Dick Puddlecote: It's been another interesting day in the bureaucratic nightmare that is running a business in EU-led Britain.
Our attempt to book in four vehicles at the coachworks, who handle general maintenance for the larger end of our fleet, was met with laughter at the other end of the phone today. While it's never been a problem before, it turns out they're jammed to the rafters with tipper trucks, scaffolding lorries and flatbeds having new mudflaps and bumpers fitted.
The EU have decreed the old ones to be illegal, so every truck of its type in the country must be adapted by a certain date or be taken off the road. More...
Daily Mail: A toddler was ordered off a bus because the foreign driver was 'offended' by his England football T-shirt, his mother has claimed.
Sam Fardon, 27, was allegedly told to get off the service with her sons Dylan, two, and 10-week-old Adam as they made their way to a childcare group.
The unnamed driver, who had a Polish or Eastern European accent, said Dylan's white England shirt was 'offensive' and he threatened to turf the family out on the street. More...
Old Holborn: Nice to see there is to be a complete recruitment freeze in the public sector. Imagine my surprise when I checked the Grauniad this morning to find 310 open Government jobs
Yup 310.
The first page alone gives us 28 jobs and a bill of over £1m a year in salaries, plus the usual pension and benefits.
This does not include the numerous fake charities that receive massive involuntary grants from the taxpayer to remain off the books whilst in effect carrying out Labour party policy on such things as climate change of reminding us all that "some people are gay, get over it" (£350K donation from the Dept of Enterprise, ex- Mandelson). More...
Telegraph Blogs: I’ve written extensively on how the Obama administration is fervently in favour of a federal Europe, but now it seems it is happy to surrender American global leadership to the EU as well. In his recent speech to the European Parliament (hat tip: The Foundry), Vice President Joe Biden declared that Brussels can now lay claim to the title “capital of the free world” (watch the video here). More...
Dick Puddlecote: As someone who engages with many everyday working people on a daily basis, both professionally and in my spare time, THE most oft-repeated phrase I hear is "I don't do politics".
They'll all advance their thoughts about the ills of the world, though. After all, it's human nature. Van drivers, bricklayers, checkout girls, roofers, teaching assistants, spark's mates, cabbies, labourers, nursery nurses, road workers, cleaners, and the unemployed - they all have opinions. And most of them feel totally ignored.
But then again, a lot of them say they 'don't do politics'.
It's getting to be a chicken and egg scenario. Did the politicians begin ignoring them before they stopped bothering with politicians, or did they stop bothering before politicians realised they were a waste of time?
I'd argue that it was the latter. More...
Underdogs Bite Upwards: In the comments here, Mr. Wallis asked for evidence that passive smoking was not dangerous. My response was along the lines of 'it is not possible to prove that anything is not dangerous. What has not been proved is that it is dangerous'.
Thinking on it further, it is not necessary to prove anything either way concerning passive smoking in order to show that the smoking ban is simply a spite-filled oppressive bullying piece of thuggery implemented, enforced and supported by vicious filth who love nothing more than to watch someone else suffer. More...
Guardian: Opponents of Arizona's draconian immigration enforcement law are hoping that federal courts will rule the measure unconstitutional, heading off a spate of "copycat" legislation elsewhere. More...
Techcrunch: Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is joining Khosla Ventures, the VC firm. He will join as a senior adviser. Khosla is putting about $1.1 billion into clean technology companies and and tech companies right now.
One of the companies is Calera, a UK company which has a process to sequestrate carbon emissions in cement, while another, Kior, turns wood chips into biofuels. More...
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS: More flexible rules and a new crisis cell are Brussels' latest moves to counter mounting criticism from airlines and some member states following last month's airspace shut-down in reaction to the volcanic ash from Iceland.
Under the fresh guidelines, member states will be able to minimise flying restrictions when confronted with volcanic ash, so as to avoid another generalised air ban in Europe. The week-long ban in mid-April left millions of passengers stranded and cost the industry billions of euros. More...
EU Referendum: The euro is becoming an engine of intra-European tribal hatred, writes Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, who is exploring the political fallout from the euro crisis. As the world "teeters on the brink of a new age of rage" and we face a "tinderbox moment", he sees the Left as a possible beneficiary of the crisis. More...
The Register: Becta, the education IT procurement quango, is to be scrapped as part of the new government's £6.2bn cuts this year, announced by George Osborne this morning.
Schools are expected to get more control over their technology purchases as a result. Becta did not buy computers and software for schools, but instead drew up framework agreements that bound local authorities to particular vendors and packages. More...
Telegraph Blogs: Tonight’s scheduled screening of an advertisement for abortion on Channel 4 by the Marie Stopes organisation marks a new low in moral sensitivity. More significantly, it removes the last argument against pro-life organisations being allowed to broadcast images demonstrating the realities of abortion. The pro-abortion lobby is pleading the need for openness about abortion: fair enough, they should be taken at their word. More...
Guardian: Popular concern about climate change has declined significantly, following this year's harsh winter and rows over statistics on global warming, a survey has found.
The numbers of those interested in where Britain's electricity comes from have also slipped back, according to a survey commissioned by the energy company EDF, demonstrating what appears to be growing consumer complacency in an era of electric-powered gadgetry. More...
Disclaimer - The posting of stories, commentaries, reports, documents and links (embedded or otherwise) on this site does not in any way, shape or form, implied or otherwise, necessarily express or suggest endorsement or support of any of such posted material or parts therein.
The myriad of facts, conjecture, perspectives, viewpoints, opinions, analyses, and information in the articles, stories and commentaries posted on this site range from cutting edge hard news and comment to extreme and unusual perspectives. We choose not to sweep uncomfortable material under the rug - where it can grow and fester. We choose not to censor skewed logic and uncomfortable rhetoric. These things reflect the world as it now is - for better and worse. We present multiple facts, perspectives, viewpoints, opinions, analyses, and information.
Journalism is (or used to be) the profession of gathering and presenting a broad panorama of news about the events of our times and presenting it to readers for their own consideration. We believe in the intelligence, judgment and wisdom of our readers to discern for themselves among the data which appears on this site that which is valid and worthy...or otherwise.
