What’s Up
Rant: Big Brother lives
An interesting article on the Beeb’s website in which Ministers have played down reports that compulsory ID cards for all Britons are to be scrapped has filled me with hope.
In politics there is a kind of “reverse spin” that seems to be applied whenever MP’s are looking for a way to back out of bad legislation proposals without losing too much face. One of the ways they do this is to insist that plans are proceeding or (the real giveaway) start to “play down” reports of whatever. See the words “play down” and in most cases you can be assured that the legislation being proposed is doomed.
+21Rain! 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!
+20Victory 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.
+26BAE – 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. 
+18Kevorkian 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”.
+15Hay Bubba! Get Yer Gurn Boy!
In recent times, I’ve seen quite a few “Your taking the piss” stories in the news, but today’s item about a baby in Illinois being granted a gun permit takes some beating.
Bubba Ludwig (how perfect is that!) obtained a license thanks to the efforts of his father, Howard, who purchased the license online for a mere $5. According to the news article the license even includes a picture of a toothless Bubba and a squiggle that represents his best attempt at a signature!
Jeezuz…only in America.
+12Falwell Kicks The Bucket
Todays news item about the death of Jerry Falwell has left me in a somewhat ambivalent frame of mind.
On one hand Falwell was an ignorant, fake, bible-thumping, god-bothering, Olympic-class, racist bigot of the first order and frankly, in my view the world is better off without his form of medieval morality.
On the other hand, Falwell’s views made him such a ludicrously comic figure that he was a fantastic target for a long history of satire, culminating with the world-famous Hustler Campari Ad parody, for which he (unsuccessfully) tried to sue … for this at least, he will be missed.
If there is a God, I genuinely hope (s)he manifests herself to ol’ Jerry as a Black Jewish Lesbian Democrat – just to see the look on his face.
RiH Jerry…
+14