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jon112uk

Listed below are comments made by jon112uk between Wednesday, 21st October 2009 and Friday, 30th October 2009.

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Reporting in Kabul 09:50am on 30 Oct 2009 I would have thought the BBC would be fairly safe from deliberate targeting by mainstream taleban – Western media are their most powerful weapon.

For the first time ever they are being hounded on both sides of the border. Most of their senior leadership is dead or on the run. In a purely military sense there is no way the taleban can win a war like that. On the other hand the constant propaganda from our own media has a very real prospect of providing the taleban a victory via political means.

If they drive you out, who would they have to report every success we have in terms of civilians killed or to describe every slaughter of civilians by the taleban as a ‘security failure’?

It would effectively be the taleban destroying their only remaining chance of victory.

With similarities to Gaza a while ago, the BBC seems able to operate without a massive security cordon, suspiciously untouched by people who would normally go to any lengths to kill a Westerner.

As with Gaza, and recent cases in Afghanistan, I would have thought the greater risk to your personnel was from ad-hoc gangs seizing people for ransom rather than lethal attack by the ‘official’ taleban. I think you know that as well.
Scientists v Politicians: Round 3 09:39am on 29 Oct 2009 "Schizophrenia seems to be disappearing (from the general population) ..."

I'd love to see the evidence base for that one.

(One researcher reports a 6 fold increase in the number of new diagnoses of schizophrenia in a particular area of London, comparing 1960s with now)
Census question questions 11:11am on 28 Oct 2009 As you suggest the main point of the census is to get to the bottom of the question of how many people we have - nationally and locally.

One issue here is obviously the uncontrolled and unmonitored influx of population. Some these new people are living in very 'concentrated' circumstances. They are not living in permanent addresses with a nuclear family.

One example I encountered recently had a 2 bedroom house with 3 new arrivals in one bedroom, two in another bedroom and two more in what used to be the lounge of a single house. None of them owned or lived permanently at the house. Trying to get to the bottom of how many people lived on that street would need questions like the ones you mentioned.

To be realistic, the census will still not answer the question 'how many people live in the UK?' Most or all of the people I mentioned above will NOT declare themselves on any forms to the authorities. Some are not here lawfully, none are working lawfully, none are paying tax.

In the US the presence of huge numbers of undocumented people has resulted in them dropping any attempts at 100% sampling. They take a careful sample and actively target those addresses to get an accurate picture of a sample of homes. Then they multiply up.

Our old fashioned 100% census just wont give an accurate figure. But then again is that what this government actually wants?

Would this government actually want any of us to know the accurate population figure?
A forest of issues 2:06pm on 27 Oct 2009 Why not just tax them?

300% tax on Ecuadorian oil if they open this new field.

I thought the 'environmentalist' principle was to tax, tax, tax?
El Presidente 1:57pm on 27 Oct 2009 Some time next year we will finally get rid of our unelected prime minister.

Shortly afterwards the EU will give us an unelected president.

Strong stuff this 'democracy'
Nick Griffin on Question Time 8:33pm on 24 Oct 2009 At #80 I commented that one the reasons increasing numbers of people (but not me) were voting BNP was because certain sections of the community now had so much power that they could stop free speech and people were getting frustrated at not even being able to discuss the issue.

My comment got censored.

I think that pretty much demonstrates what I was saying.

Well done once again BBC - for making the BNPs point far better than they could make it themselves.
Copenhagen Countdown: 45 days 5:06pm on 24 Oct 2009 So basically an alleged 'environment' problem will once again be used as an excuse for....

* Yet more silly 'binding targets' none of them will reach
* A convoluted reasoning to justify yet more aid to failing countries
* Not a single viable alternative way of providing energy to citizens
* And last but not least - tax, tax, tax, tax

Meanwhile, before during and after this conference the global emissions of CO2 will continue to INCREASE and none of us will be an inch nearer to an answer for what is going to happen when oil/gas no longer meet global demand.
Do you speak Race? 1:31pm on 23 Oct 2009 Thank you Mark.

This is the first time I have heard anyone from the BBC acknowledge accurately the underlying issue here.

Thank you for having the bravery to discuss this.
Nick Griffin on Question Time 11:48am on 23 Oct 2009 Do I like or even consider voting for Griffin - no.

But watching the violent rent-a-mob outside and the orchestrated hate campaign inside the studio, the big message I got from this episode is as follows....

It just goes to show that the BNP were correct in one thing: the danger to democracy and our traditional way of life from labour and uncontrolled immigration is very real.

It sounds like we need to wake up and someone provide a party like the dutch freedom party so that ordinary people have someone to vote for.
Will we miss the targets? 08:49am on 21 Oct 2009 Prior to the target culture there was still an inspection regime in the public sector.

Somebody would visit you and inspect. A report was produced.

What was different? The 'targets' weren't explicitly stated in advance. Managers had to perform accross the board. If people waited too long in A&E and complained, this would be criticised. But if managers left people in the ambulances outside to fiddle this, then that action would be criticised. High professional standards were expected.

To do that kind of inspection and report the inspectors needed to be professionals themselves - they had to know what to look for and what was unacceptable. Nowadays the professionals (experienced doctors, nurses etc) have been replaced by 'lay' persons. They have no professional knowledge and can only check if boxes have been ticked.

Locally an NHS trust got good marks for financial governance. It ticked all the boxes for policies, audit, contracts etc. The same trust has a recruitment freeze and is shutting services because (despite record health spending) it has no money. Performance is poor but the boxes were ticked.

The current fiasco is as much to do with labour's hostility to professional people as it is to do with targets.

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