Saturday 23 November 2013

Guardian view of the Co-op





Moments ago, the Guardian’s Deborah Orr published an article entitled, “I switched to the Co-op bank as an ethical alternative.   What a joke.”
Kudos to Orr and The Guardian. They have summed up in a headline, what the Right has been saying about institutions like the Co-Op, their trade union and Labour buddies for decades.  Pseudo-morality, feigned-ethics, and a holier-than-thou approach to business and politics has been the hallmark of the Left since the Labour movement first came to fruition.
Now it seems, the mask of morality is finally slipping, and the Left’s own skeletons are being dragged clattering and shrieking from its own dusty closet.
The Guardian writes in its sub-head for Orr’s article, “It’s virtually impossible to be without a bank account, so why is it so hard to find a good one?”
The question, at first, seems like a good one. But the premise is faulty, and it reveals the wrong-headed approach to financial and political institutions that plagues much of the Left.
In Orr’s search for “a good one [bank]” she applies specious notions of morality to institutions she disapproves of, and takes the Guardian reader on a journey of banking over the past generation, ending with the comment, “The saddest thing is that, in the recent past, the Co-op bank has been a progressive, admirable institution. It was the first bank to introduce free banking for customers in credit, in 1974. It was the first to offer interest-bearing current accounts, in 1982. Its ethical policy, barring it from investing in all manner of dodgy enterprises, from arms trading to sweatshops, is – on paper at least – exactly the direction that all financial institutions should be heading in.”
But Co-Op’s “ethical”  banking was and always has been a marketing ploy, as is most of  “corporate social responsibility”.  The British public is generous, and banks, politicians, and other firms are keen to exploit our generosity and guilt by turning it into a sales pitch. “Bank with us,” they scream. We boycott Israel!”or something of the sort. Playing on individual’s politics and preoccupations is the mindset of an effective marketer. The bank’s introduction of free banking and interest-bearing accounts is further evidence of this.
Orr claims that arms trading and sweatshops are “dodgy” as if such things a) would disappear if banks didn’t invest in them, and b) are wholesale “immoral”.
Of course, no one is comfortable with much of what they hear about arms trading and sweat shop conditions, but isn’t is “progressive” to be relativistic about things? Shouldn’t we take into account that arms trading is a reality, and has often led to the overthrow of dictators? Where would the Left’s murderous Che Guevara have been without an efficient arms trade? And sweatshops? Bad sure, but better than starvation, destitution, unemployment and economic ruination? Probably not.
It is of course natural, be you Left or Right, to feel that you have the answers to the injustices that plague the world, but the Left’s selective moral outrage is encapsulated perfectly by Orr’s search for the perfect bank. No such thing can exist. Humans are flawed and therefore human institutions will be flawed.
Moreover, Orr acts as if organisations such as banks have a duty to her sense of morality, as a customer and a commentator, over their duties to their shareholders and their bottom lines. It is this method of thinking that causes the epic flaw in her moral standpoint. To assure morality is to allow free markets – and therefore customers and shareholders – to act in unison, not protect institutions like the current political establishment protects the banks.
Without investment in “dodgy” things, banks may not be able to return as much to the shareholder or provide as good a service to their customers as they do.
Of course, Orr’s answer to this would no doubt be to simply extricate the idea of shareholders: creating instead a “People’s Bank”. But that is exactly what the Co-Op was, and inevitably, being run by humans, it was fallible.
If the Left truly wants to change the nature of banking in this country, it should start by advocating for a break-up of the corporatist government-banking nexus. Big banks should be allowed to fail, not be bailed out, and customers would be further empowered in the knowledge that their tax money wasn’t going to pick up the pieces of banks embroiled in “dodgy” practices, be they sweatshops or sub prime mortgages.
The best way to affirm morality is not to extricate the shareholders, but to empower them. Government is what must be removed from the banking sector, and then the clever marketing managers can play to Orr’s need for a Guardian Bank with free quinoa on sign-up, while the rest of us can go to where the interest rates and dividends are highest.

Wednesday 20 November 2013

Blackpool MP tries to give aid to the criminal and illegal

Gordon Marsden (Blackpool South, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many deployments of UK Border Force personnel were made to arrivals in the UK via (a) General Aviation (private airfields) and (b) General Maritime (private marinas) that were categorised as high risk in 2012-13, in accordance with the compliance obligations summarised in the National Audit Office document, The Border Force: Securing the Border, published in August 2013.
Photo of Mark Harper
Mark Harper (Forest of Dean, Conservative)
holding answer 12 November 2013
To release the information requested, which is operationally sensitive, would be contrary to the interests of national security.

What a load of tosh and a complete (again) waste of Parliamentary time and tax payers money .  Whilst the Brighton Belle was happy residing in his home Parish, his Government allowed a known three million immigrants into this overcrowded realm - all Labour suppporters.  They were given rights often refused to British people in need, 

1     the sick - never allow Labour to whitewash over the NHS and Mid Staffs with their lies and bent on facts; the intimidation of real nurses and doctors who cared for their patients as a real vocation.
2     the homeless - with immigrants, irrespective of what officials say, given priority over indigenous people for the few habitable places not sold by Maggie.  It is inconceivable that 3 million immigrants can enter a country with sufficient funds to purchase their own (our) properties.  It is so laughable that only a Labour supporter could support such a lie.

Labours Bankers, to include one Methodist "pervert" Minister who had private meetings with the leader of the Labour Party, said by others to be a purveyor of rent-boys and easy money - the Co-op investors and later US private funding -  as he surrepticiously shows contempt for honesty by secreting the evidence up his nose whilst holding a chit for £3.9 million from a Party that ruined the economy of the Nation?  Don't politicians learn anything from recent history?  I know one of my councillors has nothing but contempt for that subject as he stated to me recently.  All that needs to be said about history is Jimmy Sa Vile, Screwgirls Hall, Gary Glittersless!

Do I need to go on about what is wrong with Marsden and his awful party?


Ukip today



Britain has the most corrupt political class since Walpole

Britain has the most corrupt political class since Walpole

It's always dangerous to point fingers at the personal flaws and foibles of politicians - especially in the age of social media when the merest throwaway comment, often written at dead of night when drink has been taken, can be brandished in the cold light of dawn as evidence to destroy a budding political career.
But even those who ...

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Tuesday 19 November 2013

BBC 5Live programme on a Saudi living in Britain.

Shaker Aamer, Last Brit In Guantanamo Bay Says Leave Us To Die In Peace, Or Tell The Truth 

 

PA/The Huffington Post UK  |  Posted:   |  Updated: 19/11/2013 11:13 GMT with pictures from the tinternet.

He's not Brit, he's Saudi Arabian.  Andy Miller was English and Murdered by the state but you never mention him or his four English young children who miss their father!  He was left with dementia, homeless and in need.  Perhaps he should have spent a time in exotic Cuba instead of HM RASC?  So much for caring for the VETERANS!

700 sacked and the Council advertise A JOB!


One minute we are being told that 700 jobs have to go, the next we are seeing advertising for jobs that work out at around £80K per annum.  Is this job really essential?  Is this a duplicated job with the NHS?  Which budget is this job being paid from?

Employer: Blackpool Council
Location: NHS Blackpool, Blackpool Stadium, Seasiders Way, Blackpool, FY1 6JX
Salary: £35,784 - £39,351 pro rata
Salary Grade: H3
Working Pattern: Part Time
Working Hours: 22.5 hours per week (What? 22.5 hours for £40K.  Hmmm!)
Contract Type: Permanent


The applicant will have substantial experience in public health/health promotion and experience of working with a range of professionals. A Masters in Public Health or equivalent in an allied discipline or professional qualification is essential. The candidate should have experience of working across a number of organisations, sectors and programmes including the development, management and evaluation of significant elements of work.

The successful candidate will demonstrate an understanding of the NHS/local government policy agenda and practical knowledge related to behaviour change theory, public health practice and health promotion models.

The ability to work successfully with diverse professional partners, manage potentially conflicting perspectives and implementation of programmes in a variety of settings, including clinical is fundamental.

This post is subject to satisfactory references, medical clearance, evidence of essential qualifications and proof of legal working in accordance with the Asylum and Immigration Act 1996*.

Blackpool Council welcomes applications from all the community.

*It looks like the Council is taking immigration serious, thanks to Ukip.

Tears, tantrums and vetoes that never were (EU budget 2014-2020)



Paul will be on the streets of Crewe on Saturday.

Saturday 16 November 2013

Executives in Blackpool paid fortunes to run failing council?

Message to Simon Blackburn of Blackburn (sadly leader of the Labour Council of Blackpool). 

Even if you adopt only some of these measures, you will cut taxpayers bills.  The Tax Payers Alliance

The next MPs’ expenses scandal – why £3.6million is only the tip of the iceberg

The next MPs’ expenses scandal – why £3.6million is only the tip of the iceberg


What the information released doesn’t tell us is, for example, how many MPs lease space from local party donors. Again, this wouldn’t be outside of the rules, but as Jonathan Isaby rightly added,
“Individuals, businesses or trade unions should be free to provide office space to an MP as a donation-in-kind, but invoicing the taxpayer for that facility before then making a political donation appears to be little more than a sneaky way of channeling taxpayers’ cash into party coffers.”
There are a host of ways in which the system is able to be manipulated, and I need to look no further than the constituency where I live, Stockton South, to find an example.


IPSA have confirmed they will be looking into the cushy office arrangements of our MPs. Their website proclaims,
“As part of a broad review of accommodation support, IPSA will consider whether, even if the individual leases are appropriate, the cumulative effect means we need to reconsider this aspect of the rules”.
But this beggars the question: if IPSA even needs to ‘consider’ whether MPs subsidising their local parties with taxpayers’ money through the back-door is “appropriate”, how can we accept that IPSA is any longer fit for purpose — if indeed it ever was?

Friday 15 November 2013

ALERT - Mass ransomware spamming event targeting UK computer users



 NCA logo

15 November 2013
The NCA's National Cyber Crime Unit are aware of a mass email spamming event that is ongoing, where people are receiving emails that appear to be from banks and other financial institutions.
The emails may be sent out to tens of millions of UK customers, but appear to be targeting small and medium businesses in particular. This spamming event is assessed as a significant risk.
The emails carry an attachment that appears to be correspondence linked to the email message (for example, a voicemail, fax, details of a suspicious transaction or invoices for payment). This file is in fact a malware that can install Cryptolocker – which is a piece of ransomware
Cryptolocker works by encrypting the user’s files on the infected machine and the local network it is attached to.
Once encrypted, the computer will display a splash screen with a count down timer and a demand for the payment of 2 Bitcoins in ransom (Approx £536 as at 15/11/2013) for the decryption key.
The NCA would never endorse the payment of a ransom to criminals and there is no guarantee that they would honour the payments in any event.
Lee Miles, Deputy Head of the NCCU says "The NCA are actively pursuing organised crime groups committing this type of crime. We are working in cooperation with industry and international partners to identify and bring to justice those responsible and reduce the risk to the public."
An NCCU investigation is ongoing to identify the source of the email addresses used. Anyone who is infected with this malware should report it via Action Fraud
Sound advice can be found at GetSafeOnline
Advice: This is a case where prevention is better than cure.
  • The public should be aware not to click on any such attachment.
  • Antivirus software should be updated, as should operating systems.
  • User created files should be backed up routinely and preserved off the network.
  • Where a computer becomes infected it should be disconnected from the network, and professional assistance should be sought to clean the computer.
  • Various antivirus companies offer remedial software solutions (though they will not restore encrypted files). 

Thursday 14 November 2013

Labour progresses Blackpool into the Dark Ages

Town hall bosses today laid bare the full devastating cost of Blackpool’s brutal cuts crisis, which will see 700 council posts axed over the next two years and savings of £36m by 2016.
Almost £16m must be slashed from the 2014/15 budget alone, followed by around £20m the following year.
Around 250 jobs will be lost every year under the savage measures, while 100 contracts will also not be renewed each year.



What this lamentable article fails to mention, even once, is that Blackpool has another failing Labour administration, failing more substantially than ever before.  I can imagine that not one of the councillors read the latest advice from the TaxPayers Alliance I will go further and suggest that no Labour Councillor will read anything other than mandates and dictats from senior Labour officials.  Those very same Ministers and such who have failed on every count from child protection, producing reliable evidence to prevent unnecessary conflict I.E. Afghanistan, to balancing the books.  Their adherence to Marx is so misguided especially when the real books they ought to have studied were those of the Marx Brothers.  As an introduction I suggest a thorough two minutes to read Groucho Marx’s reply to the Warner Brothers.
What makes matters worse is that the public has a right to expect that elected councillors will hold and control unelected officers, who supposedly work for us, the people, to account.  They do not because they cannot formulate the questions that matter.  Really hard questions like…Where is the money?...  What do you mean, you don’t know Councillor ********* is a paedophile? (shock, horror).  How much of my expenses can I place in my Council Pension Pot?   

Silly me!  That’s the only question allegedly, ever asked by the “Noblese Oblege”.

So, Labour!  Where are the Conference centres, the sports facilities, the Olympic size swimming pools and the arenas to follow up on a legacy and tradition of supplying the masses with cheap, first -class and world renowned venues?  At the Derby Baths!?!?  Hmm.  I rest my case in Central Station's left luggage.
PS.  It is rumoured that someone called Casey Jones has had to cancel the Connonball Express into South because the electrified lines are too modern.  Anyone with an Old Beeching Pill?  Winter isn't just coming!  Under Labour it has arrived early.