Life, the Universe and Everything

One  way to avoid suffering violence is to pay the State some taxes to fund a police force and military. That force usually depends on the ultimate threat of violence to do its job. We’re proud of these potentially violent people, celebrate their victories and mourn their defeats. We may also choose to associate with people who we believe are strong enough to protect us. Or in some cultures, carry weapons or own a "fighting" dog. Essentially we manage the risk of being a victim of violence by keeping our own supply of violence at hand. These are two edged swords though – the police, military, dogs, etc. sometimes turn on us.  Of course, these "risk management" decisions are rarely carefully thought out - they are more likely to be unconscious and emotional in nature. A possibly related phenomenon is Hybristophilia - sexual attraction to violent criminals. In the political sphere consider, Stalin - arguably the most violent Russian leader  but "A surve...

Well, probably not but I've found a very useful document for some of those arguments down the pub (or more often these days, on Facebook). It works like this: Person A wants the government to spend more money on something Person B says we can't afford it Person C says of course we can - tax the rich/cut benefits/etc. Trouble is, even if Person A knows exactly how much money s/he wants spending, no one knows whether the bill will in fact be covered by what Person C proposes. Well, I found an answer. It's a government document and I'd be the first to agree that "Direct effects of illustrative tax changes" is not the snappiest title - but stay with me! The short version is just two pages long and shows just how much money you could raise by adding 1p to the major tax rates - around £4 billion for a penny on standard rate income tax for example. You want to spend around £800 million? Easy - raise Corporation Tax by 1%. Even better, that will yield tw...

The result should be known around breakfast time next Friday. This would be the perfect day for the Government to release any embarrassing news. Do make a point of checking for other stories especially if the result is "Yes". If you have an interest in a particular branch of government, do check the appropriate web site on Friday. Here's a search for National Statistics due out on that day. Also, individual departments may publish interesting documents outside the National Statistics scheme. E.G.: You can see that DWP plans to release Discretionary Social Fund Data 2012-13 by Local Authority from https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/list-of-scheduled-upcoming-ad-hoc-statistical-releases

I've written previously about the tourist attraction in Cheltenham "celebrating" GCHQ with a mural depicting staff eavesdropping on a telephone box. It was too good to last - I first realised that something was up when I walked past a couple of weeks ago on the way to the offy and noticed the mural had been boarded up and there was a car parked in front of it labelled "Security". The first story was that the boarding up was for safety reasons because repairs were needed to the wall. Next, we heard that the Banksy had been sold to a London dealer for £200,000 and was being removed. Then notices went up claiming the wall was a "party wall" which is odd as to a casual observer, it all appears to be part of one house. Meanwhile, powerful forces were gathering. The pub across the road wanted it kept - obviously it's good for trade. The hammer blow came from a surprising quarter - the local Council... Just to make sure, the community also took ac...

Last Sunday night, a gang of "vandals" created this in Cheltenham. Allegedly it was Banksy Cheltenham is a particularly apt place to do this as it is home to GCHQ . In years gone by, its very location was a secret with locals referring to "The Foreign Office" and the premises themselves having a sign "Joint Technical Language Service". If you knew someone who worked at the "Ministry of Certain Things" and asked them what they did, they had a standard soporific spiel about doing research and development in the field of communications on behalf of HM government". Over the years, it became more open.  In the1980s, staff were allowed to say they were in "H" "J" or some other division although they couldn't disclose the purpose of their divisions. Nowadays, everybody knows they're in the business of intercepting communications and preventing others from doing the same. If you were picky, you'd complain that ...

Listening to the Scottish independence campaign trail starting, I couldn't help wondering if David Cameron has done the arithmetic? At the 2010 General Election, his party got just one Scottish seat leaving 58 won by other parties. If he lets Scotland go, he gains around 60 seats come the next General Election. That could mean an outright win and no annoying coalition partners. What's not to like? Perhaps he has to pretend to want to stop the Scottish escape for some reason?

Here's a little test. Go to Google and start to type in a politician's name followed by "is a" and see what you get. Here's what I found:

It's commonly alleged that Iain Duncan Smith is evil - you can even find a website pointing out that he looks like Fritz Sauckel who organised slave labour for Nazi Germany but I've worked out why he does what he does. No, it's not particularly that he's a member of the Conservative Party or that he's stupid or out of touch. The truth is that he has an "elephant in the room". As I've pointed out before , there are around 2.5 million unemployed but only 0.5 million vacancies. He must know that so why does he continue to "support" the unemployed with a plethora of schemes? I got the answer listening to Graham Hoyle who used to be Chief Executive of the  Association of Employment & Learning Providers ( Video ). He picks up on the economy and the jobs market mismatch and how not everyone can have a job. Very crudely, there could to a be a policy that says who gets the 0.5 million  jobs and leaves 2.0 million on the dole. To ...

Download a PDF here A parody of the 1979 "Britain isn't working" poster by the Conservative Party. This one is by Church Action on Poverty

These anti-austerity protests originated in Sicily a year or two ago and have now spread There are conflicting reports of why the Police removed their helmets. Some sources including this video say it was out of solidarity with the protests. Others report that taking helmets off is standard practice when danger levels have lowered.

I suppose my political leanings might be described as liberal or "left of centre" and lead to a natural scepticism about CCTV surveillance. However, a recent experience has made me less sure. I went to a dance in London the weekend before last and planned to get home via a National Express coach from Victoria. They messed up and stranded me overnight. After I finally got home and caught up on some sleep, I emailed a detailed complaint to their MD who despatch his Head of Coach Stations to Victoria where she grabbed the CCTV recordings. This not only allowed her to verify my account, she identified more shortcomings. The upshot was that they have suspended some staff pending disciplinary action and are sending me a compensation cheque - enough to have covered a night in a decent London hotel. It's also pleasing to see a business in transition: The poor performance of the staff at Victoria was not a complete surprise to this occasional bus user but the superb complaint han...

“Well, Bernard” said Sir Humphrey, “how are you getting on with your new Minister?” “Oh, Iain's OK but some of his policy ideas are a bit strange” “A minister with policy ideas? Extraordinary!” “Yes, he's had another idea to give benefit claimants an incentive to get into work” Sir Humphrey shuddered “After the row he had when he claimed the benefit cap had incentivised 8000 claimants to go out and get a job?” “Yes, and despite the roasting he got from the Chair of the UK Statistics Authority for it” “As I remember, I suggested you persuade him to talk about liars, damn liars and statisticians but you let him go all religious and say he believes he's right” “I know, Sir Humphrey, I know!” “So what is this latest idea?” “Well, it's a bit of partnership working with the MOD” “No Bernard! No, no, no! The army does not want the reintroduction of National Service, especially if it involves the unwashed and the unemployed!” “I know that's a h...

There's been a lot of fuss recently about the "Benefit Cap" that's being introduced to the UK. Basically it limits the total amount of welfare benefits anyone can receive to around the average working wage. You might be shocked that anyone on benefits can get anything like the average wage? In fact, only around 1% of benefit claimants do and will have their income reduced by the cap. Typically, these are people with quite a few children living in expensive rented accommodation. Iain Duncan Smith believes this isn't so much a problem as an "incentive to work" and he has claimed that thousands of people notified that they will be affected have gone out and got a job. However, the UK Statistics Authority are not happy with this claim In rather dry language, they say: We have concluded that the statement attributed to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions that 'Already we've seen 8,000 people who would have been affected by the cap m...

The rules are reversed in gardening. We are positively encouraged to root out migrants such as Spanish  Bluebells because they breed with our native Bluebells. Chemical warfare is still very much allowed although the list of allowable toxins is cut every year. Instead, we are offered nice biological weapons such as nematodes that carry bacteria into the bodies of slugs and kill them. But, dear gardener, come out of the garden and try any of that in the rest of the world and you're in trouble!

I've commented before on our government's campaign to demonise benefit claimants. Up to now, the targets have been working age "scroungers" - pensioners have been off the radar and protected from cuts. (although some will argue that the rising pension age represents a cut) Now, Iain Duncan Smith is suggesting that better off pensioners hand back their benefits such as the winter fuel payment (which isn't means-tested). The reason why these benefits are not means tested is simple - it  actually costs more to means test these small sums than just to dish them out to all. My guess is that if pensioners did start repaying benefits, the administration costs would result in a net loss. Actually, pensioners have been helping the government on this issue for a long time anyway. What they've done is simply failed to collect/apply/etc for benefits. According to AgeUK, this amounts to £5.5 billion/year . Pensioners are a tempting target. Although a lot of them hav...

Our government is big on Making Work Pay and incentives to work but take a look at  its own statistics: ( Source ) So, even if you gave people a really big incentive (Say, a £1000/week minimum wage if you get a job)  around 2 million people are going to fail. Of course, it's possible they'll try a lot harder under this sort of deal. You can also throw in some training on how to write better CVs as well. It's not going to make any real difference to the 2 million figure. The CV training will just change who gets the jobs - not create extra ones. The 2 million will get less benefits in real terms and possibly get hit by the bedroom tax as well. It's not incentives, it's cruelty.

I was shocked when I heard George Osborne say the case of Mick and Mairead Philpott raised questions about the welfare system . Shocked not only because it was another instance of demonising benefit claimants but also because surely this tactic had received so much bad press, you'd think that sensible politicians would now be steering clear. However, a look back in history to the time of the Poll Tax shows that deeply unfair treatment of the poor need not be the downfall of a government.   It  arguably brought down Margaret Thatcher but her Conservative Party won an election after the Poll Tax row and governed for around five more years.

There's something quite familiar about our government's recent "hate crime" . The target is immigrants Apparently, "Immigrant families will be kept off council house waiting lists in England for at least two years, under plans set to be announced by the prime minister" It's only a couple of weeks since the last "pop" at immigrants - the target then being "benefit tourism". And benefit recipients in general are another target - it's especially common for the more extreme cases to be singled out for press attention. EG: the recent case housing of  the mother of eleven children So, are these issues real "problems"? For a start, not all of the 11 children are dependents. I dug up some statistics on large families and found some here (see Table 1) and if you look at dependent children, there are no 9-children families and only 0.05% of Children live in 8-children homes. That's just over 5000 children which means ...

This is a hardy perennial - with a touch of recycling. Employers routinely complain about school/college leavers not having the skills required. They've been doing that for forty years to my knowledge and I doubt if there ever was a golden age when there was no difficulty recruiting staff who could spell properly. Then there is the problem of the aspirations and training/education of young people not matching the employment marketplace. Here's the "latest" on this from the BBC but it isn't really news. So why is it that "there are 10 times as many people aiming for jobs in the culture, media and sports sector than there are jobs likely to be available whereas "almost a quarter of jobs are in the distribution, hotels and restaurant category, only about one in 40 youngsters are considering careers in these industries"? Here's a number of possible reasons:  Culture, media and sports are far sexier than distribution, hotels and restaurant ...

The bail conditions he's alleged to have breached do seem draconian. According to the BBC :   Tagged and allowed out of his home only between 08:00 and 16:00 Banned from traveling on the Tube, or by train, car, motorbike or bus Banned from contacting a number of named individuals Only family members, his lawyer, emergency workers and social workers can enter his home without approval Banned from using mobile phones, computers and other devices Banned from attending mosques, leading prayers and giving lectures Needs approval to take a job or enroll on a course Allowed one bank account and must surrender his passport So, it would seem he's Ok on push-bike or he could try a helicopter. One hopes that if he has a medical emergency, he will be allowed in one of those smaller cars adapted as an ambulance? What if he's taken sick in the middle of the night? Banning him from mosques would seem to be restricting his rights to practice religion unless a visiting Iman i...