Posts by dave 151

Margaret Thatcher celebrates 85 years

great figures of the 20th C...

Great != Good

Japanese press step into execution chamber

it was also...

...the US death penalty that got Colin Campbell Ross executed. But he was pardoned 86 years later after forensic evidence proved he was innocent. So that's OK then.

Defra gifts £22m to payments quango

more likely

a health chunk of cash ends up in the pocket of some consultants and/or suppliers that Natural England are required to use under the terms of a PFI or PPI contract, as happens in the NHS.

Contractors dodge ID cards axe

call me sceptical but...

what's the betting that in a year or two there will be an EU directive on "European Identity Harmonisation"? and we start all over again but this time on a Euro scale.

Millions wasted on IT: PAC chair parting shot

title

shame our hero didn't see fit to comment when he was in a position to embarrass the Gov into fixing the shambles that is Gov IT. He's just making himself look tough ready for his next job interview.

E-book readers are a satisfied lot

The title is required, and must contain letters and/or digits.

Still not convinced there's a big enough market for any of these gadgets to gain an edge over printed books. Yet.

I can see that a tablet format may well dominate but it's a bit too early just yet. telcos are making their money from phone tariffs so a mini sim helps them tie keen punters into a new tariff on top of their iPhone bill.

Personally I think they've rushed it out a bit too early. Wonder why?

Nuke-bunker-nobbling US megabomb delayed

re: Eurabian propaganda

you raise a good point AC. My question is "How do I know which of the various parties is lying to me?" Lets see if I can work out a logical approach to solving this one.

Iran - could be lying. So why co-operate with the inspectors? to hide the lie perhaps? Let's assume they are lying. They surely know that simply possessing a nuke, let alone using one, would result in the country being reduced to radioactive dust in short order. If they fancied their chances and lobed one at Israel they still know that Israel has at least 200 to lob back and the Yanks would join in just to use up out-of-date stock (nukes go off you know). The Iranian leaders may be a bit odd to our eyes but I don't think they're suicidally stupid. But I can't eliminate the possibility.

USA - now would our best pals over the pond ever tell fibs to start a war? Yes. To borrow a phrase from Harley Davison "if I have to explain you wouldn't understand".

Israel - where to start? Must be getting on for 200 UN resolutions telling them to play nicely with the other kids by now. Security council resolutions condemning Israel's aggressive actions consistently vetoed by our bestist buddies in Yankland. Lock a guy up for revealing their secret nuke weapons manufacturing facility then whine like hell that Iran, despite a total lack of evidence, might be doing what they did. And that's just recent history.

Europe - shifting influences are making European politics very interesting at the mo. Lots of states sick of Russia but also scared of each other. Non of them are tooled up for an international fight. UK & France seem to want to join the USA. Germany don't seem so keen. The anti-Iran stuff I'm hearing is predominately coming from UK & France. France has nuke bombs and a decent military, as does UK. But would they get away politically with pitching in with the Yanks in another war having had their reputations damaged by Iraq?

My conclusions - I can't rule out that Iran wants to develop a nuke weapon but it strikes me as unlikely. They stand to gain nothing by doing it and a hell of a lot to loose. As a previous post mentioned the USA could nuke anything they liked with ease. So why don't they do so with the Iranian "threat"? What's to stop them? Can't be concern for loss of innocent lives as we've seen from Hiroshima to Iraq via Vietnam. Can't be public opinion or the public would be rioting about the restrictions on the constitution by now. If I've got my logic right (and I'm open to a flaming on this one) If you want something it makes little sense to destroy it by rendering it radioactive. So I can only conclude that they (USA/Israel) want something that Iran has. I'm going to guess it's oil for USA and territorial domination for Israel.

Anyway - have a happy holiday one and all. I'm off to test the sherry.

Nutt sacking row deepens

@Eddie Edwards

"There I was thinking Nutt started it, and the media carried it on."

Not as clear cut as that I'm afraid. This is just the latest round in a long running spat.

The Gov's drug classification system was loudly proclaimed to be based on scientific evidence of harm. Trouble is the evidence stubbornly refuses to support the policies the Gov feels it needs to have so as to hold onto the votes of the middle classes. Rather than quietly redefine the basis of the policy, say to reflect "social issues", Alan and Jaquie decided to ignore the evidence presented by the experts in the field.

Nutt et al were just doing the job asked of them. Academics and scientists are very possessive of their work so to see their advice publicly ignored is a real kick in the gob. Hence the present state of affairs.

Aussie Sex Party bursts upon political stage

@eh?

no idea, but where do I sign up.

Police, Cameras, Pixellation

odd how pixilation is used...

apparently they don't need to be pixilated when they are on the telly doing a drugs raid (good cops?) but they do need to protect their identity when they are caught on duty without their ID tags on display (bad cops?).

Likewise, no concerns about pictures of our friendly local community liaison team, currently plastered on our village notice board, but oddly feel the need to protect the identity of a cop on his way into court having been found to be a wrong-un.

And of course there's no need to protect the identity of men accused of rape, kiddy fiddling etc. never mind that they may be totally innocent.

I think it's time for a cohesive ruling on this issue that applies to Joe public as well as the police, politicos etc.

Government rubbishes ID card hack report

@simple solution

well said.

"if you've nothing to hide" etc... If it's good enough for us it's good enough for them.

Aussie net filtering goes into reverse

@Similar words...confusion

No.

McKinnon lawyers vow to take fight to US Supremes

@ Please

I'm going to be generous and assume you're not trolling, so here goes.

The UK Gov. signed up to a treaty that allows the Good 'ol US of A to demand the extradition of anyone without first having to produce prima facia (spell?) evidence to a UK judge. i.e a yank rings our supreme leader and says "we want Dr. Mouse over here now 'cos hes a mother f*cking scumbag". Next thing you know the fine upstanding members of your local law enforcement organisation kick your door down (in full view of the TV crews who just happen to be passing), drag you out of your house, and try to stick you on a plane. As it stands at the moment you get a chance to appeal before they ship you off. Good luck.

If the UK want to put a US citizen on trial here, evidence must be provided to a US judge who has the option to tell us to get stuffed, regardless of how strong we think the evidence is.

It's the unfairness of the treaty that is boiling piss, not just the fact that McKinnon is facing a legal arse kicking for showing how inept Pentagon sysdamins are.

McKinnon loses judicial review

@Trokair 1

"Same as any other criminal that flees to a country with an extradition treaty".

FFS try to catch up.

He committed the crime here in the UK, breaching UK laws. He fessed up here. Therefore... bang him up here after a trial HERE. As opposed to shipping him off to a country that has torn up any professed commitment to fair trials and humane treatment of prisoners.

As long as Gitmo exists the US cannot be said to have a fair judicial system.

He's a prat and a criminal, no argument there. But the extradition treaty with the US and the US judicial system are an aberration and we should play no part.

Johnson signs off ID card for UK citizenry

@no flags but

" is it likely to offend lancastrians, yorkist or perhaps both."

Well i can only speak for the Yorkist faction, but we tend to be offended by absolutely anything. Loudly.

These twats are just trying to make it as complicated and expensive as possible for the next supreme leader to undo. Love to know how many of the current mob are on the payroll of ID tech companies. Blunket rings a bell for one.

NHS Direct gets to be number one, one, one

NHS Direct

widely known as NHS Redirect, as all they ever do is redirect you to your GP or A&E if there is the remotest chance of you being actually ill.

Paris, as at least she could fake sincerity while I moan about my man flu.