Sim-O

Georgina Baillie:

If the media is making money off you, you’re entitled to make money off them. That’s a rule Max Clifford taught me.

That’s a Max Clifford rule, because what ever the outcome, he wins.

Everytime.

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I’m not too good with numbers, especially when it comes to tax. My sister, an accountant, reckons tax is shit too, because apart from having to pay it, there is no logic to it. The man at No. 11 makes it up as he goes along.

Apparently VAT is going to be dropped to 15% for the next year. That’s a cut of 2.5% but apparently it drops prices by 2.13%. Eh? How does that work?

Income tax has also gone up to 45% for people earning over £150,000. I don’t earn that much but I reckon that’s gotta hurt.

As usual, depending on where you read/listen, you’re either better off if you have an income of under £19k, worse off if you earn over £40k, both, neither or some other combination

What we have is an economic system that is supposed to be great. We keep hearing how many people capitalism has raised out of poverty and that it is the best system for economic growth.
If it’s so good, then why do we have more people in poverty than out? If its so good why does it keep crashing and wiping out peoples savings and chucking people out of jobs?
The captains of industriy cry for more privatisation, less regulation, to stop distorting the markets, to free the markets for wealth creation. But when it all goes belly up, it’s all because there was not enough regulation.

I heard a couple of times the word ‘radical’ being used in connection with what the Chancellor is doing. But it’s not is it? It’s just tinkering, rearranging the furniture.
Once we come out of this recession and downturn^(TM) we will have another period of unprecedented growth. This period of growth will be followed by another crash.
Boom. Bust. Boom. Bust.
Ad.
Nauseum.

All the while the people able to insulate themselves from the downturns get more affluent, and the worst off get shafted, again and again. No. that’s not quite right. The worst off already have nothing, so it’s the not quite worst off that end up joining the worst off.

It’s not going to change either. Labour, Conservative or Libdems. We’re being taken to the same destination, it’s just the route that different.

Via email:

[[image:sfwgoggles.gif:Safe For Work Goggles:center:0]]

Chris Applegate on the Downfall/BNP mashup vid he created:

The video did get complaints. I got the odd bit of hate mail from BNP members, but all they could do was menacingly tell me: “You know where I live”.

Heh.
The rest of the post isn’t so funny, but it is quite inneresting. Go read.

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The Police Regulations 2003:

1. A member of a police force shall at all times abstain from any activity which is likely to interfere with the impartial discharge of his duties or which is likely to give rise to the impression amongst members of the public that it may so interfere; and in particular a member of a police force shall not take any active part in politics.

There has been a lot of talk about the copper who is a member of the BNP and why it shouldn’t matter, that what is the difference between a policeman and a teacher being a member of the BNP.

The above excerpt gives the rules for the police with regard to politics, quite plainly.
The police service are not just going after the people on the BNP list (I am not calling it a members list as it is unclear as to whether it is actually members, contacts or what) because they may members of the BNP, but because they may be members of a political party. The fact that the party in question happens to be a repugnant fascist party is besides the point. I do think, however, if it were the one of the three main parties involved instead of the BNP then maybe the list scouring may not be so thorough.

But why should a teacher and not a policeman be allowed to be politically active? I don’t know, to be honest.

ISP Review:

BT has removed a significant number of major Phorm (BT WebWise) related topics from its customer focused beta discussion forum (bt beta forum), including some from as far back as February this year and one that was nearly 200 pages long.

The reason for removing the posts?

Our broadband support forums are designed to be a place where customers can discuss technical support issues and offer solutions. To ensure that the forums remain constructive we’re tightening up our moderation policies and will be deleting threads that don’t provide constructive support. For example, we have removed a number of forum discussions about BT Webwise.

If you do want to find out more about BT Webwise, we provide lots of information and the facility to contact us at www.bt.com/webwise.

So, the forum is only for technical support then. If you want information about Webwise, BT will happily provide all the propaganda information you could ever need.

The Reg:

A first thread on WebWise extended to almost 200 pages, before being closed in late September when BT’s third trial of the system began. It was still available to read however and a new thread was started by BT Beta moderators, which continued until yesterday. All record of either has now been removed.

Adam Liversage, BT’s chief press officer, told The Register: “The reason why we’ve done this is that the point of the forums is technical support and the WebWise threads weren’t appropriate.”

He said the fact that BT had chosen not only to close the threads but delete them entirely was insignificant. “It doesn’t matter either way because the people who are following this will have the threads backed up in multiple copies,” he said.

Not appropriate because people were say bad stuff and the poor little company was feeling a bit picked on, was it?
Can I have a show of hands of people that regularly keep multiple copies of forum threads. Ordinary people that is, not tech ninjas, because it’s ordinary people that would find this information most helpful.
And if keeping to technical support of BT product and services was so important then why do other areas extend beyond that criteria?

Forum: Online Security.
For help with BT’s online security products and everything else related to online security.”

Transparency? Reassuring? Open? Bollox is it. No wonder so many people are worried about it.

Update:
The title of the post is rubbish. It isn’t that the censoring starts. It has probably just got less subtle.
One of the distinguishing features of this blog is my inability to come up with appropriate or imaginative titles for the posts’, dontchyaknow.

I saw the headline “Police want to ban motorcycles” on the front page of the MCN this morning.
I can’t remember the exact wording of the subheader, but it made me think that a copper had called for the banning of minimoto bikes. I was going to write a little post about minimotos already being illegal unless on private property with permission and the MCN exaggerating its’ arse off like it’s the Sun but then I did a little googling this is what I found…

The Telegraph:

Ban motorcycles, safety expert says

Motorbikes should be banned as part of a plan to eliminate road deaths, a safety expert has claimed.

The goal of stopping deaths on the roads has been set by a number of countries including Norway, Australia and Sweden, where the programme has been called “Vision Zero”.

But Norwegian safety expert Rune Elvik said for it to happen, policy makers should consider the radical step of banning motorbikes.

He’s not much of an expert, if he thinks that banning motorcycles will stop road deaths. He forgot about pedal cycles, horses, pedestrains, cars it’s even been known for aeroplanes to land on roads in emergencies. Should those be banned as well? That would have the added bonus of radically reducing fatalities in aircraft crashes too.

And also this from the MCN:

Is three-time convicted speeder behind ban motorcycles proposal?

A proposal from the Association of Chief Police Officers to ban motorcycles was written under the direction of a three-time convicted speeder, MCN can reveal.

Meredydd Hughes, who was last year banned from driving for his latest offence, has “overall” responsibility for the department that produced the memo, the association confirmed.

A spokesman said the South Yorkshire chief constable was “head of business area for uniformed operations including road policing”.

Hughes publicly stepped down as ‘head of road policing, business area’ after receiving a 42-day ban for reaching 90mph in a 60mph zone. The revelation he is still performing the same role suggests this was nothing more than a smoke-and-mirrors face-saving exercise.

Also:

ACPO had made an official policy recommendation to MPs in the influential Commons Transport Committee stating: ‘Production machines are readily available for use on our roads with top speeds in excess of 200mph. Motorcycles are seen in the UK to be, in the majority of instances, vehicles of choice rather than necessity and one might consider if our congested roads are any longer fit for purpose for these motorised toys.’

ACPO has since tried to play down its proposal. The association issued a statement claiming it was not seeking to ban motorcycles but adding: ‘Alongside a range of other road safety bodies in the UK and Europe, ACPO believes it may be appropriate in future to consider restriction on high-powered machines with extraordinarily high top speed capabilities.’

It claimed the proposal had ‘referred to consideration of restrictions on the use of off-road motorcycles’ – even though the memo had specifically asked whether high-powered bikes belonged on roads.

So, a form of transport that uses more efficient engines than cars or buses, takes up less space on the roads that any other vehicle and does less damage to the road itself is seen as a toy, just because some of them can reach over 200mph.
Actually for some years now there as been a gentlemans agreement between the manufacturers to limit the bikes to 185mph, as this is exactly the sort of thing they want to avoid.
But then for ACPO, to go back on what its’ said and statet hat it applies to off road bikes, is just astounding.
If they are off road, then as long as the user has permission from the land owner, it is nobodies business.

I’ll leave the last word to someone in the Readers News section of the MCN:

Just recently hundreds of hedonistic persons went joy walking across the lake district. They were people acting selfishly, without a thought for other persons that would have to pay for rescue services to help them out when their irresponsible activities caused them to get into great difficulties.

Is it not time ACPO suggested that persons wishing to access the fells held a full mountaineers licence and only used approved low level routes. Furthermore that any person rambling in an inconsiderate manner should be subject to stop checks to ensure hat they were in full possesion of all safety gear.

Also we need to look at women on horseback. Horses are the single greatest cause of death in young females. That horses can be used unlicensed on a highway is ridiculous. Furthermore are horses tested for their fitness to be on a road, a spooked horse careering down the road is dangerous to all not just the rider.

Then we have sports car drivers, these irresponsible persons drive machines weighing hundreds of kilograms which can travel at speeds, in some cases, at over 200 mph. ACPO surely should be looking to have such cars fitted with speed limiters that are connected to sat-nav to ensure that they always comply with the speed limit. However, it is a fact that a minority interest with a high percentage of working class and young males is a much easier target.

Oh and these people can just fuck right off, too.

The Guardian:

Hillary Clinton plans to accept the job of secretary of state offered by Barack Obama, who is reaching out to former rivals to build a broad coalition administration, the Guardian has learned.

Obama’s advisers have begun looking into Bill Clinton’s foundation, which distributes millions of dollars to Africa to help with development, to ensure that there is no conflict of interest. But Democrats do not believe that the vetting is likely to be a problem.

Pour 10 tons of concrete down a hole for three days. Wait a month and then start digging…

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