Insane!

That's the only adjective to describe today's news in the Evening Standard (and briefly on the Beeb before it seemed to mysteriously vanish!) that "The organisation in charge of keeping the costs of the 2012 Olympics down is to receive a £10 million bonus in recognition of its success".

OK...let's just rewind slightly...

Did I imagine it or isn't the Olympic budget currently under scrutiny - largely because the estimated cost has exploded to a gobsmacking £9.3 billion - more than 4 times the original estimate (with 5 years still to run)?

And isn't the budget expected to be rise even further?

What sort of contract rewards an organisation for this level of failure? And how much more would they be allowed to overspend before they lost their bonus?

Gaaa!

I can remember exactly where I was when the announcement that London had won the Olympic bid flashed across the TV. I distinctly remember the mighty cheer that went up all around me.

And I distinctly remember thinking: You silly sods!

Let's have a little look at a few recent facts:-

• To my knowledge (feel free to correct me if I am wrong) the only publicly funded olympics that ever broke even, let alone made a profit was the Sydney Olympics.
• With a very strong pound-to-[insert your foreign currency of choice here] ratio, the expected hordes of baffled tourists are likely to be watching their pennies (or more likely just wont be able to afford to come over in the first place). Unbelievably, the stinking rich don't tend to turn up en masse for something as essentially proletarian as the olympics.
• Our most recent large-scale redevelopment project of a major sporting facility (otherwise known as Wembley Stadium) eventually cost well over double the projected cost (£790 million) and took 3 years to build (eventually opening some 12 months later than expected).

  The commencement date of the Olympics is of course the only unmovable factor in the whole equation, and if you listen carefully, you may hear the sound of many hands in the construction industry being rubbed together in glee.

• Anyone remember something called the Millennium Dome? Did you know that we will finally get it paid off around 2012? How much will the Olympics cost? So - we'll have that paid off by...when?

Every pro-Olympics quango ever formed, trots out all the usual positives: re-development of decaying urban areas, international prestige, great for sport etc. And every time we fall for their line of BS and it ends up costing an amount of money so large that most of us can't fully comprehend it. Meanwhile our roads, schools and hospitals continue to fall apart, essential services continue to be cut and costs increased. Taxes rise and we keep on paying...

All in all, it sure seems to be a helluva price tag for something that - like the millennium dome - will largely be forgotten less than 12 months after the last bunch of flag wavers board a jumbo jet and bugger off home.

Pour me another Sam...

Well...last night's Led Zep gig was a bummer to miss (even with all the anti-touting procedures) and on the whole the reviews are pretty good. The video clip on the Beeb's website looked awesome.

Gone of course is Robert Plant's screaming vocal, and from all accounts the band's more legendary excesses have been replaced with requests for cups of tea. But the band doesn't seem to have lost any of it's showmanship and raw, growling sound.

Jimmy Page's recent finger injury seems to have recovered well and he certainly proved that his talent remains undiminished by time. Likewise, John Paul Jones' amazing musical versatility has definately improved with age and Jason Bonner did his dad proud.

*sigh* wish I was THERE.

After the fiasco in Sudan where a teacher has been jailed for 15 days for calling a class teddy bear "Muhammad", I've decided to jump on the bandwagon too...by starting a new worldwide religion (after all, if L.Ron Hubbard can do it then so can I).

This new religion (which I shall call "Methylated Spiritualism") will consider the following social groups, items and practices as sacreligious:-

• any form of taxation
• all fans of any TV show with the word "celebrity" in the title
• anyone who has a beard and wears sandals on the beach
• the color pink
• clouds
• newts
• socks with holes in

...once we've got enough followers (the first couple of items should ensure we get plenty of them) we can then concentrate on ranting and raving that anyone who makes any mention of the remaining items in any context is a heretic who should be put to death.

We can expand, change or reinterpret the list at our leisure and because our objections are on "religious" grounds, they will of course be respected no matter how ridiculously medieval they may be.

Fortunately (for the rest of the world) this will never happen - mainly because I've committed heresy already (every pair of socks I have has holes) and I have therefore been forced to stone myself to death...

Damn!

Now that I'm back into the whole London commute thing after a prolonged absence, I'm pleased to see that while a few aspects of the whole rail network have improved, some things are just as I remember them. But it's too nice a day to go through the whinge list so instead I browsed around the web and came up with the following ditties, all of which are good for a Friday larf.

Funny Underground Announcements
Emma Clarke, the voice behind many of the London Underground automated announcements as her alter-ego "Sonya" (so called because her voice gets on ya nerves) has recorded quite a selection of spoof announcements. I particularly like the following:-

Would the passenger pretending to read the paper...
Would passengers filling in their sudokus...
Here we are again, crammed into a sweaty tube carriage...

(...actually the last one is a little close to home :^)

And of course an old favourite from those medical masters of mirth, Amateur Transplant:-

London Underground (includes Flash slideshow)

Enjoy!

In a recent post, I asked if Americans were truly the most stupid people on the planet.

They may well be, but when it comes to incompetence, it appears that some folks here in Britain are not far behind, at least in the "Whoops! Apocalypse" stakes.

And at least the American morons tend to do us all the dual favours of:

• Killing themselves off and therefore removing themselves from the gene pool
• Killing themselves in ways that are so dumb, they are at least entertaining.

...whereas the incompetence demonstrated yesterday in the announcement by a very sweaty Alistair Darling on behalf of the HMRC that the personal details (including bank accounts) of some 25 million citizens have effectively been "lost in the post" was not only NOT funny, it was FRIGHTENING!

Of course the minute you add any form of Government into the formula, you effectively get "Incompetence Squared" and this is certainly true about HM Revenue and Customs. But even with this huge "I²" factor, it's fair to say that the HMRC have outdone themselves in a spectacular fashion.

This fiasco would be bad enough if it was genuinely a one-off or first offense. Unfortunately it's just the latest in a rather long line of security-related database fuckups by the HMRC specifically and the Government in general.

Here are just a few of the HMRC highlights:-

• September 2005 - HMRC loses a CD-Rom containing unencrypted data concering a company called UBS and it's employees
• 15th December 2005 - HMRC admits that the personal details of up to 13,000 civil servants have been stolen.
• 8th October 2007 - An HMRC laptop holding sensitive data on an estimated 400 individuals is stolen from the boot of a car.

In every case, the reaction of the government was pretty much the same; make a token apology, pay lip service to "improving procedures" and then hunker down to ride out the shitstorm.

The problem is that you can put all the procedures in place that you want, but if they are not going to be enforced in a consistent manner then they are a complete waste of time, because no-one will follow them. People are like water - they tend to take the path of least resistance and if the protection procedures are not enforced then they will be ignored.

...which is why history keeps repeating itself.

The one tiny silver lining in this dark cloud (at least in my humble opinion) is that - with luck - this balls-up may spell the death of the National Identity database farce. Forget the grave issues of personal privacy, enormous cost and inconvenience - it should be blatantly clear to anyone with half a brain that the Government simply cannot be trusted to protect this information - and their track record bears this out.

And for the few that (against all the evidence) may remained unconvinced, keep an eye on Westminster to see what the government response will be to the following questions:-

1. How exactly did such a "junior" civil servant obtain access to such a vast quantity of sensitive information?
2. Why was the junior civil servant allowed to burn this info onto CD-Roms without using any form of 128 or 256-bit encryption?
3. Why is the Governement still exchanging information between departments on DISK?
4. Having established that the first (unrecorded) deliver of disks from the HMRC to the National Audit Office had failed, why did the HMRC then send out a SECOND copy of the disks, still unencrypted?
5. Alistair Darling stated that if someone was an innocent victim of fraud as a result of this incident, they would have protection under the banking code and would not suffer any financial loss. In other words the government will cover the loss...with our taxpayers money?

Altogether now...

M..I..C..K..E..Y, M.O.U.S.E

Posit:

How can a country that has given (or made major contributions to) so many technological marvels to the world also be capable of producing morons in ever-increasing numbers and seemingly ever more stupid - especially when there are lots of firearms lying about the place.

Take the recent case of the 66 year old man from Washington who injured himself in both legs after attempting to loosen a stiff wheel-nut...by blasting it with his shotgun.

How is it possible for any human being to be this f*cking dumb...and still live to 66??

Perhaps the more important question is: Are Americans getting progressively more stupid than should be possible, at least in terms of Natural Selection?

A quick check of the Darwin Award finalists in 2000 shows that of the top 30 finalists, 20 were from the continental United States, making the "Land of the Free", the clear winner with a whopping 66% of the overall terminally stupid (and that's particularly scary when you think that the George Bush idiot quota has still got to be factored in somewhere).

Things seem to have marginally improved this year where the US boasts a total of 5 out of the 11 entries currently posted. This represents a reduced moron percentage of 45.5%, which I'm sure we can all agree is something of an improvement.

Still, the year isn't over yet and lets face it...in a country where some bozo thinks he can loosen a wheel nut with a shotgun blast...hell - anything is possible!

An interesting article on the Beeb's website in which Ministers have played down reports that compulsory ID cards for all Britons are to be scrapped has filled me with hope.

In politics there is a kind of "reverse spin" that seems to be applied whenever MP's are looking for a way to back out of bad legislation proposals without losing too much face. One of the ways they do this is to insist that plans are proceeding or (the real giveaway) start to "play down" reports of whatever. See the words "play down" and in most cases you can be assured that the legislation being proposed is doomed.

However, todays issue of the Evening Standard reveals a disturbing increase in the Police DNA database over the last 10 months, where up to 150 entries are being added every hour. The database currently holds DNA data on 4.5 million britons - some 13% of the population (or one person in seven). It's also officially the largest database of its type in the world!

What appears to be happening is a kind of ID card system by the back door.

In the words of Private Fraser: "We're Dooomed!"

After finishing up with my previous contract in June, I have to confess I've been a bit lazy. I was hoping for a long hot summer of dossing around, punctuated by a few great gigs. Sadly neither the weather or Ticketmaster was playing ball and the summer was a bit of a washout.

Now we're into autumn and it's time to get another contract - and I have. But after 10 years of managing to avoid the worst aspects of the rat race with the London commute, I'm back in the race again.

I'd forgotten how exhausting the process of getting in and out of London can be, but after a few days of working out the most efficient route, locating a supplier of reasonably priced caffeine (at least reasonable by London standards) and adjusting to the reality of the rush-hour "people tide" on a packed Jubilee line, I'm starting to get the groove again.

And at least I get a terrific view of Tower bridge from my window.

The recent outbreaks of foot and mouth disease has left me thinking: is it just me or has the blinding incompetence of modern British government and big business reached new heights?

It seems that the private company (Merial Animal Health) and the government department (Institute for Animal Health) who shared the Pirbright facility, near Guildford were more interested in arguing about who should be responsible for bio-security (and more importantly - at least as far as they were concerned - who was going to PAY for it) than actually taking control of the issue.

This type of behaviour is bad enough coming from a private company, but for a government department to display so little concern over the bio-security of the country they govern is nothing short of criminal negligence!

...and yet it looks like the weasels from both sides of camp incompetent may get away with it.

In an age where we are supposed to be fighting the so-called "war on terror" how are we supposed to react to this breach of bio-security, created by the laziness, buck-passing and apathy of the jobsworths?

More importantly, if our procedures are so weak, how are we actually supposed to fend off an organised, well-financed and coordinated terrorist attack against one or more of our so-called bio facilities?

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

If we are to retain the faintest shred of faith in any aspect of the anti-terroism measures introduced by this government, then we need to start by slapping large penalties on all the guilty parties in the foot and mouth fiasco.

The IAH civil servants responsible (starting from the heads of department and working down) need to be sacked immediately. They should also kiss goodbye to their fat civil service pensions and be publicly named and shamed.

Dealing with Merial Animal Health is even easier - hit them with a formula 1-level fine and make the company directors personally liable for the inactions of their peons.

The penalties must be serious and send a clear message; where the bio-security of the UK is responsible, there can be no f**cking about! and NO one is exempt from responsibility for their actions.

Anything less than this and it's just a matter of time before the next avoidable incident occurs.

Unbelievable July weather. Since I left the NPIA in the middle of June, we have only had 2 days where we got no rain (and both of those were overcast).

Still - by comparison to the poor devils in Berkshire, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and large sections of the Midlands, we have got off very lightly. Residents in Gloucestershire wont even be compensated for loss of drinking water for 17 days!

And then when I got up this morning, it was like someone had flicked a switch and summer was here! A glorious blue sky, warm with a light summer breeze.

Welcome summer - better late than never!

Today's decision by the House of Lords in the case of the Inland Revenue vs Arctic Systems is a victory for little family run businesses all over the UK.

Both the IR35 and S660 legislation, introduced in late 1990's have made the process of running a small business far more complicated indeed.

IR35 was supposedly designed to stop permanent staff disguising their working relationship behind the facade of a limited company, in order to avoid paying PAYE and National Insurance. However, as always the Inland Revenue applied the sledgehammer approach across the board; instead of looking at the overall workings of the limited company in question, the HMRC insists on applying the rules on a job-by-job basis. Now, genuine freelance contractors and other small consulting / design / IT businesses are forced to prove on a job-by-job basis that they are a genuine small business and therefore exempt from the legislation.

Likewise, the S660 legislation focuses on the relative roles within a limited company run by spouses and who is responsible for generating what portion of income. In practice, this is often impossible.

A large problem that both pieces of legislation suffer from, is that they are both open to very differing interpretations. Two different HMRC audits of the same company accounts/working arrangements could - by the HMRC's own (if reluctant) admission - produce significantly different results.

Top marks to Geoff and Diana Jones who refused to let the HMRC run roughshod over their livelihood and fought the good fight...and WON!

The job is done and it's time to move on. Best of luck team - it was fun working with you all.

In a gobsmacking expose by the BBC's Panorama programme last week, we glimpsed the extent of the payouts from British Aerospace (BAE) to former Saudi ambassador to the US, Prince Bandar bin Sultin.

Today, we laughingly learn that BAE Systems is setting up an ethics committee.

After I picked myself up off the floor, I dropped a line to the Oxford Dictionary people, providing them with links to both stories and asking if it was possible to include "BAE's ethics committee" as a perfect definition of: "Oxymoron"? I'll let you know if they reply.

Perhaps we should all look at starting up our own arms firms. After all, these bastards seem to get away with damn near ANYTHING as long as the government can claim that it's necessary for the British economy and British jobs. All we appear to need is the official "nod and wink" from some MoD arsehole and we're off and running!

I've already been online to Companies House this morning, to see if I can register either "Murderous Bastards Inc." or "Lords of Death Ltd". Companies house say they will let me know in due course...

Meanwhile, I figured I'd better start looking for a bloke called Ahmed and when I find him, start discussing the imminent supply of a shitload of weapons to whatever despot is willing to pay the highest price (I hear both North Korea and Iran are paying well these days).

Because as long as I grease the right palms (especially in the MoD) I won't even need to pay taxes on my morally bankrupt, ethically void, inhumane, dirty, underhand, corrupt, sleazy little deals with likeminded scumbags from all over the world.

...and if by some remote chance the media makes a meal out of it all, I just talk in vague terms about setting up an ethics committee.

And in the unlikely event that the news results in the commencement of more formal investigations, what happens then?

Well, if it's are anything like the investigations into the dealings of BAE, Prince Bandar and other like-minded slime of humanity, Blair and his fellow worms will simply quash it while mumbling something about "Strategic Relationship", "Fighting Terrorism", "Interests of our country" - or maybe all three at once.

...looks like I'm home free.

Anyone wanna buy some guns?

I see on the beeb today that Jack Kevorkian has ended his eight-year prison sentence...and seems determined as ever to press the powers that be to once again debate the concepts of legal euthanasia/assisted suicide.

Kevorkian's "suicide machine" became notorious in Catholic and other similarly minded God-bothering circles back in the 1990's, when Kervorkian himself was dubbed: "Dr Death".

OK - can someone explain this to me...

If we had an animal (especially a much loved family pet) in a great deal of pain as the result of a terminal illness, wouldn't we consider it "humane" to put the animal to sleep as quickly and painlessly as possible?

...so why don't we believe in giving the same "humanity" to human beings in the same circumstances? Especially when the patient requests (and sometimes begs) to be spared the agony and the loss of dignity that long term palliative care often involves.

And even when you find a sympathetic doctor, who will turn off your life support at your request, you better hope your church won't add insult to injury by denying you the right to a religious funeral as was the case for Piergiorgio Welby last December (just 3 days before Christmas to boot!)

Certainly, the whole issue of euthanasia is fraught with legal and moral difficulties, but it's time we stopped playing ostrich and started talking about it in all seriousness.

I for one will be interested in what Jack has to say...just for starters.

Photos Available: Click here to see a small selection of gig photos

Last night, Gavin and I went over to the Halfmoon in Putney to see Ezio live.

The Halfmoon is a unique music venue. With a history of nearly 50 years of live music, it has a proud history of promoting new talent and bands. This is where Kate Bush made her debut, where Elvis Costello was resident before signing a record deal and where U2 had their first sold-out British gig.

The walls are chock full of signed photos and music memorabilia from many music greats and a flyer I grabbed outlined a number of upcoming gigs in a really eclectic mix of blues, jazz, folk and rock acts.

The theatre/stage itself is best described as "cosy" but it works amazingly well. There's very little separation between the stage and the audience and that gives everyone a real feeling of connection.

As we walked in, both Ezio Lunedei and Mark "Booga" Fowell were standing by the door, chatting to the punters and sharing a laugh and a joke. This pretty much set the tone for the rest of the gig with Ezio interspersing the gig with a liberal sprinkle of funny quips. In a set lasting a little under 2 hours, Ezio played a broad range of tracks; both much-loved favourites (such as "Steal Away", "Deeper", "Thirty and Confused" and "All the Dreams" ) along with fresh new material from the latest album.

Ezio have just released their new album: "Ten Thousand Bars" - which - by my counting - is at least their 9th or 10th album to date. This album is another example of Ezio's superb virtuoso guitar work and tracks such as "Thin Line", "Holding you now" and the title track: "Ten Thousand Bars" have already being added to my MP3 player (I can't afford the iPod).

This was the first time I'd seen them live, but I definitely got the impression that Ezio are one of those rare acts who seem equally comfortable laying tracks down in a studio and playing live on stage. On stage, there was no sense of aloofness or separation from the audience; no artsy posters on the walls behind them and no political messages from the lead singer between tracks. There was just great music and a lotta laughs...and the audience loved it.

The gig was standing room only, with around 100-120 people. Casting my eye around the room between tracks, I noticed that unlike other gigs I've been to, there was no-one huddled in a corner trying to have a shouted conversation with a partner or texting a friend on their mobile phone; pretty much everyone there was focused on the stage and fully into the music. The band picked up on this and started to get the audience participating more, which in turn got the audience more involved. By the end of the night we were treated to a version of "one day I'm gonna die" sung in the voices of Elvis, Stephen Hawking and Scooby Doo - all of which the audience had to emulate!

When the gig finished around 11:15pm, it was a pretty happy looking crowd that spilled out of the Halfmoon, into the London rain.

All in all - a cracking night! If you get a chance to see Ezio live, don't miss it. And check out the Half Moon gigs as well!

Stop Press: Ezio have also recently signed a deal with Tapete Records in Hamburg. Ezio described Tapete as "an independent, hip young label, run by musicians and people who love music, which, in this day and age, is a rarity".

Booga added: "We thought long and hard about them, looked at other offers that were on the table and decided that Tapete was the label to go with. We are looking forward to working with them on our new album and with a bit of luck we'll make enough money to buy Christina Aguilera some deodorant. And maybe a toothbrush."

In recent times, I've seen quite a few "Your taking the piss" stories in the news, but today's item about a baby in Illinois being granted a gun permit takes some beating.

Bubba Ludwig (how perfect is that!) obtained a license thanks to the efforts of his father, Howard, who purchased the license online for a mere $5. According to the news article the licence even includes a picture of a toothless Bubba and a squiggle that represents his best attempt at a signature!

Jeezuz...only in America.

Todays news item about the death of Jerry Falwell has left me in a somewhat ambivalent frame of mind.

On one hand Falwell was an ignorant, fake, bible-thumping, god-bothering, olympic-class, rascist bigot of the first order and frankly, in my view the world is better off without his form of medieval morality.

On the other hand, Falwell's views made him such a ludicriously comic figure that he was a fantastic target for a long history of satire, culminating with the world-famous Hustler Campari Ad parody, for which he (unsuccessfully) tried to sue.

...for this at least, he will be missed.

If there is a God, I genuinely hope (s)he mannifests herself to ol' Jerry as a Black Jewish Lesbian Democrat - just to see the look in his face.

RIH Jerry...

It seems that an e-petition to keep the the rich slapper Paris Hilton out of jail has been started.

The petition itself states that: "Paris Hilton did not hurt, injure, or kill anyone or anything, and yet she must do jail time."

It also claims "She provides hope for young people all over the U.S. and the world. She provides beauty and excitement to our otherwise mundane lives."

What the F**K?

So Hilton didn't manage to kill anyone this time - to me that's a matter of LUCK not good judgement. Provides people with exitement?? Whoever wrote this must live a life that's so mundane that a looming death would have great appeal!

This is yet another example of how the sad wanker brigade is not only breeding at a terrifying rate, but is now mutating into horrible new new clones!

You might think I'm getting this whole issue way out of proportion but I have several reasons why this chaps my ass:-

First and foremost, I've seen first-hand the results of drunk driving. Believe me, after you've seen bits of someone's brains and skull spread all over the road after being thrown through the windscreen of a vehicle being driven by a drunk, your attitude to the whole drink-driving issue changes markedly.

Secondly, for many years the US (and to a lesser extent the UK) justice system has been subverted by the rich at the expense of the rest of us. It's not about who's innocent or guily but about who can afford the smarmiest lawyer. That has GOT to change!

Thirdly, rather than demonstrate any genuine remorse or regret, Hilton has shown her contempt for the justice system, A) by signing a document acknowledging she was not allowed to drive (and then driving), by failing to enrol in an alcohol education programme by a court-ordered deadline and C) by not even managing to arrive at court on time.

Frankly, it's about time that wealthy non-entities like Hilton were brought to book.

So please sign one or more of the petitions below and let's send this spoilt rich bitch to the slammer where she belongs!

• www.ipetitions.com/petition/hilton2jail

Update: The judge sentenced her to 45 days in jail, but just 3 days after her jail term began, Hilton's lawyers managed to weasel her out on the grounds of some unspecified medical condition bollocks. Fortunately, the judge didn't buy it and sent her back to the slammer.

Today is local elections polling day throughout the UK.

Traditionally, this is a day where some 70% of us can't be arsed getting down to our local polling stations to vote.

As someone who makes a point of voting in local, national and european MEP elections, it does strike me as odd that more people don't turn out for local elections. Even euro elections get a bigger turnout. And yet the local councillors that are elected in today's polls certainly have more of a direct effect on our everyday lives than either our MP's or our MEP's.

If I was only allowed to vote in ONE election, then the local elections would be my first choice without question; not only are they more relevant to me but of all the elections they are also the least partisan election in terms of party affiliations.

So c'mon folks - it's a beautiful day. Take a walk to your polling station after dinner. Do your duty and vote - and then stop off at a pub for a well-deserved pint!

You'll feel better...trust me!

A highly innovative new power station prototype is being trialled near Seville in Southern Spain.

The futuristic-looking tower that is surrounded by over 600 giant mirrors is able to convert solar energy to geothermal energy, which in turn drives electrical turbines to produce electricity. The Beeb has a video tour of the tower which is well worth a look.

According to the developers, the station is currently able to produce 11 Megawatts of power without ANY greenhouse emissions.

Impressive but not totally accurate; the turbines are steam driven after all and water vapour IS a greenhouse gas (albeit less of a problem than Carbon Dioxide). In fact ANY gas which has 2 or more atoms in its molecule is a greenhouse gas by definition. That said, it would be fair to say that greenhouse gas emissions were certainly minimal.

The initial setup costs are about 3 times the cost of a conventional station, but as with all new designs the cost is likely to reduce fairly rapidly in time, as demand for carbon-neutral energy production increases.

Anyway - check it out!

Today's news that 5 men have been convicted of a bomb plot in the UK is a real result for the work done by the security services, who in the past haven't always got it right.

Amid a seemingly endless list of political and operational gaffs by some segments of the Home office in recent times, today's convictions show what can be achieved with the right combination of accurate intelligence, inter-agency cooperation and assistance from a vigilant public. The reams of evidence (including covert video and wiretap surveillance) amassed by the security services during operation crevice, along with the precautionary step of covertly replacing 600 kilos of ammonia nitrate fertiliser with an equivalent volume of cat litter, all helped ensure public safety and a conviction for those responsible for the planned attacks.

The one failing of operation crevice was overlooking the links between the crevice bombers and the 7/7 London bombers. It is certainly regrettable that MI5 did not pass their initial intelligence to West Yorkshire police for further investigation, but to be fair, initial intelligence did not suggest that the suspects being observered posed a direct threat to public safety.

Considering the evidence that those convicted intended to deliberately target locations with high civillian concentrations (the Bluewater shopping centre and a London Nightclub were strong possibilities), I think it's fair to say that a significant number of us owe our lives to the men and women who worked on this case.

It's what he's been training for, for months and today he joined the 1000's of others to run the London Marathon.

Nice job mate - Bloody well done!

Heartening news on the Beeb today; Former Conservative chief whip David Maclean tried - and FAILED - to introduce a private members bill to exempt MP's from the Freedom of Information act.

Thankfully, the bill was effectively thrown out during initial debates (many thanks to Lib Dem MP Norman Baker and a handful of MPs from all parties who managed to talk out the planned bill by making sure the debate continued for five hours, ensuring that the bill now goes to the bottom of the pile of private member's bills.)

Martin Rosenbaum's FOI blog has a lot more info for those who are interested in the finer political detail.

Beyond the issue of applying further restrictions to the Freedom of Information act, is the attitude that somehow there should be one law for us and another for MP's. In his weak attempts to justify his private members' bill, Maclean even went as far as to compare the relationship between an MP and a constituent as akin to that between a priest and parishioner.

This same inflated sense of self-importance can be seen in many levels of government. What civil servants like Maclean seem to forget is the second word in their title: SERVANT. They are paid to work for US, we are NOT paid to work for THEM!

That's why today's little episode is heartening. It shows me that there are some MP's who DO care about doing the job right and it sent a message to the likes of Maclean that introducing ass-covering private members' bills to avoid accountability is not acceptable.

I'll drink to that!

Andy has outdone himself this year in raising money for Brain Tumour UK. Not only did he organise a fantastic night out at Loch Fyne in Winchester, but he also persuaded 50 friends, colleagues and complete strangers to join him on the Reading Marathon!

Fantasic job mate! Thank to this and the many other fundraising activities you and many others have organised, Brain Tumour UK will be able to continue improving life for adults and children touched by brain tumours, and to establishing the causes of and finding a cure for the disease.

But the war isn't won yet! So please help Andy and many other dedicated fundraisers by making a donation to this very worthwhile cause.

Well - yesterday's vote on Trident went as expected, despite rebellion from 95 Labour MP's.

The labour rebels can at least hold their heads high this morning. Even a political cynic like me (who always assumes that there is a fair degree of self-interest involved when MP's rebel against the party line like this), can see that on this issue these men and women voted their conscience. Many thanks and well done.

Conversely, the Tory party support of the Government's weak position clearly shows that all Cameron's modernist rhetoric is just that - bullshit rhetoric. The Tories haven't changed one bit since they were last in power. They are largely still the same bunch of fat gits in nasty pinstripe suits. And given their previous record in power all we could ever expect from them would be a long list of Quango's, several perjury trials, a couple of sex scandals and a huge amount of personal nest feathering (probably with a cones hotline for good measure).

No wonder voter turnout is so bloody low...

OK - just give me a moment to get this straight...

1. The Cold War is now over and we're on reasonable terms with the Soviets and most of their eastern bloc colleagues. What's more we have been for over a DECADE and the odds of previous hostilities resuming are longer than the odds of winning any state lottery (even ours!).

2. Unilateral disarmament speeches (including from the current Labour cabinet and our "Prime Minister" himself) are a regular feature in the long-running farce that is UK politics for well over TWO decades.

3. An overwhelming majority of people polled in pretty much every independent poll ever conducted on this issue are in favour of scrapping our nuclear "deterent" entirely.

4. A series of online petitions urging the government to scrap trident and champion the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, have been signed by thousands.

5. The "Labour" party itself is - according to reports - split over the whole issue, with a record number of back-bench rebels likely to oppose Trident's renewal. Even more significant is the resignation of Nigel Griffiths, the deputy of the commons over the issue.

6. The cost of replacing trident has been conservatively estimated at well over £20billion over the next 15 years.

...and yet desite all this, the government is still planning to railroad through a vote in favour of renewing this colossal white elephant weapon of mass destruction.

WHAT THE F**K ARE OUR SO-CALLED LEADERS THINKING?

Come to London on Wednesday March 14th and let the wankers in charge know what you think about this!

Recently, I watched a video of an old episode of Equinox, recorded about 18 months ago.

Called "The day the oceans burned" the documentary discussed the issues of global warming and concentrated on an aspect of the process which is often overlooked...the impact of large scale deforestation by the timber companies and beef farmers in Brazil.

The Brazillian rainforest not only represents the largest carbon "sink" on the planet, it is also helping to slow the greenhouse effect by extracting an increasing amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (for the non biologically inclined amongst you, plants absorb and breakdown CO2 as part of the process of photosynthesis; the carbon is used to construct cells and the oxygen is released back into the atmosphere.)

Where we are hitting problems is the massive deforestation campaigns currently being undertaken in large parts of Brazil; the humus layer of soil that the rainforest grows on, is very thin (the rainforest obtains many of it's nutrients from the decaying plant material at its base, rather than the soil) and as the trees are cutdown, slashed and burned the soil washes away / erodes very quickly.

With rampant inflation and high levels of unemployment that have plagued Brazil and other South American nations which border the Amazon rainforests over the last 2 decades, it is not surprising that governments have found it difficult to resist the pressure of logging companies and the farming industry, both of which argue that these activities provide food, jobs and much needed cash into the economy.

But the damage that is being done to our planets "Lungs" puts us all at huge risk of sudden and violent climate change, created by a combination of our carbon emissions and this unrestrained deforestation.

Personally, I think the time has come for all nations to consider paying some form of "Forestation" tax to Brazil; annual funds (possibly arranged and overseen by the UN) paid to Brazil to:-

• Immediately cease and desist further deforestation
• Pay local people to retrain as forest wardens
• Encourage Eco-tourism
• Support a range of scientific research projects

And before any of the redneck reactionaries out there scream "bleeding heart" consider this; quite apart from the climate issues, the rainforest potentially contains many thousands of different flora / fauna species which biologists have had no opportunity to research; hidden in this vast natural "chemist shop" may lie the cures or treatments for cancer, HIV and a range of other debilitating issues.

Personally, I'd be happy to pay a couple of extra quid a year to bring this senseless and short-sighted destruction to a halt....wouldn't you?

Of all the naff annual events on a typical western-civilisation calendar, Valentine's day has gotta be top of the list of all but the most stupid and gullible.

It's a day when men (and women but mostly men) all over the world are compelled out of some kind of misguided sense of obligation to make largely empty gestures and spend a small fortune on overpriced crappy flowers, sickly chocolates and naffly sentimental cards.

Personally I think the whole thing is part of a global conspiracy involving florists, jewellers, the greetings card and confectionary industries to shift a surplus of the tat that they can't move in bulk at any other time of the year.

As far as I’m concerned the last Valentine's day of any note was in 1929

Where I come from, Valentines day is mostly an opportunity for pre-pubescent tweenies to send each other dying flora and sickly-sweet cards. It's an accepted (albeit laughed at) phase of early teenage angst which most of us grow out of before we hit 18.

I may be a long way from most people's idea of Mr Romantic, but I do believe that actions speak louder than words; love and committment is about what happens EVERY day, not one day a year. It is certainly not measured for the most part by the typical valentines day tat!

The bottom line here is that if you actually need a day a year to remember to be nice to your spouse, you should have separated/divorced years ago!

That's why I encourage all rational, intelligent men and women throughout the west to abandon this ridiculous, highly naff annual fiasco. you can start by sending an Anti-Valentine E-card to your nearest and dearest.

Interesting news article on the Beeb website today - apparently the UK is now able to produce over 2GW of electricity from wind power - only one of eight countries in the world to be able to do so.

This is of course good news and a small, but significant milestone in the move away from our over-dependence on oil/fossil fuels. What I would like to see however is a similar level of investment by the energy companies in the development of other "green" energy technology.

I'm specifically thinking of both solar and wave power. Wind turbines provide a reasonable return on investment and can be erected fairly quickly, allowing both energy companies and the government to show that they are moving towards their targets in good time. But if history has any lesson to teach about energy generation and usage, it's that it is never a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket.

Over the last year I have been pleased to see the energy debate start to move out of "behind closed doors"-style meetings between politicians, scientists, vested interest groups and lobbyists and into the public domain.

But at the same time, the lobbyists have been busy and we are getting a lot of what I call "magic-wand" or "one-stop shop!" solutions; "Build More Nuclear Power Stations", says one. "Wind power is the answer", says another. Various other ideas are advocated by various other lobbyists - you get the idea...

The truth is that the solution will require a number of energy-generating technologies - all working together in a way which meets our energy needs and minimises our environmental impact.

And of course part of the solution needs to come from us. We need to be more conscious of the energy we use and where we can avoid waste and make savings. As consumers we also need to start demanding more energy-efficient appliances, along with better heating and lighting technology - and in order to encourage companies to do the necessary R&amp, we have to be prepared to pay for it.

There are some interesting new ideas already emerging - take a look at Bioplex for instance; this little British company based in Stockbridge has developed a portable aerobic digester which can compost a mix of municipal waste and produce useful compost. During the process, methane is extracted from the compost and used to power the composter itself - and a small generator run off the compostor during the process can provide a small amount of electricty. It is hopes that the process can be further refined to the point that it becomes entirely carbon-neutral.

Britain has a long history of engineering and technological innovation, especially from little companies full of bright young men and women, tinkering away in small offices, barns or garages.

And I reckon it wont be long before we start seeing new ideas from the little guys and girls as well as the big companies and government.

Over the years, we have partaken in a a number of sports which some folks might consider a little extreme - abeiling/rapelling at speed down the 80ft face of the Portsmouth chalk cliffs, more battles in the SK than some of us can remember, scuba diving with the great whites, skydiving etc.

but every now and then I am see something that reminds me that as far as getting radical goes - we barely make the minor leagues!

Check out this YouTube Video to see what I mean.

...and here's our Technorati Profile

It doesn't happen often, but every now and then I hear a track which stops me in my tracks. This happened earlier this week, when I heard Jack Savoretti's "Dreamers" on Radio 2.

This track has a relatively simple but touching melody, with thought-provoking lyrics and a beautiful overall arrangement that is reminiscient of artistic legends such as Nick Drake.

Savoretti's raw, yet yearning vocals give the track a "straight from the soul" sound and the ghostly background harmonies add to the bittersweet melancholy.

"Dreamers" is due for release, by De Angelis Records as a single on the 12th February, 2007. Check it out!

Over the last couple of years there has been a significant increase in the number of people who have their DNA stored in the national DNA database (NDNAD). Most recent figures suggest that out of the 3-million or more entries, nearly a third of the entries are from people who have never been convicted, charged or even cautioned for any crime.

Setting aside the fact that this is a pretty major infringement of the civil liberties of a fairly large chunk of the population, the additional entries also devalue the DNA database as an aid to crime detection. A database that has over a million superfluous entries is slower to search, is more cumbersome and likely to produce a far higher degree of record mismatches.

At the same time, it emerged yesterday that the details of over 27000 serious criminal offenses committed by UK citizens overseas have been left lying in box files for months - or in some cases years - instead of being entered into the Police National Computer (PNC). The ramifications are of course huge; with no record of overseas convictions on the PNC, it is impossible to accurately vet candidates against the sex offenders register and any subsequent convictions in the UK would be likely to result in shorter sentences if the justice system is unaware of similar offences committed by the accused outside the UK.

So despite all the usual government spin and rhetoric about how these databases are all about our protection and are there to prevent crime and terrorism blah blah blah, it certainly seems clear (especially in light of this latest Home Office gaff) that Government is far less concerned with tackling crime than it is in controlling the legitimate, law-abiding population.

And this is the same crowd that they want YOU to trust with the national identity card scheme...

Start worrying!