Tag Archives: The Art of Missing the Bleedin’ Obvious

BBC News – Lord Foster behind Kent airport plan

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We are the only country in Europe that can have a west-facing Americas port at Liverpool and an east-facing – China, India, Europe – port in the estuary.

via bbc.co.uk

Or perhaps an east-facing port at Grimsby, or Harwich, or …

We don’t want or need a new airport in the Thames Estuary. A liquefied natural gas terminal, one of the most important sites for over-wintering birds, and the fact a new airport will effectively kill the existing London airports and smaller airfields as well as upset the French and Dutch airspace, plus having already been given the red light by the UK government, means this idea should be dead in the water.

The slow shuffle that sees Britain condemned to a life of debt | Deborah Orr | Comment is free | The Guardian

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Considering the term “credit crunch” is perfectly self-explanatory, while the term “credit crash” is yet more graphic, it is amazing that there is so little political will to understand quite what went wrong in the global markets over the years that led up to the seismic revelation of collapse that has been defining our times ever since. The western world became intoxicated with the idea that the creation of debt – any old debt, not just, or even, boring, sound investment – was the creation of wealth.

via guardian.co.uk

Those who fail to learn from their mistakes are doomed to repeat those mistakes. I am lucky I have little real debt — a small credit card balance, which is paid off totally each month — but it seems nonsensical to continue to get deeper into debt in order to try and maintain a status quo.

Since much of the supposed debt our political masters have created is really only on paper, why not just write it off. Just default on the payments, and wipe the slate clean. Start over, and this time run an economy properly. Close those legal loopholes that let huge corporations avoid paying billions of pounds in taxes.

It won’t happen, though. Sadly.

BBC News – Lord Young apology over ‘never had it so good’ remarks

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The prime minister’s enterprise adviser has apologised after saying most Britons had “never had it so good” despite the “so-called recession”.

Lord Young of Graffham told the Daily Telegraph the Bank of England’s decision to cut the base rates to 0.5% meant many homeowners were better off.

But he later stated that he had written to David Cameron apologising for his “insensitive and inaccurate” remarks.

Downing Street called them offensive and said Mr Cameron was “unimpressed”.

The prime minister’s spokesman said he “believes, at this difficult time, politicians need to be careful with their choice of words – these words are as offensive as they are inaccurate”.

via bbc.co.uk

No need to apologise, Lord Young. You let the mask slip, and revealed exactly how the Tory government’s true thoughts on the mess we’re in.

We’re all in this together? My arse.

Control landowners, not badgers – that’s the real answer to bovine TB | George Monbiot | Comment is free | The Guardian

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As Bourne points out, the two governments are ignoring not only the science but also the history of bovine TB control. In the 1960s the disease was almost eliminated through rigorous testing of cattle herds and strict quarantine. It was when these measures were relaxed, at the behest of the industry, that the disease began to spread. Tests with a low sensitivity, which were designed to detect TB in a herd, are now misused to clear individual animals. The quarantine period has shrunk from one year to 120 days. (The safe period, Bourne says, should be two years, as the successful Australian programme shows.) The infections springing up far from the hot zone are caused not by badgers but by cattle movements.

via guardian.co.uk

[My emphasis.]

I am actually at a loss for words. Please read the whole story on that link.

I also posted a link to another badger story a while ago.

Switch off, log on – Angry Mob

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When China generates a trade surplus the British government gets concerned that too much money is taken out of the economy, yet when Tesco announce that they have made many more billions in profit than they managed last year it celebrates because businesses are supposed to grow. Why do they not question where this money is going, or realise that very little is going back into the economy. Capitalism generates wealth, the trouble is that wealth becomes concentrated in the hands of a few who have soo much money they cannot possibly spend it, and if they do spend it, they aren’t interested in the sort of products or services offered by the average guy. This means that the average person has to survive on less, or loses their job because there just isn’t enough money left in the system.

via butireaditinthepaper.co.uk

Another reason why I’ve built The Asylum. Most of the planet’s population is being brainwashed, and is unable to see behind the curtain.

(Apologies for the mixed references there!)

BBC News – Unacceptable train overcrowding to get worse, MPs say

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Rail passengers in England and Wales face “substantial increases in already unacceptable overcrowding levels” by 2014 and beyond, a report by MPs says.

Department for Transport plans suggest targets for increasing passenger places will be missed.

It was “not clear to passengers” where money from fare rises went and firms should be made to tackle overcrowding and not rely on subsidies, it added.

The government said plans to improve the situation would be unveiled soon.

Public Accounts Committee chairwoman Margaret Hodge said MPs were concerned that the “already unacceptable levels of overcrowding will simply get worse and ever more intolerable”.

She added: “At present there is no incentive for the rail industry to supply extra capacity without additional public subsidy.

“The DfT should, for future franchises, require operators to take measures themselves to avoid overcrowding and to meet the costs of doing so.”

via bbc.co.uk

The elephant in the room, as ever, is how many of the commuters squeezed into trains could be working via the internet? I bet a good fifty per cent of them needn’t travel “to the office” every day.

Time for employers to wake up to the benefits of using teleworking, instead of being control freaks and insisting on people being in an office where they can be controlled. Treat your workers like human beings, not slaves.