Nanny State Beer

Brewery's Nanny State beer swipe

More open contempt, please.
More anger.
More bile.

Lisbon Goes Ahead With Or Without Ireland - Official

So determined are the Euroscum to get the European Constitution/Lisbon Treaty in place that they're planning to implement it whatever Ireland votes in its second referendum. Under the headline 'France refuses to bury Lisbon in the event of another Irish no', Coulisses de Bruxelles says

"Following Berlusconi, Lellouche, Secretary of State for European affairs, openly suggested the possibility of applying the Treaty of Lisbon only to those states that had already ratified it, in the event of another no vote in Ireland in the referendum of 2nd October...
Berlusconi made it clear: "I believe we need to have a complete overhaul of the functioning of Europe to create a core of states that can work beyond unanimity"

Pardon my inelegant translation.

That's the way the EU works, folks: even if you get to vote, the Euroscum do what they want anyway.

Euroscum Want To Spy On Your Bank Accounts

Daily Express | UK News :: Europe spies on your pay and savings More totalitarian plans being floated by the Brussels Euroscum.

EU SNOOPERS are pressing for sinister new powers to spy on every taxpayer in Britain, the Daily Express can reveal today.

Brussels wants European Union countries to allow its bureaucrats the right to delve into millions of people’s personal financial details.

The wide-ranging powers would allow faceless officials across all 27 EU member states to access highly sensitive information right down to bank account transactions.

After Lisbon they'd be able to push this through, no problem, because they wouldn't need unanimity.

I'm not taking medication, says Gordon Brown

I'm not taking medication, says Gordon Brown. Well you should be, you twat, considering the depression you've plunged the country into. And the fact we've got nine more months to endure before we get rid of the rotting corpse of New Labour.

The Biggest Whore Of The Lot

Lord Mandelson: I would work for the Tories.

Lord Mandelson has disclosed that he is ready to accept a job under a future Conservative government.

In an interview with The Sunday Times magazine, the business secretary said he would be willing to put his “experience at the disposal of the country”, if Labour lost power. “As I grow older, I can imagine more ways of serving my country than simply being a party politician,” he said.

The best way of serving the country would be for him to fuck off and die.

G-20's Wishful Thinking - Forbes.com

G-20's Wishful Thinking More bollocks from the tossers at the top.

Adult Vetting Scheme Cobblers

Vetting scheme for adults gets even worse | Letters From A Tory

Britain's State-Corrupted Charities

British Government Funds Best Charities In The World

Britain's charity and voluntary organisations are the "best in the world", says Angela Smith, Minister for the Third Sector, speaking at the Third Sector Excellence Awards last night.

There are 870,000 civil society organisations in the UK with an income of £116 billion. The third sector is backed by a generous public, with 73% of adults taking part in volunteering and 78% of people giving to charity - the highest level of giving in Europe.

Individual third sector organisations are setting an example for the rest of the world - ground-breaking research charities, international support agencies, social enterprises, campaigning groups and small community-led organisations.

The Office of the Third Sector, the first such Government department in the world has been advising other countries - such as the US Office for Social Innovation - and is regarded as a world leader.

Britain leads the way in the corruption of charities for political purposes, in other words. That makes me really proud to be British.

Obama Blows Off Brown

Barack Obama rebuffs Gordon Brown as 'special relationship' sinks to new low - Telegraph Obama's lucky - he can tell the twat to fuck off. We're going to have to wait another nine months.

And another thing - message to all politicians and media folk: stop talking about the special relationship. It doesn't exist. We know it, you know it. Grow up.

Is It Cos I Is Black?

And female? And an unelected member of a Labour government? That I haven't been booted out of my job when I've been caught breaking the law (which I helped draw up)?

Liberal Conspiracy Fails Cycling Proficiency

Liberal Conspiracy » Iain Dale Fail on Labour and motorists. Liberal Conspiracy maintains that no ministers are considering bringing in a civil law to make motorists automatically culpable in accidents involving cyclists:

The hysterial Iain Dale thundered yesterday: Labour’s Maddest Idea Yet: Find All Motorists Guilty!

Apparently,

Labour Ministers are intending to pass laws to ensure that all motorists are found to be the guilty parties when involved with accidents involving pedestrians or cyclists. Unbebloodylievable.

This demonising of the motorist has to stop.

The article however didn’t list a single government minister in favour of the proposal.

Adam Bienkov from Tory Troll:

Now if you actually click on the link, you find that Labour ministers are not “intending” anything of the sort.

The proposal (which isn’t to find drivers automatically guilty in any case) is from Cycling England, rather than ministers (or Labour).

But as usual, enough has been done to set off Dale’s readers:

And what did the government have to say on the proposal by a lobby group?

A Department for Transport spokesman said: ‘This is something that gets raised by pressure groups from time to time.

‘Cycling England has proposed it, but it is not something that is being considered by ministers.’

We look forward to a correction.

Fair point, you may think. But LC should have checked out that 'lobby group', Cycling England first. Here's who they are:

Cycling England is an independent, expert body, working to get more people cycling, more safely, more often. Established in 2005 by the Department for Transport, we promote the growth of cycling in England by championing best practice and channeling funding to partners engaged in training, engineering and marketing projects. With the Department for Transport’s continued support and funding we work tirelessly to make the case for cycling, showing how the humble bicycle can transform the way we travel to create a greener, healthier nation.

I don't think any comment (or correction) is necessary, is it?

Czech Republic 'planning to delay signing Lisbon treaty' - Times Online

Czech Republic 'planning to delay signing Lisbon treaty'

EU leaders are said to be furious that the Czech Republic is planning to delay signing the Lisbon treaty for up to six months even if the Irish vote "yes" in their referendum next month.

The country might even try to delay it until after the British general election campaign when a Tory victory would see the question put to voters by David Cameron.

Please. Please.

Observer Journos Accommodate Elephant

Britain's six-day mail deliveries threatened by strike | UK news | The Observer Another article about the destruction of Royal Mail by our brilliant journos at the Observer. Not mentioning the EU once, of course. Getting to be a bit of a habit this, isn't it, Toby?

Swine Flu Could Kill Millions

Swine flu could kill millions.

UN report says pandemic may result in anarchy unless western world pays for antiviral drugs and vaccines.

Don't believe you. Fuck off.

Royal Mail Shafted By EU

Shackled by EU rules, Royal Mail staggers from shambles to fiasco - Telegraph. Jeff Randall tells the truth about the shambles of Royal Mail, pointing out the decisive role of the EU in it all.

At that time, we still had two deliveries a day, Sunday collections and a national network of post offices. But the business was about to be hit with a sledgehammer from Europe in the form of competition directives, which forced the British government to open up the UK postal market to EU rivals. The new rules took effect in January 2003 (for items weighing more than 100 grams) and January 2006 (50 grams), since when the effort of providing the loss-making universal service while giving up profitable operations to foreign "cherry-pickers" has exacerbated Royal Mail's self-inflicted wounds.

In its eagerness to suck up to Brussels, the Government has created for itself not so much a headache, more an incurable migraine. For although Royal Mail has slimmed down its payroll, eliminated some traditional services and battled to drag the militant element of its workforce out of the Stone Age, it needs to run at a speed hitherto unachieved simply to stand still.

The option for government of increasing subsidies to Royal Mail and the Post Office network as necessary social services – in much the same way that we have poured extra money into schools and hospitals – has been removed by the EU, which has the power to decide how much state aid is allowed.

That's the kind of reporting you won't read in the Guardian or the Observer or find mentioned in the broadcast media - particularly the BBC.

Balls In Da Bunker

New Statesman - Bring it on Ed Balls - no comment needed, really:

We can and will expose Cameron Conservatism to be as out of touch and unsuited for these times as Labour was in 1979. We must win this fight.

"The election's a foregone conclusion . . . Labour can't win a fourth term . . . The centre left is in crisis . . . We need to reinvent ourselves . . . Let's debate how 'modern' Cameron's Conservatives are - and who should be Labour's next leader." These assertions - some from the Tories, some from their friends in the media, some from our own side - stem from different motives. But anyone who wants a genuinely progressive government to get us through this global recession must reject them all.

As we approach the most important general election for a generation, this is no time for introspection or defeatism. There's never been a momentwhen Labour's values and experience have been more relevant or necessary. The biggest global recession in our lifetimes has not only required unprecedented action, it has also shattered some of the assumptions the right have clung to for decades. Who would now dare claim that financial markets, left to their own devices, are efficient or inherently stabilising? Or that financial market regulation is always to be reduced wherever possible?

The global financial crisis of the past year has underlined the importance of our defining philosophy: while markets are powerful drivers of growth and innovation, there is a vital role for the state in making sure they work fairly and in the public interest. The supposedly modern and "progressive" Conservative Party has opposed every action we have taken to support the economy. As Alan Johnson said last weekend, it was the call of the century whether to intervene to stop recession turning to depression - and David Cameron and George Osborne got it wrong.

Where you are on the political spectrum is ultimately defined by two things - your view of what constitutes social justice, and your view of the role of the state in delivering fair outcomes. The stark contrast between the Tories' inaction and calls for spending cuts now, and the way Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling have led the world in dealing with the downturn and supporting families, is why I say Labour is clearer about the modern role for the state in delivering fair outcomes than ever.

I don't see our approach today as a wrenching change from the past. New Labour was never about a wholesale embrace of free-market individualism. We always knew that markets should be servants not our masters, that we had to tackle vested interests, that there is a role for government in delivering social justice. That was the essence of the new Clause Four. Look at the radical things we did in the early years: from the minimum wage and the windfall tax to the creation of a single statutory regulator for financial services. But we were also right to strike a careful balance by supporting the market economy and recognising the state can sometimes be part of the problem as well as part of the solution.

So, just as we rejected the heavy-handed anti-individual collectivism of early 1980s Bennite Labour, we were also right to support open markets and champion a tough competition policy as well as proper voice and choice for users of public services. We did not always strike this balance right. In public-service reform, we sometimes sounded as though private-sector solutions were always more efficient; and who can now doubt that, despite the tougher measures we brought in, financial regulation was not tough enough?

We need to continue to get this balance right as we prepare our manifesto - and be clear about the limits of but also the proper role for government. Of course, policy debates, external challenge and new ideas - in the pages of this magazine and from think tanks - are essential, especially after 12 years of government. But we don't need think tanks to work out that there is a false choice between heavy-handed statism which does not respect individual choices and a so-called progressive liberalism that sees the state as the enemy of individual freedom and is just conservatism with the label "progressive" erroneously shoved in front.

Yet while the clear differences between the parties on the economy are well understood, commentators are still claiming we're all the same on tax and spending. This poses a challenge. It's going to be tougher on spending in the coming years - all countries need to get borrowing and the debt ratio down steadily, as the Chancellor set out in the Budget.

But where we have to make tough choices, and where some things have to be cut back, we must do so in a fair and Labour way - because the financial excesses of a few should not be paid for by damaging cuts to front-line public services for the many. On tax, the Tories are also in a fundamentally different place. They oppose our National Insurance rise and higher top rate of tax, and want an inheritance tax cut for the wealthiest. So even before they've started reducing borrowing, the Tories need to find billions every year just to keep deficit reduction on track. This Tory position is not simply about tackling the deficit. It's about ideology, too. Which is why Osborne cannot hide his relish for the deep and immediate spending cuts the Tories propose.

The ideological divide between the two parties - on policy, values, the role of the state - is now wider than at any time since the Thatcherite 1980s. And when the policies and underlying philosophies of the parties are scrutinised - on spending, Europe and education - we can and will expose Cameron Conservatism to be as out of touch and unsuited for these times as Labour was in 1979.We face an election with a choice as stark and vital for Britain's future as 1945 or 1997.

We have to be more determined in setting out the choice and taking the fight to the Tories - not just on the economy, but on tax and spending, too.This is not the time to buy the Tory spin that the election's already lost and throw in the towel. We face the fight of our lives - and Britain faces a choice of huge importance. We can and must win this fight, and ensure that our country makes the progressive choice.

Ed Balls is Labour and Co-operative MP for Normanton and Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families

Harman's Thatcher U-turn List

Harman's office Thatcher U-turn Ha! Caught out!

Harriet Harman's officials have been forced to change a government fact sheet celebrating "women in power" which did not name Margaret Thatcher.

The Equalities Office "milestones" list names Labour politicians like Diane Abbott and Baroness Scotland.

But it did not mention Lady Thatcher by name, saying only: "1979: UK's first woman prime minister".

An Equalities Office spokesman said: "We have acknowledged the oversight and have taken steps to amend it."

It also mentioned the first PM of Sri Lanka but failed then to mention Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir and Gro Harlem Brundtland.

Unqualified Accountant Ru(i)ns Olympics

LDA left unqualified accountant in charge of £1.1 billion Olympic budget.

September 15 - An unqualified accountant was put in charge by the London Development Agency (LDA) of its £1.1 billion Olympic budget, it emerged today as investigations continued into a £160 million black hole in the expenses.

Harvey McGrath, the chairman of the LDA, and Sir Peter Rogers, the chief executive of the LDA, made the extraordinary admission when they appeared before London Assembly members who demanded answers on how £159.8 million could have been spent on remediation costs and professional fees without anyone noticing.

Members from the London Assembly Economic Development, Culture, Sport and Tourism (EDCST) Committee were trying to find out how the LDA's accountants had failed to spot the overspend.

The LDA, which is the Mayor's economic and business funding arm and its remit includes regeneration, promoting business and employment and charity-led schemes to boost the capital's economy and well-being, admitted of the two accountants employed to check the accounts, only one was formally qualified.

This one looked after “day-to-day” accounts, the LDA said, while the £1.1 billion Olympic budget was ultimately administered by an unqualified accountant.

A report on the budget of the Olympic Legacy Directorate (OLD), which is part of the LDA, produced by accountancy firm KPMG on behalf of the LDA and published last week, discovered the agency failed to spot a budget overrun as far back as April 2008, the month before Boris Johnson took over as London Mayor, despite information available at the time showing that payments and land cost claims were running "significantly above" the costs estimated when the budget was originally set.

The budget relates to the complex task of clearing land and purchasing it for the 500-acre Olympic site in the Lea Valley in East London, which involved 3,000 separate land interests in total.

The budget was set at £1.1 billion in 2006 by the then LDA board following input from a number of experts, including KPMG.

This figure is separate from the £9.3 billion set aside for staging the 2012 Olympics.

The LDA admitted a series of programmes it had been hoping to fund, would now face severe cuts as a result of the error.

This included funding for the Visit London tourist programme, which the LDA said would be cut by £4 million this year.

Conservative Olympic spokesman Andrew Boff admitted last week that £45 million will have to be taken from projects this year to fill the gap "which would mean cuts for skills programmes, funding for affordable housing and job brokerage schemes."

Dee Doocey, the chair of the EDCST Committee, said: “Once again this undermines confidence in and raises questions about internal processes at the LDA.

“This shortfall will have to be met by taking funding away from key programmes helping Londoners during the recession.

“What we heard today amounts to nothing less than breathtaking incompetence.”

Four staff from the OLD are facing disciplinary action over the scandal, although no criminal activity is suspected.

Unlikely to make the main BBC news. Via Resistance is Useless.

Owners of uninsured cars face new fines under new Government curbs

Owners of uninsured cars face new fines under new Government curbs - Telegraph

Lamentable Lammy

Labour Minister David Lammy in U-turn after accusing Cambridge University of being racist | Mail Online

Councils Admit Social Engineering

BBC NEWS | Politics | Can politicians shape our behaviour?

For the council leader, Mike Freer, this approach is an idea whose time has come.

He says: "The role of the council has shifted away from being a provider of services to being responsible for helping local citizens improve their lives. Nudging people along is a terrific idea, we've got to stop nagging. If nagging worked we'd all be skinny, we'd all be recycling and we'd all be walking to work."

No, Mr Freer, your job IS to provide services, NOT 'help' us to 'improve' our lives.

More Bin Slop Fines On Their Way

Households face fines under slop bucket food waste scheme - Telegraph

One on four councils already collect food waste separately in order to reduce the amount of biodegradable rubbish being dumped in landfill.

However under radical new plans backed by Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, every council would have to bring in the controversial new system.

Tethered To A Corpse

I agrre with Lord Elvis and millions of others: having to endure New Labour until the election is like being tethered to a corpse.

Why can't we just get rid of the fuckers now and have done with it?

Thousands Of Germans Say Nein

Thousands protest in Germany over personal data.

More than 10,000 people have taken to the streets of Berlin, to demand better protection of personal data after a number of scandals.

Police put the number of demonstrators at 10,000 while unions and political parties who organized the protest said there were around 20,000.

Following a string of scandals involving the sale of confidential information such as bank details and addresses, the German government has come under pressure from German citizens.

This is while according to a terrorist law adopted by the country's parliament in 2008, the police and secret services are allowed surveillance and access to such personal information.

Bit by bit...

Old Commie Bans Bulbs

Official responsible for light bulb ban is a former communist - Telegraph.

The man responsible for the Europe-wide ban on traditional light bulbs can be revealed as a former Soviet Communist party member from Latvia.

That figures.

(Why) Are The Tories Just Another Bunch Of Lying Shitbags?

Iain Dale thinks everything's going to be OK with the Tories with regard to the Independent Safeguarding Authority. Strikes me he's being incredibly naive. Full quote from his blog here:

Grayling: Abolition of the ISA Is An Option
Iain Dale 12:31 PM

Following on from the last post I have just had a lengthy conversation about the ISA with Chris Grayling. I asked him why he hadn't committed the party to outright abolition of this scheme and I have to say I was reassured by the answer. Apparently James Brokenshire from his Shadow Home Affairs team and Maria Miller, the Shadow Children's Minister have been working on a review of this scheme for some time. They are looking at several options, and outright abolition is indeed one of them. Chris said: "We are considering all options, including abolition." He understandably didn't want to pre-empt their conclusions in his article.

Chris was also at pains to point out that the government has gone totally overboard in 'gold plating' the implementation of the legislation. Wasn't it always thus? The key, if abolition is the way forward, is to then work out a way forward which achieves the aim of protecting children - so far as is possible - but doesn't create an administrative nightmare or an overpowering state.

I've never had close up dealings with politicians the way Dale has but even I smell the stink of hypocrisy. This is full of typical political pussy-footing: 'working on a review', 'considering all options', criticising the government for 'having gone too far', etc. Then the killer of the final sentence, which assumes that such extra legislation is actually necessary. We all know the only proper option is complete abolition.

I hope to be proved wrong, but I suspect the Tories will make a bit of noise about the ISA but either quietly let it continue or simply 'modify' some of its components.

I don't think they've got either the courage or the intelligence to wipe it from the face of the earth, together with ContactPoint and all the other repressive legislation instituted by New Labour.

Women in Power: Millstones?

As noted by others in the blogosphere and beyond, Harriet Harman's Equalities Office has produced a factsheet entitled 'Women in Power: Milestones', a copy of which can be read on our Scribd site.

Apart from the fact that it pointedly doesn't name Margaret Thatcher, when it moves from legislation to naming individuals it's a decidedly racist selection, seeming to concentrate on black and Asian women.

Then it runs out of anything to say and just recaps stuff about the last 100 years, etc.

And why, if it is only about British women, does it mention Sirimavo Bandaranaika, first woman PM of Sri Lanka? If it's going to include her then surely it should also include Golda Meir (Israel, 1969); Indira Gandhi (India, 1966) and Gro Harlem Brundtland (Norway, 1981)?

Independent Rebellion Authority Official Beware

Now that news of the Independent Safeguarding Authority is making it into the MSN, people are starting to get angry. At long last they are beginning to understand what Stalinist control freaks New Labour really are.

This new piece of legislation now makes the assumption that anyone working with or coming into contact with children is a paedophile and needs to be vetted (and charged for the privilege).

Details of what constitues 'controlled' and 'regulated' activities (the terminology says everything, doesn't it?) can be found on the ISA website of via our Scribd site.

As can this curiosity, A Letter to Posterity, by author Dennis Wheatley. There's a lesson for us all in the following paragraph:

It will be immensely difficult to break the stranglehold of the machine, but it can be done, little by little; the first step being the formation of secret groups of friends for free discussion. Then numbers of people can begin systematically to break small regulations, and so to larger ones with passive resistance by groups of people pledged to stand together – and eventually the boycotting, or ambushing and killing of unjust tyrannous officials.

Down With Skool

Terry Deary, author of the successful 'Horrible History' books, hates schools:

“Schools are an utter waste of young life. Learning things that will never be any use to you. The only reason they are there is to keep kids off the street. They were a Victorian invention. The Industrial Revolution took kids from their families and made the parents work in factories long hours. Then they said, ‘we can’t have these little kids working here.’ So what do we do? Lock them all up in the same room all day and we’ll call it school. I spent hours learning trigonometry, physics, none of which prepared me for life. Relationships, talking to people, managing money, planning your career, how to help someone who has cut their leg open. I have had to learn these things by default.

“There won’t be any schools in 25 years. There will be mentoring. Older people passing their skills on to younger people. Teachers know nothing about life and the real needs of pupils.”

The only problem is, what are all those kids going to do if they're not incarcerated in school, and there aren't any jobs to keep them occupied?

Gordon Brown's intention is to lock 'em up in education if they don't have jobs. Hm.

Cameron's Necessary Purge

One of the things that Cameron will need to do once he becomes PM is purge the public system system of its Labour stooges infesting the multitude of quangos and other public bodies. HT Voice of the Resistance for pointing out this article in The Spectator, which makes the point very clearly.

The closer David Cameron gets to the election, the more he may come to realise how short-lived the elation following his victory may be. Defeating an exhausted Labour party will be the easy part. Winning real power will be a separate, longer battle — and one that requires him to outwit an enemy far more cunning and resilient than Gordon Brown. To transform Britain means seeing off the cronies, placemen and political stooges with whom the government has packed the boards of Britain’s quangos.

Over the Labour years these groups have swelled from an irritant into a state within a state. With 700,000 employees and boards that read like a who-was-who of the Blair/Brown era, the quangos will represent Labour’s stay-behind fifth column. Not only are the quangocrats implacably opposed to the Conservatives’ reform programme, but they are better placed than even the wiliest Sir Humphrey to thwart change and mount a guerrilla insurgency against public spending controls.

MoD Spies On Wounded Soldiers

MoD spends £426,000 spying on injured soldiers - Telegraph

The Ministry of Defence has spent £426,000 of taxpayers' money conducting surveillance on injured servicemen.

Officials used counter-terrorism powers to carry out secret filming on hundreds of wounded personnel to check whether they are exaggerating or lying in their compensation claims.

The tactics used are similar to those employed in investigations into suspected benefit cheats.

It is being carried out under the controversial Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), originally intended to help the police and MI5 monitor terrorists in the UK.

Injured servicemen and women are warned that they could be filmed in letters to their solicitors.

It emerged in July that the MoD had carried out covert filming on 284 people who claimed for compensation since 2000, about one per cent of all injury compensation claims.

Papers released to the Daily Mirror under the Freedom of Information Act show that the exercise has cost £426,000, about £1,500 for each serviceman subject to surveillance.

Although the MoD said that the tactic had saved "millions" of pounds, the newspaper said that only three claims had been rejected outright as a result of the surveillance.

A spokesman said: "Surveillance is used only where there is a suspicion a claim has been exaggerated.

"It is used in just one per cent of civil damages injury cases and ensures that taxpayers' money is not being claimed illegitimately."

At this rate there won't be anyone they're not spying on - except themselves, of course.

Barroso's Brilliant EU Tax Idea

Jose Manuel Barroso: plan for EU tax to appear on all receipts - Telegraph

All shopping and petrol station receipts in Britain could in future include the amount of VAT or fuel duty that goes directly to Brussels as an "EU tax", according to Jose Manuel Barroso...

Mr Barroso said under the proposals, "EU and national VAT should appear as separate taxes on the invoices or receipts" every time consumers make a purchase, buy fuel or pay for an airline ticket.

This is a great idea - letting us all know how much of our cash is being scammed by the bastards in Brussels. Most people here don't actually realise that VAT is an EU tax. Just the thing to stir up even more ant-EU feeling in the UK. Which is why I can't see it happening.

Boris in Brussels

Brussels is a shining symbol of where the real power lies - Telegraph

As Westminster MPs lick their wounds, their European counterparts grow ever more confident, says Boris Johnson.

Indeed, with more directives in the pipeline, the future of the whole UK financial services industry is probably in their hands. That is why it is so telling to see the physical contrast between desiccated Westminster and sleek, self-confident Brussels. Power has passed, is passing, and under the Treaty of Lisbon, will pass further to the Euro-parliament.

Except the power is and will lie with the Commission and the Councils, rather than the MEPS.

Anti-Piracy Boss Nicks Laptop

Anti-Piracy Boss Confiscates Confiscated Hacker Laptop

Tim Kuik, managing director of Dutch anti-piracy gang BREIN, has publicly admitted that he’s currently using a Sony VAIO laptop previously confiscated from a ‘hacker’. Although he doesn’t elaborate on how he obtained the machine, it is hard not to conclude that it has been misappropriated.

Police/private business/corporate greed/government twats = slavery and theft.

UK Lying File Sharing Tosser Government

How UK Government spun 136 people into 7m illegal file sharers:

The British Government's official figures on the level of illegal file sharing in the UK come from questionable research commissioned by the music industry, the BBC has revealed.

The Radio 4 show More or Less - which is devoted to the "often abused but ever ubiquitous world of numbers" - decided to examine the Government's claim that 7m people in Britain are engaged in illegal file sharing.

Tossers.

You Can Shove Your ID Cards where The Sun Don't Shine

ID cards snubbed - News - Manchester Evening News

ONLY 8,000 people have enquired about getting the government's controversial ID cards, which will be launched in Manchester.

During a live webchat at the M.E.N offices, Lord Bill Brett, the minister responsible for the introduction of the ID card scheme, admitted only a small percentage of the population had asked about the voluntary scheme.

The cards will cost £30 and contain biometric details of holders.

Obviously, the remaining population need to be re-educated.

EU Defence At Odds With Nato

Nato alliance 'at risk' from EU defence policy - Telegraph

The traditional Nato alliance is at risk from the competing efforts of the European Union's own defence policy, the head of the EU Military Committee has warned.

This is the kind of cock-up you get when arrogant incompetents such as the EU punching above their weight. Just wait till the Lisbon Treaty is pushed through and they get the go-ahead for a Euroepan Common Defence force.

Teachers Campaign Against Code Of Conduct

Teachers campaign against code of conduct | Education | guardian.co.uk

Thousands of teachers in England are campaigning for a new code of conduct to be scrapped because they say it intrudes into their private lives and strips them of basic human rights.

A petition against the code – which comes into force next month and requires teachers to uphold "public trust and confidence" in their profession, even out of school and on weekends – has collected more than 10,000 signatures over the summer holidays.

The offending article reads as follows:

Maintain reasonable standards in their own behaviour that enable them to maintain an effective learning environment and also to uphold public trust and confidence in the profession.

Keith Bartley, chief executive of the GTC, says 'The code is not open to interpretation,' - which shows what a clever chap he is.

One may wonder why, if this were such an important idea, that no one thought to do it before. There again, no one until the last decade or so would have been so arrogant and authoritarian to believe they had the right to tell people how to behave.

NHS No Cuts Expensive Save No Cash Plan

BBC NEWS | Health | NHS workforce cuts plan rejected.

The government says it has rejected advice from management consultants to cut the NHS workforce in England by 10% over the next five years.

The plans to close 137,000 clinical and admin posts were proposed by McKinsey and Company to save £20bn by 2014.

The consultants also said a recruitment freeze and early retirement programme should be established, the Health Service Journal reported.

But the Department of Health said many services needed more staff, not fewer.

Problems with the reporting: firstly, this is the British media (who are crap); secondly it's from the BBC (who are simply a mouthpiece for the government and the 'progressive' establishment); thirdly, it doesn't give any proper details from the report; fourthly it's a 'leak', ie, obviously part of a government stratagem to wrong-foot the Tories; fifthly, the conclusions of any report into saving money are always going to come up with the obvious (because only) solutions, ie make drastic cuts (or 'the same old formulaic answers and their much-repeated mantra of job cuts as the answer' according to union reps - grow up, for Christ's sake).

It would be interesting to know how much of the dead wood of managers and quangocrats figured in the proposed firing line, since this is one area where we all know savings could be made.

For stating the bloody obvious, McKinsey's no doubt got paid a handsome wedge of our money. And will be ignored, to boot. Well done, everyone.

EU Liars Break British Budget Pledge

EU breaks British budget pledge - Telegraph

European Union officials are preparing to ditch a promise to Britain of a complete review of all EU spending, despite sharp rises in UK payments to Brussels over the next four years.

The overhaul was promised to soften the blow of a deal to cut Britain's budget rebate, originally won by Margaret Thatcher in 1984 but partly surrendered during a negotiation by Tony Blair in December 2005.

There was an angry reaction when The Sunday Telegraph revealed last weekend that as a result, Britain's net contribution to the EU is to rise from £4.1 billion this year to an estimated £6.9 billion in 2011 – the equivalent of £257 for each household.

Now the "full and wide-ranging review" of EU spending promised to Mr Blair for this year is being abandoned because officials fear that it would be too contentious - and would disrupt other work which they regard as more important.

What would you expect from an agreement 'negotiated' by Blair and Brown with the bent bastards of the EU?

Music Downloading - Samo Samo

Dizzy Thinks: Music downloading - such an old argument. Exactly.

Who said giving the EP more powers was a good thing?

Open Europe blog: Who said giving the EP more powers was a good thing?

A new report from the cross-party House of Lord's EU Scrutiny Committee will make yet more uncomfortable reading for all those Yes campaigners who are still, against all the evidence, operating under the illusion (or lie more like) that the Lisbon Treaty will be good for national parliamentary democracy.

The report looks at the meaning and implications of the so-called 'co-decision' procedure, whereby EU ministers meeting in the European Council have a more or less equal say over decisions as the European Parliament. Those decisions which are not subject to co-decision are usually taken by the Council acting alone.

Britain's Forthcoming Blackouts

Britain facing blackouts for first time since 1970s - Telegraph: "Low Carbon Transition Plan":

Demand for power from homes and businesses will exceed supply from the national grid within eight years, according to official figures.

The shortage of supplies will hit the equivalent of many as 16 million families for at least one hour during the year, it is forecast.

Nothing like planning for the future.