quick thoughts on wednesday's strike

it's said that pensions are so much better in the public sector than in the private sector and so they should be made worse.
how about let's have better pensions in the private sector? that should be answer.

all of those on the right saying that the deficit came about by spending today and pay on the never never tend to be those arguing against good public sector pensions. But insuffuicient private sector pensions is just saving up problems for the future. If people don't save for their pensions then the state will have to bail them out later and it'll be MY generation's problem. We need to get this sorted now rather than the current lot thinking it'll be someone else's problem when it hits the fan.

on the strikes - i think that changes to make pensions more affordable and more in line with people's life expectancy is right in and of itself. I'm not convinced this strike is needed, and will have to make an uninformed judgement about the conduct and negotiating of the government and the unions. won't hold my breath then

The democratic deficit: The removal of democratically elected leaders and their replacement by technocrats

in Greece and Italy, this week has seen the removal of democratically elected leaders who have been replaced by unelected technocrats. To me there are issues around this, in no particular order:
Firstly – these governments are representative governments. There are the result of indirect democracy, not direct i.e. they are elected to represent those who elected them. Therefore, they should have the power to take even the most significant decisions without having to refer back to their electors.
Secondly: something as huge as what's been going on with regards to the austerity measures should have democratic backing. It might even get the people on side
Third: if they hadn't screwed up their economy in the first place they wouldn't be in this situation at all.
Fourthly: elections take time, decisions are needed now.
Fifthly: the needs of the financial markets and ratings agencies are being put above the democratic desires of the populations of these countries. But, at the end of the day the reason for this is that their economy is up the creek and they need to borrow money on someone else's terms.

Ed Miliband's Conference Speech 2011

from this article here, i think that's properly brilliant.
He coverse the right topics and strikes the right tone. I'm worried about costs of living: energy and food prices, employment prospects and wages. He's covered all those, i'm impressed

Tacking established, vested intersts

Now people have finally started to question Murdoch's power. Now I hope that people start to tackle the power other institutions have, like finance and the city.
It's time that the elected government was truely in charge, and no politicians should be scared of following the truth, living in fear of revenge if they tackle some interests.





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Rebekah Brooks

On the radio it's said that very few details are known about Rebekah Brooks' private life.
I wonder how many people private lives' she's exposed whilst keeping hers private





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Giving Cameron the benefit of the doubt

I'm actually giving Cameron the benefit of the doubt.

It seems to me that he asked Coulson if there were any general issues he should be aware of, Coulson said no. I'd imagine Cameron asked specifically if there were any issues relating to phone hacking etc. I imagine Coulson said no.

Cameron saw a man who probably swore on his word that he had not been involved in wrong-doing but who had done the decent thing and resigned.

Cameron's background checks probably found no other faults, and so he was employed.

If the above scenario is anywhere near correct then I find no fault on Cameron's part, other than being trusting, which is no great fault.
In that case, Coulson comes off very badly.

If this was not the scenario then I think Cameron may have questions to answer





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Tory questions past behaviour of Tom Baldwin

"A Conservative has attempted to highlight Ed Miliband's appointment of a former News International journalist as his director of strategy, claiming that Tom Baldwin had hired private investigators to hack into his bank account."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/jul/08/tory-past-behaviour-tom-baldwin

Bad if true, and further sinking into the mud.

i wonder if Ashcroft is able to slip libel laws as he is taxes




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More on phone hacking.

If this is true it's fair to say that some media organisations have too much power, they target people who oppose them. Very bad.

"The first thing News International did was try to have me removed from the committee," he claims.

"I realised then that these people were never going away. Something had clearly gone wrong with newspapers an...d somebody had to get to the truth.

"There weren't many MPs who were prepared to do that for fear of being targeted, so I decided I had to do it.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14043436






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supermarkets

raise prices or squeeze vested interests, or leave things as they are.
sadly, looks like things will stay the same
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jul/02/supermarkets-derail-bill-protect-suppliers

it's long been a problem that boring geeks like me have had an eye on, and there is talk of doing something.
what will come of it all? it looks like nothing is the most likely outcome.

it's possible that it will come down to a choice between raising prices or tackling vested interests.

raising prices could have the result of people being unable to afford food if the minimum standards are compulsory or a two-tier system developing of protected and unprotected food produce, which could well result in a race to the bottom and the top tier going under pressure from business which then outweighs pressure from the bleeding hearts






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Chav and ageing goths

To me, chav is a sub culture like goth or heavy metal rather than purely a class thing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0124nty