For our political leaders, take 10 ...

... mindful minutes.

He proposes a sick ...

...joke to be played on Britain's poor people, a proposal by Ian Duncan Smith,

who tells the little people to be satisfied with their poverty !

... he proposes to reduce the redistribution of income from the better off to those living in poverty.



 ... he is another who can be referred to as "all process, no products"...

... unless of course "poverty" is considered a "product" !

I read an interesting line ...

... concerning politics !

"Politicians are all process without products !"

... it implies that politicians add very little to society in terms of value !

FoS politics, Bovine TB, Badgers, and ..

... farmers.

The facts according to the farming community ...

............................. anything you want ...............................

The facts according to the government ...

............................. anything you want ...............................

You get the idea, the facts are exactly how you need them to support your position.

The latest in this sorry tale from the Guardian ... Full-scale badger cull set to get government go-ahead
The facts according to Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine, the document in full, relating to Transmission of Bovine TB ...

M. bovis can be transmitted by the inhalation of aerosols. by ingestion. or through breaks in the skin. The importance of these routes varies between species. Bovine tuberculosis is usually maintained in cattle populations, but a few other species can become reservoir hosts. Most species are considered to be spillover hosts. Populations of spillover hosts do not maintain M. bovis indefinitely in the absence of maintenance hosts, but may transmit the infection between their members (or to other species) for a time.  Some spillover hosts can become maintenance hosts if their population density is high.

There are two imperatives ...

reservoir hosts and spillover hosts

Cattle are the reservoir and in Britain the Badger is the spillover.

The only logical answer to the problem of Bovine TB is to remove the reservoir, that's the cattle.

... so when our MP's cry foul, when the call for a Badger Cull is shouted down, remember Iowa, the veterinary college that speaks the truth .... politicians are so FoS, so dishonest to discount evidence.
 

Wiki Jimmy Wales versus Westminster ...

... in the battle for the moral high ground.

The Guardian article by Alan Travis, home affairs editor can be read here so you can make up your own mind.

Myself, the civil-servants and their very dim politicians behind the proposals are full of the proverbial, the information that can be gained that is so powerful has little to do with solving crimes, it is to do with profiling ...

... what value to the unelected civil servants and other string pullers being able to profile political puppets of the future ?

... the United Kingdom's (government) "snooper's charter" is a blackmailers dream, in 20 years the British public could be reduced to servitude because few politicians will be cast in the mould of Joan of Arc, where will be the activist when secrets are published.

Jimmy "the High Plains Drifter" Wales wins the argument for me, but I'm afraid with politics so full of career politicians, who care for their personal future before the future of the electorate, the future is a future that will travel back in time to serfdom.


For the philosophers of the world ...

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, remember the mayonnaise jar & the 2 Beers.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. 

They agreed that it was. The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full.

They agreed it was. The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. 

He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded a unanimous 'yes. ‘The professor then produced two Beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. 

The students laughed. 'Now,' said the professor as the laughter subsided, 'I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life.

The golf balls are the important things, your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favourite passion, if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. 

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car. 

The sand is everything else, the small stuff. ‘If you put the sand into the jar first, there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. 

The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. There will always be time for the small stuff. Take care of the golf balls first the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand. 

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the Beer represented. The professor smiled and said, 'I'm glad you asked. 'The Beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of Beers with a friend.

Where is the justice in ...

... a world where we insist that society is built upon a foundation of poor people, and where we insist that the poor amongst us are further impoverished through insisting they live together in "cheaper homes", which by definition create impoverished and disadvantaged area's, is this a modern form of social cleansing as The National Housing Federation is quoted as saying.

To explore the reasoning we have essential reading from the think tank Policy Exchange, the logic underpinning the 50 page report is based upon land costs ...

Area                                           Total per hectare         Total per home
London                                           £3,000,000                 £100,000
South East/East/South West            £900,000                   £30,000
Other regions                                   £450,000                   £15,000

... to be fair to Policy Exchange there is no recommendation to cut into the standards of design and construction, at least not just yet, as it states ...

We should build to Parker Morris standards (created in 1961, these set a minimum floor space for each property size).

• In one, two and three bedroom dwellings, one flushing toilet is required, and it may be in the bathroom.
• A semi-detached or end-of-terrace house for 4 people should have a net floor area of 72 square metres.
• A dwelling for three or more people should have enclosed storage space for the kitchen of 2.3 cubic metres.
• Dwellings should be fitted with heating systems that maintain the kitchen and circulation space at 13 degrees Celsius, and the living and dining spaces at 18 °C, when the external temperature is −1 °C.

Now the proposals have little effect upon the super-rich, cost is less important to those who build their personal gated properties.

It is with the middle classes and particularly the professional-managerial class of Britain [and other developed countries of the world] that will benefit from the ghettoization of the poor amongst us, the other side of this particular coin is the gentrification of existing social housing, an effect will be to underpin or in some cases increase property values though I do not see this aspect as of great importance, it is the creation of modern serfdom.

Without a lessor group of people to underpin the mobile middle classes what is the point of the middle classes, and if the lessor group are not segregated into their 21^st century ghetto how do the middle classes manage their aspirational lives.

Part of the middle/professional-managerial class are our politicians, the hinge pin that enables our middle classes to engineer society as an illusionary 21^st century version of the middle ages, the ultimate beneficiary of which are the super-rich who continue to own the majority of wealth whilst standing at the Orchestra Podium directing society to internal conflicts that fails to address the real problem of our 21^st century world, the provision of universal justice.

In Wales, we have political powers devolved to the Assembly Government, whereas Policy Exchange would advocate politics coercing social housing providers to ghettoise the less fortunate amongst us, I would encourage a policy that further integrates people into society through the prevention of social housing providers from building social housing in discrete, detached from others, estates.  Social housing providers should be obliged to purchase dwellings within the current housing stock.

Diabetes and Liberal Democrats who throw their toys out ...

... of their buggy while the adults get on with the job of parliamentary reform.

The little people of Britain believe that there are too many politicians at Westminster;  and this feeling cascades down to the devolved administrations of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.  Might this feeling from the birthplace of democracy be felt by the little people of the world I wonder ?

Unfortunately Cleggy, the deputy Prime Minister, said on Monday that his party could not support the boundary changes because the Conservatives have dropped reforms to the House of Lords.

 In response yesterday our erstwhile Prime Minister, David Cameron, told the world (well, those within 20 meters of him as the majority have better things to do with their summer day), that he would be challenging the politicians of both sides of the house to support reforms we (the electorate) are demanding.

So Cameron has challenged the Lib Dems to grow up, he has challenged them to explain in Parliament why reducing MP's is bad democracy, they will also have to explain to the electorate why they intend to vote in the face of public opinion, that's the opinion that places Bankers and Politicians into the very same box with Schrödinger's cat, 

Brining the debate to Wales the proposal is for 30 MP's in 30 equal sized constituencies, this should be extended to the Assembly having 30 constituencies matching the parliamentary boundaries, it would be admirable if the Assembly then had 30 constituencies of two AM's dumping the regional nonsense where AM's are divorced from the people they are elected to represent.





And Diabetes .......... it seems the secret to living with Type 2 is to ...

"learn to live with hunger !"

... less is indeed more, trust me its true, eventually the hunger goes and you are rewarded with a smaller appetite.

... morally wrong ?

This is Treasury Minister David Gauke who said in newspaper interviews that the practice of paying tradesmen in cash is morally wrong and came at "a big cost" to the Treasury and meant other people had to pay more in tax.

This man needs a reality check, this obviously biopic poltroon of the highest Order of the Bathwater has definitely been promoted above his abilities.

Could someone at the treasury explain that Bankers who screw our economy were morally wrong.

Maybe someone could explain that not paying taxes on $21 trillion (£13tn), squirrelled away in offshore banks is morally wrong.

Then there is the poor widow of Anglesey who finds it difficult to pay her energy bills whilst suppliers are awash with surplus cash, morally wrong.


And what about HSBC, I watched their executives on C-Span answering questions as to their incompetence dealing with money laundering, morally wrong.

... I could go on, morally wrong is morally wrong, but for scummy politicians it is easier to play with the little people, the little people don't have pressure groups with buckets of money to fund a lobbyist ...

... is the lobbyist morally wrong ?

... so David Gauke if you are not morally bankrupt you might start by putting your house of blind eyes in order before chasing the little people ......