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MonkeyBot5000

Listed below are comments made by MonkeyBot5000 between Wednesday, 8th April 2009 and Thursday, 8th October 2009.

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The impact of Whatdotheyknow 1:47pm on 08 Oct 2009 I tried to make an FOI request and they claimed they had responded when they hadn't.

I pointed out that the site held a public record of our correspondence and the fact that they were failing to comply with the law and the info arrived in my inbox 2 days later. Very useful if you don't have the resources of a major news organisation at your disposal.
The Rolls Royce of covert surveillance 4:09pm on 07 Aug 2009 What I found worrying was...

"I have promised to review the design of my reports to assist public authorities to meet their obligations."

That sounds like Sir Humphrey speak for "I'll make sure there's nothing too embarrassing in case you have to release it."
The drugs questions 10:36am on 24 Jul 2009 tacrepus
"Even if there were to be a change in the law the government and legal producers and retailers will over price and over tax any legitimate supply and the current illegal producers and drug gangs will simply carry on in exactly the same way as they do now and become a less expensive, but equally dangerous and disruptive source."

The economics of drug dealing are a lot tighter than most people think. Take cannabis, for example. The black market is only financially viable because of prohibition. When the likes of Phillip Morris and Greene King get involved, the criminals who run the industry now wouldn't stand a chance. Some of the current growers would become legal businesses just like small independent breweries are now, but the economies of scale available to legal businesses would drive out the criminal gangs.

There's no profit in smuggling illegal immigrants into the UK to set up the kind of illegal grow operations they do now when a guy with a license and a disused warehouse can produce it industrially without any legal worries.
The return of politics' 'N' word 10:22am on 17 Jun 2009 @ ikamaskeip
"Err, if you get the terminology 'Nuclear Deterrent' then you will appreciate that unused Trident would be demonstrably among the very best expenditure of Public monies."

I have a rock that keeps away tigers that you may be interested in purchasing. I've had it for ten years and never been attacked by a tiger.

The problem with Trident is that it's too big to use everyday and if we do get to the point where we use it, it'll be irrelevant compared to what the US and Russians will be launching.
Government plans FOI restrictions 7:47pm on 10 Jun 2009 "it has become clear that those safeguards are insufficiently robust to protect our current constitutional arrangements"

Translation: We won't be able to keep getting away with this if people are able to find out what we're up to.
FOI extension to private sector 6:47pm on 13 May 2009 ACPO definitely needs to be brought under FoI legislation.

I'm really uncomfortable with the idea of an organisation with such influence on policing and government policy not being properly accountable to the public.
Children in detention at Yarl's Wood 6:04pm on 28 Apr 2009 "Good show, except that in a chat with the unemployed Eritrean married couple with 2 kids just 3 doors down from dad and mum I discovered they paid no rent at all!"

It would be the same if that couple were white. The reason that your parents only got a reduction instead of getting their entire rent paid is that they still have some money.

The way the system is set up, you have to lose everything you have before they 'll help.
Why tax the rich? 12:36pm on 24 Apr 2009 29. At 12:21pm on 24 Apr 2009, fragmeister wrote:
"Surely the only fair system of taxation is that everyone is taxed equally - say 25%. Rich or poor, you pay the same proportion of your income. Progressive taxation is not about fairness but about assuming people with more money should pay more than people with less. In other words, envy."

Utter tripe. The poor spend the majority of their income on things that are unavoidable or essential such as rent, utilities, council tax etc so taxing them the same as the rich puts a far greater burden on them than it does on the rich. That's why we have progressive taxation in the first place - to address the fact that flat taxes were unfair.
When a new announcement isn't really new 08:05am on 15 Apr 2009 Who's going to decide whether the claimant is an alcoholic or not? Is every claimant going to be assessed by a doctor or is the government just going to issue an arbitrary limit for units per week?

Given that "binge drinking" is defined as drinking more than 4 pints in one session, I can foresee a sudden rise in the number of "alcoholics" every time the government needs to shave a few million from the budget.
Could we save billions by legalising drugs? 9:36pm on 08 Apr 2009 "Nobody has suggested that 'everyone' will become an addict, only that use will increase with availablilty."

There's no evidence that it will though. There's a lower incidence of cannabis use in Holland where it's legal. Legalisation may increase overall availability, but it also restricts availability for certain groups. If sold through licensed businesses, it can be controlled in the same way alcohol is - at the moment it's easier for kids to get hold of cannabis than alcohol.

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