James

James


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Banana drama

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Save the Library

Calderdale Council, which includes Halifax in West Yorkshire, have decided it's time to bulldoze the Central Library building (which also houses the Council Archive) and split the facilities around two out of town sites, one of which is yet to be built and is at present a pile of rubble, waiting to be turned into a thrilling mix of retail and office accommodation (in this recession????).

Please sign the petition so we can, hopefully, restore some sanity.

Work ever longer hours - even though the dole queues lengthen

So we're keeping the 48 hour week opt-out. Good news for UKIP but pretty crap for anyone looking for work. Absolute madness.

And let's all live in cloud cuckoo land

Interesting to see the Department of Children, Schools and Families (DCSF- or Dept for Cushions and Soft Furnishings) to the Children's Society survey into young people's experience and understanding of the recession - according to their spokesperson, we it's "disappointing" that children should be worried, going on to say, rather obviously that

"Parents are clearly best placed to talk to their children about their worries, but schools also play an important role in teaching young people the skills they need to become healthy, happy and confident individuals."

How can they be "confident" if we keep them in the dark: confidence comes from having the ability and the knowledge to make informed decisions and have an awareness of the world around them; not by being cosseted and deluded - that way we create a generation of happy morons.

Follow the banker

According to David Buik in the Guardian (of all places) bankers deserve their bonuses and to refuse them

"will discourage quality people from contributing to the wealth of the country and to our emergence from this terrible recession"

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But surely it was the self-same "quality people" that got us into this mess by following the orders of their leaders - the former "masters of the universe" who didn't understand what they were driving their underlings to sell and acquire on markets bloated by securitised debt.

As for the argument that runs: "we have to pay them because it's in their contract" - has Parliament forgotten that it's supreme: contract law is common law, statute law changes it at a stroke and can be retrospective. Have a look at the Law Reform (Frustrated Contracts) Act 1943 to see how far Parliament has intervened in the past. Those two were desperate times - we were at war then, and the Act prevented claims being lost for goods that were supplied to countries subsequently conquered by the Nazis.

Special relationship - good job the judges are realists

As expected, Miliband bottled it at the dispatch box. Let's hope the comments by Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones in the Binyamin Mohamed case don't get swept away in a tide of Foreign Office mush. And why does the US allow openness at home but prevent it here - Clive Stafford-Smith, once again, has a very pertinent take on the nature of the relationship - and the supine behaviour of our politicos, to whom it seems to matter more than that most cherished of democratic freedoms: parliamentary supremacy.

A fight they can't win?

"British jobs for British workers" - a laudable refrain, but one that looks like a fight that can't be won.The anger of those picketing the Lindsey Refinery - and their supporters at sites elsewhere in the UK - are a symptom of the fear and unease felt by many workers, but EU law won't allow the government to ban foreign workers coming here to work.

Strange also that Gordon Brown, having given the hostage to fortune phrase in the first place back in September 2007, today tried to straddle two horses heading for a painful divergence: speaking from Davos, he empathised with the protesters BUT pleaded for a rejection of protectionism - as the late, great Eric Morecambe would've said "get out of that".

This is just the first protest we'll see in the course of the recession: just hope that the others have a better chance of success.

Independent Financial Adviser Question

The most pressing question you're likely to hear from your IFA right now? "Do you want fries with that?"

Stimulate your pet - it's official

That nice Mr Benn, the Environment Secretary, is issuing pet owners with Codes of Practice, which include such gems as pets need beds, a toilet and mental stimulation.

His dad must be so pleased to see he's following in his footsteps as a fearless Socialist thinker...

The Quiet American

That, apparently, is the city nickname for Lloyds TSB Chief Exec. Eric Daniels. But yesterday, during a broadcast conference call, he sounded like the king of jargon. He talked about using the "synergy" that will arise between HBOS and Lloyds TSB to create £1.5 billion in savings for the merged banking entity.

I think that means here in Halifax that jobs will go - especially as the news reports seem to favour the BOS side of things, as opposed to the mortgage specialist H part of the company.

Let's hope the quiet American is prepared to listen to the town's MPs and Rosie Winterton, MP, Minister for Yorkshire & the Humber, because "synergy" could mean the end for this town.

Banking 2008

I went with a relative to close his Bradford & Bingley savings account last Wednesday. He was concerned about the bank's future stability and wanted to make sure his hard-earned was safe. The junior employee behind the counter tried to dissuade him, promising us that the bank was safe. So safe, in fact, that they were now recruiting and "look, we've all being given new uniforms!".

Not convinced, he went ahead with the closure. Fast forward to Friday and the "safety" of new uniforms and recruitment was exposed as a pretty hollow sham - the share price is now less than the rights offer to existing shareholders - and the hoped for American private equity investor has high tailed it back to the land of the free.

Shame that a once solid building society got suckered into the self-certification and get-rich-quick buy-to-let. Shame also that the chief donkey wallahs give the poor footsoldiers a dodgy script to play out to worried investors.

Northern Wreck and now Bradford & Bungley: northern-based demutualised former buildings societies on the get rich quick trai - one was unfortunate, but two looks like the start of a trend!

Naked children? Not on the Cake!

Not often I agree with Esther Rantzen but her comments about over the top child protection decisions are amply illustrated by Asda's refusal to allow the photo of a baby's bottom on a birthday cake intended for the now grown-up owner of the derriere.

Rantzen's comments were made in response to a Civitas report, entitled Licensed to Hug, which highlights the fears felt by many who would have previously volunteered to work with children, but now feel put off by the attitude of some organisations and even wider society itself.

Of course, CRB checks are necessary, but, as Asda have shown, disproportionate responses have far-reaching consequences and run the risk of preventing children from forming the relationships with adult members of the wider community that are necessary for them to develop into responsible and mature people in their own right.

Don't worry - Gordon only wants to protect you

I've read this speech three times now and I still don't understand how giving the state carte blanch to hold detailed personal information should make me feel any safer from terror.

Apart from the difficulty of knowing exactly who will be able to access my DNA, biometrics, bank account, Tufty club membership, grandfathers' inside leg measurements etc, etc., there's still the problem of misuse.

After all, we're only just learning how many councils have misused the powers granted to them under the Regulation of Investigatory Procedures Act, which has seen local authorities "spying" on people applying for school places and filling their wheelie bins - all in total disregard of of Jack Straw's solemn assurance that there would be tight controls on those using it.

Now, some will say if you've nothing to fear... But that's not the point - neither is the threat we face: we were not consulted about this massive intrusion into our personal lives. It feels like were just sleepwalking into a total surveillance society.

Benjamin Franklin had it absolutely right, when he said:

"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety"

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Lesson in decorum and taste from the freesheets

Metro, Associated Newspaper's daily giveaway, offered its readers a new take on the Burma cyclone on Wednesday, May 7. Above the headline "Burma cyclone death toll could top 50,000", was a panel urging readers to log on so they could see a video of the destruction wrought by cyclone Nargis.

I know participation is all in news media, but on this occasion the best participation would be via donation - not morbid cyber-gawping.

Disasters' Emergency Committee Nargis appeal.

Serving Suggestion

I was a bit put out when we bought this pack of cakes. Seems modern etiquette requires you to take a bite out of a bun before offering it to your guests. Not wanting to make a social faux pas, I asked Marks and Sparks if this was the case. Apparently my comments have been sent to the sharp thinkers in marketing responsible for dreaming up such tosh; thought they'd have offered a year's free supply for providing a useful service: still, it's not too late if they want to recognise my diligence...

Gordon - the taxing Atlanticist

Can his aides please tell Gordon to give the Americanisation of Britain a rest? After it turned Blair into a poodle, you'd have thought his astute successor would have steered clear of being seen as a slavish adherent of things coming from the Land of the Free. Not so, he's proposing our very own British Purple Heart for those members of our armed forces unfortunate enough to be wounded in Labour's wars.

Like all the other things Gordon would like us to do, this will probably come to nothing - shame the same can't be said for his plans to tax low earners: the public's verdict on that will be all to painfully given on May 1.

Honouring the Military

Strange how, for such a reserved character, Gordon Brown wants us to 'celebrate' so much. If its not 'Britishness' - whatever that is, it's the armed forces, who he now wants to appear at sporting events. Shame, though, that celebration doesn't seem to extend to giving those who sign on the dotted line recognition for their human rights when they end up in harm's way, as under New Labour they seem to do on an increasing basis.

Surely the best way to 'honour' armed forces personnel is to ensure they are properly housed, paid and equipped, rather than going in for hollow cheer fests before the footie kicks off - or is this really about presenting a glamorous image to the bored youth on the terraces, in the hope they might be similarly inspired to join up?

'Celebration' and 'honour' are all very well, but they are meaningless gestures if we can't debate - much less dare to criticise - the conditions the government expects the forces to serve under.

Jam, Style and thanks on Oxford Street

I saw Paul Weller walking down Oxford Street last week. I'd like to apologise to him for causing a bit of a scene, but it's not everyday you see a true rock god in the flesh.

'He's not the god of creation, but he is the Lord of the Morning Light' Pan - As Is Now.

Couldn't put it better myself. Thanks for the music, long may it continue to inspire and enlighten.

Health and Safety on the Eye

Went on the London Eye with my nine year old son on Tuesday. Having paid for the tickets, we passed through security - which in our case consisted of a heavily-accented eastern european woman with a hand-held metal detector. On checking my rucksack she found a small football, at which point she asked me - in all seriousness - whether we were going to play with it on the trip! Aside from the fact that I was intent on getting my money's worth in sightseeing, didn't she think our fellow travellers might not look too favourably on a penalty shoot-out as they went round in the glass bubble with us.

A mistress of the bleeding obvious, if ever I came across one...

Horny-handed son of toil (or maybe not...)

Could Labour's new general secretary, city fund manager David Pitt-Watson be conclusive proof of the Party's break with its working class roots?

For the Party faithful there can be no doubt that money talks louder than tradition: Pitt-Watson was Brown's chosen candidate, in advance of a trade union official.

Keep the Red Flag flying - but not over New Labour.

Tesco just ruined Valentine's Day

The flowers I ordered to be delivered to my wife and one true love (it's OK, they're the same person) weren't delivered due to a communication problem in the warehouse. That's what they told me at the Call Centre. Thanks folks; as your slogan goes "every little helps".

Hope Cupid shoots straighter than this...

Who pays the politician, and why won't they tell us?

News that Peter Hain, Welsh Secretary and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is to face a full parliamentary enquiry into the funding of his Labour deputy leadership bid is swiftly followed by revelations that Conservative shadow Chancellor, George Osborne, failed to over £400,000 in donations intended to fund his office.

If 'two jobs' Pete and Georgie, the self-professed chief bean-counter in waiting, either haven't the time or the intelligence to report donations properly, we definitely need a thorough overall of party financing.

Both Labour and Tories, when in power, have meddled with the financial reporting requirements to give their respective supporters and politicians some supposed advantage over the opposition. In reality, by cobbling together rules that favour the party in Government, they've created a system of byzantine complexity that politicians seem unable to understand or the public able to trust. Time for change; maybe even time to grasp the old state-funding nettle, after all, we can't trust the politicos to regulate themselves, can we?

Keeping it clean.

It's a bit of a nerve for the Cleaning and Support Services Association, the umbrella group that represents private contractors who are supposed to keep hospitals clean, to say that the Government's much vaunted £50 million "deep clean" should be scrapped in favour of more payments for regular cleaning.


We need clean hospitals and by interposing private firms, with dividend expecting shareholders, between the mop bucket and the ward, the NHS is being forced to divert funds away from cleaning into the pockets of CLSA members and their shareholders.

Once the hospitals are clean, we need to get rid of the self-serving CLSA and take cleaning back under the direct control of the NHS.

If you go down to the woods today...

Spent the afternoon of the last day of 2007 wandering round Judy Woods, a 40 hectare site of ancient woodland in Wyke, Bradford. The place is great at any time of the year, although I was annoyed to see that we've been adding some long term features to the land that could remain there for up to 2,000 years.

The woods are very popular with dog walkers; no problem with that, I love the woods and I like dogs. It's the owners who don't clean up properly after fido that get me angry.

If you leave a dog turd in the open it will naturally degrade after a week or so - unless, of course, someone doesn't tread in it first. The best option, for all concerned, is to put it in a pooh-bag and take it home with you. The worst option is to put it in a plastic pooh-bag and then leave the bagged-up turd in the woods, where the plastic will remain for centuries.

The number of stupid dog owners taking the worst option, as evidenced by the amount of little tied up plastic bundles left at the edge of the paths and the base of trees , shows that man's best friend can be one of the environment's worst enemies.

How to get rid of the plastic.

Elf n' Safety at the Supermarket

We called in to a local branch of Asda/Wallmart yesterday to get some school clothes for our nine year old. Not used to Asda's sizes (stores don't have standardised age-height sizes), I asked if he could try them on. The reply? "I'm afraid the changing room is closed for health and safety reasons".

A nine year old trying on a pair of trousers, accompanied by a parent: what "health and safety" issues could possible be engaged in that?

Result? We got home only to find the trousers don't fit - so guess where I'll be spending part of New Year's Eve.

Happy New Year - thanks Asda.

Who's been commenting on your Blog?

The High Court has recently ordered the publisher of a football website to reveal the identity of those posting comments on the site. Neil Hargreaves runs the site, which is dedicated to those following the fortunes of Sheffield Wednesday FC. After a run of poor results, derogatory comments about players and management starting appearing on Mr Hargreave's site.

Although most bloggers and many of those who comment on blog sites will have no idea of the extent of their liability for the material they post, this case establishes that their right to privacy may not be an overriding consideration. While most websites display warning about defamatory or abusive material, the suspension of an account for breaching the rule would not generally be susceptible to challenge on freedom of expression grounds.


However, before relying on the decision in Sheffield Wednesday v Hargreaves claimants seeking what is known as a Norwich Pharmacal order will need to show that the comments are really defamatory, not merely trivial or mildly abusive.

Perils of the Underground Freelance

London Underground have dispensed with the services of Emma Clarke, the person who's been telling us to "mind the gap" since 1999 because the management didn't like some things she said about her feelings on hearing her own voice when she travelled on the Tube.

Freelances not allowed freedom of expression? Just for the record, all my clients are truly wonderful and I don't have anything bad to say about them - only those that don't pay on time...

Grey Seal Pups at Donna Nook, Lincolnshire

Spent a couple of hours at the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust site at Donna Nook yesterday. 611 pups have been born already, the season ends in mid-December. The photos and videos have a very high cuteness factor - you have been warned.

Autumn Colours on Ullswater

The Steamer Raven on Ullswater on a glorious Autumn day.

Invisible hands on £20 notes

So, we've now got Adam Smith on the back of the £20 note - apparently, he believed economics was guided by an "invisible hand" and that we're only doing it for ourselves.

No wonder we're in such a mess: do what the hell you like, an invisible hand will get you out of the cart - just what we need to underpin the national currency.

Why are we Ofsteding 3 year olds?

News that Ofsted inspectors claim to have found "weaknesses in the first years of learning" should send a shudder down the spine of every parent's spine. They are talking about three-year-olds placed with childminders and in nurseries. - with literacy and calculation "particular problems".

The obsession with results and league tables has got to have gone too far. Time to get the inspectors out of the sandpit?

Scarborough - the Corner Cafe is no more

As the kids are on half-term and no work was demanding my immediate attention, we went to Scarborough for the day yesterday. It just so happens, that we made it to North Bay two days after demolition started on the Corner Cafe.

For the uninitiated - or perhaps those who only know the name from the Simon and Garfunkle song "Scarborough Fair" - Scarborough is a famous holiday resort in North Yorkshire, and the Corner Cafe has dominated the town's North Bay for the best part of a century.

No more, the Cafe closed last year and the site is being redeveloped into a leisure and accommodation complex. Perhaps this will rejuvenate the area, as the local Council hopes, but a little bit of Yorkshire history is now being turned into rubble behind the contractors hoardings.

Thoughtfully, they've left a couple of viewing panels and while the lads played on the beach, I joined a long procession of people who went to pay their last respects. After all, generations of us had our first Knickbocker Glory there or bought jugs of tea to drink on the sand from paper cups. It was a good day, just a bit different without the old Corner Cafe.

Disadvantages of homeworking

After 7 years I've finally found a downside to the freelance life. I'm lucky, good clients make sure I don't have too many quiet days and they usually pay early. The problem comes courtesty of my next door neighbour, ironically enough a fellow homeworker.

For the past month he's been taking out a chimney breast which is built into the shared wall between the two houses. And today - oh, joy of joys - he's secured the services of a couple of builders to get rid of the old hearth and brick up the wall.

I've had power tools, hammering; the walls and windows have shaken. I lost patience at lunchtime and went out for something to eat. Then a strange thing happened. I was in the cafe of my local supermarket (Tesco - I know, they're everywhere). Queueing at the food counter, I was next to group of 6 elderly men, some with obvious learning difficulties, and they're carer. To a man, they all ordered sausages, chips and baked beans and went to eat together. I looked across a couple of times while I ate and they were sitting together, enjoying the food and each other's company, just talking quietly, with an occasional smile or friendly gesture.

A small thing, but one that took the heat out of my fraught day. I was glad to share my lunchtime with them. Hope they have many more lunches out on the town together.

Hospital Reading

I've just spent a couple of days in hospital; nothing serious, more embarassing for men of a certain age. To while away the hours, I took Arthur & George by Julian Barnes and found it to be an absolutely brilliant book. Barnes has taken the stories of two men, Arthur Conan Doyle and George Edalji - the former the famous writer and creator of Sherlock Holmes, the latter, a little known midlands solicitor - and created a work that examines spirituality, identity, nationality and race. Although concerned with events that occurred between 1893 and 1906, the work is intensely relevant for our own times when issues such as materialism and multiculturialism mean that Barnes' themes are never far from the headlines. Read this book as soon as you possibly can.

Size Zero at Asda

News that Asda intends to stock "size zero" in its George range has got the press in a lather. Looking at the shoppers in our local Asda, can't say there's going to be much take-up - still hooked on convenience and fast food to make much dent on the UK size 4s.

Wrong time and place for an argument

The combined efforts of the Roman Catholic and Anglican hierarchies in trying to force an opt out for Catholic adoption agencies in the Equality Bill risks further isolating the Church.

Gay adoption is always an emotive issue that plays well in the fevered imagination of conservative op-ed writers - yet the question is, how many gay couples would decide to go to a Catholic agency in the first place.

Wouldn't the Archbishops of Westminster, Canterbury and York have done better keeping their powder dry for any issue that really does affect people - such as globalisation, debt, gambling or the Iraq war debacle?

Fear, loathing and the Daily Mail

So now we know why Paul Dacre doesn't get out much on his own. His Hugh Cudlipp lecture at London's College of Communications told us that the BBC is an Orwellian institution full of "cultural Marxists" and that the Tory Party is no longer Conservative.

Good to see he's still allowed to hold down a job at the Mail...

Worrying Events in Far-away Places

The assassination of an Armenian journalist in Istanbul is probably low down on most people's list of things to worry about, but the killing of Hrant Dink comes at a very difficult time for Turkey and it's aspirations to join the European Union.

Dink was outspoken about the Armenian genocide of 1915 and the legally enforced silence on reporting it that still pervades Turkish society. Indeed, Dink himself had been prosecuted under the notorious Art.301 of the Turkish Legal Code, which makes it an offence to insult Turkishness, for his articles on the subject.

It's good to see Turkish politicians lining up to condemn the killing, but the question should surely be, wouldn't it be better to ensure free speech and open discussion of this most contentious of subjects ahead of any further talks on Turkey's EU accession?

Save us from the recruitment consultants

A report out from a consultancy outfit called Hudson UK reckons 77% of "senior executives" (undefined, naturally) want to get rid of a set quota of employees every year - and the only reason they don't is that they're wary of creating a climate of fear (in much the same way that the Roman Army was wary of overusing decimatio, presumably).

Apart from generating froth and press column inches, Hudson, whose website espouses such gems as "Our innovative solutions address both hiring strategies and organisational effectiveness – people and performance", don't seem to have considered the effect such ridiculuous statements would have on productivity (having got rid, you still need some people to actually do the work guys!) and the astronomical increase in recruitment costs this policy would create. But that's just the point, isn't it? Half baked idea, spurious statistics equal more business for the useless consultants!

Sack the workers - no: just get rid of the consultants.

Soldier's girlfriend doesn't want her photo taken

Rupert Murdoch's decision to call off the papparazzi is not the ray of light it first appears.

The threat of legal action hasn't worked before - indeed it's just made media barons squeal louder about press freedom and the public "right to know". But things are different now. Why? Well, it's all down to another royal, Princess Caroline von Hannover, and her long-running battle with German snappers. Caroline, daughter of Prince Rainier III of Monaco, was long regarded as prime media property, but she finally had enough of being dogged by the papparazzi whenever she left home. The ECHR agreed that her right to privacy (under Art.8 of the Human Rights Convention) took precedence over the media's right to freedom of expression under Art.10.

Which all means that if Rupe hadn't called off the snappers, the Palace would probably have succeeded in getting an injunction against News International.

One final thought: why did we have to endure journos of the "royal correspondent" variety chasing papps pursuing Miss M down the street to bring us a story on media intrusion? Old Rupe must be laughing all the way to the bank...

Blue Skies and the Third Way into the sunset.

So, it looks like Tony Blair is heading for the charitable foundation lecture circuit haven so beloved of former US presidents. Well, having spent his time in office cultivating a presidential style at home, I suppose it's only logical that he wants to be like George and Bill when he leaves No.10. Last of the Summer Whine?

Fishing gear at St Abbs

Because it's January and because it cheers me up, and because I don't really need a reason to publish so I'm going to anyway...

Eggs at the Ready

It's Sunday, December 31 and the local Tesco is already flogging Cadbury's Cream Eggs. An old joke become reality in the eggciting world of marketing.

Ikea Sale - hell in a flatpack

Just back from the post-Christmas sale at the local Ikea store. What did we ever do to Sweden to deserve that kind of punishment?

Blair and the Bee Gee

I don’t care whether he pays for his holidays or not but the ability of the Prime Minister to ingratiate himself with aged rockers is a new phenomenon in British politics. New Labour has had several run ins with wealthy business types (remember the Hinduja twins?), but Blair’s high profile groupie act takes hob-nobbing to new heights of ridiculousness.

 

 

Prostitution and the law

Harriet Harman's proposal to make it an offence to use a prostitute's services won't make the problem go away - just force if further into the dingy backstreets of our towns and cities - not to mention cyberspace.

Comments by the English Collective of Prostitutes in the wake of the Ipswich murders have highlighted the effect of police "crackdowns" and the danger they represent to those working on the streets.

A response has to be properly thought through, but we've got to realise, whether we opt for toleration zones, as even David Blunkett seems to have accepted during his time as Home Secretary, or legalised brothels; prostitutes have to be protected: we might not like what they do, or accept their reasons for doing it, but prostitutes deserve protection not persecution and it's about time we accepted the simple reality that not even the threat of prosecution will stop men paying for sex, and that criminalisation won't work.

Tony's bolony

Of course its natural for the police to interview a serving British prime minister - like a fish riding a donkey

Pinochet remembered

The next time Thatcher or any of her cronies start getting misty eyed about the departed General, remember this quote from Channel 4's Jon Snow:

"I had to work in Chile during the worst of his activities and it was a searing and unforgettable period of fear"

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A good friend to Britain indeed. Perhaps we should be more concerned about the 3,100 killed and/or "disappeared", or the US inspired coup that brought down a democratically elected government than remembering how Pinochet used the Falklands to settle scores with Argentina by feeding us intelligence as the Task Force sailed for the South Atlantic.

With thugs like this, who needs enemies?

Fountain at the Louvre. A glorious day in May in the city of Paris (with a nod to Van Morrison and Angelou)

Let's face it, December needs some sunshine to go with the tinsel...

Party on, Bishop

The Right Reverend Tom Butler's tired and emotional spree has given the tabloids a field day. No hypocrisy there at all, I mean, journalists never overindulge at all, do they?

Leaving aside forgiveness for a Bishop on the razzle - two issues do worry me. Firstly, why did Nicola Sumpter and her partner decide the best people to call were those working at the Sun newspaper? Surely they weren't paid for their story by those famously abstemious hacks.

And secondly, look out for the vengeful conservative evangelicals taking sweet revenge on a liberal Bishop with a record of supporting gay clergy.

Always best to watch the self-righteous brigade - you never know when they're going to fall prey to the demon drink, or even just their own pride (one of the seven deadlies, folks - in case you'd forgotten).

Good to see the fetishists getting on side with this - See Proccie's take on this.

Better still, stick with Ship of Fools - Christian unrest at its very best...

Westfield Editorial: British Bull

Westfield Editorial: British Bull

Puke for Britain - "Oi, what are you lookin' at?"

British Bull

Len Sutera, a 58 year old former milman for the West Midlands, has been told he will have to take a Home Office "britishness" test. Len was born in the US, but returned to the UK aged 11 months and says he's never left the country since.

How do you prove "britishness" - you could go down the Norman Tebbit cricket team test route. Although that's not much use for those who don't like sport (yes, we do exist). Maybe it might be better to judge britishness by adopting a more modern social outlook - just indulge in some binge drinking with the occasional outbreak of mindless unprovoked violence. Go on, puke on a copper's trousers, show you're a patriot!

Own Goal

I reproduce or recycle press releases as a rule, but this really got to me.

Actor Paul McGann Speaks Out In Support Of Banned Charity TV Ad



Paul McGann has today spoken out in support of charity World Vision as news broke of the British Advertising Clearance Centre’s (BACC) ban on the airing of their new TV advert. Paul McGann supplied the voice-over for the ad which shows a child in Malawi making a football from plastic bags and string. The BACC banned the ad on the basis that it was ‘unfair to football’ as it mentioned the £49 million it cost to sponsor the England football team alongside the 60p a day it costs to sponsor Masidi - the boy in the film.

Paul McGann said, “Does one laugh or cry? An advert describing how 60p a day might help a child in a developing country is pulled in order to spare the image of corporate sponsorship in a couple of rich ones. You couldn’t make it up.”

The ad, which can be viewed on World Vision’s website www.sponsor.org, was filmed by the young boy who stars in it. Communities were given broadcast-quality cameras and Masidi chose to film his favourite past time – football. In Malawi, however, footballs are hard to come by, so Masidi makes his from maize, plastic bags and string before joining his friends for a skilled kick-about – in bare feet. A thirty second ad compares the three years it took to develop the World Cup ball with the ten minutes it takes Masidi to make his match ball. The advert was created by London agency FCBi.



More than 100,000 children living in poverty in the developing world are sponsored with World Vision in the UK for just 60p per day. More about the benefits of child sponsorship can be found at www.sponsor.org.



For further information contact



Beverley Tricker

Tricker PR

Office 01224 646491

Mobile 07702 363039

Email btricker@trickerpr.com

Cultural architecture, so to speak

I came across this nonsensical piece of drivel in a school monitoring report

“Cultural architects are individuals or teams that have fully understood and subscribe to a leader’s aims and objectives for the organisation. They are the people who will influence others positively on behalf of the leader even when the leader is not present.”

They used to be called brown nosers, but that was before management-speak took over the world.

Freedom of Speech Just Got Silenced

The removal of placades from Parliament Square is another example of Government paranoia about protest. Brian Haw has been protesting agaisnt the Iraq war in Parliament Square for 5 years. After court action to try and remove him failed (why, what harm was he doing - embarrassing he might be, but a threat to national security?).

Politicians - on both sides of the Atlantic - like to portray themselves as champions of freedom and democracy, yet the right to protest has to be the best measure of the health of a democracy - and we've just failed it, miserably.

Labour Party blues

OK, so anyone can mislay around a thousand foreign ex convicts, maybe even accept that the NHS really is having its best ever year, but who in their right mind would think John Prescott could turn into a geriatric leg-over merchant?

Madness and the Special Relationship

Tony Blair's comments to the Australian Parliament about the "madness" of European anti-Americanism gives us an interesting insight into his thinking.

Is Blair really so frightened that the US will "walk away" that he wants his fellow European leaders and the media to back peddle on their criticisms of the Bush administration? If there's any "madness" here Prime Minister, it's surely in the fear that we shouldn't be too critical of the US, for fear of losing the Americans' support.

If the special relationship is worth having it has to be robust enough to withstand criticism where it's warranted - rolling over and letting Bush and Co. get away with anything they want is not being anti-American, rather it's about fighting our corner and defending our side of the relationship, which should be part and parcel of the free exchange of ideas Blair also mentioned in the same speech.

Blair does Parkie, with God in the audience...

Interesting to see that Tony Blair, Britain's Labour Prime Minister and, some say far too close friend of President Bush, fears divine judgement over his decision to go to war in Iraq.

While he seems happy to discuss this on a chatshow (far less confrontational than Parliament) he's strangely silent on the ongoing denial of justice at Guantanamo, which he only "hopes" the US will get round to closing "soon".

Quite how he'll answer for all this at the final judgement is anyone's guess, but given his much vaunted up-coming handover to Gordon Brown, one thing is for sure: he'll escape the judgement of the British electorate yet again.

Jingoism and the Cabinet Minister

Dr Reid, the UK Defence Minister, makes a spirited call for balance and for the media to be slow to criticise the military in Iraq. The danger here - given the traditional view that British soldiers can do no wrong - is obvious. Perhaps the media should lay off all but the most heinous abuses by troops on the ground and concentrate instead on the culpability of those who sent them there in the first place.

Nude cyclists have balance problems

A group of German naturalists found themselves on the wrong side of the law when they tried to celebrate World Nude Cycling Day in the only way they knew how. The judge in the Karsruhe Administrative Court rejected the group’s claim that it was only exercising its right to freedom of expression under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and found that the police could prevent the cycle ride because it was in the public interest to prohibit displays of nudity, and, presumably, the risk of exposure to involuntary yodelling when riding over cobbled or other uneven surfaces. In reaching its decision the court found it had to balance the rights of the cyclists to exercise their freedom of expression against the rights of the wider public, which could be offended by an unexpected display of mass nudity in a public place.

Sex and the Politician

News that Simon Hughes, Liberal Democrat Party President and leadership contender, has admitted to being bisexual makes you wonder whether he made the decision to announce it himself, rather than face yet another embarrassing press disclosure. Aside from accusations surrounding past denials about his sexuality, and the Bermondsey bye-election was way back in the far less enlightened 1980s, the danger is that this latest Lib Dem story will merely encourage the tabloids to keep on hunting for prurient Lib Dem stories to fill their pages. You can just see it now: "kinky candidate caught in polling booth".

Isn't rather time to grow up and accept that politicians have private lives and should be allowed to lead them.

Good news for those politicos feeling a bit stressed in case the News of Screws is on the snoop - they could always relieve the tension with a bit of "horizontal jogging", after all, the scientists reckon it's a great stress reliever for those in the public eye. Just so long as they don't get caught doing it public - or in view of a paparazzi's lens.

At last, some good news from Turkey

The decision to end the prosecution of Orhan Pamuk, Turkey's leading author, for insulting the secular republic is very good news, not just for Pamuk but for all progressive Turkish writers, academics and journalists; it is also a sign that freedom of expression is finally being taken seriously by the authorities in Ankara.

Accepting adverse criticism in no way undermines Turkish democracy, rather it strengthens it and should go some way to aleviating fears over Turkish membership of the EU.

It's to be hoped that the decision also means that a sensible debate will now be possible on the persecution of the Armenian and Kurdish people.

Edukashun, edukashun, edukashun.

It looks like the danger of too much rhetoric backed by too little substance has finally come home to roost in the shape of Labour's much trumpeted education reforms.

With commentators unable to give a proper explanation of the difference between current "foundation" schools and the much vaunted (but ill described) "trust" schools the National Governors' Council is now warning that the complex politicking is very confusing, and even off-putting for parents.

The DfES strategy of spinning even the most mundane of changes means that genuinely beneficial changes intended to raise standards and support schools in difficult areas risk being lost to view as Kelly and Adonis try to browbeat Labour backbench opponents.

Officially a Secret Joke

Has the Attorney General really threatened journalists with the Official Secrets Act just to stop George Bush looking either paranoid or stupid?

Is the "special relationship" (which in reality seems only to exist in the fevered imaginations of British politicians) so fragile that free speech - that great bastion of the US Constitution - can be swept aside in the media of the US's oldest ally?

This is not the first time that the criminal law has been deployed to stop anti US comment or protest in the UK. In December 2000, veteran peace campaigner Lindis Percy was fined £500 for writing on the Stars and Stripes and then trampling on it outside a US airbase in Norfolk, England.

We are living in strange times indeed when something that symbolises lawful dissent in the US is criminalised in the UK. But then again, perhaps that's what makes the relationship so special: the Americans know that Tony Blair will do anything for them - including denying the British their long cherished freedoms.

Anyone for a recycled slogan?

Leeds City Council has just discovered that the slogan 'Live it love it', which it commissioned from the imaginatively named PR agency An Agency Called England, is a direct lift from one used by the Hong Kong tourist board!

A snip at £150,000 for "research and launch costs" (which presumably didn't include a quick Google check, just to be on the safe side) the agency responsible for the slogan, Marketing Leeds, a joint venture between the council and the city's chamber of commerce, smartly sidesteps allegations of plagiarism by saying it hadn't cost anything to "develop" the new brand., whatever that means. An Agency Called England's head honcho, Tony Stanton, was, perhaps unsurprisingly, even more inventive with his response:

"The Hong Kong campaign targeted North American tourists on city breaks. We took the view we could use it as a brand as opposed to an ad campaign".

So there you have it - lifting the title of an ad campaign to use as a "brand" isn't plagiarism - more creative recycling - with the bill footed by the hapless council taxpayers.

Meanwhile, away from the self-serving frenzy and hype of the PR world, the BBC's website is currently featuring the 50th anniversary of the World Press Photo Foundation's annual photographic competition. The images are graphic and shocking, including a Turkish mother mourning her five dead children, victims of an earthquake; Chilean President, Salvador Allende, photographed moments before his death in the 1973 right wing coup; and the death mask image of a child victim of the Union Carbide gas leak. These are images that challenge our perceptions of the world - a far cry from the sanitised "news" increasingly served up for us by the major broadcasting channels.

Let me through officer, I'm a Proofreader

Police in New South Wales are embarrassed by a mis-spelling on new uniforms. Green vests to be worn by the force's ACLOs (that stands for Aboriginal Community Liaison Officers) were supplied with ALCO printed on them instead. Given the prevalence of alcohol related problems amongst certain sectors of Australia's indigenous population, the sight of officers trained to diffuse tense situations running around in vests bearing the word ALCO has prompted an apology by the force, as the Commissioner's spokesman said: "there was no intention to offend anybody. It was a simple printing error".

Preachers of Hate

Let's hope Charles Clarke's proposals include the Christians as well as the jihadis. Pat Robertson - 2 Commandments down, and counting (that's 6 and 9 for any atheists, agnostics or US televangelists who might be having difficulty keeping up).

For the rest of us, there's always Ship of Fools

I've never liked airline food

The Gate Gourment dispute has left an increasingly bitter taste. Not only has British Airways been landed with a £ 40 million pound bill, but the allegations of "union busting" and attempts to deny the workforce the protection available under UK law demand a proper enquiry.

Ownership of what was originally a Swiss owned in-flight caterer passed to US venture capitalist Texas Pacific in 2002. Since then, Gate Gourmet's losses have rocketed, so that today a £25 million loss is predicted for the current financial year. This is mainly due to cost cutting measures by its airline customers which have seen the in-flight catering market shrink by 30% (40% in the US) since 2001.

Just the incentive for a ruthless management to provoke industrial action to cut their losses and export the operation to countries offering cheaper, less protected workers?

Multiculturalism means what, exactly?

Strange, really. After spending the last 20-30 years telling to celebrate multiculturalism as a good thing, our politicians now either can't define it, or want to ditch it altogether.

A trite phrase capable of meaning all things to all people, is now blamed - post July 7 - for reducing community values to the point that they have become meaningless, alienating those it was intended to help adjust and find a common home in post colonial Britain.

Time now to do some real thinking about how we can live together - without using meaningless slogans to cover up the divisions?

Go Ruth, go

Only 24 hours after Ruth Lea, the economic diva, championed Anglo Saxon values and the victory of "new" Europe, she returned to have a go at the greatest threat to us all - that's right, children.

You see, Ruth has long been convinced that it's wrong to give incentives to parents and children - makes childless co-workers hopping mad and costs the economy millions.

Only a barking Thatcherite - wedded to the "no such thing as society" mantra could fail to notice that today's toddler is tomorrow's wage slave.

Time to get real, Ruth, take a look at the bigger picture. Even if you don't understand society values - you'd better make sure today's young are well-adjusted and educated, after all, some of them will be looking after you in your dotage. And you wouldn't want them to get the wrong idea about your views on their parents, would you?

"As ever I’m afraid the people are ahead of the politicians"

Nice quote, Mr Blair, but "as ever" we're just a little concerned that you're not listening.

Grandstanding, whether on Europe or anything else is a favourite hobby for Tony, but the sweeping statements always hide the reality.

While he says he wants Europe to have a social dimension, this will - if he follows his form on domestic policies - take a back seat to unfettered globalisation. The French "No" vote was largely a rejection of this kind of open market challenge to adopt US practices and it looks like Blair is going to have a very uncomfortable EU Presidency if he keeps trying to make deregulation palatable by sweet references to a social dimension we no longer recognise in the UK.

The Ruth Lea Appreciation Society

She's back - the right wing economist with a great line in revisionism.

From the Institute of Directors, the great thinker has now moved on to become the Director of the Centre for Policy Studies, espousing multi speed Europe, Britain and "new" Europe (that's right, Ruthie has picked up on Donald Rumsfeld's memorable dichotomy put-down for France and Germany - although he used it to castigate them for not joining the Coalition in Iraq, Ruthie has taken it up as a term of derision for the social democracy she so hates) as bastions of "Anglo Saxon" economic values. No, that's not pillaging monasteries, but rather "competing" with low-wage economies.

Watch out, folks - when she really gets going it'll be bye-bye minimum wage and parental rights: if they don't have it in Myanmar, why should we?

Times might change, but Ruth just goes on, and on and on...

Old economists never die, they just find another market.

Tony's latest Opsi

So the failed "rebranding" of the DTI cost £30,000 - but at least it gave us a laugh. The government has also renamed HMSO - that's the department that publishes legislation and official information - it's now called OPSI: The Office for Public Sector Information.
Where will it end- how about Off Tony?

No secrets left

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It's the Constitution, stupid

Now that voters in France and the Netherlands have rejected the EU Constitution, Labour and the Tories can breath a sigh of relief that Europe won't raise its ugly head so soon in the new Parliament. But relief, or dismay, at not being able to rake up the old fears and half-truths in a referendum campaign might be misplaced. After all, the Dutch and French - far more ardent Europeans than the British - rejected the Constitution for very different reasons than the UK electorate would put at the top of its collective hate list.

In France, rejection was largely due to wide spread mistrust of "Anglo Saxon" free market privatisation and outsourcing - the very things that Blair openly champions. Could it just be that the French might be on to something here. Although he won't have to try and sell an unpopular Constitution at home, is Blair secretly hoping the reason for its rejection won't catch on this side of the Channel?

That's entertainment - not theology

The refusal by Westminster Abbey to allow filming to take place for the Da Vinci Code on the ground that the book is "theologically unsound" won't do the Church of England many favours in popularity terms. Reflect on this, just because the Church authorities, operating in the more enlightened 1970s, allowed The Omen: Part III to be filmed at Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire didn't mean that they condoned Devil Worship.

But then again, that was years before the curse of Springer walked abroad in the land, forcing evangelicals to rend our ears and their garments with the sound of their lamentations... Take me to the Ship of Fools, it's our only hope.

Lifelong learning - but only if you can afford it.

Post 16 further education has always suffered an image problem. Evening classes in schools and colleges starved of resources and taken by those who fell the need to get a few more qualifications later in life, or even just wanting to keep their grey cells active in retirement.

I know, I teach law to such groups. Now, as Adult Learners Week starts, those potential students are being hit by a reduction in funding, which at the College where I teach will see them expected to pay £50 more per year for a GCSE course and more for some other courses, particularly British Sign Language.

What was it that Mr Blair said about education?

Exactly who's being "flexible" here?

With the Institute of Directors, Confederation of British Industry and the Federation of Small Businesses all trying to shout loudest at the European Parliament's decision to end the UK's Working Time Directive opt-out, no-one is questioning how voluntary employee opt outs really are.

The truth is that UK has the second highest proportion of men working more than 48 hours a week among the 15 longest serving Member States. In that context, it's a bit rich for the employers' representatives to start lecturing us about our inability to compete against low wage economies in China and the Indian sub-continent. The truth is we will never successfully do that - and requiring your hard-pressed workforce to opt out of the right to refuse to work in excess of 48 hours per week doesn't have any effect when you're dealing with economies that pay a fraction in wages. Or is that what they really want? A race to the bottom for the workers - with the "entrepreneurs" creaming off the profits in dividends and share options?

And here are some more defenders of the "right" to work all hours. Courtesy of The Times' letters pages - music to Mr Murdoch's ears...

A final word to the gullible: the world in which Westfield lives, works and has its being is characterised by the export of jobs to India and China. We will never compete with them on price - even if we work 24 hours a day, 365 days per year: we will only win this one if we argue for the quality of our products and the immorality of exploitation and threat. You could always start by refusing to bank with those financial institutions that "outsource" their call centre and other back office operations.

He's not listening: bring on the stalking horses

So much for our new listening third term PM. The backdoor appointment of Andrew Adonis - by way of a Tony's crony seat in the Lords (still hasn't got the message about an elected Upper Chamber, has he?) as Education Minister shows that Blair's going to keep a firm separation between listening and actually heeding what's said.

Adonis, for those not in the know, is widely suspected (he's not a guy to give headline speeches, but then again, he doesn't have to, as he never stands for election) as the brains behind "specialist" high schools, city academies and university "top-up" fees. Just what we need - more undermining of the secondary education sector by "blue sky" thinkers and New Labour psychobablers.

Strong goverment isn't good for democracy

Now that Labour have been re-elected with 67 seats on only a 36% share of the vote we really do need to consign "first past the post" to history. The entire thrust of the campaign was focused on the key marginals - those relatively few seats that have to be won or held to ensure success.

The rest of the electorate aren't really required - and, as both Labour and Conservative campaigns showed, are nothing more than an annoying side-show.

Even the traditional hostility of the Tories to electoral reform needs an urgent rethink. Multi party democracy demands an effective opposition - something that the Tories seem incapable of providing: thinking what we're thinking? No, they didn't even come close with their xenophobia and negative campaigning - and that's the opinion of one their own MPs!

Now that Labour have been re-elected with 67 seats on only a 36% share of the vote we really do need to consign "first past the post" to history. The entire thrust of the campaign was focused on the "key marginals" - those relatively few seats that have to be won or held to ensure success.

The rest of the electorate aren't really required - and, as both Labour and Conservative campaigns showed - are nothing more than an annoying side-show.

Even the traditional hostility of the Tories to electoral reform needs an urgent rethink. Multi party democracy demands an effective opposition - something that the Tories seem incapable of providing: thinking what we're thinking? No, they didn't even come close with their xenophobia and negative campaigning - and that's the opinion of one their own MPs!

Casualty figures

In a pre-election interview last week, Tony Blair couldn't give an accurate reply when asked how many British troops had died in Iraq. Today we know: 87, unfortunately we don't have accurate numbers for Iraqi casualties. As Blair keeps telling us, he's sorry for casualties but not for war, perhaps we should remind him that we're talking about sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters here not just the means of furthering foreign policy.

Remember that on May 5.

Freedom of Information - with a bit of help from a leak...

So after all the bluff and fluster, we finally have the Attorney General's advice on the legality (or not) of war with Iraq.

After all Tony Blair's stonewalling, it's taken a good old fashioned Whitehall leak to bring it into the public domain. It's all very damaging for New Labour, though - being forced to come clean in the final week of the election campaign, and in the midst of the Tory attacks on Blair's integrity and the Lib Dem anti war crusade.

Now for the leak enquiry...

An Uncomfortable Anniversary

Today marks the 90th anniversary of the deportation and killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman authorities.

Whether victims of war, as claimed by the Turkish government, or of genocide - the first used to describe the killings in 1924 - the full horror visited on Armenia by its Turkish rulers is still a running sore between the two countries, but also has wider resonance given that Turkish hopes of EU membership, already a controversial issue, are also clouded by Ankara's refusal to admit responsibility for the events of 1915.

A chat over coffee with Jessica

At last, the general election campaign gets interesting. After all the stage managed visits and set piece interviews, Blair's caught on camera being told the truth by a 20 year old student. Jessica Haig grabbed the headlines after being invited to what Blair's minders obviously hoped would be a walkover - memmbers of the public lost for words by the great leaders sudden appearance in a Leeds shopping centre. Instead, he got Jessica and she didn't mince her words.

OK, so it was uncomfortable for Tony - but this is an example of real people getting to the opportunity to tell politicians how they've sold out on their principles. We need more of it - particularly after the dull as ditch water campaign we've had so far. Who knows, it might even inspire a few more to turn on May 5.

A Doctored Photograph - Worth Millions of Words

News that the Conservative candidate for Dorset South had doctored a photograph he used in an election leaflet sent Labour's campaign hard-man, John Reid, scurrying to the South Coast to make the most of the Tory discomfort.


Although it was all good knock about stuff, it's hardly news; after all, photoshop makes such high jinx hard to resist. The most startling thing about this particular manufactured row is that the original photograph showed the hapless candidate, Ed Matts, alongside Ann Widdecombe at a demo in support of a Malawian woman who faced deportation, along with her four children. Now that's surely a sacking offence in Mr Howard's book...

Ooooh, Matron

No-one pretends that hospital-borne infections, such as MRSA, aren't a serious risk to health. But it's a bit rich for the Tories to come out with the plan to allow matrons to close dirty wards. For those with short memories, privatising hospital cleaning services was the big idea of the last Conservative administration. Silence has been deafening on this so far...

Who's opening your mail?

For those who have long worried about the effects of mail privatisation, a report that prisoners have been working for a company contracted to handle mail marked "return to sender" confirms their worst fears. Making a quick buck like this undermines any possible benefit public or business users could possibly get from privatisation. Contracting out, the PFI or PPP have gone too far - we have to return public services to proper public control and democratic accountability.

It's going to be a long month...

Tony Blair saw the Queen this morning to ask her to dissolve Parliament and by 1.00 pm the first (Tory) election leaflet landed on the doormat. Great, at least the politicos are interested even if no-one else can raise much enthusiasm for the worst kept secret on months.

Interesting to hear the first pitches from the three main parties: Howard's not scared to be nasty to foreigners; Blair wants opportunity for all (don't want to spoil the party but this doesn't extend beyond our shores - certainly not Iraq, where the UN is concerned about hunger levels: must remember to mention the war if Labour come calling - they appear to have forgotten about it); and Kennedy thinks he's leader of the main opposition party(nice try, but tactically it could be a good call for the Lib Dems).

Funniest thing so far is the spoof (or is it?) blog from Alaistair Campbell

More - much, much more later...

Trade mark water? They'll patent fresh air next

Yorkshire Water, the privatised utility that 10 years ago managed to run out of water, has pulled of another PR coup. This time they've registered Icytonic as a trademark for drinking water.

Launching this earthshattering news at the same time as it landed its hapless customers with a 9% rise in water bills, the company is delighted to tell gullible hacks that their "product" costs less than .5p per litre and is best served chilled.

Fancy that, well I never and go to the foot of our stairs, as they say in these parts.

Strange amidst all this corporate backslapping, but there seems to be very little media comment on the funding of future dividends for Yorkshire Water's shareholders. The company's figures show that 31.6% of the revenue it raises from its customers goes on "funding investment" - which includes dividends, so it remains to be seen just how much will find its way into shareholders' pockets.

In the mid 90s, Yorkshire Water found many of its shortcomings and PR stunts exposed by a pressure group called Yorkshire Water Watch. With bills now on the rise and the company seemingly intent on covering up bad news with PR puffery, it's to be hoped that Watervoice, the new customer's champion, will be as effective in cutting through the spin and corporate doublespeak that is Yorkshire Water's first resort when the going gets tough.

The House of Lords, that great bastion of liberty...

Who would have thought it. After years of being denigrated as a geriatric talking shop, their Lord and Ladyships transformed themselves into the great protectors of civil liberty and slayers of tyrants. On Monday and Tuesday of this week the Lords inflicted 5 (count 'em Charles) defeats on the government's anti terror proposals.

I got fed up with counting the number of times Charles Clarke said no further concessions would be made - and then made them anyway. Even after the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner raised the possibility of 200 active al Qaeida operatives at large in the UK (scare tactic or not), the Lords still wouldn't hand Clarke his much sought after role as judge, jury and home arrest jailer.

When you remember how Blair gerrymandered the upper chamber "by appointment" when he got rid of the hereditary peers' voting rights; just think what damage an elected Senate could have done.

Data protection - the illusion of security?

News that Reed Elsevier's Matrix database has been hacked, allowing unauthorised access to information on up to 32,000 people must surely alert many to the false hope promised by data protection legislation and talk of "safe harbors" for data sent overseas by major financial institutions.

Details are sketchy - at the request of the FBI, Reed aren't giving too much away - but it has to raise questions about banks and other financial organisations use of "offshore" data processing facilities.

Even if customers give express consent to their details being sent to India or the far east for processing, how can we ever be sure that it will remain secure?

What's in a name - apart from a little bit of tradition?

Quite a lot, if you're the Leeds and Holbeck Building Society apparently. After a century and half of being named after the City of Leeds and Holbeck - a traditional, working class suburb where the Society was founded in 1845, Ian Ward, the Chief Executive, now wants to drop Holbeck and just have "Leeds" in the title - because he wants to identify the Society with the "vibrant" northern capital of business.

Personally, I'd rather have the tradition than the designer-suited glitz - and I hope the Society's members agree when it gets put to the vote at the end of March. Why not open an account with the Society and give Mr Ward a really vibrant answer?

Martial nation

National tabloid and TV advertising campaigns are a costly business and I can't but wonder who's going to pick up the tab for the Army Cadet Force's adult instructor campaign.

The timing is also interesting. Can't remember any UK cadet force (Sea Cadets, Air Training Corps, Army Cadet Force) advertising for instructors in this way before; could it have anything to do with recruitment concerns? Or does the MoD envisage a long term need for soldiers??

Advertising for volunteer youth workers is one thing but this campaign - at this time - raises concerns that the Army is trying to push military training for teenagers on the quiet.

This is no way to win hearts and minds

Moazzam Begg's ">account of the US mistreatment of detainees at Bagram and Guantanamo finds parallels in the court martial findings about assaults carried out by British troops at Basra. In both cases, the supposed liberators and defenders of democratic freedom subjected Muslim detainees - who had not been charged or convicted of any offence - ito the most barbaric and appalling treatment. We, who are supposed to bankroll and support the "war against terror" come what may, were led to believe our forces would uphold international law in the way they conducted themselves. As with so much in what looks increasingly like an illegal, politically inspired adventure, truth and decency has been pushed aside in the service of American foreign policy objectives. Don't forget Blair's duplicity when the election is finally announced.

McLibel

Although the finding that legal aid should have been available to Helen Steel and David Morris is welcome, it's also pretty much a pyrhic victory as you've got to be virtually penniless to qualify for public funding now.

It would be better if restrictions were placed on corporations bringing libel actions in the first place - after all, this is a relatively new "innovation" that is very damaging to free speech.

McDonalds' victory against Steel and Morris was a crushing blow to the right to protest against the power of multinationals with deep pockets. When the boardroom decides to cry libel, who can stand against them?

Charles and Camilla - let the joy be unconfined

Just what we need, a royal media splash fest. After years of poking fun at the happy couple, sweetness and light breaks out at the news of the impending nuptials. Oh, and the great arborial conversationalist is now a mature thinker - until the next time one of his sons shows him up, of course; then it'll be back to being an unfit and distant father.

When will the British accept that monarchy - even though it attracts the tourists and looks good on calendars - has had its day. Bring on the Republic!

Better still, sign the petition for a referendum on the future of the monarchy.

I've just seen the Consultant

Management, that is. Spent two hours yesterday evening being talked at by someone describing himself as a "deep change facilitator". The presentation started, as consultants usually do, with a statement that he knew nothing about the field he'd been retained to work in (education in this case); he then proceeded to talk about his 30 years' private sector experience and how this qualified him to oversee changes to the working lives of teachers.

So why do organisations take on people who delight in the fact that they nothing about their raison d'etre or working practices? It's the Emperor's New Clothes" syndrome: a consultant knows about "change", we're in a mess, therefore we need to change: bingo; or not.

After being told that he was encouraging "thinking outside the box", he then said "deep change can take up to 10 years to embed" (more fees, anyone?) All this was the prelude to being told that things aren't going too well on the "deep change" front at the moment, but not to worry, these things commonly experience a "dip" before you emerge, changed presumably, at the end.

By then, of course, the consultant will be far away, selling his imaginery new clothes and snake oil remedies to another organisation whose management have clutched at the straw that is management consultancy.

Anyone else for re-hashed MBA lecture notes?

Zero-tolerance: a phrase becomes hackneyed

It's much beloved by on-message "new" Labour politicos - as Ruth Kelly showed yesterday in her plea for "zero-tolerance" of bad behaviour in schools, but what the hell does it actually mean, if anything?

Leeds City Council recently announced a "zero-tolerance" approach to litter - with fines of up to £2,500 for business that were found contributing to the mountain of crap on the City's streets. In that case, "zero" was eventually defined as five pieces of litter that could be attributed to the same commercial source. So, that's it then - five is the new zero.

To those of us with memories longer than Ms Kelly's, it seems that "zero-tolerance" has replaced another hackneyed favourite: "we should campaign vigorously" meaning "we should do something, but probably won't".

The trouble is, "zero-tolerance" is dragged into service to castigate the obvious; most people would agree that something has to be done about loutish behaviour in schools, or that the Army shouldn't allow rascist bullying in its ranks - it's the what and the how that causes the problem, that's when "zero-tolerance" is pressed into service as a woolly, one-size-fits-all, non-defined answer.

Don't be coy, Ms Kelly; this is something you could really take a stand on - put an end to zero-tolerance - you know, as Churchill said, why not make it something up with which we will not put.