Published: 29 October 2008
Latest Dispatch
Dear Reader,
The real question about ‘Yachtgate’ is not so much if George ‘the amateur’ Osborne should have been vilified by the media, but rather why it took so long for the media to have a ‘proper go’ at Peter ‘third time lucky?’ Mandelson.
Yes, dear George would have been wiser to have ‘jumped overboard’ rather than allegedly discuss the possibility of a donation to the Tory party from anyone, let alone a Russian Oligarch with a dubious background.
But then how does his ‘mistake’ compare with the one that Gordon ‘Saviour of the financial World’ Brown made over the abolition of the 10p tax rate.
George’s ‘amateur’ mistake apparently didn’t result in a donation being accepted, or the law being broken and didn’t cost us taxpayer’s anything, while Gordon’s (the experienced professional) mistake cost taxpayers £2.7bn, which probably goes some way to explain why our experience of being led by him is resulting in our now having to borrow hundreds of billions to rectify his other mistakes!
In addition, George is (in reality) nothing more than just an MP (after all he is not guaranteed the job of Chancellor even if the Tories win the next election), while Peter Mandelson was an EU Commissioner, who just happened to be in post when his ‘department’ allegedly promoted the lowering of certain tariffs, which allegedly benefited this same Oligarch by tens of millions.
In addition, November 2007 saw the auditors for the EU refusing to sign off the bloc's financial accounts - for the 13th year in a row. A report by the European Court of Auditors (ECA) criticised nearly every major area of the EU's expenditure. The auditors said that there were weaknesses across the board and complained of neglect and presumed attempts at fraud.
Furthermore, while George has been elected (and can be directly removed) by voters, Peter is ‘ruling over us’ courtesy of a peerage and we would be stuck with him even if Labour lost the next election. To top it all, he does not even have to face MPs (our directly elected representatives) in debate in the House of Commons.
As for Dennis Skinner trying to score points against the Tories, at PMQs, he would do well to remember that it was New Labour who, not that long ago, stood accused of raising donations through allegedly ‘promising’ peerages and other honours in return for donations!
One final point on this subject, if the attack on dear George was intended to be Peter’s revenge on him, then Peter (and his friend Nat Rothschild) ought to remember the old saying attributed to Confucius; ‘If you devote your life to seeking revenge, first dig two graves’.
It could still be that this bit of revenge, while not exactly helping George Osborne’s political ambitions, will turn out to change ‘Third time lucky’ to ‘Three strikes and you’re out’ for Peter Mandelson!
Moving on, it seems that at least one local council is refusing to act as the government’s collector of stealth taxes and will no longer use fixed speed cameras. This does not mean, however, that they cannot use mobile cameras to monitor speed levels in ‘danger areas’ (outside schools, accident blackspots, etc.) from time to time.
The antipathy of motorists to the devices is because many of them seem to have been deliberately located in locations where they can catch ‘speeding’ motorists (bottom of slight hills, etc.), rather than just proper accident blackspots. In addition, some statistics don’t help prove the case for widespread use of cameras.
If one was to take the need to save lives literally, then logically one should also consider the case for the following:
The trouble with statistics is that they so often just ‘muddy the water’ rather than helping one to form sensible policies. For example, in Essex, 61% of those killed in one year had owned their motorcycles for less than one year, so (statistically speaking) all new owners should be banned from using them during the first year of ownership!
Oh well, back to The Source and if you missed them last week you might want to check out the following items:
Stay In Control of Your Money - The Financial Services Authority (FSA) and HM Treasury (HMT) have launched a campaign for consumers who may be struggling in the current climate to help them keep a better grip on their money and finances.
The FSA tips include:
- Take stock: the FSA’s Financial Healthcheck can help consumers recognise their financial needs and prompt them to get specialist help if they find they are struggling with debts.
- Keep a spending diary: the FSA’s Budget Calculator can help consumers review their spending and prompt them to check if they are paying for unwanted services. For example, are they paying for memberships or subscriptions they no longer use?
Individual Budgets can Provide Better Care - Individual budgets can give people more choice, flexibility and control over their personal care, as well as a better quality of life, according to a pilot scheme evaluation report, which found that individual budgets had particular benefits for mental health service users and younger disabled people.
Individual budgets give people, who have care needs, the power to decide the nature of their own support and the report showed that most groups liked this. People can choose to use the money to fund the care that suits them best and fits in with their lifestyle - for example by having someone support them at home rather than going into residential care.
Operating in Insecure Environments – A National Audit Office report highlights the fact that it is not only the ‘James Bonds’ of this world that have to cope with dangers abroad while serving the UK government. As a result, the Department for International Development (DFID) has delivered benefits for the poor in difficult circumstances and the higher risks run in insecure environments have led to lower project success rates, which have hindered progress in reducing poverty.
DFID spends an increasing amount, now over £1bn a year, on providing aid to insecure countries, but it has had limited experience of operating in such countries and insufficient evidence on how best to adapt its approach to counter the risks posed by insecurity.
Guidance Promoting Mental Wellbeing of Older People - The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has published new public health guidance on occupational therapy interventions and physical activity interventions to promote the mental wellbeing of older people in primary care and residential care.
This guidance focuses on the role of occupational therapy and physical activity interventions in the promotion of mental wellbeing for older people. It outlines ways in which mental wellbeing can be promoted in older people and is anticipated to be the first of a range of NICE public health guidance on the health & wellbeing of older people.
Items for the current week include:
The Government has a Single Solution for Business - The Government has launched 'Solutions for Business - funded by government', a national package of 30 publicly funded business support products, which can be accessed via Business Link. All the 'Solutions for Business' products will be in place by March 2009 and are a result of a streamlining exercise whereby the government committed to reduce over 3,000 products to less than 100.
Questions remain, however, as to just how many businesses will still be trading in March 2009 and whether these packages will do anything to ensure that businesses will be able to access reasonably priced loans from banks, which media reports claim they cannot do at the moment.
Preventing Commercialisation of GP practices – The SNP may be losing votes back to Labour on the economy, but they are counter-attacking by highlighting Labour’s current policies on the NHS. The Scottish Government is taking steps to embed General Practice firmly within its vision of a mutual NHS and to prevent commercial companies from running GP surgeries.
A consultation, launched last week, is seeking views on the eligibility criteria for providers of primary medical services, which includes issues surrounding commercialisation of GP practices.
Review of impact of Mental Capacity Act - Plans to reduce the fees and simplify the forms for people making Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPA) were part of proposals announced last week in a public consultation by Public Guardian, Martin John. This consultation is the first stage of a wider review by the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) into how well the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) (2005) is working.
The proposals include plans to:
- reduce the fee for registering LPAs from £150 to £120
- redesign the LPA form and guidance notes to be clearer & more logical, with guidance notes incorporated in the form itself
Become an Ethical Pest - Trade & Development Minister, Gareth Thomas, is telling people to; ‘Ask more questions about where your goods are from’, as he is backing the new 'Be an Ethical Pest' campaign created by the Ethical Trading Initiative.
He said that the growing numbers of people wanting to shop ethically are entitled to more information about the source and production methods of their food, clothes & furniture from the places they shop.
This deeper insight into planets could extend our comprehension of fusion energy – the same energy that powers the sun, and laser driven fusion as a future energy source. Fusion energy is widely considered an attractive, environmentally clean power source using sea water as its principal source of fuel, where no greenhouse gasses or long lived radioactive waste materials are produced.
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