September 07, 2006
no no no
The Tories aren't supposed to be saying things like this. Dammit.
At this rate Cameron will turn out to be the best Prime Minister Labour never had.
Posted by groc at 11:22 AM | Comments (1)
September 01, 2006
*sigh*
Oh? Oh dear, there goes yet another plank of our Govt.'s argument that we have to have ID cards in order to comply with new International (read: American) Passport rules and regulations.
Just incase you thought chipped passports were a good idea... think again.
Posted by groc at 07:57 AM | Comments (0)
August 29, 2006
the Ozzie ID card
They got one - before us.
(Remember how in the first round of trying to sell it to us - that it'd be an 'entitlement card'?)
Oh look - and it's been hacked already. Didn't see that coming, oh no - a total surprise.
Couldn't ever happen in the UK of course, not with our honest upright Government employees.
Posted by groc at 08:44 AM | Comments (1)
August 27, 2006
the National ill-th Service
Seriously: I’m starting to wonder just what are people paying their National Health Insurance for. Opticians have long been privatised (if you’re on state benefits you can only get a free eye test and a money off voucher for glasses). Most Dentists have been going the same way -opting to go into providing cosmetic surgery for their wealthier patients rather than doing boring fillings and extractions and essential whatnot for the plebeian masses. In fact I don’t know of a single friend who has an NHS dentist anymore, myself included. We’re been left with no choice but to just to let our teeth rot. Great. There was a BBC documentary on a few months back on how a few people are finding it lots cheaper to travel abroad (and that is with the price of the return flights and hotel stay taken into consideration) to find a dentist for various treatments than pay the prices their own UK dentists are charging!
And now here in Worthing there was a march protesting the proposed closure of the local Accident and Emergency hospital just to save money. Then I read of a similar protest march in Cornwall. There have been others in other parts of the country too. So what the hell is going on?
Mmmm, now who’s bright idea was it to make individual Hospitals responsible for their own budgets? It wasn’t Thatcher was it?
Posted by groc at 09:08 PM | Comments (0)
July 10, 2006
ID cards doomed
What? Has good sense finally started to prevail?
Have a few ministers realised that as with all the other previous computer projects that they've been sold a lot of obscenely expensive snake oil?
Or is that being too optimistic?
Posted by groc at 01:59 AM | Comments (1)
March 20, 2006
ID
This ID project is even more sinister than we first thought.
"You will need the card when you receive prescription drugs, when you withdraw a relatively small amount of money from a bank, check into hospital, get your car unclamped, apply for a fishing licence, buy a round of drinks (if you need to prove you're over 18), set up an internet account, fix a residents' parking permit or take out insurance.Every time that card is swiped, the central database logs the transaction so that an accurate plot of your life is drawn. The state will know everything that it needs to know; so will big corporations, the police, the Inland Revenue, HM Customs, MI5 and any damned official or commercial busybody that wants access to your life. The government and Home Office have presented this as an incidental benefit, but it is at the heart of their purpose."
Pet Shop Boys protest at ID cards. They've written a song.
And as of last year - without any open public debate or even put as part of an election manifesto 'Merikans can now look forward to their own ID card and National database.
Posted by groc at 03:42 AM | Comments (2)
November 27, 2005
Land of the free?
Here's a little taster of the things we can expect if we get ID cards foisted onto us. A nice example from one of those repressive backwater countries we hear so much about: the USA. Nice to see how well the war against terror is coming along. Them pesky dangerous 50 year old mothers of four will soon know their place and tow the line. Yes sir!
Posted by groc at 08:12 PM | Comments (0)
October 13, 2005
now company directors are starting to dislike ID cards
Although it's taken a good two years for them to wake up to the fact ID cards aren't a good idea. It still shows how too many of them are really quite ignorant - it should be 0% believing ID cards will help prevent terrorist attacks - because that's more like the real figure. Madrid has ID cards - it didn't stop them being bombed, on the day of the 7/7 London bombings the Police were saying openly in TV interviews an ID card would have done nothing to stop it.
Posted by groc at 03:05 AM | Comments (1)
September 26, 2005
innocence in the age of terrrorism
“I’m innocent - I’ve got nothing to fear.”
Yeah, well, NEWSFLASH your innocence isn’t worth a jot -as these two articles will testify.
Nun Terrorized by Terror Watch
Suspicious behaviour on the tube
Posted by groc at 11:53 PM | Comments (1)
September 09, 2005
people are important
Would the American Govt. have to cut Medi-care to the most vuneralable and poorest section of it's own society if the Republicans there could actually run their own economy -even half way properly?
How big is the American deficit again? Wasn't it running as a surplus when Clinton was in power?
Seriously, the Right wing of any country only ever know how to feather their own nests* and line their own pockets -at the expense of everyone else. Really by rights they should never ever be allowed to run State affairs - it's only because they tell the slickest lies that anyone ever votes for them.
*Most people fail to understand that this is not the same thing as being good at business. We should know that from our country where an appalling number of company bosses have awarded themselves obscenely huge pay rises while running their company into the ground. This is a standard right-wing practise.
Posted by groc at 03:03 PM | Comments (0)
July 13, 2005
uh uh - British Bombers
So it turns out the London bombers were British heh?
Oh shit - does this mean Prez Bush is going to send US troops in to invade Leeds?
You know - with his 'war on terror' policies and all that?
Posted by groc at 12:23 PM | Comments (1)
July 08, 2005
editorial
editorial piece on the London Bombings: Over There By William Rivers Pitt
Posted by groc at 09:14 AM | Comments (0)
July 02, 2005
eye Dee
Tories would repeal 'illiberal' ID cards law, says Davis.
Sure they would. I bet the Tories are rubbing their hands in glee that it's the Labour party who are going to get the flack from all this rather than them. Not when the Tories where touting the idea of them the last time they were in power.
Posted by groc at 07:49 AM | Comments (0)
June 30, 2005
ID cards
The case against ID cards
by Peter Lilley MP
(and when I find myself in full agreement with Peter Lilley on something - then it really is saying something about how far to the Right the Labour Party has lurched!)
Damian Green on the ID card.
Tony Blair in the 1995 Labour party conference in Brighton.
Posted by groc at 03:46 PM | Comments (0)
June 29, 2005
Gay TV (but not too gay) on it's way
I just love it when gay people win acceptance and tolerance only when they're a exploitable demographic...
Logo General Manager Lisa Sherman cited studies saying there were some 15 million openly gay people in America, an attractive demographic for advertisers, considering that many will have no children, meaning more disposable income.
I'm getting a just a little bit sick and tired of capitalism and it's warped values now.
Posted by groc at 09:50 AM | Comments (2)
June 01, 2005
ID
Jumping the gun: Government in ID card talks with firms before Bill passed.
Posted by groc at 01:08 PM | Comments (0)
ID
cage o' monkey's blog entry with a pertintent comment on those pesky ID cards - with two external links well worth reading.
America-land wants easy access to our (proposed) ID card information, probably because they think we were responsible for that September 11... er, hang on a minute...
Posted by groc at 12:43 AM | Comments (0)
May 26, 2005
ID cards back again
Yes, it's back in the news. Now the Gov. is trying to sell it as being the best protection yet against the growing problem of Identity Theft (can't they just arrest that comedian doing that bank card advert McGowen). Remember when it was an 'entitlement card' to make sure Miss Single-parent couldn't claim for one more free bottle of milk for her child than she was entitled to, or that Johnny Foreigner wouldn't get any free medical treatment on the NHS or substandard council housing -etc. Then it was going to stop international terrorists in their tracks and put a stop to all those bombs and aeroplanes crashing into buildings that have been happening in the UK ever since er... er... (quickly changes the subject.) Now it's going to stop all this terrible, terrible Identity theft business that's costing the country 1.3 billion pounds a year.
Whooooo!
Except it isn't. Well, because they've pretty much as good as made those figures up.
So remember that little fact, They have all that data to hand - then twist it and mangle it and then ignore it in order to push through whatever it is they wanted to do in the first place. So ask yourself how then can they be ever trusted with the personal data of all the inhabitants of this country in this proposed massive new database? Can they be trusted with your own individual personal information? If they can get it into the database correctly in the first place - discounting the typos, the inevitable human error, the inevitable computer crashes and lock-ups... etc.
Once again they keep skirting over how much the whole scheme is going to cost to set up, and once in place keep running - they're always very hazy on that particular piece of information have you noticed? I wouldn't be surprised if it's easily over 1.3 billion before they've finished, (not that it will ever be finished). This will be real proper taxpayers money, not imaginary figures they've pulled out of a hat one year. Money that could be better put into investigating and policing and so actually stopping the real non-imaginary money that is being lost.
Notice also how the proposed cost of actually owning a card keep on creeping up and up - first a basic card was going to cost around £35, then last year that had suddenly jumped to £85 to £88, now it transpires it's likely to be maybe closer to £98 or maybe a tad over £100. Seems a lot to spend on something that has already been proven not to work very well, which surely negates the whole point of having an ID card. What's the use of an ID card that only somewhat, nearly proves your ID? All this expense on something the whole Country has been managing quite well totally without since the 1950s.
(Oh, and I don't know about you, but I certainly haven't got a spare £100 floating around that I don't know what to do with. If you have maybe you'd like to send it to me. I'm sure to make far better use of it than this Gov. ever would.)
Posted by groc at 06:08 AM | Comments (1)
May 21, 2005
ID cards
Fingerprint passports will be 'ID card by stealth'.
Biometric Passports in the UK.
So recapping:
Either the Government is very stupid (it's possible) with an all-consuming blind faith in computers and technology -all those flashing blinking lights -ooooooh. Or is trying to raise taxes by stealth (the Tories used to do that by raising VAT to high levels.) Or there's something very sinister going on. Maybe it's a combination of all of the above.
Either way - a complete fiasco is guaranteed for all - and nobody in Government is taking a blind bit of notice. Great way to run a country guys.
Posted by groc at 06:54 PM | Comments (0)
April 29, 2005
A legal war?
Pigeons coming home to roost?
Shit hitting fan?
Or are we seeing a British public that simply doesn't care a jot about the deaths of thousands upon thousands of innocent Johnny Foreigner-towelheads?
As time goes on - I'm finding it harder to be able to tell the difference between what Saddam Hussien was doing trying to invade his neighbours and what Bush and Blair have done...
Posted by groc at 09:54 AM | Comments (2)
April 25, 2005
UK election 2005
In which the Groc has a long, long rant about the current election:
part one.
I’ve been hearing on the news that the current election issue today is the Iraq Invasion. Which brings me directly to the reason why I certainly don’t think Tony Blair deserves to re-elected. As far as I’m concerned no matter which way you look at it he in no way deserves another term as our Prime Minister.
To quickly recap: Saddam was pretty much on his last legs, there were sanctions against him in place, everyone now admits there were no ‘Weapons of Mass destruction‘, so in actuality Saddam was complying to whatever was being asked of him. He certainly had nothing to do with the bombing of the Twin Towers. Etc. Yadda, yadda, yadda, we all know the story by now.
But today as on previous occasions all we’re getting from Tony is, something like, to paraphrase wildly: ‘well, I thought I doing the right thing at the time (according to what the American President told me). We won. So I’m not sorry. (Yaa-boo-sucks.)’
But Tony, if you end up doing everything President Bush tells you to -are you being a Leader (of our Country) or are you just being a follower? (Not to metiona complete suck-up?)
If you believe the moon is made of green cheese are you suddenly going to start to send rockets up there to mine it? It doesn’t matter what you ‘believe’. Running the country isn’t about articles of faith. It’s a pretty lame excuse for killing people in an invasion.
So in short, at best -being overly charitable here, he made a vastly bad decision based on completely dubious intelligence or else is (I dread to think) part of something altogether much more sinister. In either case -the cold hard facts are that it has cost thousands of innocent lives, is still costing untold amounts of money and has left Iraq in a far worst state than it was before -a mess which is going to go on costing and be a big problem for everyone concerned for many years to come. It hasn’t even lead to lower oil prices for the ‘Merikcans. It hasn’t even lead to contracts for UK big business taking a share of the cake in ‘rebuilding’ the country.
It also sets a dangerous prescient doesn’t it? “We absolutely totally need to invade - (insert name of any country we fancy here -China/Russia/Poland say)- because we have it on good authority (IE. That is from some people we captured from that country and tortured into getting them to tell us exactly only what we wanted to hear) that they’ve got a lot of weapons aimed our way and they’re threatening to attack us with them.
… … …
After the invasion: “Oops-a-daisy, - there weren’t any weapons after all, our bad. Never mind, what few civilians there are that are left -are very happy to be liberated… So that’s alright then isn’t it? Yay for us.”)
Either way all of this marks Tony Blair as someone I really don’t want leading our country.
Posted by groc at 09:10 PM | Comments (0)
April 15, 2005
ID cards will solve eeeeeverything....
Clarke calls for ID cards after imagining huge poison terror ring.
What's going on here? - just why can't the Govt. come clean and tell us exactly why they're so damn insistant on foisting this misguided, wrong-headed and insanely expensive white elephant on us all - instead of subjecting us to this endless series of scaremongering, and downright barefaced lies?
It must be something really, really bad.
Posted by groc at 11:36 AM | Comments (0)
February 23, 2005
because the ID card will fix everything---
The bottom line is that sooner or later somebody's going to have to explain to the great British public that the unpalatable alternatives to immigration include paying more for education, emptying your own bedpans, picking your own strawberries and chopping your own salads. And you've probably left this one a little late already, but if you want a decent pension and don't want to work forever, breed harder.
Posted by groc at 07:32 PM | Comments (0)
January 14, 2005
sigh.
Power of Nightmares re-awakened. If you missed this series of three documentaries the first time round - here's another chance to see them.
Still no WMD then? Finally given up looking then? Sigh.
So let's look at the facts: another country on a set of completely fabricated pretexts invades another - proceeds to bomb the shit out of it, then detains, tortures and kills many of it's innocent civilians (and is still doing that). Then the US wonders why a lot of people in Iraq and other countries aren't particularly pleased about it. Um. Odd that there are so many self-proclaimed Christians floating around in the upper echelons of the US administration who can’t have heard of some of even the most basic of basics of that religion - such as ‘Thou shalt not kill’, ‘As ye sow so shall ye reap‘,, ‘Do not bear false witness’, ‘Turn the other cheek’ ‘Love thine enemy as you would yourself’ - you know stuff like that…
And the stupidity still goes on.
Posted by groc at 02:41 PM | Comments (1)
January 02, 2005
1974 - 2004 - (via Nineteen Eighty-four)
I've now got that Shirley Bassey song running round my head:
"It's all a little piece of history repeating..."
after reading this little gem sent to me by Daaaaaavid.
Posted by groc at 07:01 PM | Comments (1)
December 21, 2004
ID cards- the sheep have voted.
Mint sauce on it's way
Register news item. Labour's Zombie Army clinches ID card vote for Clarke.
UK 'sleepwalking into Stasi state'.
Are ID cards legal under human rights legislation?
Posted by groc at 12:33 PM | Comments (1)