±«Óãtv

A LOAD OF GLOBALS.

Brown is like a cross between Neddy Seagoon and Anthony Hancock. As far as I can tell, most world 'leaders' can be similarly characterised.

At home we have Blunket's Law failing to knobble rich crooks and Postman Pat's hospitals enveloped by a flap that has the stamp of bad governance.

Might it be that the wrong people get to high office - and that this is unavoidable in a world grown too complex for tiny minds?

Saint Barack's halo is slipping and his open hand is being met by a Russian Bear's fist. That's quite a fist! Meanwhile, Brown is telling Iran what they can do with their nuclear effort. I wonder what they might tell him to do with his effrontery.

for paul

barrie (#1) "Might it be that the wrong people get to high office - and that this is unavoidable in a world grown too complex for tiny minds?"

They're awfully good at highlighting how ineffective the Public Sector is in delivering services and regulating the Private Sector though... aren't they?

;-)

No doubt the manager of the Mid Staffs Hospital was paid £150k to "stop him being head hunted" or "because we need to attract the best people". Time and again we hear this story about the incompetent jobsworths who are freeloading in the public sector.

For the last two days I have been hindered and obstructed by the minions who work for these top flight managers. From airport bureaucrats to the Highways Agency needlessly closing the motorways, Health and Safety idiots stopping me working because the title on a piece of paper didn't meet with their approval, more bureaucrats asking for other pointless papers. Bombarded by Government propaganda adverts every time I got in my car and turned on the radio. Then when you finally get home there is a huge tax bill waiting, turn on the news and it's stories of this hospital and more money being squandered on Fred Goodwin.

I have actually earned very little due to all this hindrance and consequently the government won't get much tax from it. Multiply that story a few million times and you can get an idea of what's going on in this country.

I actually think that the country needs to go bankrupt to put a stop to all this. In another story there is mention of the Tories and Labour only being £5bn apart on spending which effectively means that all these jobsworths are going to stay in place hindering and obstructing those of us who are productive. At least if we went bankrupt they would all be stopped in their tracks as they couldn't be paid and the rest of us could start again without them dogging our every move.

Will the managers of the NHS hospital be prosecuted for causing the unnecessary deaths? I think they should be.

It's wrong to say that concentrating on the pension of Goodwin is taking the spotlight of government debt. In fact it is demonstrating how things work between government, their regulators, and the bankers. It is highlighting the problems that exist in those relationships and so we can all understand clearly how the huge government debt was created and why.

To take the pension off Goodwin and contribute it to the public purse, would lessen the government debt quite considerably. The low estimate of his pension pot is around £16 million and the high estimate around £30 million. That amount of money could have provided painkilling drugs and extra staff for the pensioners who died needlessly in Stafford hospital - or could be used to help others in a similar situation now elsewhere. Or the money could be used to avoid having to cut the pensions of lots of ordinary, poor, but honest people.

Outstanding interview by Jeremy with Dan Fried and also with Carter & Bradshaw on the fiasco at Stafford Hospital. Fascinating report by Tim in Russia :o)

Britain (and the world)...

Lions cheated by crooks, overseen by ostriches employing weasels, reported upon by vultures.

ROAD TO PERDITION

Soon Labour will pluck another 'leader' from the highest in the party. But the highest place in a fetid pool is the surface, and we all know what floats there. Then will come the General Election funded by obscene war chests, filled by vested interests who must be repaid in kind, once power is won. The Media will play a massive - subversive - role; another deal to be done, and 'honoured' at a later date. All this is corruption - Great British Corruption.
It gifted us Blair, who 'had a war' because he could. Blair got his war because Iain Duncan Smith was 'leading' the Conservatives. Westminster democracy saw that it was good - the British people had no say.
Britain trumpets her democracy and Rule of Law. We have democratically embraced a phoney war, and a barmy EU, while Sir Fred et al have broken no laws. Good 'ere innit!

DAMN! (#7)

Your post a perfect pre-emptive précis of mine Junkk!

Bravo!

Now we have the FOI on Blair's dossier, that will be forgotten in a day.

"They did not listen, they're not listening still - I guess they never will."

Sorry very busy and no time to read blogs.

But isn't it funny that this... is the main headline on the ±«Óãtv when it should be this...

targets are part of the 'market as the best arbiter' mindset which is the central false belief of the politicians.

it leads to disaster wherever it is used [as seen in 'The Trap'] from hospitals to schools etc and is the mindset that led to the financial crisis that has bankrupted the country.

this govt have still not given up that central false belief despite the mountain of evidence to it failure.

they are unreformable. stuck with pre credit crunch thinking. which is why we need an election.

!!!!!!!!!!! posted too quickly!

Should be this....

And then what do I read today, 1 in 7 children in primary schools can't read english. And the birthrate amongst indigenous brits is falling still further, 35% of new mothers are now foreign born.

Why WON'T Newsnight have someone on from the BNP, they are a legal party.

to have a st george's day along the lines of st patricks day is seen as 'offensive' and 'anti multicultural'.

10. At 11:08am on 18 Mar 2009, ecolizzy wrote:

But isn't it funny..

There's funny 'ha-ha', there's funny 'peculiar'... and there's 'funny, I could have sworn we had a news media that kept us informed and held our leaders to account'.

However, salacious drooling over high-ratings, mass market dross is an awfully good way to distract from inconvenient 'other stuff', no matter how pertinent.

Not sure I fancy the BNP as 'the sole voice of other views not shared by Aunty', but as you say they are (last time I looked), legitimate, legal and deserve to be given reasonable voice.

However, I rather suspect certain issues are 'off limits', and matters of population is certainly one of them, and especially how this pertains to other aspects of our lives, from climate change to skewing democratic voting patterns. So don't hold you breath as the the composition of invitees to 'comment'. Or calibre.

ps: when to we get the preview and other goodies now on many other blog threads?

THE MARK OF A GOOD CITIZEN IS KNOWING WHEN TO GIVE UP (#14)

Last night, ±«Óãtv's award-winning newed-up-news programme 'Novelty-Night' gave us a report on 'That Hospital', displayed in false Mickey Mouse colour, with blurring and glare.

The sad thing is, I no longer watch such crass disgrace with amazement or horror - I just wonder what is the mentality of the person who thinks it is a good idea. If this is what now passes as news presentation, in the mind of media folk, might not something analogous be going on the minds of bankers, medical practitioners, the military, educators, utilities 'suppliers', local government officers, and of course politicians?

That would explain a lot of my daily angst!

15. barry

think 'yoof' and mid life crisis. ;)

is this where its going?

ecolizzy (#12) "Why WON'T Newsnight have someone on from the BNP, they are a legal party."

Is it because it might upset the collective guilt programme?

Thanks for the stats update, I've just used the old ONS data elsewhere.

They won't have it you know. They don't see the problem as it's so slowwwwwwww. We're frogs in a pan being warmed up slowly.

MALIGNANCY

Historically, 'primitive' sustainable cultures lived in small groups, with one ethos, and a set of constraining taboos.

'World Culture' (the one we gave them) spreads like a cancer. Anything that can be conceived, will be 'enacted' - until the host dies. . .

The trouble with cultural cancer is 'it believes in itself'; more is better. "Hold, enough!" is unappealing to its human agents, who have forgotten how to define 'wisdom', the only cure - let alone how to apply it.

Our pathetic leaders put ointment on symptomatic pimples, as the entirety of planetary life succumbs. 'Taboo' will soon slip from the OED; perhaps the last word?

DEFERENCE AND RESPECT R.I.P

barrie (#15) "I just wonder what is the mentality of the person who thinks it is a good idea."

You don't .

People don't put data together It will be in their employment figures.

When people don't see things they can't have them pointed out, however hard one tries. The consequences can be devastating. I fear they currently are. People mean well, but sadly, it's not enough.

Having spent much of my life trying to get facts right based on evidence, it saddens me how often I'm met with 'disagreement'. When I ask why? am usually told 'I just do!'. There seems absolutely no insight whatsoever into what this really is, i.e 'Oh..I didn't know'.

It's narcissism you know, and it's essentially female, I hate to say...worst of all, it's endemic.

OPPOSITION DAY DEBATE - ECONOMY

Michael Meacher was good thisafternoon.

How about a clip from it on tonight's Newsnight?