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Just a list of people i think deserve to be honored, for doing something right (eventually)

• Diane Abbott
• Richard Burden
• Katy Clark
• Harry Cohen
• Frank Cook
• Jeremy Corbyn
• Jim Cousins
• Andrew Dismore
• Frank Dobson
• David Drew
• Paul Farrelly
• Mark Fisher
• Paul Flynn
• Neil Gerrard
• Dr Ian Gibson
• Roger Godsiff
• John Grogan
• Dai Havard
• Kate Hoey
• Kelvin Hopkins
• Glenda Jackson
• Dr Lynne Jones
• Peter Kilfoyle
• John McDonnell
• Andrew Mackinlay
• Bob Marshall-Andrews
• Michael Meacher
• Julie Morgan
• Chris Mullin
• Dr Doug Naysmith
• Gordon Prentice
• Linda Riordan
• Alan Simpson
• Emily Thornberry
• David Winnick
• Mike Wood

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This credit crunch has got me thinking about mismanagement of the economy. I don't know enough about the American system, beyond the base principles that it is corrupt on a level that would disgust the Saudi Royal Family. I'm particularly interested in is the British economy, and i like to think that i'm a little bit better informed about it. Being a temporary ex-pat, i do intend on returning one home day and if I could avoid returning to a financial leper colony would be just wonderful. To me it is very clear that the banks are guilty of severe misconduct and incompetence, while they may have generated huge profits, the situation we are in now is a direct result of them making bad decisions. I know that I am not an economist, but my limited understanding of the economy caused me to realise that a credit crunch was inevitable given the situation. That said, destroying banks is generally bad for people's financial well-being, so i would hope the government does its supporting maneuvers to get these banks back on their feet. That said the boards of these banks should be held criminally and financially liable for their mismanagement. I think about 30 years in prison should be a suitable punishment. I am getting sick of every labour minion spouting how the economy is stronger than ever, despite it obviously having huge and dangerous flaws that are being exposed on a daily basis. House prices have been rising, nobody is saying otherwise, however i find it difficult to believe that nobody saw it coming. How did Gordon Brown fail to see that the housing prices would eventually collapse? It makes me wonder whether he knew it would collapse, but hoped that it would collapse after the fall of the Labour government. I know admitting a mistake from a politician is less likely than them doing the right thing, but if a labour minister admitted that Gordon has screwed up on his handling of the economy i might actually start to respect them.

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I actually came across this on the Mail, but the BBC interpretation is a little bit more accurate and fair handed. It turns out, that a health think tank is suggesting that in order to smoke you would need a permit. Not only would this cost you in money, but you would have to fill out a deliberately complex form, obtain a suitable passport photo, and have to renew this permit yearly. An addition that seems to make this group positively orgiastic is the additional idea that you would have to go to your doctor in order to prove that you are still healthy enough in their opinion to smoke. Surprisingly for this open, egalitarian, social justice and personal empowerment preaching quango of a government, they seem rather keen on the idea, and you have to wonder whether they really are as clever as they should be with all those degrees and life experience. Smokers smoke, yes many would like to give it up, but this is something they need to come to terms with themselves, possibly via willpower and nicotine substitutes, or maybe checking into rehab. This will not stop people smoking, it will stress people out and make them miserable but they will either trundle through the form, or they will buy cigarettes from France instead. It all comes down to how you view your fellow human beings. Do you see them as dumb animals who need carrot and stick style policies to be controlled into doing the right thing? or do you see incredibly complex and capable individuals with stresses and influences you might not see or understand? This government treats us like dumb animals, and we assume they are complex individuals. All people in Britain deserve respect, even if they smoke, this government seems to fail to see this.

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Apparently, according the the Reg we are about to get a new section of nobility. Those people participating in the terribly corrupt disaster of 2012 (also known as the Olympic Tragedy, the waste of space, ken's downfall, and our greatest gift to france) will be the only people able to use their cars in the area. Special lanes for the non athletes who are considered important will exist. I despise the olympics, and all who take part in it, because contrary to the image it presents, its a quagmire of corporate sponsorship deals and corruption. Suffice it to say, i find it illegal to the nature of my country that these lanes will exist, so should they be on my route, i will be using them. How dare this government suggest we are yet more inconvenienced by their further stupidity. I don't want the games messing up london and the rest of the UK, so why should i have to put up with it? If fact the only good thing about the games coming to London, is the fact that it doesn't ruin Paris...

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...can't screw up so easily. Apparently the Metropolitan Police have said that if a prosecution is successful, they will be unable to do their jobs. So they are saying if they got caught wrongdoing, they wont be able to continue wrongdoing. Charles de Menezes was an innocent victim of the ever increasing incompetence and corruption of the British Police Forces, ever since they were politicised by the Labour Government. The detail watching the apartment block, went on a break, without arranging cover. This resulted in a knock on effect ending up with the armed response unit conducting a "Mafia Style" execution of an innocent man. Now the armed police may have been under extreme pressure, but their actions lack both wisdom and intelligence (wouldn't a suicide bomber take the care to have a deadman's switch). It would be bad enough if that was where the wrong ended, but in response to the truth coming out, there was a deliberate attempt by the Metropolitan Police to cover up their gross incompetence and brand Mr de Menezes as a likely terror subject, so they could be justified in executing him. The police needs to be brought to heel, since they don't seem to be capable of acting as civilised humans at the moment. For generations we have had a police force to be proud of, now it looks like we are trying to emulate the excuse for police that the US government employs.

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Just listening to yesterday's interview by John Humphrys of Jeremy Paxman. Two of the most capable interviewers going head to head... Personally i completely agree with Jeremy Paxman, the BBC should trim back, and concentrate on the things that it can only do. However John Humphrys is very good at holding his own, titantic battles :) For those of you who didn't here, for while its available check out Listen Again. I'll write about my thoughts a bit later.

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I'm shocked, the BBC seems to have ended its trial of video podcasts.. as someone who has a hectic schedule i'm somewhat limited in my ability to get my weekly dose of newsnight, question time and even panorama at times... I thought at first it was because i was traveling outside the UK at the time, but it turns out the trial has been discontinued... It wasn't a perfect substitute for watching the show, but it was a good dose of BBC current affairs i could watch when its convenient (one of the advantages of a video ipod). If the BBC does choose to continue (which i hope they do), it would be good if the full versions of these shows were available. However i do appreciate the edited versions of these shows, since they give me a chance to watch highlights when i'm taking a quick without the full blown program. The today program is a staple of my early morning wakeup ritual and the 10 minute chunk works well as a digestible piece of current events.

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Capitalism, and its child philosophy consumerism is not a system without merit, and in many situations it does a passable and sometimes good job at delivering reasonable service to people. However like a few government sanctioned monopolies, the train companies are not one of them. There is no competition on the railways, unless you want to take a car, you have no practical alternatives. Therefore rather than dropping, we have had continual increases while services get significantly worse. My personal favourite experience of this was the 7pm from London to Bristol on a Friday evening. This was every time the busiest train i have seen, because it was the first train you could catch which wasn't peak rate, and also people going back for the weekend. When this was the old style long trains it was still jam packed, but on every second weekend they would use the new much smaller carriages, which meant many people couldn't get on the train. They knew this would happen, and could fix it with some thought on planning but continually made the same mistake. This was a symbol of the problem of capitalism running on the train networks. Virgin brought out its Voyager series of trains with several notable enhancements

• A more complete shop
• Powerpoints at the seat, vital for anyone with a laptop or in need of a phone charge
• More comfortable seating
• Ability to join trains together to get more seating

As a result, rather than taking care to produce a worthy equivalent, First rushed out the flawed Adelante to replace its aging network of trains, however these have several issues.

• Approximetly half the sized of the replaced trains, with no extra services to take up the slack
• No powerpoints at the seats
• Seats have no improvements, possibly actually a little more uncomfortable than the originals
• Cannot be expanded by any means so the limited capacity cannot be overcome without increasing services
• Flaws in the design of the engines mean that simple problems like replacing the front windscreen takes 3 days rather than 1 day in the previous model

So the result is, that customers are paying both in time and through their wallets for a bad management decision, and has anyone lost their jobs? No, and its unlikely they will do, since First are still making huge profits at our expense. Virgin themselves are no shining ...

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