Rule of mob

 Civil Liberties, economics  No Responses »
Jan 312012
 

As is ever my want I’m a little late to press with my ponderings on the matter of Stephen Hesters bonus, but this does mean I can mainly point you at articles written by better authors than I. Which is a good thing for everyone I suspect.

As I may have commented once or twice in the past, I’m rather keen on the rule of law and of contracts being honoured, and as far as I can tell Mr Hesters bonus was a matter of contract. Mr Hester didn’t cause RBS to need a massive bailout he was brought in after the fact by the last Government to sort out the mess. This is by any stretch of the imagination likely to be a tough task, so to get him to leave the rather good job he was in the offered remuneration had to be something to make him want to take the job. This something including bonuses would have been agreed when he signed up for the job, and now due to a baying mob he’s in the position of being told:
“You’re doing a great job, but people who don’t know what you do don’t think you deserve your bonus and will make your life miserable if you take the money we al agreed you should have if you do a good job, which by the way you are”
Not exactly likely to motivate him is it? Can’t help but suspect if say this had been a tube driver being told he couldn’t have his bonus ‘cos the public didn’t like that there might be a strike in the offing and trade tribunals happening, or you know if the Government decided to change public sector workers pensions people might say that was unfair. As he was head hunted from a rather nice job, on the ground of the total package including bonuses which he’s now not taking, it makes you wonder if he wouldn’t just say sod it and look for another job.

As someone who gets a performance related bonus, I rather worry when I see other people in the private sector being hounded like this over private contractual matters. After all there’s nothing but publicity and arbitrary levels of greed separating me from Mr Hester. So if people feel that despite his contract and him reportedly doing a good job it’s fair to call to “occupy this guys house till he donates his bonus to charity”, why not occupy my house? Why is it that it’s terrible for a banker to potentially earn this much but it’s fine for footballers? They’re both employed by private companies, both industries receive Government funding, so surely there should be calls for footballers to give up their bonuses as well? Except of course Footballers generally get cash bonuses where as Mr Hester was being awarded share options so to get any benefit from them he has to stay with the company, and in fact the value of those options are dependent on his making RBS a success. Which is very much in the Government and tax payers interest as if it’s not a success we lose all that money we used to bail them out with.

Ultimately I don’t know if Mr Hester deserves his share options or his wage, I didn’t interview him. Those that did interview him and took the decision to employ him obviously thought they were getting a reasonable deal though, and two Governments seem to have agreed. Yet because a small but vocal part of the population who also didn’t interview him or work with him, think the value of his share options (which he might or might not have ever got) was too high he was forced to give up his fair wage. This hardly seems likely to motivate anyone to take the job, or to take any high profile job in the UK, too big a bonus the mob will take it from you, too much profit the mob will take it from you, doing just a bit too well generally and the mob will pull you down – and then we wonder why our industry isn’t doing so well.

To end on a few slightly tangential points, in their triumphant e-mail message at having “pestered” Mr Hester out of his legal wage 38Degrees said:
John: “A small enough victory but I hope a significant one. On to chasing tax dodgers and saving our NHS :)”
So I’m guessing they’ll be fully behind whistle blowing on people that pay cash, and are every happy to have lost the half million tax Mr Hester might have paid on that bonus. Once the 1% are dealt with, will they then work their way down to those in the top 25%?

 Posted by Giolla at 19:00  Tagged with: , , ,

Of polar bears

 climate change, Green Agenda  No Responses »
Dec 282011
 

(Oops forgot to hit post at the time – better late than never right?)

On BBC’s frozen planet (the one of infamous misleading polar bear shots) after flying over the Arctic with two helicopters David Attenborough commented that the polars bears that the scientists he was with had been tranquillizing every year seemed to be doing not so well. In the context of the show this was linked to change in the polars bears environment, but I can’t help wondering what studies have been done on the ling term effects of tranquillizing polar bears.

But nope surely can’t be that, no chance drugs could have side effects.
The one article I did find makes interesting reading.

 Posted by Giolla at 19:30  Tagged with: , ,

A new bill of rights?

 Betrayal, laws, Magna Carta  No Responses »
Nov 092011
 

Friday see’s the end of the consultation period for our new bill of rights, or as Mr Cameron would have it our bill of rights, as he seems to be unaware of the existing documents which form our constitution (H/T Captain Ranty):

Our rights can be found in the Magna Carta of 1215, 1229, 1297, the Declaration of Arbroath 1320, the Bill of Rights 1688, for Scotland we have the Claim of Right 1689, the Act of Settlement 1701, the Act of Union 1707, the Human Rights Act 1998 and several international and European Acts also provide some protection.

Given that our Parliament as currently formed can not bind successive Parliaments any Bill of rights they come up with won’t be worth much, unlike our existing bill of rights

The Devils Kitchen is minded that most of these charters have been eroded to next to nothing already, though many would argue that this isn’t possible we’ve just been tricked into thinking they have – and it’s quite within our grasp to reassert them. However his point that a written constitution as would be constructed by our current incumbents would be a terrible thing is one that’s hard to argue with. Given the degree with which they are enamoured with the EU the chances that it’s move us more towards the view that everything not allowed is forbidden (rather than the current everything not forbidden is allowed) would seem quite likely.

The question I find niggling at the back of my mind with this move to create a new bill of rights happening at the same time as they want to tinker with the Act of settlement and everything that’s tied into. As His Grace observes most people don’t care about this, and playing jenga with the foundations of our Parliament and laws is only likely to cause the whole edifice to come crashing down. Usually I take the view that one shouldn’t attribute to malice what can be explained by ignorance, but the Government have advisor’s, and lawyers and other such that are notionally wise in these matters. Which makes ignorance less likely, though malice is a scarier idea and one that has me reaching or my tin foil hat. In the unlikely event we get asked (they’ve done so well with referenda so far)if we want these ancient laws changed I doubt the significance will be explained, we’ll just awake to find we’ve abandoned hard one rights and removed what scant limits there are on our Government. Our Government seems determined to tug at the threads that hold the land together, and bind their hands however loosely but once they’ve unravelled the Union of this land who’ll stitch it back together? The EU?

There’s still to join in that consultation.

Update My late submission to them below the line:
Continue reading »

 Posted by Giolla at 18:51  Tagged with: , , , , ,

This is not the war you’re looking for

 Civil Liberties, extremism, terrorism  2 Responses »
Sep 132011
 

Due to having had a bit of social life this weekend I’m a tad behind with the obligatory comment on the September 11 anniversary – but as it’s apparently compulsory I can’t let the date pass uncommented. On the bright side it also means I can largely just link to other people that have said what I want to say so much better than I would. Let’s start the ball rolling with Penn and Teller (H/T Angry Exile)

From how we’ve reacted to that one incident and the subsequent nonsense in London – has basically meant that from the get go we’ve lost. We’ve allowed ourselves to be terrorised, and in defending our culture of freedom our politicians have destroyed it, and our media have taught us to be afraid. In the UK after attacks less successful than anything the IRA ever did. We’ve introduced draconian laws and sacrificed numerous liberties to save ourselves from a lesser than risk than being hit by a car. As the wired article says some people suggest that looking at the risk that way doesn’t account for the impact it has on society. However again as the wired article observes the terrorist doesn’t get to change our laws, our politicians do.


Former White House counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke has an answer. “There’s going to be a terrorist strike some day,” Clarke told Frontline for its “Top Secret America” documentary this week. “And when there is, if you’ve reduced the terrorism budget, the other party, whoever the other party is at the time, is going to say that you were responsible for the terrorist strike because you cut back the budget. And so it’s a very, very risky thing to do.”

The risk, in other words, is a political risk. The culture of fear: It’s a bipartisan race to the bottom. And it’s why the National Security State constructed by the George W. Bush administration has found a diligent steward in President Obama. Asked recently if the post-9/11 security apparatus might diminish soon now that al-Qaida looks weak, Janet Napolitano, the secretary of homeland security, replied, “No.”

And it’s not much different over here, no matter how low the risk the politicians have to be seen to be doing something for fear other politicians will use the next attack no matter how pathetic it is as a stick to beat them. Even if you accept that the “war on terror” is needed to counter real and serious terrorist threats, well I’m afraid that the politicians and the media would have us be scared of the wrong terrorists. Out of the 249 terrorists attacks in Europe in 2010 three of them were carried out by Islamists. That’s it three whole attacks, and of the people arrested for planning terrorist attacks 53% weren’t related to Islamist attacks*

So it would seem to me that we’re letting our politicians waste huge amounts of money, destroy our liberties and enact draconian laws to combat the wrong threat. Whilst our media scares us with an ineffectual bogeyman whilst not mentioning people that seem to be doing a better job of blowing other people up. Surely the best way to remember and honour those that died in the attacks in New York and elsewhere would be to take the same approach as we took with the IRA – carry on as usual and don’t destroy our own culture for fear the bogey man might get us?

* Yes I know I swapped which way I quoted the stats, also just using Islamist as that’s what the data i’m referencing used.

 Posted by Giolla at 00:16  Tagged with: , ,

Anarchy in the UK

 anarchy, conformity, Free Speach, police, Sparticus  No Responses »
Aug 012011
 

Due to having recently acquired a social life, previously lost behind the sofa, I’m rather light on blogging and even further behind the news. Sadly I will catch up and probably go back to a load of things that no one’s interested in any more – however in the mean time it seems the police would like us all to snitch on any anarchist sympathisers we might know though they apparently have already backed down

Captain Ranty as ever has is covered as does The nameless libertarian so there’s really nothing left to say it’s all done and dusted in less than a day – till the next time round.

However if you think I’m going to pass by an opportunity to link to the Sex pistols Anarchy in the UK? You’ve got to be out of your ever loving gourd.

Enjoy….

 Posted by Giolla at 22:30  Tagged with: , , ,

NotW protests and bloggers

 bloggers  No Responses »
Jul 142011
 

Having dragged myself away from both work and the Tour for a little bit, I discover that there’s been a bit happening this last week.

The big story as far as the papers were concerned seems to have been the NotW getting caught out doing the same sort of stuff the rest of them all do. Though it’d seem that New International really aren’t the worst of them that prize goes to Trinity Mirror, but they of course aren’t run by the “evil” Murdochs. So there are fewer calls for the government to stamp on them, which rather ignores that much like Tesco and other “evil” companies they make money because people buy what they’re selling. Don’t want a Tesco to stay open never shop there stick to your local shops even when it’s less convenient, don’t want Murdoch don’t buy any of his product not just NotW, but anything published by Harper Collins and no films produced by 20th Century Fox either or any of his other brands – oh and write to the firms that advertise with them and then boycott them as well. Can’t do that then I guess they’re probably not that evil really.*

Whilst many are clamouring for the demise of the main stream press (or at least Murdoch’s bits of it) and it has in many cases failed us – I wonder what might replace it as we need something to tell us what’s going on in the world (and provide that vital coverage of the Tour). I’m not sure we’re quite ready for the complete take over by the citizen journalist – at least till we have much better aggregators. Blogs are excellent for opinion (and in the case of this blog recycling other peoples opinions), but so far at least they don’t provide the mix of coverage possible by the mainstream press. None of which is to say they haven’t picked up and broken important stories, and discovered things the mainstream press hasn’t – just that at the moment the value seems to be more in picking up and high lighting stories the established media for one reason or another would rather not touch.

Having said that I’m not sure that the internet is ready to take over from the mainstream press, I think that maybe the powers that be think we’ve made enough of an inroad already. For on the back of this “scandal” which it seems likely that every journalist and politician was well aware of but hoped we’d not notice our glorious leader wants more control of the press. Now come people might say the press needs taming, but do you really want our politicians having any control over one of the more effective mechanisms by which they’re kept to account? Do you think the expenses scandal would have been reported if the MPs had over sight of the press? It’s not working so well in Hungary, at least not as far as the opposition press are concerned. Lets also think how such press responsibility legislation might affect us humble bloggers. Obviously you’d have to have some body with which “the press” was registered, either on a publication level or maybe down to an individual level. Want to be a reporter register with the ministry of truth. This creates a bar for anyone wanting to start a new paper or even become a reporter, and I doubt that a registered press would touch a story from a non-accredited reporter. Beyond that there would then be a legal divide between the citizen journalist (blogger) and the “real” press – would unregistered reporting become an offence or merely a slur to discredit unwelcome stories from the internet? If the mainstream media start supporting more powerful regulation of the press by the state then I’d say watch out for it being used to suppress reporting by anyone not in the club.

* I personally don’t think there are actually that many evil companies and if you actually avoided dealing with all of the ones that are apparently widely considered evil and everything they had shares in or who advertised with them etc. Well you’d pretty soon not be able to use any large company, and probably very few small local ones. Just how far does the saint of “evil” extend?

 Posted by Giolla at 21:09  Tagged with: , , ,

Tax freedom day

 activism, Cuts, economics, taxes  No Responses »
May 312011
 

Continuing my grand tradition of being late to the part it would seem that yesterday was Tax Freedom day the day of the year when we on average stop working to pay taxes and start working for ourselves. A mere 149 days into the year and an average of 40.8% of our income gone and that’s the taxes paid. Of course depending on what you buy, how much your earn etc. you own personal tax freedom day may have been a while back or you may have yet a bit to go. Tax freedom day would be a lot later in the year of course if it wasn’t for the fact that the government is still borrowing like crazy, they’d not need to do that so much if any actual cuts were being made. The problem is of course the way each party lavish money on it’s favourites and the next lot aren’t actually cut that so spending forever ratchets upwards. Mind with our credit rating being downgraded by the Chinese that borrowing may well come to a juddering halt.

So as we’ve worked longer to get to tax freedom this year than last, next year must surely be going to be better what with all the cuts. Cuts like Spending 44 million reviving the “change4life” campaigns, or increasing foreign development aid (only 0.7% more of course), or doing up number 10 yet again.

Maybe buying less to reduce the 29 days we work to pay our average VAT bill might be a good starting point (VAT now being forever pegged at 20%+ thanks to the EU). Or maybe support the EU Rerendum lot and thier campaign for referism – so that the government has to actually get our approval for the annual budget rather than just pretending to debate and scrutinise it. Though perhaps any such movement needs to be a teense more aggressive than we may be entirely comfortable with to have any chance of success, it has after all worked for others. In the meantime perhaps we need to start living the good life to avoid the state altogether ?

 Posted by Giolla at 22:38  Tagged with: , , ,

It’s just pining

 activism, Betrayal, bloggers, politicians, politics  No Responses »
May 272011
 

Just for a change I’m really behind all the cool kids in getting round to comment on the recent Libertarian party debacle. I don’t know any of the people involved, though having read Anna Raccoons blog for quite a while if the counter claims against her were true it would be as disappointing as if her claims were true. The entire situation was really enough to make one lose heart entirely, having held quiet this long though does mean that more information has crept out and LPUK have joined the ranks of the major parties in going for the whitewash approach of a limited, unpublished investigation that defends the indefensible. The alternative report put out unofficially by one of those involved does not make for happy reading, one is left in agreement with Katabasis that LPUK “has become nothing short of a full on liability to have anything to do with.” Which may not be an issue as the party may not exist much longer which is in some ways a shame, but perhaps better it die quickly and young than divert peoples energies away from trying to pursue the goals it claimed to stand for.

So what next for fledging Libertarians like myself*? Do we decamp to one of the larger parties and try and influence them? UKIP would certainly welcome us** and some people whose writing I respect have jumped to that ship. I’m not quite ready to do that yet, despite having voted that way previously.

So what next, as the Rally against debt proved (and was discussed afterwards) we need to be better at organising ourselves to get any sort of libertarian message across, and maybe that can be cross party and maybe a loser grouping might well be the way forward. It’s certainly something that appeals to be, a libertarian pressure group, after all look how much influence all those fake charities wield. There’s really no need to be a political party to influence the political agenda these days. If any non-party association type thing springs up I think I’d happy muck in, we don’t need to agree on everythign or have all the answers to start adding a much needed voice of opposition to the general trend towards decreasing liberty and larger state, and maybe by avoiding becoming a political party we might achieve more. 38Degrees and the like suggest it’s very far from the worst way to go – one thing is for sure we need to build and keep up momentum otherwise we’ll always just be a few hundred (or less) standing around Westminster.

* Well sort of I’m probably more old liberal but I think a libertarian voice is vital as a counter balance in current politics – or as facebook might put it “it’s complex”

** Not technically me as I never quite got round to joining LPUK

 Posted by Giolla at 12:47  Tagged with: , , , ,

Days recently passsed

 follow up, Must read post  2 Responses »
May 112011
 

Catching up on other people blogs, I feel I’ve been terribly remiss and caught out by the very things I’ve railed about. Having bemoaned our lack of knowledge of own history and the celebration of “Europe-day” I forgot about VE day (for much the same reasons as LegIron) and didn’t even know about Liberation day . So I’m very glad that other people remembered next year maybe I’ll do better and remember both.

 Posted by Giolla at 23:19  Tagged with: , ,

Global warming not what it once was

 climate change  2 Responses »
Oct 132010
 

Work has unfortunately made me late to this party, but has been observed this letter of resignation really does deserve the widest possible audience (I’ll put it below the fold though for all of you who’ve seen it before).

As with everyone else I shall reproduce it in full and not say much more because there’s nothing I could add, though as someone that read physics that an institute like the APS could have sunk this low is saddening though not surprising if I was still a member I’d be looking quite closely at what the IoP was up to.

I would recommend reading the comments over at Iain Dale as well as the more erudite analysis from the Devil’s Knife – actually go read those and the letter there and save yourself clicking on more
Continue reading »

 Posted by Giolla at 17:06  Tagged with: , ,
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