Vulnerable minorities

I'm glad the Home Secretary has decided to abandon the more ridiculous elements of New Labour's vetting scheme. The quango set up to see if we are deviants of the first order will still be in place though. We live in a weird world. We have to be so careful not to offend but also be wary of being accused of neglect, abuse or just plain ingorance of the new ways.

I'm just getting my head around the concept of vulnerable lone workers. The idea now is that no female, juvenile or elderly person can be left on their own in charge of a workplace. Any visitor is deemed to be a potential threat. Woe betide any cold caller visiting when a single woman is left alone over lunchtime. He may be selling widgets but it's his own widget the authorities are minded about. So are we all seen as potential abusers? "You can't be too careful!" goes the mantra. But each time a real pervert is caught a police spokesman blithely comments that "this one fell under our radar!".

If we all think about it we are all in a minority of something. And I suppose we could all be vulnerable at one time or another. This is not about "being careful" but about the authorities wanting to be seen to be carefully covering their backs. Until they get to grips with the aberration of paedophila (the driver behind all this) nothing will change except the number of boxes we have to tick. If Big Brother (or Sister) is going to assist in any meaningful way it will be to identify peadophilia as a notifiable mental disease with the necessary curbs on the person's liberties. Just locking them up is useless. So is creating a wave of hysteria as the likes of the Express and Sun delight in.

The core problem must be tackled otherwise we will become a vulnerable majority.

Should Moody's be downgraded?

I saw Raymond NcDaniel, the Chairman & CEO of Moody's, being quizzed by the venerable interrogators of this financial committee, the FCIC, looking into the banking crisis and all things connected with it. When asked if any due dilligence was done over the subprime fiasco, McDaniel looked somewhat perplexed. After a bit of waffle, I think the answer was a basic no. It was likened to just going through the accounts of the Dairy Queen rather than sipping the blizzards on offer. Warren Buffet was sitting next to him, and Buffet owns the Dairy Queen.

Moody's have made a mint making rating the creditworthiness of other peoples' businesses their own business. They even take a considered opinion of the state of countries. They don't rate Greece too highly at the moment. They've just notched them down another peg. But what is the real purpose of Moody's and others like them? How come they were so undue in their own dilligence when it came to the subprime racketeers? Is it because McDaniel hadn't heard the word "derivative" before? This fancy word conjured up by bankers in order to turn bad money into good.

I like the way the questioning went, but I doubt it will do much. Both McDaniel and Buffet came across as completely devoid of any real sense that this financial disaster was much to do with them. And that's the problem. They don't really live in the real world. Far better for the committee to go down to the local Dairy Queen and ask the blizzard sippers what they would do to straighten things out. Now that's direct democracy for you!

BP in crude political dilemma

The American people seem to want their president to be some kind of cross between a genie in a bottle and a jack in the box. He is, of course, neither. But disasters always lead to a belief that the president is the chief fixer as well as the Chief. So President Obama is now involved in some form of crude politics in order to rid the Gulf of Mexico of crude oil. Calling BP "British Petroleum" just ratchets up the blame game but it hardly serves to find a real solution. The truth is that there were three other American companies giving willing support to BP in their quest for deep sea oil wealth. And it's not as if BP is exclusively British. American investors have a sizeable share in the global conglomerate. Perhaps we should call it Anglo-American-Sino-Hispanic-Franco-Teutonic Petroleum.

BP is being asked for billions of dollars to help with the clean-up. Where is all this money going to go? First off, I hope it will have a properly audited paper trail and not just be doled out to porkbarrel merchants and get-rich-quick consultants. Will some be given in compensation? Who will decide how much each deserving case should get? A lot more questions will be forthcoming. I hope the answers will be honest and straightforward. What we don't want is filthy lucre literally contaminated by the globular oil it is expected to remove.

In the course of events some will lose their livelihoods, others will gain massively by obtaining cleaning contracts they never dreamed of. This could well be the biggest redistribution of wealth in a single episode of history. We just need to keep a check on who gets what in President Obama's counting house handouts.

Nostalgic for the Rockies!

I'm just looking out of the window whilst blogging. The rain has stopped. Thought I'd check out Darcy Farrow and here is a copy of it on Youtube complete with pics of Scotland! I first heard this on the BBC on Johnny Walker's show in about 1974. It was one of the last he played before being given the boot for not keeping to the playlist. Soon after I too found myself rafting down the Truckee. Great stuff. Johhny's back now on the BBC and I heard him recently talking about how he got into trouble for not playing along with the chosen records. Glad he didn't. I got to hear about Darcy Farrow -

George Osborne's Counting House

I am still wondering how Britain will get out of the financial mess. The government seems fairly certain it will mean tough times. But for whom? Are we to rely on the bankers to get us out of the mess? If so, it's more funny money and a greater catastrophe down the line.

Britain is no longer a manufacturing country of note. OK, some things are made in the UK, but mostly we import things we want "others" to make. These being mainly dragooned Chinese workers. Globalisation is a kind of empire strikes back. It is also significantly unpatriotic. Even bordering on high treason. Export the jobs, import the cheap merchandise. Everybody is happy. We now live in some kind of wonderland fueled by collective denial and financial amnesia. I do no exclude myself from joining in the scrum. Very soon the Chinese workers will demand better conditions and then what do we do? Connive with the politburo or cave in to their demands?

Some say each man, woman and child owes £22,000. Some put it as high as £35,000. The debt counter on this blog has it just passing £33,000. Who really knows? The thing is most people don't earn £22,000 so they will have to get some form of easy payment plan going. It's commonly called taxation. But if everybody draws in their horns and doesn't buy as much, VAT goes down in revenue take. David Cameron talks about wastage by which he means people as well as things. We've just got 3000-odd HIPS surveyors thrust onto the dole. A prime example of cutting back. But will it save any money. We can sack all and sundry in those jobs we think are useless but where are these people going to earn money?

The stark reality is that all this grandiose talk of scaling back in order to reduce the deficit means diddly squat unless the country PRODUCES something that other countries want to buy. Proper goods and proper services. Anything else is akin to moving the deckchairs around on the Titanic.

Back to the blogging

I've been otherwise engaged lately, what with half term and doing other things other than blogging. I've also been seeing how the coalition is bedding down before making any comment that could be regarded as meaningful. I've also been watching Britain's Got Talent. And it definitely has. Piers Morgan is dead right. We talk ourselves down terribly. If anything is going to get us out of this catastrophic mess, then it's talented people. Some will make us laugh, some will make us cry, but we need a dose of reality on the way.

With regard to Ant and Dec, I think they deserve their BAFTA. They've virtually learnt their trade in full view of the public. There was a time when I didn't know who they were. I thought it was someone called Anton Deck. I muttered something as much to my wife. She responded by saying they were really Antanddec, rather like Williamandmary, aka King Billy and his queen. Speaking to my sister over the weekend she said they always had to stand with Ant on the left so that people knew which was which. "You know some people don't know which is which!" she exclaimed. A straw poll seemed to confirm that. Very strange. I can understand not knowing them both, but surely not when one is aware of them as performers.

So I watched the BAFTAs and, when they came up to receive the award, they had to get into position. It's not as though they look alike. I'd suggest they forgo this and just stand as they want. And those too moronic to decipher who is who, well.......

The Gaza concentration camp

Of all the people in the world one would think that the Jews would know a bit about suffering. That's what might be expected. But the reality of the modern world seems to suggest otherwise. Especially the present Israeli government, which has a hunkered down mentality. I've never accepted the Jewish proposal that the holocaust of World War II was the worst atrocity. Because to accept that allows other atrocities to be measured as being only half-way there in the heinous crimes stakes. Benjamin Netanyahu is quite happy to starve innocent Arab children to death if needs be, because in his eyes the Jews have experienced much worse. So it lends credibility to his policy of sealing off the Gaza strip and turning it into a hell hole. Of course, all that gives the Hamas leadership a political manna they never dreamed of. The Israelis must be barmy at best and just plain wicked at worst to think such a policy will succeed.

It is very distressing to know that the Israelis will lie, cheat, steal, and generally ride roughshod over international law in order to pursue what they consider a moral crusade. They will forge passports, steal identities and murder opponents in hotel hallways. Anybody who gainsays these tactics is deemed anti-Israeli or, heaven forfend, anti-semitic.

The blockade of Gaza has no sensible backing with regard to thoughtfulness. Tinned fruit is banned but tinned meat is allowed in. Everything is arbitrarily decided. But these are minor inconveniences. The really distasteful thing is that it's all deemed perfectly OK by the Jewish people. And now we hear that the flotilla of boats boarded by heavy-handed commandos had no weapons. A bit like the WMD nonsense. It was all an excuse to beat the wotsits out of these well-meaning blockade busters.

I'm pleased that there are many Jews in the world who find the actions of the Israeli government unpleasant. The state of Israel came about by terrorist activity. Many of the present Israeli government appear rooted in the same culture as the King David Hotel bombers. The ends justify the means they think.

One day Israel will live in peace with Arab neighbours. Not today, though.