July 2009

Always bad news, that.

But the first comment is also a swipe at the Mail itself. We have known for ages that banks have tried to cut their costs of borrowing by sleight of hand. They entice savers into accounts with promises of high returns, and then bit by bit reduce the interest payable until it is little more than seven tenths of sweet fa. Now the Mail is saying that it is the savers' fault, that we are all "lazy savers". Can they not identify this basic dishonesty by the banks? No? Well Yokel must remember that they are the mainstream media, even if at the better end of it.

Then there is the attempt by the Pentagon to destroy morale in the US forces. Smoking is too risky to be allowed! Yokel supposes that we in the UK must welcome the US to the beginnings of the nanny state paternalism that has all but destroyed the UK.

But finally amid his tears for this couple and their daughter,Yokel gives thanks that his own children were not subjected to this level of state sponsored cruelty. From his own family's brushes with the "welfare system" Yokel knows how easy it is to fall into their grasp, and how difficult to get out, and how their draconian powers are without any form of checks or balances. Here there is a system in which one protagonist (the Social Worker) is ex-officio always right, and the other (the parent) always wrong. The parent is never left in any doubt as to the powers of the social worker, nor any doubt as to how futile is any effort at resistance. Years after the event Yokel's child (now a young adult) thanked Yokel for explaining the whole court ordered access procedure. At the time the child thought they were being dumped on the absent mother every couple of weeks because Yokel didn't like the child! An arrangement that the social workers preen themselves was clearly in the best interests of the child, because social workers said it was!

This last story has hit a very raw nerve. Sorry, Yokel isn't usually given to tears.

It seems that detectives have been under instruction to enquire into an arrested person's finances (whether or not relevant to the case in hand) for quite a while. Now they are being instructed to enquire into the person's Communications Data. Clearly to justify the "Interception Modernisation Programme", despite the denial from ACPO Ltd.

Please be aware that the National Police Improvement Agency is a wholly owned subsidiary of ACPO Ltd.

It is clearly important for them to have some dirt on every member of the UK population. They must have planned something for which they will need to justify arbitrary arrest, detention or worse.

At about the same time as the NuLabour Bunker were plotting all sorts of rumour and untruths (or worse) to display on Red Rag, and thought it quite a hoot to be so unfoundedly nasty, a Civil Servant posted an anonymous comment on the "They Work for You" web site. She appears not ot have been best pleased with her Minister, one Hazel Blears. She was traced and sacked.

Yokel supposes that it is now open season on anonymous bloggers and anonymous commenters. After all, how is the Interception Modernisation Programme to justify itself if it cannot rid this government of its turbulent critics.

UPDATE: Not Quite As It First Seemed

It appears that our Civil Servant found Hazel Blears own web site from "They Work for You", and then attempted to leave a disparaging comment for Ms Blears on the politician's own site. Only our Civil Servant didn't notice that it wasn't a web form, it was the Departmental Email that had sprung into action!

In an "exclusive interview" with Pravda, the UK's former top anti-terror police officer says that he wants the Contempt of Court Act changed. Nothing unusual in that. When ACPO Ltd (in equal ... partnership with Government) want the law changed to suit themselves better, it seems wise to use a "former" officer to say so, for reasons of plausible deniability. The Police are paying his pension, so they definitely still have some influence over his decision making. And of course Pravda is nothing if not NuLabour's mouthpiece. [Fair, honest, balanced? My ....! (not fit for family viewing)]

But how would their proposed change work. Yokel thinks that it would have the effect seen in the US, where the press are wildly hyped up by officers with a mission, often with the intent of getting unthinking public opinion supporting the officers' actions.

Before 1997, this would not have exercised Yokel that much. Then, the Police largely followed Peel's Principles of Policing, even if they were slowly going out of fashion. Since then, of course, the Police have been politicised at all the management grades. Police officers saying how it really is have been disciplined, and others have "taken the hint" and "voluntarily" decided that enough is enough. Policing these days is clearly about pleasing their political masters and looking good in the "court of public opinion". In fact policing according to the Napoleonic model.

Mr Plod's latest wheeze is definitely all about looking good in that "court of public opinion" and has nothing to do with what a rather old fashioned Yokel thinks that the Police ought to be doing: Catching Criminals.

.

Afterthought: If any reader can give Yokel the link to a UK Police web site containing Peel's Principles, he will gladly amend the link above. It currently points to the Police Department of New Westminster, British Columbia. Does seem a rather long way away!

Our latest new Home Secretary is trying to portray the new low profile trials of ID cards at Londond City and Manchester airports as good news for the advocates of freedom.

No. No. No.

He will continue the drive for the National ID Register database, which has always been the sinister bit. From next year anyone requiring a new passport will have their fingerprints taken and entered, along with other personal details, on to the database.

Time now to renew your passport. OK it will have an RFID chip in it, but some aluminium foil wrapping will overcome the worst problems of that. At least it won't have your fingerprints in it.

Nothing to hide, nothing to fear? B*(%^&)*"$%ks!!

You have seen what IBM managed to do for the National Socialists in Germany from about 1930 to 1945. Think how much the technology has advanced since then. And be scared witless.

There seem to be differing standards of financial honesty, depending on who you are.

Pravda tells us that the One Eyed Son of the Manse is being honest about his plans for spending the national wealth. And no, he hasn't noticed that he has spent it all already.

And this lady had plans for spending her own wealth.

Spending all this dosh brought no happiness to either. The difference is in the size of the mess they left behind. If we think this recession is nearly over, we are in for a very rude awakening! There is still far too much bad debt that has not yet been declared bankrupt.