Yearly Archives: 2007
Back in the City
After finishing up with my previous contract in June, I have to confess I’ve been a bit lazy. I was hoping for a long hot summer of dossing around, punctuated by a few great gigs.
Sadly neither the weather or Ticketmaster was playing ball and the summer was a bit of a washout.
+13Rant: Bio Security Fiasco – Heads MUST roll!
The recent outbreaks of foot and mouth disease has left me thinking: is it just me or has the blinding incompetence of modern British government and big business reached new heights?
It seems that the private company (Merial Animal Health) and the government department (Institute for Animal Health) who shared the Pirbright facility, near Guildford were more interested in arguing about who should be responsible for bio-security (and more importantly – at least as far as they were concerned – who was going to PAY for it) than actually taking control of the issue.
+18Rain! Rain! Rain!
Unbelievable July weather. Since I left the NPIA in the middle of June, we have only had 2 days where we got no rain (and both of those were overcast).
Still – by comparison to the poor devils in Berkshire, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and large sections of the Midlands, we have got off very lightly. Residents in Gloucestershire wont even be compensated for loss of drinking water for 17 days!
And then when I got up this morning, it was like someone had flicked a switch and summer was here! A glorious blue sky, warm with a light summer breeze.
Welcome summer – better late than never!
+19Victory for Small Businesses Everywhere
Today’s decision by the House of Lords in the case of the Inland Revenue vs Arctic Systems is a victory for little family run businesses all over the UK.
Both the IR35 and S660 legislation, introduced in late 1990′s have made the process of running a small business far more complicated indeed.
IR35 was supposedly designed to stop permanent staff disguising their working relationship behind the facade of a limited company, in order to avoid paying PAYE and National Insurance.
+25Farewell to the NPIA
The job is done and it’s time to move on.
Best of luck team – it was fun working with you all.
+7BAE – Corruption on a giant scale
In a gobsmacking expose by the BBC’s Panorama programme last week, we glimpsed the extent of the payouts from BAE Systems plc to former Saudi ambassador to the US, Prince Bandar bin Sultin.
BAE Systems was formed from the £7.7 billion merger of British Aerospace and Marconi Electronic Systems in November 1999.
Today, we laughingly learn that BAE Systems is setting up an ethics committee. 
+17Kevorkian Returns
I see on the beeb today that Jack Kevorkian has ended his eight-year prison sentence…and seems determined as ever to press the powers that be to once again debate the concepts of legal euthanasia/assisted suicide.
Kevorkian’s “suicide machine” became notorious in Catholic and other similarly minded God-bothering circles back in the 1990′s, when Kervorkian himself was dubbed: “Dr Death”.
+14