BBC:
Defence Minister Lord Drayson has taken a “leave of absence” from the government in a bid to take part in the world-famous 24-hour Le Mans race.
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The millionaire businessman, who in 2004 was Labour’s biggest individual donor, made his fortune in the technology sector.
Wikipedia:
In 1993 he co-founded PowderJect Pharmaceuticals plc in Oxford which specialised in the production of vaccines, and was Chief Executive until 2003 when PowderJect was acquired by Chiron Corp.
Drayson has been involved in public controversy on two occasions:
mmm. once is chance, twice is coincidence, will there be a third time?
Labels: Government
The home secretary on the BBC:
Ministers have also indicated they favour doubling the length of time terror suspects can be held without charge from 28 to 56 days.
But questioned asked whether this would happen, Ms Smith said: “The answer is I don’t know.
“What I believe, listening to those who’ve been involved in the complexity of these plots, is there is a strong chance, they say, in the future we’ll need more than 28 days. There should be a maximum period. I don’t… you know… we have not decided.”
I heard the interview on Radio 4 and she was awful. the complex plot she used as an example was the airport on last summer, as John Humphreys pointed out immediately, didn’t require more than 28 days to investigate. Nice own goal.
The interview I think is here (my browser at work won’t let me listen to it so it could be a link to the Sex Pistols for all I know. I’ll try to remember to check later).
Labels: Law/Legal
The Independent:
On the one side is Tesco, Britain’s pre-eminent supermarket chain where a 270,000 strong workforce gleans an annual profit of some £2bn from its 2,000 stores each year. On the other is Manningtree, England’s smallest town, home to 700 souls and one of East Anglia’s best preserved Georgian shopping streets.
But, if campaigners are to be believed, the arrival of a new Tesco store, the 12th within a 10-mile radius of the town, is about to deliver a hammer blow to the character of this former wool and brewing centre where Matthew Hopkins, the 17th-century Witchfinder General, began his career.
But this post isn’t specifically about Manningtree, or Tesco, it’s just to highlight a couple of things.
For the veteran food campaigner Lady Caroline Cranbrook, who fought a successful battle against plans to open a Tesco in nearby Saxmundham, Suffolk, the scrapping of the needs test threatens to undermine local powers.
“My huge concern is that they want to get rid of the requirement to establish a need before a supermarket goes up,” she said. “With small district councils there is very little they have to protect themselves other than this test.”
Anything that makes life harder for these companies is not a good thing. I’m all for the proper planning process, but these companies are masters at abusing it why shouldn’t the planning process be weighted in favour of the ordinary citizen, to help protect small business? Especially when this new store will be “the 12th within a 10-mile radius of the town”.
Ever heard of ‘saturation point’?
The other point is:
A Tesco spokesman, Michael Kissman, insisted only a minority opposed the store. “The vast majority of people support it and the majority of traders do too,” he said. “The reality of Manningtree is that people are driving to do their shopping somewhere else.”
I do not know how many oppose this new store, but, the people in favour, if asked whether there should be a new Tesco store are of the ‘don’t mind’ or ‘why not’ or yeah, I suppose’ variety rather than the ‘Yes. We need a Tesco here. The sooner the better’ type. After all, how many people not connected with one of these supermarkets do you see campaigning to have one in there home town…?
Which brings me onto the most absurd statement outside of Westminster for, ooh, ages. That bit there “…and the majority of traders do too”.
Sorry Michael, could you repeat that. I could’ve sworn you just said the majority of traders actually want a Tesco in their town.
I find that really fucking hard to believe. So these shopkeepers want a fucking huge company that already has 11 other shops in the very local area to open another one that will sell all sorts of goods in direct competition with everyone.
I might’ve believed it if this was ten years ago and Tesco were still only selling food and bog roll and the electrical shop and the clothes shop were going to be unaffected, but now with Tesco and the other supermarkets selling white goods, insurance & financial services, toys, clothes, mobile phones, computers, books, videos, video rentals, pharmacy, opticians, photo processing just name a, er, few.
All it needs is for them to start selling property and electricity and they have the whole shebang!!
Comments
Labels: Capitalism
The BBC:
Travellers between the Irish Republic and Britain will need a passport when schemes launched by the two governments come into force.
Irish officials have been asked to work on ending an agreement permitting free movement between the two jurisdictions.
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The move by the governments will mean the end of the Common Travel Area between Ireland and Britain which has existed since the foundation of the Republic.
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The system is being put in place to track terrorist suspects, criminals and illegal immigrants.
Why now do we need to end this lovely freedom? Why not thirty years ago, during ‘The Troubles’, when the the people fighting the British were Irish?
Oh sorry, I forgot the world has changed since then, hasn’t it?
Labels: War On Terror
I was reading a post on Iain Dales site (I know, but I was getting some background on one of Tim’s posts)where in the comments a ‘discussion’ arose about Iain moderation policy and Iain says:
…Tim Ireland is banned on this blog. And I am certainly not going to allow comments through which provide links to his blog which slag me off.
I thought it was a little amusing because whoever Iain is getting his adverts from thought it appropriate to hawk Tim’s book:
Labels: Blogging
From Counterpunch:
Over the past several weeks, the United States has gone out of its way to offend, irk and otherwise provoke a select group of leaders and nations. Through a series of deliberate and calculated actions intended to purposefully estrange those most likely to succeed at diplomacy with Iran, its failure has been ordained and the stage for military action set. For those who think the upcoming war will be another Bush-Cheney folly (as they believe Iraq to be), the collusion of the Democrats in the process again belies that assumption.
Rest of article here.
Labels: USA
Talking about not being fired for being crap/misconduct, why is it, if you’re a director/chief exec/MP or similar, why are you asked to resign if you’re rubbish and run the company/country into the ground and get a golden handshake, while the worker if he’s not up to the job gets the boot?
Labels: Odds and Sods
