Police priorities

On previous occasions it has appeared the Police have their priorities in the wrong place but fining two 16 year old girls for drawing “hearts and rainbows” in chalk on a pavement, hardly seems worth police time.

The two girls have been fined for graffiti, yet this is with chalk that washes away in the rain. If it had been spray paint that costs time and money to remove, then fair enough, but that’s not the case here. Also, hearts and rainbows aren’t exactly offensive to anyone.

Come on Police, there are slightly more important crimes to pursue.

Update: Police have overturned the charges. I wonder if the press coverage the story got had anything to do with the decision.

Soldiers selling their stories

There have been some gripes made towards the 15 soldiers who were held hostage in Iran selling their stories, but why shouldn’t they?

1’000’s of people every day make money from experiences in their careers other than their salary, so why should these soldiers (or any other for that matter) be any different. Politicians for example make a glamorous amount on the side.

So long as they don’t release any confidential information they should be allowed to make some extra money. Putting your life on the line for your country isn’t well paid, so there may as well be some perks with the job.

Good one Google

Every year there are a number of good April fool jokes, but TiSP from Google has to be one of the best.

It's worrying that looking at the posts made about it, there appears to be quite a few who fell for it and wanted to know how to sign up.

Appears to be a nice little dig at Tiscali though, as www.tisp.co.uk is for the Tiscali Network, which promotes Tiscali products. Now I'm sure Google aren't suggesting any direct link between Tiscali Broadband and flushing down toilets.

£10k to increase understanding of MPs

MPs have today voted to give themselves £10k on top of their current expenses to inform us more about what they and Parliament do via a website.

Quite why it costs £10k to set up and maintain a website that tells us what an MP is doing I don’t know.

Quite simply, all an MP needs to do is set up a blog that acts as an online diary. They can then tell us what they’ve been doing and why. Simple and best of all it’s free.

BBC blunder

What an embarrassment for the BBC last night when Terry Wogan and Fearne Cotton announced different winners at the same time on last night’s Make Your Mind Up show.

It’s interesting the BBC has given no explanation to as to why the two presenters announced different winners.

This latest blunder comes of course on the back on the many phone-in scandals, which started with Richard and Judy and has led to ITV Play being axed all together. I wonder just how long viewers have been ripped off by these phone-ins as it seems odd that all of a sudden so many errors are being discovered. The explanation for this could be that it’s just being picked up. The best way to ensure you doesn’t get ripped off? Don’t phone in.

Using a handheld phone whilst driving

There’s been a campaign of radio adverts running for some time now promoting the tougher penalties for using handheld mobiles. The advert tries to get its message across by saying its “harder to concentrate on two things at the same time”. The two things being the driving and the talking.

This is kind of off message really as correct me if I’m wrong but you can still talk to someone whilst driving as long as it’s on a hands free system, hence still having to concentrate on two things at the same time.

Surely the campaign should focus on the fact it’s difficult to drive whilst using a handheld phone. You can’t change gear for example without taking your driving hand (if you’re holding the phone in your right hand) off the steering wheel.

Despite the tougher penalties and this campaign, the message doesn’t seem to be getting through. There are still plenty of people using their hand held mobiles. Surely a call isn’t that important it can’t wait until your able to pull over?

Construction forward or back in 80 years?

With the FA finally being handed the keys to the new Wembley Stadium this week, it led me to wonder, has construction in this country gone forwards or back in the 80 years since the original stadium was built.

The original stadium began construction in 1922 and opened on 23rd April 1923, taking only 300 days to build. The new stadium has taken 5 years to build, 7 if you include the delay to actually starting the construction.

In terms of cost, the original stadium cost £750’000 compared to £757 million pounds for the new one. Using Measuring Wealth to calculate the £750’000 in today’s money you get this:
£28,495,652.17 using the retail price index
£32,908,995.82 using the GDP deflator
£128,967,442.87 using average earnings
£159,930,757.94 using per capita GDP
£215,927,827.71 using the GDP

So in just over 80 years it now takes 5 times longer to build a stadium, and even using the most expensive measure GDP, the stadium cost £541 million pounds more than the original. In terms of time and cost then the construction industry certainly has gone backwards. Doesn’t bode well for the Olympics.

C4H - Just got interesting

The Cash for Honours inquiry just got interesting.

Up till this point I had been rather sceptical of this inquiry going anywhere, but the announcement today of Ruth Turner sending an email to Jonathan Powell regarding Lord Levy suggests there is credible evidence to bring a prosecution.

Of course we don’t know what the contents of the email are, due to the injunction and it is quite likely that Ruth Turner would email Jonathan Powell, mentioning Lord Levy, but no standard routine email would lead to an injunction being sort by the Met Police to prevent the discloser of the email.

Could justice be done after all? Well there is still a long way to go, but this investigation is starting to look like it’s not a waste of time after all.

Politics Forum Quiz

Take the Politics Forum quiz for an ideal of where you stand politically.

It's a little long but very detailed and breaks down your personal stance into 6 categories. You can even see graphs showing how others have answered.

The quiz can be found here.

My results are below.



Overall, the PoliticsForum quiz considers you a socially-orientated, materialist, small-government, free-trade, non-absolutist, kind of person, who doesn't sound like a Marxist.

These characteristics would put you in the overall category of libertarian. Your natural home at PoliticsForum would be the Liberalism area.


Individual vs Social

"The individualist believes that society works best through a focus on individual rights, freedoms, actions and responsibilities. The social thinker believes that the ideal state should focus more upon collective action and take a social approach to rights and responsibilities."



You scored 69 out of 100 on a scale of Individual vs Social. This means that politically you are more likely to value the need for group actions and group benefit over individual enterprise and benefit.

* 79% of test takers were more individual than you.
* 19% of test takers were more social than you.


Theist vs Materialist

"The materialist believes that all objective criteria to influence politics can be reasonably derived without recourse to the divine or the spiritual. The theist believes that spiritual beliefs are important and should influence government policy."

You scored 61 out of 100 on a scale of Theist vs Materialist. This means that politically you are more likely to believe that religion and spirituality are superstitions that should not inform political debate.

* 48% of test takers were more theist than you.
* 50% of test takers were more materialist than you.


Big Government vs Small Government

"The big government advocate believes that governments should be responsible for regulating a wide array of social practices, even what might be considered personal decisions such as abortion, euthanasia, children's education and births. A small government advocate thinks that, wherever possible, these issues should be up to individuals or companies to direct."

You scored 65 out of 100 on a scale of Big Government vs Small Government. This means that politically you are more likely to believe that government should keep out of legislating social policies, leaving such decisions to individuals.

* 66% of test takers were more big government than you.
* 32% of test takers were more small government than you.


Nationalist vs Internationalist

"The nationalist believes in the sovereign rule of nation states, particularly his or her own. The internationalist believes that there should be more important international fora and perhaps, ultimately, international government."

You scored 51 out of 100 on a scale of Nationalist vs Internationalist. This means that politically you are neither more nor less likely to favour international bodies over national ones.

* 31% of test takers were more nationalist than you.
* 68% of test takers were more internationalist than you.


Protectionist vs Free Trader

"The protectionist believes in barriers against free trade most probably due to a belief that this is in his or her country's interests. The free trader rejects such notions, believing that the system ultimately suffers when tariffs, subsidies and other obstacles to free trade persist."

You scored 65 out of 100 on a scale of Protectionist vs Free Trader. This means that politically you are more likely to favour free trade over protectionist policies.

* 67% of test takers were more protectionist than you.
* 32% of test takers were more pro free trade than you.


Absolutist vs Non-Absolutist

"The absolutist believes that either a divine presence or scientific laws provide absolute truths about the world, which can and should be applied in practise. The non-absolutist may be either a relativist, or simply someone who is more pragmatic."

You scored 74 out of 100 on a scale of Absolutist vs Non Absolutist. This means that politically you are less likely to believe that there is an absolute truth that may guide your ideological beliefs.

* 95% of test takers were more absolutist than you.
* 4% of test takers were more non-absolutist than you.


Controlled Market vs Liberal Market

"Both of these categories assume a capitalist system. Assuming this system, the controlled market believer holds that government should intervene in regulating a nation's economy: wage laws, environmental standards, privatised industries and workplace relations policy. A liberal market thinker believes that such regulation is unnecessary and often counter-productive."

You scored 59 out of 100 on a scale of Controlled Market vs Liberal Market. This means that politically you are neither more nor less likely to believe that there is need for government regulation of industry.

* 80% of test takers were more controlled market thinkers than you.
* 19% of test takers were more liberal market thinkers than you.


Marxist vs Non-Marxist

"This scale purports to show to what extent you follow the thought and teachings of Marx. Marxists tend to be scientific, materialist and revolutionary, believe in class struggle and the laws of historical and dialectic materialism."

You scored 73 out of 100 on a scale of Marxist vs Non-Marxist. This means that politically you are less likely to follow the philosophies of Marx.

* 95% of test takers were more Marxist than you.
* 4% of test takers were more non-Marxist than you.

Why would you vote for Ming?

This question has just been asked on the Politics Show, why would you vote for Ming Campbell?

It’s a very good question, why would you?

The Lib Dem’s do have a couple of very good policies, politically reducing income tax in favour of green taxes is a very good idea.

However in a day when image means as much as policies Sir Campbell is a long way behind Cameron and even Gordon Brown. I just can’t picture Ming as a Prime Minister. I don’t think had he been in the Labour or Conservative Party, he would ever have got to Leadership level. He was a very good Foreign Affairs Speaker, but as a leader he just doesn’t cut it.

I do think he will still be the leader of the Lib Dems for the next election, which will be a mistake. The reason I can’t see him going before then is because of the level of respect he has from his fellow Lib Dem MPs. Unfortunately though, respect doesn’t gain you votes.

Greedy banks

At a time when Banks are soon to no longer offer free banking it seems ironic that the Halifax can offer £100 to anyone who uses their current account switching service to move their account to them.

Quite clearly it can’t cost that much to maintain a bank account. In this day and age with computers doing most of the work, the costs of an account must be coming down.

So clearly the only reason to no longer offer free banking is for banks to boost their profits at a time when they are already announcing billion pound figures.

Foreign Secretary loses her memory?

The Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett in response to her apparent setting up by Rory Bremnar has claimed she does not remember such a conversation taking place.

Yet she then says "If he has done as he suggests, it is both an unprincipled and unpleasant breach of privacy." Well the one person besides Rory Bremnar who would know if such a conversation took place is Margaret Beckett herself.

Surely the conversation took place or it didn’t. It can’t be both.

No.10 Petitions, the real reason

This week we found out the real reason for E-Petitions on the Downing Street website, one massive propaganda machine.

The 1.8 million signatures to the anti road pricing petition all received an email this week from the PM spelling out exactly why we need road pricing. Hardly recognition of the opposition to the scheme.

The ideal way to build a database of email addresses in which to ignore the views of the voters and try to bring them around to the Government’s way of thinking.

Is Blair lining up his new job?

The News of The World today is reporting that Blair is to sign the resurrected European Constitution without going to the country for a referendum, like he promised the last time it was attempted to be introduced.

The Constitution will set up a European President and a Foreign Minister, two jobs which Blair is bound to be interested in. These two positions will be key to international relations for Europe and therefore whoever holds them will hold quite a bit of power and in true European style be unaccountable to the people, ideal for Blair then!

Perfect timing for Blair then in the year he will step down, that one of his last acts as Prime Minister will be to sign a treaty creating a position ideal for him, which will allow him to continue in a position above Brown.

That 1million figure

It doesn’t seem to matter to this Government what the views of the people who elected them are. Even if one million people are against what they plan, the Government carries on regardless. The first case came with the Iraq war, and now it appears the same is going to happen with road charging.

More than one million people have signed a petition against planned vehicle and road charging on 10 Downing Street’s own website, but this is going to be ignored.

It does prove just what a gimmick this website is as the Government clearly has no intention of acting upon the petitions.

DWP favour to ID fraudsters

At a time when the Government is encouoraging people to take care over their personal data due to identity fraud, the Deparment for Work and Pensions has done its best to help out fraudsters by sending 26’000 letters containing personal and bank account details to the wrong addresses.

The DWP has said it launched an investigation as soon as it found out about the problem. Not really going to help all those whos details have been sent to the wrong house. The problem is made worse by the fact it is pensioners details, a group who are more vunerable than most.

The problem occurred because two letters were put into the same envelope, throwing the whole process out. The simple solution to ensure this problem doesn’t happen again? Use windowed envelopes!

3 arrests in C4H?

Depending on whether you believe what is printed in the News of the World (the fact its been given such a prominent position says there must be something backing it up) 3 people are to be charged in the Cash for Honours investigation and Tony Blair will be questioned for a third time, under caution.

Things could yet get very interesting. I would be surprised if Lord Levy, Ruth Turner and Sir Christopher Evans don’t bring Blair down with them, if he is indeed involved.

New boundaries will cost Labour

Research from the University of Plymouth (my very own lecturers I should add) has shown that Labour stand to lose 7 seven seats and the Conservatives gain 12, just because of boundary changes.

This of course assumes people vote the same way as they did at the last election. Even so, had these boundaries been in place at the last election, Labour would have a majority of just 28.

The bounderies are yet to be confirmed for England, which adds support for an early General Election, as it would be held under the current boundaries, benefiting Labour.

Jump Up and Down!

The Government has provided us with the answer to tackling anti social behaviour. Jump up and down. I’m serious, that was confirmed as one thing you could do to distract criminals, whilst waiting for the police to arrive.

Anybody think that will actually help? Nope, didn’t think so. To be fair to Home Office Minister, Tony McNulty, he suggested distracting people and it was Jeremy Vine (the interviewer) who suggested by jumping up and down. But even so, it appears quite clear from the interview that Mr McNulty has no idea what you should do if you see a crime happening in the street.

Here’s the text from BBC One’s Panorama,

Jeremy Vine: You see something happening in the street. Do you step in?

Tony McNulty: I think the general line must be to get in touch with the authorities straight and make sure that if things are as bad as you paint the police will be there as quickly as they can.

Jeremy: You see a young man looking aggressive, shouting at an old woman, what do you do? You retreat and ring the police?

Tony McNulty: I think you should in the first instance. It may well be the simply shouting at them, blowing your horn or whatever else deters them and they go away.

Jeremy: He's now hitting her and the police haven't come, what do you do then?

Tony McNulty: The same the same, you must always ...

Jeremy: Still wait?

Tony McNulty: Get back to the police, try some distractive activities whatever else.

Jeremy: What jump up and down?

Tony McNulty: But I would say you know sometimes that that may well work.

Clearly a sign the Government has run out of ideas. Bring in the next lot.

The programme is being shown Monday 5th Feb at 8:30 on BBC 1.

Blair interviewed again!

Tony Blair’s second interview in the Cash for Peerages investigation, suggests Blair is not in the clear yet. He was only interviewed as a witness, but this shows the investigation is not moving away from Blair’s door.

Will it lead to Blair being charged? I expect not. I still think the best we can hope for, is Blair being called as a witness against one of his own aides. Unless of course, they bring him down with them.