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unbrokenman

Listed below are comments made by unbrokenman between Tuesday, 18th November 2008 and Friday, 11th December 2009.

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Legacy of 'junk science' affecting vaccine uptake 10:24am on 11 Dec 2009 Is it possible that uptake of the jab has been limited by its availability ?

One of my children was designated as being in the priority group. We were given less than a week's notice of a one-hour slot when he could receive the vaccine. He was then told that he needed a second jab, which (again) we were given less than a week's notice of the appointment.

When I queried why such little notice was being given, they told me that they had no visibility of when they would receive the vaccines from the supplier, and so couldn't make appointments until then.

One could query how effective the surgery is being in administering this, but that would be a separate debate. It strikes me that this type of administration (whether appropriate or not) as a response to lack of availability of the vaccine could well be deterring people who are in two minds as to whether or not to have the jab.
How Rover executives pocketed £42m 12:30pm on 11 Sep 2009 Yet another victory for this government's news management. The politicians' biggest error was when these business charlatans were encouraged to buy Rover from BMW. At the time, there was a proper commercial bid from Alchemy Partners to take Rover off BMW's hands, slim it down to a sportscar manufacturer, and make it into a successful business. This was politically unacceptable, so instead these four muppets were encouraged to intervene. Skip forward a few years and their business plan becomes obviously flawed and what happens next ? A Chinese manufacturer steps in, buys the assets, and turns it into a sportscar manufacturer !

Imagine how much better things might have been if the government hadn't messed up the original sale to Alchemy...
Spinvox, we stand by our story 9:02pm on 29 Jul 2009 I have nothing for or against Spinvox. As a complete bystander, it seems to me that Spinvox is being crucified for simply protecting its business interests by not revealing all its information.

On the question of EU data protection laws, the company claims to have looked into the matter and has given a technical reason as to why it is, in fact, compliant. Rory then responds by saying that he's no expert, but he doesn't think they've wriggled out of it. Perhaps it might be fairer on Spinvox if he made the effort to find an expert, and see what they make of Spinvox's defence.

On the matter of the patents, it might really help Rory to defend his story if he made an effort to understand how the patenting process actually operates. For example, the patent that he cites as having been "filed" (sic) in 2009 was actually lodged in 2003. Spinvox's defence that they have lodged a wide range of patents, and that they don't necessarily use them all in their products or services, seems entirely and utterly reasonable.

Why is Spinvox being villified ? Is this a case of a reporter not understanding the complexities of the story, and getting it utterly wrong ? Or is this one of those "nudge-nudge" stories where there's actually incontroverible proof of misdemeanour that can't actually be published, so you have to make a fuss about the stuff around the edges ?

Either way, it's not very seemly. Until we get a more rational and informed critique of Spinvox's behaviour, I'm punting for Spinvox to win the argument.
Why Sir James Crosby resigned 6:19pm on 11 Feb 2009 If it's acceptable that the FSA wasn't bothered about HBOS borrowing so much on the wholesale markets, then why (in the politicians' minds) is it acceptable that Northern Rock did the same ?

This really means that Northern Rock's management were no less complacent than HBOS's management. The only difference is that Northern Rock got caught out first - before the government bail-out scheme was created.

It seems strange how the FSA is continually avoiding any scrutiny or blame for what went on. It couldn't be that, as Gordon's baby, any criticism of the FSA might be too close to No.10 for comfort ?
Nationalising Tories 4:48pm on 09 Jan 2009 Is Robert's introduction to Sportacus the start of a big news story ? It's hard to deny that Cbeebies' use of Lazytown programmes has rocketed skywards since the Icelandic economy fell apart. What's the reason behind the BBC licence-payer being forced to subsidise Iceland ? Was all that TV licence money kept in an Icesave account ?

Let's hope Robert's investigative nous into his employer's affairs won't be bound this time round as it was in the past by Lord Black...
Darling v Mathewson and Burt 1:11pm on 18 Nov 2008 If I were being cynical then I might wonder out loud whether Messrs Brown & Darling can afford, politically, to be undermined by their bank rescue scheme being picked apart.

Is there any independent view from anyone else as to whether Mr Darling's statement of the conditions and costs for the government's rescue money is a fair set of terms, or just created in order to stymie this brave attempt by the Scottish establishment to propose a decent alternative to the government's presentation of itself as the saviour of the UK economy ?

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