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kashibeyaz

Listed below are comments made by kashibeyaz between Thursday, 12th November 2009 and Friday, 4th December 2009.

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Friday 4 December 2009 - in more detail 10:17pm on 04 Dec 2009 So nothing tonight about Corus "mothballing" their plant at Redcar and dumping 1700 workers three weeks before Christmas?

The line on this is quite dubious, focussing on the "human interest"; but we need to know who the four members of the consortium are who have broken the terms of their supply contract.

Was one of them Tata Motors of India?

And why are we not nationalising Corus Redcar? The globe does not need raw steel? I think it does, y'know.

Never mind, let's hear about pop ups; all the rage on Teesside.
Tuesday 24 November 2009 9:55pm on 24 Nov 2009 Lions led by donkeys

I've worked with representatives of the US Army, the German Bundeswehr and the British Army on a commercial or potentially commercial basis and I noticed one particular thing about them all; only in the British Army could you tell someone was an officer with your eyes shut; the linguistic difference in American and German troops (speaking German, not English) between officers and enlisted was untraceable, but in the British case, all too evident, as has been since the year dot, no doubt.

This particular class divide exemplifies the death of meritocracy and the concomitant rise of the phoenix of Establishment Power in the UK; yet again a symptom of a Third World country with delusions of grandeur.

Please show me the Brigadier from Bridgeton or the Colonel from Croxteth.

It does matter.
Tuesday 24 November 2009 9:10pm on 24 Nov 2009 A tartan scandal

The first British winners of the European Cup and winners of the Cup Winners' Cup - Glasgow's Celtic and Rangers respectively - now languish at the bottom of their groups in European competition.

The national team manager has recently being dismissed - and nobody wants the job apart from a Superman lookalike.

The only consolation are the wise words of McAskill, penned in the legacy of McGonagle; "They will all answer to a Higher Power and more fool them when the Rupert of OZ pulls the plug."
Tuesday 24 November 2009 8:57pm on 24 Nov 2009 Gluttons for Punishment

We have the highest prison population in Europe, ASBOs, ABCs, Parenting Orders, Community Payback.... I'm sure someone in your "pen" might suggest the taxpayer could save a ton of money in activity costs for these and other forms of punishment by simply passing a law that said that at birth everyone's D&A would be harvested and kept in a database; on reaching the age of 12, each person would have to prove they were innocent of any crime whatsoever, otherwise they would not be allowed to leave the UK ever and all access to offshore banking facilities would be withheld; this would surely obviate the need for prisons and the rest.

People fought and died for this country to uphold the rule of law, to demand universal suffrage and now we hear the simplistic little Englanders whining on yet again about "nothing to hide, nothing to fear." Howzabout sleepwalking into a police state?

The price of democracy is eternal vigilance and it was no Socialist who said that; still true, nevertheless.
Tuesday 24 November 2009 8:40pm on 24 Nov 2009 D&A?

My optician has never swabbed my mouth and if he/she tried I would bite their buds off.
Tuesday 24 November 2009 8:37pm on 24 Nov 2009 The Bank of last resort

Covert lending would probably have stopped the initial panic in this country over Northern Rock; a simple guarantee of savers' deposits, enhanced in limit due to the circumstances, would have worked just as well, however, in avoiding the public run; but when asked how safe depositors' money was, let us not forget Alistair's reply that their money was safe "for the moment". Next morning it all kicked off.

"Civilian" depositors aside, institutional investors have I believe a legal right to know how their institution of choice is financed; Myners was allowed to side step this point on C4 News tonight, by saying that the amounts of loans were detailed in the accounts; the accounts of course failed to state that the money came from the Bank "of last resort"; hence the merger of Lloyds TSB and HBOS lacked the much vaunted transparency we're all supposed to be enjoying post Schemozzle.

Whilst I agree that covert lending can indeed be useful in keeping the all too febrile Henrys of the City docile, there is a fine line to tread between impartial caution and partial secrecy.

If Myners appears tonight, don't let him off the hook on this, NN.
Alex Thomson did, Big Jon wouldn't and as for Jezza - it's food and drink for him.
Monday 23 November 2009 11:20am on 24 Nov 2009 I saw a newsclip of the members of the Chilcot Inquiry yesterday and if anyone thinks this crew will blow the gaffe on Phony Tony et al - the mind boggles.

"We have a problem; the peasants want to know what's going on, but of course we're not going to tell them; would you like to be part of this, plus expenses? Last for at least a year, so no worries there about how you'll fill your next 12 months."

And whatever Double Decker Chilcot comes up with, well, we all know the truth about Iraq and Afghanistan anyway.

Polish Kaminski is an opportunist like most politicians; in this country, immigration pulls the populist levers, in Poland, anti- Jewish sentiment.
Monday 23 November 2009 9:33pm on 23 Nov 2009 Stewpot, I'm certain, is not the only boss who takes his customers for schmucks; and what is the point of asking the CBI how to get us out of the Grand Schemozzle; it's like asking a firm of undertakers to find a cure for death.

Why would business leaders, whose share options, LTIPs, salaries and potential knighthoods and lordships depend entirely on "growth" have the slightest inclination for a balanced economy?

They're all busy inflating the next bubble; have you seen commodity prices, the price of commercial property, the house price index recently?
A combination of QE, low asset values in UK and lack of housing is pumping up the lilo, while the CEOs see the FTSE steadily rise.

Meanwhile, what is going on exactly in Cumbria? Why will it take "weeks" to produce temporary bridges for these wretched souls? Will the local councils really be asked to foot the bill for the repairs to their antiquated regional infrastructure?

How far will Gordi's million pound giveaway go?

We need to realize quick that we live in a Third World country masquerading as a world leader - only because we allow it to be so.

Sort it at the General Election next year with a hung Parliament that needs to work together to get things done.

And bring some of the REME back from Afghanistan to build them some bridges in Cumbria; much more vital work.
Friday 13 November 2009 8:47pm on 13 Nov 2009 I spent some months in 1975/6 in Charlottenburg, then a bourgeois suburb of West Berlin.

I can understand the sense of "Ostalgie" described above, for during those months I spent an increasing amount of time in East Berlin, using the Stadtbahn to drop me off at the Friedrichstrasse railway station almost every Saturday.

The view from Unter den Linden through the Brandenburg Gate towards West Berlin will remain a treasured memory for me; I remember watching and listening as organized groups of uniformed FDJ (Free German Youth) were led to the barbed wire and told that the wall in front of them was essential in keeping out decadent western habits which would attempt to undermine German Democratic Socialism.

Russian soldiers in uniform would stop and ask in impeccable American English if we had any American cigarettes for sale; it was always advisable to carry a few spare packets, but never sell them, rather offer them round free, thus avoiding difficult accusations of black marketeering.

I became a regular at the Comic Opera Theatre's matinees,superior performances to any in West Berlin and attended regularly by British, French and American military and diplomatic officials.

East Berlin was certainly quieter than the West, but not cowed or subdued and I remember spirited political arguments taking place in the open air bars around Alexanderplatz; with good DDR bier at 12 pfennigs for half a litre (about 4p I think) it was difficult for anybody to stay cowed for long. I spoke with dancers from the ballet and students from other Soviet bloc countries freely and frankly; nobody seemed wary or nervous.

I always returned to West Berlin on Saturday night because of visa restrictions and the difference was marked; strip clubs, drugs and a palpable sense of "let's party, live for today, 'cos tomorrow may be red", as one of my friends described the rather desperate atmosphere.

The sense of community experienced in East Berlin has gone and replaced by an extreme form of materialism; nothing worse than a convert, I suppose; and people who saw work/labour as a right/responsibility/duty are now allegedly unemployable.

Excellent films abound such as the ones mentioned above, particularly Goodbye Lenin and the Lives of Others, but I can honestly say I saw none of the oppression, wariness or fear portrayed. Maybe I was just among a bunch of extremely good actors; whatever the case I can appreciate the sense of loss many experience and articulate as "Ostalgie". I look forward with interest to NN's exploration of the phenomenon.
Thursday 12 November 2009 7:46pm on 12 Nov 2009 The phlegm problem;

Barriesigleton has complained, I think, about the quality of the form of English - Manglish I think he called it - spoken by workers at a relative's care home.

Imagine someone born and raised in Swansea being hospitalised in Fazakerley, or GOD forbid, Crick gets whacked at the Springburn lights and ends up in the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. Manglish - I'll give you Manglish, lad.

Maybe barriesingleton's point is that said workers are foreign; taking jobs from British workers? Working for the minimum wage?

Where were you when the minimum wage was introduced by Blair at such a ridiculously low level that he needn't have bothered?

Any protest from the unions? Any protest from the public? Any revolt from backbenchers?

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