5 posts tagged “labour”

"The Home Office is to spend over £500,000 this year on a marketing campaign for the identity card which features cartoon fingerprints" : News from Kable about the Home Office starting it's "public information campaign" in the north west.

...because of course the government aren't swimming in debt and have cash to throw at all sorts of white elephants.

That's pretty shocking

Money collection is pretty heavily regulated, particularly when it comes to actual enforcement with bailiffs, having dealt with debt collectors and bailiffs, I certainly wouldn't want them to have more power than they already do.

My experience is that Bailiffs and debt collectors will be sent to the wrong address, be requested to enforce disputed payments or even fraudulent invoices as well as various errors.

I've never had a dealing with a bailiff or debt collector regarding a debt that I actually owed :
* for somebody elses business that I ran the website for (which was also disputed, and being the guy who ran the website I helped to deal with the dispute, and was livid that Citylink were trying to bill for a package sent by another of their customers from a totally different address and it was clearly a fault in their system).
* for a gas bill unpaid by a previous tennant
* for rental arrears by Felicity J Lord on a property they forgot to update on their automated billing system, which nobody spotted until threatening letters arrived in the post

I've heard of friends receiving fraudulent threats by both criminals and legitmate businesses.

That's why we need to ensure debt collection and recovery / enforcement is tighly regulated - it's the most vulnerable people who are on the receiving end, and it's used carelessly, badly or fraudulently - the last thing we need to do is allow the use of force.

Kerry McCarthy (Labour Member of Parliament for Bristol East) and Bastard Old Holborn (Libertarian Blogger) both manage to be wrong in quite spectacular different ways on their respective blogs.

Supposesly libertarian Old Holborn shows his Tory colours with his racist (although he'd call it un-PC) calls to round up and imprison without trial all the 'immigrants' in St Pauls because the Police 'know who they are' and that apparently prostitution is all the fault of open immigration, not exactly liberal or libertarian.

Kerry McCarthy manages to totally miss the point about the 1984 postings and claims that the LPUKers are making an organised attack on her blog, thing is - they're quite right that she doesn't get it : her voting record and support for her party show she is pro-authoritarian, supporting everything from extending detention without trial to larger DNA databases and ID Cards, while refusing to come out in favour of the pretty well argued liberalisation that would greatly reduce the prostitution problems she describes - quite how she can complain about BMW driving businessmen, while her government keeps the pimps in power by criminalising drugs and forcing heroin users into crime, I don't understand - probably because she's managed to get the hang of doublethink as described in 1984.

Interestingly these two blogs show the uglyness and inconsistent of the rabid socialists ("The state is there to look after, protect the people from themselves") and the Tory/Libertarians like Guido and Old Holborn ("YOU voted for criminals to have more rights than their victims. Not me.").

OTOH both manage to get a few things right, Kerry obviously puts some effort into her constituency work, and OH "organised" a pleasant stroll to westminster in appropriate fancy dress on Guy Fawkes night, the LPUK 1984 book campaign was a good idea and brilliantly timed.. I think that like David Davis, they can sometimes do the right thing on principle that deserves support and applause, even if much of the time I disagree with them and hold some of their views in contempt.

p.s. neglected to post it here on 5th november, but I love this variation of the Obama Hope poster 

.. I present the real and parody version of Luke Akehurst's blog - including such highlights as "Gandhi, Magna carta blah blah blah", patronising Rachel North (yes, That "Rachel of north london" Rachel).

I think it shows exactly the kind of brainwashed zealotry that you don't want from any party activist, let alone a councillor.

I'm surprised that nobody from his local party has told him to STFU.

A.

From today's Independant :

.. a fresh leaked transcript of a conversation between President Bush and his Spanish counterpart President Aznar before the invasion of Iraq in February 2003 show Mr Bush saying: "We have to get rid of Saddam. In two weeks we will be ready militarily. We will be in Baghdad at the end of March",

The comments – which appear to show disregard for whether or not a second UN resolution would be passed at the time – appear to further contradict a speech made by Tony Blair to the House of Commons on 23 February 2003, in which he said: "I detest his [Saddam's] regime. But even now he can save it by complying with the UN's demand. Even now, we are prepared to go the extra step to achieve disarmament peacefully."

Just because Blair is no longer PM doesn't mean those who worked with him to mislead the house of commons, the house of lords and various parliamentary committees can be let off the hook. Labour ministers and cabinet members lied and fudged and rewrote history.