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The reason we are given for the collapse of the US mortgage providers, as with Northern Rock and Bradford and Bingley, is that mortgagees are failing to keep up their payments because of the credit crunch. To illustrate this we are shown film of houses with auction boards and bank foreclosure boards in their front gardens. But where are these millions of people who've reneged on their payments? They're not roaming the street with their possessions. Their angry/miserable opinions do not feature in the media. They are not crowding out homeless sanctuaries. No-one has met any or knows any.
So is the reason we are given for the collapse of banks and mortgage providers the true one or have they lost their money elsewhere and are blaming the public as usual.

Please consider giving Glasgow East just a little national exposure, along with the issue of why the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ is taking so little interest in it including nothing new from Brian Taylor since last Saturday week.

Whether NuLabour cling on to the seat or not it must set the scene for what's likely to happen between now and the general election.

In biotech, reporting success stories would be the best boost.

Anytime one mentions the International Criminal Court, one should also mention:
(1) why the USA says it is not a member (2) why the USA has passed legislation authorizing the military rescue of any US officials arrested by the court.

The supervening ghost in the international machine is that it is founded on great power consensus, rather than on law.

If reporters can grasp this, then perhaps the public eventually can effect some improvement.

The Glasgow East bye election please - what's the chace of Labour losing? Will GB be forced to go if they do? Can the Union survive?

It seems to me, a SE based viewer, that this election has been completely ignored by Newsnight, when it may have profound results for our government and our country

It would appear that the DUP has cashed in handsomely with its bribe to support 42 days detention. Apparently the British government has given 155 million to Canadian aerospace company Bombardier ( including 52 million direct to NI ) to secure the future of Shorts Belfast plant. Perhaps as a direct result of the government grant the Corporate Multinational Cartel will top this up to 500 million despite the credit crunch and stock markets in virtual free fall mode.

Its all reminiscent of the 1990s when Major's Tories arranged with the CMC for an Oldham tobacco factory to be closed down and relocated to NI. That time it was in order to get support for massive road fuel tax increases in one finance bill. A number of insignificant unionist politicians also got honors.

Of course because it involves private companies nobody in the media will spot the obvious payout on the DUP bribe to support 42 days.

As for Knife Crime, when are the pompous experts going to admit that the spread of high definition graphics violent computer games over recent years has had a major impact on violent behavior in the young. I suspect that they don't touch on the subject because violent computer games are good for business and a ban on such games ( including second hand ) and the consequent loss of income would be unthinkable by the Corporate Nazi elite. Even after a ban it could take ten years for things to change for the better.

Re #4 chrisboote

It's not just England that's starved for news on this. The latest blog entry from Brian Taylor, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Scotland's political editor, was last Saturday week and is current up to 448 postings - many of them asking the same question.

There is some good coverage of the by-election in the media, but ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Scotland seems not to be interested.

The blog is at /blogs/thereporters/briantaylor

Please don't interview a Government Minister on knife crime as I have just bought a new TV so I don't want to throw things at it.
When they visit me in hospital apart from the grapes they might bring I hope they catch c-diff and MRSA which may be infinitely better than finding community jobs that don't exist, or they even turn up to. (week-end press story)
Prison sentences please and, if not enough, build more just to get them out of our faces. I don't wish to upset the "bleeding hearts" amongst you by suggesting the death penalty. It may make them think twice.

But of course I am out of touch. Being deprived etc. gives them the excuse to knife people. Perhaps a few more trips to the seaside, finding them jobs, saying kind words to them will obviously be the Government's preferred option.

As to 95% of young people who behave they can look for their own jobs and pay for their own holiday excursions and the rest of the adult population can continue to live in fear of arrest or being knifed, especially if we have the courage to look at them and assault them by the mildest restraint or admonition.

The lunatics are running the asylum and most have a Westminster address.

Hello, Hello, Anyone out there???? There is a pending by election in Glasgow in one of the most deprived areas of the UK. Not worthy of coverage???

robwat1 Where's Glasgow, seems like to be in some foreign land to me!!?

Re #8 robwat1
"Hello, Hello, Anyone out there????"

I fear not, and suspect that right now they're receiving political re-education in a gulag somewhere.

See my #2 & #6 and #4 from chrisboote

Michael Crick did do a very short snippet on Newnight Scotland last week, but any news of Glasgow East is presumably being given an 18+ certificate for national consumption in fear of scaring many in the "Westminster village".

'GOOD FOR THE ECONOMY'

nortongriffiths (#1)

Expanding the EU, removing border controls and encouraging even more immigration (from Africa and S. Asia) may have looked very attractive to New Labour and those in
the property business, but if one looks at what's happening, and how the young in our 'thriving' inner cities are behaving (I did mention immigration didn't I?) it doesn't look good does it?

Not only is there an increase in the number of crimes against the person, a phenomenal rise in self-centredness (and stress) in school-kids, plus flight of the indigenous from our cities/country (if they can afford it), but there's a low birth-rate precisely in the sector where it WILL BE needed in years to come. 20% of births are to foreign born mothers, and if you add in the births to British (born) Black and Asian mothers....

Still, it's all good for some peoples' economy isn't it, and what does it matter if they're not British? We're cosmopolitans these days (and everyone's equal too). Is it good for the S.Asian and Afrian economies too?

I wish to offer the following sentencing guidelines which should chime with the curent approach adopted by the courts and the Ministry of Justice -

Blade in the groin - holiday for two in the Maldives.
Repeatedly stab wounds to the face - free tickets for Mamma Mia.
Machete to the head - matching hot water bottle and blanket gift set.
Facial mutilation with Stanley knife - one year's subscription to The People's Friend.

Prison doesn't work, or course, as offenders can still walk the streets and hurt people despite being locked up 24 hours a day. And the punitive approach is, like, soooo reactionary. Restorative justice is a much more progressive - facing your victim, saying sorry, a few tears maybe and then freedom. A prospect which will surely make potential knife criminals think again before packing a blade.

Thank goodness we've got such forward thinking individuals as Jacqui Smith in charge of this area of public policy. She's sure to lick the problem!

what do you need to have a culture?

people of one mind. People who believe in the same things. So what do those in 'knife/gun culture believe in?

they have been taught at school to have no belief. Because they are told beliefs are all relative. As all is relative so there is no such thing as the Good. So laws are not 'good' they are just another relative belief which you can opt into if you want. For relativists there is no objective 'merit' in choosing the Good or in seeing the law as Good.

For them society is not 'Good'. There is no 'honour' in it. For them the gang is good in a Lord of Flies kinda way. Society, through relativism, has dishonoured them by removing the idea of the Good as an ideal.
The gang becomes the place of 'respect'. The gang, unlike society's relativism, tells them what 'is good'.

KNIFE CRIME - part 1

"So what's to be done?", you ask. Not a very precise question though, is it? And it allows for two broad answers serving different purposes. I'll split them into two posts.

What most of us would like is something to be done to punish and deter violent attackers, especially those who use weapons. And action against gangs that attack, and against those who lead these gangs. Prison in this country is neither a deterrent nor a punishment for these violent offenders.

Some of us have already put forward alternative suggestions which I imagine most in the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ and New Labour would immediately disregard, as these suggestions side with potential and actual victims rather than sympathising with the attackers.

/blogs/newsnight/fromthewebteam/2008/07/prospects_for_wednesday_2_july.html
/blogs/newsnight/fromthewebteam/2008/07/prospects_for_wednesday_2_july.html

Take a look at these quotes and link from March 2006 (that's right, more than two years ago):
'Some pupils wear stab-proof vests',
'Some kids as young as 10 are now asking about stab vests in shops',
'Statistics show that one in three children younger than 16 regularly arm themselves with a knife or bladed weapon',
'It's this fear of being stabbed that is making more children feel the need to wear stab-proof vests'.


Those children were scared and probably some felt they deterred attackers by carrying a knife, and who is to say they didn't? We have no means of knowing.

What does this say about the people they feared? It says there was no protection in our society against violent attackers. It says that violent attackers, if caught, were treated leniently and then attacked those who 'grassed' on them, to terrorise and so deter witnesses.
Ironic, isn't it, that they know how to "change people's behaviour" (your terminology) when our politicians don't?

And of course, as these actions worked for the attackers they just kept doing what worked for them.

Has the situation improved under New Labour? Is it likely to improve? I'd say not, because New Labour have a proven history of being tough on good citizens, tough on the causes of good citizens.

KNIFE CRIME - part 2

"So what's to be done?", as our politicians see it.

And New Labour respond with an immediate PR offensive.
I'm pretty sure 'offensive' is the correct word for this.

(It's a reflex with them, isn't it? No need to consider consequences, that's not the New Labour way.)

So New Labour announced a plan to have those caught carrying knives visit knife victims in hospital. And if it did go ahead then it would be proclaimed a success, with lots of coverage of pixellated penitent teenagers.

(But in their heads this is what would probably be taking place:
- those carrying knives only intending to defend themselves are likely to look at the victims and think, "No way am I going to let that happen to me. I'll keep carrying.";
- those who carry a knife intending to terrorise, wound and kill will simply think, "Yeah, wicked. Where's my mobile 'phone? Gotta vid this!")

New Labour might then announce a range of community out-reach programs, requiring funding and high-level policy groups, thereby creating some prestigious-sounding and well-paid jobs for other political creatures.
(The public purse would naturally cover all related expenses, such as meetings with expensive lunches and essential travel on long 'research' visits to see how places like the Bahamas would handle these issues. Maybe a little skin-diving, as well, just to relax.)

And then to get a new set of headlines New Labour might appoint a 'Knife Czar', with quite a large budget to cover the oh-so-necessary consultancy fees.
(This consultancy is absolutely essential to protect the politicians and the ‘Czar’ against accusations that they are achieving nothing. It surely won’t hurt their chances of getting some directorship either.)

The police would be ordered to do something to stop the knife attacks. The police would then divert scarce resources and set up a special task force under some Politically Correct senior officer chosen by some arcane criteria totally unrelated to operational effectiveness.

As the knife crime is wide-spread there is no small geographical area which the police task force can saturate with coppers, thereby reassuring people enough to get some useful information. Instead the Politically Correct senior police officer keeps their career on-track by:
- having a rapid-reaction group of police officers ready to go to the scene of a knife attack and make the most of the photo PR opportunity;
- announcing that a DNA database of all citizens is necessary for the police, otherwise we will all be murdered in our beds and won't someone think of the children;
- saying the governments social initiatives are starting to take effect and we will see the results very shortly.

Senior civil servants will ‘improve’ the methods used for collecting crime statistics. When the new method is implemented it will prove that crime is going down due to the governments policies. People's perception that crime is going up is blamed on the media, and on people not understanding the precise definition of a crime.

New Labour proclaim their policies a success. The Tories don’t challenge them because they too would like such an unpleasant and difficult issue to disappear before they get in power.

15. At 9:12pm on 14 Jul 2008, DerekPhibes wrote:

... An inordinate amount of sense (albeit somewhat cynical / accurate)