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Happy Birthday Angus. And Brian's 64 this year! Jeez.

Overt overspending...

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Add up ALL the savings (or "cuts cuts! CUTS!!" in BBC talk) and multiply the number by 50% and add that on too: there you have the new annual total of what we pay the EU, NET not gross [Independent]. As was agreed by New Labour, the UK's rebate was reduced by more than 40% in 2010 to 3 billion quid. The 9.2 billion now paid DOES NOT include the added exposure of EU bail-outs via the European Commission and contributions to the IMF.

Hat-tip: Dan Hannan

P.S. off the EU topic but relevant to "cuts": Brent North MP Barry Gardiner has slammed his own Labour-run council for planning to close six libraries: "We can't cut these services and fail to completely understand the needs of local people. Libraries are fundamental for children. It is about growing up and being part of an intellectual community. The council has to identify areas that are most important to local people and has to protect them...

...There are more than 50 people on Brent Council who are earning as much as Eric Pickles - Secretary of State. Why?" [LINK]

Oblectation over online outbursts...

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Oh joy. "How not to handle bad reviews." [Guardian] "Self-published author Jacqueline Howett's online meltdown after a poor review..." It relates to the review she received from a blog that provides "Reviews and more from the world of the Kindle", Big Al's Books and Pals (click on image). The Guardian goes on:

"Writers, said the science fiction author Isaac Asimov, fall into two groups:

"Those who bleed copiously and visibly at any bad review, and those who bleed copiously and secretly at any bad review."

Jacqueline Howett falls into the former category". The comments are hilarious as JH tries to explain, then excuse, then insult (and get insulted). Her final comment belies her smiling avatar. :-)

Hat-tip: Nattybumpo.

FAQ's on Campaign for an English Parliament...

English Parliament FAQ's

Q: Isn't Westminster already the English parliament?

A: No. Westminster is the parliament of the the United Kingdom. MPs from Scotland, Wales, Northern IReland and England sit there. But when they legislate on devolved matters such as Health, Education, Transport and the Environment they are passing legislation that affects only England. Why should Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish MPs have any say on these England only issues?

Read the rest...

[LINK]

Orwellian overtures II...

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It seems we are getting there: I wrote 5 years ago about Orwell's Omen**; I wasn't the first by a long way and I won't be the last; back then 20% of the world's CCTV cameras were in the UK: four million cameras covered almost every town centre and, of course, the numbers have been growing although I doubt now we have such a large percentage of world CCTV. Recent news reminded me of this: "you won’t be able to drive in or out of the town without being clocked", this sinister-sounding phrase said with pride by 'the town centre manager' of Royston:

"The town of Royston in Hertfordshire is to become Britain’s first ‘ring of steel’ town, with hidden Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras installed on every single road in and out of the town" [Big Brother Watch]

Now, ANPR isn't CCTV and you may think it quite close, however, see image and read on. The Town Council says that residents details will be safe (how many data lost/stolen stories are there every year? Dozens) and that the cameras are to "give the police hard evidence as they track known villains" but the fact that ANPR have released details of its hopes to combine with Scottish police and other national security bureaus it tends to add weight to what Charles Farrier of the group 'No CCTV' said when he accused the police of creating a UK-wide tracking grid "to keep tabs on everyone". I tend to agree, especially when you read what they do: The ANPR introduction tells us that:

"Just capturing number plates and storing them is not much use by itself. Each new vehicle is automatically displayed upon detection within the event panel"

Jeez: click on the image above to enlarge or scroll down the linked ANPR page and look at an event panel: apart from the car etc there is a picture of the driver, name, address, job, telephone numbers, e-mail...

** Amusingly, or not as the case may be, I read Orwell's words ('Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.') just today reading about BBC giving a very dodgy version of Libyan history (credit to pounce_uk on BBBC)

Read online: 1984 

Outing outrecuidance over offers...

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Another Euro-MP has been caught in the extensive "brown-envelope" sting by the Sunday Times to expose how 'lobbies' sneak in amendments to EU legislation: he is the forth so far - out of fourteen MEPs 'baited' - to accept the offer to change/adjust/move EU rules/regs for money, bribed in other words; Pablo Zalba is the first Spaniard MEP to bite but according to sources close to the newspaper it isn't because of the inherant honesty of his colleagues but because reporters have difficulty finding one with sufficiently good English to be able to fiddle! Pablo had a great excuse for the third meeting, an informal one over a coffeee, with the false lobbyists: "era muy guapa": she was really pretty! [El Mundo: only in Spanish].

Unfortunately, as Dan Hannan points out, "unless you read the Sunday Times, you'll almost certainly have missed the story." He also points out a number of reasons why there is no real reporting of this: commercial rivalry (between competing newspapers); lack of familiarity (who's your MEP?); journalistic laziness (UK MP expenses stories aplenty); and finally cynicism (dodgy Euro practices - what's new). All reasonable possibilities, however, Dan mentions a fifth:

"So far, two of the MEPs named have been members of the Socialists and Democrats (to which Labour is affiliated) and the other two of the EPP (which the Conservatives left last year because of its aggressive palaeo-federalism). As many as ten more MEPs might yet be compromised in this affair. What's the betting that, if one of them turns out to be from the ECR, the Guardian and the BBC will suddenly decide that the story is worth covering after all?"

I have little doubt that very shortly we shall see if he's right.

P.S. Worth noting that PZ, on discovering the trap, contacted the Sunday Times and got a signed declaration from their lawyers - before publication - asserting that he "clearly did not accept any money" or "break any rule of procedure of Parliament". FFS! Caught with his hand in the cookie jar we get 'but I didn't actually get any cookies' and 'there's no law to say I can't put my hand in a cookie jar'!

Oblivious, odious or olid...

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OK, OK...the image is a bit OTT but it does serve as a warning to not forget what certain ideas and policies can do.  Little Red Ed, leader of the UK's 2nd opposition (the 1st opposition is the BBC and other media that seem intent on not telling the country what it needs to know) should sack his speech writer; maybe it's Balls. The bad timing he can do nothing about.

Today at the misguided leftist, swollen-public-sector, union protest march (yes I know there were other causes and people present), Ed, apart from his continuous lies and hyperbole about "back to the 80s", had the gall to compare today's march against 'cuts' (really just growth-in-spending reductions to a 2007 level) to the Suffragette cause, the America civil rights movement and anti-apartheid in South Africa. Now to me, Ed Miliband played quite a large part in the reason for the Coalition's need to "address" spending** so he was most definitely a part of the problem; his comparisons would be, IMHO, like Mary Humphry Ward speaking to a womens' celebratory "We got the Vote" party, or a KKK Grand Wizard praising an African American equal rights shindig or D.F. Malan saying black South Africans should have been running the country. It's like an arsonist setting fire to the local pub and then rousing the sleeping street residents against the ones trying to put the fire out because they're using too much of 'our' water. Rant over...but probably not for long. :-)

** Brown and Balls are the other reasons...and Blair (should have had the balls to sack Brown).

Obama's obvious omissions...

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I did have one, short, comment about this earlier in the week; now a bit more. Obama seems to be getting more attention for what he is not saying (and not doing in the case of Libya etc). He has been going on about equal partnerships and shared values, fair enough; he also said that today Latin America is democratic and mentioned the Inter-American Democratic Charter (adopted by a General Assembly special session on 11th Sept 2001...) the central aim of which is to strengthen and uphold 'democratic institutions in the nations of the Americas', it "nominally binds the governments of the hemisphere to act against those who commit political abuses" [WP Opinion]. A couple of articles from that Charter:

Article 4: The strengthening of democracy requires transparency, probity, responsibility, and effectiveness in the exercise of public authority, respect for social rights, and freedom of the press, as well as economic and social development.
Article 7: Democracy is a condition for the full and effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Great. Obama went on, "we have to speak out when we see those principles violated"...yet in his "weak meassage to Latin America" - not once on the tour - has he mentioned Venezuela (nor Nicaragua, Ecuador and Bolivia for that matter) or their "increasingly autocratic rulers".

Odd onomatomania...

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HIV is rife in the UK and apparently there has been a doubling of new HIV infections in the past decade [BBC] (yes, as per TB and hepatitis B etc lack of immigration control is to blame, but don't say it out loud, it's racist you know). Not A Sheep points out the odd maths where the BBC state that the Health Protection Agency data shows new "UK-acquired cases rose from just under 2,000 in 2001 to nearly 3,800 in 2010"...but in the same report state that "In 2009, more than 2,000 black Africans were diagnosed with an HIV infection, one-third of all new diagnoses in the UK", so 2000 is one third of 3,800 (or a bit less presuming 2009 was lower). Eh? Anyway, that is odd but reading the article something else struck me, an apparent onomatomania: an apparent preoccupation with a certain word or words...I did a screenshot just in case (click image to enlarge): within only nine short sentences there are FOUR appearances of the phrase "men who have sex with men"! WTF is all that about?

Obeisant obituary...

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A Hollywood great and beautiful double Oscar-winning actress: Elizabeth Taylor; she became known as a child star in the 1940s in the early Lassie films but especially as Velvet Brown in "National Velvet" which "skyrocketed Taylor to stardom at the tender age of 12"; 'A Place In the Sun' was another film highlighting her talent but even greater fame (and becoming the highest paid actress at the time) came when she signed a million dollar contract to play the title role in Cleopatra, perhaps her most famous known role; this was in 1963, in the middle her purple patch (the period 1956 - that saw the release of 'Giant', 'Cat On a Hot Tin Roof' in 1958 - through 1966 with 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?') when she had five Best Actress Oscar nominations and won two of them. Despite also being famous for her tumultuous marriages and "private" life it will be her acting, great beauty and Aids charity work for which she is remembered. R.I.P. Liz Taylor.

Outing obscurantism obstriction...

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Obstriction = obligation; the obligation to 'out' the overt prevention of enlightenment that is going on every day. "The 2011 Budget marks another step away from the economic recklessness of the Labour Government. They brought Britain to the brink of bankruptcy, doubling the national debt and leaving us with the biggest deficit in our peacetime history. Their legacy is £120 million a day being spent on debt interest alone." Conservative Home.

"Ed Balls and Ed Miliband were Gordon Brown’s chief economic advisers and the architects of this mess."

Click on image to enlarge, click HERE for PDF of more telling images and facts.

Obambulating Obama's obnubilation...

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Obama, on his 'tour' of South America says "We are all Americans... ...There are no senior partners or junior partners, only equal partners". He doesn't believe it; they don't believe it; we don't believe it...so why say it? FFS, Why spout such banal crap?

"Outlaw" 'Oso' Owsley obit...

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I'm a week late late with this; his trip is over: Owsley ' Bear' Stanley who died on 13th March in a car crash had "two main passions in life – acid and sound" [LINK]. Back in the 70's I recall a report in the Times that quoted US authorities stating that he was the man that "did for LSD what Henry Ford did for the motorcar". He has been 'immortalised' in song by more than a few rock bands of the 60s and 70s including Jimmy Hendrix, Steely Dan and the Grateful Dead.

He was a chemist - or,as he would say, he knew how to follow mixing instructions - but much more: his contribution to music is "that he almost single-handedly changed the way rock bands are heard and recorded." Rather than bands, no matter what their 'sound', plugging in to whatever the available sound-system was, Owsley started with a personal PA system that the band would take with them on tour: the Wall of Sound (click on image for design and explication of this wall). "The Grateful Dead became the first ever rock band to haul their own PA to concerts."

"Owsley would record every concert he worked on, applying his theories of microphone placement and stereo imaging. His live recordings are still considered unrivalled in quality and definition."

One org, Ostara orbital obliquity and oral obligation...

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World Citizen Day

Obliquity (Axial tilt)

World Storytelling Day - Water

As always, click on each of the images for more info. on today's World Days and the vernal equinox.

Orts of oblectation...

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A well-used but certainly not hackneyed phrase if ever there was one is Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr's 'plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose':  more or less 'the more it changes, the more it's the same thing' ; I laughed today with this phrase in mind when reading about Conservative Arts Funding cuts, concern over the growth of public sector salaries and the phrase "Not all journalists are trendy left-wing wets!" (from a young[er] John McCririck); all from in THIS article reporting 30,000 documents released recently by the Thatcher archive.

Operation obtruncate?...

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Removing the head? As NR writes (and as he suggested nearly 3 weeks ago) this will be Cameron's first war. It is probably underway as I write this...or pretty soon. Obama is onside and last night the UN backed a no-fly zone over Libya and "all necessary measures" to protect civilians etc. Also last night, Gaddafi said "If the world is crazy, we will be crazy too."...

Update: Tim Montgomerie writes at Conservative Home: "Can Cameron turn a diplomatic triumph into a military success?" with links to various positive responses from the media.

Ochs' online options...

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OK, I cheated, the 'Ochs' is Aurthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr, publisher of The New York Times who today published a letter to his readers: now begins their rolling out of several options re digital subscription options for viewing NYT content. Sounds bad as per the example of The Times in the UK but no, this seems far more sensible: for instance, you can have access to 20 reports/articles etc per month; this includes slide shows, videos and other features, free: no charge, that's practically one a day if you exclude weekends which to me seems good value; however, even then there are plenty of sticking points and problems (including apparent ways to get more free access?) but in principal it is, IMHO, far more acceptable...even 'fair'.

Obvious opportunism (VIII)...

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Back in the office again (haha) and noticed a couple of things: unbelievable hypocrisy from Labour over petrol, VAT etc. [CH] Apart from the dozens of times they increased duty of fuel, including four times in their last 16 months in power and also pre-planned additional increases: "Ironically and utterly bizarrely, we are today debating a Labour motion that goes against the policy introduced by the previous Labour Government."

And disgraceful "reactionary" lies from Labour going for a hat-trick of offence by using race, religion and class for political point-scoring in a single rant. And, as Working Class Tory writes, it sounds as if she is stirring up racial hatred.

Organised offering...

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After the recent earthquakes and tsunami there is some rather good advice reposted at Good Intentions Are Not Enough. You may donating is the easiest thing in the world to do, it's not, and "Good Intentions' mission is to provide donors with the knowledge and tools they need to make informed funding decisions"..."[and] is dedicated to providing donors with the information, tools, and resources they need to ensure their donations match their good intentions."

Fifteen dos and don'ts when considering donations after a disaster [LINK]

On optimistic object of "Outism"...

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An interesting post on EU Referendum today regarding the need for clear reasons to be expressed about the UK's future on getting out of the EU, not just the anti-EU stuff but A Postive Object. The post refers back to WW2 and how war isn't just about the fighting: modern' political issues in 1940, far from being just "War!", were being widely discussed, one such being European political integration: "all in the more general context of defining British "war aims". It was not simply enough to fight and win, we had to have a reason for fighting, or so the argument went."

Churchill wanted status quo and suppressed any debate on the issue; Richard Stokes, Labour MP for Ipswich, said to Churchill's Information Minister Duff Cooper (who apparently agreed there was a need for a statement on war aims) "[It] is no use fighting for a negative object. You must have a positive one, and the sooner that [is] stated the better". And hence to the present and the EU.

"It is all very well wanting to get out of the EU – the "negative object". But what would we do with our new-found freedom? Where is our "positive object"? Until we have one, we are going nowhere. We emerged from the war without one, and that is why we lost the peace."

Obtuse, odd or obvious?....

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It seems that the blame game isn't as bad as expected...or is worse, depending on the colour your political stripes. George Eaton in The New Statesman's rolling blog 'Staggers' (yes, I know!) reports on today's You Gov poll that most voters still blame Labour for the current slight cutbacks in spending (commonly known as cuts, harsh cuts! Savage Coalition Cuts! EVIL TORY CUTS!) "but the tide is beginning to turn" (click image to enlarge).

...the number blaming Labour has fallen (from 49 per cent to 40 per cent) over the last nine months, while the number blaming the coalition has risen (from 18 per cent to 27 per cent), although not by as much as one might expect. The number blaming both (surely the most logical response) has risen from 18 per cent to 22 per cent.

Now, I doubt this would this be poor memories, after all, everyone seems to remember every detail of Margaret Thatcher's time in office after two decades so I doubt 10 months would make them forget slime-ball Blair and Crash Gordon, so it must be just a gradual regression to the default party political position: i.e. more or less 33% Labour, more or less 33% Conservative and others not bothered or floating between the two.

Outcry over obtention of obscurantism...

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He's a wanker. Fred the Shred has got a superinjunction to stop him being called a wanker...or something. "Lib Dem uses parliamentary privilege to reveal court order that heightens concern about secret gagging of media." [Guardian]

Update: Friday Midday CET: it appears I may have misheard, it wasn't "wanker", it was "bonker"!

Overt "Oui" obreption...

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Dan the Man yesterday highlighted an interesting and worrying proposal for treaty revision that UK (Lib Dem) MEP Andrew Duff has sent to Euro parliament president Jerzy Buzek. The prime purpose of said proposal is to circumvent the wishes of the British electorate should they have the nerve to vote against any future ammendments to EU treaties; as Cranmer writes, this is tantamount to plotting treason.

Overcast operator's outstanding outlook...

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Simply beautiful; outstanding...click on image to enlarge for even more detail; the Daily Mail has more wonderful pics: follow LINK. Kris Dutson, a photographer from Dorset, "waits for hours just to capture the perfect images of storm clouds breaking...scouting out the ideal locations across Britain to capture the most astonishing atmospheric shots on his camera as rain falls." Hat-tip: Euro Referendum.

Origins of observations...

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With credit to Notasheep: Synchronicity? "I note that today is not only International Womens Day but also Shrove Tuesday aka Pancake Day - Synchronicity?" (hehehe, all crepe of course). Could be worse, Shrove Tuesday should be Fat Tuesday when eating fatty/filling foods was considered a last feast before the ritual fasting associated with Lent; the date is dependent on Easter (a moveable feast based on the cycles of the moon) and - with my enjoyment of numbers - I note that next year it is on 21.2.12.

[edited 1630 CET]

As regards IWD the origin - like May 1st - was a socialist political movement; the image - click to enlarge - is the 1932 Soviet poster dedicated to the 8th of March holiday and the text reads: "8th of March is the day of rebellion of the working women against kitchen slavery" and "Down with the oppression and narrow-mindedness of household work!" [Wiki] Who'll make the pancakes then! Women eh, can't like with 'em; can't live without 'em. :-)

Ows opines III...

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Back again. And feeling refreshed: I had 10 days or so holiday prior to a busy three or four months ahead (no that doesn't mean I only write blog posts when I'm at work [ahem]...just most of the time). Whilst away, apart from rugby and football, I watched maybe 10 minutes of news, read no newspapers (online or dead tree), spent barely hour a day online with emails etc, read no blogs etc...and I feel great. In fact I missed all the internaional news (Libya etc) and - despite being in England for my holiday - I didn't even know until today that the by-election had taken place in Barnsley, and that UKIP came 2nd!

Also, instead of the usual large estate/SUV/sedan car rental choice I hired a KIA Venga 3 'ecodynamics' (whatever that means; it could mean the stop/start which had me thinking I'd stalled it) and it was brilliant...cheesy peas! Amongst many good points is that...

"if ever there was an automotive version of the Tardis this is it."