Caviar For Every Child

According to the "Left Foot Forward" blog, Michael Gove is the "regressive of the week" for:

scrapping Labour’s plans to lift 50,000 of the poorest children out of poverty, failing to extend free school meals to 500,000 of the poorest working families. The move will cost families up to £600 more a week – the equivalent of an extra penny in income tax per child.

Leaving aside the shamelessness of complaining about cuts when you supported the policies that made them inevitable just consider the figures.

Who the hell spends £600 a week on school meals? Given that children are only at school 5 days a week, LFF must believe that spending £120 a day on food is reasonable, I realise that the site's main man Will Straw is the son of an MP but even for MPs that's excessive.

Ok it does say the cost is per family, and many families have more than one child. Even then though if you assume that an acceptable lunch costs about a fiver (probably less actually) one would need to have around 24 school age children to be spending £120 a day.

Comedian Tells Joke!

Frankie Boyle stuns audience with joke about Cumbria gun tragedy... just ONE DAY after 12 were shot dead

Lightweight, I joked about it on the same day.

One For The Privacy Paranoiacs

World Cup Drinking Games

The World Cup starts today, and for the last month the supermarkets have been offering cut price deals on crates of beer. However you have to be careful with World Cup drinking games.

For instance back in 2002 I was playing a game where if David Beckham was man of the match we drank Becks for the rest of the night, if Paul Scholes was man of the match we drank Skol etc.

Unfortunately David Seaman was outstanding.......

A night to forget.

Seamus Milne Does History- Oh Dear

Compare and contrast- Seamus Milne discusses the history of Communism and the history of the British Empire:

Nazi Comparisons:

With the USSR are bad-

The fashionable attempt to equate communism and Nazism is in reality a moral and historical nonsense. Despite the cruelties of the Stalin terror, there was no Soviet Treblinka or Sobibor, no extermination camps built to murder millions.

With the British Empire are entirely reasonable-

No wonder Hitler was such an enthusiastic admirer of Britain's empire, which he described as an "inestimable factor of value". The echoes of Nazism in the colonial record are unmistakable

The Ends Justifies The Means:

With the USSR, yes-

communism in the Soviet Union, eastern Europe and elsewhere delivered rapid industrialisation, mass education, job security and huge advances in social and gender equality. It encompassed genuine idealism and commitment, captured even by critical films and books of the post-Stalin era such as Wajda's Man of Marble and Rybakov's Children of the Arbat. Its existence helped to drive up welfare standards in the west, boosted the anticolonial movement and provided a powerful counterweight to western global domination.

With the Empire, no-

But the question, as Colin Jones, president of the Royal Historical Society, puts it, should be: "Which narrative?" If Britain had genuinely come to terms with its imperial history, no senior politician would have dared suggest celebrating it or mobilising apologists to sanitise its record for schoolchildren.

The British empire was, after all, an avowedly racist despotism built on ethnic cleansing, enslavement, continual wars and savage repression, land theft and merciless exploitation. Far from bringing good governance, democracy or economic progress, the empire undeveloped vast areas, executed and jailed hundreds of thousands for fighting for self-rule, ran concentration camps, carried out medical experiments on prisoners and oversaw famines that killed tens of millions of people.

By the numbers:

For the USSR, we must avoid an "ideologically-fuelled inflation game":

The real records of repression now available from the Soviet archives are horrific enough (799,455 people were recorded as executed between 1921 and 1953 and the labour camp population reached 2.5 million at its peak) without engaging in an ideologically-fuelled inflation game.

With the Empire we can cherry pick sources about death tolls from idealogically fuelled nutjobs whose estimates are more than ten times those of mainstream historians:

To this day, Kenyan victims of the 1950s campaign of torture, killing and mass internment are still trying, and failing, to win British compensation during a "counter-insurgency" war that, by some estimates, left 100,000 dead.

Etc etc.

Predictable Joke Made.

The uncertain status of Caster Semenya is to be clarified today with the 800 metres world champion set to announce that she has been given the all-clear to return to competition.

It takes a lot of balls to come back from something like that.

The Curse Of The Great Escape

This is incredible- all of the servicemen who took part in the Great Escape later died. I'm not superstitious but how can anyone dismiss something like that?

The Fragility Of Life.

A neighbour died of cancer last Monday, she was only in her early 40s. I didn't know her well but from what conversations I had with her she seemed very friendly. The most terrifying thing is that she was diagnosed less than 4 weeks before she died.

Labour Comedy Evening

Apparently fantasising about murdering Margaret Thatcher is guaranteed to raise a titter at Labour & Union gatherings, especially when it's done by a man who enthusiastically praises an organisation that actually did try to murder her.

The thing is I can't imagine anyone making a "joke" like that at a Tory gathering about a leading left wing figure and receiving applause for it, and it was applause McDonnell got not laughter.

Whilst I certainly hope we don't see Mr McDonnell being charged with anything, the fact that such unhinged hatred is so widely accepted on the left is telling. In fact this sort of hatred is so ingrained that they can't see anything wrong with it, so for example Sunny Hundal believes that it is comparable to Daniel Hannan arguing that we should have a different form of health care provision. I don't follow that line of reasoning either. In fairness his response is at least better than the complete silence by the rest of the left.

Not a single Labour leadership rival has condemned him for his remarks either which tells you how they judge the likely reaction within the Labour Party to the sentiments he expressed.

Via Obo.

No Bloodbath

The coalition are looking to Canada as an example of how to make necessary budget cuts. In the early 1990s the Canadian government was running a huge deficit and had been doing so for years before the Liberal government instituted huge budget cuts that set the stage for a prolonged period of growth that continues to this day.

However there is a crucial point that indicates things won't be as effective here:

The following year, Jean Chrétien, the Liberal prime minister, unveiled what became known as the "bloodbath budget", in which departmental spending was reduced by an average of 20 per cent.

By 1997 the deficit had been eradicated. However, health and education budgets were slashed and thousands in the public sector lost their jobs.

That's the point, when Canada looked at its over spending problem there were no areas of spending that were sacred cows that couldn't be touched even politically sensitive things like health and education. This government has decided to ring fence NHS spending, purely to give the Tories political protection in an area where the public don't trust them enough.

Essentially the Conservative Party gave up trying to make the argument that public spending was in and of itself a good thing some time after 2005, and their efforts since 1997 had been insipid, so they are not in a position to make the argument that cuts aren't necessarily a bad thing.

Unfunny Comedy Axed

The BBC have announced that Last of the Summer Wine is being axed after approximately 40 years on air. What's extraordinary is that this supposed comedy has survived since 1973 despite being completely devoid of laughs. The only purpose it seems to have ever served was to make Songs of Praise seem like a laugh riot.

How does a programme about three old men survive for nearly 4 decades anyway?

Don't Learn Their Names

.... or you'll get attached to Japanese Prime Ministers.

What is it with that country, the last few PMs have averaged less than a year in office.

How Useful Is Gun Control?

I've always been sceptical of the role played by the legality and availability of guns in the overall murder rates. People often compare the British murder rate with the American rate, but the thing to note is that the difference between the two countries was apparent long before the UK had any gun control laws. In fact the high levels of violence in the USA's southern states goes back to before the States was a country.

It also ignores the fact that plenty of countries with restrictive gun control laws have even higher murder rates than the USA, such as Brazil or Russia.

However it seems pretty clear that the one exception to this is with killing sprees by previously law abiding individuals who end up killing themselves at the end of the massacre.

A killing spree differs from regular crime in two key points- the shooter usually commits suicide so isn't deterred by any repercussions of their act and also it is usually done by otherwise law abiding people. The fact that they don't have to worry about consequences means that the usual disincentives for crime don't apply. Because they are otherwise law abiding they would not have access to firearms if they were illegal. This makes killing sprees much more likely if guns are readily available.

This isn't to say that gun laws are the most important factor in massacres or even that we should definitely have tough gun laws (there are some advantages to gun ownership too). However insisting that the availability of guns is somehow irrelevant to gun massacres seems to put ideology over evidence.

Quote Of The Day

A professor at some hippy university in the USA and former soccer international has a proposal about how to deal with the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, Tim Worstall isn't impressed:

So, we've got a gusher of an underwater oil well. And we're going to say that no one with any contact with the oil companies can work on attempting to cap said gusher.

That is, everyone who might have even teh slightest idea of how to cap it won't be let near it.

No, got to hand it to you, this is pure friggin' genius.

Tell you what, let's get Peter Crouch on to it shall we? See if there's some parrot, moon, over thing that can be put together?

I feel sorry for the politicians in all this, there is nothing they can helpfully add to the solution so they are left like Obama issueing press releases informing the people that they are still very cross indeed about this, which simply underlines their impotence on the matter.

Positive Discrimination.

Bristol City Council have set aside a job (officially an extended training role) exclusively for ethnic minority candidates.

Today Harriet Harman has proposed to amend the Labour Party's rules to ensure a 50:50 split between men and women for cabinet positions.

Both of these ideas are rationalised on the grounds of guaranteeing proportionate representation for all groups in society. The idea is flawed on a number of levels, first of all it is hard not to notice that there are never plans for positive discrimination when white males are underrepresented, for example in medical schools.

Secondly the idea that there is something intrinsically awry if groups are not represented in proportion to their presence in the population. It isn't the case, men and women behave differently and different ethnic groups are just that different in their cultural capital, attitudes and social history.

Finally the harm caused by these sort of actions is much greater than any potential benefit. Seeing as only two candidates will get the Bristol job, it means that dozens of white applicants will feel that they have been denied a job, even though most of them would not have got the post anyway.

Horrific Massacre Claims Twelve Lives

A small community was in shock today as a massacre left observers in shock. As the scale of the tragedy unfolded the tight knit community was demanding answers.

In the House of Commons the House united as the Prime Minister promised that any knee jerk proposal by the opposition would be implemented in full without any examination or thought. Harriet Harman, representing the Opposition concurred and suggested a ban on red meat.

The killings began as a horde of criminologists trying to enter the ITN studios to offer punditry on the Cumbria shootings panicked and stampeded. All the victims were trampled to death. Many of Britain's best loved TV ghouls including Paul Wilson, author of "Inside the mind of Killers" and Reg West, author of "Killers: Murder On Their Minds" were among the dead.

One expert who narrowly survived the massacre due to being called by the Daily Mail at the last minute to pen 800 words on the Cumbrian killing spree for tomorrow, Carl Bowden, said:

"This is in many ways a tragedy for everyone but we mustn't forget that I am now available to fulfil any media appearances that the deceased might have been due to complete. Any speculation at this stage is pointless but that won't stop me- we have to consider whether this stampede reflected the decades of sexual abuse that the victims may have suffered and perhaps they were frightened being in a situation....... oh God is this really being reported, I think I've just ejaculated"

As an act of sensitivity the BBC has cancelled a planned episode of Teletubbies where Po & Tinky Winky fall over each other, so as not to offend the relatives of the deceased.

Experts were divided on the cause of the tragedy although psychologist Paul Britton was adamant that the role of Colin Stagg should be considered.

It is a particular tragedy for Reg West who had been thrilled by the Cumbrian massacre after failing to attract any media interest in his idle speculation about the alleged "Crossbow Killer" last week. The interview he did earlier in the day on talkSPORT had been considered one of the most incisive takes on the Cumbrian massacre:

Presenter: So what does the suspect's suicide mean?

Reg West: The important thing is that it establishes as sense of control.

Presenter: For the killer?

Reg West: No for the criminology community, now we can indulge in idle speculation for 6 months without risking contempt of court, it should lead to writing gigs in the Guardian, Express and Sun and possibly a number of slots as a talking head on Sky News...... oh God I think I've just come.

The spouses of the deceased were to be informed until it was discovered that they were actually all single men who lived with their mothers.

Chutzpah

Noted Labour intellectual, David Lammy, writes:

If we get these things right, Boris will be vulnerable. In 2008 Labour recorded its worst local election results for 40 years. This time, Tory ministers will be overseeing some of the most savage cuts to public services since Margaret Thatcher's time in office. Boris, meanwhile, will have his own record to defend.

Two years ago Boris was an irreverent figure, cycling to City Hall to announce his candidacy. But every day it becomes clearer he is just another politician. He has developed a reputation for reneging on pledges, indulging in cronyism, and dodging responsibility for issues like policing. He has done nothing to ease London's chronic housing shortage, the Olympics risks running way over budget, and he has wasted money on vanity projects. He seems more interested in replacing Cameron than in his own job.

That's right, Labour have been out of office less than a month and he is already using Labour's failures- the Olympic Budget, lack of housing, and the necessity of cuts- to bash his opponents. For a support of Ken Livingstone to denounce mayoral vanity projects is pretty impressive too given that Livingstone decided that London needed its own foreign policy during his tenure.

You Won't Win Anything With Kids

The England squad announced by Fabio Capello today isn't the most talented there has been. However they do have one advantage that previous squads have not had- they are about the right age to win the thing. The average age is between 28 & 29 which is about typical for world cup winning squads. Typical England squads have been around 25 or 26 in the past which is far younger than any team that has won the tournament. This squad's age is illustrated by the fact that the youngest player is Aaron Lennon- who was only the 2nd youngest player four years ago.

The common mistake is to overrate the value of potential- the element of surprise- and underrate the importance of proven players who talents and limits are already known. This applies in other sports as well- during the Rugby World Cup I was always sceptical of New Zealand's chances, even though they were overwhelming favourites, because of their young age meant that they would be unused to a high pressure situation. I feel the same about Spain's chances in this tournament, their squad is about 25.