor to the Socialist Unity Party, the former rulers of the far from lamented German 'Democratic' Republic.

Later in the week, the BfV will reveal that wrestling is fixed.

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Way back lost in the mists of time...

..., or rather just under 26 years ago, the Swedes complained about Soviet submarines dodging around in Stockholm harbour and generally violating territorial waters, Sweden's neutrality (1) etc etc. Being interested in this sort of thing, I remember the original spat, which caused a degree of hilarity in these parts.

Anyway, a tape of submarine-like sounds was Olof Palme's exhibit A when complaining to the USSR, but "the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) has now been able to determine that the sound in all likelihood originated from the passing charter boat Amalia".

Whoops. Carl Bildt, former PM, member of the '80s submarine commission (it's ok, they had aqualungs) and current foreign minister has tried to remove the egg clinging to his face by downplaying the FOI findings.

I would think that if this had happened in these parts such finding would never have been made public. Were I Bildt, I would have kept schtumm, or if absolutely necessary, pointed out that I was a mere boy of 33 at the time.


(1) As I believe I have noted before, at the height of the cold war a senior Swedish figure noted that while on paper Sweden might be neutral, they knew which side they were on. The USSR complained, NATO did not.

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That's an awful lot of Green Ladies

From Hansard:

Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what pieces of artwork valued at over £1,000 were (a) purchased by her Department and (b) transferred to her Department's ownership in each of the last three years; and what the (i) name and (ii) value is of each.

Mr. Byrne: My Department does not have an annual budget for art. However following the opening of 2 Marsham Street in 2005 £122,000 was spent on the provision of internal art for the new building. This demonstrated the Department’s support for UK arts. The developer had direct responsibility for the costs of the external art strategy, the cost of which is included in the combined PFI charge for the building.

Or maybe weeping urchins, cat's eyes on black velvet or Spanish dancers were more to Ministry of the Interior's taste?

Note the bold text. I think this has the makings of a fabulous recurring rationale, not that there is any indication of the provenance of the art. Perhaps expensive chairs etc will 'demonstrate the department's support for the UK office supply industry', and 48" plasma screeens will 'demonstrate the department's support for the UK's retailers' etc etc. Burning our money indeed.

The Green Lady can be found here. Being a sensitive soul, I did not want her staring out at me for the rest of the day, so link, no picture.

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Cynical, moi?

Tuesday, May 20, 2008
From Pravda Central:

"Local Government Minister John Healey has today launched a consultation on whether or not the date of the 2009 local elections should be moved to coincide with elections for the European Parliament".

Hands up anyone who thinks that a decision will be based on a reason other than the prospective electoral advantage to the Labour Party.

One might note that the government has had plenty of time to think about this, what with council and EU 'parliament' terms being fixed.

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Headline o' the day

"Gordon Brown wins victory over human-animal embryos". Source

Well, embryonic minotaurs would not have been able to put up much of a fight, would they?

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Socialist admits mistake

Not here, obviously.

However, Ségolène Royal has cast her eye over the doleful (pun very much intended) effects of La Loi Aubry, the idiotic 35 hour maximum working week brought in on Martine 'Jacques Delors is my pa' Aubry's watch:

"One knows full well that the second 35 hour week law has often been brutal, and has led to major problems in hospitals and certain other enterprises, where low paid workers in particular have seen their working conditions worsen, because the 35 hours [law] has been badly applied".

Mind you, she is still accusing the French right of 'scapegoating' the 35 hours law. That Sarko has not done the right, as well as compassionate thing and scrapped this law brings to mind Thatcher's famous comment about pendulums and ratchets.

For what it is worth, I have had the challenge of explaining what would happen as a result of this law to more than one monoglot Gaul at the low paid end of the medical business.

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Hell freezes over

(If not in the Dante Alighieri version)


"UN torture committee criticizes Sweden".

Yes, I think that is up there with Elvis being alive, pigs flying and Dunwoody fille winning in Crewe.

However, the remainder of the news story makes clear that Swedish gaolers are not making free with crocodile clips, but rather that "The Swedish military waited four years before looking into allegations that Swedish troops had remained passive while a Congolese militia member was tortured by French troops".

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