The Daily Stirrer February - March 2011 (for breaking news skip to News Feeds)
Today's News and Comment
07 March 2011
The Daily Stirrer's Tabular format introduced las week was well received but needs a bit of polishing up. We will return to it in a few days.
UK Tax Policy Unfair On Families
by Ian R Thorpe
Middle class families in which one parent stays at home to look after the children pay more than a third extra in tax in Britain than those in other Western countries, a report in The Daily Telegraph has found.
UK Tax Policy Unfair On Families
Throughout the past three decades the wages and tax system have been skewed to make it difficult for a family with children to live comfortable on the earning of one psrtner while the other brings up the children. Tax breaks for married couples have been eroded while housing costs have put many couples off having children.
This attack on the family was begun by Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government as part of their war on the working class and continued after 1997 under Labour in their authoritarian push to make people more dependent on the state.
The Coalition should be onto this one. If they could redress the position they would no longer need to worry about unemployment as many people who are forced to do jobs they hate to keep the family afloat would siimply leave the employment market.
David Cameron was speaking at the Welsh Conservative Assembly yesterday. What he said will be welcomed by businesses. The question is, can he deliver?
David Cameron has pledged to confront the "enemies of enterprise" in Whitehall and town halls across the country, attacking what he called the "mad" bureaucracy that holds back entrepreneurs. The prime minister, who was criticised for failing to outline economic ... Cameron Promises To Free Business From Red Tape
Bureaucratic stupidity and instransigence have hamstrung British business for a long time. The Public Service however is the natural home for control freaks and if David Cameron and his coalition do find the balls to take on Buggins and the bean counters they are up against a formidable opponent.
If Mr. Cameron can live up to his pledge to confront the "enemies of enterprise" in Whitehall and town halls around the country, attacking what he called the "mad" bureaucracy that holds back entrepreneurs he will be doing the nation a huge favour and securing his positioon as Prime Minister. It will mean taking on the dark forces of the New World Order and the thugs of the Politically CForrect Thought Police of course.
The prime minister took some flack for failing to propose economic growth plans after last year's autumn spending review, and has moved to recover lost ground by promising to place the promotion of enterprise at the heart of the Spring budget on 23 March.
In one of the strongest attacks by a serving prime minister on the civil service, Cameron yesterday made it clear that he shared the frustration of Tony Blair, who famously claimed in 1999 that he bore "scars on my back" from those resistant to change.
The prime minister, who said that enterprise was about morals as well as markets, listed three "enemies of enterprise' in a speech at the Conservative spring forum in Cardiff:
"The bureaucrats in government departments who concoct ridiculous rules and regulations that make life impossible, particularly for small firms."
"The town hall officials who take for ever with planning decisions that can be make or break for a business and the investment and jobs that go with it."
"The public sector procurement managers who think that the answer to everything is a big contract with a big business preferred supplier and who shut out millions of Britain's small- and medium-sized companies from a massive potential market."
The Premier said: "Every regulator, official and bureaucrat in government has got to understand that we cannot afford to keep loading costs on to business because frankly they cannot carry the burden any more. And if I have to pull these people into my office to argue this out myself and get them off the backs of business then believe me, I will do it."
The chancellor, George Osborne used his speech on Saturday to announce the creation of 10 enterprise zones and will unveil changes in the budget to give small- and medium- sized firms more opportunities to tender for government contracts.
"We're throwing open the bidding process to every single business in our country a massive boost for small businesses, because we want them to win at least a quarter of these deals," Cameron said.
The speech revealed the influence of Andrew Cooper, Downing Street's new director of strategy, who starts his new job on Monday. Cooper is said to be drawing up a vision for the future to show that the government has plans that go beyond deficit reduction.
The prime minister said he was positive about the future because Britain is the home of entrepreneurs. He then launched a strong defence of his recent trip to the middle east on which he was accompanied by 36 British business leaders, including eight from the defence and aerospace sector.
"I know some people are disdainful about selling Britain to the world," he told his audience."They see me loading up a plane with business people and think: 'That's not statesmanship, that's salesmanship'. I say this: attack all you want, but do you think the Germans and the French and the Americans are all sitting at home waiting for business to fall into their lap?"
The governments NHS reforms will return medical care to the standards of the 1930s and 40s, a leading doctor has warned.
NHS Reforms ' Will Return Health Care To The 1930s'
Doesn't the plight of senior doctors make you weep. Did you know we, the public, their employers are so unreaonable in our expectations we expect them to get their arses in gear and do a few hours work a couple of times a week.
What they are afraid of is that in the 1930s and 40s Doctors were actually expected to examine patients, diagnose problems and define a plan for recovery rather than just attending meetings and signing repeat prescriptions.
05 March 2011
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04 March 2011
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03 March 2011
TheYoung Must Hope For A Housing Crash
It Makes Sense To Hope For A Housing Crash
by John de Roe
The burden of student debts imposed on young people by a misguided education policy that has left the nation with a surfeit of media studies graduates and a shortage of practical skills is also having dire social consequences in other ways. The Labour government's student loan system which accompanied their insane push to get 50% of school leavers into ~University education is making it virtually impossible for many young people to even hope to earn sufficient to enable them to pay off student loan debts let alone think about buying a house. This trend could push the average age of first time buyers up to 44, according to mortgage provider Scottish Widows.
Even if you suspect the insurer of alartmism because less saving is bad for its business -this forecast is deeply worrying not just for people relying on a recovery in the housing market but for the economy as a whole. While the Coalition Government emphasises
that student loans will not need to be repaid until earnings exceed Ł21,000, anyone who believes these debts are any less debilitating for being deferrable is living in cloud cuckoo land.
While the parents of todays students bought their first home at around age 27, the graduates of tomorrow will find that the Student Loans Company has first call on any savings they may accumulate. And, lest they forget who has first claim on their money before they even see it, HM Revenue & Customs will take it from their salary at source..
Will these young couples be able to think of starting their own families given the burgeoning cost of raising children? And, seeing as the government is always telling us to save fort retirement what will student debts do to people's hopes of building up a pension fund. Serious saving for retirement typically begins in early middle age, money paid into a scheme too early will be eroded by inflation, but graduates in future will be lucky to get started much before the age at which many of their parents retired. On top of that, due to rising life expectancy employers are washing their hands of pension provision and various Ponzi schemes run government are already reneging on promises and talking about raising retirement ages.
If we are creating a generation of people who simply do not save it is clear that people who want to get onto the property ladder will not be able to make the commitment to saving at an early enough age to make paying off a mortgage a realistic proposition. It is not practical for people today to put aside huge amounts of money given their commitments and material expectations but even so it is vital for society that saving does not become a lost art.
That may turn out to be a forlorn hope when economists as diverse as the Governor of the Bank of England and the Resolution Foundation report declining disposable wealth and the worst economic outlook for decades. The best survival strategy for students in future will be to avoid degree courses that do not offer a high probability of a lucrative career. They will face a much tougher employment market than any their parents faced after graduation.
So who would blame young people for hoping the housing marker will collapse further from its current low. Only lower real prices in an inflation ravaged economy that will reduce in real terms the burden of debt can improve their prospects.
It is a consummation devoutly to be wished. No wonder websites such as housepricecrash.co.uk are proving increasingly popular and are now, perhaps somewhat counter-intuitively you may think, supported by advertising from leading house builders.
Free market solutions are unfashionable among many students who tend to be supporters of Labour and even further left parties on the ideological fringe. The market however may still offer their best hope of knowing the security of bricks and mortar so many of their parents benefitted from.
Millions Will Never Be Able To Save
by John de Roe
Four out of ten people in the age range from 45 to 54 have found themselves unable to save any money in a retirement fund because of the twin financial burdens of aged and infirm parents and young adult 'boomerang' children who have set out to make their own life and because of poor career prospects, housing costs and job insecurity have boomeranged back to the shelter provided by Mum and Dad. This age group is becoming known as the "sandwich generation". They are failing because of financial pressures to take advantage of tax breaks and make additional voluntarty contributions to their pension savings according to the an insurance industry Savings and Investment Report.
The 45 - n54 age bracket has the highest number of non-savers across the whole spectrum according to the report, an estimated 3.5 million people across Britain.
It is not just the middle aged who finding it difficult to save in the current economic climate however. Despite common preconceptions, it is not those on the lowest incomes that are struggling most to save, but people on middle incomes between Ł20,000 and Ł30,000.
A third of these middle income consumers are failing to save anything at all, in fact many are falling deeper into debt and of those that are saving, more than half are tucking away less than 5% of their salary. Rising living costs are cited as the reason that middle income earners are unable to live within budget and save money. The the added burden of recently withdrawn benefits has eaten into the surplus of many families with young children.
In the past year child tax credits have been cut and the situation will only worsen as child benefit is withdrawn for families with a higher rate tax payer even if the other parent receives a lower or no wage at all.
Ian McGowan, Head of Savings and Investments at Scottish Widows said: "It is unsurprising that the financial crisis has impacted upon people's savings behaviours, but the concern is that this has created a generation of people who simply do not save. It is vital that this new group of non-savers are made aware of the serious impact that this could have on their quality of life."
02 March 2011
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01 March 2011
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John Major Joins Supports Move For Military Intervention In Libya
As the uprising against the rule of Muammar (Mad Dog) Gadaffi looks increasingly likely to turn into full scale civil war and a humanitarian crisis former UK Prime Minister Sir John Major has joined current leader David Cameron and other European leaders in calling for military intervention to save the Libyan people from the irrational dictator's wrath as he desperately tries to delay his inevitable downfall.
In a barely coherent interview Gaddafi has told western journalists his people would die to protect him. he also denied there has been any fighting in Tripoli. He claims his people love him and Al-Qaeda's 'drugs' which were responsible for the uprising are beginning to wear off.
The American ambassador to the United Nations said Gaddafi is 'delusional' and not fit to lead his country. This, from the nation that has propped up Mad Dog's regime for decades shows just why American foreign policy is a mess. Has it taken them 40 years to understand Gaddafi is bonkers.
As the situation in Libya worsens Major backed David Cameron and other Western leaders who as they consider ordering military action against the Gaddafi regime amid fears that the Libyan dictator could resort to using chemical weapons against his own people.The former Prime Minister told journalists he believes the option of military force should be available if Gaddafi refuses to step down and continues to order military attacks on his own people.He said that the use of military force should be a last resort and should only be used if supported by overwhelming international support through the United Nations.
One voice that has remained silent throughout the Libyan uprising is that of U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama. Is this just typical Obama dithering or that he is too busy with his punishing schedule of cocaine parties and rent boys. Or might the fact that Obama had no problem supporting the rebellion against the largely secular government of Honsi Murbarak in Egypt but will only criticise Gadaffi in the most vague general terms be because Gadaffi is an Islamist.
Either way it is fortunate the west has men like John Major to fill the gap created by the preening posing man who loves to style himself the leader of the free world not actually having much enthusiasm for the tasks and responsibilities of leadership.
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John Major Joins Calls For Military Intervention In Libya
Shoppers Are Latest Victims Of Rip Off Britain
Shoppers Are Latest Victims Of Rip Off Britain
Supermarkets are ripping off British shoppers by ramping up food prices ahead of inflation, the investment bank UBS has warned in a new report. It is not long of course since the leading supermarkets faced a government inquiry into allegations that they were operating a cartel.
According to the Swiss banking giant's figures commodity price inflation over the past few months would justify a 3pc-3.5pc increase in the price of processed foods but supermarkets have raised prices by 6pc-6.5%.
Paul Donovan, an economist with UBS and co-author of the report, said: "The study suggests there may be a raising of margins in the supermarket secto. Prices are rising in excess of what is justifiable because of cost increases."
The study suggests that such profiteering by supermarkets was adding up to 0.5 percentage points to the official consumer price index of inflation, which is currently running at 4pc. The research also revealed shoppers were noticing sharper rises in food prices than in other categories of consumer spending.
According to the UBS figures, food prices in Britain are rising at an annual 4.9%, compared with 3.6% in Germany, a eurozone average of 1.8pc and a US increase of 1.5pc. Consumer experience reflected in opinion polls suggests the public perception is food prices are icrasing more quickly than any of these indices.
The pound has ben weak in curency markets for some time and this is contributing to the higher-than-average UK increase, as 18pc of food consumed in the UK is imported, but the currency's weakness is helping exports and a recovery in manufacturing industry.
The anomalous rate of inflation makes Britain the OECD country "most vulnerable" to political interference, Mr Donovan said when commenting on the report. While UK food prices are rising more rapidly than most other OECD economies' food prices, and have significantly outstripped food retailers' cost inflation it is the ordinary people who are bearing the brunt of the sacrifices involved in rebuilding the economy.
The weakness of the coalition government's position will give oppposition Labour spokespeople whose party are responsible for running an unsustainable public sector deficit and failing to regulste the finance industry properly thus creating the financial crisis, the opportunity to blame the coalition for the hardship voters are enduring. It is to be hoped then that coalition ministers will act against supermarkets. The leading retailers ought to come under political and media scrutiny to cut prices over hpow much they collude in fixing prices.
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Shoppers Are Latest Victims Of Rip Off Britain
UK Manufacturing Growth Maintains Record Progress
UK Manufacturing Growth Maintains Record Progress
The rapid recovery in British manufacturing industries held at its record level in February and factory costs rose little on theJanuary survey's level, suggesting inflationary pressures are continuing to build in the economy
The Markit/CIPS Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) stood at 61.5 in February, unchanged from a downwardly revised 61.5 in January. That was the highest since the survey began in January 1992 and above the forecast of 61.
Signs of robust growth in manufacturing combined with rising manufacturing costs could strengthen the case for the Bank of England to raise interest rates sooner rather than later to relieve inflationary pressures.
Consumer price inflation is running at double the official 2pc target and looks set to rise further, while interest rates have been at the insanely low rate of 0.5 percent since March 2009.
"Input cost and output price inflationary pressures remain elevated, which may raise a further eyebrow amongst the members of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee," Rob Dobson, a senior economist at Markit said.
The PMI's price index's growth was led by rising prices for raw materials such as cotton, energy and metals. Output prices rose for the 16th consecutive month in February with the steepest increases in chemicals, food and drink and timber.
Tuesday's survey showed that employment in the manufacturing sector grew at a record pace in February. New orders in February eased slightly from a 16-year high in the previous month, although the reading was still among the highest in the survey's history.
Overall good news for manufacturing but expect rough times ahead as unemployment will increae due to the cull of non - jobs in the public sector before the 'real jobs' sectors of manufacturing and commerce are able to take up all the slack
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EU Equality Laws End Cheaper Car Insurance For Women
EU Equality Laws End Cheaper Car Insurance For Women
Women face higher costs for car insurance premiums following a decision by the EU to ban using gender-based pricing for financial products. Rises of up to 25% will hit women drivers while men will find payments they receive from their pension plans will decrease. The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg has ruled that using differences between men and women as a risk factor in setting premiums for car and medical insurance and pension schemes breaches EU rules on equality. This latest bureaucratic lunacy to emerge from the world's biggest insane asylum undermines the methodology traditionally used by insurers to determine premium and payment levels by using the law of probabilities.
The Daily Stirrer has little time for the insurance firms, we have seen enough evidence to know they are as big, if not bigger a bunch of thieving scumbags as the banks. But FFS, the EU in the name of 'equality' are helping them steal from us.
Taking the gender of the insured individual into account as a risk factor in insurance contracts constitutes discrimination, the court's ruling said in a statement. The verdict which will take effect from December 21 2012 (the day the world is due to end according to some) will force changes in the current standard insurance sector practice basing insurance rates on statistics about differing life expectancies or road accident records of the sexes.
Women could face an increase of up to 25% in their car insurance premiums because of the judgement, while pension income for men could fall by between 5 and 10%. Men benefit from higher annuity rates as, statistically, they don't live as long as women.
Experts criticised the ruling and said that that premium prices are likely to be volatile for the next few months as insurers monitor their new business and adjust their pricing in response to experience.
Matt Morris, senior policy adviser, at LifeSearch said: This is a horrible mistake by the European Court. It is essential for insurers to use gender to calculate risk based on solid actuarial evidence and statistics. It is price differentiation, not discrimination, as it is not a decision that comes down to the whim of an individual. The consumer will now suffer. Prices will go up across the board as insurance companies try to build in the new risk.
The idiocy of this politically correct ruling lies in the way it allows politically correct nonsense to override sound business practice. Gender associated differences are not based on prejudice or a desire to impose inequality but on the law of probability. Women pay less for car insurance because they are generally safer (not necessarily the same thing as better) drivers while men statistically die younger than women. Thus the insurers are better at ensuring equality, drivers pay not according to their wedding tackle but the risk they pose while pensioners returns are calculated to be the same overall at estimate time of death.
Obviously if someone lives to 110 years old they do well out of their annuity provider but last time we looked longevity was not gender related.
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28 February 2011
Doctors Too Quick To Prescribe Fever Medicines For Children
by Ed Butt
Once again we see the healthcare industry of which too many GPs, hospital doctors and medical researchers are part is more concerned with furthering the interests of their business partners the drug companies than with offering proper care to their patients.
Because of the numerous scare stories generated by the health cartel, the Swine Flu pandemic that never happened being the most recent, a culture of "fever phobia" has developed in the societies of developed nations. This often means parents too frequently demand medicines to bring down even quite slight temperatures, say the paediatricians, who warn that children often receive accidental overdoses as a result.
High body temperature is one of the body's ways of fighting an infection, according to a report published today by the American Academy of Pediatrics, so to bring it down artificially could actually prolong a child's illness.
Doctors also are too ready to prescribe medicines, known collectively as "antipyretics", and to advise parents to use them according to the report. The advice is the conclusion of a study the results of which indicated that children given paracetemol before age 15 months were more than twice as likely to develop asthma by their sixth birthday as those not given it.
Writing in a clinical report on fever and the use of paracetamol and ibuprofen in children, the report warns: "Combination therapy with acetaminophen [paracetamol] and ibuprofen may place infants and children at increased risk because of dosing errors and adverse outcomes, and these potential risks must be carefully considered."
Doctors are advised to begin "by helping parents understand that fever, in and of itself, is not known to endanger a generally healthy child. It should be emphasized that fever is not an illness but is, in fact, a physiological mechanism that has beneficial effects in fighting an infection." Fever slows the spread of bacteria and viruses, enhances white blood cell production, the report says, and "actually helps the body recover more quickly from viral infections".
Despite this it is reported that "Many parents administer antipyretics even though there is either minimal or no fever."
Half consider it to be a fever even if a child's temperature is not higher than 38C (101.4F), they report.
Rather than try to educate parents a lot of doctors are happy to advise then to give paracetamol and ibuprofen alternately - known as combination therapy - believing side effects are very rare and not dangerous.The report warns: "Unfortunately as many as one-half of parents administer incorrect doses.".
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Greenteeth Health Pages
Children Are Bring Given Chemical Cosh For Shyness
Children are being prescribed mind-altering chemical cosh drugs for conditions such as shyness and mild social anxiety, behaviour experts have warned. Young people are routinely being given medication to treat normal childhood conditions, it was claimed, despite fears ration in ...
Flu Deaths Hit Fifty This Year
More official bullshit from the Ministry of Fear and Panic. Quite what the aim of this is as most of the overbought flu vaccine from the bird flu scare of a few years ago, another pandemic that did not happen, are past their 'use by' date now and clinics are running out of vaccine.
People need to be told not to panic, that (as Dr. Hilary Jones assured viewers on breakfast TV this morning, 'flu is a relitavely mild illness and ...
The Swine Flu Scam Revisited
by Ed Butt
29 December 2010
As the swine flu pandemic that did not happen last year refuses to happen again this year the fear and panic industry has gone into overdrive over a handful of serious cases of flu that might or might not be the notoriously elusive H1N1 variant. Like Ponzi schemes, health scares resurface with amazing regularity. Remember how last year the ...
Drugs OnlineOne of the few growth industries is the selling of fake prescription drugs online. So long as the drugs sold as viagra, vallium, ritalin etc are just sugar pills there is no harm done. It's when people buy the real thing the trouble starts...
Swine Flu ScamIf you are reading this it is probably a good indication you are alive. Swine Flu did not kill you A year ago the government was warning this virus would kill any of us that did not get the overpriced vaccine big pharma made and us taxpayers so generously forked out for. So what happened? Why are so many of us still alive?
Universities Should Not Be Asked To Repair Society
Universities are being asked to repair the problems of 18 years of upbringing and education by skewing admissions in favour of poorly performing pupils, according to a leading headmaster. How fucked is British society if universities, the breeding ground of political correctness, multiculturalism, the equal rights industry and so many other plagues that afflict modern society are being asked to sort out the problems they have worked so hard and so long to create.
To pressure uniservity admisions officers into making offers to students with lower grades from state schools is like forcing an engineer to improve the design of an aircraft after the plane has already crashed, Phillip Cottam will claim in a speech today.
Mr. Cottam, the chairman of the Society of Headmasters and ...
Read full post on universities and broken society
Related Posts on education
We Can't Even Shout At Louts In The Age Of Sensitivity Melissa Kite in The Daily Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/8351622/We-cant-even-shout-at-louts-in-this-new-age-of-sensitivity.html
You know the drill. You've been holding the line for a call centre for half an hour, pressing buttons and selecting options and after a thousand petty frustrations you finally get through to a human voice and the dam bursts.
You can't help it, you express your displeasure, and what does the voice on the other end say? "Stop shouting." Which only makes you more upset, and before long you are accused of something called "verbal abuse" and cut off.
But it's not just the call centres that are wrapped in cotton wool. Oversensitivity is spreading to every area of our society. The other day a man pulled up alongside me as I was riding my horse and deliberately revved his engine. So I swore at him and this yob, who had been quite prepared to land me on my back in the road, got out of his car in order to declare himself offended. "How dare you swear at me," he said, in a pompous tone.
Even more depressing, however, is the news that ... read full article Age Of Sensitivity
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Big Banks Do Well Out Of Sleazy Little Acts Of Thievery
Europe's biggest bank, HSBC, said it had made a promising start to the year but despite the strong figures the shares fell 3pc
Analysts said the profits were about $1bn lower than expected and Stuart Gulliver, the chief executive, had cut the bank's long-term return on equity target to 12pc-15pc from 15pc-19pc.
Oh tough, it makes your heart bleed doesn't it? How do you think the banking giant made its profit? By stealing from us of course.
Financial advice helplines have been getting a lot of complaints that credit card bills paid by cash or cheque several days before the due date are consistently not being cleared until a day after they are due, thus the cardholder despite making every reasonable effort to pay the bill on time incurs a late payment penalty.
Sleazy little scams like thiis have become commonplace as the fucking crooks bankers try to recoup the stupendous amounts they lost gambling on toxic debt derivatives. Such brilliant businessmen are these warthog felching bloodsuckers financial wizards that such sleazy little acts of theivery are the only way they can think of to turn a profit on their crooked dealings.
What they hope of course is we can all be bullied into giving them direct debiting rights on our accounts. Once that happens your wage or salary will be gone before you even soo your payslip.
If the cosalition wants to give itself a chance of survival, the Conservatives want to remain in power or the Lib Dems simply want to survive they should reopen the National Girobank thus giving The Post Oiffice a lease of life and freeing us from having to deal with thieving scumbag sons of a pox whore's scablice
Yes, it might oprn up new opportunities for robbers but as the great Woodie Guthrie once sang:
This wicked world we live in
Is full of thieving men
some will rob you with a shotgun
Others do it with a pen
Or a few keystrokes on their computer these days
More News On The Public Sector Fat Cats
A few days ago we reported how the pay packages senior managers in the public sector manage to negotiate for themselves and how thise put into perspective the whining and bleating of the public sector unions about how hard the coalition governments spending cuts will hit services.
Now we read this:
read full article More On The Public Sector Fat Cats
25 February 2011
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24 February 2011
Voters Cool On Change To AV
The Daily Telegraph seems to think the voters do not care about the referendum on a switch to Alternative Votes in General Elections and this will mean a 'No' vote even though the Conservatives are showing little enthusiasm for supporting the 'No' campaign.
We think that although AV is a poor substitute for proportional representation and will do little to change the outcome of elections votes might just see it as a chance to give politicians a kick.
Voters Don't Give A Damn About AV - Benedict Brogan, Daily Telegraph
It is a sign of Britains fundamental good health as a democracy that the referendum on changing the voting system has yet to intrude on the national consciousness. Politicians may find tinkering with how we elect them fascinating, but the public has better things to do. On current estimates, barely one in three of us is likely to ...
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Cameron Gets His Nudger Out
Conservative Contender
Liberal Democrat Reality
You have to awared full marx for persistence to those pointy headed boffing. The never give up on a bad idea. After forty years claiming they were on the verge of building a computer that can think for itself but failing to build one they are now trying to convince us we're so stupid and pathetic we need our computers to think for us.
Your Computer Will Control YouMicrosofts Kinect accessory for the Xbox gaming console sold eight million units in 60 days in a radical new approach to gaming, it uses a camera simply to read a users movements and insert them into a video game. You are the controller is the slogan, and, in short, the device allows people to take up bowling, tennis and much more, simply by standing in front of their TV screens.
That, however, is only half the story: according to Craig Mundie, Microsofts Chief Research and Strategy Officer, the Kinect way of working offers a taste of how we will interact ...
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Financial MadnessWas the credit crunch as the media called it really caused by the geed and incometence of the banks and the inabiliy of us ordinary punters to manage our affairs. Or was it all due to the financial madness of politicians who engineered a a system that depended on infinite growh in a world of finite resources.
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Inflation TaxInflation is the cruellest tax, it hits the cautious, prudent and hard working, rewards the feckless, reckless and downright foolish. We have a bout of inflation under way, engineered by governments to reduce their unsdustainable levels of debt incurred in the business of buying otes to stay in power. What will be its effect on ordinary people? ...
Gambling In The Euro Casino At Vegas on the MedThe Daily Stirer has warned of the collapse of the Eurozone and the death of the single currency before. It was not a hard call to make, tying traditionally weak economies to a strong one like Germany's and thus blocking off the traditional route to eliminating debt in the weak nations, devaluation and inflation, was bound to wreak havoc with the economic basket cases of Southern Europe. The single currency has only survived so long because Germany has been willing to prop it up.
Financial AlchemyFor three decades it was alchemy. Banks and corporations pullede off the equivalent of turning lead to gold by turning liabilities to assets and then using those very dodgy assets to secure loans. It could not last of course, sooner or later someone was bound to work out how the illusion of turning debt to wealth was performed. Find out how here...
Getting Naked In The Financial MarketsIf you've heard of hedge funds and toxic debt you might well think these are the most evil manifestations of the financial markets that plunged our economy into the abyss. Unfortunately there are far more fearsome demons, arbitrage, short selling and naked short selling. Anyine wanting to know how insane pertsonal gred has made the people who are supposed to prudently invest our savings and pension fund money in currency, bond, commodities, stocks or any other financial market this is a must read ...
The Debt Threat To Our Way Of LifeJapan's Triple A credit rating has just been downgraded, that of the USA is looking a long way short of secure.What is going on in the world of finance when economic powerhouses like these are in trouble? Is the continuing financial criis and the threatened meltdown in the bond market just a knock on effect from 2008's problems or is something bigger going on? ...
Shock, Horror! Coalition Spending Cuts Cuts Will Mean 50,000. NHS Job LossesPredictably the left are screaming about the claimed 50,000 jobs that will have have to be axed by NHS trusts across the nation to meed government budget reduction targets. What NHS managers are doing however is following in the footsteps of Labour controlled councils and rather than losing the candy - floss jobs created by empire building bureaucrats are slashing front line services to punish users of the service for ...
Interest Rates Must Start To Rise Very SoonThe Daily Stirrer has warned you to brace yourselves for rises in interest rates. As it is the Bank of England has kept rates at an insanely low level for far too long in the face of evidence that their policy had completely failed to achieve its stated aim and boost the economy.
Now with the economy stagnant, the jobless figures flatlining but likely to increase as public sector jobs are shed and inflation ...
23 February 2011
The Daily Stirrer focuses on the things that primarily concern British and to a lesser degree European and American web users. Thus again today we find ourselves skipping over Lybia - we are aware of possible economic consequences for the west but can't comment until we know if Gadaffi will hold on to power or if a secular, theocratic or military regime will succeed him. We do have links to some op - ed on the situation but focust on cuts and inflation ourselves.
Shock, Horror! Coalition Spending Cuts Cuts Will Mean 50,000. NHS Job Losses
Predictably the left are screaming about the claimed 50,000 jobs that will have have to be axed by NHS trusts across the nation to meed government budget reduction targets. What NHS managers are doing however is following in the footsteps of Labour controlled councils and rather than losing the candy - floss jobs created by empire building bureaucrats are slashing front line services to punish users of the service for not re-electing a tax and spend Labour government to lick the boots of Public Service union fat cats, run up ever larger deficits to increase the burden of debt on future generations, expand the already bloated public sector (and thus the empires of Public Service Union chiefs) and increase inflation while devaluing savings and investments.
50,000 non jobs are a drop in the ocean compared to the total waste in the public sector.
A Union-funded website reveals big job losses across the NHS, despite coalition MPs' election campaigns to save services.
More than 50,000 jobs are disappearing from the NHS, according to freedom of information responses, which reveal for the first time the extent of cuts by local health trusts struggling to save Ł20bn from their budgets. The survey, by ...
NHS Cuts Mean 50,000 Job Losses
Politicians, economists and others with an interest in talking up the economy to get us all spending and taking on debt and mortgage loans again may rave about recovery. With our industrial base so depleted where will the jobs come from that we need to lead a recovery? We need to be creating real jobs in the real world rather than candyfloss jobs in the digital economy of the internet if there is to be recovery.
No Real Jobs In The New EconomyGordon Brown's Labour government and the failing Obama administration in the USA, feeling power slipping through their fingers, are trying to lull people into a false sense of security with claims the 'green' business and the 'digital' economy will restore prosperity and create millions of jobs to restart the economic cycle and restore growth. This was a blatant lie...
Equalities Bill Discriminates Against Everybody EquallyThe Equalities Bill, passed by the previous Labour government before they were ejected from power becomes law today. This farrago is typical of the imbecilic mindset of the self righteous hypocrites who style themselves the progressive left. Presented as a law in support of equality in the workplace , in this era of pandemic joblessness and perpetual financial crisis it is nothing but an attack on the businesses that provide the real, wealth producing, revenue generating jobs in the private sector.
Dangerous Trees Targeted By Health And Safety ExecutiveThose nice people at the Health and Safety Executive want to remove all risks from your life and make you totally safe. That is why they have declared trees a danger. Naturally their response is to wrap us in a safety blanket of bureaucracy.
Interest Rates Must Start To Rise Very Soon
by John de Roe
The Daily Stirrer has warned you to brace yourselves for rises in interest rates. As it is the Bank of England has kept rates at an insanely low level for far too long in the face of evidence that their policy had completely failed to achieve its stated aim and boost the economy.
Now with the economy stagnant, the jobless figures flatlining but likely to increase as public sector jobs are shed and inflation gathering momentum the Bank has achieved the opposite of its utilitarian aim to do the greatest good for the greatest number. It will do the most harm to the greatest number.
The only mitigating factor is that most of our international competitors are up the same brown, smelly creek and are also lacking the traditional method of propulsion
Another Bank Of England Bosee Calls For Interest Rates To Rise
Bank of England chief economist Spencer Dale has joined Martin Weale and Andrew Sentance in calling for an interest rate rise, minutes from the latest Monetary Policy Commitee meeting showed on Wednesday.
Mr Dale's call for a 0.25pc increase with Martin Weale, who voted for a rate rise last month, came as Andrew Sentance, the most outspoken of the hawks, called for interest rates to be increased by 0.5pc (50 basis points), at the MPC meeting held between February 9 and 10.
The minutes also suggested that some of those opposed a rate hike this month would consider if it if the economy shows signs of ...
Inflationary factors are going to be around for a very long time so it seems unlikely even very substantial rate increases, which would hit mortggage holders very hard, will be sufficient to hold down prices.
Oil Price Climbing
US oil futures hit their highest price for 2-and-a-half years today, on concern that unrest in Libya could spread to other top oil producers in the region and cut output further.
Violent clashes in Libya have resulted in at least three oil companies halting output in Africa's third-largest producer, which pumps 1.6m barrels per day (bpd), or nearly 2pc of global supply.
The disruptions mark the first reduction in oil supply stemming from a wave of protests that have swept through the oil-producing Middle East and North Africa.
Investors fear for the potential impact on the flow of oil from top exporter Saudi Arabia if it suffers ...
Ian R. Thorpe comments:
There;'s the rub. What will happen in Saudi Arabia. Even more pertinent to the west's future circumstances what will happen to Israel. The imbecile in The White House, Sidi Barack Hussein Obama, is quite sure that the Arabs are rising up against their tyrannical rulers as a result of a banal and vacuous speech he made in Cairo rather than in protest against rising prices, food shortages, unemployment and corruption and that once the autocrats are gone everybody in the world will join hands, sing Kumbiya and then live in peace, prosperity and harmony in the global nation of Obamaland for ever more.
In reality, a place Sidi Obama has seldom visited, the pro - western autocrats are likely to be replaces sooner or later by anti - western autocrats, our oil supplies will be disrupted, prices of everything will rise and our lifestyles will be drastically downsized.
In Europe many people (apart from those working un public sector bureaucracies where it is possible to believe money grows on trees) have acepted to future will hold less material benefits and lives based on religion or existential thinking are making a comeback. Can anyone see that happening in America where the Calvin inspired Southern Baptists believe worldly wealth is a measure of how much God loves them?
I think not.
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Sarko Calls For Action Against InflationAs leaders meet for another pointless, obscenely expensive jolly high level meeting of world political leaders and heads of government finance, French President Little Nico Sarkozy warned delegates inflation poses a "great threat" to global growth, risking dangerous unrest if food prices soar out of people's reach, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, warned the
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Sarko Calls For Action Against Inflation As leaders meet for another pointless, obscenely expensive jolly high level meeting of world political leaders and heads of government finance, French President Little Nico Sarkozy warned delegates inflation poses a "great threat" to global growth, risking dangerous unrest if food prices soar out of people's reach, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, warned the
And as Gaddafi's 40 year rule draws to an end in what increasingly appears to be a bloodbath we offer a roundup of the best comment from foreign correspondents in the national press about the world's reaction ad particularly that of the man in the White House who only two weeks ago was preening himself as he posed as a liberator of the huddled masses but now has fallen silent as evertything in the middle east, predicatably, starts to go pear shaped. .
Labour's Deafening Silence Over Lybia
Search though I have, I have been quite unable to unearth any comment on the Libyan upheaval from three senior politicans youd expect to have something to say. Step forward Tony Blair, Lord Mandelson and Gordon Brown. As I pointed out yesterday, New Labours holy trinity all greased up to Gaddafi and his clan for
Obama's Strange Silence On Lybia Alex Spillius
Once again, the White House has fluffed its lines on the Arab revolution. With Gaddafis helicopter gunships strafing his own people, with corpses piling up on the streets of Tripoli, President Barack Obama has remained silent. He did make a speech today, in Ohio, at a Winning the Future Forum on Small Business. Winning the future
Obama Bounce Falls Flat Toby Harnden
The presidents mini-recovery is starting to fall flat. According to the latest Rasmussen Daily Presidential Tracking poll, Barack Obamas approval ratings have fallen to their lowest level since mid-November. Just 21 percent of US voters strongly approve of the presidents job performance in contrast to 41 percent who strongly disapprove. Obamas Presidential Approval Index rating
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