POLITICS CORNER

[Stanley]

You put up a good case for me being too devious Richard and I accept it. I suspect my thinking is coloured by my continuing reading of Richard Crossman's Back Bench Diaries. They had all certainly read and understood Machiavelli...
Isn't it sad, at a time when we need principled dynamic leadership we have a blinkered schoolboy who has (so it seems) never grown up and had experience of the real world.



The image Cameron admitted to be 'embarrassing'.

[Stanley]

See this LINK for the news that Chris Grayling is proposing lights out at 22:30 for young offenders. I may be showing my age here but I see nothing wrong with this. Mind you, I'm always in bed at 22:00 on the dot by choice and up at 04:00, not everyone's cup of tea! To my mind it's all to do with time discipline, it was OK for us in the army and never caused any problems or did us any harm. One of the problems that worries me these days is the fact that so many young people do not make the transition from school to the discipline of having to get up and get to work on time. My first job on the farm in Warwickshire involved getting up at 5am for milking and from then on all my jobs seemed to be early starts, hence my habit of early rising. When I went in the army the extra hour in bed in the morning was a luxury for me! So, though there is much that Chris Grayling does that I don't agree with, I support this initiative....

[David Whipp]

My first job was on shifts at Silentnight when I was 16, I can't remember being late (wages were lost if you clocked in after starting time). I've been more of an early bird than an owl, but don't mind the occasional lie in.

Given our Tom's sleeping habits, teenage sleep patterns are currently of interest to me.

There's quite a lot of evidence that teenager's sleep patterns are disrupted by the changes in the levels of melatonin in their body. (Melatonin is a hormone secreted by the pineal gland. It's produced as the day darkens. Put simply, it's thought to be what sends us to sleep. Children typically have higher levels than adults.) During adolescence, bodyclocks become unreliable. Teenagers just don't feel tired when it should be their 'bed time'.

So, I'm not so sure of the effectiveness of Mr Grayling's initiative.

[Stanley]

All I can say is that it worked for me. I was a devil for lying in bed on school days. I can still hear my mother shouting up the stairs to get me up at Norris Avenue.... I think the trigger, apart from the discipline of time-keeping was the fact I was interested in what I did when I got up. Learning to milk cows was a fascinating new skill.
That's reminded me of a story. When I first went to work for Richard Drinkall as his driver I was in the shippon one day at milking time when a cow kicked the cluster off. I immediately got down and replaced it. John Henry Pickles, Richard's cowman, was watching and he said 'You've done that before!" I told him not to let Richard know, I was the driver, not a relief milker! He kept quiet and Richard didn't find out until much later....
It's like riding a bike, once learned it's never forgotten.

[David Whipp]

First it's on the Mainly doing thread, then Stanley's getting his hands round teats in politics...!

[Stanley]

Off piste is a site tradition.....

[Stanley]

See this LINK for news that ISIS have declared the Caliphate in the areas they now control. See Wiki ARTICLE for information about the Caliphate.
This could be very serious as, theoretically, it affects the whole of Islam. Expect howls of outrage and arguments between competing religious leaders. Nearest parallel is the Pope declaring he is the leader of the whole of Christianity, imagine what the result of that would be...
Cameron attempts to repair fences with Junckers. He phoned him yesterday. I'll bet that was a frosty conversation!

[Stanley]

The Rolph Harris verdict shocked the world but in the world of politics another storm is brewing as the case of Cyril Smith gets more attention. Simon Danczuk ( LINK) says that the Rochdale police tell him that arrests are imminent as Smith's fellow perpetrators are uncovered. If the scope is anywhere near the scale of the gossip that was going round in Rochdale 30 years ago this will be a big shock. I can't help wondering what the mind-set of these people can be after over 30 years of successful concealment. If they are guilty, good!

[Stanley]

See THIS for a report of the missing dossier that was handed to ex Home Secretary Leon Brittain by MP Geoffrey Dickens in the early 1980s. Like many, I hate all this news about depraved sex but if there is evidence out there it should be ruthlessly pursued and accusations of 'witch-hunts' ignored. Too often in these matters we are left with the uncomfortable feeling that there has been a cover up based on privilege. This is one of the many factors which is corroding the public view of politics and we need transparency and a cleansing of the stables. Too easy to say it is in the past, remember the misery of those who were exploited at the time and are still suffering from the results. It used to be said that incest was the last great taboo, I begin to wonder whether embedded perversion in the upper echelons of society isn't another and just as serious.

[Stanley]

The missing dossier affair gets more heated. See this LINK for the Daily Mail report.
Keeping an eye on the interest rate rise it begins to look as though March 2015 is the favourite point for the rises to start. Not good news for the Tory version of the 'economic miracle'.
There are rumblings about what is being seen as a lenient sentence on Rolf Harris. Andy Coulson gets 18 months and is reported to have said he will take an interest in the work of the Samaritans while in prison. Despite his apology, Cameron doesn’t come out of this very well....
Major upset in Berlin as a German intelligence worker is accused of spying for the US. (LINK) What on earth were the Americans thinking of, if anything!

[Stanley]

The Leon Brittain affair gets even more murky. This ARTICLE in the Guardian lays out the salient facts and the more it is examined the worse it looks. 114 documents vanished, 'relevant information' ( often a weasel description of material that has been 'weeded') only passed to the police two years ago and now, not reported in this article the News That a 70 year old man was interviewed by the police yesterday for alleged involvement in a historic sex case. The BBC associated Lord Brittain with this in the news this morning. Later the BBC confirmed that it was Lord Brittain who was interviewed under caution by appointment but not charged.
The least that can be said is that this bears all the hallmarks of a high level cover up. We see far too much of this these days and it corrodes trust in public life. It stinks!
I heard John Sentanu talking this morning about inequality. He made the point that the majority of people officially in poverty in Britain today are in work. Rowntree alerted us to this syndrome in the 1930s, some things don't change. On another programme yesterday I heard someone asking for recommendations about MPs holiday reading. I'd recommend that they read Stiglitz on Inequality and Piketty on 21st century capitalism. This isn't getting much exposure at the moment but it is still there lurking in the lower 50percentile of the population and remember that there are more cuts to come and an interest rate rise. The 'economic miracle' has several large cracks in it.

[Stanley]

Something quite serious is going on! See this LINK for allegations about Lord Janner, the Labour peer. When national newspapers go public with names like these it is a racing certainty that they know much more but are looking over their shoulder at the Libel Laws. We are looking at the tip of a very large iceberg here....

[Stanley]

The Noble Lord Tebbit has piled in.... (LINK)
Take your pick from the papers this morning. Overall attitude is that there is a 'stench of corruption' and this could be a bigger blow to Parliament than the expenses scandal. It will be interesting to see how Theresa May approaches this when she does her 'firewall statement' today. It will be a big mistake to attempt to defuse this.

[Stanley]

Theresa May made her statement yesterday and on the face of it, the Coalition has squared up to the problem but unfortunately she hasn't convinced me. She admitted under questioning that she was unsure about any obligations a civil servant may have under the Official Secrets Act or contracts re behaviour, severance and pension rights. In addition, the inquiry into all the public bodies looks far too unwieldy to me. No links, take your pick from the papers which are united in demanding action.
So, I have my doubts. If they want my advice they should have a third, long term study into the influence of privilege and deference in our society. This is deep rooted and goes back all the way to Feudalism. I see this as the greatest obstacle to transparency and be sure it will be at work in the background. The Establishment has a long history of bending the accepted mores of society to suit its ends. Nobody defers more than a career civil servant. They know what is good for them!
I see that David Mellor has said that no cover up took place. I don't know about you but I doubt his value as a credible source of opinion.

[Nolic]

I am not a big fan of the NSPCC mainly because of their false publicity - eg. they pulled out of direct child protection work in the early 1980's and now only offer training and guidance and much of their funding goes on publicity for .....the NSPCC. You have every right to be concerned at Teresa's inquiry particularly as the head of the NSPCC - sounds good to lead a child protection inquiry - has no direct child protection experience. "PeterWanless, who is currently chief executive of the Big Lottery Fund, was previously director of the families group at the then Department for Children, Schools and Families, and also director of school performance and reform, and director of strategy and communications" [url]tp://www.cypnow.co.uk/cyp/news/1076048/nspcc ... 3Y0go.dpuf[/url] Lets keep it in the system then. Nolic

[Stanley]

Comrade, you reinforce my disquiet. The only ray of sunshine is the voice of people with experience coming through in the news reports confirming that while the whole of Parliament wasn't a hotbed of vice, there was an undercurrent of protection. A former chief whip has just been on Today confirming that the whips did everything they could to help an MP in 'difficulties' because after that he did anything he was ordered to. Just one example of the devious and hidden ways the system could operate.

[Stanley]

The inquiry isn't going well! Questions are being raised about Lady Butler Sloss because she may have to investigate her brother who was Attorney General at the time the files vanished. (LINK)
My feeling is that this is the wrong appointment, we don't need a pedigree Borzoi, we need a badly bred, aggressive pit bull terrier for this job.
The dam appears to be breaking as more allegations of cover-up come to light. This isn't going to be pretty!

[Stanley]

See this LINK for report in the Daily Mail questioning Lady Butler Sloss by asking whether she is objective enough. She evidently censored some complaints because of her regard for the Church. Other media report the same story.
Too many questions are being asked on these lines. Privilege and deference need to be ignored completely and a 'pillar of the Establishment' isn't necessarily the best person to do this.
See this week's Private Eye for a big article on the recent phone hacking trial. Rebekah doesn't get a good press. They disclose information that was not allowed at the trial for various legal reasons. It pays to be able to afford the best defence barristers!

[Stanley]

I'm listening to a man called David Tombs(?) who was in charge of social services in Hereford and Worcestershire who says that a report he wrote on Righton the paedophile which indicated that there was a widespread network at High level was ignored. Where is the truth in all this? People have stood up and rubbished his story, can he really be a fantasist?

[Stanley]

There will, figuratively speaking, blood on the carpet at Number 10 this morning as departing ministers learn their fate and tomorrow new ones will be announced. Not quite as dramatic as it sounds because there will have been 'conversations for the last few days and weeks. There is speculation that Cameron is going to revive the Cabinet image with young people and more women, all will be revealed during the week before MPs go on holiday. This is election preparation....
Meanwhile in the real world, the High Pay Centre (WHO THEY?) criticises the high pay of executives and says the gap must be narrowed by government action . (LINK) Too right! We live in a topsy turvy world where reward has little to do with energy or competence, simply bargaining power.

[Stanley]

See THIS for the news that we have an 'it seemed like a good idea at the time' moment. Lady Butler Sloss admits that she may not have 'considered her position' sufficiently when she took the job as head of the inquiry into child abuse. Theresa May waffles about the fact she would have been good in the job but no explanation of how it happened. I favour the theory that they made a knee-jerk decision to ward off possible criticism that they were involved in a cover up and made a swift but not well thought out appointment. It looks as though they completely missed the link with Lord Havers. Downing Street proves once again that there could be a streak of incompetence in the Cabinet Office. They seem to see everything in terms of the Westminster Bubble and are ignorant of what is actually happening on the ground.
Big surprise this morning is that William Hague is to go. One wonders how the fact that Cameron has virtually side-lined him on foreign affairs has played in this. I think they have wasted a considerable talent. We shall see during the course of the day how the reshuffle pans out but already there are murmurings of discontent about the way appointments of women are being used as a political ploy.
Meanwhile, in another part of the forest the CofE is dragged kicking and screaming into the real world by the decision to appoint women bishops. About time! The dinosaurs still witter on about scripture and theology but conveniently ignore that the Bible is not good history, it has been heavily edited throughout its life by men but even so there is no mention of even bishops, let alone any hard evidence that Jesus was against women. The bits that showed him to be entirely the opposite have been heavily watered down of censored altogether. They should shut up and accept the reality, that women are just as competent as men and perhaps, by reason of their sex, are even better qualified to guide their flocks.

[Tripps]

The Scottish referendum is getting closer. I've been following the betting for quite a while now, and note that a 'no' vote is now priced at 8/1 on, having shortened recently from 4/1 on. If you think they will vote 'yes' - to leave, you can get 5/1 against.

[plaques]

I listened to a debate about what the "Union" flag should comprise of should Scotland leave. My first thoughts were "FOR SALE" then after thinking for a bit changed it to "SOLD".

[Stanley]

Or just 'CANCELLED'.

[Stanley]

I know I go on about it but my blood pressure went up yesterday when I heard Cameron saying that the fact that more people were employed 'proved' that the 'economic miracle' is working. This is a bare-faced lie. Not a word about the fact that so many of the phantom jobs are part time, zero hours contract or minimum wage, all of these not a living wage. Not a word about the fact that wage increases are running at about 0.7%, (ONS figures) and inflation at about 1.9% so in reality wages are falling further behind and disposable income is still falling. Add to this the fact that when interest rates go up it will further inhibit the retail spend and the 'miracle' looks like a slow motion car crash. (LINK) In addition, the inflation figure takes no account of the fact that a larger proportion of low paid families goes on essentials and the inflation rate for these is probably about 10%. The lower 50 percentile are struggling and it will get worse. The growth areas will be food banks and benefit claims. I have never seen things looking bleaker for young families on low incomes. It is a tragedy building up which will have long term results.
No mention either about the fact that manufacturing output seems to be faltering. The reasons are less domestic spending and the strong pound hitting import costs and export sales. The EU is not healthy and this could be a growing factor. Remember what Mark Carney said, that the recovery is "unbalanced and not sustainable". Nothing has changed, in fact the depressing factors are getting stronger.
Lots of speculation about the entrails of the reshuffle. Time will tell..... I shall leave it to the commentators to milk them for all they are worth.
Oh! One piece of cheering news. Reports that Andrew Mitchell is one of the investors caught out by HMRC who have been participating in cunning wheezes to save tax. Good! Let's see more of the same! (LINK)