No such luck
These guys are like polystyrene turds, inevitably floating to the top again..
Posts by ElFatbob
315 publicly visible posts • joined 17 Oct 2007
UK head of online child protection resigns
Miliband retains Labour line on DNA and CCTV
Bye-bye to bizarro bye-laws, says UK.gov
Australian Senate censors print link to cartoon
UK.gov's phone and net snooping hits record high
Cutbacks strip speed cameras from Blighty's roads
Tuesday 27th July 2010 12:23 GMT
@What he said
Cost centre? - no they're not. The revenue went directly to the treasury, who creamed off the profit and gave grants back to the LA's for the running of said cameras.
The government created a mantra 'Speed Kills'. Instead of allocating resources on traffic police, who can cover a wide range of offences, they invested in Speed Cameras, which solved the 'Speed Kills' mantra, allowed them to reduce the number of TP on duty and make a nice profit.
So you're cordially invited to STFU. Tx.
ContactPoint to be erased from history
Apple revenue tops bullish expectations by $1bn
India to place $11bn order for AIP hi-tech submarines
Laid-off public sector techies better get flexible to survive
Sunday 27th June 2010 19:40 GMT
re: sick leave
A quick look around some parts of the NHS and you would very quickly see sick days taken as extra holiday entitlement.
On this point, getting rid of the 6months full pay and 6 months half pay sick leave in the public sector, with better management of sick policies would see this rate drop dramatically. I get 4 weeks paid sick pay in my job in the private sector. When i've been with the company for about forever (>5 years), this will rise to 12 weeks.
As with all public sector areas, there are plenty of excellent workers, but the fact is Labour created jobs (nearly a million) on tick and now reality of what we can actually afford is kicking in.
Labour bang on about frontline services, but the reality is that most of the jobs they created were not in front line services. A large number of them are the non-jobs created to implement Labours social policy vanity. We can do without them.
Sorry for the folks scammed by these con artists.
NHS still rubbish at caring for data
Spain objects to Street View Wi-Fi snooping
Tories declare students a burden on us all
Thursday 10th June 2010 12:15 GMT
Yep
Well said. And as you pointed out, it needs to be in the framework of a 'bigger picture'.
Where are the growth areas? Well, healthcare is one. Ireland has been churning out lifescience grads and the company i work for has recently invested appx $100M in a facility there. The previous company* i worked for had invested appx $250M in a manufacturing facility there.
Why? Ireland's Euro troubles aside, they have graduates with the skills they are looking for and an advantageous tax system. Whose to say we can't do the same?
It's tragic that a large number of grads are comeing out saddled with huge debt and little real chance of anything better than a call centre career. Our young people have been sold a pup....
* My previous employer will shut down their manufacturing plant in this country sometime in the next few years - it's the most expensive plant in the company to produce the product (of 16 worldwide, inc 3 in the expensive western Europe) . While there, i saw massive efficiences implemented and money saved. Rising corporate tax, expensive employment legislation and increased power costs made sure those saving were negated.
Council staff helping selves to data
Sneaky bin chipping still in the bag for UK.gov
Monday 7th June 2010 12:22 GMT
Meanwhile, in the real world...
If you want to tackle the rubbish problem, you need to tackle the supermarkets.
I don't know the exact figure, but i'd be surprised if less that 70% of what we send to landfill comes from supermarkets. No wonder they are so keen to stop us using plastic bags (not in itself a bad idea) - keeps the heat off the real issue - the vast amount of packaging used for everything else.
Blunkett threatens to sue for £30 ID card refund
Government yet to set ContactPoint closure date
UK.gov issues death warrant for ID cards
Laws puts brakes on gov IT spending
Tuesday 25th May 2010 13:27 GMT
don't be fooled...
'This is a situation created by the greed of the banks... but on a lighter note it's nice to see the banks making a killing again and paying bonuses'
It wasn't created by the banks. The Labour government payed for it's 'progressive' policies on tick for years - on the back of a bubble they helped the banks create and which we are all going to now pay for.
And we let them because the nice warm (but false) feeling of wealth (e.g. high house prices)created through easy to obtain and cheap credit told us it would be alright.
'A lot of good people are gonna loose their jobs and with very little chance of getting another one at their current rate.'
Yes you're right, and that's the sad reality. You should be directing your anger against the profligate administration (Labour) that brought this about. Instead of creating wealth and employment through the creation of wealth, they spent the wealth and then a good bit more creating jobs in the non wealth producing public sector.
Sadly the people who are most likely to vote Labour are also most likely to end up being betrayed by them (by losing the jobs that Labour created, but that were only ever going to be temporary).
Sure, everyone wants better public services, but the thing is, you have to create the wealth before you can re-distribute it.
I think of it like this - if you make £1000 a month, do you think it's acceptable to spend £2500 on a standard of living that you think you deserve, by borrowing £1500 from Uncle Jo down the road (who works hard and saves all his money)? And when he gets a bit shirty, you offer to only borrow £1300 a month (not even pay anything back)?
Doesn't sound fair, but that's exactly what we're doing. Chinese savers who, if they are lucky have a fraction of our public services, are funding a large part of our 'essential public services'.
And you would cry if you saw the number of schools and hospitals that could be built, kitted and staffed with just the INTEREST we'll be paying on this little lot...
The reality of the shite Labour have left us in is going to be very apparent very soon.
Clegg promises liberties restoration
EU privacy watchdogs say Facebook changes 'unacceptable'
Jacqui Smith and Charles Clarke shown the door
Apple rejects crazy canuck's seal bludgeon game
Friday 30th April 2010 22:33 GMT
mmm...
Broadly agree with your assertion that <what is portrayed through the various> (the) media we are exposed to influences us in some way, but...
The *intent* in GTA is to let you indulge in some pretty disgusting activities - same as the controversial scene in MW2 (shooting innocents in the airport terminal).
The fact that you *may* be penalised in terms of progression in the game does not actually nullify the intent.....
Nazi soldiers pose for Red Army calendar
Johnson: ID cards will pay for themselves
Thursday 22nd April 2010 14:03 GMT
Chris, you're welcome to them...
..if that's what you want.
But the thing that gets most people on here is that they will be neither voluntary or secure.
They will not be voluntary as the government will compel people to have them. Initially by restricting access to services and say, the purchase of age sensitive goods, then by law.
In the time between voluntary and compulsion, those who do want one and can live with the restrictions will be painted as social deviants, obvious criminals who must have something to hide (it's going to go the same way with the new 'Are you a paedo' vetting / barring 'service' - employers from all sectors will want one as a matter of course and those who don't want to go on yet another database will obviously be paedos)
Then there is the security aspect. Reams of information on the register about why this is a badly implemented system, but you should at least be concerned that the government has repeatedly 'lost' key personal data and it will only be a matter of time before it happens in some form to the NIR.
And finally, there is the consideration as to the real reason they want this - it is ultimately about statist control (we have a bunch of communists running the country at the moment, so this shouldn't be a surprise).
You will not be able to travel abroad without one (the passport ruse to get people on the database), you will need one to buy a car, house, or get a bank account, access services and buy fags / booze.
All your transactions and 'life' data are going to be kept on the part of the database that is going to be flogged to business while the so called private part of it (biometric + 'personal' information) will just be....err left on a train at some point.
At the moment, you have some control over this. Every transaction you make on your credit / debit card is recorded and profiled by the issuers. You have the option to use cash.
With the ID card, you will be compelled to have & use it, pay for it, then have the analysis of your lifestyle sold to the highest bidder.
Think i'm bullshitting? Gov already has form on how this will play out....
DVLA currently sell your details for £2.50 a pop.
APNR used to be simply about catching road tax dodgers. It's is now installed (with no parliamentary oversight or recourse) across the entire network of road cameras up and down the motorways and in petrol stations. If you're on some kind of police list, then you can't fill up.
They sell, sorry grant access to the DNA database for 'research' purposes. The police can say 'no' (they are all on it routinely), but the innocents caught on it cannot.
And if you give me the 'nothing to fear, nothing to hide' bull, i would say you actually don't deserve the quickly diminishing freedoms that you have.
Lib Dems demand niceness, ignore technology
Labour unfriends Twitter rant candidate
Monday 12th April 2010 09:07 GMT
eh?
FFS, get over yourselves. He's a snivelling little f**king Labour arsewipe who rightly got punted from getting the opportunity to stand for public office.
Just because the current bunch are useless arseholes doesn't mean we should replace them with another bunch of useless arseholes simply because they don't tow the party line and post their verbal diahorreah on twitter.
I guess he's just learned a valuable lesson though - you can only get away with these things once you actually are an M.P.
CEOP renews attack on Facebook
Cartoon Law goes live
UK competition authority probes Amazon
Thursday 1st April 2010 23:16 GMT
Actually a key reason I use Amazon....
//off topic
...is because they don't use VbV or equivalent.
I've lost count the number of times i've simply walked away from a transaction because they have VbV. It's an extra password i invariably forget and i can't be bothered with all the pish of resetting the password (never mind the joke that passes for 'security' in the reset).
//on topic
I don't know enough to comment on the legalities of what the OFT might be investigating, but i can't see how, in principle, there is a problem. The cost of doing business on Amazon is effectively made higher, but then you don't have to do business on Amazon.....
Tories may scrap IR35 tax rules for contractors
Thursday 1st April 2010 12:31 GMT
I've come round to thinking that
actually, tax avoidance should be mandatory, but subject to equality legislation.
Either everybody has an opportunity to avoid tax or nobody has the opportunity (corps included).
Frankly, after seeing the profligate waste of money that government is responsible for and in particular the band of lying theives currently in power, i think everybody should have the opportunity to not pay into it.
I can piss my own money up a wall. I don't need bloated government to do it for me.
London council loses thousands of kids' details
Cops' quango to come under freedom of information laws
Google booted from China's number two carrier
Police reject Tory plans for elected chiefs
Wednesday 24th March 2010 12:38 GMT
well
Decriminalisation of various drugs in Amsterdam still hasn't stopped the criminal organisations their from making a profit from drugs.
All that happens is that you create a new market economy, with the Crims looking to undercut the 'legitimate' suppliers.
There is a massive black market in (mostly fake) licensed medicines, bootleg alcohol is on the up (fake and knocked off) - what evidence do you have that bringing recreational drugs into the legal sphere will make the situation better?
UK.gov blames Israel for cloning passports in Dubai hit
Facebook stands up to UK.gov's cyberbullying
Friday 19th March 2010 22:56 GMT
I am firmly of the opinion that
The police are now part of the problem, not the solution. Too busy chasing government PC targets to actually do any real policing.
Won't tackle anti social behaviour. Want to challenge ASBO-Joe as he traches your car? Fine, but you'll be the one getting arrested. Defending yourself in your own home? Fine, but you'll get arrested.
Policing by consent? What a joke.
Government needs to give the powers back to the police in terms of tackling crime at the local level, stop with the bullshit targets (let the locals hold them accountable). Police need to step up to the plate and actually Police.
Police National Database will have audit trail
Net downloads cause 'millions of lost jobs'
Manchester's on fire for ID cards, claims ID minister
Tuesday 16th March 2010 16:56 GMT
Scary...
So what we're saying is that Hackney has a large percentage of lobotomised voters....
Her pedigree is impeccable by Labour standards though...
Oxford educated in PPE -> Librarian -> Journalist -> councillor -> mayor -> all women shortlist (htf does that work with all the 'equality' legislation these communists have brought in?) -> MP -> junior government minister (just about as soon as she's in the door)....
Some shites just seem to float to the top....
Jobcentre ejects Jedi Knight
Google '99.9%' certain to pull China search plug
Monday 15th March 2010 13:00 GMT 
Re: Google Bashers
'They are taking a stand'...
No they're not. 'Taking a stand' implies some kind of moral principle behind the action. They are hypocrites - they talked about 'doing no evil' and being against censorship, but when it came down to it, they cosied up to the Chinese government for the sake of the dollar.
Any they are not alone. Every other company that takes the dollar over it's stated principles is exactly the same.
Google are by no means the only hypocrites, but lets not kid ourselves with the 'taking a stand' bullshit.
Female porn director turned pol grabs Kent by the ballots
Blighty surrenders to Street View
Doctors tell government to stop the health records roll-out
Wednesday 10th March 2010 13:13 GMT
someone touched on it in an earlier post
but the one of the attractions of such a system is the ability to harvest and ultimately sell personal information.
And lets not kid ourselves on about confidential medical information being sacrosanct in any way - the government already allows access to the DNA database for 'research' (which, if you are a policeman, you can say 'no' to, but joe pleb has no such right) and the DVLA regularly sells our details to clamping criminals and other extortive individuals.
Economically, we don't have any genuine wealth generation any more, so the government has clicked onto the idea of pimping our data. It's a double win for them - we pay for them to compelling us to give the information and they then sell that information on....
Biting the hand that feeds IT
