E-Jacking

So you pop off to make the tea or whatever and you come back to the 'pooter to find your wife/partner/flatemate has taken control of the machine.

is there a term for that?

Slaags

Yep I haven't bothered to cover the party conferences as there are better things to do then watch a rotten corpse heave itself up for one more go (actually I am still not convinced that Cameron has sealed the deal yet) but one thing that threw me was this "Gulags for Slags".

I'm sorry, did I miss the Labour Party turn into some Victorian virtue society? Or as Guido points out, the social conscience wing of the BNP. Now I agree that there is a problem with some single mothers - those feckless women that you see dragging their hoards of differential paternity asbos-in-waiting brood around while milking the system and making lives hell for others - but others are just caught in circumstances.

Now I agree that there is a problem with society, self-responsibility etc but who caused this?

Hmmm, this political party promised that the state would support all these people and that the state knew best.

Indeed this party has managed to destroy society, community, the private arena to such a great extent that thugs can cause a mother to commit suicide with her disabled daughter while neighbours grass two working mothers, hell policewomen even, for supporting each other by looking after each other's kids.

I know who should be insitutionalised and it isn't most of the teenage mothers.

The Sun

So the Sun has decided to back Cameron, albeit reluctantly.

But the great thing to hear is the huffing and puffing of the left over this.

A few things to note:

Papers do not decide elections.

Papers reflect the readership's view not set it

Around 40% of the Sun's readership has always voted Labour, people forget it was orginally left-of-centre when it started.

One more thing and there is an increasing amount of waffle about what is "right". Apparently The Sun supporting Labour was a perfectly right thing to do but the other way round is an affront to democracy and that "people decide elections, not newspapers". Perfectly right Gordon but why is it only important when The Sun turns Tory?

If Aliens are watching us

If Aliens were watching us, this is what they would be seeing from US broadcasts (click to view)!

From Strange Maps

military matters

A book by the two journalists that broke the MPs expenses scandal claims that the mole was one of 20 people hired to transfer expenses forms into electronic format. It seems they were guarded by soldiers on leave hoping to gain a bit of cash to buy equipment before returning to Afghanistan and Iraq.

Apparently all in the room got angry at the expense claims of MPs while the soldiers told them of the shortages on campaign.

And do you know the thing that depresses me the most about this? The shortage of equipment and the supplying of inadequate equipment came as no surprise to me at all.

Really. The politicians and top brass have always treated the soldier badly. Whether it was the Crimea or WW1 where families sent jumpers and greatcoats to make sure Tommy didn't freeze to death or WW2 where some companies were renowned scroungers of kit, this is not new.

During the Napoleonic Wars, soldiers would strip the enemy of cash, gold, bullet catridges, gunpowder, you name it. Sounds horrific to some but it was a necessity for the average soldier. Money, weaponry, clothing could make the difference between life and death.

So the echoes of history but do you know what really depresses me - this will continue.

Just because this has always happened does not make it right and I would love the next government to make a pledge that any war a politician sends a soldier into will be fully supported and funded. No meally-mouthed platitudes, just a straight commitment.

But I suspect that nothing will change.

And whilst we're here - visit this site, please.

Trident

So Gordo is offering to cut one of the Trident subs then?

Great...if it doesn't affect the UK's defence capacity...

But this is Gordo - calamity Brown...

So it probably will...

Oh and cut the bull, this is an economic decision in reality not an issue about proliferation. No country that now has nukes will even consider giving them up.

POSTAL STRIKE

So I was in my local talking to a postie that drinks in there -

Me: "Hang on you're on holiday, how are you going to be able to vote about the strike?"

Postie: "That's alright, it's a postal ballot."

!

Bangers

So am doing some PR work and thought I'd congratulate Colin Bailey and Biggles Sausages on winning a one star Gold Award from the Great Taste awards.

He does great sausages and his website can be found here

advert over!!!

Mortgages

OK, I am not going to be posting about the robber barons ie: How exactly is a best rate 2.49% above base?

But there is one thing I am amazed that is allowed to continue - the reserve fee.

How on Earth is it legal to charge this? Between £800 to £1,500 on top of the money a bank or building society makes from you anyway.

Now most people can't afford to pay the reserve fee up front so the barons helpfully drop in onto your mortgage and charge you interest on it. For a 20 year mortgage that almost the equivalent of an extra year of payment!

I can almost understand if you are moving mortgages - admin etc - but when you are staying with your bank? All they are trying to do is sell you products on top of what you already own. The mortgage itself is five minutes of button pressing.

It is a con and should be made illegal

EURO

So Dennis MacShane had a ludicrous article in the Evening Standard last night Never mind the politics, it's time to join the euro


He begins with:

Europe, from rainy Ireland to sun-soaked Greece, has suddenly become frighteningly expensive, as the massive devaluation of the pound against the euro hits home. The jug of sangria, the pottery and wines to bring home now cost us so much more.

AH, right so there was never a high value of the pound that was frightening exporters a couple of years ago and allowed very cheap holidays then?

The saddest sights in south-west France and on the Spanish Mediterranean costas are British citizens handing back to estate agents the keys of the houses they bought but can no longer afford to keep, as their pounds from back home don't cover the bills.

So these idiots gambled on a high sterling rate and lost? Must have actually believed Gordo when he said there was an end to boom and bust

For more than a decade we have been told that the euro was a terrible idea, while the good old pound sterling would protect the British economy from the wily ways of the Europeans.

Told by who...erm that would be your Prime Minister among others

Now more and more people are asking why the pound is letting us down - and whether treating it as a shibboleth that cannot be questioned makes sense any more.

Who? Who is saying the pound is letting us down?

All the old arguments against the euro have fallen away. There is no European super-state emerging with its adoption. There is no dictation of economic policy from Brussels.

Nope, Europe doesn't tell us what to do, no sirey

The EU takes just one per cent of Europe's gross national income to spend on policies agreed by 27 cantankerous, ever-arguing member states.

That's OK then as our contribution will soar by 60%, that's £257 per year for each household but it's under 1% and for what exactly?

Meanwhile, devaluing the pound was meant to improve exports - but trade figures show Britain's trade balance with euro-zone countries has worsened as the pound slumped.

And who's running the country and economy at the moment? Also I think you'll find that if other countries are also suffering then households will spend less leading to lower exports.

The Left's dislike of the euro was based on the notion that the Maastricht criteria would limit the state's ability to borrow and spend.

Yet France and Italy - and indeed most in the Euro-zone - are ignoring the Maastricht rules as they increase public debt to stave off further business closures.

President Sarkozy is proposing un grand emprunt - a giant loan to increase French public debt as his way of combating the crisis.

So it is OK to ignore the stability pacts in the name of solidarity, something wrong there. Also this is the very argument that the one-size-fits-all Euro hasn't worked and you want us in there?

Worse, as we plan for recovery, Britain is hobbled by its hostility to the euro. Take the fate of the City.

It is vital to our economy, and the UK financial sector, warts and all, adds massive value to the EU as a whole.

But our contempt for the euro means that no one listens when Britain protests about regulation from Brussels aimed at weakening the finance sector.

Erm, the proposed regulations will kill the City and business will move away from Europe, not move to Frankfurt which is the German dream. How exactly would joining the Euro help the City and not strengthen Frankfurt anyway? It is the one bit of economic power we have, don't help emasculate it.

...Gordon Brown's famous five economic tests were always a red herring as the sixth test was, and remains, the certainty that the British would say No to the euro in a referendum - unless the case was properly made to them.

Or like Ireland, the referendum would keep being pushed at us until we voted yes. Still it's nice you recognise what the public wants.

That is still the situation today. The kite flown by Peter Mandelson in June about us aiming to join the euro was quickly shot down. But in the end, Britons prefer reality to prejudice. The pound no longer walks tall against the euro.

Not at the moment because our economy is in a mess. That's what happens with a floating currency Dennis.

The euro is not going to collapse because of wide variations in the economic profile of different regions using it any more than the US dollar fails because its external value and the interest rates set by the Fed do not suit Michigan and California at one and same time.

No it is going to collapse because Italy or Spain will probably leave followed
quickly by Germany as the public turn against the costs to their countries.

There are other ways of managing such imbalances. If low interest rates heat up housing, then banks could simply require a 10 per cent deposit before issuing mortgages.

Oh yeah, can see a bank doing that. Also if we were in the Euro, interest rates will be decided elsewhere and not for our benefit.

Outside the euro, Britain will never be in the driving seat of Europe. We need to be. If the euro were used here as it is without fuss in countries we are close to, including Ireland and the Netherlands, then the next Governor of the European Central Bank could easily be a Brit.

We do not need to be in the driving seat. Far from it. We need to get back to Efta and we need to command our economy for the benefit of the UK only

But if British voters are no longer going to feel like poor relations whenever they holiday in other European countries, then before long someone is going to have to begin making the case that like shillings and pence, the pound may now have had its day.

OK, make the case, use facts and figures, remove the politics, it's economy stupid. Nothing you have written has convinced me. Where is the case? We maybe poor relations at the moment but currency levels change. A few years down the line some idiots are once again going to take the gamble and buy property in Spain or France. Others will be raving about how cheap the Dordonne is with the pound, and I will be looking for some artwork on Ebay because I will have the advantage.

Short-termism does not make a great case for the Euro Dennis.

SPIDER-MAN

Last night I picked up the pisspoor Evening Standard as it was 10p. I will get onto Dennis MacShane's poor article on Europe later but I was amused to read Sam Leith's bit on Disney taking over Marvel Comics.

This was the accompanying image...


.
And the tagline was: "A marketing dream: Kirsten Dunst in the Disney blockbuster Spider-Man 2.

Now I know that sub-editors aren't the brilliant guys of old and are more layout specialists but c'mon.

1) Sony Pictures owns the Spidey film rights

2) Even after Disney's buy, Sony still owns the rights.

Sam also wrote: "The game will be truly up when we are awash with plush toy Wolverines..."

Um, Sam?

GOTTA TORCH?

Oops, looks like the energy plan of NuLab has screwed up and we are looking at power outs by 2020.

It is so bloody annoying that people think that we can be saved by alternative energies - we can't.

With current technologies there is only one "alternative" technology that works and that's nuclear. It is the dichotomy that hits greens. Instinctively they hate nuclear but there is no other reliable fuel source.

I am a sceptic to man-made climate change, I don't think we're helping but I also think that there is a natural process at work here and there is not that much we can do except prepare. What I am a supporter of is the resources argument.

Food, water, energy, we are getting to a stage where the pressures on these will lead to riots and even wars. We have to find more efficient ways of using and producing these resources and unfortunately for the greens, unless we finally get Nuclear Fusion, fission is the energy answer.

Sorry greens, now where did I put that gramaphone?