January « 2010 « Mind Your Ps and Qs

Archive for January, 2010

More On Climategate

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

It looks like Climategate is slowly but surely entering the consciousness of the MSM and by extension the general populace. Unfortunately, it seems you can break FOI laws with impunity if you actually manage to go six months without anyone spotting you doing it.

Meanwhile, I’m oscillating between gobsmacked and incredulous regarding how much these people have got away with. Latest evidence to come to light, a document called Climate Policy – From Rio To Kyoto. The section Politics Enters Into Drafting The IPCC Report (pages 19 / 20) makes very interesting reading. And this has been in the public domain for nearly ten years.

Posted in Politicians, Pseudoscience | 3 Comments »

Between a rock and a hard place

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

I’ve been posting quite a bit here around what is happening in Greece right now, mainly because of the parallels of what happens when a country gets into huge amount of debt, how the situation becomes more and more desperate over time, and the choices it has to make to get out of it.

Goldman Sachs is trying to sort out a sale of $25bn of Greek bonds to the Chinese government. The Chinese in return want a major stake in the National Bank of Greece, which if it happens will provoke major popular outrage.

But what choices do they have ? They are not in a strong negotiating position. The Chinese don’t need their bonds. And they don’t have much to offer in return. A delegation of Greek politicians is going over to Beijing in February to negotiate (beg ?)

See how the balance of power is shifting Eastwards …… but of course it couldn’t happen over here in a couple of years time …… could it ?????

Posted in Economics, State of the Nation | 6 Comments »

Arrest Blair

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

Here’s an interesting little project.

The basic premise is to provide an incentive to those brave enough to attempt a peaceful citizen’s arrest of Tony Blair, for “crimes against peace”.

Before yesterday, I’d have not taken this so seriously, but it does now seem as if HMG were advised that the invasion of Iraq was illegal, yet chose to ignore it.

I’ll be keeping any eye on this to see where it goes.

Posted in Freedom of Speech, Politicians, State of the Nation, World politics | 3 Comments »

Just to lower the tone a little bit

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

Sung by City fans over the weekend ….

Who’s that cryin at the cash point?
Who’s that beggin at the bank?
Its the Glazers and their clan working on their masterplan,
Thank f**k we got the sheikh and not the yank!

Who’s that stood outside Old Trafford?
Who’s that kickin down the door?
Its the bailiff and his boys makin all the f**kin noise,
Cos the Glazer’s couldn’t borrow anymore!

UNI – TED …. that spells lots of debt to me,
with a nick, nack, paddy, whack give the dog a bone, get Ocean Finance on the phone.

Posted in Football | 2 Comments »

UK Housing Market – Can you find fault with this analysis ?

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

http://www.moneyweek.com/investments/property/uk-property-house-prices-investing-in-property-forget-uk-look-to-the-us-00401.aspx

Can’t fault the logic

If house prices aren’t rising with interest rates at 0.5%, what is going to happen when interest rates start to climb. And they will climb at some point – a lot of commentators are saying second half of this year or after the election.

Posted in Housing Market | 7 Comments »

I caved in !!!

Monday, January 25th, 2010

tommy the cat1

Posted in kittehs | 2 Comments »

Seismic Shock

Monday, January 25th, 2010

Regardless of your position regarding the topics raised at the Seismic Shock blog, if this story about police intimidating a blogger doesn’t give you chills, well ….

[edit]

At present, it seems like the link above doesn’t work. Most likely the z-word.com server couldn’t cope with the traffic. Let’s hope that’s all it is. Meanwhile, here’s an alternative link to the “police intimidating a blogger” story.

Posted in Freedom of Speech | 6 Comments »

Leadership

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

<i> “Never again will the American taxpayer be held hostage by banks that are too big to fail,” Mr Obama said.

“While the financial system is far stronger today than it was one year ago, it is still operating under the exact same rules that led to its near collapse,” Mr Obama said.

“If these folks want a fight, it’s a fight I’m ready to have,” Mr Obama vowed. </i>

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8473294.stm

It’s about time someone took the banks on. Been a while coming but this is proper leadership. Watch the rest of the world follow

Posted in Economics, World politics, Wunch of Bankers | No Comments »

Bye bye villa

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

Here is a sequence of events

1. Family have owned land on Northern Cyprus for several generations

2. Invasion takes place in 1974 and they flee their homes

3. British couple spend their savings building villa on disputed land

4. European court rules that original landowner owns property rights

5. They are ordered to demolish the villa and pay damages

And even though it’s not obvious how the ruling will be enforced, it sets a precedent . And to them and all the other Brits and Germans who bought property illegally on disputed territory TOUGH, I have no sympathy whatsoever for you, you should have thought through what you were doing

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8467478.stm

Great judgement !

Posted in Housing Market | 5 Comments »