Save a million lose a billion

 After all the political witch hunt against the boss of RBS's bonus a million in worthless shares have been saved.....well just over half a million with four hundred grand in tax lost. 

 

A great victory for unpopular political types and the mob. 

 

It's such a shame that the RBS and Lloyds TSB banks, both with serious taxpayer money invested, in the case of RBS being 87% public owned, has lost just shy of a billion pounds because of this witch hunt. 

 

Markets really don't like politicians acting illegally or interfering. 

 

Still as far as Ed Miliband is concerned its only a billion in taxpayer money. It's cheap if it garners him some votes. 

 

Pathetic. 

On bonuses and politics with the poor taxpayer paying the price

 I'm not a banker. I do not know any bankers. This needs to be said. However I feel the way in which politicians and a rabid press have forced Stephen Hester, the man brought in to fix the mess that is the Royal Bank of Scotland, wrong. 

RBS is a disaster. Polticians in the UK and Scotland helped make it so. It was they that encouraged the bank to make insane investments. The result is the nightmare we are all paying for. 

However Hester isn't culpable for anything. He's rich and successful but that isn't a crime. Indeed if you wanted someone to fix RBS and save our hundred billion you'd want a person who has made his fortune by being a very good banker. 

We need the best person to fix the bank.

That costs a lot of money.  

So Hester is appointed by labour with a employment contract agreed to by Ed Milliband when he was in Cabinet. And he does a good job turning seven billion loss into a profit. 

And so by the legal, and politically sanctioned, employment contact he was entitled to a bonus of near £1 million in RBS shares. 

Cue labour and the tabloids who have made him by threat turn down this legally earned bonus. 

This is what's wrong with this country. In the civil service bonuses are handed out for abject failure. Projects go tens of billions over budget, are decades late, or simply don't work, and they get bonuses. 

But when one person brought in to fix a politically sanctioned mess gets a bonus for a good job the same people who agreed the contract and encouraged the original management to overextend in the first place go for the cheap votes. 

For the tabloid to attack Heston when they pay their editors of loss making papers four million in wages and bonus is hypocritical. 

And where are the unions? A worker with a legal employment contract has been forced to give up what is theirs by right. How is that fair?

And so the poltical types and the press have their little victory and a million is saved....

But we also lose the four hundred thousand we'd get in tax.....

And the £340 million that's been lost off RBS shares. 

You see the market is simple. It doesn't like uncertainty. It definitely doesn't like politicans acting beyond their legal powers. If they can force the head of their state subsidised bank to give up what is his by law how can the market be sure that poltical interference and illegal pressure won't be applied to RBS in the future. 

Law is vital for a free economy. If a country doesn't have a open legal system free from political interference that country is no better than corrupt banana republic. 

That's dangerous for confidence and security. 

If Hester resigned due to poltical pressure, as I would, we're fucked. Not only would we lose someone that seems to be doing the right thing (and I'm not ignoring the tragedy of job losses here) to make a bankrupt bank into a viable one, who in their right mind would take his place? Who needs the pressure and the vitriol?

This grubby witchhunt is pathetic.  

Whiplash

 The Mail on Sunday is doing yet another campaign with the assumption that we are all out to con their honest readers. Usually this is an attack on the disabled but today, as last week, it is an attack on those who claim they have whiplash injuries due to a car accident.  

Now I am sure that there are crooks out there who do use whiplash in order to make money from innocent drivers. Such people are criminal and deserve prison. Thier crimes make the already expensive business of driving more so. 

However.....

Exactly eight years and four weeks ago today my cousin stopped at a roundabout near his home when a woman drove into the back of him in a minor shunt. No real damage was done to either car and he just laughed it off as one of those things. 

He was in his late thirties. He was as fit as an ox. He was in a job he was very good at and loved. He had a loving wife and very young family whom he adored. 

He was happy. 

And two weeks later he was dead due to whiplash injuries. 

For all the tabloid fury we mustn't forget that whiplash, regardless of all those who fake it, is a real and potentially deadly injury. We shouldn't let tabloid anger blind us to the reality or stop the real injured from getting treatment or compensation for thier injuries. 

Whiplash kills don't forget that. 

Twitter censorship

 One of the truly revolutionary ways in which the world has changed is the way in which ordinary people like us can use the the Internet, specifically social media, to fight against repressive regimes. For all it's lies and misuse the ability of people there to report what they see in real time changes news gathering and gives us the raw truth. 

Such empowerment undermines the vested old media and threatens governments. It is an amazing thing when one thinks about it. 

Of specific interest is the amazing way in which Twitter was used in the Arab Spring to allow people to fight against their dictators and abusers. Twitter helped brave people tell their truth and helped them overthrow their overlords. The way in which Twitter used new technology to allow such freedom, with special numbers to allow people to speak their Tweets, and and help overcoming draconian censorship earned Twitter well deserved praise and massively raised its already high image. 

I am therefore saddened to learn that Twitter is changing to allow national censorship of its members. 

Now the Internet isn't always nice and illegal activity abounds but I'm agianst this. If you are threatened with death or rape then you should have some legal protection but not such national censorship. Freedom is too important for this. 

It's a shame that Twitter seem to be putting thier own business interests before our freedom. Let's put it this way, China, Russia, and other states with unenviable human rights records are lucrative markets but wouldn't like the uncensored Twitter if it undemines them. 

So it makes business sense to stop people being rude by these regimes so that Twitter can operate in these untapped territories but it destroys all the kudos Twitter has earned during the Arab Spring. 

It's sad. 

Vote Newt and get 2001

 I like unusual names but for the life of me I cannot see why any adult would go around calling themselves Newt. Even if it is his birth name you'd have thunk he'd change it. 

Anyway Newt Gingrich has made his latest bid for his party nomination to face President Obama by saying that if he becomes president he'll give the US a permanent moon base.  

How cool is that!

Leaving aside if Newt would be a good president, or is a good man, it would be a good move. It goes without saying that such a base would give rise to images 2001: a Space Odessy, or even Space 1999.  Lurid spandex for all! However such a base would, I feel, inspire many to get into science and engineering. This can only be a good thing. It'll be expensive it goes without saying, but it could pale in comparison to all the advances and products such enthused people create. In a world in which such advances are vital this is important. 

More than this though. America is losing its dominance of space and high technology. China, India, and who knows who else are mastering space and the prestige of America is slipping.  

That's a shame and is agianst the national need of America. As things stand America is in danger of losing the future. For all it's many faults it would be better that a open, democratic, country is top dog in the new frontier. 

Pity the idea is being put forward by a man named Newt. 

How can we not have a limit on benefits?

 I know many people who receive benefits. I have no problem with this. People in need require help. There isn't anything to be ashamed about in receiving benefits. Indeed too many people, especially the elderly, do not claim the help they are entitled too thus condemning themselves to poverty. 

 

However how is it possible that benefits can pay seven/eight thousand a month on renting people houses in the most expensive parts of the country?

 

Provide council houses by all means but don't have a system which private landlords can make fortunes by renting houses to benefit claimants. 

 

There needs to be some limit to benefits. If there isn't work becomes second class activities done by idiots. Without some maximum figure we'll be bankrupt. 

 

How can this be contentious?

Why do we subsidise MPs meals?

 A subsided canteen is great for those on a small wage. However I cannot understand what we are paying just under £6 million to subsidise the luxurious meals, beer, and champaign of MPs. 

 

These pampered people are paid over £60,000, much more if they are ministers, and are able to claim thousands more a month for their food. 

 

Why the hell should the hardworking taxpayer, many on minimum wage, pay Even more toward their steak and bubbly?

 

They are well paid enough to pay for their own meals. They can cry about the expense of living in London or the like. The simple truth is this: they knew the amount MPs were paid when they clamoured to become MPs. If that's not good enough for them then they shouldn't have stood and should stand down and allow someone else to 'struggle' on sixty grand plus expenses. 

 

These cosseted knaves have no understanding of the real world. 

David Laws and what it tells us of a out of touch political class.

 The Lib-Dem MP, David Laws is being positioned for a comeback into government. Spin and kind words abound about how he will/should return to his rightful position in government to rule over us minions. 

It must be nicety have such friends. 

But it's wrong. 

You see Laws is a man well liked in parliament and the press. I have no doubt he is a talented man and a beacon of sanity in a out there party. However the fact remains that Laws had the shortest ministerial career because he had to resign when he was caught fiddling his expenses big time. 

It doesn't matter if he is a nice man, apart from stealing from the taxpayer, which for too many in parliament isn't a bad thing. It doesn't matter if he's witty and wise. It doesn't even matter if if he has the very ideas and skills we need in our time of need. 

A expense fiddler should have no place in government. If there was any justice Laws would have been prosecuted for his action, just like anyone else. Prison should have been his punishment. Laws should think himself lucky to escape justice and retired to anonymity wracked by guilt. 

He shouldn't be about to embark on a career in government bossing the law-abiding around. 

The fact that the poltical elite cannot see how their stealing from us is such a bad thing shows how for all the fine words they are still as out of touch with our anger as ever. 

That's very sad.  

On the proposed Thames Estuary Airport

 One of the really sad things about me is my love of artificial islands. These totally man made edifices are brilliant. Of course I studied archeology for a couple of years so maybe that's where it started. My engineering bent really kicked in with the creation of the offshore airports in Japan and their artificial testbeds. The science behind building a artificial island to house an airport is amazing. 

And then I discovered that I've been driving past an artificial island every couple of weeks or so. 

So I am a fan of monumental artificial islands. 

However.....

Even I don't support the Mayor of London's wheeze to boost London by building a new airport on the Thames Estuary. 

Not only will it cost god knows how much more than the budget like every other government grand scheme, it is going to be built in a fragile environment which needs protection rather than destruction. 

More than that though, why should a London Mayor be able to ruin the environment and social conditions of an area outside his jurisdiction. The Thames Estury residents didnt vote for Boris so why should he be able to irrevocably damage thier lives?

I support the use of artificial islands as a way of providing runways and to bring economic benefits to the country. So why creat a very expensive runt airport when we could build a much cheaper and much larger one at sea and link it to London by high speed rail or even commuter airplanes?

Being able to build a massive airport with room to expand and no neighbours must be the better option. 

 

On the British government's support for anti-Semites

Anti-Semitism is on the increase. For too many the irrational hatred of Jews is acceptable. 

 

However I am not one of those who think that any criticism of Israel is automatically an attack on all Jews. Often this form of attack has been used to stifle justified debate and criticism of Israel. 

No country is perfect. Politicans make mistakes. That shouldn't damn a race or creed. 

I do however agree with Melanie Phillips when she writes about how wrong it was for David Cameron and Nick Clegg to meet the Palastinian President and only criticise Israel. 

It is sickening that supposed democrats can honour and laud anyone who seeks to wipe another country off the map and create an state with not a sinlge Jew, or black person, or any other racial or religious group, in it. For them to encourage a Holocaust denier is sick. 

To use such a platform to attack Israel and ignore the terrorism, human rights abuse, and very real racism of the Palestinian President shows either breathtaking ignorance, stupidity, or worse a very troubling mindset. 

With ingrained racism those who hold such views don't think it's wrong and don't see how it clouds their judgement. 

Racists or holocaust deniers shouldn't be honoured at Number 10.