Cockspiracy

There are orders that should not be obeyed

2009-07-15T19:01:00.004+01:00

There has been much discussion of what the soldiers in Afghanistan should expect from the government. I have no intention of going into the rights and wrongs of that war - it should be sufficient to point to the history of wars in that country, and to remind you that the Khyber Pass in between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The lesson from history would be that no-one ever wins a war in that area...

But this blog posting is not about that.

A friend of mine pointed me to the Oathkeepers website. This site is US centric, and attempts to list those orders that a US soldier should not follow. On a similar line, the report from Breaking the Silence is worth a read. This is a campaign group that has gathered anonymous accounts of the Gaza conflict from an increasing number of Israeli soldiers.

The idea of the Oathkeepers could be taken more generally, to show the responsibility of everyone to uphold the law above and beyond any orders they are given: something fundamental to Geneva Conventions and post WWII principles.

So is I was only obeying orders a defence?

This is sometimes known as the Nuremburg Defence (Principle IV). It was clearly not a defence at Nuremburg, nor in a number of trials since. This is a problem for governments and the military.

I would suggest that the time has come for us all to agree that there are orders that no-one should follow. The interesting thing is that it would solve other problems as well - it might well mean that our troops were not in Afghanistan - and that they would not have been in Iraq...

Capitalists take the profits, the tax payer takes the losses

2009-07-05T17:03:00.003+01:00

Reuters reports today that:

The British government is to delay the publication of a report into the collapse of carmaker MG Rover in 2005 pending an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office, British media reported on Sunday.

It would appear that much of the money that was pumped in to Rover ended up in the pockets or pension funds of the "Phoenix Four" - this is the fraud. Yes, that was an accusation - please sue me John Towers, John Edwards, Nick Stephenson or Peter Beale.

Last week, we heard that National Express, or rather its specially constructed subsidiary, had abandoned or been stripped of its loss making franchise, while keeping the profitable ones. So clearly, it is fine to bid for three franchises and then walk away from the one that is going to cost you money.

A brief analysis of Lloyds Bank's dividend history, would appear to indicate that that the bank had been paying around 12% to its shareholders for a substantial period. So once again, the capitalists take the profit and now the tax payer is saddled with the losses.

In all of these cases we see that the government is simply incapable of preventing the capitalists from screwing the tax payer. Alternatively, we could assume that the government is intent on supporting these people and giving them money, while taxing the more honest worker.

Mind you, British Airways and British Telecom seem to be taking this in-house and giving the earnings to the shareholders and executives in times of plenty and then asking the employees to bail them out when they hit trouble.

This is just unfair

Capitalists will tell you that they are paid huge returns because they take risks. This is clearly not the case in the current climate. The public have been transfixed by the MPs' expenses scandal, and seem to have forgotten the much bigger cockspiracy to support incompetant capitalists.

Greeenwash - this Power Station is carbon capture ready

2009-07-04T08:12:00.003+01:00

means
we have left space in the design to add a carbon capture device.

As someone put it, "well, my drive is Ferrari ready". This is Greenwash at its most absurd:

Its not 'carbon' capture, is is carbon dioxide that will be trapped.
The energetics mean that even more coal will need to be burnt, as the capture process will require energy.
The industrial scale process is unproven.
The idea is that we can add on a new bit of technology and return to business as usual.
I've heard no-one suggest that the emerging economies include carbon capture.

The truth is that the earth cannot sustain the western life-style for the western population, let alone extend it to the rest of the globe. The only way that we can survive with anything like the current population is to completely change our way of life. It needs to become:

simpler, based on the principle of 'enough';
based on something other than shopping/buying things to make people happy;
much more local, reducing traveling and moving goods (particularly food);
honest, we need politicians who are capable, and allowed to tell the truth;
more resilient, with small communities the centre of our lives.

So, how do I rate our chances of getting there? Well, as the old joke puts it, I wouldn't start from here...

NO2ID - barely a U-turn...

2009-07-01T16:57:00.002+01:00

Alan Johnson announced that the ID Card scheme would not be compulsory, while repackaging it as a government scheme "Safeguarding Identity". At least this is not as bad as the April Fools story about RFID tags from Computer Weekly.

What does this actually mean?

Well, the government is still trying to produce a universal database on everyone in the UK. The data will mainly be captured when people (re-)apply for a passport.

Isabella Sankey, Director of Policy for Liberty, said:

“The Home Secretary needs to be clear as to whether entry onto the National Identity Register will continue to be automatic when applying for a passport. If so, the identity scheme will be compulsory in practice. However you spin it, big ears, four legs and a long trunk still make an elephant. And this white elephant would be as costly to privacy and race equality as to our purses.”

The clear fact is that we cannot trust the government with our personal data. There really is no need for this centralised system - the reasons that the establishment is pushing for its continuation are both philosophical and pragmatic...

Philosophy - the government has a grand, science-fiction type view of Transformational Government. In simple terms this is the ultimate extension of the 'nanny state'. They simply don't believe in individual freedom, they think they know best.
Pragmatic - those involved in the deployment of the ID Card scheme hope they can keep their jobs under a modified programme. Why they should want to give contracts for IT projects to the usual (incompetent) companies I would leave as a thought experiment for the reader.

Now is the time to apply pressure to your MP (particularly if you have a Labour MP) to cancel the database as well as the cards. Ask them to vote against the new statutory instruments that would allow the ID scheme to begin.

It is easy to contact your MP via http://www.writetothem.com/

Those key regulations are:

The Identity Cards Act 2006 (Application and Issue of ID Card and Notification of Changes) Regulations 2009
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2009/draft/ukdsi_9780111480427_en_1
[The detail that you will have to give to the Home Office about yourself, much much more than the "basic identifying information" ministers keep referring to.]

The Identity Cards Act 2006 (Prescribed Information) Regulations 2009
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2009/draft/ukdsi_9780111480434_en_1
[What will be kept on the cards - but not yet anything about the national identity register database and how it might work.]

The Identity Cards Act 2006 (Designation) Order 2009
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2009/draft/ukdsi_9780111479056_en_1
[The first of potentially many such. Provides for some people to be forced onto the system because joining will be a condition of applying for another official document that they need.]

The Identity Cards Act 2006 (Fees) Regulations 2009
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2009/draft/ukdsi_9780111479070_en_1

The Identity Cards Act 2006 (Information and Code of Practice on Penalties) Order 2009
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2009/draft/ukdsi_9780111479087_en_1
[The unfair rules that will be used to punish non-compliance.]

The Identity Cards Act 2006 (Provision of Information without Consent) Regulations 2009
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2009/draft/ukdsi_9780111479063_en_1
[Sets out who the information may be passed to once the IPS has it. Audit trail information will go to: police, intelligence services, and SOCA, *and to anyone else they authorise* - so we are immediately beyond government promise - plus HMRC, who can't however authorise it to be given to third parties. Further, non-audit trail information - such as document numbers, names and addresses, signatures and fingerprints, quite enough to be keys for other searches or massive identity fraud - may be provided to the Home Office and MoJ, DWP, DoT and FCO. Records of what information has been given to whom and why may be destroyed after 12 months or less.]

The Immigration (Biometric Registration) (Amendment) Regulations 2009
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2009/uksi_20090819_en_1
[Expands the 'ID cards for foreigners' system vastly by extending it to more categories of people (for example, spouses of British citizens, visiting artists and academics) who are only being treated as a threat in order to justify ID cards for all.]

This list is taken from the NO2ID Newsletter.

How fragile is our society?

2009-06-26T19:00:00.002+01:00

The UK's Institute of Civil Engineers (ICE) recently published State of the Nation: Defending Critical Infrastructure. Having seen the press reports I eventually got around to looking at the original. Entertainingly, its publication nearly coincided with the Government's decision to announce (or admit) that it was steeping up its strategy to defend against (or initiate?) cyber-attacks.

It turns out that the BBC's report is a fair summary of the ICE original. The thing that strikes me is that we have 'sleep walked' into a position where so many things are fragile. Here are a few examples:

Many homes only have a central heating system that relies on both gas and electricity to work. Remove either in a cold snap and how many will freeze?
New supermarkets have almost no storage space. One missed delivery and the shelves will empty.
People purchase enough food for a couple of days. They have little or no staples in store - and probably couldn't cook them if they did.
The interlinking of support contracts between communications providers which means that two simultaneous failures could be difficult to manage. For example, Virgin Media has outsourced its voice network management contract to BT - while, I understand, offering BT backup circuits for voice communication.
Striving for 'efficiency' often means cutting back to the bone - shown in how stretched the NHS is each winter.

Those who work with complex systems will tell you that real failures usually involve many things going wrong at the same time - hence the "Swiss Cheese" safety model. There is one crucial layer missing in the current security systems - security at home.

Interestingly, there are things that the individual can do to reduce the problem - both for themselves and for their neighbours. The first rule is "do not add to the problem". This means that if there is panic buying at the supermarket, you don't want to be there.

Here are some practical suggestions:

Do not rely on any particular service or supply. Do not get rid of that gas fire, or block up that chimney.
Keep a stock of food that will mean that you won't starve if you can't get to the supermarket for a week. If you don't have a cold water tank, include some cheap bottled water - if you do, keep some empty PET bottles to fill up.
Make sure that you have something to cook on (and fuel for it) - if you go camping, you probably have this already.
Be prepared to check on your neighbours, and help them if the need arises.

If we decided to build a truly resilient society, it would be based on distribution of resources and systems. Homes would be responsible for not only reducing their consumption when there were shortages, but in storage when there were surpluses. This can be applied to food, water or energy. Unfortunately, the government is too focused on the short term to find such sensible solutions attractive.

Our leaders have learnt - nothing?

2009-06-22T09:27:00.002+01:00

The public are clearly disgusted at the behaviour of our political leaders and the bankers. So how have they changed?

Banks

Fred Goodwin has 'handed back' about 1/4 of his pension pot - leaving him with a mere £12M - so he still gets a pension of £342,000 a year, on top of the tax-free £2.8m he took out of the fund in February.
Royal Bank of Scotland is planning a pay package worth up to £9.6m for Stephen Hester, its new chief executive.

The Speaker

There is, apparently, pressure from the Whips to get Margaret Beckett elected as Speaker. Change? What change.
The political class are trumpeting the 'openness' of the secret ballot for a new Speaker, ignoring the fact that this was only introduced to prevent the Whips from being able to monitor how MPs voted.

The Police

The police are still getting stressed about people taking photgraphs of their vehicles parked in disabled bays, in spite of the official statements, including the letter I received from Vernon Coaker.
More revelations are coming out about police behaviour at Climate Camp last year, including two people being held for 4 days because they demanded to know who the were dealing with.

Quangos and incompetence

It is difficult to know where to start:

LSC
PFI
DTI/BERR/BIS
BECTA

Any answers?

Well, the Modern Liberty movement is proposing "Real Change: open politics" - it is worth a read, and may be our best hope.

Secure communication over Twitter and identi.ca

2009-06-20T08:44:00.003+01:00

Proposal - Securing communications through microblogging

It is possible for microbloggers to publish their public keys as a link from their profile. This might be indicated by preceding the URL with a code, such as a double $ dollar sign. Add an agreed symbol, $ for example, at the beginning of the message to indicate that it has been signed by being encrypted with the matching private key.

Similarly, a message encrypted with another's public key could be preceded by $username. A message starting with:

$username $encrypted text

though as will be clear in due course this might not always be desired.

As the message string is short, it should be encrypted directly to as to not lengthen it. As a result, if PGP type encryption were to be used, the message should be treated as the session key, not the body text. Given the sixe of microblogs this should not be onerous.

Message signing

Alice:

creates a micro blogging account
publishes a link to her public key in her profile
posts a message encrypted with her private key, preceded by the $$ code.

Result:

anyone can read the message, by using Alice's public key
only someone knowing Alice's private key could have sent it

Secure Messaging

Alice and Bob:

create a micro blogging account each
publish a link to their public key in their profiles

Alice:

posts a message encrypted with her private key, and Bob's public key preceded by the sequence $$bob $$.

Result:

anyone can see that Alice has sent Bob a message
only someone knowing Bob's private key can decode the message
only someone knowing Alice's private key could have sent the message

Anonymous Addressing

Alice and Bob:

create a micro blogging account each
publish a link to their public key in their profiles

Alice:

creates a string encrypted with her private key and precedes it with the sequence $$bob.
This concatenated string is then encoded with Bob's public key and posted as a message, preceded by $$$.

Result:

anyone who uses secure communication with Alice attempts to decode the message using their private key
Bob alone will find an encrypted message starting with $$bob, which Bob can then decode
no-one can see that Alice has sent Bob a message
only someone knowing Bob's private key can know that the message was for him and decode the message
only someone knowing Alice's private key could have sent the message

Twitter and identi.ca - secure communication?

2009-06-19T18:19:00.005+01:00

Just tell me how to communicate securely over Twitter.

or read the blog entry...

There have been many attempts to monitor communications over the Internet. Governments seem intent on listening to us at any opportunity. The use of Twitter as a robust communication channel during the Iranian post-election protests must be sending a shiver down the spines of many a national leader.

One interesting thing is that, at the moment, these channels are used to communicate in plain text. There have been several discussions of using them securely - but none seem to have taken this to its logical conclusion. I believe it is possible to construct a straightforward method of communicating securely and relatively anonymously over the existing micro-blogging services, and have published an outline of how to do this.

Please note, I've moved the outline to this blog to allow comments.

Other interesting articles on this topic include:
* P roof-of-concept hack for encrypted direct messages on Twitter
* DSNP: Distributed Social Networking Protocol

Once again our leaders seem to have no understanding of the possibilities of the technology.

Iraq - Here comes the cover-up

2009-06-15T16:23:00.002+01:00

Freedom of Information - Open Government - The End of Spin

Clearly all of these are just slogans, and not taken to heart in our executive. Today Gordon Brown has announced that the Iraq War inquiry will be held in private. Brown is clearly scared of what will be said. He cannot stand the scrutiny of the public. This is the action of a corrupt and morally bankrupt leader.

So, what will the outcomes of this inquiry be? Well look at the cv of Sir John Chilcot...

Member of the Butler Inquiry into Weapons of Mass Destruction.
Staff Counsellor to the National Criminal Intelligence Service since 2002.
Chairman since 2001, of the Police Federation, the leading research foundation on policing in the UK.
Member, the National Archives Council (formerly the Lord Chancellor’s Advisory Council on the Public Records) since 1999.
Trustee, the Police Rehabilitation Trust since 2002.
Director, Abraxa Ltd and NBW Ltd.

So we can expect another cover-up.

Flu pandemics and forest fires

2009-06-14T09:59:00.003+01:00

Just a thought...

Stopping small forest fires has been found to be a mistake. Not only does it mean that eventually there will be a really big forest fire, but also the small fires are crucial to the ecology of the wood.

Stopping small outbreaks of new viruses...

Home education under inspection

2009-06-13T18:41:00.003+01:00

OK - the "logic" of the Badman Report on Home Education goes like this...

There is no evidence that home educated children are more likely to be abused than the general population.

BUT

There is a risk that home educated children could be being abused, so local authority officers should have the right to demand access to the family home and inspect evidence of the education they are to receive over the next 12 months.

I wonder if this is not another example of 'nominative determinism' - that 'Badman' sees bad men everywhere...

There is, however, a very serious issue here. Independent schools are not required to register their pupils with the state, they are normally inspected by non-government organisations. Families who, for a variety of reasons, decide to educate their children themselves are identified as a suspicious and in need of state inspection.

The state seems to want to know more and more about us. Invade more of our lives, open them up for inspection and scrutiny.

Why does our government want to do this?

I think it is because our leaders and their representatives think that the public are a untrustworthy - probably unwashed and stupid. They view themselves as enlightened.

Somehow I think that the evidence demonstrates the reverse - I have much more trust in my neighbour than my MP.

Science Fiction policing - again!

2009-06-09T13:00:00.003+01:00

The BBC has reported today that the police are looking at a portable microwave scanner to help police identify individuals carrying concealed guns and knives. This will of course sit alongside the much reported, but impossible, universal computer decoder. I enjoyed the satire on this subject on "notnews".

I encountered a police demonstration of a 'knife arch" at my local shopping centre. I walked through it and it failed to detect my Leatherman. This is a large lump of steel - at least as big as butterfly knife. So if their arches don't work, what are the chances of a remote scanner working?

How stupid are these people?

Do they think that given the new mass communication media they can run another scam like the "TV Detector Van" one? We do not need a highly interventionist, arrogant police force - we need a civil policeman on the streets. We should be proud of the fact that we have a largely unarmed police force, and build policy around that approach.

The IPCC report on the death of Ian Tomlinson will come out soon, and is likely to be either a whitewash or a damning indictment of the police. Either way is not good.

To get out of this mess, then a new contract between the state and the public is needed. There is an increasing demand for a sensible constitutional settlement which establishes our liberties. This demand will get louder over the next few months. The British are, in general, a peaceable lot, but they have their limits. Inaction risks pushing them over the brink and then this call for change will inevitably overflow.

Make your own No ifs No buts poster

2009-06-08T11:31:00.001+01:00

You can now produce your own version of this poster.

Vernon Coaker says I can take pictures of the police

2009-06-06T16:40:00.003+01:00

Following the killing of Ian Tomlinson at the G20 demonstrations, I wrote to my MP about the behaviour of the police. My letter included the suggestion that taking photographs of them was more important than ever.

Eventually I got a reply from her, which included a long letter from Vernon Coaker, Minister of State at the Home Office. I have uploaded the complete letter, but here are the relevant portions:

With regards to Mr Rothwell's concerns relating to photographing police officers, there is a misconception regarding the new section 58A of the Terrorism Act 2000.
...
I would like to confirm that a person carrying on legitimate journalistic activity (including taking and publishing photographs of a police officer in the context of responsible journalism) would not be caught by this offence.

Now I would argue that blogging is legitimate journalism, so I can take pictures of the police. I carry this letter with me - please feel free to download it and use it, or pester your MP for your own copy.

Police looking at 'Future Crimes'

2009-06-05T17:11:00.003+01:00

It would seem that the police in Camden are arresting young people to get their DNA on to the database. It is difficult to pin down the origin of this story, but The Mail has a comprehensive report. The data comes from a well placed Freedom of Information request.

Once again it would seem that the authorities are basing their actions on Science Fiction plots... Is this one the Minority Report? At to this that the police are thinking about doing DNA swabs for speeding offences and littering, and you can see where this is going.

This has got to be stopped!

Expenses Fraud Poster

2009-06-03T19:51:00.004+01:00

It was pointed out to me that the government seemed to have backed down on the benefits fraud campaign, so I thought we might be able to reuse all the work that had been put into the posters... Please feel free to improve on my efforts.
Update: I've put up a 'design your own poster' php script.

Why are we not on the streets yet?

2009-05-31T18:15:00.006+01:00

Thanks to the Spectator for this metaphor...

We hear all the established parties calling for constitutional change. However, as turkeys are unlikely to vote for Christmas, we certainly cannot trust our present elected representatives to find a valid solution.

This is just a heads-up. A warning for the establishment if you will. At the moment the people of the UK are remaining peaceably angry. I believe the public are being patient - they still trust that Parliament will do the right thing. However, I do not believe that they will maintain this trust for ever.

We need a Constitutional Convention

It needs to be elected and selected from a very broad community - not from within the parties. If Brown, Clegg and Cameron do not understand and implement this then all bets are off.

One step to push this might be to sign up at Vote For A Change.

Why I'm voting Green next week.

2009-05-29T14:03:00.002+01:00

A week today we shall know the results of the European and some local elections. We can assume that the Telegraph will continue drip feeding revelations in the run up. The public anger shows little signs of abating - as shown by Question Time audiences, and various on-line agitation.

So what is the best outcome of the vote?

At the risk of becoming a Party Political Broadcast, it does seem that the vote with the biggest impact is Green. My logic runs as follows:

The Green Party has a coherent world-view - to describe them as single issue is inaccurate, single stance might be more appropriate.
Society cannot continue to grow in the way that it has done over the past centuries - exponential growth has a nasty way of catching people off guard.
They are not racist.
The impact of a change in voting behaviour would support the drive for constitutional change.

So, consider your vote carefully, and even if your practice is to spoil your ballot or abstain, I think that a Green vote for the European parliament is the best. You never know, it might just save the planet.

Now is the time to push for change

2009-05-22T12:22:00.002+01:00

David Starkey on This Week last night was astonishing. His demand that Cameron call for a general election and convene a Constitutional Conference was well presented, as one might expect. I don't think that directly copying the American system is necessary the right answer, but his call is a start of a necessary process.

The Convention on Modern Liberty back in February brought forward a range of issues, and I'm waiting for the launch of Magna Carta 2.0 on June 14th. At the moment the media and the on-line communities are keeping the corruption of our parliament in the fore-front of the public agenda. At the moment this is all talk, and for now that is enough. This will not last.

There is a public fury out there.

While the media keep talking about the expenses row, then that will satisfy the public. They see the MPs suffering, and are content - even if they would rather lynch them. If the media let it slip, before the public see real change in the political system, then I suspect that fury will explode into action.

So Cameron and Clegg, get out there are talk to the grannies and the kids; the forces and the charity workers; the business man and the single mother. Get away from your minders and find out what the public really feel. Then you will realise that unless real change comes from Westminster, then it will be forced upon them.

Was the monarch likely to be unamused?

2009-05-18T15:26:00.005+01:00

I have little time or respect for the Mail, however, I was sufficiently intrigued by their story about the monarch's opinion of the MP expenses scandal to take the necessary precautions and visit their website.

The Queen has told Gordon Brown she is worried that the scandalous revelations about MPs' expenses could damage Parliament.
She discussed the explosion of public outrage over the scandal in what is understood to have been a candid exchange of views when she met the Prime Minister for their weekly audience at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday.

The article says little more to be honest.

Now I wondered if this might have occured, and how a monarch would have detected the zeitgeist. I wrote the play in my head and now present it for public criticism. Apologies for the footnotes:

Curtain raises on Philip and Elizabeth, Philip is demonstrating rage.

Philip: "We have six hundred and fifty MPs, and most of them are a complete bloody waste of time[1]. Absolute $%&*s! They are making a mockery of you!"

Elizabeth: "Yes dear. One can't avoid seeing the front page of the Telegraph, when all one wants is the racing form."

Philip: Exit stage left, muttering.

Elizabeth: ponders for a while then rings bell.

Butler [2]: Enter stage right, bowing. "You rang your majesty?"

Elizabeth: "Yes James, I need to ask you what the servants are saying."

Butler: "Maam?"

Elizabeth: "About my MPs and their expenses."

Butler: pauses for a moment. "The servants are saying, your majesty, that your MPs are letting you down and that it is ... unfortunate."

Elizabeth: "Thank you, James, you may go"

Butler exits, curtains close.

[1] thanks to Craig Murray for this story of Philip in Ghana
[2] Royal Butlers have an interesting history... Try accused of child abuse and of theft of property.

What a way to run a country.

Solutions for a corrupt parliament

2009-05-15T17:04:00.003+01:00

Firstly, let us assume that many of our MPs are not corrupt. The problem is that we can't easily identify them. There is no doubt that "All power corrupts...", and that the current party political system is a failure. And this is the case irrespective of how many of our elected representatives are personally moral.

Secondly, I can see no smooth route for these parties to a responsible parliament. So we need to look for a new solution. Short of getting Guy Fawkes to do the job properly, we do have a chance at the ballot box. The problem is that voting for the opposition candidate at the next General Election will merely replace one corrupt party with another. The Labour Party is playing the radical right card, to try to scare us away from thinking of alternatives. The BNP is clearly not an alternative, and UKIP are equally 'anti-foreigner'. Fortunately the wide range of neo-fascist parties should spread the vote.

So what is the alternative? The only party that I can seriously consider voting for is the Green Party, and highly recommend their Think Again video. The fact that they are thinking in a 50 year time scale is praiseworthy - as I've said before our leaders simply failures, so could the Greens be any worse? I think not.

BBC explains the house price bubble in terms of goats

2009-05-15T14:49:00.002+01:00

Radio 4 has excelled itself with the Afternoon Play today.

The Great Hargeisa Goat Bubble

Comedy by Julian Gough. The story of an encounter one snowy night on a railway platform somewhere in southern England between a young Irish orphan, Jude, and Dr Ibrahim Bihi, a Somali with a degree in economics who has made and lost a fortune in the virtual goat market. As Dr Bihi relates the story of his rise and fall, he takes the opportunity to educate young Jude in the pitfalls and the glories of market forces.

I cannot recommend it highly enough, it is a laugh out loud programme.

"...but one of the first moves by the Unicef Official with Special Responsibility For Goats was to make the goat compensation fund self-funding by hedging much of it in goat futures."

You can listen to it through the BBC website, or the text of the original story is available on line.

My only question is:

If we do get out of this current economic mess, will anyone remember it?

93% were not found to be terrorists

2009-05-13T13:22:00.004+01:00

Of the 1,471 people arrested as suspected terrorists since September 11th 2001, only 15% were charged as terrorists and 7% convicted as terrorists. Another 6% were convicted of other offences. At the bottom of this article you will find a table showing the breakdown of these convictions. Some appear to be minor offences.

You can read the Home Office statistics, or the Reuters summary. I link to the Reuters article, as it would seem that few of the Churnalists have actually read the original document... You can tell this as most say 'over 1400 people', rather than 1,471, though the BBC seems to have read the statistics.

So is this a conspiracy to alienate and spread fear; or is it a cockup, in that they just keep arresting people and then thinking what they can do with them?

The fact is that in the UK we have almost nothing to fear from terrorism.

Unless they keep it in the news we would soon stop worrying about it, and realise that our elected leaders are a bunch of self-interested idiots.

A breakdown of the non-terrorist convictions...

Criminal Law Act 1977
Conspiracy to purchase ammunition	4
Conspiracy to defraud	7
Placing or dispatching articles to cause a bomb hoax	7
Criminal Justice Act 1988
Money laundering	3
Identity Cards Act 2006
With intent knowingly obtain another’s ID document	7
Other offences
Firearms Act 1968	12
Explosive Substances Act 1883	1
Forgery & Counterfeiting Act 1981	37
Misuse of Drugs Act 1971	8
Road Traffic Act 1988	7
Theft Acts 1968 & 1978	18
Proceeds of Crime Act 2002	3
Criminal Damage Act 1971 & Malicious Damage Act 1861	3
Other (5)	45
total...	162

Shame on our MPs

2009-05-10T18:13:00.002+01:00

I think the time has come to shame our MPs over their 'expenses' claims. I propose that as many people as possible send them a personal cheque for the amount they have claimed in expenses, divided by the number of people in the constituency. This cheque should be accompanied by a letter offering them sympathy for their obvious poverty and with best wishes that the cheque will help them buy another house at the electorates' expense.

In my case, Lydna Watho claimed a total of £144,615 in 2007/8. The estimate for the constituency population from National Statistics (Excel spreadsheet 2.8MB) is 82,047. This works out at £1.76 per constituent - somewhat higher than the national average of £1.28.

This is the letter I propose to write:

Dear Lynda Watho,

I understand that the salary you are paid for the post of MP for Stourbridge is only £63,291. As this is only two and a half times the average wage for the UK, you must be very short of money. I see that you last year you claimed over £144,000 for your expenses.

Some of these expenses I can understand, but others look a bit strange. None the less, this way of bumping up MPs wages seems to not be transparent and will inevitably bring parliament into disrepute. I therefore enclose a cheque for my share of these expenses, and hope that you will use it appropriately, such as putting it towards the purchase of a second house, or something similar.

Yours sincerely,

Of course it is possible that MPs don't get sarcasm, but I think it would be entertaining none the less.

"Legalise It!" was right

2009-05-06T15:12:00.002+01:00

My natural inclination is to feel that laws create crime. Not just in the trivial sense that without laws there is no crime, but a more complex way. It would seem that stopping it being a crime to use drugs really does reduce drug use - as shown in this report on the Portuguese experience.

As I noted recently, there is in excess of £3B to be made and saved by legalising drugs, so why won't our politicians do it? Well, applying the cockspiracy principle it is fairly easy to understand.

Tough on crime and the causes of crime

All UK governments are worried about being seen to be weak on crime. Note, they don't really care about crime unless it becomes obvious in the press or on the streets. Thus knife crime became an issue - not because it was escalating, but because the press kept reporting cases. One upshot of this is the debacle that has occured over the classification of cannabis. Brown decided to ignore the advice and reclassify it anyway. This is an easily defensible position - drugs are bad, so making them more illegal is bound to make things better...

The real question is "How to make our leaders behave sensibly?"

Here are a few suggestions:

Elect more scientists and engineers; and few lawyers and economists.
Encourage an evidence led legislation programme, rather than one based on sound bites.
Support moves to devolve the legislation and management to expert committees, it might start with transport and energy.
Develop processes that are sceptical of the opinions of those with a commercial interest.
Create media that have memory. For example, where in the mainstream press is the ongoing reporting on the behaviour of the police at the G20 protest? How long before Swine Flu drops from the newspapers?

More suggestions and comment welcomed.