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A Quick Fix to WORLD PEACE
Win Win solution for everyone (i.e. the opposition, the militant, common man and the mother Earth) for a peaceful co-existance.
Resolving problem of WAR-TORN countries: Iraq, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and others.
solutions so far have not worked, so choose a different strategy
The OPPOSITION has been turned into the EXTREMIST, and being stretched even further by pampering the (unsuccessful) Ruling-party. The situation is getting worse by the hour. ALL parties involved are suffering with Loss of Life & Money, and, the common man in the war-torn region being the biggest sufferer.
We are all unhappy about it.
Work on the following startegy:
Approach the OPPOSITION, to find a solution. Bring in a developed country to sponsor and assist. Officialy allot them the territory that they have successfuly torn-apart, and assist them to form a formal government. The sponsoring country to assist in this change, and to collectively govern/rebuild this new nation, and form good trading relations with neighboring countries.
This will help save many lives, property and environment. It will work out to be the simplest, cheapest & Best solution for ALL parties involved. A sure WIN-WIN !
In this way the misery will quickly end.
The aid provided by developed nations will have the desired effect !!
The rest of the world will gain by getting additional/good/constructive business.
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Flip-Flop Dilemma
After several hours' drinking in Devon on Friday evening, either in Torquay or Torbay (not sure which), I found myself holding a pair of flip-flops. These had been thrust into my hand by a very nice constable, who eventually made clear to me that if I let him help me take off my stiletto-heeled shoes, I could then put on the flip-flops. This, he said, would make walking much more comfortable and much safer. I could sort of see this might make sense. However, I was quite unable to get the flip-flops on without first removing my lurex tights - and that took quite some doing, I can tell you! He was right about the walking, as it took a fair few hours less than usual to make my way home. Even so, I am now lying in bed with blue legs and black feet hoping to get over the hypothermia before work on Monday.
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(2) Did anyone consider that effect of having so many offensive weapons in peoples hands.
Ever been hit by a stiletto? It hurts.
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enjoyed the programme - disagreed strongly with Richard North's views that the BBC should not be involved with on-line stuff -where in my view it really excels against offerings of other media companies.
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Surveillance Society - The Next Step?
Having had a business account with a major High Street Bank for the last 20 years, I have been asked (sorry commanded) to present my passport or driving licence to them to prove who I am. Failure to do this I am told will result in the account being closed.
I have told the business manager that I am unwilling for them to store this information as I do not trust them to keep it securely and I cannot see what purpose it serves.
She then started to refer to the third person as 'they have been checking all accounts like mine to make sure there is not missing information' I asked who 'they' were and was told that it was a business account review team and they were acting on the requirements of the FSA on post 9-11 issues.
I did remark that I thought that the FSA might be better serving our interests by regulating those working in the banks rather than gathering useless information from long standing customers !
Security - yes please-
Surveillance - no thank you
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November twenty-ninth 2008
BBC Radio Simply MUST Stay “On-Line” Worldwide
Dear Eddie Mair,
I am appalled by the view that the BBC has no business to be “on-line”, expressed by Richard North, author of “Scrap the BBC”.
“On-line” listening is one of the few ways that people outside the range of BBC medium-wave, long-wave or FM radio broadcasts can stay in touch with current UK opinions, current UK entertainment and music, and current affairs and detailed UK news.
Many listeners have paid for BBC licences in the UK but, for various reasons, find themselves outside the UK for periods of days, weeks or even months at a time, whether on holidays, business trips, or secondment to overseas postings, and sometimes with no access to yesterday’s UK newspapers let alone today’s: they want – or even need - to stay in touch with what is going on in the UK but usually can only do so by listening “on-line” to the BBC.
The numbers both of such people and of their daily needs may be greater than is often imagined. Without wishing to labour the point unduly, I merely point out that in Spain alone its government states the greatest number of non-Spaniards in the country to be that of one million UK nationals, a lot of whom own homes in the UK where they pay BBC licence fees even though several of them may own second homes in Spain; if the numbers of UK nationals throughout the European Union, indeed throughout the world, are taken into account, they may be far larger than is often thought by people inside the UK.
This leads me to two slightly different but overlapping considerations about overseas BBC “on-line” listeners. First, it is undeniable that among overseas UK “on-line” listeners there are also many who do not pay BBC licence fees because they have no home with a UK address (myself among them; I am a widower and I have been with my present employer outside the UK for twenty years, so I cannot afford still to keep up a home there though I do have some assets in the UK). Secondly, nor are BBC licence fees paid by hundreds of thousands of overseas BBC “on-line” listeners of other nationalities.
The second group is by no means adequately served by short-wave radio from the BBC World Service for two reasons. In the first place, because it has reduced its home and European references in its programming, which now seems aimed particularly at twenty-year-old males from the Near East to China. Moreover, it has altogether ceased short-wave broadcasting to Europe where, nevertheless, hundreds of thousands of young men and women are learning English as a second language and where the European Union is the UK’s main trading partner – so cutting them off from the BBC air-waves is a case of the UK government cutting off its nose to spite its face (the Foreign Office pays for the BBC World Service which does not receive BBC licence fee funding). Regardless of Richard North’s economic argument that free overseas listening to the BBC is a case of unfair competition, surely the UK’s balance of trade cannot but be helped by it, in Europe at least. It is in the UK national economic interest to maintain “on-line” listening to the BBC, especially by Europeans, who have great respect for the BBC´s high standards of broadcasting and an impartiality, which are not always present in several other countries where broadcasting is wholly funded by governments out of general revenue (i.e. most do not have licence fees). It is in the UK national interest to keep its listening neighbours up to date every day on current UK opinions, current UK entertainment and music, and current affairs and detailed UK home news. UK national economic interest trumps free-market economic theorizing.
At first glance it seems understandable that, if we accept the foregoing argument of national interest for retaining “on-line” BBC radio broadcasting, then those who pay BBC licence fees sometimes feel aggrieved if other people who do not, whether inside our outside the UK, can listen “on-line” for free. They should bear in mind, however, that they have access to direct BBC television, whereas “on-line” listeners do not. Moreover, when they listen or view using their sets, they do not have to suffer the all-too-frequent loss of service when “on-line” computer screens display “A General Error Has Occurred” and re-booting is required to get back “on-line”. On balance they receive a better and wider service, and deserve to do so because they have paid for it. They should not grumble, therefore, about being required “unfairly” to pay for it.
There may be a wider matter here. On “Sunday” the Bishop of Leicester (in a different context) remarked that, compared to many other countries, in the UK people feel “less responsible for each other”. This applies with a vengeance to overseas UK nationals, who often feel ignored by the general public, political parties, and especially government, in the UK. They often feel that if they don’t pay UK income tax they have no rights as UK citizens, or at most, that they are second-class UK nationals (they quite rapidly lose the right to vote in UK elections). This contrasts with the solicitous way in which many other countries treat their overseas nationals. Germany has welcomed with open arms German-speakers whose families have lived outside Germany for many generations without so much as having set foot in Germany (likewise Israel). Italy has two senators in its parliament for its overseas nationals to vote for. Spain funds its teachers to be seconded to overseas consulates to teach Spanish to children of its nationals without charge. The nationals of many countries never lose the right to vote in general elections, however long they stay overseas.
What has this to do directly with the BBC? Well, for a start its radio programmes do their best to make it impossible for overseas listeners to phone them even at their own expense (apart perhaps from those who have a mobile phone with a UK number). It would be a start to provide them with a number which is accessible to overseas callers even if they have to pay for their inward call. Why not? (I attach below an inconclusive correspondence I have had about this matter, in case anyone is interested in further details; I have not yet received a reply to my email of November fifteenth to the BBC.)
Yours truly,
Michael Walker
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CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN ME AND THE BEEB (I have slightly edited and abridged it)
Email from me to BBC after listening “on-line” on my computer via broadband to the Radio 4 to a programme on matters concerning the writing of a UK Last Will and Testament (a matter which is particularly relevant to UK citizens whose work means they live outside the UK); I wrote:
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE will the BBC announce widely and SLOWLY, both on email, and also, most important of all, on AIR, the phone number to be dialled from OUTSIDE the UK in order for people outside the UK to contact you? I am an Englishman who lives and works overseas. Every time I have tried to dial your new number I am told by my telephone operator that it does not exist, regardless of whether I dial 0044-003… or 0044-004… Also, when your broadcasters give out the number, please will they speak SLOWLY and give the numbers to be dialled from both WITHIN and from OUTSIDE the UK? Michael Walker
(Comment: It had made no difference whether after the UK country code 0044 I had used the 003 or the Beeb’s old 004 number or whether I included or omitted the zeroes. The phone operator of my fixed-line phone always told me no such number existed, notwithstanding that it had been broadcast by the programme’s announcer!!)
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Mr Curran replied on November twelfth:
Dear Mr Walker
Thanks for your e-mail.
I understand that you'd like to know why you cannot contact the BBC by phone from outside the U.K.
If I can explain our position, the BBC provides its National networks, for which a licence fee is payable (in the UK only, of course), for the benefit of those UK residents who pay the fee. It is not part of the BBC's remit to provide these services anywhere else, nor is the licence fee payable by anyone outside the UK. Indeed if the BBC were to spend licence fees on providing services abroad it would be justifiably criticised by licence payers at home.
I hope I have been able to clarify our position. However, please be assured that your comments have been fully registered on our daily audience log. This internal document will be made available to all our production teams and senior BBC management. We greatly value this feedback as it helps us when making decisions about future programming and policies.
Thanks again for contacting us with your query.
Regards
Stefan Curran
BBC Complaints
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Following that answer, I replied on November fourteenth:
Dear Mr Curran,
Whilst I quite appreciate the point that you make, I should remind you that many licence-fee payers leave the UK for periods of days, weeks, on holidays, business trips, or secondment to overseas postings, and wish to keep in touch with what is going on back home by listening to the BBC. Furthermore, nowhere in my email did I imply that overseas listeners should be able to phone the BBC at the BBC's expense; I merely asked that they be given a phone number which (even if some of them may have paid for licences) they can ring up at their OWN expense, which is appropriate for those like me who work outside the UK and do not pay the licence fee. In that regard, it is worth mentioning that there are very many listeners to the BBC throughout the European Union and that more and more of them have been listening to BBC Radio 1,2,3,4,5 on their computers ever since the BBC World Service first reduced its home and European references in its programming and then ceased short-wave broadcasting to Europe altogether. Whilst the interests of UK licence-holders must take priority in BBC programming, it should not be overlooked that the BBC´s high standards of broadcasting have always been, and still are, held in very great regard throughout Europe, and therefore the interest of your overseas listeners can hardly be a matter of unconcern - especially those in Europe (I stress Europe because the rest of the world can still receive World Service short-wave broadcasts).
I would appreciate your reply in consideration of these points.
Yours sincerely
Michael Walker
I also wrote:
November fifteenth 2008
Attention:
Roger Bolton, Feedback
Stefan Curran, BBC Complaints
Dear Sirs,
I wish to draw your attention to the following correspondence between me and Mr. Curran. The reason I am sending this to Mr. Bolton is because yesterday (November fourteenth) on his “Feedback” programme he held a conversation (I presume by telephone) with a lady listener in France –possibly of British nationality- who had contacted his programme and spoke to him, and to whom he then replied on air. On the other hand, my complaint that I –also a British listener- have not been able to contact the Radio 4 programme “You and Yours” (maybe it was “Moneybox” – I forget) was given the brush off by Mr. Curran who writes that it is not the business of the BBC to be available to overseas callers because they are not licence-fee payers.
How did the lady from France get through when I could not? One possibility could be that she called from overseas on a UK mobile phone which recognizes the BBC’s 003 number whereas my phone tells me that its operator says that the number does not exist for it. That is pure conjecture on my part, though maybe not implausible.
More to the point, if the real problem is the cost of the return phone call from London to overseas, the problem ought to be the same for her as for me, given that charges are based on distance, and not on the country where a recipient’s phone was acquired.
Please can “Feedback” clarify in a clear and accurate manner just where the problem lies, and please, please, if “Feedback’s” number is available to overseas listeners, can Mr. Bolton sort out with Mr. Curran why that does not hold for the numbers of some other Radio 4 programmes?
Yours truly,
Michael Walker
(Comment: I have had no reply to this last letter,)
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Now we are all bankers!
The nationalised bank should take on all default mortgages of those people who are in danger of having their home repossessed. The loan is then restructured. A calculation is then made as to what could be expected to be repaid. The difference is allowed to accumulate and set against the value of the property. This is set against current value so that both parties could find that negative equity affects both holdings. Some mortgages may not even pay the interest of the loan. The proportion owned by the mortgagees may lessen over time, but they would not become homeless. In the event of the portion owned by the bank reaching 100%, the house becomes a National Asset and those living in it pay rent. If, hopefully, the current trend is reversed, the value held by the morgagees would increase. This may sound similar to shared equity that already exists, but housing associations are businesses and would not have necessarily the clients interests at heart. The hugh sums being used to prop up inefficient banks would be more than enough to finance such a scheme.
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Dynamic demand.
This is one of the more promising options available in the quest for more efficient energy use. Reducing consumer demand would reduce the size of generating plant required to meet this demand. This may seem obvious, but the crucial thing here is that the amount of generating power required is not determined by the ability of the grid to deliver the required amount of energy (power generated over a period of time, say a year) but instantaneous power. The energy requirement is automatically met if the system can cope with power demand, namely with peak power, i.e. the highest demand for power to be encountered in the foreseeable future. Peak power determines the overall size of installed generating power, even though it may only need to be met once in 10 years.
For that reason it would be advantageous to limit the combined 'load' that consumers may put on the grid at a time when there is a high demand for power.
'Dynamic demand' management does this by shedding nonessential loads automatically by sensing the frequency drop that occurs when generators begin to struggle with the load put on them. Nonessential loads would be those that can do without power for a limited time, say up to an hour. These 'loads' could be appliances that are normally on (not necessarily continuously) but could do without power for a bit, such as those that store energy like fridges and freezers.
They would have to have appropriate devices attached to them (or installed in them) that react to frequency drops on the grid to switch off the appliance.
How to convince consumers to install this equipment, let alone pay for it, is a different matter! It only serves the common good, so maybe regulatory measures will be needed. And that may have to wait until there is a real threat that the lights will go out!
Meanwhile it would make even more sense to reduce overall demand by taking a step back: Efficiency and sufficiency.
Cetero censeo Carthaginem delendam esse.
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Indian commandos took days and intelligence came to conclusion in a day.
Indain governemnt and intelligence linked terrorist to pakistan and sure what they claimed. we all saw and know that indian commondos took days to clear under seigh places but their interlligence and investigator came to conclusion from the very 1st day that the terrorist belongs to paksitan and they have evidence. where they were, when all such conpiracy and plaining made by terrorist. how came through sea covered 500 nutical miles. if they are really so sharp and intelligent that in a day they came to conclusion, so were they closed their eyes and waited for the terrorist to attack mumbai. By doing all this they just creaate panic in the region and make poeple aggresive on the both side. if you are really so much concern to the peace and security, stop blame game wait and let investigation comes to end. dont let your people and inteligence down by all such comments and claims. it means its totally indian security and intelligence failer then what makes us beleive that this time your intelligence reports are true.
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Who killed the hostages? Terrorist or Commandos! why 9/11, its not.
There is no such evidence that who killed the hostages. As time passes and operation gets more effective more casualties report from Mumbai. Because as much as commandos search operation underway and they move on more dead bodies reported and the way they took positions and fired randomly on windows and blast occurs within the hotel there is no such evidence of that who did those blast and if there are so many terrorist what actually they wants because just after a early call from Deccan mujahidin no demands no dialogues had been made. As they claim to finish up the operation on several locations where the dead bodies are and where are the arrested terrorists as they reported about 25 to 30. What the trust and what's going on in hotel only the dead bodies knows or Indian law enforcement agencies. As media interviewed the released hostages how they came out and what those terrorist wants from them , what they wants from US or UK passport holders, none of the witnessed talked about it nor they can brief the actual facts as many of the witnessed released or rescued, because all people who came out from the hotel all of them were locked in the room then where are the actual hostages? What are the demands actually and what they want from all this? These kinds of terrorist who made people hostages must have some demands. All incidents just indicates that must be some internal elements and political matters made this issue worst and create great panic all over the world. Need to act calmly and more maturely instead of showed aggression and emotional statements.
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I think you should follow up the way the TV licensing authority operate as explained by your speaker at the beginning of the item this week.
I am responsible for a vacant property where there is no television, yet they seem incapable of recording my address and repeatedly send people to the vacant property putting the sort of correspondence through the door with various threats and inviting payment but in the tick box return form, never allowing the possibility that there is simply no tv in the building. I now just ignore whatever they send and when I get one threatening forced entry or court action I make another angry phone call.
If all this wasted activity were stopped I suspect the licence fee could be reduced as well as a great deal of paper saved.
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Why are new members pre moderated?
This is something else to be investigated. I have been posting to BBC message boards for years and surely your IT facility enables you to automatically know I have attracted very few complaints and hardly any that are justified!
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Apologies Tolkny - I know it's frustrating.
Each blog pre-mods users again even if they've been posting elsewhere for ages.
Hope it doesn't put you off posting again. Thanks for your comments.
Jen
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Tolkny - don't take it personally. The pre-mod thing happens to us all.
The TV Licence story is interesting.Our friends who had no tv for years, as a point of principle, used to get threatening letters all the time. Eventually they had 2 children, and, ground down by the dual demands of the tv licencers and small children, bought a tv (with licence.)The threats stopped. It occurs to me that maybe the threatening letters are just a clever marketing ploy - in the end you think "S*d it, it'd be easier to just get the tv and pay up". What do you think?
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in the end you think "S*d it, it'd be easier to just get the tv and pay up". What do you think?
Well I won't be doing that because the plan is to sell the property.
Also, I realise it has gone on for years and believe it is time for it to stop.
The points made by the person on IPM were not picked up, he was not talking about paying but the same problem as me.
I think my point needs pursuing. I took it up with my MP who is chair of Select Cttee that deals with broadcasting and I just got a standard sympathy response. It is an issue of principle similar to the MP being detained for questioning but it will not be dealt with until there is a media storm, so lets have one beginning with IPM.
The pre mod thing is also unacceptable, as it happens repeatedly and unnecessarily and needs changing!
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Good afternoon,
I would like to raise two different topics of which neither of which neither seem fair to me.
1) Interest on student loans. As of April 2008 the interest on a student loan was increased to 3.8% which is now significantly above the base rate. Mr Brown's justifcation of the increase to 3.8% was that it was still below the base rate and therefore still represented good value for those with outstanding balances. My question is will this be reduced to reflect the 3% BoE rate?
2) A close friend in June 2007 payed a 10% deposit on a new build flat in West London which was due to be completed in December 2008.
At the time, June 2007, sourcing a mortgage was not an issue and researched showed that various mortgage products were readily available so the investment seemed a viable and worthwhile option. However, we all know what has happened since then and despite trying very hard to find a mortgage my friend has been unable to do so.
Now the property developers are threatening legal action against him because he will not be carrying out his side of the contract as he is completely unable to source a mortgage and buy the property despite actually wanting to.
Thank you for letting me grumble.
Regards
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Challenge the comforting words.
Wealth is energy (discuss) and can be neither created nor destroyed, only transformed. If so there are no 'wealth creators'. Or: has our wealth recently reduced, in which case, are there wealth destroyers?
We were in trouble as soon as mortgages, insurance policies etc were described as 'products', to be owned. They're contracts - means of revenue production for the financial companies.
If it took millions of years of solar radiation to produce the fossil fuels we've burned up in a few hundred, is it credible to expect a day of sunlight to provide a day of the energy we now use? (What else, apart from the moon, causes winds, water-flows that could be used?)
All 'real' economic growth uses up fixed resources to some degree, and requires expanding markets (more people using up more stuff). This is incompatible with ecological stability. Systems can never reach 100% efficiency. Indefinitely 'sustainable economic growth' is a delusion (or a political deception). Policies should have a 'sustainable until' date.
Would it matter if humanity became extinct?
(Well, who would it matter to?)
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A verdict of unlawful killing for the murder of Jean Charles de Menezes has been ruled out by the coroner.
Why?
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I would like to be able to sent Eddie Mare an E. mail to his daily show but can not find anywhere on his main page to do so and he uses outlook express I can not access this. Has the public got to much for him. Can't phone, can't text, no communication lines open anymore. Mari Rennie
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"Twittersphere in shock as Tony Benn reveals he's never even heard of Twitter..."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2008/dec/03/twitter-digitalmedia
Why the "in shock" statement I wonder? I'd never heard of it either and I think I'm a touch younger than Mr Benn.
So not knowing would make a ....
Oh, I see... I think
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Hello nighthawking
Email pm [at] bbc.co.uk - to contact Eddie about an item on PM.
thanks
Jen
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"Is technology rewiring our brains?"
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/is-technology-rewiring-our-brains-1051654.html
...as I haven't got one (a brain, that is) I guess I'll never know...
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They just cancelled Little Dorrit at 8pm today to make way for a Panorama programme on Shannon Matthews. While I accept the latter is very newsworthy, it is getting so much press at the moment that it hardly requires the BBC to scrap an episode of a tremendous series, much loved by thousands of viewers up and down the country. BBC - you've got your priorities mixed up!
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I was wondering if anyone else remembered the spate of stories during the first two weeks of March about how the hunt for Shannon Matthews hadn't got the sympathy that Maddie had? It was supposedly because Maddie was upper middle class and had well-connected parents. I remember thinking at the time that it was probably because the public didn't think Shannon's mother really cared. There were stories by Roy Greenslade in the Guardian, Andrew Norfolk in the Times and others I can't remember. All suggesting that the public were biased. I though iPM might like to interview one or other of them now to see what they say.
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Statistical Nonsense and the Lancet report on child abuse
I am wondering if your News editors should listen more to other programmes on Radio 4.
Earlier this week, the News reported appalling statistics on the percentage of children suffering physical and sexual abuse in the home.
Today I listened to the More or Less - the programme about numbers and statistics.
The programme demonstrated that when a person who has a grasp of statistical analysis looked at the claims made in the press release on the Lancet report, the claims were total nonsense.
Having made everyone just a bit more depressed about the state of the country, it would be in order for the News programmes to issue apologies, stating that perhaps things are not quite as bad as earlier reported.
I don’t think they will.
They just reported a press release, and this was from experts, so it is not the sort of thing one questions.
Are not ministers and politicians experts? Should what they say be accepted without question?
Of course not!
So why are the results of surveys and research broadcast without thorough scrutiny? We should always be just as wary of experts as we are of politicians. Just like politicians they have points they wish to get across.
Is there no-one in the BBC capable of acting as Devil’s Advocate when some research institute, agency or pressure group releases statistics which purport to prove some point or other?
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PR Agencies and Peter Hain and political influence
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I can find no other message board open at this time where I can reasonably post this comment. So one issue is, that if BBC is serious about getting the views of all those who receive it's services, there needs to be a "catch all" message board open 24/7 that ought to accept immediately for publication messages from contributors who previously have proved reliable. Obviously there needs to also be a way of withdrawing posts if they are illegal etc.. Maybe it should just need one complaint, to suspend a comment, if there are no moderators available.
I guess this is why the Radio Four message board is not currently open (I presume)?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbradio4/F2766774
Clearly this principle is already established with "The Archers" Message Boards which are open 24/7
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbarchers/F2693940,
However I will not post these comments there because they would be inappropriate there.
++++++++++++++++++++++++
Now my main points which may lead to another idea for IPM.
I have listened to the emergency "On the Ropes" broadcast about Peter Hain. It does not go into much detail and one wonders how the programme came to be made and broadcast. When was it made? I am glad it was subsequently made available via the web, where I heard it, because I fell asleep waiting for it last night!
So how such emergency programmes come to get into the schedules and why the subject matter qualifies are all interesting features. I would say the lack of detail makes this particular programme questionable and one wonders if it was primarily an early point in Peter Hain's attempt to rehabilitate himself after he needed to resign.
There seems to be a number of features that as David Starkey said on
"This Week"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/this_week/7766700.stm
Parliament failed in its basic duty of reviewing the legislation, which led to Hain’s difficulties, and Hain admitted was flawed, despite him being part of The Government, which introduced it!
Now to my main points; his difficulties seem to have arisen because one or more of the people he appointed to run his campaign, possibly broke the law in that they acted as a conduit for funds for his campaign from a source from which funds were not allowed.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Policies_Forum)
These people were part of the shadowy PR business, people who having formerly held jobs in the media industry changed their occupation and acted as agents to gain influence for people who can pay for that influence. Hence those who can't or won't pay get lesser influence, which seems to apply to the sort of organisations to which I belong and whose ideas are largely ignored.
Unfortunately I am dyslexic and probably dyspraxic a fact which contributes to my difficulty in expressing ideas clearly.
So, Peter Hain made a bad choice because one or more of the people he appointed may have broken a law, and as they were acting on his behalf he was ultimately responsible. We have not heard whether others will be prosecuted?
So, how much influence do these organisations, who employ the sort of people who Peter Hain trusted to run his campaign, wield, and should we always be told when they are involved in representing people etc.,etc.? Please investigate them, if you dare. I say if you dare because I suspect the BBC is enmeshed with such organisations that are largely only known about by occupants of "The Westminster Village"
I shall be looking out to hear how Peter Hain returns to the centre of the Village, if he manages it.
Another point he made is that he was given and accepted more responsibility than he was able to manage (Northern Ireland Minister and Minister for DWP simultaneously). Yet there are hundreds of MPs without ministerial portfolios all competing for them and this man gets more than he can handle. Maybe, David Starkey was right and we need a proper constitution about who does what and how they are publicly monitored. Maybe that would lead to less Baby P cases and less people in prison. As a former probation officer - these are the sort of issues that concern me, and I believe are too much centrally, micro managed, with insufficient trust being given to front line professionals, such as I was.
Regards
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I suggest that you pursue this matter thoroughly. The Government's minor inducement of £250 encouraged me, and no doubt others to contribute to a grandchild's CTF.
I suspect several things:
(i) the Funds are far more than £250 down in value,
(ii) the quality of integrity in financial services is noticeable only by its complete absence,
(iii) every single CTF is a rip-off, and has escaped effective regulation.
But, prove me wrong ...
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This may be some of the best news for a large percentage of the elderly, for some time. Yet funding applications have, so far been denied. Why, one wonders..?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article5295794.ece
"Virus clue to cause of Alzheimer’s
Cheap cold sore drugs could offer best treatment yet"
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How about a look at the council (which I will refrain from naming) that apparently brought Anti-Terrorism legislation against a newsagent committing the horrific crime of employing paper-boys... Which I think has to be just the right mix of national tragedy and farce.
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I am totally sick and tired of our current, gravy train mentality and the fact that all the UK political establishment want to drag us further into Europe without any say on behalf of the electorate.
Can any one out there make a sensible suggestion on how the anti's might get a say.
Mike Potts
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THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH BANKERS!
Well ok there is, but let’s think about it.
I work in a profession (an allied health care profession) where many employees rely on bonus structures to boost their wages. A tiny percentage (and proudly I am in that tiny few, and really sadly it is a tiny few) refuse the bonus system outright as an incentive to sell and will never change advice as a result of it. The majority won’t have ethical hurdles as they just don’t think about it. I am not saying they’re bad people they simply don’t stop to think about the ethical problems.
This is true in lots of jobs from car sales, estate agents to police officers and public servants, the list endless, it may be monetary or simply target driven but humans don’t often ask themselves “how would I feel if..?” sadly they often crack on and don’t often stop to think.
I would go so far as to say introduce any poor incentive into any sector and you will get the majority exploiting it for personnel gain. They may not always see it this way but I think sadly it’s true.
So why has everyone got a free ticket to blame bankers for succumbing to the same process?
Cleary there is a monetary value assigned to ethics. Please can you tell me at what point on a salary scale or percentage of salary the logic changes? (should rich people have more points for speeding although a less well off person was also on the same photo speeding?) I would like to know for reference as it might be ok for me to start ripping old people off as long as I don’t earn as much as a banker?
My point is (and yes I do have one) is:
I wish we lived in a society where the standards we impose on others tallied closely with the standard we lived by. Then we could all jump up and down with genuine rage and not on some fallacy that we wouldn’t have done the same thing.
Want to make things better? Get the incentives right. Bring back all the elite bankers because whether you despise them or not they are smart and they might understand the mess better than anyone. If in war you capture the enemies main officials it’s not wise to shoot them! You can use them to win.
In every transaction done have tags so you can trace back trades. Because if you can trace back a lamb stake to its farm I am sure we can trace back any trade to each trader. Then make the penalty so severe for poor dealing practices that whenever someone comes up with hiding debts they are aware the trail will lead to them. Then if the public like they can shoot them or read the book they write from prison.
I look forward to the next time the whole of England starts to trash a whole industry, politcal party or famous person for being just like us!
Happy x-mas!
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