Another good day to bury bad news - Jo Moore and Mandelson meet again

The spin failure Mandelson, managed to run through the House of Lords the first reading of the part privatisation of royal mail, in an undebated hearing.

While Gordon Brown sunk politics to a disparagingly low level of consideration, by pretending he gave a monkeys arse about the death of Camerons son, Mandelson went one better.

Due for debate today (26th February) Mandelson decided that, an unpopular bill, with more than 120 Labour MPs signing a motion to oppose the Bill, he would introduce it a day earlier as an opportunistic piece of politics.

It does smack of sweet Jo Moore in 2001 '11 Sept 2001: Spin doctor Jo Moore sent her infamous e-mail, suggesting to colleagues it was a good day to "bury" bad news.'

Mandelson, was twice forced to resign from Ministerial positions, had to borrow money from friends to purchase houses, yet turned up as a Euro Minister and enjoying a luxury lifestyle, all on a salary of less than US$300,000 a year, ignoring all questions of 'how did you get the money?' and garnering a peerage at the same time.

In 1996 he acquired No. 9 Northumberland Place, a four storey Georgian terraced house in Notting Hill Gate at a cost of £475,000, with another £50,000 spent on a remodelling by the designer Seth Stein. At the time there was a certain amount of speculation regarding how Mandelson had managed to afford such luxury. It was established that another Labour MP, Geoffrey Robinson had lent him £373,000 on an interest free basis.

Mandelson failed to declare this loan as an interest as he was required to do, but to make the sleaze even worse, Geoffrey Robinson had been linked with Robert Maxwell and was under investigation by the Department of Trade and Industry, the ministry which Mandelson headed. Blair's legal advisers, Charles Falconer (The same man who decided the invasion of Iraq was OK) and Derry Irvine decided that as Mandelson was not in direct control of the Robinson investigation there should be no problem. Mandelson appeared on television to argue that '...There is no conflict of interest so the question of resignation does not arise...'.

Mandelson had neglected to inform the Britannia Building Society (who had lent the rest of the money) that the £373,000 was a loan and not his own money, and was therefore technically guilty of deception. The man resigned.

A year later in 1999, he returned to office thanks to 'no sleaze' Blair. Strichand Hinduja re-applied for a British Passport in February 1998, at the same time as the Hindujas made an offer to help fund the Millenium Dome, to the tune of £1 million. Mandelson made a telephone call to Mike O'Brien, the Home office minister, enquiring as to the progress of this application, and also passed on a written enquiry regarding the passport application of a third brother, Prakash Hinduja in May 2000.

Mandelson initially appeared to deny that he had ever made any "direct contact" with anyone in the Home Office on behalf of the Hindujas, then retracted his denial claiming he'd been missunderstood. Within days he was required to sign a second resignation letter and left the government on the 24th January 2001.

In 2004 Blair put him forward as the British choice for European Commissioner and he was duly appointed.

This poor misunderstood man was subsequently given a peerage and returned as yet another of Browns unelected and unaccountable Ministers in Cabinet in 2007.

So the cycle revolves.

Dead people make for a good time to introduce unpopular policies.

Jo Moore on 11th September 2001 and Mandelson the former Minister without portfolio and spin meister general for the Labour Politbureau, follow a fashion in labour party politics.

Think of the lowest depth you can go to and then go further.

Nice one Mandelson. Have you already chosen the investor for the Post Office 'investment' by any chance?

Why did Mandelson choose to introduce the Bill a day earlier when UK politicians were pretending to give a flying fig about dead children?
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Ryanair contempt - is it any surprise?

Ryanair are in yet another spat about how they treat the world with contempt.

This all arises from a comment on a blog about a Ryanair online booking service bug. In inimitable Ryanair style a response was made to this blog post

response # 10

  1. Ryanair Staff #1 Says:

    jason!
    you’re an idiot and a liar!! fact is!
    you’ve opened one session then another and requested a page meant for a different session, you are so stupid you dont even know how you did it! you dont get a free flight, there is no dynamic data to render which is prob why you got 0.00. what self respecting developer uses a crappy CMS such as word press anyway AND puts they’re mobile ph number online, i suppose even a prank call is better than nothing on a lonely sat evening!!

Not the best PR, supposing it was a ryanair staffer. The ip address confirmed it was a Ryanair response, so Ryanair came up with an even more disparaging response....

'...Ryanair can confirm that a Ryanair staff member did engage in a blog discussion. It is Ryanair policy not to waste time and energy in corresponding with idiot bloggers and Ryanair can confirm that it won’t be happening again. Lunatic bloggers can have the blog sphere all to themselves as our people are far too busy driving down the cost of air travel...'.

It hit the national press as another example of how Ryanair treats the world with contempt.

In my view, it is of no great surprise Ryanair treats people with contempt.

People who fly Ryanair deserve all the abuse Ryanair and anyone else can muster.

The world is made of those who pay their way and contribute to society and those who suck like leeches and Ryanair customers fit the latter profile comfortably.

What makes the arrogant, predominately British flying passenger, think they deserve anything other than contempt, when they actually bother to spend the time to find a flight which costs virtually nothing?

There are people around the world who are dying of starvation for the price of their bargain seat. I know of people who have paid more for their taxi fare to the airport, 20 miles away than a flight over hundreds of miles.

If I were O'Leary, I too would treat my passengers with contempt.

Sure, if Ryanair were dealing with normal people then this attitude would stink, but they aren't. Ryanair deal with the tight fisted arses of society. The 'I want it for nothing' mentality, so pervasive in British Society.

To people who would not fly Ryanair, for sure their responses stink, the replies are contemptuous and illiterate, but they are not seeking to appease these people. Ryanair is looking to attract the leeches of Society. The people who were at the last hours of the sales at Woolworths, picking up the final meaningless bargains.

The Ryanair customer is likely to be revelling in the recession, delighting in failed businesses in administration, picking up 'bargains', not in the least bothered by the families and lives destroyed by redundancy, loss of home and loss of self esteem.

The same people who turn up at property auction to grab a repossessed house, without a flicker of concern or conscience for the now homeless family.

Ryanair do certainly mess up if you are a human being who actually gives a damn, but for those who don't, money is and always will be king, Ryanair treating you with contempt is part of the deal.

Tomorrow will Ryanair ticket sales be reduced? I doubt it.

Will Ryanair give a damn that some people in the blogosphere are upset that Ryainair stance is that:

'...It is Ryanair policy not to waste time and energy in corresponding with idiot bloggers and Ryanair can confirm that it won’t be happening again. Lunatic bloggers can have the blog sphere all to themselves...'

of course not.

Do they really care that The Times and The Daily Telegraph are upset? Why would they, 'Upset from Royal Tunbridge Wells' is not their target market.

Ryanair treat their passengers with the contempt they deserve, the rest of us, they know will never fly with them and therefore on a business model, they don't give a damn.





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Ivan Cameron dies, UK political system grinds to a halt

Over stated perhaps.

While I am sure the Cameron's are very distressed at the loss of their son in the early hours of this morning, I fail to see why the political process needs to stop.

Gordon Brown has decided to pull out of PMQs today. PMQs are a weekly showdown. Sure many of the questions are planted and the theatre can over take the value of the weekly Parliamentary session, but they are an important part of the political process and the Prime Minister should not be looking for easy options to deny MPs the opportunity to question him and his policies.

I can't say I personally have any view either way on Cameron, or his family and how they will react to this death, but I do know these people Cameron included, want to lead the country. Well leadership means responsibility and responsibility is not about forgetting the millions of people he wants to lead while he has a personal setback.

Brown has absolutely no excuse. Protocol may leave it that the PM doesn't appear if the opposition leader isn't about and vice versa, but that is insulting to everyone and indicative of the way politicians haven't got a clue about leadership or management. The 'I am too important to appear if my equal isn't about' attitude stinks and should be eliminated. Politicians waffle endlessly about getting rid of the class system, this attitude reeks of class structure.

I don't know the Cameron or his family. I do however know thousands of parents every year loose their children, some through illness, such as the death of the boy, others through accidents and war, I don't recall the chairman of BP taking the day off because one of his staff lost their child.

Brown continues to wage war in Afghanistan and Iraq, where many innocent civilians are killed and described as 'collateral damage'. This man should be in the House today answering questions as to why he finds the killing of innocent children in Afghanistan and Iraq causes him no upset or concern what so ever, yet the death of this particular child makes it impossible for him to function.
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Thanks to Jesse from overstimulate

The wonderful world of twitter came once again to my clarion call.

I was having a problem with a firefox add-on and after trying for an hour or so to resolve the problem myself, I managed to achieve nothing apart from annoyed.

I used that easy communication tool, twitter and sent out a request for help. The joy of twitter, is that it not ony spreads out to your contacts, but can be found by people interested in a subject area.

In the early hours of this morning, I received a response from someone i had never heard of until just then.

He proceeded to work with me to resolve the problem.

Thanks Jesse who blogs at overstimulate

If you are wondering about twitter, new online business ideas has a useful post twitter review about using and setting up a twitter account.

If you are a twitter user, my account is anarchyintheuk, look forward to catching up
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Genital mutilation, but hey its all in the name of freedom

The barriers between the judiciary and government have been obliterated by the National Socialist Party of the UK, more commonly known as the Labour Party, who are the current elected oligarchs in the UK.

For no apparent reason, from a legal perspective, two judges, Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones, decided that the release of intelligence information in the case of Binyam Mohamed, would put the public of the United Kingdom at risk.

That is a governmental issue, not a judicial issue.

The Stasi style operation is made murkier, by the fact that it was under US Government pressure that this decision was reached.

We are in a position, that the US Government uses strong arm tactics on the UK Government, so much for Saint Obama and the new 'US co-operation', were this not bad enough, the UK Government then puts pressure on the Judiciary to make political decisions.

This smacks of similar tactics in the BAe investigation, which was ground down by Political influence in judicial process.

While politicians learn very little from history, one thing they do seem to digest are the manuals of dictatorships.

The UK judicial system must be kept free from political influence and the judges who made this decision should be kicked off the benches.

The alleged torture of this man, including genital mutilation, in the name of freedom, requires due legal process. A question mark hangs over whether the UK is the correct country to be involved in this process in the first instance remains, as Binyam Mohamed is an Ethiopian National, who was granted leave to stay in the UK, but not UK citizenship and was 'arrested' in Pakistan. It appears therefore that under the 1951 UN refugee convention, Britain has no responsibility for this man.

That said, US political let alone UK political pressure, has no place in the UK Judicial system.

The case continues with a possible appeal of the House of Lords, but as these Peers are happy to take cash for amendments, it seems unlikely anything will change.

With this backdrop, it is anticipated Binyam Mohamed, will be released soon, as all charges were dropped in 2005, why three years on he is still being held Guantanamo, is yet another intriguing question.

The question of UK intelligence officers complicity in the torture of Binyam Mohamed is, according to the Government, still an ongoing investigation.
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Britain signals a call for help


Mandelson looks a little forlorn as he holds the Union Flag upside down, while at an agreement signing ceremony with Chinese officials.

Flying the Union Flag upside down, historically indicates distress and a call for help.

While many are suggesting the flag was inverted in error, because Mandelson, Brown and the civil service are just plain incompetent, or alternatively they are too stupid to realize the Flag can be flown upside down, but I just wonder, whether this was in reality a call for help, either because the trade agreement is of no value to Britain or because the UK is on the verge of bankruptcy and all assistance is now required.

Whatever the real reason, the visit of the Chinese Premier to the UK, has shown the complete contempt with which British Police treat demonstrators. The irony being, the protests were about lack of freedom, in China, specifically the Tibet issue.

The UK is quite simply, no longer a country in which liberty and personal freedom play any part in the thinking of the Orwellian Politburo in Government.
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