So why is UK growth so sluggish?

Well, that is a whole matter of debate, but what I can say is this: Birmingham is no longer quite the industrial hub it once was.

The problem is this: A lot of our industrial output, like cars particularly (but not exclusively) Nissan (capacity 340,00 cars per year), Honda (250,000 per year) and Toyota (137,000 per year) are reliant on parts made in Japan. UK manufacturers have also been affected as they are also reliant upon Japanese imports which have been cut short by the tsunami. In short, 0.2% growth is fantastic under the circumstances.

Now lets get back to the phrase "under the circumstances". It's actually quite important. Making cars in the UK is quite cheap particularly if you only have to deal with one union but making components here is less so when you have to deal with the tax office who want you to write off plant long after you have had to scrap it because it is cost-efficient. This is something for which the whining Ed Balls was responsible when he was telling Gordon what to do, but it was also the case before Labour got into power in 1997.

The boss of Nissan UK thinks he wants to buy more parts in the UK. Good. Get that past the Treasury and we are in a win win situation.

Meanwhile, Japan is recovering from the tsunami and so will our production. Growth next quarter will be 0.6 to 0.9% of GDP which will make Ed Balls look a bit silly.

That said, looking at tax rules on plant would seriously help in growth without being too costly.

The BBC has this.

NOTW to close: 200 innocents pay whilst guilty keep their jobs

So, in a move to deflect growing anger of the News of the Wor;ld phone hacking scandal, 200 innocent journalists are to lose their jobs whilst Rebekah Brooks can keep hers, as the News of the World will publish it's last edition this Sunday. You can read James Murdoch's statement here. The BBC has this.

This is disgusting. What's more it looks like Murdoch will be starting a paper called the Sun on Sunday, possibly as soon as the following week. In fact the domain names for thesundaysun.com and thesundaysun.co.uk have already been registered. In fact there seems to have been a plan to make the Sun a 7 day week operation (See The Guardian here).

What will be interesting to see if there are claims for unfair dismissal.

So, if the editor and staff of the News of the World want to start a new paper put me down for £100 in share capital. If I can spare more I will.

Should there be a public inquiry over phone hacking?

No. That would cost the taxpayer millions.

What taxpayers should do is just boycott the tabloids, and anyone who advertises with them.

It would be much quicker, more effective and very very cheap.

So ... boycott News International and the tabloid press. Job done.

I also have this on the original story, and this on how the News of the World got Milly Dowler's mobile number.

How did the NOTW get Milly Dowler's mobile phone number?

As readers will know from my last article I had an opinion of journalist that was low, of print journalists doubly so and tabloid ones quadripartitely so to a point that it could go no lower. I have now had to revise that and my opinion has dropped to depths I had hitherto thought impossible.

However a question sprang to mind which is ... how exactly did the people at or working for the News of the World get hold of Milly Dowler's mobile phone number in order to hack it? After all their families home phone number was ex directory and the NOTW got hold of hold of that by unlawful means.

So how did they get it?

From the family? Well, they couldn't get the families home number so I really doubt that they could of got it from the family.

Friends of Milly? Well how many would they have had to have asked to get the number, and if but one friend asked was concerned, that would have blown the operation out of the water so they would have had to have got lucky first time. Does anyone think they would have risked it?

The telephone companies? Well which one? The phone was a pay as you go mobile phone, need not have been registered, and the NOTW would not have known which provider to ask, so would have had to have worked their way through several.

So who then? Well... we do know one group of people who would have had the number and according to Rebecca Brookes in evidence to a parliamentary committee have form for selling information to journalists and that is the police. Seems to me to be the easiest most secure and least likely to backfire method available.

So the police have huge amounts to answer for and indeed this also explains why they have been hitherto completely lax and uninterested in investigating any further than they have been pushed. After all the investigation was and is bound to lead directly to them.

The story has now got much worse, with the Telegraph leading with a story that victims of the July the 7th bombing had their phones hacked as well as the family of the Soham murder victims Jessica Wells and Holy Chapman. (The comments above about how phone numbers were obtained also applies to these cases).

Just how disgusting can this get? Just how up to their necks in it are the police and is that why they have been dragged kicking and screaming to investigate? In fact you have to ask, how can we be sure the police are the right body to investigate?

Milly Dowler: Boycott News International!

I have a very very low opinion of journalists, from the fantasist (Robert Fisk) to the great fictional writers (Johann Hari), the faux I hate the privileged, but privately educated immensely privileged and overpaid staff at the Guardian, the venal distasteful tabloid journalists and not forgetting the editors on all media who decide what sells papers and frequently decide what the news is and fit the facts to the story not decide what the story is based on the facts.

I was not prepared to have such a low opinion and low expectations lowered still let alone by the degree and manner of the Milly Dowler phone hacking story (Lest we not forget, reported to us by the over privileged, over paid Champagne socialists at the tax dodging Guardian media group).

Lets get this straight. They hacked a 13 year old girls mobile phone message service. Just how low can you go? They deleted messages when the mailbox was full, possibly interfering with a police investigation, in order to get fresh copy to sell more newspapers. This action caused the family to have hope where there was none, and may well have diverted the police investigation.

This is behaviour more disgusting than even I could have imagined. Not surprisingly none of the tabloids mention this on their front pages, because one suspects they would have done the same, if that is, they did not try.

So I call for a boycott of all News international outlets, especially the newspapers, The Sun, The News of the World and the Times (and the Times on Sunday) and if possible Sky News.

I would also ask people not to buy any tabloid. They have kept silent on the phone hacking story, I suspect because of a guilty conscience.

Ryan Giggs named as super injunction footballer!

Ryan Giggs has been named as the footballer who took out a super injunction (via Schillings, lawyers to the rich and dubious) to prevent details of his alleged affair with Imogen Thomas.

He was named as such by John Hemming MP in parliament this afternoon. John Hemming later justified his actions because he was concerned that tracking down lots of people from Twitter and jailing them would be wrong particularly as many of them would not have the means to defend themselves.

My understanding is that Ryan Giggs took out the injunction because he was concerned about the affect on his family and in particular his children. Whilst this is an admirable aim, were he that concerned he need not have had an affair in the first place. Even if you are wealthy things things do eventually come out.

On a wider note there is something odd about super injunctions, particularly those concerning corporate bodies such as Trafigura. Whilst they are legal individuals they are not real individuals within the scope of section 8 of the human rights convention and are not entitled to a private family life.

The BBC has this.

World has not ended shocker!

Apparently the world has not ended. It certainly does not seem to have ended here in Mid Sussex on the 21st of may.

(Well, to be fair if you were/are a Liberal Democrat it may have ended on the 5th or 6th of May)

Why do people go in for this end timer rubbish? Matthew chapter 25 makes it clear that we will not know "when the Son of Man commeth" therefore any such prophesy is a false one, and it follows that Harold Camping is a false prophet, albeit one who has made lots of cash from deluding people.

Israel's 1967 borders are indefensible!

Is the argument that is often proffered by the Likud in the Israeli Knesset and the Ultra Likud who sit on Capitol hill in Washington.

This is given as an excuse for both not moving forward and indeed in many ways moving backwards particularly in settlement building.

Where this all falls back though is a brief examinations of the facts. Firstly it is proposed that a Palestinian state be de militarised. Secondly Israel defended the 1967 borders in the 1956 Suez war (which it started) and the 1967 war (which it also started by pre-emptive strike). In the latter example it expanded it's military sphere of influence.

Israel now has an equal or better superiority in fire power over it's neighbours than it did then.

So what is the conclusion?

Israel has defended the pre 1967 borders, and in one out of two cases expanded them therefore they are clearly eminently defensible so that argument is clearly rubbish.

When is a rape not a serious rape?

Not for the first time, Ken Clarke appears to have been at the centre of some controversy, so I thought I would ask the following:

All of the following are legally rape, but do you regard them as equally serious?

1. A boy of just over 16 has sex with his just under 16 year old girlfriend, and they both want to do it so there is no complaint of rape.

2. A boy of 16 or 17 has sex with "his" 10 year old "girl friend" and there is no complaint from the girl of rape.

3. A man of 30 has sex with "his" 13 year old "girlfriend" and there is no complaint from the girl of rape.

4. A man and a woman having spent all evening together, consuming much drink go to one or others home and have sex which turns out to be non consensual.

5. During an evening in a bar a man slips a "date rape" drug into a drink for the woman he is talking to then takes her home and has sex with her.

6. A man jumps a woman he has never met in an alley, drags her away, threatens violence, and forces sex.

7. A man breaks into a house in the middle of the night, uses violence, and the threat of violence, forces sex.

Are they all as serious as each other?

Please note that in all the cases above the perpetrator is always male because the legal definition of rape involves sexual engagement with a penis. Anything not involving penetration with one is not legally rape but may be a sexual or serious sexual assault.

Mid Sussex massive win for Conservatives!

We have taken wards that were safe as houses for the Liberal Democrats!

In short, Conservative hold in Mid Sussex with increased majority.

More later.

Update. 19:57.

So far the Conservatives have 40 seats, Labour 1 and the Liberal Democrats 7. That looks like 14 losses for the Liberal Democrats.

Update 23:01

Final result:

Conservatives: 45 (+15)

Liberal Democrats 8 (-15)

Labour 1 (No change).

Fred Goodwin, mentioned in Parliament.

Apparently Fred Goodwin was mentioned in parliament on the 10th of march by John Hemming.

He apparently objects to being referred to by his previous profession, and so got a super injunction according to the speech in Parliament.

Well, I don't think of him as one of those, but a w*nker. And no that is not rhyming slang.

A footballer on question time?

Ridiculous!

Except Clarke Carlisle makes some intelligent and articulate points. Well done!

How hard does the VAT increase hit?

Well the short answer is it depends on how much you spend on what.

However I have seen some fascinating rubbish on the issue.

VAT is going up 2 and 1/2 pennies in the pound, but this rate does not apply to food*, rent, mortgages, domestic gas and electricity, children's clothes, books and newspapers. It does apply to petrol, cigarettes and alcohol**, food at restaurants etc.

So how much do you spend on VATable goods a week that will be going up?

To give you some idea, to beat the £1.30 a week extra some are claiming the poorest would have to pay in VAT you would have to be spending £52 a week on goods and services which attract VAT at the full rate. This does not include heating, lighting, food, children's clothes.

Some say it will hit the "average" family by £300 a year. That is paying £5.77 a week extra in VAT or, in terms of spending on VATable goods and services, £231 a week. This is where I really start to scratch my head as I just can see that level of income after I have paid for things like the house, the bills council tax and food all of which is not vatable. In fact if you look at it, that applies to a household income of £23 K (presumably after tax) which equates to a weekly income of £442. Is anyone seriously suggesting that a household with that level of income is blowing well over half of it on VATable goods? That would leave only £211 a week (£915) to pay for the house, council tax, utility bills (excluding telephone which is charged at the full rate) and food. Credible? I don't think so.

The BBC has this.

That said I would rather tax wasn't going up, but then I would rather not have had 13 years of a Labour government flying the economy into the ground whilst pushing up public sector inflation through the roof.

Tenant's finances to be checked after two years!

Apparently tenant's finances are to be checked after two years, and if they don't need or rather qualify for social housing they will be asked to move on.

Great plan, should free up lots of social housing. In fact Labour came up with a similar very stupid idea before the election. They also ditched it, because whilst on the face of it, it is attractive, it is also very very barking mad.

If you are going to check someone's finances and on the result of that check make them move, then they will never breach what arbitrary number you have set. We already have this problem with the rest of the welfare state where people can't afford to take jobs because they would lose money doing so. The net result will be a very anti Conservative squashing of aspiration which is one of the driving forces of the party.

It does however get worse. If, as intended people who succeed move on, and those who don't stay, then estates and housing stock will fill with a homogeneous lack of achievement and ambition further stifling aspiration and ambition and directly counteracting the effect of allowing council house tenants the right to buy which broke up estates of despair.

The government wants to help the 1.8 million households on the waiting list. That is easy, we no longer have a dismal Labour government which utterly failed to build as many houses as any other government so anything will be an improvement.

The BBC has this.

The great big cyber security threat!

Apparently, according to a review of national security, there is regular massive attacks, with 1000 malicious emails targeted at government a month! See the BBC report here.

I laughed my head off. I see that on some clients systems (depending on how you count the stats) either in 1 second, and certainly in one day. With a bit of luck they refer to very carefully crafted and directed attacks, not the run of the mill stuff than business face daily, because law enforcement is not that interested in combating cyber crime.

Apparently these threats can bring down air traffic control, the national grid and other critical systems. True, which is why these systems should be nowhere near the internet, should not have USB ports or CD drives, and also be tied down tighter than a very tight thing. They should be able to operate autonomously if their interconnections break, and then their communications should not be over the internet or lines of communications that could be compromised by a cyber attack.

All that is easy to say though, the problem with the internet though is that it is easy and cheap.

Should Alex Salmond and Kenny MacAskill appear before a US senate committee over the early release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi?

Well... they have appear to have refused.. according to this BBC article.

But should they have appeared?

NO!

They are the elected representatives of the Scottish parliament, and answerable to them alone. They are, as is The British Prime minister accountable to their own house, and in no way, shape manner or form are they accountable to any other house.

Can you imagine George W Bush being, former President of the USA being called before a select committee of parliament?

Ridiculous.

UK politicians are in no shape, way manner or form accountable to the USA, and therefore should refuse on principle, refuse to appear before any committee of any elected body there. The same applies to appearing before the EU parliament or any where else. The reverse is also the case, I would expect an elected US politician to refuse the same.

Labour lies over "unfair cuts"

So the detail of the cuts begin..

Except of course that the NHS was preparing for £20 billion of cuts under Labour, and many projects and services were already cut under Labour.

Labour are now crying foul over "spending cuts". This is rank hypocrisy because they were cutting anyway (except in Ed Balls department because he was pally with Gordon Brown).

However, lets be clear, £1 in £4 that is being spent now, is not my taxes or your taxes, it is in fact the taxes to be paid by children STARTING primary school now. The public debt will not be brought down to 40% of GDP until 2031. So if you have a child of 6 years old, then they will be paying taxes when they are in work, not to fund schools and hospitals that they need, but to fund the utter fecklessness of the previous Labour government.

That Labour government started with doctors who were well paid by OECD standards, and much better paid that French doctors and made them the best paid in the OECD.

That Labour government spent billions on countless reorganisations that followed so fast one after the other that no one in the public services could tell what was going on.

That Labour government spent millions refurbishing government offices.

That Labour government gives handouts to families earning over £50,000 a year.

That Labour government pays more to feckless families who have never worked and have no intention of working than I earn in a year, and yet I pay taxes.

The Labour party hark back to the "disastrous declines" of the 1980's and 1990s! How full of rubbish are they? The 1970's were bleak, unsustainable and had Britain as the sick man of Europe. The 1980's and 1990's were tough, but they returned the country to sustainability, and crucially growth in the private sector.

This coalition is like a camel!

This coalition is like a camel.

Some say a camel is a horse designed by committee because it is ugly, cantankerous and uncomfortable to ride.

Thing is though..

When the US cavalry tried camels over horses, they moved faster because the camels could carry all their supplies, the horses needed supply wagons which moved slowly, whilst camels were as effective as horses in battle.

Top that off with the fact that we are in a desert, what would you rather have? A horse or a camel?

Drastic cut for armed forces!

There will be a drastic cut for our armed forces at 8PM on Friday the 28th of May!

I am having my hair, pony tail and beard cut off to raise money for Help for Heroes.

There will also be an auction to see who gets to cut my pony tail off.

It will now be at the Wheatsheaf Inn, Broad Street, Cuckfield in Sussex.

You can donate online here.

Please Give generously!

Please support our wounded servicemen and servicewomen.

Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of Dunkirk, 70 years ago this week

From the 27th of May to the 4th of June 1940, 338,226 allied service men were evacuated from the port of Dunkirk and the beaches near by.

This turned the absolute disaster of the battle of France, where the French and British outnumbered Nazi Germany in terms of tanks, troops, artillery and naval power but were wiped out in less than a month in to some sort of moral victory.

And it was!

On the 26th of May 1940 prayers were said in both churches and synagogues for the safe return of our troops, such was the danger to our armies.

Operation dynamo kicked in, and in what has to be marked as an incredibly heroic effort, of the Royal Navy, the Merchant marine, private boat owners and the die hard troops, French and British that fought to the last man to hold lines, defend the indefensible and generally hold up the Nazi advance whilst those men were lifted from the beaches.

Particular mention must go to the crews of the 200 small craft that were lost, the French 5th core who held Lille with little point other than tying up German armour and infantry as well as the defenders of Bolougne and Calias who did the same.

May their souls rest in peace and perpetual light shine upon them. I will remember them.