Quote of the day

David Cameron on the Libyan imbroglio (here):

"The central purpose of all this is clear: to end the violence, protect civilians and allow the people of Libya to determine their own future, free from the brutality inflicted by the Gaddafi regime," he told the Scottish Conservative conference in Perth.

Sounds to me like an objective of regime change. I would have thought that Iraq and Afghanistan might have taught us that democracy cannot be imposed by the barrel of a gun ...

Questions, questions ...

It's all very well for Lucy in The Guardian:

... now I am facing the census form, and for one thing it's not a form, it's a book; and for another there is an emotional or existential crisis on every page.

The first few pages starkly reveal the utterly pedestrian nature of my life. Born in Britain, raised in Britain, no, I haven't left Britain in the past year. Cut me and I bleed soggy sprouts. I have a husband, not a same-sex civil partner, and a terrace house and no step-anythings.

But I prefer these to the guilt-inducements. Do I look after, or give any help or support to, family members, friends or neighbours, or do anything at all that would demonstrate that I give a mouse-sized shit about anyone outside the address on the front of this form? No, I do not.

Some of us are still waiting for the arrival of the form. Does the Royal Mail not know that I am a citizen? And should I be pleased about it?

Some special pleading

Rational? Sensible? Even logical? But ...

The Independent reports:

Income tax and national insurance could be merged as part of a drive to simplify the tax system by the Coalition Government.

The move is expected to be signalled by George Osborne in his Budget next Wednesday. Although such a huge change would take years to implement, the Chancellor is determined to be seen as a reformer and not just as the axeman who cleared the budget deficit he inherited from Labour.

The idea has been under discussion for years, but politicians have shied away from implementing it. Such an upheaval would be bound to create winners and losers, and the effective abolition of national insurance – currently at 11 per cent for employees, rising to 12 per cent next month – could be portrayed as a tax hike, taking the basic rate from 20p to 32p and top rate from 40p to 52p in the pound.

The fly in the ointment? There are certain sources of income which are subject to income tax but not to national insurance contributions, notably occupational pensions and interest on savings. Is the Chancellor suddenly going to whack an additional 10 or 11% on the incomes of pensioners? For personal reasons, I devoutly hope not.

An ethical foreign policy?

Look, it's simple. There are good pro-democracy supporters, such as those in Libya, who are seeking to establish basic human rights in the face of an autocratic ruler prepared to do anything - including bringing in foreign soldiers - to maintain his authoritarian regime. And there are not so good pro-democracy supporters, such as those in Bahrein, who are seeking to establish basic human rights in the face of an autocratic ruler prepared to do anything - including bringing in foreign soldiers - to maintain his authoritarian regime.

That's why David Cameron bangs on endlessly about the former while keeping his mouth firmly shut about the latter.

(It may also have something to do with the fact that Bahrein has close links with the US navy; and, after all, the Saudis are our friends, aren't they?)

And you wonder why I'm depressed?

I despair when I see that Scottish Labour is taking the path of least resistance by opting for a council tax freeze and abandoning any plans to reform the council tax. They have even ruled out a revaluation of the property database, so that the council tax bands will continue to be based on the property values of the early 1990s. (Not that the SNP is any better: what happened to the proposed local income tax?)

I despair when I see that Scottish Labour (again like the SNP) has opted to continue with an unsustainable policy of wilfully denying the need for student fees (or graduate contributions).

I despair when I see that Scottish Labour is descending into an imagined populism of resurrecting ASBOs - despite their abject failure last time round.

If Scottish political parties are not prepared to address the real problems facing our country, is there any point to a Scottish Parliament?

Playing the market

Some slightly dodgy financial advice from The Independent:

It can be argued that the current UK rate of inflation of 4 per cent is hardly disastrous. The rates of inflation in countries such as India and Argentina are much worse – 9.3 per cent and 10.6 per cent, respectively. But even at our modest rate of shrinkage, £100 would only be worth £45 in 20 years. Consequently, it is more important than ever to protect the spending power of our money by investing in growth assets such as shares. Using historic growth rates of around 8.3 per cent, the same £100 could grow to £492 over the same period.

Sure, sure, with historic growth rates, everything would look wonderful. But we're not starting at the bottom. With the Footsie 100 at 5829, just past its peak, the betting is that it's on the way down. So don't put your pennies into shares unless you know what you're doing.


And yes, I admit to a small portfolio of carefully selected shares and, if I have made a bob or two over the past 9 months, I don't expect similar results over the next 9 months.

You know it makes rugby sense

In the modern game, before the opposing forwards meet in a scrum, the referee issues a series of instructions: "Crouch, touch, pause, engage". This innovation of a few years back would not appear to cleaned up the scrums, in that more and more are having to be re-set. May I suggest an explanation?

Three of the four instructions are performative, in that they require the front rows to undertake a specific action (crouching, touching and, finally, engaging). The odd one out is "pause"; this would only require the front rows to stop doing something. As they are not at that stage actually doing anything, it is entirely otiose. Furthermore, it disrupts the rhythm of the responses to the referee's other three instructions.

My guess is that the game's legislators, when drawing up the new rules, suggested that referees should be required to say "crouch", "touch", then pause and then say "engage". But when the rules went to the printers, someone got the wrong end of the stick by suggesting that referees should also say "pause", even though it is totally illogical. Of course once the rules had been printed and translated, it was too late to rectify matters. And so they waste up to 15 minutes in each match re-setting scrums.

Stranger things have happened ...


Btw, congratulations to Italy.

The Brussels Pangloss writes:

All is for the best in this best of all possible worlds? The FT reports:

The heads of the eurozone’s 17 governments came to an unexpected deal on short-term measures to lower borrowing costs of struggling peripheral economies, agreeing to give more financial backing to the bloc’s €440bn rescue fund and lowering the interest rates on Greece’s bail-out loans.

The leaders also backed a plan to buy sovereign bonds of struggling governments when they are initially auctioned, a measure that could allow countries with high borrowing costs to raise cash at much lower yields.

Aye, well. Don't get over-excited. EU Summit deals have a habit of unravelling fairly quickly.

Quote of the day ...

(and any excuse to put up a photo of Kate Moss).


From The Telegraph (here):

Cigarettes are cool, sexy, naughty, anti-social, dangerous to health, filthy and loudly condemned by all right-thinking grown-ups. Now they're going to be in plain wrappers and slipped out from under the counter into a customer's hand. Try and make them even more attractive to young wannabes, why don't you?

A political metaphor

It's all to do with the stride angle. David Cameron is just totally, like, inefficient (again).

Unaffordable?

Here is a useful corrective to a lot of the guff that's been published on public sector pensions:

On page 23 of this week's 200-page Hutton report there is a projection of how much public sector pensions will cost as a percentage of GDP in future years. I've reproduced it below. Even taking into account different assumptions for life expectancy and workforce growth, the cost of public sector pensions has peaked, and between now and 2060 will fall year in, year out.

Even in the worst-case cost scenario, where we all live longer and workers survive Osborne's axe, in 2060 public sector pensions will cost around 1.5% of the GDP, compared with 1.9% today.

The truth is that public sector pensions have, over the past decade, been trimmed back again and again, so the potential future burden has already reduced. Many schemes have increased the age at which members can take their pension. Higher contribution rates from 2012, likely to average 3%, have already been announced and will save around £2.8bn from the public purse. The biggest cut (or fiddle, many would argue) has been the switch from using RPI to CPI for cost-of-living increases once the worker has retired.

So why cut further? The Guardian posits a complicated argument about fairness with the private sector. Me, I think that Lord Hutton and his Tory chums just want to put the boot in to public sector workers.

Curious

A strange oddity from the House of Commons yesterday:

John Hemming (Birmingham, Yardley) (LD): In a secret hearing, Fred Goodwin has obtained a super-injunction preventing him from being identified as a banker. Will the Government hold a debate, or make a statement, on freedom of speech, and whether there is one law for the rich, such as Fred Goodwin, and another for the poor ...

Is being described as a banker so offensive? Or is there something else involved? I doubt if we'll ever know ...

Nearly holiday time again

No need to get excited. The Spanish airport staff will not be going on strike until 20 April. By then I will be firmly tucked up in my hidey-hole on the Costa Del Sol.

As for coming back, well, who cares?

Cool water

I suppose it's mildly amusing and Ms Aniston is indeed a pretty lady:





But glugging out of the bottle is rather vulgar ...

Smoke

Not sure how this is going to work. The Independent reports:

The Government is today expected to unveil proposals that will force tobacco companies to sell cigarettes in plain, unbranded packaging.

Under the guidelines, packets will lose their logos, graphics and distinctive colours, leaving health warnings as the most noticeable marking.

The move, which is designed to drive down smoking rates, will make England the first country in Europe to have plain packaging.

If they are unbranded, how can we tell our Rothmans from our Bensons? And if it only applies to England, where does that leave the rest of the UK? Will the ciggie companies maintain the attractive (?) packaging for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?

Quote of the day

Simon Hoggart (here) on that Libyan misadventure:

Andy McNab it wasn't. I wondered how the chronicler of the SAS's triumphs would handle the capture of a crack army unit by North African farmers. "The first rays of the sun were rising in the east. Suddenly we saw them. They were advancing towards us.

"'Sarge!' I whispered. 'They're armed! Look, they've got pitchforks, hoes, bags of mulch. This lot mean business!'

"'All, right, leave it to me, lad,' said the Sergeant. 'I've faced a few hairy situations in my time. What we're going to do is put in a call to a British diplomat and get him to make a whingeing request to release us. That'll teach those bastards a lesson they won't forget in a hurry!'

"Moments later, we were seized and forced to eat the nourishing breakfast they had provided. Cereal bungling is what the politicians will call that … "

Don't blame me!

What Mr Hague said:

"When our staff go into a potentially dangerous situation, then the level of protection is provided for them based on professional and military advice. I authorised such a mission to be made, to put a diplomatic team into eastern Libya, as I explained, with protection.

"Of course the timing and details of that are operational matters decided by the professionals but ministers must have confidence in their judgments, as I do, and must take full ministerial responsibility for all their actions and judgments and, of course, I do.

"Of course, the prime minister and colleagues were aware that we would attempt to put a diplomatic team into eastern Libya."

What he meant:

I'm not carrying the can for this fiasco. I may be technically responsible but it was those in operational charge that botched it up. And anyway it was No 10 who insisted that the stupid plan go ahead. Of course.

Music of the week

A sad, sad song from the great Fiona Apple:

No, not 'baby' any more
If I need you, I'll just use your simple name
Only kisses on the cheek from now on
And in a little while we'll only have to wave

The good life

What did they expect? That Randy Andy, the prince of air-miles, would turn over a new leaf? Never seemed likely, did it?

Even so, hard to blame him for getting into bed (metaphorically) with all sorts of shady characters, provided they had a bob or two. That's what HM Government wanted, after all. Don't you tell me it wasn't - get real!

'Twas ever thus ...

You can tell if the CBI is on the side of the common man. The Guardian reports:

... the CBI warned chancellor George Osborne to give a deadline for scrapping the 50p tax rate or risk losing talented business people and growing companies to cheaper locations abroad.

Director general John Cridland said wealthy business people needed to play their part in cutting the deficit but warned that top rate taxpayers would be tempted to quit the country if the 50p rate became a permanent feature.

Yes, the principal concern of the CBI is of the 300,000 or so not-so-common men who earn more than £150,000 per year, the level at which the 50% rate kicks in. Never mind those whose pay cannot keep up with inflation or who have lost their jobs in recent months, the CBI has to look after those who earn £3,000 plus per week.

And, incidentally, we seem to have heard before (on numerous occasions) that taradiddle about the rich leaving the country; never seems to amount to much though ...