Tagged Posts
I'm against the "Broadband Tax"
From news.bbc.co.uk …
So this Government is insisting that it will pass this terrible idea — to tax every owner of a telephone line in the UK £6 per year — before the next election. Well, at least, I guess that means we can forget about a late Autumn election, but there is nothing otherwise good about it.Since Margaret Thatcher privatised BT over twenty years ago, the provision of telecommunications services — which includes Broadband as well as telephony — has been the remit of private companies: not the state.
Yet here we have the government demanding cash from just about every person in the country — including pensioners and others who may have no interest in 'getting online' — in order not to provide a service themselves, but to give a profitable, commercial business that money. Directly.
This is not only wrong as a point of "what is 'tax' for" but also fails to recognise that the multiplicity of organisations which can deal with telephony and broadband services have the profits available to connect up the areas currently by-passed, indeed they will have to connect to them if they are to seek to increase their income and profits, purely as a matter of business practice.
So lets not see a tax imposed on all which would only benefit commercial operators.
ID Cards fail
This is the ID card that the Labour Government insist is fully and absolutely secure.
This is the ID card that the Labour Government insist will protect us all from terrorists.
This is the ID card that the Labour Government insist will stop people accessing services they have no right to access.
"Yeah, right."
06-Aug-2009 14:33 · Trackback ·
tags: Labour · no2id · Politics · state v society
tags: Labour · no2id · Politics · state v society
Re-shuffle?
David Miliband — stays as Foreign Secretary
Jack Straw — stays as Justice Minister
Lord Mandelson — stays at Business
Ed Balls — stays at Schools
Ed Miliband — keeps with Climate
Shaun Woodward — remains at Northern Ireland
Jim Murphy — stays with Scotland
05-Jun-2009 16:08 · Trackback ·
tags: politics · Labour
tags: politics · Labour
Brown's Mandate
More government porn
From news.bbc.co.uk …
This time, instead of putting a porn subscription on the bill to be paid by tax-payers, the Home Office's site on counter-terrorism linked to a Japanese porn website! It just goes to show that you should always check the accuracy and currency of sites you link to — according to the home office the original site at that domain had gone offline and the domain bought by another company and, er, 're-purposed'. Oh dear...06-Apr-2009 20:12 · Trackback ·
tags: Labour
tags: Labour
I still have a soft spot
From www.totalpolitics.com …
Ken is someone I 'grew up with' in many ways; first his stint taking over the GLC and then more recently his founding of the GLA. I always thought it highly amusing that where County Hall — the seat of the GLC — was directly opposite Westminster, City Hall — where the GLA was eventually based — was well out of sight of the Houses of Parliament, over by Tower Bridge. Indeed, being on the opposite bank of the river to the Tower of London there were moments when I expected someone to shout "Off with his head!"
Now, in an interview with the doyen of Tory pundits, Iain Dale, he is letting us know he isn't out for the count and intends to stand again for London leader.
I cant — quite — decide whether to wish him well. That he has done (or tried to do) many good things in his time at the GLC and GLA is beyond question so far as I am concerned. Whether he should be welcomed back for a third bite of the cherry I'n not so sure.
19-Mar-2009 11:43 · Trackback ·
tags: Labour · London · politics
tags: Labour · London · politics
Is recycling a good thing?
Now, the BBC and others are reporting that accountants BDO Story Hayward have done some research for the TUC and reckon that one in every 56 UK businesses will fail this year, a 59% rise on 2008. Further, the British Chambers of Commerce last week suggested that UK unemployment could reach 3.2 million — or just over 10% of the workforce — by the second half of next year.
I can't help wondering whether the Tories would do well to just recycle the old poster and not spend money on new advertising …
16-Mar-2009 20:03 · Trackback ·
tags: politics · Labour · voting
tags: politics · Labour · voting
Twitter
FriendFeed
GeekSpeakr
LinkedIn
CreativeOrg















Feed