State School for my Children- Provided they are privately run!

David Cameron says he will send his children to a state school. He has pledged to send his children to state schools - as long as they offer a good standard of education.
But will they be state schools? His plan to create comprehensives outside local authority control can only mean they will be privately run. Shadow education secretary Michael Gove said there will be a “superb new school in every community".
You can bet Cameron’s kids will be at this school, whether there is room for your kids or not.
It will be another case of dual standards, based not on academic ability but on ability to pay.

Horse Feathers

A Professor David Nutt, chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) has said ecstasy is no worse than horse riding..
To quote him in full
"Drug harm can be equal to harms in other parts of life. There is not much difference between horse-riding and ecstasy."
The professor said horse-riding accounted for more than 100 deaths a year, and went on: "This attitude raises the critical question of why society tolerates - indeed encourages - certain forms of potentially harmful behaviour but not others such as drug use."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7876425.stm

He seems to have forgotten (not taking his own advice, is he?) that horse riding is a legal activity and horse riders rarely set out to injure themselves or attack others. Drug users hurt people to get their drugs, hurt people through taking their drugs and the money they spend contributes to other organised criminal activity.
Our once envied and proud British society is now a laughing stock and is tearing itself apart. Thanks to the opinions of a small number of academics such as Professor Nutt that give licence to unacceptable behaviour on the grounds of freedom and inaccurate association with legal forms of enjoyment. He forgets that with freedom comes responsibility and that responsibility is sadly lacking because in recent years we have chosen to remove the penalties that controlled such irresponsibility.

Back to the Future?

I see David Cameron has Kenneth Clarke back on the front benches. I remember the destruction of our manufacturing base by him and his party in the 1980's. Just goes to show, for all his rhetoric, Cameron is True Blue.

The Recession Claims Another....‏

I am fed up of hearing the ‘news’ that the recession has claimed another large chain store. Chains like Woolworths and Adams must surely have had difficulties long before the onset of the recent recession. They have been in business for almost a hundred years and came through the 1930’s depression. I accept it may have been the last straw, but not the sole cause.
The media should be more responsible and stop scare-mongering. And, just for once report accurately.

Tough on Crime, Soft on the ‘Causers’ of Crime.

I’ve just read the Government is to get tough on caught those carrying a knife. As I continued the story, I thought ‘About time’. What would they be doing? Five years for carrying a bladed weapon? Re-introduce hard labour for violent crime? Maybe consider corporal punishment? No. 18 month’s community service and a curfew.

That’ll scare the pants off anybody prepared to stick 8 inches of cold steel into someone.

Eye For An Eye

So offenders have been abused and threatened wearing high visibility vests. Good. What about the victims they abused and threatened? If it makes just one offender less likely to reoffend, it should be encouraged. Let the system continue, and look at the figures in a couple of years.

But I suppose the liberal brigade will get their way and the poor darlings won't be made to wear them.

 

Royal Prerogative

Not satisfied with shooting at mutilated birds that have been caged and frightened by beaters so much they fly against instinct into the gunfire, the Prince beats a dog that makes a mess of his 'catch'.

If this was me or you, we would almost certainly be arrested and interviewed. As it is, the RSPCA (ROYAL Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) is not investigating, but conducting a 'review' of what happened.

Disgusting. The Royals and their ilk would have little kids back up chimneys if they thought they'd get away with it.

 

Damian Green

What's the problem over the arrest of Damian Green? Either he committed a crime or there was evidence to suggest a crime had or may be committed. Or he hadn't and there was not sufficient evidence, in which case the police and not the New Labour (who I abhor) government have a case to answer.

The truth about inflation.

The current wave of price cuts in high street stores supports my position that high prices and inflation are not caused by reasonable wage claims but by greedy businessmen charging excessive prices to maintain obscene profits just because 'they can afford it'.

Never mind wage restraint, the government should introduce price constraint. Or are obscene profits 'good business' while high wages are greed? We are, after all selling our labour.

Inflation Solved

Greedy businessmen, not pay rises fuel inflation. (Or why don't the big businesses rises and bonuses fuel inflation?) The greedy 'they're going to need this, charge what they can afford, not what it's worth', profit for profits sake so-called entrepreneurs are the ones to blame and should be reigned in through similar draconian legislation the poor were subjected to throughout 17 years of Tory and 11 years of New 'Labour' misrule.

Divide and Conquer

The politicians, lawyers, employers, financiers, speculators and sundry other interested parties must be rubbing their hands with glee. Talking to colleagues, friends and neighbours it seems they're on the road to victory again. Instead of uniting against the financial 'elite' we're spending our time arguing with ourselves, scoring cheap points about who is better off while they continue their policy of divide and conquer.

Tories Tax Ideas- Nothing New.

Re the Tories tax ideas. Once again they are saying 'benefits to businessmen will trickle down to the workforce'.

Secondly I can see this becoming another tax loophole. Take on one long term unemployed, get the tax cut then sack him/her. Do the same at the start of each tax year. Businessman benefits, unemployed figures stay the same and income tax goes up to pay for it.

Iraq or Afghanistan? Does it Matter?

While I was pleased to hear Barack Obama had won the US election, believing it might be a new beginning and usher in world peace, I have now revised my opinion. The day I discovered his opinion that when troops were moved out of Iraq, they should go to Afghanistan. Nothing changes, really.

Economy in a Recession? But what about X-Factor?

Never mind the economy, unemployment, lack of housing. Parliament is busy discussing the Brand/Ross fiasco and worrying about X-factor contestants being voted off. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7720144.stm)

Yep. We have to get our priorities right!

Tax Cuts

So Gordon Brown wants tax cuts for ordinary working people but they will probably be paid for by more public borrowing. Here's a revolutionary idea for you, Messrs Brown and Darling. Pay for it by taxing the super rich, individuals and companies and obscene profits of the energy and petrochemical industry.

By the way, how does that help the poorest who don't pay tax?

Fuel Poverty

Friend's of the Earth and Help the Aged have gone to the high court to try to force Government action on fuel poverty.

Government lawyers argued there had 'been no breach of legal responsibility'.

And there was me thinking governing a supposedly democratic, free society had a moral aspect. You live and learn.

Dumb Policy Department

Where does this government get its ideas from? Does it have a 'dumb policy department' hidden away? They now want to teach sex education in primary schools. Apart from allowing children to be children for a few years at least, can't they see that when sex education was made compulsory for 11 year olds we saw an explosion in teenage pregnancy to the point it is now the norm?

Cloud Computing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing


“The concept, is that vast computing resources will reside somewhere out there in the ether (rather than in your computer room) and we'll connect to them and use them as needed.”

Personally I am of the opinion that this is just another way to get more money from us. Cost of computers is constantly falling, software vendors are extending special offers to buy or upgrade their software. A niche has been seen, a possible multi billion pound (or dollar, if you prefer) niche. No matter what, if ‘cloud computing’ becomes mainstream, that is where the development money will go and licensed software will become obsolete and probably unusable eventually.

Regardless of the reasons vendors and or developers take this tack it takes away our choice. I just had a look at google docs for the first time and I can see me using it sometimes, when convenient and when the work is not critical. I would also point out that google docs have an offline option, which appears to allow google docs to be used offline. Presumably that means they are synchronised (I haven’t tried it yet) and if google or your internet connection goes down, you can still access and work on your docs.

I think in all probability it will be many years before ‘cloud computing’ becomes commonplace. There will probably be several years of licence based applications running alongside ‘cloud computing’ before we see the demise of licensing. But if ‘cloud computing’ becomes popular, then we certainly will see it pushed by the vendors and once there are few alternatives we may well see the end of cheap, maybe even home computing.

Another possible issue is who will supply these applications in the ‘cloud’? Almost certainly, apart from the current software vendors ISP’s will offer ‘cloud computing’ as part of its package. This could result in difficulty leaving an ISP (we all know how difficult it has and still can be to get a MAC number from your ISP) if they withhold your documents or make it difficult to access them. There are many ways such a system could be used to make document retrieval difficult.

Then there is the government. Living in the UK and seeing some of the draconian laws being introduced in the name of security, how long before they (or some future government with few or no scruples- perhaps a Hitler II -) would demand access to everybody’s documents- in the name of ‘security’, of course?

In 1943, IBM's Chairman, Thomas J. Watson, famously said that "the World will only maybe need five computers!" we repeat this and have a little giggle at his lack of foresight. He envisaged these five supercomputers serving the billions of terminals we would have in our homes. It seems his comment, however ridiculed it may be today, may not have been so far from the truth!

Union, are we?

Quoted from Teletext:

“A trade union leader has urged Labour MPs to consider mounting a leadership challenge to Gordon Brown after the Glasgow East by-election "disaster".

GMB general secretary Paul Kenny said: "There's no point dressing it up. It was an unmitigated disaster.

"The MPs have got to make a strong decision as to whether they want to go into an election with Gordon Brown or have a contest," he said.”

Well let me tell you this about the General and Municipal Boilermakers Union. I was a member of this union for most of the 1980’s. I have always, since my first working day in 1974 been a Trades Unionist. I was in the Amalgamate Union of Engineering Workers until being made redundant in 1980. (I also held down the same job for the same company.) I then joined the GMB after moving and taking another position. I tore up my union card because of their attitude. I didn’t stop being a trade’s unionist. I just didn’t agree with their idea of what a trades union is.

Allow me to elucidate. I had a disagreement with the shop stupid (sorry, I meant shop steward). We discussed the role of a shop steward and the rights of union members. His contention was that if a man (and he meant a man, not a man or woman) had a dispute with his employer or the employers representative then he should argue his case alone and only call in a union representative if the dispute could not be resolved.

My contention was thus:

Any union member has a right to representation by a union official at any stage of a dispute. The official should take the complaint of a union member to the company irrespective of any private discussion. If a union member feels unable or unwilling to argue the case personally, a union official should argue his or her case for them. My grounds for this are that we are in a union and should have representation at any stage of a dispute, and the dispute should be argued by an official even if the case had not been taken up by a member on his own behalf. My reasons for this were and are that firstly we are not all capable of vocalising our disagreement. Secondly, any case argued is for the whole of the union in the first instance, and for the rights of every worker irrespective of their union membership. In essence, the union is what it says it is; a union and what is done to one of us done to us all. Also, the union representative is a witness, so that discussions cannot easily be disputed. That is the strength of a union.

He disagreed and said if you can’t go in and do it for yourself, why should I do it for you? I think I have already covered that.

We didn’t reach an agreement on this issue so I took the case to the branch office. To my dismay, they agreed with him. I asked to speak to an official, a paid representative and was told nobody was available. That was when I tore up my union card. Right there, in the office.

I am still a committed trades unionist. Unfortunately, I have not worked for several years. (Wonder why?)

That is the calibre of the General and Municipal Boilermakers Union. That is why I take the introductory quote with a pinch of salt. You can’t trust or rely on the GMB.

Long Live the Revolution!

There are reports that Gordon Brown is now the "helpless prisoner" of the trade unions. Shadow minister Chris Grayling declared Mr Brown is "vying for the title of Britain's weakest ever prime minister".

After ten+ years of Tory-New Labour rule, I do hope you are right. I do hope, not a ‘prisoner’ of the Trade Unions (something akin to the conglomerate companies that own most of Britain) but a socialist who will see the benefit to the working man of having a strong negotiating position. A man who will have the vision to see that weak trade unions are counter-productive. A man who will see that a working man who feels impotent is less productive than a man who feels able to negotiate and improve his lot.

Alternatively, we can continue the current trend to make us subservient, bereft of any feelings of loyalty, worth or importance. In that case I suggest you read your history books. Watt Tyler, the English Civil War, the French Revolution. The American war of independence and the October Uprising that gave the world the first truly socialist state.

I rest my case