Personal Blogs

Surely with so many being self employed being able to claim for travel expenses then it must be permitted to be available to all people in work through the PAYE system...it would be very fair and equitable and prove that the Tory government really do care about the real workers...TAG

Here is what I sad to the Today programme. It will be interesting to see if they take it up:

Just to say that in respect of enhanced interrogation techniques and extra-ordinary rendition then I humbly suggest that one of your researchers refer to Hansard on 26th February 2009 where John Hutton, now Lord, made a statement relating to Records of Detention (Review Conclusions).

Now I know that it refers to Iraq, and Afghanistan, however, you might find it ineteresting the following comments:

Hutton 'I regret that it is now clear that inaccuarte information on this particular issue has been given to the House by my Department. However, I want to stress that that was based upon the information available to Ministers and those who were briefing them at the time. My predecessors as Secretaries of State for Defence have confirmed to me that that they had no knowledge of these events.'

Now the BBC have been told about the Gibson Inquiry, may I suggest that you look at the letter from the PM to Gibson on the 6th July 2010:
'Allegations relating to military detentions in Iraq and Afghanistan post-2003 are being addressed by separate arrangements by the Ministry of Defence'.

Now if I were the BBC I would ask the PM if the Gibson Inquiry is to be made to include all detentions from wherever, to wherever, so that nobody will say in future that Gibson relates only to Iraq, and Afghanistan, and nobody asked about Libya. Also I think that all aspects of the Inquiry should be made by Gibson and that it be taken from the MoD, because of a conflict of interest, the MoD IHAT is a waste of time, people will just close ranks and plead no snitching.

Many still think that the Great Depression started in 1929, it did not. It was 1931, and had its beginnings in the events of September of that year. Loans made to governments which could never be repaid, reparation defaults, banks crashing, Credit Anstalt, governments in turmoil, coalition in this country. I am afraid that the reactions to the events surrounding Lehman Brothers have not been sorted.

This will soon become a catastrophe of mammoth porportions. This will be not the Great Depression Mark II, this will be the First Great Global Depression. The like of which has never been seen before, but there will be another. This is fast becoming 'The End'.

On Monday there will be a report issued in respect of the banking industry, preventing a bank being too big to fail, well let me into a little secret.

Now I used to work for an Investment Bank, which was taken over after big bang by a Clearing Bank. Now then, ihe Investment Bank was structured under a Holding Company, with all the various subsidiaries being legal entities in their own right. So, if one bit failed, it failed, but not the whole structure.

Now this is in computer terms, a Firewall, and enabled the Investment Bank to prosper, because one aspect was that we held the client money completely separately, unlike the Clearing Banks which put all your money together. If you like it was the clients money, and not our money.

We also had to know our clients, very well, and what they wanted to achieve, and what we had to achieve on their behalf, which is why there was something called KYC, Know Your Client.

Now some may say what on earth has this got to do with the Cafe, well it has because the implications of the crisis in banking is effecting us all, and when you listen to an 'expert' on the media remember just who got us into this hole, and who did not speak out when they were making loads of money, especially the accountants, the auditors, and to a certain extent the computer programmers who did not develope systems which would have prevented all this happening in the first place.

Now we know that many students of the OU are involved in Health, all forms of health and let me say that I used to be a member of my local Community Health Council, abolished under labour.

My point, that under Section 11 of the Health & Social Care Act 2001, now Section 242 of the Consolidated NHS Act 2006 there is a legal duty to consult and involve patiuents, and /or their representatives before changes can be implemented.

Furthermore, that the decision cannot be seen to have been made before the changes were put forward. So, I can see a judicial review before this government of national unity brings in any of their proposed health service changes.

Some may say get a life Terry, that this is nothing to do with the Cafe, but I think it is, I don't know about you guys but in my cafe we do talk about these things, that they are important, that I will not see the NHS, the care for patients, becoming something that we can no longer be very proud of.

so effectively we have no military to talk of left. However, what we do have is an awful lot of some very good personnel who have left the army, Special Forces in particular, who can be 'hired' by the government through the private firms who supply 'protection' for our civil and diplomatic communities whilst they operate in difficult places. Many would call them mercenaries.

Now we know that the retired General Sir Mike Jackson, mentioned in the Bloody Sunday inquiry, who led the British army in Iraq, is involved in one of these private security firms. We also know that Lt-Col Richard Williams, former head of the SAS in Iraq is also involved in the same reputable company.

Therefore, it would be no surprise if the British government did not want to send our brave and courageous soldiers to Libya, to protect civilians of course, but instead chose to 'hire' some 'mercenaries' to fulfill the role of training the new Libyan army. With all the redundancies just announced it would be brilliant if the army could be used as consultants, or advisers, without the government being directly involved.

Some accountants are saying interest rates must not rise. I trust no accountants when I consider that the banks and financial institutions were able to 'get away' with ruining the economy. Who signed off  the banks accounts, who were the consultants who advised the banks as to 'invest' in instruments which proved to be valueless.

Of course interest rates must rise, but because of the politics it will have to be held until on, or near the budget. They should be 2%, with the rates of inflation we are all suffering. They should have been raised last year, and as for Queantitaive Easing, this 'wall of money' is the worst decision ever made by any governor, and the policy continued by the government of national unity is a disgarce, this is the economics of the mad house.

I told you some time ago that things were going to be bad, but I don't fall for the 'saying I told you so is not an economic policy'. I not only told you so, I tell you now, interest rates must rise.