Monday, December 31, 2007

Jack Dromey denies all knowledge of Kenyan count fixing scam!

In a statement Jack Dromey didn't make, he didn't say:
I was not involved in any vote or count fixing and deny all knowledge of any wrongdoing·
Political insiders from all parties chimed in with their support. One said that as far as he could tell, it was a surprise that Jack could even remember his name in the morning let alone any part he may, or indeed may not have played in any conspiracy which of course Jack can't remember.

Jack does need regular reminding that he is in fact Labour party treasurer, though by the time this has sunk in, it is normally his bedtime.

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Mwai Kibaki denies vote rigging!

Kenya's president, who was reelected today denied vote rigging in the presidential elections. In a statement he didn't make he didn't say:
The allegations of vote rigging are a dangerous slur put about by imperialist lackeys. I deny totally the allegation that we rigged the vote. That would be too much like hard work. We rigged the count instead, it's so much easier to do, and you need to pay fewer people to do it. What do these people think we are? Stupid?
Meanwhile Raila Odinga, the person who would have won had the electoral commission of Kenya not been up to a bit of cooking is complaining bitterly.

The BBC has this.

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Benazir Bhutto reported dead after blast in Rawalpindi

There was a bomb explosion at an election rally held by the Pakistan Peoples Party, after Benazir Bhutto had finished addressing the rally.

Reports are confused, some saying she was injured, some saying critically and some now reporting her dead.

This is not a good day for Pakistan. It is difficult to predict what will happen, but what ever happens next is not going to be pleasant.

I expect riots, possibly directed at perceived extremists.

The BBC has this.

Donorgate: Peter Watts to be charged

According to the front page headline of the Daily Telegraph today, Peter Watts, former General Secretary of the Labour party is to be charged over donorgate.

The interesting thing will be where else this goes, after all we know that this arrangement has been in place for years so others must have known it and indeed set it up.

Not good news for Gordon Brown.

For more on donrogate see here.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Merry Christmas to every one!

I just thought I would wish everyone a merry Christmas, or for those of other religions, happy Eid, Hanuka and Divali (if they are at the right time of year).

For all the members of the secular society who think we should either not celebrate at all, or be celebrating "winterval" I say bah humbug!

Monday, December 24, 2007

Did Chris Huhne really win the Liberal Democrat leadership?

In a bizarre twist of events, Atticus in the Times has a snippet about the vagaries of the Christmas post winning Nick Clegg the leadership due to late ballots. He says;

The deadline for party members to have sent in their ballot papers was Saturday, December 15. But officials arrived the following Monday to find a pile of more than 1,000 late entries, according to insiders at party headquarters.

Lord Rennard, the party’s chief executive, asked Clegg and his rival, Chris Huhne, whether they wanted to include the new ballot papers. But the Clegg camp said no – after all, rules is rules – and he went on to win by 511 votes to become the party’s third leader in less than two years.

Rules may be rules, but who decided to hold a postal ballot this close to Christmas?

As Atticus continues:

It’s possible, of course, that every one of the late entries was a vote for Clegg. But it’s widely thought that Huhne was catching up.
Which is the way I sensed things. And to think that Jesus' birthday may have won Clegg the leadership and he doesn't even believe in God! Sheesh!

On a more serious note, this is a cockup of Scottish, if not Floridian proportions, drawing the whole ballot into question for the bitter for now, and for the doubters (and when things get tough, and they always do for a while, there will be doubters) later. It will make things much harder for Nick Clegg.

However Atticus finishes:

“Both camps have decided on a truce and have agreed not to mention this,” said a party source.

Well I am so pleased someone has!

Hat Tip to UKPaul on Politicalbetting.com.

Madeline McCann, a made up story...

What follows is a completely made up story explaining the disappearance of Madeline McCann. That said, it seems no more made up that some of what has appeared in the press so here goes...

A made up McCanns Story


Maddy was different. Maddys parents Kate and Gerry did not know why she was different but they certainly felt that she had changed. Maddys personality seemed to blow hot and cold for no reason, but this was not always just sometimes. There was also the fact that Maddy would seem to have good physical co-ordination one moment and poor physical co-ordination the next.


Gerry and Kate were both doctors. Gerry was a consultant cardiologist and Kate a GP. They applied there collective knowledge to try and see if there was a medical explanation. Kate took blood and urine samples and sent them for analysis. This was not done under Maddy’s name but under a made up name of Penelope. Both Gerry and Kate wanted privacy for their sick child. There was also the mater of doctors administering to their own children which is frowned upon.

The tests of the blood and urine samples came back. They provided no answers. More tests were carried out but again no answers were found. There were not even any clues.

Kate and Gerry discussed how they might be able to find out more information while still maintaining some privacy. They decided to ask some of their medical friends for help.

These were close friends. People they had known for a long time, they were good people and they could be trusted. The McCanns had been on holidays with a lot of them at one time or another. As the friends had got older these holidays turned into family affairs with children.

They invited the select group of friends for a BBQ. The friends were told of the issue with Maddy and of the McCanns pain caused by the suffering that they thought Maddy may be going through.

At the BBQ Maddy looked well. Maddy was acting just like any normal child would act. This was typical of Maddy and of her condition. She could exhibit no symptoms for days and then suddenly at the drop of a hat act strange for a day only to return to normal afterwards.

The friends discussed the problem. They all looked at the file that the McCanns had started on Maddys condition. The friends then chatted to Maddy herself. They all resolved to look into the problem. To read books, to talk to others, to provide support.

It was a close friend Bill who discovered what the problem was. On a trip to a conference in the USA Bill came across another doctor who had come across something similar. The diagnosis was that Maddy had picked up a bug eating bad pork while on holiday to Thailand. This bug had worked its way through Maddys body. This bug would normally only infect the organs such as the liver but in this instance had reached the brain. The prognosis was not good. They thought that they had stopped the bug growing but Maddy seemed to be getting worse. It was very possible that due to the bug being in the brain that the damage was irreversible. It was also possible that it could get very much worse too.


Bill was a close friend of Kate and Gerry. Bill was a GP and worked with Kate. Bill knew that Maddy would deteriorate quickly. The deterioration would be painful to both Maddy and to her parents. In discussion with Kate and Gerry it was clear that they appreciated this outcome. It was a very difficult situation to find themselves in. Both very good doctors yet unable to heal their own daughter.

Gerry and Kate were best buddies, partners, lovers as well as being man and wife. However the strain of Maddy’s illness was causing a strain on their relationship. It was not easy for the McCanns to communicate each others pain in a way that was inclusive. They were finding that it was difficult to share the pain, they were each being selfish over their own feelings towards their lovely child. This made their feeling exclusive to them and not inclusive as a family.

This is where Bill helped. Maddy was not his child but Kate and Gerry were his friends. Bill could sympathise with both allowing each of them to be selfish with him about their own feelings towards and her illness. Maddy. This was very much so with Kate with whom Bill had become a bit too fond of.

This fondness that Bill had for Kate, led bill to try and find solutions to Maddy’s illness. It was Bill who had found out the reasons for Maddy’s illness. Bill however knew that there was no cure for Maddy’s illness. Maddy was going to die and die painfully. This pain was tearing Kate apart and this hurt Bill. Bill was very selfish about his pain and he did not like it.

One of Bills interests was in pain control. Although a GP he saw this an area that he would like to gain more knowledge in and perhaps as a GP specialise in it. Maddys had a brain problem and Bill knew that this would be a very difficult pain to try and control. Bill knew further that it would be even harder to control the pain felt by Gerry and Kate. Bill decided to concentrate his effort on the pain that Kate was feeling.

Kate’s pain caused Bill pain and Bill did not like pain. Bill could not pass that pain on and just wanted to stop it. Bill was now made selfish by Maddy’s illness.

Bill’s solution to this was radical. Bill had determined that Maddy had to die and die quickly. This would cause some pain to both Gerry and to Kate but would then pass.

Bill was now thinking about how he was going help Maddy die quickly. Bill was aware that Maddy could hang on for two years or she could die next week. Bill did not know but wanted to certainty to the end of his pain. So what to do?

Kate and Gerry were aware of Bills pain management skills. Although not a consultant in this field he knew a lot about it. Kate and Gerry were still very secretive and protective over Maddy and her illness.

Bill saw the opportunity of applying too high a dose of pain killer which would act as a lethal injection. It was a matter of just increasing the strength of the dose and lying to Kate about the strength of the dose. This opportunity would present itself at some point in the next few weeks. Applying too much pain killer to Maddy would help Bills pain go away and that is what Bill wanted more than anything else.

Bills opportunity turned up a couple of weeks later. Bill was at the McCanns home when he managed to switch a dose of pain killer to a more powerful one. Bill made sure that this was the dose that would be applied to Maddy that evening. Sure enough Bill’s strong dose of pain killer was applied lovingly by Kate to Maddy to help with the pain, only to kill her.

There was real pain now. Kate was screaming, Gerry was screaming. But Bill was not there to experience the pain. Bill was at home awaiting the news that he know would come.
Kate called Bill to tell him what had happened and to selfishly tell Bill of her feelings. Bill was now in pain, it was excruciating but Bill knew that it would pass. It would go away.

Family and friends turned up at the McCanns the next morning. Maddys body was still there and not in the hospital. Kate and Gerry were so sad that they had just stayed with Maddy.

These friends now started to take over. Bill in particular wanted to take over as he did not want to have Maddy‘s body examined by the coroner. Bill explained to the other friends there that the McCanns were now in a difficult situation. There professionalism has been compromised by them tendering and administering to their own child in secret. Their careers would be over and they would be thrown out of their profession. It was now important to try and help Gerry and Kate.

A plan was arrived at. The McCanns had been on holiday with a number of friends and their families. What if they were to all go on holiday again together to a country whose police force might not be quite so interested in a foreign couple who lose one of their children. They settled on Portugal.

The plan was for several families to go on holiday. One of the children from another family was to wear Maddy’s clothes and to go with Kate and Gerry through the airport. They would also take a lot of Maddy’s clothes with them and pack for Maddy. With the child playing Maddy and using Maddy’s passport it would appear as if Maddy had left the UK for a holiday abroad. The child would then just come back as herself to the UK.

Maddy’s body was taken to the hospital one evening before the holiday and incinerated in one of the hospital furnaces. It was something that one of the other friends could organise and then bring back the ashes for Kate and Gerry.

The McCanns with their friends had now to just inform the authorities that Maddy was now missing. They had lost a daughter and they knew that would never be found.

What follows is a media storm and the McCanns are at the centre of it.


This story was not made up by me, it is someone elses... but they could surely write some of the junk in the media.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

More personal data "lost", this time in the NHS

More data has been lost, this time in the NHS.

This indicates a systematic disregard across government for our data. What is worse is that it infects some parts of the private sector as well.

It is clear that this government can't be trusted with out data.

ID cards must be dead in the water now, surely?

The BBC has this.

Friday, December 21, 2007

Gordon Brown as Popular as a rattle snake in a lucky dip: Official!

A poll by Yougov in today's Telegraph confirms what many have suspected. Gordon Brown is in fact as popular as a rattlesnake in a lucky dip. His personal approval ratings are at an all time low. 60% of people asked are dissatisfied with Gordon Brown, compared with 24% who think he is doing a good job.

To put that in perspective, those sorts of numbers saw Margaret Thatcher ditched and were John Major's ratings in 1997. It does not get much worse, and all this after 5 months in office. Impressive.

Meanwhile the voting intention figures show the Conservatives on 43% (NC) Labour on 31% (-1) and the Liberal Democrats on 16% (+3). According to Anthony Wells swing calculator that would give the Conservatives a working majority of 68.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Sean Hoey acquitted of Omagh bombing

Sean Hoey has been acquitted of the infamous Omagh bomb.

Apparently the case against him has been built on "Low Copy Number" DNA which can take the minutest sample of DNA and "amplify" it to produce a profile.

There are obvious logical problems with this approach, not the least of which is how do you know that the sample obtained from a crime scene does not contain DNA from a number of sources?

LCN DNA may be useful for directing an investigation, but the Judge at the trial today, Mr Justice Weir did not seem impressed by it as he threw the whole case and gave damning criticism of the police investigation.

Lets be clear. DNA is no magic bullet, Low Copy Number DNA doubly so. No one should be convicted on the basis of such evidence alone.


The BBC has this.

Nick Clegg does not believe in God

God does not believe in Nick Clegg!

Sorry, couldn't resist :)

The BBC has this.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Bob Marshall Andrews on Gordon Brown

Apparently Bob Marshall Andrews has described Gordon Brown as having :

‘the jealousy of Othello, the indecision of Hamlet, the futile rage of Lear and, like Brutus, he goes to the wrong people for advice.’

For a one line character description that is fantastic!

Hat Tip to Kingbongo on politicalbetting.com.

Update 16:24

I see the original came from Michael White of the Guardian in his blog. It is a very funny line and finishes with:
"Thank God we got rid of the Macbeths."

Sluts, Faggots and the Professionally Offended

I have to say I was quite amused by Radio 1's decision to fade out the words "slut" and "faggot" from the Pogues hit "Fairy Tale of New York", with Kristy McColl because the words are apparently insulting (I find it shocking that insults should be insulting!) and offensive.

Sure enough, up pops Peter Tatchell, self appointed representative of the "gay" community (I hear he makes quite a lot of them cringe) to say just how offensive "faggot" is.

It seems to me that there is a group of people who seem to both get a kick out of, and possibly make money from being offended, hence my use of the term "Professionally Offended" as if they seem to think that is a profession. The rise of the professionally offended is not new though, Mary Whitehouse used to be their chief speaker, it is just what these people are being offended about that has changed. Miserable killjoys the lot of them.

Still, Radio 2 carried on with the full unedited version and Radio 1 backed down due to mass ridicule, whilst other gay people I say interviewed were non plused at being drawn into a silly debate on a song which did not offend them in the least.

What is crazy about all this is that not so long ago BBC Radio 1 would broadcast music inciting people to commit acts of violence, in part against the gay community, which regardless of its offence, is a criminal act under the 1986 Public Order act.

The BBC has this.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Nick Clegg scrapes Liberal Democrat Leadership

Nick Clegg has, I see just scrapped in as the new Liberal Democrat leader, by 20,988 votes to 20,477 for Chris Huhne.

I am little bit gutted as I had traded into quite a good betting position on Huhne, particularly by laying Clegg at very short odds, but I am more than pleased as a Conservative that they have elected Nick Clegg as he will not have anything like the media presence of either Vince Cable or Chris Huhne, as has been shown in the last few weeks by Nick Cleggs almost complete absence from TV.

The BBC has this.

Cancer latest: Sun gives and cures cancer!

In the latest study on cancer, this time lung cancer it has been found that exposure to sunlight produces vitamin D (which has been known for a long time) which in turn helps prevent and control lung cancer growth as well as possibly other cancers.

Excessive sunlight is also known to cause cancers as well, which just goes to show you can't win.

The BBC has this here.

Monday, December 17, 2007

A disaster a day keeps the voters away!

And today's disaster was announced by Ruth Kelly, the transport secretary who tells us that 3 million records of learner drivers has gone missing on a hard disk in the USA.

It is anyone's guess when this bunch of Muppet's learn the basic rules of data security.

The BBC has this.

Is there going to be a housing crash?

Probably not, but the Times reports today that house prices have fallen all over England, and sharply in London according to Rightmove.

The scary thing is that whilst some of these properties have fallen by as much as 6.8% in London in the last month, similar properties rose by 41% last year. I don't know what bothers me more, the fact that a house price correction will slow the economy or that the government is such a bunch of pratts that they would not see this problem coming.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Donorgate: Jane Hogarth and Courtney Coventry

Some will remember Jane Hogarth as the Labour fund raiser who was made redundant apparently in June 2006(See Guido here). She was it seems the go between for David Abrahams, possibly up to as far as the PM, as well as the person who dealt with Courtney Coventry and her husband John, who also style themselves as the Count and Countess of Rozel (tough I hasten to add, not to Labour).

I understand that a number of people wish to speak to Jane Hogarth, including the police, but it appears that she has gone missing. What is more, Labour claim they do not know where she is.

Since then Labour say that she has not been working for them. The only problem with this is lots of people think Labour are lying through their teeth, and according to my sources with good reason.

Jane Hogarth has been out soliciting donations for Labour. Sources tell me that she has definitely been in touch with Courtney Coventry and her husband in the last few months. What is more Jane is aware that Courtney is not a UK citizen. Jane does not know if either John or Courtney are registered to vote in the UK, and neither does Labour, because they have never asked. If there was a donation and they were not registered then that is a breach of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000.

It is interesting that the first priority of Labour's fund raisers is to get the cash and worry about the law second.

Conservatives get biggest poll share since 1992

In a poll for the Sunday Times, by Yougov the Conservatives have the biggest poll share since 1992, (just after the election) the biggest poll share Yougov have ever reported and their biggest lead in any poll for something like 20 years.

The Conservatives are on 45% (+2) Labour 32%(NC) and the Liberal Democrats on 14% (NC).

According to Anthony Wells election calculator that gives the following seat shares:

Conservatives 373
Labour 230
Liberal Democrats 18
Others 29

A Conservative majority of 96!

Having said all that it is a December poll, and we will have to see what other polls turn up. What is also interesting is that Labour tried a bit of a relaunch last week, with Ed Balls 10 year plan for children, massive off shore wind farms and welfare reform. The only problem is that they were too busy making mistakes for anyone to notice.

The poll results are available here in PDF format.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Are Blacks thick?

Or is it the IQ test fundamentalists?

This debate sort of reignited when the Nobel Laureate James Watson claimed that those of African origin were "less clever" than good honest white folks. (For example see the BBC here)

At the time this bugged me, but I said nothing. Now I am.

James Watson said what he did for good reasons, or at least, reasons that I could see someone could think were good. Studies show that Africans score lower in IQ tests than those of "European" stock, on average. What he neglected to mention was that some Asians score higher than white Europeans, but then perhaps that did not fit into the narrative settled into his mind.

I have now had the benefit of reading this article in the New Yorker, which I feel is instinctively right.

The problem that James Watson and the IQ test fundamentalist have failed to ask is what does IQ actually measure?

In principle it measures intelligence, but is based on the idea that the average IQ of a population is 100. Therefore it measures relative intelligence. As James Flynn has found (see article, or google for more) I.Q. has risen over time. Either our grandparents were retards or we are super intelligent, or I.Q. tests measure a way of thinking rather than base intelligence.

The problem with I.Q. tests is that retaking them makes you better at them. It certainly does in my experience. I also find that playing Su do ku on a regular basis not only exercises my brain but gives me a measure of how sharp I am on a particular day.

What I also find with I.Q. tests is that you get a good score by living in the same mindset as the person who wrote the test. Take this quote from the article as an example of what I mean.

The psychologist Michael Cole and some colleagues once gave members of the Kpelle tribe, in Liberia, a version of the WISC similarities test: they took a basket of food, tools, containers, and clothing and asked the tribesmen to sort them into appropriate categories. To the frustration of the researchers, the Kpelle chose functional pairings. They put a potato and a knife together because a knife is used to cut a potato. “A wise man could only do such-and-such,” they explained. Finally, the researchers asked, “How would a fool do it?” The tribesmen immediately re-sorted the items into the “right” categories. It can be argued that taxonomical categories are a developmental improvement—that is, that the Kpelle would be more likely to advance, technologically and scientifically, if they started to see the world that way. But to label them less intelligent than Westerners, on the basis of their performance on that test, is merely to state that they have different cognitive preferences and habits. And if I.Q. varies with habits of mind, which can be adopted or discarded in a generation, what, exactly, is all the fuss about?

The thing is that the brain is a muscle. Research shows, for example that London Taxi drivers have a larger hippocampus than the population norm in much the same way as pigeons do, and that area is associated with navigation. Gay men, it has been said have other brain differences. People who use their brains in particular ways have brain differences from the norm. Are we seriously to believe that people are born to be London taxi drivers? Or indeed anything else?

Fundamentally the issue is this: I.Q. tests measure intelligence in the way that the person writing the test thinks.

They are useful, but like all tests and measures only as useful as your understanding of the test or measure. Balsa is a hardwood. I kid you not. It ranges in density and strength from very very light and soft to remarkably heavy and dense as well, so how useful is the "hardwood" classification? Well it depends on how you use the measure and what you think it means.

To answer the question posed at the beginning of this article I think it is the I.Q. test fundamentalists who are thick, because they do not understand what it is they are measuring nor the limitations of their tests.

Hat tip to Socrates on Politicalbetting.com for the link to the New Yorker article.