Temporary technical problems

Due to technical problems I have had to remove a couple of my blog rolls as the server serving them was taking an age so holding up the loading of the site.

The links will be back soon.

More Ignorance from the MSM!

This time in the Mail on Sunday.

In an article about Gordon Ramsey's restaurant in New York, largely complaining of the smell is this priceless piece of sheer utter incompetent ignorance that litters the mass media:

The racket it makes has been measured at 57 decibels, they say - above the limit for local events such as rock concerts.

To give you an idea 60 decibels is what you get from you average TV, if you are 1M from it, wheres living 10M from a major road gives you 80-90.

A rock concert is some 110-120 decibels. Please note that decibels are logarithmic so 20 decibels is twice as loud as 10, 30 is twice as load as 20, not that you could hear either.

If my neighbors were as loud as that I would be happy. Clearly there is some big error in checking the story. Either the people complaining are making a fuss about nothing or the noise levels are incorrect or incomplete.

Conservative Peer in "BNP" row?

According to the Libdemograph Independent on Sunday Lady Sayeeda Warsi has plunged the Conservative party into some row about race, immigration and the BNP by suggesting that some BNP voters may have some views worth listening too.

God forbid that politicians should pay any attention to the electorate surely?

It is clear that there are problems with the current scale of immigration. Only the die hard ideologues of the liberal free movement brigade or the hard left see it any other way. Anyone with any sort of practical sense knows that the current level of immigration is causing problems.

The rag (for it is no newspaper) also tries to present the restatement of Conservative position on immigration as some sort of "lurch to the right". It isn't, the policy on immigration is unchanged.

They will be accusing us of having a policy of "British jobs for British workers" next, which would be a lurch to the far right. That is however not a policy of either the Conservative party or the BNP.

The conclusion?

Marie Woolf and Brian Brady are either too ignorant, politically biased or more likely both to write anything of use to anyone.

Hat tip to Rod Crosby on politicalbetting.com for the link.

Gordon Brown boxed in to an early election

By not killing of speculation, and indeed by allowing his close aides such as Ed Balls to keep the speculation going, Gordon Brown has boxed himself in to holding and early election.

It is true that Labour has got some impressive poll leads reported today, as can bee seen here on Politicalbetting.com, however these polls are taken at the end of a Labour party conference when there has been wall to wall coverage of the Labour party. We are about to have similar for the Conservatives and that will change the way the polls lie.

The polls have been all over the place in the last couple of months, going from showing a large Labour lead to almost neck and neck and apparently back again. It is not credible. Public opinion does not change that fast.

Gordon will have either called an election before we find out how the Conservatives position has changed over the conference in which case he risks a serious surprise, or he will wait and if the polls show that Labour is doing less well, he will have to wait. This will make him look weak.

Boris Johnson wins Conservative nomination by a landslide!

Boris Johnson has won the Conservative nomination for the Mayor of London by a landslide.

Clearly this shows he has the larger than life personality it will take to challenge Ken Livingstone.

I will watch the contest with interest.

Guido has this, whilst the BBC has this.

Gordon Brown backed by Jonah!

Whilst many of my blogging colleagues (See Guido here and Dizzy here) have picked up on the fact that so much of Gordon Brown's speech was recycled Bob Shrum for people like Al Gore, I would like to point out that Bob is in fact Jonah, having backed 8 losers in a row.

It has to be said that Gordon Brown did win the leadership, but only by ensuring there would be no election. He is not in a position to do that for a general election is he?

The comment comes from this original piece by the Fink here, whilst the Times also has this.

Madeleine photo: A vindication of the McCann strategy

Many column inches of this mornings tabloids are taken over with speculation on supposed a photograph of Madeleine McCann.

Needless to say Kate and Gerry McCann are saying nothing. I have seen the photo's and I would not either, other than this:

Clearly there are many many people looking for Madeleine. Where ever she is, if alive, she is going to be hard to hide.

Even a Spaniard knows who to look for in their holiday photos.

It is an impressive publicity campaign.

The Daily Mail has this, whilst the Daily Express has this.

Fair and handsome?

I have just seen a piece on BBC News 24 about a cream sold in India called "Fair and Handsome", and the television adverts that go with it.

It seems that people in India have had a problem with dark skin since time immemorial, with ancient remedies to lighten the skin.

This echos with me, I have to say, because when I was young I did see a psychiatric patient of Afro Caribbean decent trying to wash the colour off. What is more my late father was most amused on hearing some loony Labour councils wishing to replace "bah bah black sheep" with "bah bah green sheep" on the grounds that when he was in Africa, the darkest shade of black was called green.

Then there are those who obsess over tans, fake tanning creams and the like.

So, lets get this straight. People of dark skin are trying to become whiter, whilst those of the whitest skins are trying to get darker.

I don't see political correctness as a solution. I see discussion as a solution.

So there we have it. People discriminate, regardless of their own skin colour. There is no point in getting up tight and holier than though. We need to talk about these things and how nuts they are.

Peter Oborne on that Brown Speech

There is an interesting piece in today's Daily Mail by Peter Oborne.

For some one who hates Cameron, writing in what currently appears to be a Brownite paper, he seems remarkably nice to Dave.

However his analysis of the new leader of Labour is interesting. Making the BNP look soft? I wonder how that will play with the activists?

Hat tip to Chris D on Politicalbetting.com for the link.

That Gordon Brown Speech in full

I will make the same empty promises that we did when we came to power 10 years ago (applause) and make Britain fairer (Hasn't he seen the stats?)

I will steal the Conservatives policies, especially those that we rubbished at the last general election!

I will bash immigrants in a way that would even shock Nick Griffin!

Well, that was about it.

The BBC has this.

There will not be an October election, but the speculation will damage Labour.

I have said all along that there will not be an October election. That is still my view, unless Gordon Brown gets very reckless.

However the failure to rule one out, and it being reported as a ruse to disturb the Conservatives (which has been the underlying current of some of the media reporting) will come back to haunt Labour if Gordon Brown does not have an early election.

There is of course a downside, which is that he does have an early election. If he does then he faces the possibility of losing seats, and bringing on some lame duck feeling. This is a certainty. Labour will have a smaller majority, if it has one at all, than last time.

The other thing is that the electorate may smell a rat, even if one is not there. They seem to punish those that put them through unnecessary elections. What is more, is that they may feel that the election is being called because the politicians know something they don't, for example that there is going to be an economic downturn. To be fair the polls indicate that Gordon Brown is more trusted in a crisis than David Cameron, however firstly that sows doubt, and secondly the last thing you want to do is win an election when things are about to go seriously pear shaped after you have been in power for years. We did that in 1992, and I suspect had we lost that one we would have been back in power in 1997 and still in power now. There are worse things than losing an election, there is winning one.

The big problem Gordon faces though is that election fever could well over take him if he does not quell it. he could look very stupid with all the media, and indeed Labour party speculation clamoring for one, and then not calling one. In short, he would become Chicken Gordon.

In politics, every silver lining has a cloud.

The Daily Mail has this, The Guardian has this, with this by Andrew Rawnsley, and this on comment is free on how vain it would be and this as a leader, the Times has this whilst the Telegraph has this.

Polls to the left of them, Polls to the right of them!

Volatility continues in the polls with the size of Labour's lead changing from poll to poll, in different directions.

The Latest poll in today's Sunday Mirror shows Labour on 39% (-1), the Conservatives on 33% (+1) and the Liberal Democrats on 19% (-1). The poll was carried out by ICM and is directly comparable (changes shown compared to last Wednesday's Guardian poll) to a poll conducted only last week.

With this sort of volatility I can't see Gordon Brown calling a snap election, but then I never could. Further more I can't see him building a bigger lead either.

What is clear is that Brown is tactically trying to out manouver his opponents in the short term. Tactically this is working a bit, but what about the long term? Is it a strategic mistake? I think so. I can see his big tent blowing up in his face, with recriminations later on.

On Monday I listened to Lord Paddy Ashdown talk about Gordon Brown, and it is clear he does not care for him much. the clear implication was that he thinks Brown is a tactician not a strategist. I agree. However that may make him inclined to cut and run.

If Gordon Brown does go for an October election his majority will be cut.

Political betting also has this.

Gordon Brown's Latest Gimmick

I have to say I am quite surprised by Gordon Brown's latest gimmick.

Apparently he has ordered that every hospital should be "deep cleaned" as in shut down ward by ward and effectively disinfected bit by bit.

The purpose is to rid hospitals of the so called "super bug" MRSA and other hospital acquired infections. This is of course a laudable aim, however if that was all that was required, both John Major's government and Tony Blair's would have as well.

It could make hospitals MRSA free, but only if you don't allow patients and staff back in afterwards, particularly ill ones.

What is needed is good solid discipline on things like hand cleaning.

The BBC has this.

PS
Sorry blogging has been light, I have been working on anti spam systems.

Sorry about the lack of blogging today and yesterday

I have been working on spam cleaning mail servers.

Just to give you an idea, one mail server I look after handles millions of emails a week.

Northern Rock Shares start the long haul back

Northern Rock shares, have risen 10% this morning, whilst Alliance and Leicester have risen 21% and the Bradford and Bingley have also made up for some of their losses as well.

That is a bit of good news. The Northern Rock is still worth a small fraction of what it was 12 months ago, but at least its shares have stopped falling like a stone. The other two have not made back all their losses of yesterday but at least the rot appears to have stopped for now.

The downside it that some people are still queuing to get their money out of Northern Rock. Trust in government is clearly at a very low ebb.

The BBC has this.

PS forgot to publish yesterday. Doh!

Labour increase poll lead to 8%, so I am off to the pub...

Mind you I was off there anyway to practice pool.

According to an ICM poll in tomorrow's Guardian Labour are on 40%, the Conservatives on 32% and the Liberal Democrats on 20%.

More later.

Sky has this.

The Fed cuts rates by 1/2%!

The United States Federal Reserve has apparently cut interest rates by 0.5% to 4.75%.

Stunning really.

I wonder if the Bank of England will follow suit, after all the governments favoured method of measuring inflation is down to 1.8% even if real inflation is at 4.1%.

The worry is that the central banks are all being hemmed in by this huge debt mountain so can't really deal with things like money supply.

The BBC has this.

A Coppers Blog Goes Panorama

I have just watched A Coppers Blog on Panorama, in which Stuart Davidson has been outed as David Copperfield.

I'd like to say I was shocked, or surprised. With regret I am not. I will say something can be done.

For a start, a policeman will have to fill out a form when he arrests someone. This form is about one side of A4. Fair enough. He will then have to add about another half a side of A4 on top of that across anywhere between 30 and 50 forms. This is plainly stupid. Bonkers. Idiocy.

It is not that the information does not need to get to where it gets to, or that it needs to be verified as correct by the arresting officer. It is that we do not need to repeat the entry of the data so many times, with the obvious creation of mistakes by double entering the same data.

There are computer companies, like the one advertised on the right, that can build small and cheap systems to fill in all the forms necessary for any given crime, on the basis that the arresting officer tells it what class of offender and crime has been committed and then fills in all the fields. Alas government IT projects seem to have a much bigger and all encompassing scope, that fails to talk to the grass roots and so costs a bucket and falls on its face.

Panorama has this, whilst a Coppers Blog has this.

PS.

I note that Tony McNumpty rubbished A Coppers Blog in parliament, but has since in the face of reality at least partially withdrawn his attack.

McCann's Innocent Shocker!

In a remarkable turn a Judge in Portugal has found that the police there are in fact talking bollocks not in possession of a watertight case and can't demand that the McCann's return.

I must admit I am shocked, I thought they had them bang to rights with the theory that one of them nipped out with the body and hid it in a road works for 25 days of searing heat without people noticing the smell (does that town really smell that bad?) or that the local priest gave out keys to any passing holiday maker to hide bodies in the fridge at the Church which other members of the congregation were obviously to polite to query when they opened the fridge.

However, a judge does not give these theories credence. I wonder why?

The Sun has this, the Daily Dianna Express has this, whilst the Mirror has this.

Alliance and Leicester and the Bradford and Bingley shares under pressure!

Something I should have put in the last article really. However the Alliance and Leicester and the Bradford and Bingley are under severe pressure on the stock markets as well.

Lets just hope we don't get a run on these banks as well.