Labour: A Seething Pit Of Racism

Via Obo, it seems Tom Harris has been accused of racism.

I AM A racist.

I had no idea up until this morning, when I was informed that my racism has manifested itself in a particularly ugly act of race-oriented bigotry and vindictiveness: I have not made a financial contribution to Diane Abbott’s leadership campaign.

Strangely enough, Diane Abbott has also been accused in the past.

Labour leadership candidate Diane Abbott is at the centre of a race row after describing David Cameron and Nick Clegg as 'two posh white boys'.

Miss Abbott, 56, has previously faced accusations of racism after suggesting that the 'blonde blue-eyed Finnish girls' working in her local hospital were unsuitable as nurses because they had 'never met a black person before'.

Miss Abbott has positioned herself as an anti-racism campaigner and once claimed that Britain had 'invented racism'.

She's nearly correct. In Britain, Labour 'invented' the spurious racism insult and have abused it to such an extent that just a mention of skin colour - or even a preference for one person over another, as Harris has just discovered - is considered racist.

Presumably, now I've mentioned that the racist tag is highly overused, I can now be termed racist for not taking the issue of racism seriously. Meanwhile, true racists can revel in a new found anonymity as we all join them on the naughty step.

Isn't this fun? Mama, weer all racist now.

Wanted: A New Abacus For The NHS

It's little wonder that the NHS is struggling to balance its books when very few of its layer upon layer of administrators seem capable of accurate mathematical forecasting.

To be precise, for a 'service' which performs umpteen thousand risk assessments every day, they appear to have real trouble with properly assessing the risk of future costs. Perhaps they should invest in some well-qualified actuaries like the pensions industry do.

Smokers and people with weight problems are buying a tailored pension income in greater numbers, according to research.

Enhanced annuities provide bigger pensions for those with serious medical conditions or lifestyle choices that might lower their life expectancy.

[Andy Sanders, senior consultant at Towers Watson, said] "For those lives that do not qualify for an enhancement, average expectations of life are longer and need to be reflected in lower levels of pension income offered."

Yep. They have realised that even in a market which doesn't enforce extra premiums on the 'unhealthy' (such as pigovian/sumptuary taxes), it is the clean-living who will create more of a financial burden on the industry in the future, simply by generally living longer.

Yet, from every area of our nationalised health system, we continually hear tales of how much extra smokers, drinkers and the overweight 'cost' the NHS compared with those who abstain, despite the years of nil cost which the pensions number-crunchers have identified.

They can't both be correct, and maybe it is the pensions sector who are doing things wrong, so let's look at the evidence.

Well, one is an industry which is highly profitable, and lives and dies by the quality of its financial acumen and budgetary restraint, whilst the other has had its budget increased regularly year on year but still can't seem to make ends meet.

Hmmm, whaddya think?

You Mean They Want The Money Back?

Comrade Beeb appear to have chosen an odd example to illustrate the downside of banks moving funds between customer accounts.

John Gates, from Brixton in south London, has a £4,000 debt on his credit card.

He relies on housing benefit and Job Seeker's Allowance for his income.

On at least four occasions his bank took money out of his current account to put towards the credit card debt. It only informed him afterwards.

After paying for his rent, John says that left him with just £3 a day to live on.

"It's devastating," he says. "It means I go on a forced diet. I have no money for food, let alone for other essentials like washing materials."

One wonders what 'essentials' John was buying to rack up a £4k credit card debt in the first place!

Now, I could have some sympathy if the debt was incurred while he was in employment but, even then, when signing up for a credit card one takes on a responsibility to pay the money back (plus, £4k is rather irresponsible in any case at the interest rates charged, if without planning for a possible tits-up life situation). If beset by hard times, the onus is on the customer to contact the bank and come to an arrangement, and if any agreement is ignored by the bank then the customer has a valid grievance. Yet that isn't the complaint here, merely the fact that a bank has been moving funds to pay for a debt which is owed, and due, under the terms of the credit account.

I fail to see how we're meant to feel sympathy with the guy when he has taken on a financial commitment which he has now found himself unable to fulfil, and most probably not taken steps to negotiate a solution once a problem presented itself.

Of course, it's possible that even though he is on JSA and Housing Ben, the bank offered him credit facilities anyway. They didn't hold a gun to his head, though, and a sensible person - even if they decided to to accept the bank's offer in the first place - should be more cautious than to spend £4,000 when income is thin on the ground.

Unless there is something I've missed here, John Gates should be feeling rather embarrassed at being so slapdash and irresponsible. However, as we have come to expect, the person who has fucked up doesn't feel at all foolish, but instead loudly and publicly lays the blame elsewhere. It's someone else's fault, you see.

In post-Labour Britain, it always is.

Link Tank 04/09

The week. Covered.

Greece: Refusing to quit

Ten statist myths debunked

Why we're suckers for stories of an impending apocalypse

Russia pushing for censorship of bloggers

More stunning success for the US libertarian Tea Party movement

Ghanaian prostitutes threaten nude protest march over the influx of prettier Nigerian ones, government get involved

Delingpole on a Puddlecote bugbear ... the 'greendoctrination' of school kids

Billboards critical of Obama generate death threats

Cheerleaders cover up to satisfy Islam, rendering themselves pointless

Don't do it, folks - physical exercise at altitude and low temperatures is a heart attack risk

Prohibition doesn't work with cricket and gambling either

The crap we put up with when flying

Facetious? Perhaps

In which I impersonate Worstall.

"Parents who don't know how to swim are very likely to pass on not knowing how to swim to their children," says Ms Anderson.

Really? I thought that not knowing how to swim was a birth default for all kids, regardless of parental acumen.

Good News, Bad News

The three four day enforced holiday is now over. And thanks be, to whichever higher being is currently prevalent, for that!

If you're over 40, don't go to the Science Museum as they just rub your 'mature' nose in it. History of household appliances my arse, they've just been buying up the familiar accoutrements of my youth as they were thrown out. It's like there's been an anti-Santa hanging around outside my various dwellings since 1970.

As for the day being dragged down to Brighton, the less said the better. A stereotypically shonky, overpriced toilet of a coastal town - complete with criminally neglected historic buildings - which just happens to boast a communist-leaning council (and MP since May), while remaining almost gridlocked throughout the day thanks to its deep-seated hatred for the cars which bring business to its tortured residents. But, then again, they did vote for such ideologically fucked up fools, so they only have themselves to blame.

There's been some good and bad going on in my absence though, I see.

The good news is that Tom Paine is back.

[...] the new government (for all the abuse hurled at it by partisans) can scarcely be differentiated from the old. ID cards have been shelved but even the most fanatical Labourites would have found it hard to pay for that project in current conditions. On the other hand the LibCons have used Labour’s odious control orders and have yet - for all their bluster - to repeal one serious restriction on personal liberty. Nor have they abated the government's hectoring about personal life-choices. That they even think they have the right to wag their fingers at their masters marks them as suspect.

Yep, we've missed such wisdom.

Wisdom (and this is the bad news, by the way) which is distinctly lacking in these short-sighted morons.

Ministers propose Scottish minimum drink price of 45p

The Scottish Grocers' Federation welcomed the proposals, saying they would stop the "irresponsible selling" of alcohol below cost by large supermarkets and help to level the playing field between small shops and bigger chains.

But they warned it could create a cross-border and internet trade in drink.

Because, obviously, there is no way that the puritans are ever going to come after smaller alcohol retailers, is there? Just like they didn't trouble small businesses who sell tobacco.

Stupid, stupid bastards.

Faking It

Just a quickie as I have things I must do ... mostly Science Museum today with a side order of gift shop avoidance. Lord's was superb yesterday, the London Film Museum less so (seriously, wait till they get their act together - a couple of years might just suffice).

The IPN daily bulletin pointed me to this:

Fake goods are fine, says EU study

A new European Union-funded report has declared that buying designer goods can benefit consumers and the companies whose brands are being ripped off.

The article is well worth reading if only for the ovine 'drug dealers' reference.

It reminded me of recent occurrence. The £3 fake 'Levi' jeans I bought in Turkey in 1998 finally fell apart a couple of weeks ago. The genuine Levi 501s, costing £45, which were bought for me on our return because "you can't beat the real thing", lasted six months before I could touch skin through both inside legs.

The Turkish (cough) 'Timberland' fleece is still going strong.

And yes, I do realise that there could be more to this than meets the eye, but just saying is all.