Thursday 11 March 2010

Karl Rove in the building.....can we ensure he stays there?

Joseph Wilson, who has an axe to grind but does rely on fact, says in the HuffPost:

'His distortions and fabrications are consistent with his approach throughout this sordid and criminal affair. Wasting his opportunity to tell the truth, he offers absolutely nothing new, and his selective use of facts and quotes are a transparent effort to continue his long campaign to confuse people, unfortunately consistent with his past behavior.

His book is a pathetically weak defense of the disastrous policies pursued by the Bush administration, involving our country in a war of choice based on false intelligence and badly tarnishing the good name of the United States of America.'

I can't say therefore that I expect any great revelation from him but sometimes its the body language and what is not said that reveals more than fine words.

On Lugavoi and Litvinenko could the British public not know why the authorities rule out the possibility that Lugavoi was smuggling the trace polonium to Litvinenko top take to Scaramella in Italy. He was investigating "KGB nuclear smuggling" to Italy and was also incriminated in alleged Berlusconi attempts to smear Romamo Prodi.

It may explain how Lugavoi went on to contaminate his wife.

Its also not clear that the US - who must have shared the same intelligence - did not apparently reach the same conclusions.

The EU must also have had an interest and Germany for instance has not chimed in with support.

Dodgey intelligence as with WMD and arguably the CIA links to the Lockerbie circuit board can affect international relations in a wholly unsatisfactory way.

If Lugavoi is guilty and we can't get him then exposing Russia to questions they can't answer may inhibit any repeats of such acts - if indeed they occurred.

Otherwise we are harming the opportunity to encourage greater friendship.

That said the way that they shoot journalists to encourage the others and lawyers acting for US interests is of course unacceptable.

I know Clegg is distracted by the illness in his family - and I hope his child gets better soon - but I would have thought an electoral deal before the election would wipe out the soft vote for Labour.

If the Tories had to commit in public and its clear no Tory Croquet Prescott would renege then its not impossible that the Lib Dems would replace Labour.

Future votes and hence political acts would be based on fair and proportionate political power. Reformed constitutional affairs should then also eliminate the "safe seat sleaze" and a PM would not be able to go to war on a gut instinct, a cabinet cabal and a mate who was the attorney general.

Nobody wants to see the desecration of the countryside but as I have said many times a consequence of a growing population means this stress between vital infrastructure and energy needs and the environment can only increase.

Not that this is an excuse for the usual far right rant as its not race that's the issue but gross population levels and trends.

We need responsible politicians but the public can't have their cake and eat it.

On the fifth Labour politician to face charges should they go down are they receiving advice from Lord Archer on the showers and so on?

Will any be able to cut a deal on say cash for honours and the party funding with the police in return for leniency?

Will this be a world record for the number of politicians taken to trail in a modern industrialised country with a strong justice system?

On a less serious note does the employment orbit of Damian McBride indicate how "outraged" the Labour High Command is by his smear emails?

'He also stressed that the United States had "no better friend than Israel".

BBC NEWS 11 March 2010

There you have it. Whilst VP Biden's remarks will not bode well for stability in the region, they will not fully sink in for those who don't make connections too easily either, as 'Israelis' and 'Jews', are, for many, still disjoint classes (although not, sadly, for many in the Middle-East and its allies) :-(

Re HS2:
With the exception of a few major lines that have had eye-wateringly expensive makeovers in the last 20 years our railways are on the whole nearer in modernity to the days of Brunel than most of Western Europe. A typical tale of the woeful inadequacy of infrastructure planning in the UK, always years behind everyone else (motorways and autobahns anyone?) and then a painfully slow and usually compromised catch-up.

I am taking it for granted that Paul Mason will do a bang up report on the trends in the US on economic reform as expressed by Obama and the impending Kaufman.

In the HuffPost Simon Johnson says:

'On Thursday, Senator Ted Kaufman (D., DE) is due to deliver a strong blow to the overly powerful and unproductively mighty within our financial sector. He will say, according to what is now on his website,

1. Excessive deregulation allowed big finance to get out of control from the 1980s - but particularly during and after the 1990s. This led directly to the economic catastrophe in 2007-08.

2. We need to modernize and apply the same general principles that were behind the Glass-Steagall, i.e., separating "boring" but essential commercial banking (running payments, offering deposits-with-insurance, etc) from "risky" other forms of financial activity

3. We need size caps on the biggest banks in our financial system, preferably as a percent of GDP.

4. We should tighten capital requirements substantially.

5. And we must regulate derivatives more tightly - on this issue, he likes at least some of the steps being pushed by Gary Gensler at the CFTC.'

I don't see much in there that can be disagreed with except on uber-ideological grounds.

Note that the far right retards who try to promote National Socialism on this page from time to time would as the BNP have suggested get rid of the banks and London would build "things" and sell the "things" around the world. In other words they howl at the moon when its full and so don't get sucked into their oblique totalitarianism. Naturally they will wobble on about Jews and banks but you will never see a hard fact anywhere.

But from a UK perspective as we approach an election will Labour in particular be so busy trying to downplay the economic problems that - as above - Gordon helped to create we will move out of synchronization with the US and perhaps even Europe?

There surely has to be serious reform and as yet we have seen only cosmetic noises and with very little substance and over here we have seen the city signal it was unhappy about the voters going for a hung Parliament.

For the city itself they won't want to be too out of tune if they are to operate internationally and have the wrong size and structure to prosper.

Could that mean more jobs are lost in the city - or perhaps more are created if the banks are unraveled and recreated and so on?

My worry is that there is too much talk and there is no genuine framework for reform.

The other thing is I still have seen nothing that would mean that in the face of a future economic crisis there would be forewarning.

You can't have the Chancellor of the Exchequer wake up one morning read the paper and see that the economy has just gone West.

Surely that means a sophisticated international agency with really serious and up to date computer models would have to act as our economic tsunami warning. It would have to be able to handle the Titanic what-if scenarios with all of the risks of these derivative-real money interactions and so on.

Courage and Consequence?

or as Biden said today 'US has no better friend than Israel'

what you doing about the passports 'outrage Milliband? going through the motions?

Trains, Planes and Strikes
It is highly irresponsible for a government to commit to big spending plans a few weeks before an election because their mandate has run out. looks like the unions want the tories in as they have planned a series of national strikes on the trains and planes in the run up.

'We are looking at the care of children in this country, as two appalling cases of child abuse conclude in court - Khyra Ishaq and Family Q. Are we failing to protect children adequately?'

Who is this we?

The consensus over recent decades has allegedly been to roll-back the nanny-state as intrusive, has it not? As a consequence, we are now mired in debt, are we not?

Why did people of old (such as Pearson, Spearman, Fisher and Keynes) seem to speak with almost one voice on social issues and their causes, but are heard no more, whilst a cacophony of new voices are heard seemingly ever more loudly? Is it because the former were a select minority of bright people, whilst the latter comprise an ever swelling ignorant Cowellocracy, encouraged by market driven media?

What if the population is changing for the worse? What will happen to the quality of Newsnight?

What's the betting that the other Eastern Block/Waraw Pact countries go the same way and even tempt some of the rest of the EU (e.g. Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain) with them, given their experience of 'Anglo-Saxon' freedom in recent times? Note also the rather frequent use of the term 'Anglo-Saxon' to describe the banking model, as if that's what Wall Street's Investment Banks (like GS) really are. Note how nobody dares say a word....

HHhhhmmm lack of funding for projects here? Perhaps we ought to draw our horns in a bit and stop looking like the cash cow for the world?

https://www.dfid.gov.uk/Media-Room/Press-releases/

10. jauntycyclist 'looks like the unions want the tories in as they have planned a series of national strikes on the trains and planes in the run up.'

That's irrational. Just because someone doesn't want to buy a dog doesn't mean they'll want to buy a cat!

Barrie Singleton

Seeing things from a whole variety of angles is a bit like being an actor/actress. In order to convey different emotions they have to 'step out' of their own, 'limited', personalities.

Now, this should make them brilliant lrelativistic philosophers but can we assume that relativistic philosophers consequentially should be great actors? Probably not but their brains/minds themselves have to have the acting ability of of playing out different scenarios far beyond their own sociocultural circumstances.

Good journalism, it seems to me, especially involved in studio discussions, should a bit like that. Relativistic.

mim

Swedish models - check out the fertility rate... A school will be closing near Sven or Erica ... if you can find them....? Why are they giving up?

14 ..That's irrational..

so the winter of discontent was to keep labour in?

with friends like those labour doesn't need enemies.

15. mimpromptu 'Good journalism, it seems to me, especially involved in studio discussions, should a bit like that. Relativistic.'

Good journalism is supposed to be objective reporting. Getting what happens and what is said verbatim. Many people don't know this, but Relativity Theory is about invariance through changes of different measuring positions. That is, it is about absolutes. The popular conception of 'relativism' is therefore wrong.

#16 As I understand it Stat, 20 percent of Sweden is foreign, that is not Swedish, that's 2 million out of roughly 9 and half million population.

So surely their birthrate is rocketing, just like ours. Perhaps Sweden is a good model to look at for schools, we will soon have 20 percent of our population foreign as well.

I can see Britain going the same shortly..

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1257110/America-nears-tipping-point-babies-born-minority-parents-outnumber-whites-time.html

‘Council sorry over Holocaust game’
https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/8562798.stm

17. jauntycyclist so the winter of discontent was to keep labour in?

with friends like those labour doesn't need enemies.'

Well.......look back at that history very closely. The USA was undermining Old Labour. This makes sense given that USA policy was anti Soviet. The UK was becoming too similar. If you look at the rise of Miltant Tendency (Trotskyites), they helped divide Labour and corrupt it in the eyes of the electorate. The Gang of Three and SDP didn't help later either. Trotskyites (anarchists) helped The Conservatives into power in 1979. That's how they worked in the States too, cf. Neocons and their history.

19. ecolizzy 'As I understand it Stat, 20 percent of Sweden is foreign, that is not Swedish, that's 2 million out of roughly 9 and half million population.

So surely their birthrate is rocketing, just like ours. Perhaps Sweden is a good model to look at for schools, we will soon have 20 percent of our population foreign as well.'

Look more closely at the figures. In Sweden, other Europeans are 'foreigners'!!

Also, look at the birth rate, it's below 1.7. It's cold up there too.

"This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules." Oh, please.

I'll try again, but rephrase my comment about a Mr. Ed Balls:
"Ed Balls isn't very nice. We should fear him, in the context of securing a decent future for our children." That should do it, as the rest was posted two years ago without any fuss:

As last night's programme was wholly about 'education', I thought I'd re-post a slightly incoherent rant from a couple of years ago, regarding the ultimate idiocy of Mary Whitehouse. It touched ever-so-lightly on the importance of an education and the validity of what I wrote hasn't changed one jot:

"Mary Whitehouse was a nutter whose arguments have been comprehensively and convincingly proven wrong, rooted, as they were, in a fundamentally flawed view of what it is to be human. The proof is simple:

"It is physically impossible for a human being to be the product of the media - to be, in effect, spontaneously compelled, against your will, to copy what you have seen, heard or read. This perceived magic-like power of the media is at the root of the belief of some that the media must be ever-more-tightly controlled and is complete idiocy. The truth is that humans haven't ever and won't ever be susceptible to this kind of influence as we have 'free will'. Our every action, every waking second of our lives, is determined by our education and upbringing and not by the content of a music video or the front cover of a magazine. What, on Earth, is the point of an education and being raised by adults, if what they teach us cannot protect us from what is portrayed in 'the media'? I find it offensive to claim I don't determine my own actions?

"Some contest the existence of 'free will' and some think our actions are wholly or significantly biologically pre-determined, but it is remarkable how the best-educated and best-raised happen to be those who harm society the least.

It is astonishing that, after forty years, Mary Whitehouse's disciples - those who see the same 'filth' in the media as I do and yet aren't harmed by it - still don't understand this. It is these people who are responsible for society's problems, by ensuring our rulers ignore the real, root causes; they certainly don't offer any solutions. These people form part of the growing 'army' who display that bizarre trait in some humans: to be simultaneously intelligent and stupid. They join those who think we, realistically, can tackle climate change; that there can't ever be too much 'child protection'; that 'binge drinking' is the cause of drunken violence; that 'speed kills'; that 'cigarette' advertising is the cause of people smoking; that the 'fashion' and 'celebrity' industries are responsible for anorexia; that music causes suicide; that a 'cervical cancer' jab causes sexual promiscuity; I could go on. They don't understand the concept of 'cause and effect'.

"Perhaps, for the first time, we should ask these people to explain the physical and psychological processes whereby they believe people are harmed by the above and especially by what's on television. I doubt they'll be able to. Ask them of the consequences of witnessing the following on television: a character whisking off his/her clothes or hitting another character or swearing at someone. Will a child, as a result of the sexual images, spontaneously sexually mature, above the child's intellectual maturity to understand the changes (sexually explicit images, we are told, sexualise children); will he/she spontaneously become violent, in response to the on-screen violence; and will a child find his/her speech uncontrollably filled with expletives? As disappointing as it will be to these people to learn: nothing happens. Your child continues to be the person he/she was before watching the programme as do you - a product of the education system and your parenting skills and those of your parents. If other societies with access to a far more explicit and less repressive media - like Sweden - don't suffer the same problems as Britain, then the media cannot be the cause of the problems we have. We are, after all, the same human beings.

"There has been some support, here, and a lot in The Radio Times, for the 'watershed', but I'd like to ask a question about it: does it still exist? I can't remember the number of times when I have gone to bed before 11 p.m., having not seen one genuine post-watershed programme, due to the bleeps, pixellation, editing or bans having deprived me of the 'grown-up' T.V. I used to expect long before 11 p.m. There should be more sex and more violence on T.V., not less, as today's television seems to be mainly for children.

"One of the Newsnight interviewees mentioned the recent U.N. report on the relative merits of being a child in various Western nations and I'm glad he did as no-one seems to have fully understood the report's implications. Consider the one-thousand-and-one differences between the Netherlands and Great Britain, supposedly the best and worst nations, respectively, in which to spend your childhood. In the Netherlands, the sale, purchase and smoking of cannabis has been legal for decades; prostitution, similarly, has been legal and advertised openly for decades (although perhaps not for much longer); 'sex' education in schools is far more explicit than in Britain and starts from a very early age; and, for more than forty years, there haven't been many restrictions on the availability, whether in shops or on T.V., of hardcore pron, including some pretty extreme stuff. All of these aspects of Dutch society and many others, though, are either banned or heavily controlled in Britain, such is the belief in their harm to society. Why, then, when four generations or more of Dutch children, over forty years or more - growing from four to fourteen, five to fifteen, six to sixteen, etc. (the ten crucial developmental years of your childhood) - have matured in a society with access to all of this, does the Netherlands have a usage, per capita, of cannabis, no higher than Britain; one of the lowest rates of underage sex and teenage pregnancy; far more respect between the sexes; and some of the lowest rates of almost every kind of crime? This report proves, beyond any doubt, that these freedoms and many others the Dutch enjoy are not the causes of society's problems, despite the nutters drawing the opposite conclusions. Until our idiotic rulers understand this and focus on the education system and parenting, society will continue to plummet down the toilet.

"One point which hasn't been raised by any of the posters, is how much the media, itself, has become complicit in the belief they are the root of all evil. How often do you hear those who earn a living in the media blame their profession for some perceived societal problem? With the media seemingly and increasingly run by traitors, with 'Ofcom' having taken on an incredibly illiberal and puritanical zeal and the political parties being largely clueless, freedom of speech and freedom of expression, in Britain, appear doomed unless something is done.

"Let me offer a solution to society's problems. People increasingly claim to understand the incredible importance of an education and a proper upbringing to a stable society, but it isn't really the case. The public doesn't truly understand how absolutely fundamental, above all else, a successful education system and knowledge of how to correctly raise children are to the creation of a civilised society. We spend a vast amount of money on education but not at a sufficient level and in the correct manner commensurate with the understanding of its true importance. If we scrapped the scores of quangos that monitor and control our lives, scrapped the thousands of laws restricting our freedom and their enforcement and spent the tens of billions freed up on a cradle-to-grave education system (and parenting classes), you could transform society. As naive as this sounds, it really is this simple. Let me put it this way: free the people, to free the money, to free the people from their stupidity."

A little bit of a rant, as I said.

24. 'Strugglingtostaycalm Until our idiotic rulers understand this and focus on the education system and parenting, society will continue to plummet down the toilet.'

a) Parents b) Schools c) Media

So, if the media doesn't drive behaviour, how is it that schools and parents can?

Might it be that what we see in the media, and in schools, is a direct consequence of what parents 'produce'... and I don't mean verbally, or via any other environmental influence (aka conditioning) which is also a consequence....

....A radical thought for the night?

What more can we do to protect children?

The repetition is making it all a bit boring!

Get them off their asses, get them out into the field, get them to get their hands dirty and get them to spend a lot less time talking about it!

One hundred professionals were involved in the - savage - incest case.

It doesn’t say too much for the professionals really, does it?

Changing tack .....

It’s probably one of the best documentary series about the UK the BBC has ever produced!

Incisive, insightful, engaging and provocative, yet at the same time introspective and thoroughly thought provoking.

Gems, each and every one!

I sincerely hope it gets the basketful of Bafta’s it truly deserves.

BAFTA Judging Panel, take note. It’s called ......

Bellamy’s People.

#23 I've got it now Stat!

re: Your 79 yesterday, high speed trains. You want to hear the locals complain about their train services to London. Now we have the wonderful high speed link, which is quite a lot more expensive, (I believe around £7.50 a day on the normal fare), the standard lines are always late. They have also cut the amount of trains on these lines, and people feel they are being coerced into using the new train. Consequently this HS1 has been a failure for the ordinary man getting to work, most days they're late!

So just how successful would the HS2 be? Who on earth wants to travel to all these major cities, they don't look very exciting places to me, I don't want to visit them. Or are the government suggesting everyone travels all over britain every day to work? What fun that will be for a peaceful or happy life.

I heard some environmentalist on the radio, he was saying it will not cut carbon emmissions, only by about 3 percent, as the new trains use far more fuel, they are heavier and obviously much faster. So what are we exactly gaining here, just more rushing about, and food gone as farmland will be taken to travel somewhere that little bit quicker.

I notice europe and their trains are mentioned often, when talking of this new line, but there is also a little consideration of land. We have very little of that and a burgeoning population, so we can't really compare ourselves to europe.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

WHAT PART OF LABOUR'S HIGH-SPEED RAIL PROPOSAL WILL LEAD TO, IS INTENDED TO LEAD TO OR IS LIKELY TO LEAD TO HIGH-SPEED RAIL/PUBLIC-TRANSPORT RELATED PRODUCTS AND SERVICES THAT CAN BE EXPORTED??

With the many billions upon billions of pounds proposed for allocation towards new high-speed rail line(s) and as UK economic stimulus, why couldn't some of this money be put towards the establishment of a "rail and public transport R & D technology centre/research campus" in the UK... if necessary with the UK govt as a temporary shareholder in the venture??

Such a centre/campus comprising significant representation from a world-class rail technology leader such as Hitachi, along with a top-drawer UK firm that has cutting-edge complimentary technology expertise, such as Rolls-Royce, would be one way of providing the new centre/campus with automatic positive world-recognition...

Properly done, upgrading the United Kingdom's rail & people/goods transport-related infrastructure could lead to new UK industrial competencies: in areas of high-speed trains, track, undersea tunnels, clean-technology buses/lorries & related technologies...

Making the UK- including ALL ITS COMPONENTS, IE: Scotland, Wales & N Ireland- the best rail-networked country within the EU ought to be an unequivocally delineated policy of whatever party is in govt...

Linking the UK mainland with N Ireland via an (in need of building) undersea high-speed rail tunnel or 2 is long overdue!!

While improving the movement of goods & people both within the UK & to/from other EU countries could only benefit UK trade as well as strengthening the binding of Scotland (& Wales) into the Union...

... if new high-speed rail lines in the UK do little more than this, while providing massive 'UK tax-payer subsidized' advertisements for France's TGV high-speed rail system- and the UK continues to be without its own exportable rail products, technologies and services- who will reap the majority of benefits of new high-speed rail lines in the UK- its tax-payers and companies or France's??

Utilizing France's technologies for UK transport is not bad per say, but is the UK govt effectively handing France (and likely Germany through its Siemens' high-speed rail products) carte blanche monopolies of the types of high-speed rail products and technologies that are deployed in the UK for the next 1/2 to 3/4 of a century politically or economically wise??

Why is there such little focus in the UK news media and by national political parties on the enormous opportunities for the UK to develop high-speed rail and public transport products and technologies- perhaps working with countries that would like assistance getting their high-speed rail companies better positioned to compete against France's TGV and Germany's Siemens??

As part of whatever party forms govt's long-term economic plans & dealing with the current economic difficulties, competent UK companies with rail-transport equipment related technological expertise ought to be enabled to innovate & diversify & if practical- to set up joint ventures with &/or acquire complementary overseas firms...

Rolls-Royce is a good example...

Rolls could be a leader in many fields other than jet engines & turbines.

Japan's Hitachi, Toshiba & other companies that produce leading-edge technology high-speed train systems- that could be made compatible with those in EU countries; nuclear reactors & the like & that want a greater presence in western markets could be brought into alliances with- or might allow (parts of) themselves to be bought by Rolls- but likely not without considerable UK govt funding & negotiating efforts applied to these objectives...

A highly capable UK company such as a Rolls-Royce, GKN or VT paired with an industry-peer like 1 of Japan's high-speed train manufacturers, could use their joint & complementary expertise to co-develop & market designs that would be legitimate world beaters: competitors to France & Germany's established part-state-owned/tax-payer-subsidized companies...

A little state aligning of corporate relationships is needed...

A competent UK company lke Rolls-Royce partnered with a high-speed train manufacturer such as Hitachi could- using Rolls' internationally esteemed & invaluable 'brand' along with its extensive high technology & power generation expertise- become a legitimate world-class high-speed train competitor.

... entering a market that can only expand substantially & reliably for the long-term... both in EU member nations & developing countries like Brazil, India, China,& in East Asia...

CONTINUED


Roderick V. Louis,
Vancouver, BC,
Canada

WHAT PART OF LABOUR'S HIGH-SPEED RAIL PROPOSALS WILL LEAD TO, IS INTENDED TO LEAD TO OR IS LIKELY TO LEAD TO HIGH-SPEED RAIL/PUBLIC-TRANSPORT RELATED PRODUCTS AND SERVICES THAT CAN BE EXPORTED??

PART 2:

In a similar transport-industry-related theme, Rolls partnering with companies that specialize in bus & or mass-transit technologies to produce reliable, high-quality Rolls-Royce buses &/or other types of people-movers could only become an internationally competitive player...

Canada's Westport Innovations:

www.westport.com/

produces kit that converts diesel fueled engines into (natural) gas driven types...

Westport partnered with a prestigious, highly capable UK company like Rolls-Royce in the production of 'clean' gas-powered (diesel-design) engines could only make inroads to bus & similar types of vehicles... which are a 'coming market'... in both the EU & developing world countries...

While state intervention into industry is usually undesirable, the state setting or assisting in establishing a general corporate or specific industry direction can have positive outcomes...

If one takes a look at France or Germany & their very well known nuclear-power companies & other successful banking, energy, software, automobiles & high-speed-train manufacturing 'state-assisted' firms... it is undeniable that state-involvement- at least in the areas of indigenous-industry direction-setting and facilitating the mergers/amalgamation of comparatively small firms into big/mega-firms capable of competing globally- has had positive outcomes...

With sufficient funding & a little creative govt negotiation assistance, UK companies such as Roll-Royce, GKN, Babcock and others could be producing world-beating high-speed trains; nuclear power plants & environmentally friendly public transport systems, such as gas-powered buses...

The massive borrowing now planned by Labour over the next decade ought to be put to more than just financing UK residents to 'shop till they drop', while govt relies on lazez fare economics to fix UK plc....

A long-term UK industrial & economic development strategy needs to be clearly laid out before any increases in borrowing occur...

Thinking big!! by politicians & bureaucrats is needed!!

High speed and high technology rail for the United Kingdom ought to be accompanied by the establishment of a liberally funded multi-national-membership 'world centre for rail-transport research and development facility'... with the primary objective: developing exportable rail transportation products...

While a low tax, light regulation industry environment should be an optimal objective for whatever party forms govt- there is no reason why- working with industry sector leaders- govt/state 'direction setting' could not compliment this...



Roderick V. Louis,
Vancouver, BC,
Canada

27. At 11:22pm on 11 Mar 2010, ecolizzy

I heard some environmentalist on the radio, he was saying it will not cut carbon emissions

I remain open to persuasion, but am guessing getting a sensible outlining of actual numbers to arrive at a view on eniviROI+ is unlikely in many quarters where a 'It's green so it's good' press release serves as well as reporting.

My first thoughts, some selfishly as I do not live at the hearts of vertical spines so beloved of our politico-media elites, and am a local home worker (is this now now longer favoured?), were also that charging more quickly between the centres of Birmingham and London seemed a tad underwhelming.

Found this refreshingly thought-provoking though:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/7422580/Forget-high-speed-trains-we-need-local-services-that-work.html

A Baroness? ........ Perhaps?

#33 Ha,ha, Junkkmale that's the same link I was replying to from Stat Wednesday! ; )

The other thing that I find quite ridiculous about this HS2, is it will just be for the few, MPs and media people perhaps. Look at the several forms of slow public transport to even get to the link anyway.

I would need to walk a mile to the station, catch a train in the wrong direction for 12 - 15 miles, pay an extortionate amount of money to travel on HS1. When in London I would then have to travel by underground to HS2, arriving in Brum I would then need to catch another slow train or bus to get to the end place. What difference will 20 mins make on that journey, as probably the slow mo transport would make me miss the HS1 or 2 anyway?!

My kids often work from their homes, computers make this an easy option these days. So what happened to all this technology spouted about that was going to stop us all rushing all over the place all the time?

Why is it so shameful these days to actually live and work in the same place, I suppose not cool and edgy enough?!!! ; )

I am yet to watch Kirsty's interview with Bush's Karl Rove but may I ask where is the ex's courage in ordering waterboarding torture from the quiet of his ranch? There must surely be other INTELLIGENT interogatory techniques available to agencies like CIA and their British equivalents.

Once a cowboy always a cowboy, of the bad sort that is.

I understand that the British Government tried to superimpose a super injuction on the issue of torture in which they're engaged in. And that's the 'nice' Gordon for you.

Also both Bush and Brown have been 'eyeing' their imaginary glory in obtaining a Nobel Prize. The first one for Peace and the other for Science. I'm delighted that it was Barack Obama who has been awarded the Peace one while am trying to make sure that no future Nobel Prize either for Peace or for Science is going to be awarded to either Gordon or any of his creepy cronies.

mim

https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8563547.stm

i suppose no one dares tell kirsty the obvious?

farmers first thought was about money? haha.

antisocial behaviour is a massive problem because there is nothing an individual can do about. which is why we see a whole string of victims like the mother and two girls who killed themselves. In the uk to stand up for your human rights means going to prison. If i was to write a play about it i would have a policeman/ cps/politician stand silently in corner and watch all sorts of antisocial crimes and do nothing but be a passive observers.

Congratulations on giving air time to Rove's continuing string of lies about torture and water boarding. Bush & Co. think they live in the universe of "24". The so-called plots that were "foiled" by intelligence gained from torture either were foiled before the use of torture, or were never viable plots in the first place. Every single instance that Bush, Cheney, and Rove have cited to "prove" that torture worked has been debunked by journalists and commentators on nearly every network except Fox. If you are unable to locate the debunking information for yourselves, consult Keith Olbermann or Rachel Maddow at MSNBC. The best information the US intelligence community got from captures Al Qaida and Taliban they got using legal techniques before the Bushies imposed amateur interrogators using North Korean torture techniques from the 1950s. AND IT DOES NOT MATTER if they DID get any useful intelligence (which the did not) -- the techniques they used have been illegal since WW2. About the only thing I can agree with Bush on is that "Turd Blossom" is an excellent nickname for this prevaricator and war crimes apologist. It is damned shame that it appears he will never be prosecuted.

'Colorable claims': 'The meticulously researched document describes Lehman’s aggressive growth strategy which, Mr Vulakas said, was intended to take advantage of the sub-prime mortgage crisis that broke in 2006 by increasing its exposure to real estate at a time when others were cutting back.'

The Times on Lehman and accounting practices

The problem is, there are many many people working for these firms, i.e accountancy firms as well as banks etc (and it's endemic), who, though sensing that there's something wrong with practices like 'Repo 105', will be treated as incompetent by their managers/colleagues if they voice their concerns. And the sad fact is that those managers/colleagues will be technically right, as if it's legitimate (albeit venal) practice, their jobs are to help their clients according to current professional rules, and rules like laws have been written to facilitate these practices. Any other behaviour, and you won't 'get on', so anyone who blows a whistle will be committing professional/economic suicde.

This is the mess that we are now in. We are in an enormous mess basically because people are just doing their jobs, i.e the problem is systemic.

37. jauntycyclist 'If i was to write a play about it i would have a policeman/ cps/politician stand silently in corner and watch all sorts of antisocial crimes and do nothing but be a passive observers.'

Which is pretty much how Gramsci's political correctness has been waged by free-market (right-wing) anarchists over the decades. The idea (see The Frankfurt School for another source) was to make preventative action less frequent in the name of 'freedom'. Hence we got feminism, sexual permissiveness, anti-racism, blanket egalitarianism, anti-statism etc. As I keep saying, those who benefit most are those who make money out of money lending, i.e debt. This is because consumers are less protected by the state and there are more 'free' consumers out there to prey upon. Consumer naivety/vanity (narcissism is encouraged by the media and business you will note) stops many form seeing this.

Strip that away and consumers feel naked (or depressed) :-(

35. At 09:28am on 12 Mar 2010, ecolizzy wrote:

:)

I, too, am a home worker, which at one stage was, I thought, laudable. Now charging around the countryside seems to be de rigeur again.

Speaking of which, as it's all about helping business we seem to be told the 'importing' of yet more folk to help justify building over greenfield sites for affordable housing (though there is absolutely no truth that an expanding population is having an environmental impact) and railway lines (well, one in the middle) to get pols between constituencies and press-release readers between studios more quickly... is all to help economic growth and the environment (always a neat trick).

O.....k.

Interestingly, in another blog I read that a similar amount could connect us all in our homes more quickly and with much less disruption, so we really can move away from this demand that we have to travel for business as much as we do love to for pleasure.

Frankly an option which appeals more. Though I do look whistfully at the old station at the end of my road which, if reinstated, could have whisked me to Brum or London, if not direct, but very easily. If, perhaps, not very cheaply. The other day I bussed to Gloucester (£3 x 2), trained off-peak to Paddington (£40 - good deal) and then got to my destination, Earl's Court by tube (£4 x 2). Only took 5 hrs. Had to leave before 3.30pm which didn't leave a lot after arriving.

In my LPG Volvo, inc. parking, 3 hrs door to door, leave when I need, at about £25 (exc. depreciation. Not an issue at 8 yrs old). Plus I get to listen in comfort to Jeremy Vine whipping two opposing nutters his producers have sought out into a frenzy, in the name of a balanced public view. Bit like a Newsnight twofer.

Hard not to opt for (the car, I mean. I can always change channels).

During conflict between opposing forces and cultures there have been major developments in camouflage , deceit and deception.

Some powers gain considerable benefit from said ‘black arts.’

Escaping detection, bamboozling the enemy, concealment and stealth can be the result of extreme effort and intelligence, sometimes sheer luck.

The reality is that sometimes it works ....

And sometimes it doesn’t!

Well.. money-lending and casinos etc. Remember all the talk of super-casinos, the proliferation of gambling on TV, the web etc? It's all been done before, has been heating up, and nearly reached boiling point in Oct 1962. Who were/are the bad guys?

#35

Ecolizzy

There is a huge difference between working from the comfort of a cozy room at home and being out there amongst real people. Both, I admit, have their own different merits but to just get stuck in front of a computer seems like a cowardly opt out from real life.

I tell you, there is nothing like a real face to face, a direct smile, a handshake or even a kiss on the cheek. No online experience can ever replace it.

That's what happened to me last night when I attended an excellent evening organised by the Media Society under the title of 'Lawyers & Journalists, Natural Bedfellows or Enemies?'. The predominant issue turned out to be the subject of injunctions and super injunctions.

As not everybody seemed to understand the difference, let me briefly spell it out. Injunction means that although, let's say a tabloid journalist or some other creep, wants to obtain somebody's confidential health records without the person's consent, the issue can still be talked about in public and therefore allowing for speculation and gossip about what might be contained in the said records whereas a super injuction means that no one should be allowed to mention it anywhere in public apart, alas, by an errant MP in Parliament.

Also, the issue of the difference between super injunctions regarding purely private matters and matters which might or might not be in the public was extensively discussed. Fascinating stuff!

mim

I've just watched Karl Rove's interview with Kirsty, and you know what, I agree with him. Does anyone seriously expect to get information out of terrorists by asking them politely? They did not put 10,000 volts into them nor did they use torture tecniques such as burning/breaking bones etc. They had been medically assessed before the waterboarding took place. As for the Guantanamo Bay inmates - what were the non-Afghan nationals doing in Afghanistan in the middle of a war anyway? Think about it.

I have now watched Peter Marshall's piece on tbe turd as well as Kirsty's interview with him and my views on Bush have been confirmed. Dirty, dishonest and inhuman.

mim

40

..Gramsci went on to argue that before there could be any "revolution" in Marx’s sense it would be necessary to build up a "counter-hegemony," or system of values favoring the repressed groups that would undermine or delegitimize the hegemony-created consciousness. And because hegemonic values permeate the whole of society and are embodied in the warp and woof of daily life, daily life becomes part of the ideological battleground. All the institutions we take for granted – schools, churches, the media, businesses, as well as art, literature, philosophy, and so on – become places where the "counter-hegemonic" values can be seeded and allowed to take root.....

https://www.lewrockwell.com/yates/yates24.html

them naughty marxists always plotting revolution....

#46 addendum

And that's how I see Gordon and Mandy - dirty, dishonest and inhuman.

So, it's nothing to do with political persuasion but rather type of personality. And there's a lot of greed attached to it. Greed for power, greed for fame, greed for money, etc

mim

#39 Statist

On the 105 accounting fraud-

NY Fed Under Geithner Implicated in Lehman Accounting Fraud Allegation

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/03/ny-fed-under-geithner-implicated-in-lehman-accounting-fraud.html

Of course the facts fly in the face of the narrative of politicians, bankers, their accountants and all the mainstream media that the problem is 'speculators' ( short sellers, CDS buyers etc ) not their own criminality. It is abundantly clear now that some form of economic collapse is unavoidable, if anyone here is interested I would recommend Ferfals Surviving in Argentina blog which details how he and his family have survived the economic collapse of Argentina as a good starting point to help prepare-

https://ferfal.blogspot.com/

'The government commissioned the report last September after a leaked list identified 15 BNP members as teachers.

Review author Maurice Smith added his recommendation should be reviewed every year, which ministers have accepted.

BNP leader Nick Griffin welcomed what he called a "common sense review" and said it was a great day for democracy. '

So not only does Griffin accept that the BNP membership policy was illegal and their is no scientific justification for racially selective membership but he is also enthusiastic about democracy - as opposed to fascist National Socialism?

I think not.

But if there are 15 racist teachers that's roughly 450 kids exposed to their ideology.

Lets assume that if they are over ten they are mostly able to see through the lies then if only 5% are affected that's still quite a number who may go on to be influenced by that odious ideology as society failed them.

Would the state say that there are only 15 paedophiles teaching in the schools and so lets not get rid of them?

In fairness though how does a democratic society accommodate those hell bent on trying to destroy it.

#35 Junkkmale,ecolizzy and others

WHY-SPEED TRAINS?

You and others have expressed most of my views on this subject; the Telegraph link most aptly (see also Matt’s cartoon link on the same page) and Mr Roderick’s more technically, including his concerns about the potential for more foreign ownership of our essential services.

Many of us oldies have never forgiven Dr Beeching and his axe, for the loss of many rural stations and the resulting massive increase in road haulage of goods. Schoolboy nostalgia may be responsible for the appeal of very long trains of freight wagons hauled by powerful steam engines; the same can not be said for their replacement by more and more, larger and larger (mainly foreign) monster trucks pounding along our motorways. Their threatening performance on motorways scared my wife into giving up driving and I avoid motorways in wet weather due to the huge walls of spray they throw up restricting one’s forward view. Yet most of the agenda for rail improvement has been for allegedly ‘improved’ passenger needs.

Personally, I enjoy gaping out of train windows (in preference to reading trashy free newspapers and feeling forced to avoid staring at fellow passengers loudly discussing their domestic trivia on mobile phones) so the blur of high speed rail travel would be a retrograde step.

Has there been proper analysis of need, as opposed to keeping up with the French and the Japs, and the constant cry for GROWTH?

Most of the growth in road, air, sea and rail travel has been a growth in indulgence, like many (including myself) who now shuffle down to the bus stop and stroll around the shops, courtesy of ‘free’ travel - subsidised by other essential travellers and the council tax. However, the huge investment required for high-speed rail travel would put this beyond the reach of most except the rich and privileged (MPs and celebs) and foreign tourists will still be able to fly to any UK airport.
If Scotland feels the need for a high-speed rail link south then that should be provided for in their devolved (or independence) budget.

42. JAperson 'During conflict between opposing forces and cultures there have been major developments in camouflage , deceit and deception.'

Yup, and the worst of it is self-censor/censure-ship and self-deception. How many have the courage to face the facts, especially these days?

For example, the new ruling about BNP membership amongst school teachers etc will serve to do what exactly? Will it 'out' likely sympathisers? When there's a review of this policy in the future, what will happen to those people? The effect is surely to vilify an undesirable type of politics (which is not at root about race per se, but pro the state). Having said that, what does one do about actuarial analysis in general? If one belongs to a group (any group (e.g. a sex, age band, economic grouyp etc) and one's risk calculation changes as a consequence, is that not discrimination? The ultimate political objective would seem to be to erode all discrimination, which would in practice endorse a very naive, politically correct (and sociallly fascist) anarchism/eqalitrianism, would it not?

#40 statist

"The idea (see The Frankfurt School for another source) was to make preventative action less frequent in the name of 'freedom'. Hence we got feminism, sexual permissiveness, anti-racism, blanket egalitarianism, anti-statism etc."

You curiously missed of anti-fascism from your list - though its your list and as ever with most things you say it is incoherent. Statism usually implies egalitarianism unless you consider fascism and National Socialism where it is actually rather less collective and statist and a lot more of a replacement monarchy.

Hence Hitler used to keep a painting of Frederick the Great near him. The concept of the Fuhrer-state is really not at all statist.

But then these days the only people alleged to be National Socialists are the BNP and as Griffin said of the failure to rid the country of BNP teachers "its a great day for democracy" so that hardly endorses your views.

The BNP also have decided to accept the EHRC legal requirement on multi-racial membership and so the last bastion of racism has fallen as the BNP could not muster a convincing legal argument as to why their obsessive racial policies have any merit in science or otherwise.

#38 American in Kent

I utterly agree with your sentiments but I would like to see our government stress not only do they not endorse torture - though the truth may be different - but that as you say it is largely ineffective.

Why were those that were innocent people in Guantanamo tortured for so long?

#38

American in Kent

Thanks for your informative comments on the truth regarding Bush and his turd

mim

#35 ecolizzy

"When in London I would then have to travel by underground to HS2, arriving in Brum I would then need to catch another slow train or bus to get to the end place."

But in previous posts you have said that you don't like to visit London due to the "racial mix" and that you don't like to visit the place anyway!

I am sure the racially diverse people on the trains and buses will cope without your presence somehow.

#25 statist

"Might it be that what we see in the media, and in schools, is a direct consequence of what parents 'produce'... and I don't mean verbally, or via any other environmental influence (aka conditioning) which is also a consequence....

....A radical thought for the night?"

When you were posting as jaded_jean and used to rant on about the peace lover Hitler and race "realism" and the other nonsense that you tried to base upon non-existent science to justify eugenics you were at least clearer.

But then you continuously got whupped on matters of fact.

I still laugh a lot at the notion that "the Holocaust was made up to put people off statism". It was of course done by people that you defined as statist's such as Stalin.

In an effort to try and snaffle disaffected Labour lefties you stressed that National Socialism was left and not right and really quite close to Stalinism. Nothing about Stalingrad or 22 million dead Russians or the Nazi description of them as sub human.

"Thanks for making me smile"?

DOTH HE PROTEST TOO MUCH? (#24)

Your rant is that of an educated, thinking person - as such a pleasure to read. But like climate science, if you don't have - or choose to ignore/reject - one or more relevant factors, can you come to a valid conclusion?

I post, ad nauseam, that we are 'The Ape Confused by Language'. It follows that we should OPTIMISE THE APE AND MINIMISE THE CONFUSION before filling the human veneer with cultural dogma. My next question is always: "What would Nature do?" Mothering has been devalued and mothers coerced to serve Mammon. Childhood is now pre-school. Schooling is unnatural, institutional and INSTITUTIONALIZING. Media, coupled with advertising, is Mammon at its worst. And I hypothesise that the PLACE OF TV, IN THE HUMAN PSYCHE, IS THAT OF ALPHA-MALE OF THE HOME GROUP, with all the dominance implicit.

I therefore challenge the basis of your rant. STSC

31. MrRoderickLouis 'Making the UK- including ALL ITS COMPONENTS, IE: Scotland, Wales & N Ireland- the best rail-networked country within the EU ought to be an unequivocally delineated policy of whatever party is in govt...'

You really don't seem to get it. The major parties appear to be united in breaking the UK up and selling off its state assets, not building them up!

A misperception seems to run through all of your posts. Now, you may not like what is happening (you are not alone), but you must try to see what is happening, and how it is being done, if you are to say anything which will help. Many people don't even see it happening, even after Lisbon, Regional Development Agencies and devolution. Without central control, how do you fund projects? Devolution is a tool of anarchism, i.e the free-market. Brussels won't be able to do anything either - unless there is a radical shift and creation of a GOSPLAN and GOSBANK, but the 53 article FCHR seems to make that unlikely as it seems to legally enshrine the right to start and run a business etc.

This is not a criticism of the internal logic of what you propose.

#44 but to just get stuck in front of a computer seems like a cowardly opt out from real life.

Hhhhmmmm not when you have to think very hard about your work mim! When you are working on a math problem, and have to do a lot of reading and anylsis, it's better to be in the peace and quiet of home. Rather than in a busy office where you are interrupted constantly for someone to pick your brains! ; )

p.s. We tend to be a bit introverted as a family as well mim, not that it's a problem!

47. jauntycyclist 'them naughty marxists always plotting revolution....'

Except in some places (e.g. NYC) it served the markets! Just take on board, as a hypothesis, that it is also tool for bringing down statism (as it did the Tzar in 1917 on behalf of teh German High Command, see Ludendorff quoted by Churchill in Hansard 1919) and you'll see how that 'Marxism' can be used to get rid of regulators and thus serve banksters and their 'freedoms'.

#41 Junkkmale perhaps the idea is to keep us all travelling on trains all the time around the country, then we won't need all those new houses. ; )

https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/162655/-750m-Cost-of-housing-asylum-seekers-while-1-8m-Britons-languish-on-waiting-lists

This should get one(or more) going:

https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8563044.stm

Again the issue of 'racism' is still being flogged, whereas many of us are focussed on and genuinely concerned at issues of heritage and culture destruction, the discrimination for and against religious beliefs and conflicting ideologies.

Our EU overseer tolerates MEPs and parties of all persuasions so perhaps an appeal for clarification should be made by other employees who are still prevented from exercising their democratic right to freedom of political choice. However, EU is concerned only with the rights of individuals and not with the greater good of society, so an individual appeal should succeed.

CHANGE THAT WORKS FOR YOU - BUILDING A FAIRER BRITAIN.

The above election slogan, arrived at by 'the best minds' in the LibDems, is the most persuasive reason I have encountered to allow Assisted Suicide. 'CHANGE and FAIR' were already out there, and over-used by our political ninnies. Now Nick Clegg has added the predictable word 'YOU' so banal and beloved by service providers: 'your pizza service - your airline' and the like, and that crowning glory, when the BBC News divides regionally: "the news WHERE YOU ARE".

Coming to an earhole near you . . .

58. barriesingleton 'I post, ad nauseam, that we are 'The Ape Confused by Language'.'

Constructive criticism: You do indeed, and yet when repeatedly told that German-Anglo-American philosophy, has, since Frege at least, made this point absolutely central to higher education, you don't appear to listen and learn. Why is that? Are you bewitched by the tyranny of language?

It used to be the case that no more than 5-10% went to university, now we see articles appearing in our press (e.g. Evening Standard, Wed 10 March p.13) stating that most degrees are 'only good for coffee shops'.

Looking carefully at use of language requires one to look carefully at behaviour, but most people are no good at this, as it requires discipline and discrimination and such traits are normally, not uniformly distributed. The rant to which you responded missed the point that these behaviours are emitted. What we see in families, schools and the media is a consequence of changes to our population at the genetic level. Scary eh?

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF TRAVEL (#62)

Remember the 'Jet-Set?' People who travelled and 'stayed away' because they were wealthy, 'important' or both? I think this new line is for those who still have that mindset.

Suppose internet access was only for an elite few; that would give rise to the 'Internet-Set'. Prestige would attach to DOING BUSINESS WITHOUT LEAVING ONES HOME.

The Ape Confused by Language is still easily trapped, and reeled in, by his manipulative counsin - the Ape Obsessed with Control. If this country ever gets to measure success in terms of CONTENTMENT (a wise state) frantic travel-for-travel's-sake will cease. It may be some time . . .

WISE UP THE YOUNG

63. indignantindegene 'Again the issue of 'racism' is still being flogged, whereas many of us are focussed on and genuinely concerned at issues of heritage and culture destruction, the discrimination for and against religious beliefs and conflicting ideologies.'

Yes, you're describing 'tea-leaf readers'. Such folk are hell bent on not discriminating objectively, so much so that they can't see the difference between anything! As that's a description of stupidity, and as stupidity is incorrigible, they're best left on their own.

#50 Go1

".....But if there are 15 racist teachers that's roughly 450 kids exposed to their ideology."

What on earth makes you think that
a) ALL BNP members, regardless of profession are 'racist'
b) that only teachers who are members of the BNP are racist?

I recently came across a group of teachers in a Scottish school (in an area with a relatively high percentage of English pupils - or shall we say customers). This group of teachers not only use their positions to hold sway and discriminate against the customer and parents in terms of acceptance and support, but also propose to wear 'anyone but England' T Shirts when they can during the world cup.

Is that 'Funny' or is that 'Racist?'

There are far worse failures of teachers (and other 'professionals) that are being visited upon our children.

"....Lets assume that if they are over ten they are mostly able to see through the lies"

Let's not.

I am not sure if I should be uplifted at your optimism of the state of the population, but sadly I have not generally seen too many of any age who are able, more less willing, to see through any 'lies' that we haev all been fed over recent decades. I think 'having it all' and 'putting self first' are among the worst and most swalloed lies - because it FEELS Good!

Heaven help us.

65. In other words, we're seeing responses to 'market-forces' (aka population level gene drifts/changes). Anyone who wants to change those...now....... what's the word for them?

61

..that 'Marxism' can be used to get rid of regulators..

yes but only because it promotes instability and thus helps set up the [fabled] revolution [that never comes!]

according to the theory then the bbc is in the vanguard of promoting marxist counter-hegemony ie multiculture etc. so a vital aid to revolution [paid for by the taxpayer].

66. barriesingleton 'WISE UP THE YOUNG'

How exactly?

Enough with the Lysenkoist platitudes already! ;-)

"BEWITCHED BY THE TYRANNY OF LANGUAGE" (#65)

I have to hand it to you Statist - your Citadel is virtually impregnable. Time and again you inadvertently expose your own faults through 'Freudian Assault' on another poster but as you HAVE DECLARED FREUD ET AL VOID, along with all their 'pseudo science', WE are left without validity should we point to those 'Freudian' illuminations of your good self.

Have you TRULY inspected your mental processes so finely, and absolutely, that you are CERTAIN of the validity of your own pronouncements and equally sure of the invalidity of those of others posting here?

Or might it be you attack in others what you fear in yourself: i.e. that you are BEWITCHED BY THE TYRANNY OF LANGUAGE?

68

satanism is a recognised religion in the Royal Navy. If BNP is legal then is wrong to discriminate against it. Otherwise they would have to expel other undesirable like the marxist educationalists which as we have seen have made education their 'homeworld'. By the end of the all banning there would be no one left?

the bnp numbers must be so small that they hardly dominate a school?

Rove

there are few philosophical choices in politics. The current main one are Machiavellian, Straussian and Marxist [that pretends its something else like Social Democracy].

if you are prepared to do any dirty deed to gain power what philosophy best fits that? IMO they should have asked him if he is Machiavellian. However a true Machiavellian would not admit to it. But perhaps the look in the face betrays more than the words can?

70. jauntycyclist 'according to the theory then the bbc is in the vanguard of promoting marxist counter-hegemony ie multiculture'

I don't know about that, it just seem to be reporting what's happening and responding to market-forces. It doesn't always get it right, but they don't do too bad a job in my view.

Best stick to the simple idea that Militant Tendency worked in the interests of the banks and Big Four accountancy firms etc.

See Spiked and its ancesstor.

The state was basically an Old Labour construction, although not much of that's left these days.

72. 'I have to hand it to you Statist - your Citadel is virtually impregnable.'

Well spotted, but the next step on your steep and thorny path to true enlightenment, is to try to find out why.

'Time and again you inadvertently expose your own faults through 'Freudian Assault' on another poster but as you HAVE DECLARED FREUD ET AL VOID, along with all their 'pseudo science', WE are left without validity should we point to those 'Freudian' illuminations of your good self.'

True, no good scientist regards Freudian psychoanalysis as science.

'Have you TRULY inspected your mental processes so finely, and absolutely, that you are CERTAIN of the validity of your own pronouncements and equally sure of the invalidity of those of others posting here?'

I have indeed, and I am absolutely certain that I don't have any mental processes left to inspect.

You evidnetly didn't listen to or understand 'On Having a Poem' or this (third one down, 11 mins in or so), did you? Are you past learning or somefink? You must try some humility here. It will be good for you.

'Or might it be you attack in others what you fear in yourself: i.e. that you are BEWITCHED BY THE TYRANNY OF LANGUAGE?'

No, I'm not betwitched, at least, not as much as the next man/woman. I'm too well trained.

Maybe you could try to learn from one who knows a bit more than you? ;-)

73. jauntycyclist 'Otherwise they would have to expel other undesirable like the marxist educationalists which as we have seen have made education their 'homeworld'. By the end of the all banning there would be no one left?'

The problem is, 99% (wild estimate) of those teachers don't know that they are Marxists! Does that not make them so? When they deny it, are they lying? This is a serious question.

74. jauntycyclist 'if you are prepared to do any dirty deed to gain power what philosophy best fits that? IMO they should have asked him if he is Machiavellian. However a true Machiavellian would not admit to it. But perhaps the look in the face betrays more than the words can?'

Just judge them by the consequences of their actions. That is the way that the science of behaviour works. If people are in power and the consequences of their action X is Y, does it matter if they say that they did not mean/intend Y to happen? It happened on their watch did it not? What else do we mean by holding people responsible for their actions?

We have let too many people abrogate responsibility by letting them appeal to the psychological - verbally. If you let them talk that way they will do it more and more. In the end it doesn't matter if teachers etc know they are Lysenkoism, all that matters is their actions. By their actions they are known!

PS. Trotskyites and Stalinists were 'Marxist' and they fought each other. Be careful with your class terms.

These points are the easy ones. The harder part is managing behaviour, and that can not be done well in liberal-democracies as the legislation all but makes regulation/governance a dirty word.

72. barriesingleton 'Have you TRULY inspected your mental processes so finely, and absolutely, that you are CERTAIN of the validity of your own pronouncements and equally sure of the invalidity of those of others posting here?'

What you have yet to grasp is that some of these issues have in fact been solved by science. What remains to be explained is a more detailed account of precisely how and why behaviours are physically emitted, and what accounts for the diversity (individual differences) that we see. What is no longer the mystery you imagine it to be, is where those explanations will come from. The problems now are technical, and less interesting as a consequence. You should stop looking for ghosts in machines... and arguing from ignorance. Do as advised and you might learn something useful.

NOT A FRENCH HORN BUT A GLOCKENSPEIL IN DISGUISE* (#76)

I am going to print out your #76 Statist. It will be my consolation as I climb the 'steep and thorny path to enlightenment'.

* The 'podaw podaw podaw' had me fooled for a while, but the 'somefink' gave you away.

80. barriesingleton What you should put into Google is 'The steep and thorny way' and see what comes up as a pdf. Now that's what you should print out...