Bugs in wheelie bins? What about the ones on supermarket food?

Recently, a number of bloggers have been commenting on a report in the Mail on Sunday about spy-bugs in wheelie bins. However these bugs in wheelie bins are rather large and cumbersome compared to the bugs that are on the many products we buy daily from the High Street. If you're wondering what I'm talking about, they're called RFID tags.

If you've not heard of RFID tags don't worry, I can pretty much guarantee you've seen one. They usally look something like the picture on the right. That one came off a tub of Philadelphia.

What are they? Think of something like Oyster cards for the Tube. They're radio frequency transponders that hold unique identifying data and they can be easily tracked. They can even be sewn into clothing these days. Technically they aid stores in stock management.

However, the real concern is that there is little to no regulation of RFID tags at all. What that means is that you could buy a pair of RFID shoes, with RFID tagged money (did I mention RFID tags can be embedded into cash too?), you leave the shop and get into your car which has tyres on it with RFID tags in them. We could become mini-homing beacons for all manner of tracking.

Of course, I'm not saying that it's happening - not unless you're a terrorist anyway - but as it stands, RFID tags make bugs in wheelie bins the least of our surveillance society worries.

Victor Hugo Islamified?

According to the Turkish Daily there has been a little bit of uproar that a publishing house reponsible for prodocuing books for state schools inserts Islamist ideology into books which include Victor Hugo's, Les Miserables. Characters in Pinnochio and Heidi were made to appear Islamic, and Aramis in Alexander Dumas' Three Musketeers converts to Islam.

Lee Rotherham interview on Anyone But ken

The other blog I write for Anyone But Ken has managed to score another interview, this time with Lee Rotherham, the fourth of the potential Tory candidates for Mayor. you can read the full interview here

Shoot the Messenger

Last night finally saw the screening of Shoot the Messenger on BBC2. The screenplay, is by Sharon Foster, and won the Dennis Potter Screenwriting Award, which after last night I persoanlly think was a well-deserved award. The drama was heavily trailed in the press with a lot of column inches about whether it was the right or wrong way to tackle the issues of the British black community. Some said it was racist, other said it wasn't.

The tale follow Joe, (David Oyelowo), who is a teacher that wants to help black kids help themselves out of the world of gangs, crime and constant underachievement. However, it all turn wrong when a boy accuses him of assault, he loses his job, goes insane, and decides he hates black people.

Sharon Foster herself says it "is a reflection of debates which are ongoing within the black community, and questions some of the stuff that black communities tell themselves and their children. It's like a fable. Some of it may be uncomfortable for people to hear, but ultimately it's about learning to accept and love people as they are."

For me it was more than just that though. One of the fundamnetal things that leapt out at me was that it often appeared to pitting the leftist, Hegelian master/slave dialetic view of the world - the "all black people are victims" argument, against the rightist individualist view, that we all of us make our own history and personal responsibilty takes precedence over a re-directed blame mentality. That, for me at least, was the colour blind message within the drama.

Is Des Browne sitting on his elbow?

James Cleverly has highlighted a truly spectacular display of incompetence by the Secretary of State for Defence, Des Browne. It seems Browne has penned an article for the Guardian in which he says that 2 Para, rather than 3 Para, are deployed in Afghanistan.

His article tries to make a general point that everything in the British Army is just peachy and troops are actually very well funded - funny, but I'm sure the other Brown has been slowly cutting their budgets. As James quite rightly says "if you don't even know who you are sending around the world you should really ask yourself if you are in the right job."

How a police officer made me laugh

On monday, Ellee Seymour drew attention to a blog called Pc Bloggs. Now I know I am merely repeating her plug but PC Blogg is quite possibly the funniest site I've read for a long time. Today top story is the first part in a Solicitors' Guide and has the following hilarious matrix for how to decide what to advise a client.


Click image for viewable version

Email snooping

I've just spotted a story in the local Cumbrian press about Allerdale Borough Council which caught my eye. The headline is Email snooping inquiry continues and refers to a senior councillor who apparently boasted that he could produce files of emails written by fellow councillors to use against them.

Obviously, as a techie this sort of thing interests me. These days everyone is paranoid about emails and snooping. The thing is it all really depends on the method for sending and receiving email that defines the scope of that snooping. For example, in the case of most Council offices they will likely use Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes server. If you send and receive all your mail through that then the administrator can - technically - read all your emails.

The question in those cases comes down to ethical practice though. A sysadmin in charge of a system that has hundreds of users, frankly, has better thiongs to do with his time than read your email. The Bastard Operator from Hell is a parody of the power we have, not a reality of the way we pratice and execute that power.

Something that everyone should remember when it comes to email is that if you don't encrypt it, it's visible to the world (technically) the minute it goes out on the Internet on it's way to the recipient. It could, theoretically, be intercepted. Without encryption an email is not really much different to a postcard. The moral of the tail? The truly paranoid encrypt their mail.

Blocking information on the Net is not easy

Croydonian has posted about a story in yesterday's Guardian which says the New York Times has blocked British readers from accessing this article. Hitting the link states:

"This Article Is Unavailable: On advice of legal counsel, this article is unavailable to readers of nytimes.com in Britain. This arises from the requirement in British law that prohibits publication of prejudicial information about the defendants prior to trial"

Having read the article by hitting the link I can't honestly say, like Croydonian, whether it is prejudicial or not. However, the way they've "blocked" it is stupidly easy to circumvent. As a result it can be read by doing a quick blogger search anyway.

Thatcher named best PM of 20th Century

According to an article in BBC History Magazine today, Margaret Thatcher is officially the best Prime Minister of the 20th Century based on an assessment of their impact. The agrument put forward is that she "took one sort of society, and turned it into another sort of society.... Today few people under 40 remember a time when trade unions were a real force in the land; when the public sector controlled large swathes of the economy; when local councils controlled education and other local services; when benefits were considered rights of citizenship."

Unsuprisingly, I entirely concur with that assessment. It is quite interesting really how Thatcher became such a hate figure for so many, and yet the condition that many of those people now find themselves exist primarily because she was brave enough to break the Atlee consensus which was causing the gradual decline of Britain.

Churchill was pipped in the poll into joint third, mainly because whilst he had a incredibly important and significant period in office during the war, he did go on to lose in 1945 and was not the same man when he retruned to office in 1951. No doubt the Labour rank and file will be outraged that Thatcher has been according the honour.

Ask a silly question.....?

There is nothing like a silly question on a form to get me both apopletic with rage and chuckling with hilarity at the same time. For example, the Visa Waiver programme in the US requires everyone to fill out a landing card.

The card has some yes/no tick box questions on it such as, and I admit I paraphrase from memory, "Are you a Nazi war criminal?" and "Do you plan to commit terrorist acts against teh President or the United States of America?". I've always wondered if anyone has actually ticked "yes".

This said I discovered an equally silly question yesterday on a Public and Commercial Services Union application form (no i am not applying for a job with them). There was a box where the applicant had to detail their "Commitment to the application of Equal Opportunities policies and practices at work".

Seriously, what's the point asking that question when the person is applying for the job? They're hardly likely to say "I'm a member of the White Power movement and refuse to sit next to foreigners, in fact if I have too I'll spit on them" are they?

The Top 100 Conservative Bloggers

Iain Dale has posted saying that he is going to be drawing up a list of the top 100 Conservative bloggers to hand out at Conference. Sadly I won't be going as I shall be on a techie training course. Politics is cancelled for me that week. Fingers crossed I might get on the list though and have a presence in spirit instead.

Ruth Kelly says very little

If you were to read the headline on ePolitix.com you'd get the impression that Ruth Kelly had made a significant and large announcement. But when you actually look at what she said she said very little.

The official line is that she said Islamic schools that promote isolationism and extremism should be closed, but that it would be wrong to have a blanket ban on all Islamic schools. So, reading between the lines, if an Islamic school is officially designated as a school and is foundd to be promoting extremism it will be closed. What a out the ones that are not?

Basically, Kelly said nothing particularly new in her statement. If an ordinary school was found to be promoting Nazism it would be closed as well. The problem though is not the schools for the most part, it is the lessons that are external of the educational system where the problem occurs.

Ruth Kelly may get headlines for appearing to be "tough", but really she's hasn't said anything that wasn't alreayd the case, and the "policy" will do very little to tackle a problem that occurs beneath the radar of the Department of Education.

Stephen Byers pipes up again

How odd, we hear absolutely nothing from Stephen Byers for months and then suddenly he pops up two weeks on the trot to basically challenges the assumption that Brown is the automatic successor to Blair.

In today's Times, Byers has written a Comment piece which is a direct attack on the Old Left of the Labour Party and argues against "sectional interests" turning back the clock. The best part though is the end of the piece which closes by saying that the "time for coded criticism is over". Riiiight. And that wasn't a coded criticism at Brown for his coded criticism was it?

As the Conferences draw nearer it looks like the only one that is going to be seriously united will be the Conservative Party's. Labour appears to be heading for a divisive leadership battle that will simply expose their ever-growing splits, whilst the Lib Dems, well, who are they again?

Terrorist attack at Turkish holiday resort

Well I was going to post about the terrorist attacks in Turkey last night. My intention was to be flippant and ask the question, how long before this is blamed on Iraq and thereby America in some way? Sadly before I managed to log in some left winger on the Today programme managed to do it. I'm not sure who it was, although it may have been a Labour MP.

Basically, they said that they didn't think it was in the character of the Kurdish separatists the PKK, so could not be, and I quote, "justified", on those grounds. They then said it's more likely due to Turkey's support for America and their tacit support for the war in Iraq.

What is it with the way those on the fashionable Left appear to think? For start, nothing can justify terrorist attacks which deliberately target tourist resorts. Nothing. There is a world of difference between motive and justification. Second, why does it have to come back to America and Iraq all the time? Turkey is hardly a major player. If it's all about Iraq and supporting America why not go after the countries that actually provided troops like Poland and the Czech Republic?

Kidulthood

Last night I finally watched Kidulthood. It was written by, and starred, Noel Clarke (Mickey from Dr Who) and is the tale of the darker sides of life in inner-city London. Drugs, sex, parties and guns. Whatever one's views on those things, they are very very real, sadly, to so many young people today.

The film has an extremely realistic feel helped along by a superb soundtrack featuring some of the best UK hip hop and dance. Admittedly it is a little stylised, but then you realise that is the case from the outset. What they've managed to do though is have a stylised look whilst maintaining a raw edge. Admittedly, I'm no movie critic, but this film will be a British cult classic like Scum, if you get a chance, watch it.

First step for Tory Pension policy?

In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, the Shadow Chancellor Geroge Osbourne has proposed that stamp duty on shares should be scrapped as part of a package to help boost pensions and increase competitiveness.

Sounds great to me. The state of pensions in this country these days is terrible. This has then been helped on by the inequity of Gordon Brown's tax credit system which discourages saving as a fundamental principle.

The result is that those with pensions have concerns about their valus, whilst many simple don't bother as saving money means they lose tax credits. If the system remains like that for much longer we won't have a pensions crisis, we'll have a pensions catastrophe.

An interesting feature article on multiculturalism

Have just the read this feature article in the Sunday Telegraph. It's about a former headteacher who had to "retire" in the 1980s because he dared to criticise the conventional orthodxy of multiculturalism in schools. Specifcally he questioned whether allowing pakistani children months off to go "home" to Pakistan was good for their education and society as a whole. After his article was published in The Salisbury Review in 1984 he received death threats and was brandished a racist.

The feature's point is of course obvious from the outset. This man was hounded out of his job as a racist and this week that same group of people have just satrted to question the validty of that orthodoxy that led them to accuse people of being evil bigots. IN light of Ruth Kelly's echoing of John Reid's U-turn it would be nice to think that the subject of the feature article, Mr Honeyford, and others like him would be admonished by those that once villified them but I doubt it will happen sadly.

MPAC's views are "crap"

That nice jihadi Islamist organisation MPAC appears to be rather upset again, this time with Phil Woolas after he allegedly told MPAC that their views were "crap". As you can imagine, MPAC were outraged by this and have sprung into action sending emails and demanding an apology.

Interestingly, MPAC doesn't detail exactly what they said in order to achieve the response they did. But having heard the excitable little chap on radio, I imagine it was probably some tirade full of logicial fallacies all delivered with a smug smile and air of zealous righteousness.

According to Recess Monkey there was a comment in the thread that said "What can we expect of Woolas when his creed teaches him that we Muslim Gentiles are ‘Amalek’, who deserve to wiped off the face of the earth, inc our women and children?" However it doesn't appear to be there anymore.

Bloggers Golf Tournament?

I have no idea if this will actually attract much interest, but I know that Iain Dale (like me), enjoys playing golf, so I'm presuming there are other players out there. The idea is simple, a Bloggers Golf Tournament. A one day deal (probably a weekend), probably doing 27 holes, 9 in the morning as a Texas Scramble and then 18 Stableford if we have enough numbers. Obviously it would be in the South East I'm afraid.

What has the News of the World got on Matthew Taylor?

The question Tim Roll-Pickering is asking this afternoon is "What has the News of the World got on Matthew Taylor?" He's asking this because of something he found in his server logs, clearly it's a slow blog day. In answer to your question Tim, I can think of at least one thing, but my lips are forever sealed.

All your blog are belong to us

It may have happened because of a glitch but I'm going to milk it for what's worth. Mr Dale, consider yourself beat! :-)

Football branded laptops

I've just been directed to Nice PC who are selling football branded Fujitsu laptops. Now they only do four clubs at the moment, Everton, Celtic, Tottenham and Aston Villa, but there have been reports that the Villa one is persistently under-performing and crashes at crucial moments.

Unfortunate surnames

I heard something worrying in relation to the latest British businessman threatened with US Extradition on fraud charges. Besides his surname being Crook, his US lawyer is apparently called Mr Law, and his girlfriend is called Miss Bills. Clearly he's doomed.

Nick Clegg joins the Acquiescing Popular Front

There is something about Nick Clegg that I just cannot work out. Sometimes he says things which seem sensible (usually Orange Book type things), and then in the next breath he will say things that are just silly and remind me why I don't support the Liberal Democrats. Today it seems is no exception.

In response to Ruth Kelly's speech about "multiculturalism" yesterday (which I mentioned here), the Cleggmeister has said that "any attempt to reach out to disaffected members of our Muslim communities must also incorporate an honest debate about this governments foreign policy".

I have to ask myself the question why? What purpose with having a debate serve exactly? We already know that the "disaffected members of our muslim communities" don't like British foreign policy and want us to change it. We don't need to talk about it anymore. The only reason we might do so is on thebasis that we might start changing our actions in response to concerns.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I was under the impression that this country acted abroad on the basis of her democratic foundations in relation to Parliament and its make up. I don't recall the Constitution saying that her foriegn policy should be shaped to fit the interests of a minority religious group which makes up less than 5% of the population.

Bob Piper on the Subjugation of Women

The other day Bob Piper decided to have a pop at James Cleverly for making the rather benign comment on ConservativeHome that:

"I am not convinced women, especially mothers, are as willing as men to put their families into second place to fight an election."

There is nothing particularly controversial in James' comment, but Bob has decided that it's evidence of revolting nasty Tories who all hate women. You can probably bet that had James made a comment about black people in politics he would've been accused of being racist too.

What I do wonder though is why I cannot find anything on Bob's blog about his concern for the subjugated women around the world. Funny that, Tories are nasty and revolting, whilst Iran doesn't get a mention. Go figure.

Multiculturalism, immigration and EU accession

It appears that Ruth Kelly is set today to finally admit what many on the Right have known for some time. Multiculturalism, for all its supposed benefits, actually creates and extenuates difference between groups. Following on from John Reid's U-turn that accepted the Tory 2005 election campaign slogan that talking about immigration is not racist; Kelly is set to say that it "is not racist to discuss immigration and asylum" and that there should be a debate about multiculturalism and "whether it is encouraging separateness".

Why the sudden about face you may wonder? Well it clearly has nothing to do with the headlines of the last few days that showed that the Government's estimates on the number of immigrants from accession countries were horrendously wrong. Back then the Government rubbished Migration Watch UK and effectively accused it of tacit racism, oh how things change?

Having said this of course, I don't particularly have a problem with Eastern Europeans coming to work in the UK. Frankly, there are far to many lazy arrogant British people who refuse to take the jobs that many of these economic migrants are taking. The real question we should be addressing is why so many young British-born people won't take the jobs?

Now I'm the first to admit this maybe a wild leap, but we now have an education system in this country that is apparently producing more and more young geniuses. A quick conversation with many of them tells you that's probably not really the case, however an unintended consequence of ever-higher exam grades may have actually been the increase in an attitude of "this work is beneath me" amongst many young people. I have zero evidence to back that argument up, but there must be reasons why British-born people don’t take up the non-skilled jobs many Eastern Europeans do?

There is of course one vital problem with the so-called "debate" on immigration in respect of EU accession countries though. Whether we introduce "rules" to restrict Bulgarians and Romanians immigration to the UK or not, it won’t do anything to stop them coming here as tourists and then working illegally. Once they're members of the EU club, the EU becomes their black employment market playground.

Funnily enough I pointed this out to my Polish and Lithuanian colleagues this morning and I asked them how it feels to be talked about in such broad terms in the newspapers. Their response was enlightening. They said the papers were right and that Bulgarians and Romanians should not be allowed to come and steal their jobs. They also said that Bulgarians and Romanians were lazy and mostly gypsies. This made me wonder; if immigrants talk about immigration is it racist?

Uncle Sam says "you may not come quietly"?

According to the papers today, even if you want to voluntarily face charges in the US you must be extradited in manacles. That is the fate of Jeremy Crook, the former European vice president of U.S. software firm Peregrine Systems, who has requested his passport from the Home Office so that he can travel to California voluntarily for the bail hearing in a serious fraud case.

Crook chose not to contest the extradition process and instead wished to go voluntarily int he hope that being cooperative with investigating authorities would help his case. This is hwoever apparently not the case. The US has said that he must be extradited and transported to the US accompanied by US Marshalls in a way that a jury could quite easily perceive as someone resisting arrest. As Mr Crook todl the Telegraph, "I really have to be seen to be co-operating with the US. But the only chance I have had to co-operate has been removed". Besides refusing to give Mr Crooks his passport with restrictions on travel to the US only, the Home Office appears unwilling to comment on the matter.

As such, Mr Crooks it seems is now set to face the same fate as the Natwest Three and be swallowed up by the US system. Perhaps one good thing that might come out of this is that the papers will start talking about the Natwest Three again, remember them? Since they were hauled off to the US on charges that they defrauded Natwest Bank (even though Natwest Bank say they didn't), they have become a bit like the disappeared of Ulster, out of sight, out of mind I guess. For anyone mildly interested, they're now not only facing criminal charges but civil ones as well whilst they are held in a Texan jail.

Over on ConservativeHome there is currently a camapign to find 100 policy ideas for the Conservative Party in the future. Perhaps renegotiation of our extradition agreements with the USA should be one of them?

New Culture Forum September Event

The New Culture Forum, which I mentioned the other week has announced the details for its September event. Speaking at the event will be the former BBC journalist, Robin Aitken, on the subject of his new book, provisonally called "Can we trust the BBC?".

Those interested in attending should go here for further details.

Celsius 7/7

In the past few years I've read so many bloody books and articles on the War of Terror©, Iraq, Afghanistan etc etc, that the information within them has all kind of merged into a mess.

However, I've just finished Michael Gove's Celsius 7/7 and it's been a book of succint and wonderful clarity on the problem facing the West today.

The central thesis of the book is simple. Islamism (not the same thing as Islam) is a dangerous political force with totalitarian aspirations and it has the West clearly in its sights.

The West, through policies of appeasement and weakness over the past 15 years have strengthened Islamism's belief that the West is weak and that is can subvert the freedoma nd liberty of the Enlightenment to its own end.

The argument is slick, consistent and provides an assessment of the threat that's often overlooked by the mainstream media. If there is one book you should read this year it's this one.

Learning from localism in Canada?

In today's bi-weekly bulletin from Direct Democracy there's an interesting piece by Hamish Marshall talking about "Localism in Canada". As some might know, the Conservative Party in Canada currently holds power in a minority Government after fighting back from a near wipe-out which left them with just two MPs. They did it by promoting a localist agenda along the lines of their provinces which held far more resonance with an ever cyncical electorate sick of centralised government. Marshall argues that lessons can be learnt from Canada and applied to Britain.

"Attacks should be made, not simply on Labour's mismanagement of the centralised system, but on the very idea of the centralised system. Point out rules and regulations that make no sense in certain local circumstances. Show that Westminster is only interested in Westminster and not Manchester or Leeds, much less Norwich, Stafford, Durham, Perth or the Wirral.

Develop local proposals, not around parliamentary constituencies, whose boundaries are arbitrary and little known, but around counties and cities. Selling a conservative localist message has two components: speaking to people about the communities they live in and identify with, and telling them why the central government can never get it right. Give it a try, my friends: it worked for us."

I can't say I disagree with the argument. The ever increasing centralisation of power to Westminister under successive governments - Tory and Labour - has led to definitive detachment of the electorate. This, in addition to the insidious spin and media manipulation of the past few years, has led to a significant air of cynicism which views politicians, and politics in general, with contempt.

Re-attaching the electorate to the political process is certainly not something that can happen overnight. However, if we apply genuine principles of subsidiarity in policies, and ultimately legislation, we should see an increase in local engagement and thereby begin to tackle the cynicial view that "if voting changed anything it would be made illegal". The Conservative experience with localism in Canada undoubtedly holds lessons for not just UK Tories, but anti-statists everywhere.

Meme of bloody 3

It appears that James Cleverly has tagged me in the "Meme of 3" doing the rounds. Like pretty much everyone else I would normally never complete these things, but I'm going to do it just this once. If the Daily Pundit is reading this he should scroll to the bottom :)

1... Things that scare me

• Islamism
• The thought of a fourth term for Labour
• The thought of a first term for the Lib Dems

2... People who make me laugh

• Robin Williams
• Chris Morris
• Frank Skinner

3... Things I hate the most

• HTML email
• Internet tests
• People that include entire email threads and simply say "hehe" at the top.

4... Things I don't understand

• Moral relativism
• Soviet apologists
• Cliff Richard

5...Things I'm doing right now

• Hacking shell code
• Testing ReactOS
• Writing emails

6... Things I want to do before I die

• Visit all the continents
• See the earth from space
• Write a book

7... Things I can do

• Annoy people
• Moan like Victor Meldrew
• Swear a lot

8... Ways to describe my personality

• Persistent
• Argumentative
• Arrogant

9. Things I can't do

• Fly a plane
• Drive a train
• Read Assembler

10...Things I think you should listen to

• Any album by Me first and the Gimme Gimmes
• CJ Bolland's The Analogue Theatre
• The Prodigy Experience

11...Things you should never listen to

• George Galloway
• Busted
• Take That

12...Things I'd like to learn

• The answer to "what is consciousness?"
• How to play the stock market and actually win
• Assembler

13... Favorite foods

• Chicken Jalfrezi
• Fajitas
• Piri-piri chicken

14...Beverages I drink regularly

• Stella Artois (also known as "wife beater")
  
• Coffee (not instant)
• Water

15...Shows I watched as a kid

• Grange Hill
• The Legend of Tim Tyler - why did it take 20 weeks for him to realise all he had to do was bet he could laugh?
• Mr Benn

16...People I'm tagging (to do this meme)

• Croydonian
• The Daily Pundit - aren't I funny?
• Last Boy Scout

Labour's finances and state funding

Over the past few days there have been a lot of stories doing the rounds about the financal situation of the Labour Party. According to some of those stories they're so strapped for cash they might not even be able to pay their salary bill this month. Today's news looks no better as the Telegraph reports that they've sold their previous offices in Old Queen Street for around £6 million (which gives them only about £500,000 profit).

Daniel Hannan, in the Comments section of the same paper argues that all these finaincial problems are merely a sub-text to forthcoming proposals for state funding of political parties, and he goes on to argue a very persuasive four point case against us taking that route.

The most salient of points he makes for me is he last where he suggests that merely the cheek of suggesting it is grounds for rejection. As, "caught breaking their own rules", the political parties demand that the rest of the country should pay them with sufficient generosity to remove them from further temptation."

There is certainly something very odd about arguing the case for state funding on the grounds that without it you might be tempted to bend the rules. It's a bit like a burgular knocking on your door and telling you that you've an obligation to give him your valuables in order to save him from the moral nightmare of committing a crime.

Personally I hope that state funding doesn't become a reality, and it does worry me that the Conservative leadership has been making noises to suggest it might support the move. Taxing us for the privilege of choosing who taxes us would be absurdity verging on idiocy.

Stephen Byers has a point

I never thought I'd agree with Stephen Liars but he's absolutely right about inheritance tax. However, the question for me is does he really believe the tax should be scrapped or is he just firing the starting gun in the Blair/Brown conference battle that is looming?

I prefer the latter to the former as explanation for his motives. However, I do hope the former becomes a central plank of any future Tory manifesto (at least in some way). I realise that we're being very careful right now not to mention specific tax cuts, but scrapping, or significantly raising the inheritance tax threshold would be a sensible move.

Inheritance Tax thresholds are the most blatent example of fiscal drag on the part of the Chancellor. They're a very clear indicator of how he has slowly increased his take of individual's wealth by stealth. There probably is an argument for inheritance tax on the "mega-rich", but many today get stung simply because the housing market has risen so much. Having a highly valued proeprty is no longer a genuine indicator of wealth.

British equipment found in Hizbollah bunker

Apparently, Israel have discovered night-vision equipment in a Hizbollah bunker stamped "Made in Britain". The chances are this was part of a shipment of equipment that Britain sold to Iran in 2003. I'm not sure which is worse, the fact that we sold equipment to Iran, or that Iran appear to have shipped it on to their proxy-fighters in Lebanon.

The public don't trust blogs

According to Telecom Express the public trust media brands far more than they trust blogs. Apparently, TV news and newspapers have far more credibility than blogs.

My better half found this quite amusing and said "but the newspapers and TV just report what all you bloggers report, they just do it later".

Getting more women candidates?

It seems that there are going to be more changes made to the selection process for Tory party candidates in an attempt to get more women selected. Iain Dale has said that reports about it appear in both the Mail on Sunday and the Sunday Times. The changes will apparently require that on second round shortlists of six, three women are included, and, crucially, that there must always be at least one woman in the final selection meeting.

Personally speaking I do find this sort of tinkering worrying. I fully realise the argument that our candidates (and hopefully MPs) need to have more women amongst their contingent. I understand that the more we're seen to be a male-club the less appealing we are and the more Labour will make outrageously silly charges of sexism.

However, this proposal appears to me to be the introduction of the worst sort of "positive" discrimination, as we're introducing quotas. I find that even more anti-meritocratic than all-wimmin shortlists. At least in the case of picking a shortlist which has nothing but women on it they're picked on the basis of who is the best. When you introduce quota's meritocracy goes completely out of the window all together.

The Armour of God!

Where would I be without B3ta to provide me with the amusement and merriment that is the Web? This week they;ve managed to find a site which sells kids pyjamas inspired by the Armour of God as described in Ephesians 6:10-18, see here.

I'm not sure what is more scary. The kids dressed up for the Crusades or the fact that there is a market for it. No doubt the people that buy the stuff are all paedophiles (see comments here to get that joke).

Those expensive potatoes

I took on board what people said this morning and checked the price of loose baking spuds just to be sure. The cheapest I could find them was 49p per lb. I took three average size ones to the scale (smaller than what you'd use for a "jacket spud" but big enough). They weighed 3.1lb, thus would've cost approximately £1.50. Inflation is deifintely back.

It's cheaper than Grittish Bass

Another post about an advert that caught my eye, PowerGen. It's not the first time that PowerGen adverts have caught my eye, I always liked their one that said they were "the power behind power". There latest advert is clearly part of a media strategy tied to their recent price hikes (funny, British Gas did the same thing).

In the advert, there are a couple of blokes in a pub talking about different beer and one of them says "it's cheaper than Grittish Bass". All very clever I know, but just like British Gas, you have to pass judgement on the sheer front of a company that hikes it gas price by 18.4% and it's electricity price by 9.7% and can only use the line of "we're not as expensive as the other lot" to justify itself it.

They may very well be cheaper than British Gas, doesn't change the fact they're still too bloody expensive. It all makes Gordon's "Winter Fuel Payment" to pensioner pretty worthless.

Annoying PCWorld adverts

As many will now, when I'm not writing something about politics I'm working with computers. I am a genuine geek and very proud of it, there is nothing I like more than technology.

As you can probably guess I don't particularly like places like PCWorld. Besides them charging over the odds for equipment, the information they often give out to customers is nonsense, and, unsurprisingly is designed to make them more money. Their tv adverts are a case in point though.The latest advert has the PCWorld guy extolling the virtues of Intel's Dual Core cpus. When asked what it means he says "It means you can download email whilst uploading tunes at the same time". Funny, I've been doing that for years.

Basically, places like PCWorld take the consumer for a ride by trying to make technology sound far simpler than it is. The result is bad analogy that are simply nonsense. Of course, the avergae consumer is going to glaze over if they start explaining the concept of worker threads and cpu tick scheduling. But telling them dual core means you can do something which single core can do to, is a case of most blatent lying.

Welcome to the football season

Today it begins. Everton vs Watford and the local team Charlton take on the Hammers. I hope Bent scores.

Update: 'ave it Bent! That's points for my fantasy team. Sadly cancelled out by Ferdinand in defence probably.

Aliens use Firefox

Hat Tip: El Reg