News - UK

Not much to say today, but it's London, It's June and it's raining... This can only mean one thing!
Yes, Wimbledon has started! Why can't they chose another month? August would be better? but then we might have the same issue, It's August, In London and It's Raining, Hey, must be Wimbledon!

So, Tim Henman will not be winning this year, less likely now than before, why? his only getting older and so the young blood comes in and will beat the crap out of him.

Who will win? No idea, but some one will win and all the rest will lose. simple and easy tip.

A poll shows what us IT folk (we are very nice really)  have known for years, that IT support is one of the most stressful jobs around. Well so says Skillsoft after it polled over 3500 IT 'experts', if it's the same experts I have heard of, I'm not surprised they find it stressful, most don't even know how to install more than 1 operating system, know how to fix a BSOD (a nasty problem that when happens can be a bit of a worry, but most times it's ok)
So what are the other jobs? Well the folks at El Reg have a report on it, here are the results.

1. IT
2. Medicine/Caring Profession
3. Engineering
4. Sales and Marketing
5. Education
6. Finance
7. Human Resources
8. Operations
9. Production
10. Clerical

There you go, us IT peeps get pestered by those below the in the list.
To go further, there are obviously far more stressful jobs, and again the folks at El Reg have delivered.

1. Iraqi police recruit
2. US Army bomb disposal expert
3. Baghdad A&E doctor
4. British Airways pilot
5. Naomi Campbell's personal assistant
6. Naomi Campbell's housekeeper
7. Dick Cheney's shooting buddy
8. Steve Ballmer's office furniture supplier
9. President Bush's grammatical consultant
10. Wayne Rooney's fiancée
11. IT journalist

I think the guy who does the grammar for Bush has given up! I suppose if you Cheney's shooting buddy, but not a lawyer, you may just be ok, or disguise yourself as a quail and you'll be safe. Just make sure he's not sober!

Today, the Lords debated, very vigorously and with great emotion on the issue of Assisted Death. Both sides of the debate had a lot to say, but it was defeated. So, what's my view on this issue?

I personally, agree that one should be given the choice to decide when they leave this world. This is the same argument I have used over time on this issue. I am aware that this is a very emotive issue. I also do not believe in what religious folk describe as the sanctity of life, in that God gave you life, so he is the only one who can take it.

The main arguments against were the religious groups, and I have to say, people who are, I believe of strong religious background.
What is the requirement to be accepted, if one can say that, are (with my comments) Source
Ok, this part is very clear. It's the patient that makes the first approach. The doctor then has to check if the illness in question is terminal. If the patient has to be suffering intolerable pain, one can very well assume that they are  or will be on morphine based painkillers or maybe stronger all the time. So can one be said to be of sound mind? Unless one is able to make a living will, that would say, if such or such situation arise, an example, would be that the pain and condition is being treated by aggressive drug treatment , which will in most cases have bad side effects. Making your life a misery.
One thing that is beginning to offered is palliative care, this is a very good alternative to staying in the standard ward where to be honest, are not very inspiring or inspired in the care for those who are dying and know that they are. i suggest popping over to this site on the BBC (How to have a good death)
Though I think palliative care is very good and serves a very good issue for the terminally ill. But in the end, you are going to die.
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Iain Dale and Guido Fawkes have got together to publish:
What makes this even more fun is that they're asking Bloggers to help write it. Simply take a look at their list of top scandals and follow the instructions.

So says the IPS ( Identity and Passport Service) corporate and business plan. Business Plan? A Business plan? Am I to understand that HMG are going to be attempting to make money from My ID ? Looks like it to me.
This is the vision, cue rosey flowery images of people who are all happy and there is no crime, no illnesses as all that will be banished by the almighty, all powerfull leader TB (humm that is an Illness in more than one way, but that's another story)

Accredited organisations? Who will give them accredication? I hear that cowboy carpark attendants can get access to your address by calling the DVLA and saying, 'I'm a Mr X and I work for BadParking Inc, and car number so and so is parked illigally but has done a runner, can I have the owners address so that I can send a fine?' Yes sir, here's the address ... That's it, fine sent on, no checks, nothing...

So what's to stop an 'accredited' organisation doing the same? A cowboy working in one? There doesn't seem to be any organisation that has teeth to challenge on behalf of the person affected.

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Ok, I'm not much of a royalist, quite a disfunctional family as they are and not a good example for marriage advice. They all seem to end in failure, except one, Prince Edward. But there you go.

So, It's Ma'am's (that's supposed to be the correct way to say it) will be 80 next week, the 21^st of April. So for this occaasion the roya website has put up 80 factoids about her life. Here are some that I think are rather entertaining in a way.


Ok, not 100% correct as he was born a whole month before her reign, but we can miss that one


Some one must have forgotten to bring one and poped into the local market and bought a pineapple, eggs. Someone else must have been peckish, maybe french, ate all the snails and just gave her the shells. No idea what one would do with 7Kg of prawns.


That's fact #20 and not #1 ? Read More

Yep, small entry, to say, yep I'm still alive. The clocks in most of Europe go forward 1 hour today! and you won't get it back till late October... Have fun with that extra light in the evening. Hopefully we will get some semblence af a summer.

Anyway, that's that, spring is hear, and am looking forward to the old April showers as believe it or not, but the South East of the UK is heading for a drought this summer. They are saying that it 'could' be like 1976 when there were water taps in the steets, if not that, then water lorries. The UK a highly developped western country and we still have the old problems of the lack of water. There you go... that's it for me tonight!

Well yes, but so does drinking too much booze and smoking too much as well.
This entry has been inspired by the ridiculous discussion that has been on going since David 'Casznova' blunket reclassified cannabis from a class B drug to a Class C. OK, it's still not 'legal' so I really don't understand why people get confused with this statement


We know that cannabis can cause problem, but as far as I'm concerned someone who is high on cannabis is less likely to cause any fight than some one who is boozed up to the eyeballs.

If we look at the statics and the cost to the state of the two 'drugs' that are legal I really am confused. if we add to that the number of deaths and family breakups due to drink and all other problems (Which there are too many for me to note down) that it can cause. Read More

I've worked in the past as a technical support person, and while there came up, but I'm sure I'm not alone in this, with a theory of three types of Technical people.

1. Those who accept that they don't and will not understand the technolgy and will basically allow you to fix the problems without too much trouble and will follow your instructions very well.
2. Those who don't accept that they don't understand the technology, these people will also read the technology pages or magazines and pick up all the buzz words, latest technologies. These people will not do the leg work to understand.
   
3. Those who do know the technolgie and do understand it, for me, I can have a good technical conversation about the merits of this or that technolgy.

Right now that's that explained, now why am I talking about the three types of users? well it looks as if Charles Clark the home secretary technology advisors or himself are full of the 2nd type.

Charles Clark in the labour's almost biblical zeal to capture, trace and monitor everyone, wants ISPs to retain all your access traffc to the internet, this includes, your e-mails, which sites you went to, how long your logged on for (told you, daft, what if you have adsl or cable, you don't 'logon or log off') and who knows what else.

Charles Clarke says he understands why ISPs are concerned about the cost of implementing the new data retention law, but seems to be as reluctant as his predecessors to give the industry any help

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So yesterday, (I've been thinking about this one) Blair published his Respect initiative. The idea behind this is simple, How can we deal with what is essentially a social problem, but lets use a sledge hammer to crack a peanut.

Personally I agree with the notion that respect of ones elders, people of responibility has gone by the sideway over the past years. One has to ask the question why has this happened, what has changed?

Some people who say that they never had that problem in the past, I would answer, yes, every generation has it's group of of social out casts, people who don't fit in to the present model of what the norm is at the time. The thing is, the norm changes at every generation.

Kids demanded rights, they got them and I agree, again with a lot of these rights, but the problem that a lot of kids forget is that with Rights come responsability, this is where things begin to fall apart. and I think where the problem has a starting point.

Firstly, discipline always starts at the home, It is part of the parental responibility to teach this, if this task is left to the schools, it's already far to late, So, with respect to Blair's initiative, taking parents of disruptive teenagers to parenting classes is, well, a total waste of time. Read More

January 03, 2006

On the death of the Official Secrets Act

It has come as a surprise to some that I am not currently a guest of Her Majesty. It is plainly a disappointment to others, particularly the trolls who have been gleefully predicting on Lenin's Tomb that the agents of the state will come and get us.

We have published what were, undoubtedly, classified British government documents. Under the notorious Official Secrets Act that is an offence, and everyone connected with it is plainly guilty. There is no public interest defence.

But there are problems with the Official Secrets Act. Despite New Labour attempts to roll them back, British criminal trials still involve juries, and they are reluctant to convict in OSA trials, where they often sympathise with the motives of the defendant. Clive Ponting was acquitted after leaking that the Belgrano was heading home when we sank it. The jury acquitted him, against the clear direction of the judge. And that was in the context of the Falklands War, which the British public supported. What chance of a conviction in the context of the Iraq war, which the British public oppose?

Katharine Gunn released details of GCHQ's involvement with the NSA in bugging UN delegations in New York, and the government withdrew the charges against her rather than face a trial.

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For the UK traveller, if you want to travel around Europe, the E111 is now no longer be available. It has now changed to the EHIC ( European Health Insurance Card ). You can order this card from the following website www.dh.gov.uk/travellers Oh and this is free!
This will allow you to benefit from free or reduced-cost medical care when travelling in an EEA country or Switzerland.

The UK government has since more news of the extrodinary Rendition stories came out last month that it does not accept evidence obtained via tourture. The truth is now out...

The doucuments below have been published by Craig Murray's website (down at the momet due, either to too much traffic, but more like shut down) Craigs Website (Former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan)

Main Evidence, PDF file here: Click and  Fax image here


What's in the documents:



There is a lot more info at Blairwatch 

Not much more to add from what Blairwatch says, but suffic to say, add the files from the two links above to your website.

I could add,, Happy New Year to Blair... It's gonna be a nice 2006 for you... Read More

It was on reading this Vioxx court case ends in mistrial that inspired this post.

Bacground to the issue:

Over the summer, it was reported that Thousands may seek Vioxx damages, as for some people, taking Vioxx has caused very serious problem and in some cases fatal .

I am aware that this issue may cause offence and I'm sure that in the future we may see more cases like this due to the nature of newer drugs. But here we go, Drug companies have to invest millions of dollars to simply get the a drug on the market, A drug can spend years in clinical trials in order to check that the drug will not have to many adverse affects on people. You may or may not know, but your common asperin that you take everyday for all sorts of things, to clearing a headache to thining the blood for Heart attack patients, would not pass todays stringent clinical trials, it goes to show, how difficult these trials are. I'm not justifying what the pharmaceutical companies do, but pointing out how hard it is to test a drug before allowing it to be used by the general public.

So back to the main question, Are Medicines Always To Blame? In my view, not always, it is impossible to be able to test a drug, or anything for every eventuality, for every combination to be able to say, this drug is 100% safe. In fact, NOTHING we take, eat, drink is 100% safe, be it organic or non-organic. Read More

So I observed on waking up this morning after a night of fiddling around with my gallery ( here ) managed to get Google map included so that you can see where I have been, OK, so I've only been to the London Eye and Nowhere else, Just haven't got around to adding other photos yet. But it's getting there.

On the Job front, I'm still waiting for feedback, as usual, this kills my nerves, so I have to take a deep breath to calm them a bit when ever my phone rings. Hopefully some news for today.

The Tory party as most of you may know have voted in David Cameron ( East end Leadership skills ), Ok so youth triumphed over age and experience (Ken Clarke) but there you go, it's a party with no real focus at the moment. As very often mention Tony Blair is the best Tory PM ever!

Condi Rice is over here in Europe trying to convince us Europeans that the US doesn't support torture, Tony Blair is also trying the same trick, but the evidence is mounting by the day.
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