Sim-O

Sometimes, Lenin paints a lovely picture:

Of course, I don’t care about their shareholders or their gold-plated investors, but the simple fact is that we have a struggle to make sure they don’t make us pay for their crisis. After all, the capitalist class has a procedure for situations like this: cut your losses, shred papers, fire staff, take the profits, retreat behind some gated communities with armed guards, let everyone else fight over the scraps, and wait patiently for a decent investment opportunity. Didn’t these motherfuckers just come for your social security recently? Wasn’t it only months ago that the UK government was talking about cutting disability benefits and the entitlements of single mothers? Aren’t they pushing for a roll-back of your state pension entitlements? And how many people no longer have a pension to speak of because it has disappeared into a financial black hole? If these people have the monopoly of political initiative, they’ll be able to use this crisis to roll back your rights even further. They’ll say that trade unions are distorting the market by artificially raising wages and discouraging hiring, and they’ll want new laws restricting membership. They’ll say that social security distorts the market by disincentivising labour and encouraging widespread abstention from work. They’ll say that pension entitlements are unsustainable with an ageing population, that the retirement age needs lifting since people are living so long, and that the taxes paid by corporations and the rich to help fund such bleeding-heart programmes are discouraging investment. If people resist, they’ll say that violence is being promoted by political extremists and that for the time being certain rights need to be suspended until such time as people prove themselves mature enough to have them restored. Oh, but, don’t worry: they’re your friends, and they’re there to help you. Just be patient and the wealth will trickle down.

As it’s talk like a pirate day, I ain’t gonna put on a silly voice, cos’ I’m gonna talk like a pirate from Oxford.

BUT! Curtesy of fidius.org, via mou, I do have a pirate name and a bloody good one too:

My daughter is five and goes to a Catholic school. the picture below is from a newslettter/leaflet they sent home, which amongst other things explained what they will be taught this term.

[[image:creationclass.jpg::center:0]]

Just as it should be.

Times Online:

The size of a banker’s pile of money is like the size of anything else in a macho environment: you need the biggest one to show that you are good at what you do. The pile does not necessarily reflect personal greed, it reflects the need to be the best banker. It reflects how long and hard you have worked.

Bollox does it.

Via

I was going to do a post on this story, about the Tories get discount vouchers for a lap dancing club in the back of their conference brochure, along the lines of ‘isn’t it funny, what with the Conservatives calling for stronger local powers to block new clubs and family values etc.’

But then I saw this piece on LC by Laurie Penny:

Eighty three per-cent of sex workers, according to recent studies by Object and Fawcett, want to leave the profession; but thousands of women every year make that career choice, and they make it because the country in which we live is currently fostering a gruelling long-hours culture in which women make up the bulk of lower-paid, exploited workers. Women are still paid 17% less than men in full time work and 33% less in part-time work, and when they get home they are still expected to perform the bulk of domestic chores, especially if they are single parents, as many sex workers are.

But the Tory delegates who have been so warmly invited to enjoy the bodies of the low-paid women of Birmingham at a discount price do not think this is a priority. In fact, a key part of current Tory policy proposes an end to equal pay audits, insisting that ‘only those firms which lose sex discrimination cases will be subject’ to them. Until the Tories get serious about offering low-paid workers decent living wages, then any paltry statement blaming the City of Birmingham for putting entirely appropriate adverts in the back of their brochures will be crass hypocrisy.

‘Nuff said really.

Daily Mail;

Nick Clegg will risk infuriating 250,000 households tonight when he attempts to win their votes by ‘cold calling’ them during Coronation Street and EastEnders.

Families up and down the country will be disturbed by an automated telephone featuring a recorded message from the Liberal Democrat leader just as they are trying to relax.

What the fuck are the LibDems playing at?

People hate automated telephone systems.
We only sit through the “press 1 for accounts. Press 2 for more options. Press 3 to wait an unspecified length of time.” because we have no choice when we call the bank/insurance company/zoo. We ring up and then have to sit through lots of lists of options, I think the most I’ve had to wade through is 4 menus, while all the time there is no option that sounds like the one you want when it would be quicker and easier to tell someone your basic problem and they put you through. People don’t like machines on phones.

People hate cold calls. It’s annoying enough to get fuckers ringing up out of the blue trying to sell you windows or kitchens. People leave the phone on the side and bugger off leaving the caller talking to themselves and other silly games. Normally nice people that wouldn’t say boo to, well anything, blow whistles down the phone, potentially damaging the hearing of the caller, who may not have much choice about their career path and are only doing the job because it’s a warm office instead of cleaning toilets.
Taking that into consideration, why would anyone listen to a recorded message that phones up out of the blue?

And how are the phone numbers selected? Did someone trawl a phone book? Does the machine just dial random numbers? has a list been bought from somewhere?

So if people don’t like to talk to machines on the telephone, and people really don’t like cold callers, who was the brainbox that thought it would be a good idea to put the two together?

*sorry for the obvious title for post*