Semantics With The 'Guardian'...

It's a feature that runs all the way through the article:

They were being used by a housing association to accommodate families on Barnet Council’s waiting list, but under Hands’s control, Annington plans to replace them with 229 houses and flats for sale

At least 45 of them were granted homes on the estate only after declaring themselves homeless, and some have said they now face that prospect again.

Jeanette Ewans, a housing campaigner who opposes demolition, said: “We have got to get out of this mindset that homes are investments. It enrages me the owners treat us like pieces of furniture. We are going to make it impossible for them not to change their minds. We want everyone who has left the estate to be brought back.”

Residents and campaigners occupying the homes have been summoned to court next week by lawyers for Annington, which is seeking possession and prevention of further trespass.

To the 'Guardian', it would seem that a house only makes the transition to a 'home' when someone other than the occupier actually owns it...

It Appeals Because Many Of Those Minds Aren’t…

…sharp, that is:

For those immune to the draw of the bright lights of Vegas, or who see gambling as a "tax on stupidity", it may be hard to understand why it appeals to so many of the country's sharp young minds.

Hmmm, let’s hear their stories, then:

"After receiving my student loan payment one day, I took a large chunk of it and decided to have a really good go at making some money online. I got on to a winning streak, and before I knew it I had thousands in my gambling account. Unfortunately I was only allowed to make small withdrawals per day, and when I went back to the site the following day to make the next withdrawal,

I decided to see if my luck was still in/b>. I lost my remaining funds within an hour."

Sharp as a billiard ball, that one…

"It's time to open up a conversation about gambling in universities," says Trevor David, Gamcare's lead training and development consultant.

"For the first time, student finance officers have been coming to us and requesting we come to events and give information to students," David continues.

"Universities seem to be becoming aware that there is a growing problem."

Yes, but not with gambling, per se. It’s with the growing number of people for whom ‘deferred gratification’ is an alien concept.

Shock Horror! Supermarket Tries To Offer Customers Cheap Goods!

And the Guardian is outraged at this:

Tesco has quietly returned to a multimillion-pound Channel Islands tax dodge four years after the authorities in Jersey banished the supermarket group's VAT-free CD and DVD website from the island, accusing Britain's largest retailer of operating a "sham" selling structure that brought the Channel Islands into disrepute.

And how are they doing this?

Simples! They moved the operation to the island next door.

The Tesco Entertainment website is now offering online VAT-free sales of CDs and DVDs from Guernsey, the Guardian has learned. The tax avoidance involved may be unclear to many customers, however, as the site's small print simply states: "All prices are expressed inclusive of any VAT payable unless otherwise stated."

And if it’s made clear, people will say ‘Oh, that’s terrible! If only I’d known! I’d happily pay more money to ensure that the government gets the VAT…’, I suppose?

Yeah. That’s what I thought too:

The move is likely to prove embarrassing for the British government which has sought to dismiss suggestions this VAT loophole trade is ballooning out of control.

It seems everyone is expected to be ‘embarrassed’ by this. Who is embarrassed by doing something perfectly legal that saves you money?

Told of Tesco's low-key return to Channel Islands VAT avoidance, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vincent Cable said: "It seems to me absolutely extraordinary and seriously unwise for a leading British plc to be caught out dodging tax at a time when the country has a very serious fiscal crisis on its hands. I am sure if they are sufficiently aware of the importance of their reputation in this area that they will stop it immediately."

Yes, I’m sure their customers will demand that they start charging higher prices when they don’t need to, Vince…

Shock Financial News! People Won’t Pay Inflated Prices In A Recession!

Well, you could have knocked me down with a feather when I read this :

Experts warned yesterday that Britain has become addicted to discounts after retailers suffered their worst Christmas for decades.

And stores now face the daunting task of trying to sell products at full price this spring during a difficult time for the economy, with falling house prices and Sterling causing nervousness among consumers.

You mean, they knocked down all the prices to entice customers in before Christmas, and are now worried that people won’t want to pay the ‘full’ price later on? What economic trickery is this?!

After all, how many sat-navs, flat-screen TVs and corner sofas do you need in one year anyway....?

Shoppers who shunned the High Street before Christmas have flocked to sales this weekend to cash in on massive discounts of as much as 90 per cent.

Many retailers and shopping centres across the UK also opened their doors for their first Boxing Day trading in a desperate bid to attract shoppers.

And yet, when I could drag myself from my sickbed yesterday, it wasn’t exactly hopping in my local area.

Bluewater and Lakeside and other big retail outlets were reported as doing well, but there was a distinct air of ‘Nope, got all I want, thanks’ in the air...

'Consumers have realised that this is a waiting game you can take one step further,' said Jonathan De Mello, director of retail consultancy at Footfall's owner, Experian.

'Rather than waiting for sales to begin before Christmas, people are saving up for Boxing Day when they know the 50 per cent discounts pre-Christmas become 70 per cent or even 90 per cent off. It seems people are willing to spend, but only at a price that is becoming unsustainable for retailers.'

Perhaps it’s time to reconsider the RRP level, chaps...?

The scale of the problem facing retailers will become evident next week when Marks & Spencer, Debenhams, Next and Ernest Jones-to-H Samuel owner Signet release their trading figures.

Most are expected to report that sales are declining more rapidly than their most recent updates in autumn.

That's going to make interesting reading....

EU To British Voters: ‘You Don’t Matter’ (Part 563)

José Manuel Barroso said that in private conversations "the people who count in Britain" were thinking about joining. "I'm not going to break the confidentiality of certain conversations, but some British politicians have already told me, 'If we had the euro, we would have been better off'," he told French radio station RTL.

Someone needs to tell this gentleman that the ‘people who count’ aren’t actually the people he meets for sherry and tapas at a taxpayer-funded Euro building, whatever he may think…

Scales Dropping From Eyes, Finally…

And over at another ‘CiF’ post this morning, there’s even more evidence that people are slowly waking up to the shifting ground beneath their feet:

While everyone deplores the brutal death of Baby P, there is an unavoidable question lying behind the horrible circumstances of his short life. How have we ended up with a welfare system that is intended to help poor and dysfunctional families but in doing so helps create more of the problems it was set up to solve? And what can we do to solve this paradox?

The light dawns at last…

This refusal to think about the interaction between good intentions and perverse consequences has long been a blindness of the left. It is beginning to change, notably with James Purnell's willingness to challenge lifetime dependency in the welfare-to-work reforms at the Department for Work and Pensions. But he is seen by some in the Labour government as dangerously radical in approach. Here the government is lagging behind the public who, in the face of recession, are likely to be asking tough questions about who exactly benefits from the welfare state, what the results of its spending are, and on what basis its resources are allocated.

In other words: ‘Oh-oh! We’re losing the battle of ideas! The peasants are starting to revolt…’

She gives a good example of the kind of welfare state ‘client’ that ought to be easily recognisable to most people (and is immediately jumped on for ‘producing an anecdote!’ by the same people who are happy to do that when it suits them, naturally…):

For more than 20 years Cheryl and her family have lived at other people's expense. Yet it hasn't been a good life. The house is full of stuff - flatscreen TVs, PlayStations, iPods - but its inhabitants are depressed. The children are sullen or aggressive and lack hope, and the two out of school are apparently unemployable. Nothing has flourished as a result of this unconditional public expenditure: not Cheryl, not society, and certainly not her damaged kids.

Sounds a lot like the kind of houses ’Nightjack’ and ’Inspector Gadget’ have been writing about for yonks, doesn’t it…?

Though I have to take issue with her conclusion here:

No one who was designing a public safety net would look at outcomes like these and want to reproduce them….. Those brought up in cultures of dependence often lack the confidence, resilience or education to be attractive to employers.

Jenni, sweetie – for the Left, that’s not a bug, it’s a feature. A vast, growing herd of dependant sheep, willing to vote themselves for largesse from the public purse – I think you have a very rosy view of our venal political class if you think they haven’t factored this in as a benefit. To them.

But before you think everything in the garden is now rosy, remember, this is still ‘The Guardian’, and her suggestions are – yup, you guessed it – ‘more money, more State intervention’:

But if benefits have been no panacea for the poor, work alone is no magic solution. Breaking patterns of disadvantage won't end just by getting insecure adults into largely low-paid jobs. These adults may need support for years. The DWP can't do it alone.

Sorry, Lefties – you broke it, you bought it! If more money is needed, then don’t turn to the taxpayer for it!

Let’s have a bonfire of the type of useless ‘jobs’ seen in the pages of the ‘Guardian’ and the ‘Independent’ – no more diversity outreach co-ordinators, or Green Initiative management directors. From now on, we can’t afford the fat in the budget to support them and their huge pensions. Those currently employed as such can be retrained as underclass workshop overseers.

Like that idea, Jenni? Not much, I bet…

If a culture is to change, we will need, as politicians like Iain Duncan Smith and Graham Allen have argued, expensive investment in all ages from nought to 18. It has to start with focused help with parenting and continue with genuinely good childcare, flexible jobs and a more responsive, emotionally intelligent education system. That wouldn't be simple or cheap.

No, it wouldn’t.

And whatever an ‘emotionally intelligent’ education system actually means, I think we can do without that, as well. At least, until it can fulfil its basic function – that of teaching the little sods to read, write, and add up….

At Least Jesse James Had The Decency To Wear A Mask…

Our Chancellor plans to rob banks without the need for one:

The Chancellor of Exchequer may threaten to introduce new legislation to force banks to loan money to small businesses at competitive rates of interest.

Hmm, government telling business that they must take unnecessary risks and loan money to people who can’t repay that debt, on the grounds of ‘social fairness’...

That hasn’t worked out too well in other countries, has it?

In next Monday's pre-Budget report, the Government is expected to introduce a new scheme to underwrite small business loans made by banks. Ministers will also put intense pressure on the banks in which the Government is buying a stake to lend at competitive rates again.

Banks want people to lend money to. If they aren’t doing so, it’s because they are considered a risk. They don’t want to swallow that risk. Nor do I, via my taxes.

Because when the Government says ‘it’ will underwrite small business loans, that’s what it really means – taxpayers will…

A source said: "Alistair Darling is increasingly exasperated by the banks' assurances that they are helping small businesses when they obviously are not.

"There are too many instances where the banks have failed small businesses, even those with perfectly good track records.

"Banks have got to understand they have to treat their customers fairly. We are not at the point of introducing regulations but he is not averse to going down that route."

It’s not ‘unfair’ to refuse to lend money to someone who can’t pay it back. That’s not called a loan – that’s called charity. And banks aren’t (and shouldn’t be) in the charity business…

God, we have an economic illiterate as Chancellor (again)!

”Hugh, Pugh, Barney Mcgrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grubb….

..get your hoses and report for training in Texas!”

A £330million training programme for firemen was criticised yesterday after it emerged that it is cheaper to send them to the U.S.

Can’t wait to see what ’Burning Our Money’ makes of this…

Each course at the American centre costs £3,950 and includes up to date instruction on dealing with terrorist attacks, floods, earthquakes and fires.

An equivalent scheme, the New Dimensions programme, at the Fire Service College in Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, costs £5,500.

How is that possible? Well, the Texas centre is in a competitive market, and actively touts for business, and knows it has to keep its customers happy.

The UK centre on the other hand is a white elephant created to provide work for consultants, architects, Labour-friendly building firms and all the hangers-on and bean counters that ‘support’ the frontline staff. And paid for by us.

But they forgot a crucial point in making sure it’d have to be used:

New Dimensions was launched in 2001 in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks. It cost £330million and boasts of providing firemen with the best and most modern tuition possible in post-disaster training.

Britain's 46 fire brigades are not required to use the Fire Service College and it is estimated that since 2003 they have sent 800 firemen the 5,000 miles to the Disaster City centre in Houston, Texas. The £3,950 price of each course includes transatlantic flights, accommodation, food and tuition.

So the brigades, being cost conscious and needing to provide value for money, send their firefighters abroad. Who wouldn’t?

A scathing 38-page report from the National Audit Office says: 'Based on course fees, accommodation and transport, it was cheaper to send firefighters to Texas than it has been to use the Fire Service College - though the UK has advantages in terms of less time away from duty.'

'The fire and rescue services have three main concerns with the college: high cost of courses, poor accommodation and facilities, and inflexible courses and scheduling.'

In other words, like all centrally planned ‘answers’, it doesn’t meet the requirements for all the brigades that need to use it. So they find those answers elsewhere…

Tory communities and local government spokesman Eric Pickles said: 'Something is seriously wrong if we are paying to send our firefighters to Texas, rather than training them here.

'The Fire Service College is a Whitehall agency, so ministers need to explain why the college is not offering better value for money than America.'

Well, Eric, I’d say that’s your problem, right there….

A spokesman for the Department of Communities and Local Government said: 'In the early days of New Dimension the Fire Service College did not have the facility to provide the urban search and rescue training.

'The college has now trained over 7,000 fire and rescue staff in operating the wide range of New Dimension equipment.'

Well, that was a long winded excuse, wasn’t it…?

Oh. Wait.

It wasn’t an excuse at all. It was just glossed-over waffle, as the government always does with bad news – pretends it doesn’t hear it at all….

Certainly Having Trouble Seeing The Small Print...

... on the nationalisation plans:

The Prime Minister's close friends have revealed that he can only see extremely large print and has needed guidance at public events.

It explains a lot...

More Bad News For Gordon…

Prudence has deserted him, and the vultures are circling his rotting carcase:

Gordon Brown's strict fiscal rules on borrowing are likely to be ditched as a result of the credit crisis, the Treasury has confirmed.

The Conservatives accused the Prime Minister of abandoning his reputation for economic competence, after officials said that the requirement for public sector borrowing to be kept below 40 per cent of the economy was being re-examined.

*******

Trade Unions are to hand Gordon Brown a list of 130 demands as they increase the pressure on the Prime Minister to bow to more left wing policies.

In a co-ordinated move, general secretaries have compiled a set of policy proposals they wish to see implemented, including the right to take supportive strike action, scrapping NHS prescription charges and bringing all hospital cleaning back in house.

What’s that strapline for McDonalds again..?

Oh, yeah: “I’m lovin’ it!”…..

What Ministers Really Think Of The Public….

Those who raised doubts about the cost of the London Olympics were dismissed yesterday by the Culture Secretary as 'whingers'.

Andy Burnham attacked those who flagged up concerns that the £9.3billion budget for the 2012 Games had spiralled to four times the original estimate, during questioning by the Commons' cross-party Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee.

Remember, they know how to spend your money far, far better than you.

He told the committee that once London Mayor Boris Johnson was presented with the Olympic flame during the closing ceremony of the upcoming Beijing Olympics there would be a 'surge of excitement, particularly among young people across the country'.

He added: 'We are going to immediately feel differently about the Olympics.'

……or else, presumably!

“'Due Diligence'..? What's that?”

A pregnant council officer has been jailed for two years for stealing £110,000 and sending much of the money to her mother in Nigeria.

Bintu Tijani, 35, a children's services manager for Peterborough City Council, drew up fake invoices to steal 10% of her department's annual budget.

She doesn’t appear to have been exactly a model employee in other respects:

He said she was caught by council fraud investigators following her suspension from work on an unrelated matter in October 2007.

Tijani, responsible for an annual budget of £1.2m for child support strategy, was sacked a month later and the evidence was passed to police.

Ah, well, can’t be helped, really. I mean, how could the council know that they were employing a thief? Oh, wait:

She got the job at the council in May 2004, despite having disclosed a criminal conviction from 10 years earlier for credit card fraud.

So, she disclosed a criminal conviction for fraud, yet the council gave her a £1.2m budget to run…?

Epic fail, Peterborough council!

Still, it’s only taxpayers’ money, after all.

MPs Find Themselves In Hole, Vow To Keep Digging...

There must be a competition going in Westminster - who can come up with a sure-fire scheme to make MPs even more unpopular than they already are:

Members of parliament are demanding extra allowances to pay for record petrol prices and rising road taxes, while voters struggle to meet the rising costs of motoring.

The parliamentary panel reviewing MPs’ expenses has received a barrage of complaints that the allowance for using their cars on constituency duty is “ridiculous”.

I think the public would agree with you there, but not for the reasons you might think....

Nick Harvey, defence spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, said MPs acknowledged that any increase would trigger a bitter public backlash, but he added: “A lot of MPs are fed up with the system."

Oh, I don't think they'll have much to worry about. They aren't likely to be MPs much longer...

Don't Panic, Captain Mainwaring!

Just in time for the local elections, Mervyn King tries to calm the fears of jittery potential Labour voters:

"Banks previously over-willing to lend are now too reluctant, even with credit-worthy borrowers, it suggested.

This increased fear of risk has itself undermined confidence in financial institutions and made them reluctant to lend to each other, the Bank added."

Good boy...good doggie! Gordon has a biscuit for you! Yes he does...