The Naming Of Things
Posted: Mon 13 March, 2023 Filed under: Cynicism, News, Politics, Stupidity, Thoughts Leave a comment »At the moment I’m decidedly amused by the way the UK government hasn’t even thought about the name of one of its controversial Bills, and how it gets reported and described.
So what we get now is news coverage saying “[politician] has condemned the Government’s Illegal Migration Bill“, which makes it sound like the Bill is illegal.
Comes to something when they can’t even get the name right, doesn’t it?
Sugar Tax
Posted: Mon 9 April, 2018 Filed under: Advertising, Change, Cynicism, Diet Coke, Domestic, Food, Health, Marketing, Politics, Thoughts 2 Comments »On Friday, the UK introduced a “Sugar Tax” on sweet drinks, purportedly to help reduce childhood obesity. Will it work? Personally, I doubt it.
There’s a few reasons – first and foremost, that a lot of manufacturers have already chosen to reduce the sugar levels in their drinks to put them into lower rates for the sugar tax.
Connected to that, diet and zero-calorie versions of most of those drinks have been available for years. If people haven’t chosen to swap by now, will paying 10p extra make them change? Probably not. There’s not even a really visible price difference – at least two of the shop chains I use regularly have upped the price on all the drinks, not just the sugary ones, which also defeats the object. If there were a visible difference ( “I can buy 500ml of the sugary one for £1.50, or the diet one for £1.35, so I’ll save money”) then it might work, but without that, I don’t see that there’s a real driver to force the change.
Alongside that, I *personally* have a problem with government telling me how to be healthy, and attempting to enforce that. I have the same issue when it comes to smoking, the way government encourages people to stop smoking, while also getting massive amounts of income from the tax and duty on cigarettes. (This also applies for alcohol, telling people to drink less while getting the income from the tax and duty, and so on and so on)
I also suspect that there’s a lot more damage done by the ‘invisibly’ sweet drinks – the bizarre creamy milky super-sweet concoctions from Starbucks, Caffe Nero, Costa et al – which now seem to be far more prevalent than sweet fizzy drinks. I suspect there’s a lot more of the obesity blame that can be laid on the coffee culture now than can be laid at the soft-drinks industry. I’m not even sure that the coffee chains are being hit by the sugar tax – I haven’t seen any mention of it being on anything except the soft-drinks industry.
It’ll be interesting to see the results – although of course the government will always claim it to have been a massive success, even when it’s a clusterfuck of monumental proportions – but I really don’t expect to see it have any positive effects on reducing obesity, whether in children or adults.
False Flags
Posted: Mon 12 March, 2018 Filed under: Cynicism, News, Politics, Security, Thoughts Leave a comment »Over the last week or so, there’s been an incredible amount of news coverage about the (alleged) ‘attempted assassination’ of an Russian ex-spy in Salisbury.
Today, the news has been full of stuff about how the nerve-agent used ‘points the finger at Moscow’, which just pings all the ‘yeah, but’ bells in my head.
Now, I’m not trying to say “Russia wasn’t involved”, because I simply don’t know. But… this sort of “well it must’ve been them, they’re the ones who made it” ‘evidence’ and hype always makes me a bit twitchy. If you extrapolate that, you might as well say that a car manufacturer must be responsible for every accident on the road, “because they’re the ones who made it”.
I don’t know enough on this one way or the other. But if I were a player on a much larger political stage, and I wanted to (for example) divert public and media attention away from one ongoing political clusterfuck, and point it all somewhere else, I’d be looking at making a Big Bad Enemy that can be blamed for Why You Should Be Afraid. And I’d probably work to either get materials that can be attributed to that Big Bad Enemy, or… well, or just make up all that ‘evidence’. Because of course it’s all ‘top secret’ and ‘in the interests of national security’, so they’re never going to produce that evidence in public anyway.
And it’s impossible to imply that only Russia had access to this stuff. If nothing else, American scientists (and there’s no way there weren’t security/agency personnel in that entourage!) visited and helped decontaminate the plant where the nerve agents in question were being produced. If they were approved for Russian military use (and they were) then those nerve agents would’ve been distributed to army installations and so on. All too easy at that point for them to be ‘mislaid’ and/or sold or stolen to anyone else.
All told, this entire story stinks, and rings very much as “A big boy did it, and ran away!” It’s all just a bit convenient.
CrowdFunding
Posted: Wed 14 June, 2017 Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Cynicism, Domestic, London, News, People, Politics, Thoughts 1 Comment »OK, I’ve got a new doozy of a conspiracy/cynicism thing for you.
Remember a few years back, Cameron belted on about how cuts in services meant that “Big Society” should step up, and do the things that councils and governments could no longer afford to?
Well…
Since then, we’ve seen an explosion in crowdfunding stuff – goFundMe, JustGiving, etc., – and now, any time anything happens, one of those appeals gets started.
What if…. What if those crowdfunding sites are the Big Society plan – people paying what they can to help those less well off, or in trouble because of situations that’ve been initiated by councils and governments?
So like today, ‘raise £200,000 to help people at Grenfell‘ – a fire that’s at least been contributed to by the negligence and shitness of funding by councils and governments. And what’s the betting that those crowd-funded compensations take the place (to a degree) of councils having to take the strain and fund accommodation, clothing etc.?
It’s dark as fuck, but somehow it also makes sense…
Brexit – A Prediction
Posted: Wed 13 July, 2016 Filed under: Cynicism, Domestic, News, Politics, Thoughts Leave a comment »Today the UK has changed Prime Minister, with Dodgy Dave stepping down, to be replaced by Theresa May. It’s going to be an interesting time, to say the least.
My own prediction now for the Brexit process will be this :
- Brussels won’t allow any negotiations to happen until the UK has stated it’s intent to leave the EU, by signing Article 50
- UK Government won’t sign Article 50 until the basic negotiations have happened, or at least are happening
And so, we’ll have a deadlock – where the UK Government can portray Brussels as “The Bad Guys” who won’t allow us to leave, because they’re being too harsh.
And that, I suspect, is where it’ll all stall, a total impasse that means the entire Brexit thing will gradually fade from the public mind.
Impervious
Posted: Tue 31 May, 2016 Filed under: Cynicism, Domestic, Politics, Thoughts Leave a comment »Well, I’ve now posted my vote/decision on all the Brexit stuff.
My decision can’t be changed.
So can all the political bollocks about it please sod off?
School Internet Tracking
Posted: Tue 22 December, 2015 Filed under: Cynicism, Education, News, Politics, Thoughts Leave a comment »Interesting to see today that there are new proposals to monitor the internet usage of all school pupils, ‘to prevent radicalisation’. (Because yeah, of course that’ll work)
It’s interesting to me, because I’d thought that was in place already – certainly at least twenty years ago, Research Machines did a whole internet-monitoring and dubious-link-blocking system, and I’d kind-of assumed that was the de-facto standard for schools even now. Apparently not.
It was certainly one of the strangest temp/contract jobs I’ve ever had – I worked for RM for three months, and the job description was to spend that time finding dodgy sites, so they could be added to the blacklist, and RM’s firewalls would then block those sites from being seen. So yes, the job was basically to look for porn. It was a challenge, honest. *cough* (Having looked, RM do still do ‘online safety’ stuff for schools, so I wonder why it’s not the standard. Maybe they’re priced themselves out of the market, or there’s just more companies that do it, and their market-share has shrunk. I dunno)
However, I don’t think it’ll be easy to do anything that will block the access now. There are too many routes – and any vaguely tech-savvy child will be able to go outside the school-enforced network on their own devices etc. Sure, you can lock a school-owned device (computer, iPad etc.) to the school network – but you can’t do the same for their own devices. On those, there’s always public wi-fi, and even ‘just’ the usual 3G/4G connection. And whatever internet access is available at home, and anywhere else.
Also, as with so much of this ‘monitoring’ crap, I’m sure it’ll only be of use once something has happened. There’s nothing that can proactively monitor these things, or flag up significant warnings beforehand. All the monitoring can do is provide a record, to say “This is what they looked at before they did something that brought them to our attention”, in true “locking the stable-door once the horse has bolted” style. As usual.
For Your Safety
Posted: Fri 6 November, 2015 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Legal, News, People, Politics, Privacy, Security, Thoughts Leave a comment »You know, I for one am getting really tired of the government phrases “It’s for your safety” and “it’s for your security”, which are getting bandied around more and more.
This week it’s been used about blocking flights to and from Sharm El-Sheikh because of an alleged – but unproven – bomb in the hold of the plane that crashed in the Sinai desert last week. It’s also been used in discussions about monitoring everyone’s internet traffic and holding those records for at least a year, and in revelations about MI5 monitoring every domestic phone-call in the UK for the last ten years.
Governments like people to be scared – and more and more, we seem to be happy to let the government take these measures ‘because it makes us safer’. It doesn’t, it just gives up more information to the government – and all in the name of ‘safety’.
Basically, it’s shit.
[I know, I need to think more about this and write more. But it’s a phrase that bugs me every time it’s used]
Electioneering
Posted: Thu 7 May, 2015 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), People, Politics, Thoughts Leave a comment »I will be really glad to see the end of this week, with the General Election being completed and a result being in.
The biggest challenge this year has been in finding someone – anyone – that I actually want to vote for, and wouldn’t want to punch myself repeatedly in the face if they got in.
I suspect today’s election will end up being another coalition and a parliament built on compromise and cobblers, but I still hope that all the punditry and bullshit will be confounded by one party winning enough votes to have overall power.
But that’s it, and I’ll just really be glad when it’s over. And from there, a new idea/phase/plan can kick in a bit, and see how things go. Another five-year project/plan, shall we say?
Six Weeks and Counting
Posted: Mon 30 March, 2015 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Domestic, News, Politics, Thoughts 1 Comment »Last night (well, technically this morning, as it happened at 00:01) the UK Parliament was dissolved, in preparation for the General Election on May 7th.
So that’s six weeks of most televised news coverage/programmes, with pontificating ballbags – both politicians and commentators/experts/specialists spouting loads of crap from all the available parties about what they promise to do for the next few years (and almost certainly won’t actually do, once they get in)
As with the run-up to the Festering Season, I’m going to try and avoid as much of it as possible.
I will do (and have been doing) my own reading on who to vote for – mainly by using the actual party’s websites, but also this outline guide, which is vaguely handy – who to support and who not.
I’m still considering (and at this point strongly considering) doing my own party for the next General Election, and seeing how things go. It could be entertaining – which is more than I can say for the next six weeks of bullshit…
Publicity
Posted: Sun 21 September, 2014 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Hypocrisy, Media, News, Politics, Thoughts 1 Comment »Over the last few weeks, there’s been a whole load of stuff talked about IS (AKA Islamic State, Isal, or ISIS) – both stuff about hostages held by IS (and the killing thereof) as well as politicians saying how people who go to fight for IS in Syria and the like are just Wrong.
Maybe I’m missing something, but surely if you don’t want people to go and fight for IS etc., there’s a few things that could be done ?
- Don’t keep feeding them the oxygen of publicity. The more they’re mentioned, the more they’re talked about and covered in the media, the more they’ll be seen as an attractive option by those of a certain persuasion / defective nature.
- If you feel they have to be publicised, you do the same as happened to the IRA, where no spokesman was allowed to be broadcast, any statement was done by an actor’s voice, so on and so forth.
- And make sure you don’t show anything but disgust for them. Fuck impartiality, allow presenters etc. to show what they think. Make it clear, say “The terrorist organisation IS has done this, but that’s the most we’ll say about it”.
If you take away the glamour of the organisation, stop feeding them airtime and headlines, they’ll stop being popular.
Of course, the other thing that can be done is to stop focussing on, and alienating, those sectors of the populace, making them feel that the country is against them.
As an example of that, I’ve a colleague who happens to have the surname Ahmed. He flies a lot for the company at the moment, and has been told – in no uncertain terms – “Oh, your name makes sure you’ll never be on the accelerated access programme to get back into the UK”. That’s a completely law-abiding, tax-paying, UK-resident, UK-born person, who now feels more victimised than he has any right to.
But of course as a nation, we’re not letting terrorists win. Riiiight.
Scottish Independence
Posted: Mon 8 September, 2014 Filed under: Cynicism, Media, News, People, Politics, Thoughts Leave a comment »In a few day’s time, Scotland will be voting on whether they should become independent from the United Kingdom.
Personally, I don’t give much of a damn either way on this one, if I’m honest.
However, I do think it would be a more interesting referendum if it had been a UK-wide question, rather than asked just to the Scots.
Anyway – regardless of the outcome, what I hope is that there is a clear and large margin between the Yes and No votes. I don’t want to see it being 49 to 51 or whatever – because then it’ll just end up with more fighting, that the people who are in that ‘minority’ (that’s still just under half, and thus makes for one heck of a lot of people) feel they’re being forced by the other half to do what they don’t want to.
If it’s a 75 to 25 in either direction – maybe even a 60/40 split then it’s harder to argue the toss at all.
Mind you, the cynic in me really wants to see it split 50/50, and see what happens then.
Unbalanced
Posted: Tue 5 August, 2014 Filed under: Cynicism, News, People, Politics, Thoughts Leave a comment »In today’s news, there’s (yet another) ceasefire in Gaza.
I’m neither pro-Palestine or pro-Israeli – personally, I think the entire thing is insane.
But what really gets me is the inequality of the body count. From the article…
Gaza officials say the four-week conflict has killed 1,800 Palestinians. Some 67 Israelis have also died.
That’s just over 26 Gazans killed for every Israeli killed. And that’s disgraceful.
I seem to recall that at the start of this, the Gazans had killed one – yes, one – Israeli, for something like 200 Gazans. And I just can’t see that having one dead person is an excuse to go and re-invade a country and effectively declare war.
Lethal Injection
Posted: Sun 17 November, 2013 Filed under: Creativity, Cynicism, Legal, News, Politics, Thoughts, Weirdness 2 Comments »Apparently, a lot of American states are having serious problems with their methods when it comes to the death penalty. Lethal Injection in particular (used by the majority of the states that have a sentence of death) is facing problems, because the manufacturers of the drugs that are used are trying to block their use.
As a result, several of those states are using what are known as “compounding pharmacies” – effectively, places that can make small quantities of required drugs on-demand, a sort of grey-market DIY area instead of buying the necessary drugs/items from the manufacturers. This process is being done in secret, so no-one really knows what’s being used.
It amused me (I’m in that kind of mood) to see this quote though :
“There is no way to verify that what comes from a compounding pharmacy is what it purports to be, and that it is safe and effective.”
Sorry, but these drugs are being used to kill people. While I get that ‘effective’ is important, I’m less certain that ‘safe’ should be a concern.
Mind you, what I don’t understand is why they don’t just use significant quantities of seized illegal drugs. After all, a massive overdose of heroin (for example) or crystal meth is going to be just as effective when it comes to killing people…
ID Cards Scrapped
Posted: Wed 22 December, 2010 Filed under: Cynicism, News, Politics Leave a comment »At long last, the UK ID Card Programme has been officially scrapped. According to the Home Office :
This means that all ID cards will now be cancelled within one month and the National Identity Register, the database which contains information of card holders, will be destroyed within two months.
The Identity Card Scheme and other biometrics work has already cost the taxpayer £292 million. The Act has saved £835 million in planned future investment.
That’s one heck of a lot of money to have already spent – but far better to have saved the rest instead of spent it on such a massive white elephant.
Honest Intent
Posted: Fri 5 November, 2010 Filed under: 1BEM, Domestic, People, Politics, Security, Thoughts Leave a comment »On this particular day, remember that Guy Fawkes is still the last person to enter the Houses of Parliament with honest intentions.
The Gunpowder Plot is a healthy reminder that terrorism really is nothing new. Mind you, if the risk of terrorism now were to involve being hung, drawn and quartered, I wonder how many would still think it such a cool thing ?
Taxing
Posted: Sat 4 September, 2010 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Domestic, Politics, Stupidity, Thoughts, Weirdness Leave a comment »According to the BBC, Tax through PAYE has been (in some cases) utterly stuffed for the last couple of years.
In the story, about £2bn has been underpaid – but about £1.8bn has been overpaid. Now to me, that’s a case of “Oh sod it, it kind of balances”. But no, in a fit of efficiency (or at least Inland Revenue’s version of efficiency – which isn’t efficient at all) they’re going to send out six million letters telling people that they’ve over- or under-paid, and the differences will be refunded or paid back in the new tax code.
So. Six million letters. Even in second-class post, that’s a minimum of 32p per letter. Which makes a cost of £1,920,000. Doing the letters first class would be a cost of £2,460,000.
Let’s look at this sensibly.
We’ve underpaid £2bn in tax.
We’ve overpaid £1.8bn.
Which leaves £0.2bn to pay.
And Inland Revenue are going to spend £2 million to get back that £0.2 billion.
Is it just me that sees the idiocy in this? Talk about throwing good money after bad.
And actually, why the flying fuck should the people who have underpaid – through no fault of their own – be penalised by having to pay extra this year for a mistake made by Inland Revenue itself ?!?
Speed Cameras
Posted: Wed 28 July, 2010 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Driving, People, Politics, Thoughts 2 Comments »It’s currently looking like one of the victims of this new political Age of Austerity (AKA The”Can we cut it? Yes, we can!” years) will be the funding for speed-cameras. Sorry, ‘safety cameras’.
So far Oxfordshire is one of the first to say they’ll be turning the fixed cameras off, which will save them some £600,000 a year.
I have to say that I really don’t have an issue with this – I think that getting rid of the cameras will (in most cases) actually make the roads a bit safer. Yes, there are rat-runs where people are stupid and drive too fast – but in my experience, speed cameras cause far more dangerous driving than they prevent.
One prime example of this is the A11/A14 around Cambridge (and I think I’ve written about this before) – the intersection where they join has a speed camera just after it. I’ve seen far too many near-accidents at that point, where people have been feeding in just fine from the A11 at 70mph(ish) and then have to slap the brakes on because the people in front of them have dropped from 70mph to 50mph to get past the camera. Yes, it’s down to human stupidity to drop to 50mph – 70mph is fine for going past that particular camera – but it’s still a much more dangerous junction because of the speed camera.
You see the same thing all over the place – people suddenly slowing from an already-legal speed, just to “make sure” they don’t get done by the camera.
So yeah, I think that getting rid of the cameras might just be an improvement to road safety in general, rather than a detriment to it.
My Own Policies
Posted: Fri 7 May, 2010 Filed under: 1BEM, Charm School, Cynicism, News, Politics, Thoughts 2 Comments »Thank the lord, we’re finally through all the election guff. At the time of writing this, I don’t know who’ll have won the election.
I do think, though, that a plainly-put list of policies and ideas would’ve been a far better idea than the wanky ethereal guff spouted in most of the manifestos this year. And I reckon that if a party had put forward the following list, they’d have had a pretty good chance at getting in. I could be wrong, but I figure it’d be a set of policies I’d vote for, anyway.
The policies I’d put in are (in no particular order, but as they occur to me) :
- Banning HGVs and coaches from the outside lane of all multi-carriageway roads. That would mean HGVs and coaches could overtake etc on three-lane motorways by using the inner two lanes, but wouldn’t be able to do so on dual carriageways and two-lane motorways like most of the M11
- Reducing fuel duty
- Reducing our energy imports by increasing our nuclear-power capacity and promoting green energy
- Making Inland Revenue into an efficient organisation
- Local authority management reductions
- NHS improvements – removing managers, increasing “front-line” staff
- Speaking plainly and clearly rather than evasive waffle
- [Added later, because I forgot] – Electoral reform, making it law that everyone eligible has to vote, but there is a “None of the above” option on the ballot.
- [Added later, because I forgot] – Enforcing use of fuel duty/road tax to maintain/upgrade transport and roads
- [Added later, because I forgot] – Looking at re-nationalising train service, along with investment from the above point to upgrade rail network/rolling stock
How would this be paid for? By (to a greater or lesser degree) :
- Increasing tax for earners of >£100,000
- Chasing non-dom non-taxpayers
- Increasing VAT by 2.5% to 20% – when it was dropped from 17.5 to 15% everyone said it was a piss-poor reduction – so will they complain if it increases by the same?
- Improving efficiency – not by cutting costs, but by improving efficiency and reducing red tape and crap
There’s probably other bits I could add to this, but it seems like a pretty good list so far.
Mind you, I fully expect to be ripped apart on some of these by certain readers. 🙂
Voting Motivation
Posted: Thu 6 May, 2010 Filed under: Cynicism, Politics 1 Comment »Ever needed (another) good reason for not voting Conservative today?
Here you go – Robert Mugabe gives the Conservatives his support, and says we’d have better relations with Zimbabwe under a Conservative government.
Election Day
Posted: Thu 6 May, 2010 Filed under: Cynicism, Politics, Thoughts Leave a comment »In this democracy I as a citizen reserve the right to stand up for what I believe in
In this democracy I as a citizen I’m not accountable to the government
In this democracy the government is accountable to us, the people
In this democracy the government is elected by us, the people
To represent us, the people
In our best interests, on a national and international scale
And if they’re not doing so, In this democracy, I as a citizen reserve the right
To rise up
I will not move, I will not change
I will not bend or play their games
I will stand tall with a full frame
I will take pride to stake the claim
I swear, as a citizen of this country
To stand up for what I believe in
I swear, as a citizen of this country
To not just sit around, bitching and mourning
I swear, as a citizen of this country
To take action if action be needed
I swear, as a citizen of this country
To realize that the power is with us
And no one else…
I will not move, I will not change…
I will stake a claim
I will stake a claim
I will stake a claim
I will stake a claim
I will not move, I will not change…
© Scroobius Pip “Stake A Claim” (You can also find out more about Scroobius Pip here)
SNP and Equality
Posted: Thu 29 April, 2010 Filed under: Cynicism, News, Politics, Thoughts Leave a comment »Yesterday the Scottish National Party were told that they won’t get a plinth in the final televised election debate. And quite right too.
The debates are for the national parties, the three with a chance of national rule. The SNP (and Plaid Cymru) haven’t got a chance of that. They’re not running a national campaign – so why should they have a national mouthpiece ?
I’m just a posh boy
Posted: Thu 22 April, 2010 Filed under: Advertising, Creativity, Cynicism, Politics Leave a comment »Saw this today and loved it. Now if only we could get the Conservatives to use it…
The kind of thing Photoshop was meant to be used for (Click to embiggenify)
Electioneering
Posted: Fri 16 April, 2010 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Politics, Thoughts 2 Comments »So it’s the run-up to another General Election – don’t tell me you’d missed it!
This time round I wonder who people will vote for. It’s hard to tell the difference between the two main parties, they seem to be Siamese Twins (sorry, conjoined twins) rather than polar opposites. In both cases their policies (or lack thereof) seem only to differ in punctuation and tiny things to argue about while the main points lumber through regardless. The options seem to be a dour Scottish tosser that we know is a scumbag or a perma-tanned PR weasel who’s slicker than greased owl-shit, and who we simply are pretty certain is a scumbag. More a case of “whichever devil you know”.
All of which makes me think that perhaps this election is the Liberal Democrat‘s best chance ever.
I wonder how many other people are thinking “Well both Brown and Cameron are cunts I wouldn’t trust to run a bath, let alone a country. Maybe I’ll go for the Libdems, see what they’ve got“. (Or at least words to that effect)
All Nick Clegg has to do really is look like less of a fuckwitted u-turning scumwad than the other two and (in my opinion) he’s got a real chance at being the next PM.
Maybe it’s time for that third way.
Political Contacts
Posted: Sun 11 April, 2010 Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Cynicism, Politics, Work-related | Tags: #debill, east falkirk, election, Labour, linlithgow, morons, Politics 3 Comments »via Twitter/TwitPic, another fine example of why politicians should never ever be allowed to control the internet, or access to it…
How not to do it.
So a few pointers…
- You really expect your voters to type in www.linlithgowandeastfalkirklabour.org.uk ? Get real.
- And separate sites for each constituency? Really? I guess joined-up communications and corporate message just kind of got by-passed.
- A hotmail email account? For politicians? You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. (Mind you, the actual site doesn’t even appear to list proper email addresses, and just uses a contact form)
- It really helps to have the proper names in your Twitter and Facebook contact details. Not “site.com/yourname”. FFS.
And these clueless fuckers are indicative of the type of politicians who brought in the Digital Economy bill? Jesus H. Christ on a shiny metal bicycle.
Budgetary Concerns
Posted: Wed 24 March, 2010 Filed under: Cynicism, News, Politics Leave a comment »So, the 2010 Budget then…
- A “staggered” 3p rise in fuel tax – great, that just means the companies will add on 2 or 3p per rise, rather than one big rise. Overall it’ll mean about 10p on a litre, rather than the 5p that would’ve come from a 3p rise
- No stamp-duty for first-time house-buyers on houses <£250,000. – Big deal. The entire “first-time buyer” thing’s a bag of shit anyway in my experience. My “first-time buy” was nullified by the fact it was Herself’s second buy, so we couldn’t get any of the first-time buyer deals. Cunts.
- No changes to allowances on incomes <£100,000 – Well thanks a bundle for fuck-all.
- No other changes to VAT or income tax – that does surprise me, as a change to these would’ve been an almost certain vote-loser, and I’m still generally convinced that Labour want to lose this election, which’ll make the current shit-fest “the next person’s problem”. But then, I’m a cynic.
- Wine, beer and spirits up by 2% – Guess they’re not wanting us to drink our way out of recession then
- Tobacco tax up by 1% – Or smoke
- Cider duty up by 10% – Seriously? 10%? Guess Labour aren’t worried about the cider-drinking voters then.
Rhyming Slang
Posted: Tue 16 February, 2010 Filed under: Cynicism, News, Politics, Thoughts Leave a comment »On the local news just now, there was a story about Cambridgeshire county council workers protesting against cuts and job losses within the council. (We’ll currently gloss past the fact that a good 50% of the workforce for any local authority are useless workshy cunts – or at least that’s my experience of council work, anyway)
The chant that was being used by protestors was :
“Sack the bankers
Not the workers”
Which isn’t quite rhyming slang – but I assume that “sack the bankers, not the wankers” wasn’t quite the message they were trying to convey…
Membership Change
Posted: Mon 15 February, 2010 Filed under: Cynicism, Politics Leave a comment »One of the more bizarre stories this weekend was about the BNP (British National Party) voting to change its rules on membership, and allow non-whites to be members.
They’ve had to do this as part of an equality ruling – unsurprising, for a racist organisation – but still, it’s pretty damn funny.
Mind you, I’d love to now see a non-white person or two joining the BNP, just to sit in on the meetings, sit there smiling and truly fucking with their heads.
And of course when it gets to the “Send ’em back where they came from” section of the meeting, just asking them if they know how much a ticket to [town of birth] costs.
Living with Terrorism
Posted: Sun 3 January, 2010 Filed under: Cynicism, Politics, Security, Thoughts, Travel 4 Comments »Over Christmas there was yet another terrorist “attack” in a plane over the US. And as a result, Fuhrer Brown has said that full-body scanners will be brought in to all the main UK airports because ‘they’re crucial in the fight against terrorism”. Which, frankly, is bollocks – the experts don’t even agree that the explosives used by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on Christmas Day would be found by a full-body scanner.
I’ve written before about Security Theatre, and really this is all more of the same.
What makes me really laugh though is all the shite that politicians spout about doing this “because we won’t give in to terrorism”.
- Every single time you take a flight and have to take your shoes off for a search, terrorism caused it.
- Every time you go through a full-body search from now on, that’s been caused by terrorism.
- Any time you can’t take a drink or shampoo abroad, that’s been caused by terrorism.
- Any time you read about ID cards or airport security, that’s been caused by terrorism.
And actually, for pretty much all the above items, you could replace “caused by terrorism” with “caused by the threat of terrorism”. Because most of it isn’t actually related to terrorist acts – it’s related to “plots”, rather than the real thing.
Basically, if you’re travelling by plane, you’re affected by terrorism or the threat of it. Every time you’re affected, you think about why you’re being affected. And bang, terrorism wins yet again.
In fact, the only recent occasion where terrorism really hasn’t affected things (yet, anyway) was the bombings in London on the 7th July. Certainly that event has made people more aware of the risk of terrorism and suicide bombers – but it hasn’t involved extra security checks, or changes to the way we live.
So wittering on about not letting terrorists win, while adding in new pointless security measures “to prevent terrorism”, that’s terrorism winning its case.