Gringo

Just like there wasn't for the iraq invasion - public opinion counts for natch, Cor blimey, I agree with one of CV's posts, will sit down for a while. Nope, I agree with the scandanavian. People were poorly treated by people who thought they were dispensible. That is nothing to do with the overriding morals of the time, it was institutional homicide. If you don't accept that the leaders of the time were inept, cowardly, feckless and fuckwitted then you can't move on and build a better society. The people who died at the front, died for a broken view of the world, for the inability of the smart people to make it work. Yes you can list the causes of the war, the road to war, the alliances, the german increase in warships and the british double strength standard, competing colonisation, the trade links different sides sought to maintain and grievances over disupted terroritories. All Causes. No Reasons. Stupid War, Killed Miilions. Solved Nothing.

david gray - this year's love

Prefab Sprout - Moving The River

Then again, some people always look on the bright side

Mervyn appears to be ruling out shenanigans BoE's King says 'odds-on' he will have to write to Chancellor in coming 2 years

No cut next month as it is the week before the budget and would be seen as political shenanigans, and by april the next inflation forecast report will be in the hands of the BoE which will block out april and may. Come June we have a stalled market needing pepping, but with inflation (both CPI and RPI) on the way up the BoE can't vote for a cut unless the chancellor slackens their remit. And the BoE know this increase is on it's way into the market. If they hold steady for another 10 months the energy rises will start to drop our of the inflation measure and cuts might be available. But without shenanigans it won't be before them.

That's just a ridiculous idea - after all, the only parties advocating that are the blue and red ones. One party, two different colours.

Fear is the first weapon. But it's kind of getting off the main idea behind my post. The police are being downsized. the pen pushing to be taken over by civilians, the low level detection given over to neighbourhood watch schemes and at the other end of the scale, the crowd control by the private securities firms. So what does that leave the polce to do? Fighting organised crime? Becoming high level detectives. The govt sponsored report by (the discredited) flanagan envisages this downsizing, but does not explain how it will be achieved or what will be left. He thinks that only 10% of police activities require a trained polced officer. So is the force being downsized, or privatised?

There's very little on the web about it. I would never have heard about it if I wasn't working with a security firm a few years back. The stuff listed on the net is to enlist security firms, and use quite sensitive language, whilst the view of the firm I was working with was they were to be the back up, secure areas when it kicks off. [edited] Yup that's part of, started in London and got rolled out araound the country [/edited]

They're not justifiying it though. Hvae there been any ministerial press releases or information programmes on "Project Griffin" to explain what they are doing. Search the internet and it will tell you how they are explaining to shopkeepers how to make their premises safer from terrorist attack. But that represents less than 5% of what they're up to. So far training has only gone as far as crowd control techniques, but the next step would be unthinkable. The war on terror reaches the high street.

1) Today we are greeted with a suggestion from one the countries chief of police that neighbourhood watch members could become more active in policing 2) Last week. the discredited ronnie flanagan said that the current level of policing was neither required nor sustainable. 3) And in the background "project griffin" has been tooling up private security firms since 2004 to man the barricades when it all goes pop. So is this privatisation of the police force by stealth? Taking it point by point, 1) I find it sinister that neighbourhood groups are increasingly energised to monitor and inform on their next door neighbours. Does this not remind of us of anything? 2) People critical of flanagans report stated that reducing police numbers would leave the state exposed at times of crisis. Of course the curtain twitchers in point (1) will help resolve the day to day commitments, but if there are needs for a large deployment, say, another miners strike or riots across inner cities, then that's where they need (3) 3) Project griffin started a few years back (I have mentioned it here a few times), bringing together heads of private security firms - you know those really trust worthy people (and I've worked with some) who increasingly employ immigrants, and were recently shown to have thousands of illegals in their employ - and explaining to these bosses how, in a time of need, they were the ones best placed to secure the second line. This is of course all done under the banner of readiness for "terrorist attack" or maybe civil disobediancy. In the US they have blackwater and private armies, over here we're going with a part-voluntary, part-salaried and part privatised police force. Is this the way to reduce crime? Or does having a private internal army supported by curtain twitchers rather dangerous?

The The - this is the day

oooooh housemartins, so long no sheep, will have to dig that out.

Ten City - That's the way love is

New Radicals - Someday We'll Know

Linkin Park and Jayz - Numb

Waterboys - the pan within "The wind is delicious Sweet and wild with the promise of pleasure The stars are alive And nights like these Were born to be Sanctified by you and me Lovers, thieves, fools and pretenders And all we gotta do is surrender"

Julian Cope - World Shut Your Mouth

Doing the old pareto jobby, 80% of the people will own 20% of that wealth, so at the bottom of the scale, it would be a bit more spread out, but still a meaty 32k of equity. However, they ain't gonna help them if they don't manage to finance the debt Home repossessions rise to 27,000

General, I would be interested to know if this was the only proposal put forward. I tend to accept your outlook in that this is only a proposal to be investigated, and as such standing up saying no at this stage would place AVFC in an undesirable position whilst the power resides with other more forceful members; however a more slightly cycnical aspect of my character wonders if this is a softening up process where a more acceptable proposal where the golden chalice that is the league title is not so sullied is also available and may be offered as an alternative. As such are minutes of these meetings made available at all, so that the supporters could get an insight into the views of the different clubs. All the best Chuck, thanks.

I wouldn't be looking to invest in any property til Q4 2009* Bank cuts interest rates to 5.25% *This does not constitute financial advice and should not be taken as such. Gringo urges you to obtain professional advice before proceeding with any investment.

Broken Land - The Adventure Is no one else listeneing to muzak tonite?

Nanci Griffith & Adam Duritz- Going Back to Georgia

Hootie - let her cry