Diana Watch

Ok, I know it’s late but the dog ate it. Well, sort of, well not at all to be honest, we went to Kent for the weekend because it was Significant Others Fathers birthday, nice time had by all I think. The new car did very well on the motorway if you’re interested; you’re not, are you? Fair enough I suppose, if you wanted car reviews you’d watch Top Gear. But the delay in a day does give us some new news. Now we own 4 banks, the Government has bought 40% of RBS and 60% of HBOS/Lloyds not yet merged super bank. The plan announced by the Gordon Brown last week made, up to, £500 billion pounds available to the banks. The difference between the US bailout which just bought the bad debts off of the banks offering nothing for the tax payer, the UK plan involves the government buying shares in the banks in order to refinance them but if the banks want the money they have to meet certain criteria laid down by Chancellor, such as having to lend for mortgages. This is a much better plan by than the US bailout but it is also a massively costly plan, the American plan is $700 billion (£400 billion) or $2800 (£1600) per US citizen, the UK plan is £500 billion ($871 billion) or £8300 ($14,500) per UK citizen, it really better work but I think it will and there is every chance that it will make a profit. A number of the papers and news programs have noted that Gordon Brown looks happy and that there is a bounce in his step, I’m happy for him, he’s a good man in a crisis I’m told. Does anyone else have a plan? David Cameron? Hello? Ah you there?
Tonight the House of Lords, are they still here, I thought Labour said that they were getting rid of them about 10 years ago, are voting on the rather controversial 43 days detention before charge. You may remember it from the slightly unsavoury way it was bribed through the lower house and it is expected that it will be defeated but that is not way I bring it up. I mentioned it because one of the excuses that the government have used for this unnecessary extension is that it will only be used in exceptional circumstances. Well, so far the longest any suspect has needed to be held is 27 days, within the current limit, and what are “exceptional circumstances”? there have been several recent cases of local authorities “using” anti-terror legislation, when I say using I mean abusing, we have had a council using it to spy on a family to see if they lived were they said they did I order to make sure their child was at the correct school, we have had councils spying on noisy dogs and people dropping litter (http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article4036231.ece ) and now the UK government has seized the assets of another country using anti-terror laws. Which Axis of Evil country was this I here you ask? Which evil doer threatened our way of life and maybe even our utter existence? Well it was Iceland. Some of their banks were going under so we used anti-terror laws to seize any UK based assets they might have. Another brilliant argument against any more state power, they cannot be trusted to use it appropriately. It really annoyed the Prime Minister of Iceland as well, he said, “it’s not very nice to wake up and find that someone has used anti-terror laws against you”, see he was livid, well, for an Icelander. But this underwhelming statement does bring up a very good point for those who labour under the “if you’ve got nothing to hide” misapprehension; you don’t worry about the constant erosion of your civil liberties until they are all gone and it’s you under suspicion.

A quick mention of the American Election, oh yes it’s still going but only 3 week to go, and John McCain is trying to calm his Republican party and their rallies as I have read two reports in separate newspapers where the journalist has written that they have heard shouts of “Terrorist “ and, more scarily, “Kill him” when Sarah Palin has been attacking their democratic opponent. Is this 2008 or is this a clan rally? They do realise that incitement to kill is an offence don’t they? It does seem to us that Obama has adopted the strategy of shut up, smile and wave. Let them do a lot of shouting and insulting and you will look like the bigger man, give them enough rope and they will hang themselves. It is, usually, the Democrats who self destruct but it does look like that this time it might be the Republicans and I say bring it on.

Let us move on to the awards,

Scary thing/Bravest thing of the Week,

The Blind Road Speed record was broken this week; a Belgian man in a Lamborghini did 192 mph on a runway this week. Is that brave? Yeah, I think so.

Little Git of the Week,

Significant others new car has been parked in our road since she bought a few weeks ago with no problems at all. As I mentioned earlier we where in Kent this weekend and her car was parked outside her parents house for only about 3 hours before someone stole the dust caps off of the wheels. Now, whilst this isn’t crime of the century it really is very annoying and such a pointless thing to do.

Best Article of the Week,

In yesterdays Sunday Times someone, sorry journalist that wrote this article, compared the fight between McCain and Obama to the eternal battle between Wile E Coyote and Road Runner with McCain being the unlucky yet persistent Coyote. Whatever he does, bombs, jet skates, poorly researched and argued claims that your opponent was friendly with terrorists, the Road Runner is left unharmed but he is left sooty faced and smoking.