A Little Bit Of Swiss Action

The Swiss want to get a bit of the action, too.

NHS Admin-Jobs Outnumber Doctor Jobs Etc Carry On

How New Labour squeezes the life out of the NHS with bureaucracy. From The Ferret Fancier via NHS Blog Doctor, a list showing how PCT managers outnumber frontline doctors:

* Communications Assistant
* GP Directorate Manager
* PA to Medical Director and PEC Chair
* Assistant Director Commissioning & Informatics
* Medical Directorate Administrator
* Strategic Programmes Director
* Primary Care Manager
* Public Health Project Manager
* Primary Care Commissioning Officer
* Long Term Conditions Administrator
* Resuscitation Educators
* Communications officer (media & campaigns)
* Senior Primary Care Commissioning Manager
* Long Term Conditions Commissioning Manager
* Commissioning Officer
* PA to Head of Urgent Care
* PA to Primary Care Commissioning
* Head of Urgent Care
* PA to Director of Commissioning & Informatics
* Head of Clinical Quality (Commissioning)
* Lead for Quality of care in care homes and End of Life Care
* Locality Manager - Children's Community Service
* Admin Support Primary Care Commissioning
* Information Governance Manager
* PA to Commissioning
* Public Health Strategy Manager
* Acting Co-ordinator (Substance Misuse)
* Liaison Officer
* Senior Administrator & Project Support
* Primary Care (GP) Support and Development
* Commissioning & Information Directorate
* Public Health Nurse Consultant
* Primary Care Development Manager
* Intermediate Care Coordinator
* Chief Executive
* Communications Officer
* Acting Deputy Chief Executive
* Director of Strategic Development
* Associate Director of HR
* Assistant Director of Information
* Primary Care Development Manager
* Clinical Governance Admin Support
* Knowledge Services
* Director of Primary and Community Services
* Public Health Analyst
* Public Health Intelligence Team
* Administration Support Officer
* Sexual Health Commissioning
* Service Development and Market Management
* Commissioning Project Officer
* Mental Health Commissioning Team
* Temporary Clinical Quality Administrator for Primary Care Independent Contractors
* Primary Care Support and Development Manager
* Clerical Officer
* Senior Administrator & Project Support
* Primary Care Commissioning
* Assistant Directors Commissioning & Informatics
* Core Learning Administrator
* Employee & Organisational Development Team
* Long Term Conditions Administration Officer
* Public Health Administrator
* Sexual Health Development Manager
* Clinical Governance Administrator

Replicate this madness in every institution run by the government and its agencies and you begin to see why the country is in such shit.

British Nationalisation Refinery Schools EU Meltdown

Such is the state of meltdown in British society that the government is now intending to nationalise failing private schools.

Students have been sold a lie, according to Decca Aitkenhead. Not all universities are the same: quite.

Also in the Guardian: acknowledgement that EU regulations are at the bottom of the trouble at the Lindsey oil refinery and other places (although you have to go to the inside pages to get that).

The BBC main news last night again featured the incredibly important story about an American woman giving birth to eight children. I'm torn between which thing pisses me off the most: the fact that they give primetime coverage to this non-story or that Fiona Bruce insists on saying OCT-tu-plets instead of oct-TOO-plets. and while I'm at it, why doesn't someone at the Beeb tell Huw Edwards that 'programme' is not pronounced 'progrum'?

There's a campaign afoot to get people to cc their emails to Jacqui Smith in protest at the inplementation of the data retention bill: Telegraph. I'm not sure how well this will work given that the date for the campaign has been made public (15th June) thereby giving the Home Office full warning. However, since this government is colossally incompetent, there's no knowing what they'll do.

It needs to said again that the government has no choice but to implement this bad piece of legislation because it is an EU directive (2006/54/EC).

Spawn Davos Refinery Walk Out Jobs BBC Spin

Local news coverage of the Lindsey walk-out over hiring of foreign workers. Useful comment from EU Referendum. And, of course, UKIP.

Latest BBC report here. No mention of the part played by EU regulation, of course.

This one isn't going to go away quickly.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he does not regret promising "British jobs for British workers".

The Spawn of the Manse is busy being important at Davos, where the world's politicians and their friends are gathering to discuss how to fuck the world's economy even more.

Meanwhile Eurozone jobless at two-year high.

And the BBC still can't bring itself to use the word recession or acknowledge that the British government is partly responsible: tonight's backdrop on the main news said 'Global downturn' (having previously been just 'downturn'), thereby aligning the company with the delusions of its Great Leader Himself. On ITV the backdrop read 'Recession UK'.

The French Demonstration

Demonstrations over the handling of the economic crisis.

The protests are against the worsening economic climate in France and at what people believe to be the government's poor handling of the crisis.

Opposition Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry said people were out in the streets "to express what worries them: the fact that they work and yet cannot make ends meet, retired people who just can't make it [financially], the fear of redundancies, and a president of the Republic and a government that just don't want to change policy".

According to a 25 January poll by CSA-Opinion for Le Parisien, 69% of the French public backs the strike.

(BBC News website)

British Jobs For British Workers (Not) (Again)

Not long ago it was all talk of 'British jobs for British workers', which was a pointless and hollow boast, considering most regulation concerning trade and employment is governed by EU law; hence: Refinery strike in Immingham, and, as the Express has it, Britons walk out in foreign jobs protest.

Keep Up, You Out There!

ContactPoint: glad to see someone else in the blogosphere is keeping up. See my previous posts.

Iceland Collapses, Sky Joins BBC

Iceland's coalition government collapses. Iceland, of course, had to go to the IMF last year for a bailout.

Haven't heard anything about the situation in Iceland on the BBC (apart from a little story about them sending jumpers to Immingham).

Sky have also decided not to air the DEC appeal for aid for Gaza.

Protestors should ask themselves: since when was it an obligation for a broadcaster to put out an appeal of this (or any) kind?

All Your Children Are Belong Us Database Goes Live

ContactPoint, the government's 'answer' to child abuse, has gone live today.

Childrens' Minister Baroness Delyth Morgan has admitted the database will be accessible to 400,000 people.

There was some discussion on this during today's Woman's Hour, but otherwise it was not mentioned on BBC's national news.

ContactPoint is just one more part of the government's all-encompassing database and surveillance system which, if it is allowed to continue, will track and record the life of every individual from birth to grave.

Knock Knock It's The Food Stasi

(Liz Goodwin, CEO of WRAP, was paid £188,000 in 2008)

It's getting too easy to take the piss out of New Labour these days. It seems they come up with a new wheeze every week.

How about having a 'food champion' knocking on your door to give you advice about what to do with your leftovers?

It's all part of the LoveFood Hate Waste campaign.

All paid for out of your taxes, of course, via yet another bloody quango, the Waste and Resources Action Programme:

Established as a not-for-profit company in 2000, WRAP is backed by government funding from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Here's the link to that. Plus another interesting link to Purple Scorpion last year concerning WRAP's funding and finances.

Waste? New Labour are beyond satire.

EU-Wide Stasi Nazi Criminal Records Plan

Courtesy of Raedwald: an EU-wide criminal database. The Eurofeds will know every detail of any conviction, from 'Withdrawal of a hunting/fishing licence' and 'Offences related to waste' to 'Insult of the State, Nation or State symbols'. I particularly like the last one. I think it ought to be encouraged with relation to the EU.

Really, Really Serious

Strauss-Kahn says things don't look good:

the head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, predicted that the economic downturn will cause more unrest.

"[It could happen] almost everywhere, in Europe certainly, and also in emerging countries," he said. "You've had some strikes that look like normal, usual strikes, but it may worsen in the coming months."

Asked which countries were most at risk, Mr Strauss-Kahn mentioned Hungary, Ukraine, Latvia and Belarus. "It can be my own country [France], the UK, it can be eastern Europe," he said.

"The situation is really, really serious," he added.

(from EUobserver)

And over at PJC, Ian Parker-Joseph has uncovered another bit of New Labour nastiness in the Coroners and Justice Bill being debated in parliament: the intention to raise court fees ('to return civil fees in the higher courts to full-cost levels'). Justice is an expensive business under New Labour.

Eurostrain Claims First Victim and French Fop Poodled

Iceland's Prime Minister quits. If only The Spawn of the Manse had the decency to do likewise.

Unrest in Europe continues. Greece goes up again.

The Euro isn't working.

Aznar, former Spanish PM, expresses reservations about EU. A bit late admitting it now, mate.

Poor old Sarko the Eurofop gets poodled. Pity it wasn't a rotweiller.

Old Holborn aims to piss off the Dutch: they want to put Geert Wilders in prison for being a bit close to the bone with his little film.

Meanwhile our glorious government is trying to slip another nasty little trick through in the Coroners and Justice Bill: data sharing 'to secure a relevant policy objective'. Just the thing you want from a bunch of losers like New Labour. Write to your MP.

The UK is officially in a recession. At last the BBC can stop calling it a downturn.

NHS Labourspeak Obvious Constitution Bollocks

The government have launched their NHS 'Constitution', presumably because they think the rest of us are too dim to understand what's meant by the words 'national', 'health' and 'service'.

I read the first 'principle' and gave up when I got to the third sentence because the pain in my sides was too great:

The NHS provides a comprehensive service, available to all irrespective of gender, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief. [Usual self-righteous Labour waffle that states the obvious.] It has a duty to each and every individual that it serves and must respect their human rights. [That would be the rights they're so busy tearing up elsewhere, would it?] At the same time, it has a wider social duty to promote equality through the services it provides and to pay particular attention to groups or sections of society where improvements in health and life expectancy are not keeping pace with the rest of the population.

No, it doesn't have the duty to promote equality or any such ideological claptrap. It's about looking after us when we're sick. Typically, the government can't tell the difference between providing medical services and acting as a propaganda department for New Labour.

Dig And Spin: Headless Chicken Benefit Buggery

When is a recession not a recession? - when the BBC calls it a 'downturn'. Mervyn King was convinced we were in recession back in October, but what would he know? The BBC graphics and newspeak continue to call it a 'downturn'.

Labour just don't get the internet (thank God).

Another Tory MP's office searched by the police.

Not a lot in the news about the government's move to introduce secret inquests under the Coroners and Justice Bill. Not very important, I suppose.


We're Watching You, Benefit Fraud Campaign. Just as the country is collapsing into a recession, sorry, 'downturn', and unemployment is on the way to over two million, the government is busy stirring up an Orwellian witchhunt against benefit cheats. And wasting money in the process (£9 million, according to The Times). Nice one.

Dave calls The Spawn a headless chicken. Which is, in truth, the nicest thing you could call him.

The Spawn of the Manse, however, is too far gone in delusion and vanity to have the decency to acknowledge he's out of his depth.

Makes you wish we were more Australian in our choice of language, since our economy is even more buggered than theirs.

Exceptionable Sense Shown By EU

Commission backs users over content providers
Is this a case of the EU actually getting something right?

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Parliament's rejection of a proposed "three strikes" law - that would see internet users have their connection cut off if they have been found to repeatedly violate copyright - must be respected, the commission said at an EUobserver-organised conference on internet rights...

Last November, French President Nicholas Sarkozy backed an initiative in partnership with the record industry and internet providers that would see internet service providers (ISPs) automatically disconnect customers who illegally download copyrighted material.

Ah, that energetic little toerag Sarkozy, of course. Probably didn't get the economic point that if thousands of people found themselves cut off then the revenues of the ISPs and other online businesses would suffer.

Revolting Icelanders

Protests in Iceland.
Revolting Icelanders.
That's the way to do it.

Government Backdown On MPs Expenses Row

'Brown backs down in MPs Expenses Row': but don't think it's a total victory yet. Labour are the ultimate vampire-zombie party. If this were buried with its head cut off and a stake through its heart inside a lead coffin stuffed with garlic under twenty fett of concrete, then I'll believe it's truly dead.

The government has shelved plans to hold a vote on controversial proposals to restrict the amount of information published about MP expenses.

No 10 had insisted it would hold a vote on exempting expenses information from Freedom of Information laws and that Labour MPs would be forced to back it.

But the government has now decided to abandon the vote after opposition parties said they would not support it.

The High Court said last year receipts for MPs expenses should be published.

U-turn

The High Court ordered the Commons to publish details, including all receipts, to back up claims made by 14 MPs under their second homes allowance.

It had been expected that all MPs' expenses details would then be published but Commons leader Harriet Harman told MPs last week the government was bringing forward a plan to exempt MPs' expenses from the scope of the FOI Act.

I believe all-party support is important and we will continue to consult on that matter

Gordon Brown

No 10 had indicated that Labour MPs would be expected to support this policy in a vote on Thursday but the Conservative and Lib Dems said they would oppose the move.

However, shortly after the end of Prime Minister's Questions, No 10 revealed that the vote would not take place.

Earlier, Mr Brown blamed the Conservatives for what he said was a breakdown of a consensus over the way forward.

"We thought we had agreement on the FOI Act as part of this wider package," he told MPs.

"Recently that support that we believed we had from the main opposition party was withdrawn.

"So on this particular matter, I believe all-party support is important and we will continue to consult on that matter."

During PMQs, Tory MP Edward Garnier said it showed "hideous levels of insensitivity" to limit disclosure of MP's spending at a time of such economic gloom.

The Lib Dems had described the proposal as "outrageous".

The row followed a long-running Freedom of Information case in which campaigners sought to get details of MPs' expenses, which totalled £87.6m in 2006-7, published.

BBC News

Educayshun, Eddukayshun, Edyoucaishn British Style

Not content with screwing up the state education system, the government is now looking for ways to screw up home schooling: 'Home teaching could mean abuse'. Since terrorism seems to have dropped off the agenda, child abuse is moral-panic-excuse de nos jours for Labour.

Unfortunately, the people who run the whole show are either illiterate or suffering from administrative logorrhoea, hence 'Literacy minister told to use plain English in reports'.

More Slop And Spin From The Troughmeisters

Westminster tries to prevent Welsh Assembly from disclosing MP's expenses.

Who are the terrorists? in the case of the Tarnac 9 - it's the state.

More polls show swing away from Labour.

Foreign advert ban puts British workers first (not): the actual headline of this (Times Online) is very misleading. In effect the EU is preventing all member state's companies from advertising skilled jobs outside the EU (ie the rest of the world). That doesn't mean British jobs for British workers - it means British jobs for EU workers. It deliberately confuses EU 'immigrants' with non-EU immigrants; the former, technically, not being immigrants at all, since they're citizens of the Great Illustrious Union. And it deliberately fudges the difference between unskilled and skilled workers. A typical bit of Labour spin. And also a typically sloppy bit of British journalism: it's probably taken straight from the government's own press release.

The EU gave non-EU basket cases cash: of which a large part was no doubt trousered. Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine received E166 MILLION 'to improve their capacity in the areas of: border control; migration/asylum management; fight against organised crime; and judiciary and good governance'!!!!!! (exclamation marks entirely mine). Not an overwhelming success, to judge by the press release.

Sea Anglers in EU Sights

Absolutely nothing must lie outside the reach of their claw-like grasp: EU 'quotas' for sea anglers.

Elections for the European 'Parliament' take place in the UK on Thursday June 4th this year. Not a lot of people know that.

Cameron Promises Lisbon Treaty Referendum

Deafening silence on this from the British broadcast media (unless I'm looking at ancient news): Cameron vows to wreck EU treaty if elected and UK opposition leader vows Lisbon referendum.

Expect lies and spin from the Spawn of the Manse and his apparatchiks.

This will be interesting. Cameron could have a real vote-winner on this one.

Roma Roma Crap Jobs In Lincolnshire Yes?

This article in the Lincolnshire Echo caught my eye:

Gypsies 'could fill county's job vacancies'

Thursday, January 15, 2009, 07:30

Romany gypsies from countries including Romania and Bulgaria could be invited to Lincolnshire to take jobs previously filled by Eastern Europeans.

Gypsies and travellers currently suffering from persecution in their countries of origin could be persuaded to flee their "squalor" and step into jobs left by Poles returning home.

In Lincolnshire they have predominantly filled jobs in agriculture.

Peter Robinson, portfolio holder for social cohesion at Lincolnshire County Council, told colleagues this week: "If, because of the downturn, we start to see fewer Eastern European migrant workers from Poland and so forth, it's my personal view we could get replacements from Romania and Bulgaria."

He said Lincolnshire could extend a friendly hand to them saying "come to us and get a better deal".

"The main problem of course, whether we like it or not, is that gypsies and travellers are extremely unpopular people to have in the county," he added.

Coun Robinson was speaking during a meeting of the council's local community development and partnerships policy development group, which held talks on a new pilot project to deliver extra housing-related support to gypsy and traveller communities already living here.

But in a written response issued via the council's press office after the meeting, Coun Robinson said it only "might be the case that gypsies and travellers could take up the jobs that Eastern European migrants used to hold".

(Note to councillors: Poles are from Central, not Eastern Europe; and the majority of other European migrant works in Lincolnshire tend to be from Portugal.)

There's something distinctly suspicious about this. Why should a County Council think of 'inviting' in another tranche of European migrant workers to fill vacancies when it should be encouraging local unemployed to take them up - especially now we're in recession?

Not just that, but why choose Roma in particular, a group of people not usually (or stereotypically) noted for their employability? A group also badly treated in their own countries and, like their gypsy ('traveller') counterparts in the UK, often a cause (whether justified or not) of strong local antipathy?

I'm not sure, but I think I have the answer: the European Union's Decade of Roma Inclusion (2005 - 2015).

Presumably the County Council is in receipt of EU funding for the project and has to be seen to be doing something, including a Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month last year.

The first 'summit' of the scheme in Brussels in September, was not without its excitement and disappointments.

Truly, there is nothing the EU (like New Labour) doesn't want to regulate and control (for eveyone's good, of course).

What A Bloody Shower

UK government renews plans for secret inquests. Bastards.

That's courtesy of Jack Straw. Bastard.

UK government changes law to prevent disclosure of MPs' expenses. Bastards.

That's courtesy of Harriet Harman, Class Warrior and Toff. Bitch.

And also Jack Straw (again). Bastard and Orifice.

UK government denies parliament a debate on Heathrow's 3rd runway. Bastards.

In a bid to raise his political standing Miliband admits that the 'war' on terror was a load of toss. Bastard.

Here's Jacqui Smith with that other pointless bitch, Blears, hosting a 'summit' in the community about the situation in Gaza and the government's response to it, etc, etc. Bitch.

Vadera's green shoots are a bit premature. Jesus, I remember them the first time round. Bitch.

LabourShitStormList - A Dolly Good Thing

New Labour makes a belated arrival to the blogosphere with LabourList, assembled by Derek ('Dolly') Draper (yet another disgraced Blairite Prodigal Son returning to the fold to prepare for the coming apocalypse).

At the moment it's a spectacle of pure shitstormery, with buckets of bile flying at it - and not just from the usual suspects from the right and libertarian wings of the blogosphere.

The site also received a less than successful airing on Channel 4 (clip courtesy of Guido Fawkes):

Every Big Brother Child Training Matters Reich Plan Agency

My grandson brought home a letter from his primary school advertising the services (free and confidential) of a Parent Support Adviser, who is available to help anything from eating habits to behaviour problems.

Sounds nice and caring, but being middle-aged and cynical (particularly after a decade of New Labour control-freakery) I immediately accessed the interweb and found Parent Support Advisers are part of a new quango, the Training and Development Agency. It's all part of New Labour's 'Every Child Matters' million-year Big Brother Reich plan, of course. Their job is...oh well, go and read about it yourself, I can't be bothered repeating the stuff.

I was amused to see a link on the page - 'Cutting through red tape'. No comment is needed, really.

In addition, another non-elected Labour minister, one Baroness Vadera, talked about seeing the 'green shoots' of recovery. A bit previous, young lady, considering the recession proper hasn't started yet (certainly not according to the BBC, who still insist on talking about 'the Downturn'). Also a bit too reminiscent for us oldies of Normam Lamont's shifty boast along the same lines way back in predigital times.

As for the Czech EU artwork, Entropa: is the hoax a hoax? Instead of being by 27 artists it's actually by one bloke, David Czerny, the organiser. That's proper art by a proper artist.

Czech Art Attack Provokes EU

Czech sculpture provokes EU despots: Entropa. They don't like it up 'em.

Here's a link to the Czech's own EU2009 website with a link to the catalogue.

Coward Cowen Accepts EU's Mugabe Politics

It had to happen, I suppose: the Irish PM caved in to bullying from the EU with their Mugabe-style tactics concerning the Lisbon Constitution (ie 'Keep voting till you come up with the right result.')

At the same time proving that most of our politicians are cretinous cowards more concerned with keeping their jobs than doing them properly.

Now it's up to the Irish people to show that they don't accept the EU's worthless 'promises' about opt-outs, and vote no again. I won't hold my breath.

Cowen, may your name be shite for evermore.

Spawn Of The Manse Social Gas Mobility Class

Economy going down the tubes and the Spawn and his mates decide to revive class war as an election strategy: the Panel on Access to the Professions, as talked about by Alan ('Spend more time with my family') Milburn.

Take a look at Labour's new blog, LabourList. I'm sure they'll be eager to engage you in debate, even you don't agree with them. In true New Labour style, that is.

EU Grab For British Energy Supply

Following the spat between Ukraine and Russia about gas supplies, the Great Emperor Barroso of the EU is making a grab for British and Dutch gas supplies - so that the big chill can be spread equally throughout the Union:

BRITAIN’S vital North Sea oil and gas supplies are to be taken over by Europe under emergency plans revealed for the first time in Brussels yesterday.

EU leaders are demanding control of British energy reserves to prevent power blackouts that have left millions of eastern Europeans without heat in Arctic weather due to the Russian gas blockade.

Euro-MPs are calling for the creation of a European gas reserve, made up of British and Dutch supplies, which member states can tap into in the event of any future shortage.

The transfer of ownership would be enacted under secret powers written into the controversial Lisbon Treaty. It gives Europe the legal power to take over individual states’ supplies to “ensure security of energy supply in the Union”.

Ultimate control over Britain’s vast natural gas and oil fields – by far the biggest resource within the EU – will fall to Brussels if the new treaty, which has already been ratified by Britain, is adopted throughout Europe.

And supporters of the EU wonder why so many British citizens are less than enthusiastic about the whole thing.

A useful round-up at UK Liberty of what's been happening to our freedoms over the last year.

Tory MP John Redwood has a post on his blog about the government's implementation of the EU's data retention directive. Not that Labour needed any encouragement on this front.

And I noted that the BBC website today, having started out with "UK e-mail law attack on rights'" on its main page, relegated it elsewhere, preferring to amuse the licence-payer with more important news, such as the McCanns' anger at a stupid Tory Party activist and film of a rare venomous mammal. No truth in accusations of dumbing-down or favouring Labour, then.

Why Shit Journalism Can Be Bad For Your Health

BBC news reports an 'unprecedented' rise in measles cases in the UK.

The number of MMR vaccinations dropped sharply from about 2002 onwards because of persistent media stories that there was a causal link between the vaccine and autism in children. A totally unproven link. In fact, a totally fictitious link.

That's what happens when ignorant journalist write on scientific matters and consequently allow unqualified media-grandstanders publicity.

And the grandstanding is still not over. Read Ben Goldacre

Political Clowns and the New World Order

Sometimes the hypocrisy is so great you wonder if it's just a joke. Sometimes the self-delusion of our leaders is so immense you wonder if they truly are living on a different planet.

Unfortunately these cretins are on this planet and they are in charge of our countries (sort of). This is what Sarkozy, Blair, etc, have to say about the current economic crisis, ie more state control, ie more power for the politicians: forget all the rubbish about a 'new' form of capitalism:

PARIS – The head of Europe's biggest economy said Thursday that world leaders should be looking at the massive U.S. deficit and other economic imbalances, not just problems caused by financial markets, as they debate a new global order.

Speaking at a conference in Paris on the future of capitalism, German Chancellor Angela Merkel singled out the American budget deficit and China's current account surplus — the difference between exports and imports — as problems upsetting the global economy.

"We would be making an error if we were content to look solely at financial markets," she said.

She deplored huge debts that governments are accumulating to spend their way out of the present crisis. But she said she recognized, for the moment, that "there is no other possibility."

A Congressional Budget Office report estimates that the U.S. federal budget deficit will hit an unparalleled $1.2 trillion for the 2009 budget year — and that is before President-elect Barack Obama's sweeping stimulus package is calculated. European governments have agreed to be flexible about budget rules that limit deficits to 3 percent of gross domestic product as recession bites.

Merkel said the International Monetary Fund has not managed to regulate global capitalism, and she called for the creation of an economy body at the United Nations, similar to the Security Council, to judge government policy.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, leading the two-day conference with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, blamed financial speculators for encouraging a system fueled on debt. He called financial capitalism based on speculation "an immoral system" that has "perverted the logic of capitalism."

"It's a system where wealth goes to the wealthy, where work is devalued, where production is devalued, where entrepreneurial spirit is devalued," he said.

But no more: "In capitalism of the 21st century, there is room for the state," he said.

Governments around the world have had to step in to rescue credit-starved banks and financial institutions from collapse. They are also pumping billions of euros into their economies to encourage growth.

Measures will be taken by global leaders meeting in London on April 2, Sarkozy promised, urging the U.S. to join the international consensus.

Blair called for a new financial order based on "values other than the maximum short-term profit."

"The greatest entrepreneur I had the chance to meet was passionate about what he had created, not what he had accumulated," he said.

Funny how they don't acknowledge their own part in causing the catastrophe. What this does reveal is their naked ambition to extend control over anything possible.

Klaus in the Lion's Den

The EU's new President for the next six months, Vaclav Klaus of the Czech Republic, looks set to stir things up and make himself even more unpopular amongst the colleagues in Brussels.

In an article in FT.com, entitled 'Do not tie the markets - free them' he says:

As regards the EU's "constitutional" stalemate, the Czech government will - hopefully - not lead Europe to an ever-closer union, to a Europe of regions (instead of states), to a centralised, supranational Europe or to an increasingly controlled and regulated Europe masterminded from above. It will keep stressing its EU presidency slogan "Europe without barriers", which means the advocacy of further liberalisation, removing trade barriers and getting rid of protectionism.

Our historical experience gives us a clear instruction: we always need more of markets and less of government intervention. We also know that government failure is more costly than market failure.

That certainly won't go down well with the autocrats in charge.

I look forward to seeing what smears, lies, innuendos and attacks Klaus is going to be subjected to over the next six months.

We Demand A Proper Opposition

Where is Her Majesty's Opposition when it comes to defending our civil liberties? On their yachts and collecting cash from their well-paid non-jobs with big business, that's where.

Henry Porter on the failure of the Conservatives to defend us from Labour's destruction of civil liberties.

What A Gas

More problems with Russia and Europe's gas supplies: Reuters.

And from OpenEurope:

EU gas supplies suffer further cuts;

Delegation to meet Gazprom officials today

Russia has ordered further cuts in gas supplies to Europe as part of its ongoing dispute over payment from Ukraine. The Times reports that EU ambassadors predicted cuts of up to 20% at a private meeting yesterday and 10 countries have already reported reduced gas flows from Ukrainian pipelines. The Commission and the Czech Presidency dispatched a fact-finding mission to Kiev yesterday to investigate the disruptions, according to European Voice.

EUobserver states that supplies from Russia to the EU via Ukraine fell overnight by 70%. The article also states the Prime Minister Valdimir Putin ordered the cuts in supplies to the Gazprom CEO live on Russian television.

The Irish Times writes that both Moscow and Kiev have urged the EU to mediate the dispute, but it is "loath to intervene". However, a European delegation including Commission officials are due to meet executives from Gazprom, the state-owned energy firm, today in Berlin.

A leader in the WSJ argues that Europe has failed to diversify Europe's gas supplies and it has been indecisive about alternate pipelines to pursue, such as the Nabucco pipeline, which could supply gas from central Asia rather than Russia. A comment piece by Jan Rokita in the Polish daily Dziennik argues that the decision of Bulgaria and Hungary to opt for the South Stream gas pipeline project over the Nabucco pipeline project, of which they were important partners, was a major event in 2008 and came following influence from Moscow.

As usual, it seems that everyone concerned is a fuckwit.

Luckily for the UK, most of our Russian gas doesn't come via Ukraine. On the other hand, energy supply in the UK is going to prove a real problem.

Miscellaneous Cockwaffle

Learning can be boring (Ofsted): anyone ever told them how dull and boring it can be teaching?

Considering how little our children are actually taught in schools these days and how 'relevant' and light their reading, it's unbelievable they find anything boring.

The Jacqui Smith Fan Club. Doh! Caught out again!

The Spawn of the Manse promises to 'create' 100,000 new jobs to beat the recession. Time for your medicine, Mr Brown.

Purnell loses pass. Plonker.

Compel, punish, fine, imprison: the true nature of New Labour revealed.

Qu'on nous permettre de nous en foutre

Or, "Allow us not to give a fuck." - which comes from the book The Coming Insurrection, written by the Tarnac 9, ie the nine young people arrested by French police recently for alleged 'terrorist' offences (ie wanting to be left alone by the powers-that-be).

The book is available for download in French and English versions. I found myself agreeing with a great deal of it, particularly its assault on the fetishisation of work. Not something The Spawn of the Manse would approve of, given his love of 'hard-working families' and such like. And the fact that he's a twat with a severe personality disorder.*

It connects with the fact that for the past thirty years in Britain we have basically had a constant level of unemployment (one million at least, which is 'mass' unemployment' in old media money) without it apparently having a bad effect on the economy. Couple that with the thousands of well-paid pointless non-jobs created in government, education and business (anything with 'adviser', 'service', 'quality', 'manager' or 'value' in the title, for instance) and you realise that the country runs pretty well with a large number of people not doing anything useful or productive at all.

On another tack, there's the school that is no longer a school, because the word has 'negative connotations'. It's a new build and seems rather nice according to the description by the developers. The local MP, who is a Labour man, isn't all that keen, which is odd considering his government has eradicated the world 'education' from the titles of the two main departments in charge of education.

Over at samizdata.net the discussion point XXVIII is 'How can we bring down the European Union?' By any means possible, I think. We better get working on it.

*Talking of twats, the ex-red Fascist, now Green EU Fascist, Daniel Cohn-Bendit has come out in support of the Tarnac 9:

Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a European Parliament member and a leader of the 1968 student anti-government protests in Paris, accused the police of “pushing people who criticize society to the brink,” the Liberation reported on Nov. 28.

Cohn-Bendit recently showed his true fascistic colours in his treatment of the Czech Prime Minister at an EU meeting. He's a vile opportunistic hypocrite and his 'support' for these people is game-playing on his part.

Pay To Throw EU Labour Garbage Woolas Out But Keep Hicham Yezza In

'Pay as you throw' household waste trial shunned by councils: we already pay through our council tax, but the bloody British government also wants to make us pay more. Luckily (at the moment) the local authorities are showing an unusual measure of independence and refusing to take up trial schemes.

This is all part of the government's lickspittle desire to implement the requirements of the EU's Climate Change Bill. I don't have the will to trawl through pages of online EU cockwaffle, but I'm sure there's something in there about opening waste collection up to competition, which must surely be behind this and the following:

The 130-year old right of citizens to have their rubbish collected by their local council was abolished recently:

Phil Woolas, the environment minister, quietly added an amendment to section 46 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 earlier this month which now states: "A waste collection authority is not obliged to collect household waste that is placed for collection in contravention of a requirement under this section."

Mr Woolas is a robotic Labour clone and may, with a bit of luck, lose his seat at the next election (maj. 3,590). A long spell at the Job Centre would serve him right but no doubt he'll have some well-paid pseudo job to take up if that happens. Not something useful like emptying my bins.

Woolas's current job is Minister for Buggering Up Immigration. He's doing really well and is busy trying to deport Hicham Yezza, who was found to be unbearably innocent of any crime back in May. Please write to your MP and Woolas to complain about this.

Another Shit Idea From A Shit Government

The government is considering plans to compel everyone to take out private insurance to cover the costs of care in old age.

Why is this a shit idea?

1. Very few people will earn enough to ensure their payout will cover their needs (in just the same way few people can afford private health insurance).
2. If it works anything like the government-inspired private pension plans of the last 30 years then it'll be an expensive rip-off that won't deliver. It will, however, be a bonanza for insurance companies and the owners and shareholders of nursing homes.
3. We already pay a tax called National Insurance which should go towards state provision of care. In my case, for example, I often pay two lots of NI, one as a self-employed person and another when I take part-time PAYE employment.
4. This is a wheeze by a desperate government that wants to offload responsibility for its citizens and is de facto a shit idea.