The Bewilderness

Vampire leyland

The undead come in all shapes and sizes:

"We are grateful to the Commission for its swift response and approval of our state aid application," he said. "Our package will support both manufacturers and larger automotive suppliers in delivering the new investment that will be vital in ensuring the industry comes out of the current downturn with the skills and technology needed to be competitive in the global automotive market."

Overcapacity will be maintained and the prevention of deleveraging will ensure that demand will be postponed, the recovery will be anaemic and the loss of skills and jobs will be larger in the long-term. They never learn.

I am also sceptical of using zombies to describe the walking insolvent. Vampires are more accurate since they suck the lifeblood from taxpayers .

Goodwin: the only pension brown didn't shred

Gordon Brown is given the good news: Fred the Shred's pension is safe. Faux outrage at the size of the pension is outweighed by my relief: that this government will be unable to strip him of his pension. Their moral vacuity is self-evident. Scheming to strip his knighthood, a reward reserved for criminals or tyrants. Retrospective victimisation to deflect attention from the incompetence of this government pollutes the rule of law.

Lord Myners was in charge of the due diligence. He was the government negotiator who signed up to the early retirement package for Sir Fred Goodwin, including this sumptuous pension. We now hear that he was a) too busy, b) had the wool pulled over his eyes, c) from the socks that he was darning. Crap!

Attention is now focused on telephone calls between Sir Tom McKillop, another former chairman of RBS, and Lord Myners. It is understood that during these calls, the terms of Sir Fred's "compromise agreement" to leave the bank were settled.

On Friday a spokesman for the Prime Minister appeared to suggest that Lord Myners had been led to believe that RBS had no choice but to pay Sir Fred's pension at its full rate as soon as he left the bank. "The clear impression that Paul Myners was left with was that these were contractual obligations,'' the spokesman said.

However, RBS sources said that Lord Myners, a senior businessman, would have been well aware that any offer of early retirement was discretionary. "The suggestion that someone who spent a lifetime managing institutional pension funds was not fully aware that early retirement is discretionary is ridiculous," said one source.

Another lesson that if you get it wrong under Brown, you don't fall on your sword. Even worse: the government has learned that it does not have the power to strip people of their pensions. The legislation is being drawn up to further shred our pensions.

The drive towards Talibanistan

Pakistan shifted further towards chaos and potential Islamism today. Whilst the Taliban insurgency continues to expand across the North West Frontier Provinces, the High Court banned Nawaz Sharif from holding electoral office. One of the feudal populists thrown up by Pakistan's grubby politics, this decision destabilises the country by destroying the potential for power to change hands via elections. President Asif Ali Zardari effectively outlawed his rival and the most popular politician in Pakistan. Adding to this chaotic mix is the lawyers movement, demanding the restoration of the previous Supreme Court, and contemptuous of the puppetry displayed here. Their plan to hold popular protests will no doubt be supported by the Pakistan Muslim League -N.

To add to the powder, the murderous Taliban, relaxing after their usual slaughter of innocents (how do they differ from other evil bastards?) and have killed 25 to 30 daily over the last six months in Kurram tribal agency alone. It is reported that Iran is becoming more concerned over a faltering Pakistan and its potential takeover by extremists. Their nukes will face east as well as west.

Earlier, Tehran cautioned Islamabad over the 'silent massacre' of its Shia community by the Taliban in the country.

"The incidents that have occurred against Pakistan's Shia community are a plot to create conflict between the region's Sunni and Shia population," said Iran's Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani.

"We have warned Islamabad over the incidents and we will pursue the matter," he added. 

With the ceasefire in the Swat Valley, Pakistan's sovereignty has now shrunk as territory is conceded to the new Talibanistan in exchange for peace. Every chunk leads to a shrivelling of the post-British state and a dim future of perpetual warfare:

But the most dangerous consequence is the loss of land. The Taliban now control vast territories in the southeast of Afghanistan and north and west of Pakistan. They are steadily carving out a Talibanistan -- a state perpetually at war -- that will nestle between Afghanistan and Pakistan and prey on both of them for territory, for fighters and for resources.

Pakistan has now become a strange and complex entity in which contradictions not only endure, but also seem to thrive. Parts of it are stable and rich (like Punjab) while others like the NWFP are in complete chaos. It has recently returned to democracy and civilian rule and yet parts of it are in the hands of authoritarian anti- democracy militias. It is an American ally and yet many of its citizens are at war with America. These contradictions are fault lines that will eventually lead to an implosion.

Al-Qaeda have a new base from which to plot against the West and they are in striking distance of gaining the nuclear weapons if Islamabad falls to the Taliban. The implosion could result in a thorough realignment of alliances in the Middle East as Iran finds itself in the frontline against a nuclear armed extremist state that hates the heretics to the West and the Hindis to the East.

Labour's trousers down...again

The government has never been able to stop the drip-feed of revelations that overturn their attempt to govern and dominate perceptions of their politics and policies. In the last few days, we have seen Jack Straw prevent the publication of Cabinet Minutes on the Iraq war: dry documents that probably tell us less about the war than any number of memoirs; it has been revealed that Sir Fred Goodwin has an extraordinarily large pension, which seems to have been agreed to or glanced over by the government; and John Hutton has confirmed to the House that Britain was involved in extraordinary rendition by some extraordinary oversight.

Listening to Question Time last night involved a dialogue of the deaf. The panellists, Peter Hain and Cheryl Gillan, both argued that Cabinet minutes should be off limits so that politicians can have honest conversations and uphold collective responsibility. The latter doctrine has led to this robotic monologue and dialogue of the deaf that has so debased our political conversation and reinforced the distance between the professionalised political class and the electorate. They are quite happy to have honest conversations amongst themselves but not to have honest conversations with us.

Sunshine and transparency are far more likely to promote an honest devolution of power and responsibility in this country. That is why Cabinet should be televised, and all internal workings of the civil service opened up to the public. Exceptions can be made but these would be open to legal challenge. Firstly, not everyone would be interested, but such an open conversation would allow greater diversity in the information received and early warning if a risk arises.

Right now, the government controls some information and considers the perceptions of the audience its property. The reverse is the case. All that the government does is, in a sense, our property, as they are our servants via tax and the ballot box. As masters, we have a greater right to oversight. Otherwise, as their control over information and knowledge continues to decrease under this technological torrent of change, they will increasingly be caught with their trousers down.
 

Labour's legacy: fewer police, more crimes,

The Times has revealed that many police forces are having to cut the number of officers and available services. This is juxtaposed with a rising fear of a crimewave and a potential 'summer of rage' in the downturn. The cause of this funding downturn is based upon an arrangement where urban forces are favoured over rural.

Dr Brain, who is national police spokesman on finance, said the formula by which forces had been funded for 15 years was leading to a “two-tier police service”. Forces with dense and diverse populations did well but those with more sprawling populations fared badly and were falling behind.

In the latest police funding round, 32 of the English and Welsh forces received less than the average grant increase of 2.8 per cent. Figures show that 20 forces will get an increase of just 2.5 per cent but will have to meet a 2.6 per cent pay award. If they try to make up the shortfall by raising council tax they could be capped.

The Home Office said that government funding for the police had risen by 60 per cent since 1997 and that officer numbers were at record levels. There are 140,000 sworn officers in England and Wales, an increase of more than 14,000 since 1997.

Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, said: “There is no reason why police strengths should reduce given the funding for the police under the three-year grant settlement for the years 2008-09 to 2010-11, which we announced in December 2007.”

The outcome will be another attempt by the Home Secretary to force constabularies together in the name of efficiency, reducing their autonomy and local accountability even further. Their deficiencies, forced on them by the spending priorities of Whitehall, will be used to revisit this issue.

Given that the police forces are unable to meet reasonable expectations from those who have to rely upon them, the normal citizen faces a time of less protection and greater persecution. Would that they had been more sensible in their approach to powers showered on them from above like confetti, we would tend to respect them more. That is no longer the case, and if matters reach a head, they will be on one side of the barricades, protecting Ministers, not our property.

Robot wars in 2045 - "death to the fleshy ones!"

A Singularity sceptic considers why robots will not kill us by 2045. He is a sceptic in the sense that anyone faced by the blue screen of death has some trouble visualizing robots going from Windows to the Cylons. Could you see a Centurion freezing or Hal having to reboot? No, of course not.

The expertise of the sceptic is questionable, playing Pong notwithstanding, but he does provide some guidance as to the killquests that the descendants of certain firms might or might not enjoy. I note that they can't quite get the patter right. Where is "Death to the Fleshy Ones"?:

Google: Obliteration of humanity thwarted when publisher decides not to digitize book titled, "How To Obliterate Humanity"; robots unfamiliar with the Dewey Decimal System....

Apple: Floating brain of Steve Jobs decides death lasers and brain scramblers "don't look cool," replaces killer robots with beautifully crafted titanium orbs that do nothing but emit a lovely amber glow; humanity, entranced, surrenders anyway.

Still, if this comes to pass, we just have to endure the Robot Wars.

Daily gene sequencing comes closer

A breakthrough in nanotech sequencing gives hope for cheap and reliable gene profiling. Oxford Nanopores have published their new technique in Nature Nanotechnology which will replace cumbersome methods using fluorescent labeling. The result will be productive:

"The science of nanopore DNA sensing is now accurate and reliable enough to support a breakthrough industrial technology," said Professor Hagan Bayley, founder of Oxford Nanopore and an author of the paper. "The simplicity and versatility of nanopores as a sensing system has intrigued academic researchers for nearly two decades.  We anticipate that with the fast pace of the science, nanopore devices will soon be used for the measurement of DNA and many other molecules." The paper does not describe a prototype device to carry out this new form of sequencing.

Afghanistan and the UK: a vicious circle of pain and neglect

In this damnable war, the calumnies and cover-ups just lead to a shrug of the shoulders, as no political party seems willing to prominently take up the cause of the armed forces. That political party which did more than anyone else to neglect soldiers and pay for politics in blood is in the firing line: this adds to the red ink in their balance sheet.

The number of disabled returning from Afghanistan, caused by the huge upsurge in improvised explosive devices (IEDs), has been hard to trace. Their plight is left to charities rather than state funded services, though this is an act of benign neglect as one would prefer the Royal British Legion to the NHS. What is despicable is the inability to read the costs:

Figures obtained by The Sunday Times from medical sources show that 37 soldiers suffered “life-changing injuries” between April 2006, when they first deployed to southern Afghanistan, and the end of that year.

There were 55 such injuries during the whole of 2007. Last year the figures more than doubled to 114 and there have been 12 cases this year.

Campaigners claim the MoD is deliberately keeping the human cost of the war out of the public eye. They say the government must fund long-term care for maimed or mentally disabled soldiers instead of relying on charities such as Help for Heroes and the Royal British Legion.

At the other extreme, radical Muslims from the United Kingdom are supplying the Taliban with electronic devices and other components to increase the sophistication of their IEDs, making then harder to detect. One example was the switch to non-metallic components to avoid metal detectors: a change that cost our soldiers' lives and limbs. There is no indication of how our government is fighting to detect these jihadists and shut them down.

Find the Taliban, find the terrorist! Again, we see the two sides of the same coin: suffering for our soldiers, impunity towards the Islamists who act to main them.

Labour schemes while Britain burns....

A loss of authority is a difficult experience for anyone in a leadership position. This becomes far worse when they are not a leader. News reports indicate various linkages between important personages within the Labour Party, who have some vague identity on the right or left of the party. Rare is the person who has carved out a sphere of influence beyond the dreary morass of post-ideological Labour, when its elite has managed to tar so many as maverick rather than principled. Jon Cruddas, for it is he, is said to have forged a link with Harriet Harman, to woo the Left.

These linkages let us have indications of Labour's mess. The members are factoring in potential defeat and have begun to jostle for post-Brown and post-electoral advantage. The most public do so as a reaction to New Labour, attempting the Janus feat of belonging to the elite and trading on dissent and prophet by allying with those who belonged to the loyal opposition, rather than the Tories. The alliances between personalities rather than factions demonstrates that there is no ideological infighting and portends a remarkably united party after the election: that may be good, preserving their capacity to fight; that may be bad, preserving all of the instincts and arrogance that turned people off Labour in the first place.

Whatever the outcome, Labour are beginning to appear divided and this is usually punished by the electorate. Politicians scheming whilst Britain burns....

Bankrupt Britain: post-budget debt crisis?

Haven't we been here before? Brown is now indulging in an orgy of blather cloaking a further round of debt under the pretence of the G20 countries striking a grand bargain to all spend their citzens' hard earned cash and burden future generations for the sake of a few extra years of political power.

In terms of justice, this does not meet the threshold for ethical action. It is, indeed, unethical, as a government is using events and crisis to impoverish people and accrue advantage for themselves. Even if Brown uses the budget on the 22nd April for a further round of tax cuts and increased government expenditure, he raises the probability of a debt crisis and could well prolong the downturn.

As noted before, I do not trust the actions of this government and warn about their lust for power. Unlike Burke, and his successors, long-term damage is written into their political DNA: each reiteration exposing more of their authoritarian bent. Hopefully this is the last time, but they could bankrupt Britain this time.