Nowun Till is intrigued by Waitrose advertising Heroin

In the UK, there is a group of ad writers who really believe it is trendy and hip to use the '70's as a style icon.

We have the farcical idea that John Lydon is a man to sell butter. Waitrose now feel that using the Stranglers track Golden Brown, is a way to introduce us to their products.

These are evidently people of my generation who now wish to pretend they were the rebels in their youth. I assure you, when I was a teenager in the '70's these ad copy writers were not quite as rebellious as they like to pretend.

I was living in Bromley, I was a punk rocker, but I had very few friends, very few allies and faced a peer group who despised my lifestyle.

Yet now, the pretence is that this was all great stuff and was supported by these advertising copy writers.

The Sex Pistols, sold out to cash very early and to the credit of them, they made no pretence of it. Lydon was and remains an image, but not a reality of the time. His only interest was in money, good for him, but pretending he was rebelling and that the advertising copy wirters were supporters. really takes a joke one step too far.

We have London Calling, as a theme behind the Olympics 2012, which is nothing but a sick joke. London Calling, was a song of its time about social deprivation, not about London being a great City.

The Waitrose theme song, Golden Brown, evidently unbeknown to the copy writers, is about Heroin.

Why don't the morons, now in their late 40's and early 50's, stop pretending they were of the punk '70s.

Punk has become a focal point for the seventies and early eighties (way after Lydon had disappeared). but was a minority and intensely disliked lifestyle, I still have the knife scars to prove how disliked we were.

I have yet to find one of these aged 'trendy' ad execs, who actually understands punk.

Sure the Stranglers were not mainstream punk, but at the time, no one cared, but they seem to now.... but when Waitrose advertise Heroin, you know the ad agencies really are run by morons.
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Nowun Till snorts around the bank directors tax payers trough

Great news for all of us in the UK. Our banks are safe.... erm???

Lets try that one more time... Great news Bank Executives bonuses guaranteed by tax payers.

The announcement that the UK Government is going to purchase shares in a few banks and insist the money is lent out is being viewed by some as a wonderful idea.

Lets look at what got us into the mire here... Lending and over borrowing... So to get out of it... Borrow more. As we are heading into a recession, the UK Government has itself announced 3,000 people being sacked today, how are all these redundant workers going to pay for these loans? To suggest the banks need the money to lend to each other is any kind of solution, is to ignore the issue of what happened this time round.

Even worse, is the Directors trough. It may have escaped the myopic vision of some people, but executives are paid bonuses, in many ways, including .... share price.... Tax payers buying shares in failing companies funnily enough will bolster share prices and the poor old executives will be forced to accept their bonuses for such wonderful performance.

I do however agree that any bank which has managed to get tax payers to clear their debts and bolster their assets should be rewarding the directors with huge bonuses. It is a wonderful learning exercise for those of us not running banks... Create a business model which fails and is too complicated for politicians to understand, insist the world will end if your business goes bust and hey, your debts are gone and the taxpayers bolster your share-price.

Why don't politicians leave what they don't understand alone and cease listening to spin doctors, the failing banks have insisted the world is about to end and those PR guys have done a great job in creating a smoke screen behind which politicians have panicked.

The simple fact remains, in the UK and US there remain a significant number of banks, who are doing very nicely and very capable of buying out any ailing and failing banks. The investor guarantee schemes fulfil requirements for 98% of the population.
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Nowun Till thinks about ID cards

The British Government are intent on introducing ID cards, on the pretext it will stop terrorism and illegal immigration. Despite simple common sense that this is nonsense, my own views to one side. I wonder how effective this will really turn out.

Already, weekly there are reports of sensitive personal data being lost and IDs being stolen. Not to mention the biometrics intended to be used on the cards have shown a very high failure rate.

This week, comes some even more reassuring news.

The Stalinist sounding 'Border Agency', run by HM Revenue and Customs until 1st April have problems with their own security checks. Seven Security Personnel working in the Border Agency turn out to be illegal immigrants. One has been arrested, five have resigned and one is on maternity leave.

This isn't new news, as the problems were discovered in December last year, however information was only obtained recently, using disclosures under the Freedom of Information Act, not because the department wished to be honest, but because they were forced. I wonder what else is sitting under the carpet waiting to be forced out in to the open. HMRC specialised in employing illegal workers, in 2005, 10 cleaners were found to be carrying forged documents.

HMRC commented, these 'irregularities' came about during routine checks on paperwork. In other words, employ first and check later.... Nice way to work and an interesting defence for any child care home who 'accidently' employs a paedophile... Well we were going to check later, or a hospital employing a mass killer.... well it was on our to do list.

Not good enough HMRC and certainly note a vote of confidence on the ability for ID checks and hence cards, to be in any way effective.
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