Category Archives: Politics

UK Youth Unemployment Hits a Million – A Fundamental Not A Short Term Problem

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UK youth unemployment rose above 1 million, its highest level since 1996 according to government figures. Employment Minister Chris Grayling blamed the Eurozone debt crisis for the rising number of jobless. Looking at the table below we can see that youth unemployment in this country has been rising for many years even before the recession.

May-July 2004 580,000 12.2
May-July 2005 600,000 12.6
May-July 2006 706,000 14.5
May-July 2007 711,000 14.6
May-July 2008 727,000 14.8
May-July 2009 944,000 19.8
May-July 2010 921,000 19.4
May-July 2011 973,000 20.8
July-September 2011 1,020,000 21.9

Source: Office of National Statistics

Typically and not unexpectedly the politicians have sought to push blame and responsibility elsewhere. The coalition blame everything on the Eurozone, Labour just want to capitalise on the situation and refuse to take any responsibility for a problem which they largely created. They still claim they did a brilliant job with the education system.

This isn’t a cyclical problem. It’s not about getting the economy to grow (as we keep hearing) it’s about the fundamental failure of our education system to prepare young people for work. The statistics above don’t lie. The problem is an obsession with grades and targets when we should be obsessed with skills. See my earlier article here. The previous Labour government became pushed as many students as it could into universities and it shunned apprenticeships. I myself have first-hand experience of the system I came out of school and university with top grades but totally unprepared for work.

Almost 28% of UK graduates who left university in 2007 were still not in full-time work three and a half years later, figures have suggested.

But if you think it’s bad here and can’t get any worse think again. Youth unemployment in Spain is at an astonishing 46.2% and youth unemployment across Europe has soared. This has been going on for much longer than the Eurozone crisis.

The exception to the rule is Germany. Please politicians look at the German system. The German system is defined by flexibility. It is designed to suit the individual Germany has five different types of secondary school. The German education system is geared to getting people into work. It has an incredibly successful apprenticeship system which allows young people to gain valuable experience and skills. (p.s. It has little or no tuition fees as well) The coalition government has made some progress in regard to apprenticeships but it is not nearly enough. Our entire curriculum, system and culture needs to be completely revised.

I am writing this article not to complain or blame the government but to make people aware of this serious fundamental problem. Make no mistake if we don’t fix this we are heading for a crisis. It will not be fixed overnight. We need a radical overhaul of our education system, if we continue down this path we are heading for disaster. The coalition government thinks it has done enough, it has not.

 

Glenn Mulcaire May Have Hacked For Other Papers.

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Glenn Mulcaire’s notebooks have been making waves today as the phone hacking inquiry rumbles on. Twenty-eight News International employees are named in a notebook. The notebook also has a references to The Sun and Daily Mirror, which suggest that phone hacking may have happened at other papers.

Robert Jay QC, counsel to the inquiry, said that senior executives had either condoned hacking or did not do the proper checks. In either case there was ‘room for a Nelsonian blind eye’ towards the ‘thriving cottage industry’.

Some of the notes that corresponded to News of the World employees reveals that they made 1,453 separate requests for information from Mulcaire.

The private detective also wrote ‘The Sun’ and a name relating to the Daily Mirror in his notebooks.

Mulcaire was imprisoned with the News of the World’s former royal editor Clive Goodman in January 2007 after they admitted intercepting voicemail messages left on phones belonging to members of the royal family.

The inquiry heard that the investigator’s notes relating to the royal aides are marked ‘Clive’, ‘private’ and with the name of ‘A’, who cannot be named for fear of prejudicing the ongoing police investigation into phone hacking.

Robert Jay QC said: ‘One possible inference to be drawn is that ”A” was working with or for Goodman, and he or she may have instructed Mulcaire to carry out an interception.

‘It might be argued that ”A” could have been acting independently of Goodman, but that would not make much sense since Goodman was the royal editor.’

Mr Jay added: ‘Either News International senior management knew what was going on at the time and therefore, at the very least, condoned this illegal activity.

‘Or they didn’t and News International’s systems failed to the extent that there was failure in supervision, failure of oversight with possible failures of training and corporate ethos and checking of expenses claims.

‘And there’s room for a Nelsonian blind eye. In either version, we have clear evidence of a generic, systematic or cultural problem.

He added: ‘I suggest that it would not be unfair to comment that it was at the very least a thriving cottage industry.’

Mulcaire also hacked the phones of publicist Max Clifford, football agent Sky Andrew, chairman of the Professional Footballers Association Gordon Taylor, MP Simon Hughes and supermodel Elle Macpherson.

In total about 28 legible corner names are legible in the 11,000 pages of notes that police seized from Mulcaire, which relate to a total of 2,266 taskings and the names of 5,795 potential victims, the inquiry heard.

Lord Justice Leveson this morning opened the inquiry into media standards that was set up after the News of the World phone hacking scandal.

He is examining the ‘culture, practices and ethics of the press’.

The Court of Appeal judge was watched by Bob Dowler, the father of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler. Her phone was hacked by the News of the World.

The government closes the loophole which allows VAT on small goods

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The government have announced plans which will stop retailers avoiding paying VAT by procuring goods from the Channel Island. This oversight has been used more frequently by retailers selling CD’s and DVD’s online. This loophole was costing the government £140 million a year. Low Value Consignment Relief (LVCR) will not apply to goods sent from the Channel Island to the UK from the 1st April. LVCR set up for tax exemption purposes for goods coming from outside the European Union so that they could avoid paying small amounts of tax, as collecting it would cost the more.

Kevin Flood, the CEO of Shopow said, “There has been an unprecedented movement of demand from consumers for cheap goods such as CD’s and DVDs online, fuelled by the downturn in the economy and lagging disposable income. The closing of the VAT loophole could force British consumers to look further afield for cheap deals.”

Kevin adds, “The closing of the VAT loop hole is good news for traditional British high street retailers such as HMV and Waterstones, who have come under fierce pressure from Channel Island registered online retailers, whose sales models have been taking advantage of the loophole in the VAT rules to offer cut price goods to British consumers. The situation is not at all good however for the run of the mill British consumer, who will quite literally pay the price.”

James Murdoch Was 'Never Shown “For Neville” Email' Hacking Inquiry.

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James Murdoch is in front of the Commons Committee again today. He is holding himself well and was ‘offended’ when MP Tom Watson compared News International to the mafia, Watson claimed that Mr Murdoch was the only mafia head who did not know he was running a mafia. To which Murdoch said the comment was ‘rude and inappropriate, [to the chairman] Chairman, please’.

James Murdoch claimed knowledge of the ‘For Neville’ email, but claims it was not shown to him.

He then went on to blame Colin Myler and Tom Crone for ‘misleading MPs’ at the Culture, Media and Sport Committee in testimony they gave about whether he was made aware of the extent of phone hacking at the paper.

Mr Murdoch said of the meeting with Mr Myler and Mr Crone that it had been to discuss increasing an offer to settle a legal claim by the chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association, Gordon Taylor.

“The meeting, which I remember quite well, was a short meeting, and I was given at that meeting sufficient information to authorise the increase of the settlement offers that had been made,” he said. “But I was given no more than that.”

“That second part, that importance, was not described to me in detail or at all,” Mr Murdoch said. “It was not described as the For Neville email, and I want to be very clear. No documents were shown to me at that meeting or were given to me at that meeting.”

Mr Murdoch said he could not recall discussing the Gordon Taylor case with Mr Myler before June 10 2008. “The first and only substantive meeting or conversation that I recall about the matter was the June 10 meeting with Mr Crone and Mr Myler, although I cannot rule out whether or not he called me or stopped me in the hallway, or something like that, for a brief conversation,”

Tiger Woods and His Caddy: What did you call me?

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I’m not black. It’s something I’ve come to terms with over the years. Many hours huddled over an old tape machine working out what James Brown was saying haven’t altered the hue of my dermis one iota. I have, however, been the victim of racial abuse. My time living amongst the Catalans of Eastern Spain was spent mainly pouring drinks and waiting tables and, to a small degree, ducking flying dog pooh and watching my underwear burn on the washing line. The locals were happy for me to serve them food and drinks as long as I didn’t look at any women or make eye contact with any of the big fat patriarchs. I was spat at and, on several occasions, had pool water flicked at me by a local boy while his father looked from beyond his obesity and smiled with whimsical pride. It inspired me to work my way through a host of covert ‘relations’ with the local females like the local tap water worked its way through me- quickly, quietly and with no intention of producing anything solid. I also became far less likely to develop testicular cancer throughout that time as I would check myself thoroughly several times a day just prior to arranging the food of those engorged and ignorant patriarchs.

In that particular area there is a large and proud nazi movement- I would say ‘underground’ nazi movement but it was about as well hidden as the London Eye. [You’ll notice I have refused to give it a capital ‘N’- I don’t do it with the ‘G’ of god so these shaved fools can whistle!] Local boys, preparing for their national service, would sit at the bar practicing their hitler salutes and showing off any nazi memorabilia they managed to buy like I used to show off my football stickers. We had a black cook at the time, she was North African and looked like she possessed a cartoon cat and a fear of mice. She was told to stay out of sight because the locals would eat elsewhere if they knew their food had been prepared by a ‘black devil’ for fear they would explode into flames or their penises would wilt and fall off from the poison she secreted through her every pore. I used to hug her whenever any of them ventured round the back to retrieve the drugs or porn mags they kept by the bins away from their catholic fathers.

Eventually, they put black and white together and got ‘food poisoning’, or at least enough of an accusation of it that she was dismissed and they returned to sit and gloat and wheeze in their sweaty, dated ways and I had to develop a itchy sphincter and a penchant for elasticated waistbands.

Prior to Spain, I had hated racism for purely moral reasons. It was all about fairness and equality and rights. My time there showed me the real face of racism though and that was just plain and simple ignorance.

Now, we’re all ignorant of many things- appropriate punctuation in my case? But this is different, this is intentional and that’s what makes it so nasty. To choose not to understand something, or someone, for no reason other than the sure knowledge that it will upset your comfy little existence, is the act of a coward. It’s the kind of ignorance that you have you really want, and the only thing that makes someone work that hard is fear.

Fast forward to the present day and we finally have the two reasons I’m telling you all this: an argument and a caddie.

The caddie should need no introduction if you’ve been reading the papers lately… but I’ll tell you anyway. Tiger Woods’ former caddie, Steve Williams called him a ‘black ——-‘. I’ve written it like that because that’s how the press printed it but there isn’t a nickel-plated cheque book and pen up for grabs so don’t bother working out the second word. It’s the first word that’s the problem and it’s a problem that I was arguing about just a week before this incident made the headlines. I’ve argued the same point on various internet forums since too because of allegations against footballers and their use of the same word.

I’m not here to explain what’s wrong with racism in general because everyone knows that- even the racists. Even Terre Blanche would look away or find an imaginary bogey when confronted by the sheer illogicality of his views like a creationist in the Natural History museum. I’m here to explain a very specific point. Here’s what has been asked of me recently in various forms:
“Why is it racist to call someone a black ‘anything’ when they are, in fact, actually black and don’t consider being referred to as black an insult?”

The first person I argued with about this had started by asking why he couldn’t call ‘them’ niggers because, ‘if they can call it each other then why can’t we?’ And I had to pipe the definition of ‘context’ into his brain like an asthmatic inflating a bouncy castle. More recent, and more considered, views have been along the lines of, “But it’s not racist to call a black person ‘black’!”

Greg Norman, who’s nickname is, I’m sure, just a reference to his predatory golfing style, has said that Williams isn’t a racist. He said that Williams thought he was in a ‘restricted environment’ when he made the kind of ‘stupid comment’ we all make from time to time, and that ‘far heavier’ things were said that night. Well that’s cleared that up, thanks Greg… except, ignoring the fact that, in just the same way a falling tree will ALWAYS make a noise regardless of who’s listening, a word retains it’s meaning regardless of where it is said or to whom and should never be judged based on the relative ‘weight’ of other comments, as if it’s ok to punch someone as long as they’re already being stabbed in the kidneys by someone else. And not even mentioning the fact that ‘we’ don’t all make comments like that from time to time, there is just one thing I’d like to pick you up on.

He is a racist.

This isn’t my opinion, it’s a fact gleaned from precisely the thing he did.
It’s like when family and friends of murderers are interviewed and they say, “He’s just a regular bloke, he’s not a murderer.” Well, I’m sorry but that murder he just committed kind of means he is. I don’t care if he spent his childhood helping old ladies cross roads and healing sick puppies. It’s not a political viewpoint, it’s not a personality trait. It’s a definition of someone who murders.

Now I’m not, for a second, comparing Williams racism to murder, I’m just pointing out that if one does a thing, intentionally and without external pressures to do so, then one becomes a doer of that thing.

So, back to the big question- why does dropping ‘black’ into an insult to someone who is black make you a racist in the first place?

It boils down to this: When we are insulting someone, we are choosing words that WE consider derogatory. It’s what insults are made of, words that demonstrate what WE consider to be bad about the other person. If you were having a blazing row with someone called Dave you wouldn’t say, “You stupid person called Dave!” Because it would be a ridiculous insult. Being called Dave isn’t a bad thing to anyone, even you who hate his guts, so you would never consider including it. More pertinently, I’ve been called everything you can imagine by some very nasty people but I’ve never been called a ‘white’ anything. Why? Because I’ve never been insulted by anyone who considers being white to be a bad thing and, therefore, worthy of inclusion in their little list of what makes me lesser than them. Even those pointless little Spanish Nazis couldn’t hate my colour because it was the same as theirs so ‘black’ becomes ‘English’ or just ‘foreign’. Anything really that they weren’t and which, therefore, according to the rules that help them sleep at night, must be shit.

Tiger woods has any number of qualities Williams could have picked out. Qualities that are personal to only him but it was the colour of his skin- something he shares with millions of people and that it is physically impossible to use to upset someone, that Williams decided to open with.

Calling someone a ‘black’ something when you’re insulting them is saying that being black is a bad thing to be. It’s the same as calling someone a ‘stupid’ something or a ‘heartless’ something or an ‘ignorant’ something and yet it’s a lot worse. Worse because people, as individuals, can be stupid, heartless and ignorant and they are bad things to be. These insults are based on the actions of the individual and reflect your personal view of them.
Nobody told Williams to use the word and he could have chosen any other but he felt that it was what he considers bad about Tiger Woods. He made a racist remark intentionally, and without external pressures to do so… which makes him a maker of racist remarks… otherwise known as…

“Yeah, I know what I said but… come on, play fair Infidel!”

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Carlos the Jackal, the notorious terrorist and assassin of the latter part of the last century hasn’t got a nail clipper and he’s peeved. It’s mainly because he’s doing a lot of press and he wants to be presentable, after all, it’s a basic human right to have as much chance of meeting Louis Theroux as anyone else, right?

It always amazed me when people who have taken an oath to destroy an entire society or bring down a government that represents, to them, pure evil and then when they get caught, or their rucksack fails to reap the souls of the infidels around them because it got wet waiting for the train at Luton and now it’s just got cake mix oozing through its webbing, they seem more than happy to bend the principles they killed for if it means a few quid or a comfy cell.

It’s as if they’re saying, “I want to destroy your way of life because it represents all that is wrong with the world… but until I do, can I get a skinny latte and do you have WiFi?”

Osama Bin Laden, erstwhile leader of a terrorist cell that holds the most anti-western viewpoint of them all wasn’t averse to a nice pair of trainers and a designer watch. That video of him rocking back and forth in front of the telly looked more like he was waiting for the Lotto program to skip past the crappy thunderball and get to the main event. You could almost read, “it’s a roll over this week,” in his body language- and while we’re at it, I suspect that he didn’t just go for the ‘Al Jazeera’ channel when it was being installed either. Those long nights in a cave can just fly by if you’ve got Babestation and The Simpsons to keep you going.
It just feels like, if you’re going to take the moral high ground to such an extreme, you should be willing to die by the same sword you came running in screaming with.

Suicide bombers, for example. You don’t get more committed than that. Delusional sheep, bereft of even the most basic common sense they may be, but commitment they do very well. You’d think, therefore, that if their planned trip to everlasting back-patting and more virgins than a ‘World of Warcraft’ convention ended up as six months in an orange boiler suit in Southern Cuba, they’d laugh in the face of such conditions with the kind of scorn only someone who has tried to do to themselves what their captors will always stop short of doing, can pull off. It’s a shame we can’t take some of those that survive and retrain them as call center workers or marriage councilors. A little conversion and they could get employee of the month at The Samaritans on a two day week.

But no. Instead they’re hiring lawyers and complaining that their human rights have been violated. Abu Hamza, the low rent Dr. Evil who hates all non-Muslims and has devoted his life to trying to bring down civilization and turn the world into a Muslim state, screamed like Louis Spence on a ghost train the minute he thought he could lose his council flat and benefits and even appealed against losing his British Citizenship.

So, to any terrorists out there let me just say this: Play fair. I know you hate me, and it’s fair to say I hate you, but come on. Do it properly or not at all. We’ll give you your human rights if we have to because that’s what we do- we’re the human rights people, you’re not. Having them thrust upon you should feel, to you, like a vegan protestor, marching for PETA against vivisection, being given a fur coat and a bucket of KFC so they don’t catch a chill. You should eschew such western ways with a hate-filled ‘harrumph!’ And maybe a gob full of something nasty in the face of your jailer. Screaming that you’ve missed ‘strictly’ and only had four of your five a day just makes you look like the jihad equivalent of Johnny Rotten. One minute he’s sticking pins in the establishment and swearing on TV, the next he’s that property developer off ‘I’m a celebrity’ who advertises butter.

Markets Collapse on Greek Referendum

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Markets across Europe have fallen heavily following the news that Greece will hold a referendum on the latest bailout plan. Eurozone leaders had agreed to write off 50% of Greek debt but the deal may now not go ahead. A no vote will probably lead to a disorderly Greek default and Greece leaving the Euro. That could lead to severe financial contagion across Europe. Worryingly opinion polls in Greece suggest a No vote is probable. The vote is unlikely to take place until January potentially creating months of uncertainty for the markets. That uncertainty could damage confidence throughout the world.

The FTSE is currently down 3.5% while the Dax was down almost 6%. The French bank Societe Generale was down 17%. Credit Agricole was down 13%.

A confidence vote on the Greek government is due to take place on Friday. Many in Greece are now calling for early elections.

Bitter US Cuts UNESCO Funding After YES Vote for Palestinian Seat

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The United States is cancelling all funding for the UN Cultural body, UNESCO, after they granted full membership to the Palestinians. The vote was greeted by cheers and celebrations. 107 countries voted in favour, and just 14 voted against. This is just the first of many UN agencies the Palestinians wish to join.

The vote will be seen as heavy defeat for the US which had been lobbying heavily against Palestinian membership. The vote emphasises the increasing impotence of the West, as the balance of power shifts. Whilst the US, Canada, Germany and of course Israel voted against (the UK abstained), emerging countries such as China, Russia, India, Brazil, South Africa as well as many Arab states voted in favour.

But the US still has serious power to weld and its reaction will be immediate. A $60 million due next month will now be withheld along with all future payments. A strict law passed in the 1990s bars the US giving funding to any UN body that admits the Palestinians as full members before a peace deal is reached. The US now fears becoming increasingly isolated.

A vote is expected in November at the UN Security Council on granting full membership of the UN to the Palestinians.