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Jim_Barron

Listed below are comments made by Jim_Barron between Wednesday, 4th February 2009 and Wednesday, 28th October 2009.

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Wednesday 28 October 2009 9:04pm on 28 Oct 2009 A fascinating and superbly written report by Haddon-Cave with many many lessons for the way large organisations are run these days and staff are expected to give only good news and not voice their real concerns.
Sadly, the report does show the expression "Death by powerpoint" is only too true in this case - look at the report's comment "lulled into a sense of false security by the comforting PowerPoint presentations given by BAE Systems" and the section headed "The dangers of Powerpoint"
Climate change - 'For many people the penny hasn't dropped' 4:34pm on 28 Oct 2009 There has always been climate change - where I live now was under ice 10,000 years ago, where I used to live there were numerous drowned villages off the coast that had succumbed to rising sea levels over the last 1,000 years. Why does the BBC always (and I mean always) assume climate change must be bad - some will benefit, some won't.
And why is the BBC so reluctant to mention the unmentionable - that it's people who consume natural resources, and that the more people there are the more natural resources will be consumed. Malthus had a point!
The BBC has allowed a BNP candidate to appear on one of its programmes, when it will allow someone with a different, polictially unacceptable, view on climate change to speak?
When panic shapes policy 3:25pm on 11 Sep 2009 I had to undergo an extended CRBE check when I became a governor of an educational insitution because I might come into contact with children - the Insitution? - a University, the only 'child' I come into contact with is the president of the Students Union.

The system is ridiculous.
Count it, don't follow it 7:12pm on 21 May 2009 #3 ChangEngland makes a good point that the allowance is not only fungible but tax free.

But it's also free of NI (1% above upper earnings limit) and the MP won't be making any of the 10% pension contributions they pay on their salary on since the allowance isn't pensionable. That means the GBP24,000 allowance is the equivalent of GBP47,058 salary increase.

So its supercharged fungible.
What did the PM say? 2:47pm on 18 May 2009 Gordon Brown says "the decision about who is Speaker is a matter for the House of Commons - it could never be a matter for the government" but then as you point out it's the "government which decides whether the motion of no confidence in the Speaker will be debated".

It's this sort of misleading double speak from Gordon Brown which debases politics and removes all trust from politicans. It's clear they still haven't got it, and won't until after the June elections.
Fred Goodwin to receive £650,000 for life 11:08am on 26 Feb 2009 I think the GBP16m pension pot figure is wrong - this assumes he retires at 65. It would cost around GBP28 million to buy an index linked annuity / pension of GBP650K pa starting at age 50.
Difficult to be sure as most of the Internet annuity calculators don't handle such large figures!
Presumably the trustees of the RBS pension fund when agreeing to Fred's pension arrangements made sure it was properly funded .
Fred Goodwin to receive £650,000 for life 10:25pm on 25 Feb 2009 I doubt that £16m will buy an index linked pension of £650k for life starting at age 50. Unfortunately the Pension Calculator on the FSA web site is
"currently out of service while we work on an updated version."
so your figure can't be quickly checked.
Perhaps the current version of FSA pension planning software can't deal with the size of pension and early retirement arrangements that bankers appear to need.
Don't forget that Fred can also take a tax free lump sum as well from his pension fund!
Lloyds and HBOS humbled 3:47pm on 13 Feb 2009 Your blog on Wednesday:

"So no-one in their right mind would argue that Moore got it wrong in respect of the big issue - though Moore's critique was not that funding would dry up, but that borrowers would have difficulty repaying"

and your blog today:

"eye-watering charges of £7bn on corporate loans that have gone bad"

Seems Mr Moore hit the bulls eye. And as anyone who has worked in a big corporate knows, coming up with a well argued report criticising the Boards strategy is the fastest guaranteed way to pick up a redundancy cheque.
What did you think of the show? (05/02/09) 9:27pm on 05 Feb 2009 The full OED (2nd ed 1989) of gollywog is worth noting:

A name invented for a black-faced grotesquely dressed (male) doll with a shock of fuzzy hair. Also shortened golly, Golly.

If you look up a word such as C***k you'll find it has (Derogatory.) after it, which is missing fron the definition of gollywog. Words change over time and AC should realise that different generations have different takes on how insulting a word is - but then ageism is much lower in the hierachy of cardinal sins, and youth is always assured of its own political correctness.

BBC's management (an oxymoron) has been appalling its handling of this - it's clear that to them as Humpty Dumpty said to Alice, “When I use a word, it means just what I (the BBC) choose it to mean – neither more nor less”.

Still it was nice to note that David Frost got a joke denigerating Catholics (which AC has recently become) and stereotyping blacks. Will he be banned from the BBC as well? Will
What did you think of the show? (04/02/09) 8:31pm on 04 Feb 2009 Once again the BBC has double standards- if your a Sir you can get away with making a joke in poor taste on air that belongs to the 1960's but not make a similarly dubious poor taste comment in private.

Still we've not quite got to 1984 where saying the wrong thing when talking in your sleep leads to prison. The 'one' production team obviously thinks 1984 is a manual for them to follow not a warning.

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