Are you paying attention plebs? No? Well it's time you did. Why? Well, we are truly living in a golden age: the Age of the Bedroom Tax - an age where food banks are all-the-rage and our public services are being squeezed back to the 1930s. But how is our wonderful unelected Head of State doing in this golden age? Well, apparently she - and the other hangers-on - seem to be immune from Tory austerity as 'The Sovereign Grant Fund' (i.e. the replacement for the 'Civil List') for 2015-16 has just been announced (very quietly) and, lo and behold, they've scooped a 12.3% pay rise! See here for this joyous news.
This is such a good deal that the calculation is actually rounded UP to the nearest UKP100K by UKP35K, to a staggering total of UKP4.1million in total (for 2015-16). That should insulate those at the top of this stinking pile from the local food bank...
Wow! For Land Reform anoraks such as myself, this last week or so has been truly inspiring. Behind Scottish Independence itself, Scottish Land Reform surely has to be the next biggest ticket on the agenda. I've posted before on the landmark Land Reform Group report, but it now looks like the SNP Government with Nicola 'The Sturge' Sturgeon at the helm is really pushing to make things happen. Hell, it's almost 'cool' to be discussing the future of our land, rather than the likes of me ranting on about it in a bothy to anyone who will listen.
Can you believe that not only do 'sporting estates' (i.e. playgrounds for our establishment fun-killers) get an exemption from business rates, but we actually subsidise them to the tune of £millions per annum? In fact this vile Tory-led Government - the Government of the 'Bedroom Tax' - has almost doubled this despicable subsidy - a subsidy that actually pays for landowners to lay waste to vast acreages of land by slaughtering all manner of wildlife, both 'legally' (e.g. stoats, weasels, foxes, corvids) and illegally (raptors) whom then sell it back to us as 'conservation'. Combine that with heather burning and bulldozing access tracks and you end up with huge upland deserts. If that constitutes 'conservation' then I'm proposing a movement that espouses shagging for virginity.
At last we have a real chance of some ancient wrongs being righted. Bring it on!
'Bring out the violins. The land reform programme announced last week by the Scottish government is the end of civilised life on Earth, if you believe the corporate press. In a country where 432 people own half the private rural land, all change is Stalinism. The Telegraph has published a string of dire warnings - insisting, for example, that deer stalking and grouse shooting could come to an end if business rates are introduced for sporting estates. Moved to tears yet?
'Yes, sporting estates - where the richest people in Britain, or oil sheikhs and oligarchs from elsewhere, shoot grouse and stags - are exempt from business rates, a present from John Major’s government in 1994. David Cameron has been just as generous with our money: as he cuts essential services for the poor, he has almost doubled the public subsidy for English grouse moors, and frozen the price of shotgun licences, at a public cost of £17m a year. (Guardian article, Land Matters article & Raptor Persecution article).
A comprehensive final report on the future of Scotland's land has just been published, with 62 progressive recommendations, that, if implemented, would change the pattern of Scotland's land immeasurably in terms of use, ownership and funding. It is hard to overstate how important this report is or is likely to be. Of course, will Scotland - either as part of the UK or an independent nation - see these recommendations enacted? Independence will surely help but the jury is definitely out. It will take politicians and principled people with real balls to implement these much needed and long overdue reforms, as the vested interests of the large Scottish landowners and 'slipper farmers' are rich and powerful, not least because they own and control, er, the land...
It is our job (i.e. the people of Scotland) to keep this issue alive and not let this invaluable report become just another paperweight on the desks of the powerful. I live in hope.
'There should be an upper limit on the amount of land held by private owners in Scotland, a government-commissioned study has recommended.
'The Land Reform Review Group also called for a big increase in community land ownership. And the group said the current tax system should be changed.
'Tax "plays an important part in maintaining the concentrated pattern of large scale, private land ownership in Scotland," it stated.
'The Scottish government believes the country needs a fairer distribution of land ownership, and is aiming reduce the dominance of large, traditional sporting estates. The report's authors said the Scottish government should establish a Community Land Agency to facilitate negotiations between landowners and communities, with the goal of achieving a "significant increase in local community land ownership". But they warned that public funding remained "critical" and the Scottish government must ensure there is an "integrated legislative and financial support structure" to help communities in urban and rural Scotland buy and develop land and buildings.' (BBC News article & Land Reform report).
With the current system of Common Agricultural Policy farm subsidies (CAP) ending next year, the Scottish Government is currently looking at the system that shovels vast amounts of public money to landowners and 'slipper farmers' (i.e. people who own or rent land but do not even own a pair of wellies let alone farm anything, yet still receive a shitload of cash for doing fuck all).
Andy Wightman investigates:
'It’s hard to imagine the Government devising a new system of Jobseeker’s Allowance or Housing Benefit where the claimant is told they that their entitlement to such payments is just about to quadruple whether they like it or not. Indeed, with the total benefits cap set at £26,000 per year, the trend is in the opposite direction. It has long eluded me why, when the poorest in society suffer cuts and caps, some of the wealthiest not only appear to suffer no such pain, but are rewarded with largesse.
'I met a tenant farmer recently who told me that under the existing system of farming subsidies he receives £18,000 per year. That’s a fairly generous allocation. But under current proposals for the new system (to be introduced in 2015) he will receive £80,000. “I don’t need it”, he told me. He is not particularly wealthy but he doesn’t need the money. So why does it look likely that he will get it?
'The existing system of farm subsidies is coming to an end in December 2015 and the Scottish Government is currently finalising the details of the new system that will take its place and run until 2020. The existing (historic) system awarded subsidy (single farm payments - SFP) to farmers on the basis of what they received in 2000-2002. This is rather like paying tax this year on the basis of what you earned 14 years ago.' (Andy Wightman article).
Today could turn out to be an historic day for Scotland. At last, the way our land is owned, used, traded and subsidised is being put under some long overdue close scrutiny. There is still an awful long way to go before meaningful Land Reform takes place - and powerful vested interests will need to be taken on - but this is undoubtedly a step in the right direction.
Unbelievably the simple question of 'Who owns what?' in Scotland is still not fully answered, but of course many landowners enjoy and subsequently benefit from such blurry murkiness. So the first task, as this report points out, is to create a robust public register of Scotland's land. Vitally, this report also starts to throw some light on the huge tax-break, tax evasion, corporate investment and massive subsidy sink-hole that much of Scotland's land has become. I watch with interest and I live in hope.
'In a Report published on Thursday 20 March 2014, the Scottish Affairs Committee says any government which is serious about land reform needs full and clear information on existing land ownership and values made widely available.
'The Committee says Scotland lags behind most comparable European countries in providing such data and calls on the Scottish and UK Governments to address this as a priority.
'The Committee heard that Scotland is also “miles behind” other countries in terms of the openness and ease of land transactions. Templates exist which allow land transactions to become simple and straightforward, without the involvement of lawyers.' (UK Parliament article & interim report).
Fortunately UKIP are, politically at any rate, an utter irrelevance in Scotland. Nevertheless it is always good to see them getting a hard time wherever they rear their ugly mugs...
'A leading UKIP member has stood down as his party's economic spokesman after he was branded a hypocrite for striking wind-farm deals on his Scottish estates.
'Professor Tim Congdon agreed the contracts with SSE in Argyll and E.On Renewables in Caithness, the Sunday Herald revealed last month. But Mr Congdon was accused of hypocrisy over the arrangements, which appeared to fly in the face of UKIP's anti-wind farm stance.
'The party claims the developments are economically "unsustainable" and eyesores that blight the countryside. Last night it emerged that Mr Congdon had stood down as economics spokesman following the row. But it is thought he wants to remain as the party's candidate in the Forest of Dean where he is due to stand in the 2015 General Election.' (Herald article).
You've got to be kidding, right? Surely such questions as 'Land Reform' are for the developing world, where nasty corporations are cutting down rain-forests and booting off indigenous people to grow beefburgers on, etc. This is indeed true, but the state of land ownership - and the subsidy system it has - in the UK is a scandal of epic proportions. In fact it is the underpinning reason as to why we have to pay a ridiculous amount for a place to live in the UK; a fact that is then sold back to as: 'high house prices are a good thing for the economy'. Sadly most folks are entirely duped by this nonsense.
This excellent and disturbing article shines some much needed light onto the issue:
'Modern British history, excluding world wars and the loss of empire, is a record of two countervailing changes, one partly understood, one not understood at all. The partly understood change is the urbanisation of society to the point where 90 per cent of us in the United Kingdom live in urban areas. Hidden inside that transformation is the shift from a society in which, less than a century and a half ago, all land was owned by 4.5 per cent of the population and the rest owned nothing at all. Now, 70 per cent of the population has a stake in land, and collectively owns most of the 5 per cent of the UK that is urban. But this is a mere three million out of 60 million acres.
'Through this transformation, the heirs to the disenfranchised of the Victorian era have inverted the relationship between the landed and the landless. This has happened even while huge changes have occurred in the 42 million acres of rural countryside. These account for 70 per cent of the home islands and are the agricultural plot. From being virtually the sole payers of such tax as was levied in 1873 (at fourpence in the 240p pound), the owners of Britain's agricultural plot are now the beneficiaries of an annual subsidy that may run as high as £23,000 each, totalling between £3.5bn and £5bn a year. Urban dwellers, on the other hand, pay about £35bn in land-related taxes. Rural landowners receive a handout of roughly £83 per acre, while urban dwellers pay about £18,000 for each acre they hold, an average of £1,800 per dwelling, the average dwelling standing on one-tenth of an acre.' (New Stateman article and Who Owns Britain website).
Recently I discovered Catholic Online - a one-stop shop for the paranoid Catholic. After wading through all the Catholic tat for sale and other incredible guff, I spotted an article that basically said that "Catholicism in the UK is on its last legs" and that secularists, atheists, etc. are to blame. This was an opportunity too good to miss.
My brief, incendiary, opening post soon had a few takers which was not really surprising. However, after about two weeks now the cyberspace battle of 'The Matron v. The Catholics' rages on incessantly and entertainingly (I obviously have far too much time on my hands). In fact, I would go as far to say that I have a new hobby! Some of the responses really do reveal how the religious mind 'thinks'. Why not check 'the debate' out and make your own mind up, or maybe even pile in? (Catholic Online article).
The UN has finally put a serious boot into the Catholic Church/Vatican/Holy See - or whatever bullshit name that the other Italian mafia is using these days - about their appalling response to their child-abuse scandal. UN-speak usually consists of a turn of phrase that is oblique and inquisitive and often not in good old plain English. So, it was refreshing to read this latest report using some no-nonsense language - into the vile crimes committed by this rotten institutionalized religion - that basically says: "Oi Holy See, NO!"
Of course the 'Cover-up Cardinals' have already got to work with their stock-in-trade obfuscation, duplicity and blatant smoke screen...
'The Vatican has failed to acknowledge the huge scale of clerical sex abuse and has implemented policies that have led to "the continuation of the abuse and the impunity of the perpetrators", a UN panel said on Wednesday in a scathing rebuke of the Holy See's handling of the global scandal.
'In grimly worded findings released by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, the watchdog urged the Holy See to "immediately remove all known and suspected child sexual abusers" from their posts in the church and hand over the cases to law enforcement authorities in the countries concerned.
'It also asked the Vatican to ensure that an expert commission set up by Pope Francis last year will "investigate independently" all cases of child sex abuse and the way in which they are handled by the Catholic hierarchy. Records concerning past cases should be opened up so that they can be used to hold the abusers - and those who may have sought to protect them - accountable, the panel added.
'The Holy See must establish "clear rules, mechanisms and procedures" for the mandatory reporting of all suspected cases of abuse to civil law enforcement authorities, it said.
'The committee said it was "particularly concerned" that in dealing with allegations of child sex abuse, "the Holy See has consistently placed the preservation of the reputation of the church and the protection of the perpetrators above children's best interests, as observed by several national commissions of inquiry."' (Guardian article and UN report).
Then all you need to do is log onto Deacon Nick Donelly’s superb site Protect The Pope. This is a gem of a site that has truly made my day. In fact, to find this site in the same week that the Pope’s accountant has been charged with money laundering means that it has quite possibly made my week!
For ‘oppressed’ Catholics, Nick the ‘Screamin' Deacon’ does a great job in helping them get all lathered up about, er, worldwide valid and robust criticism. Funny that there are no tales of nasty child-abusing priests here. Hell no, just guff about how ‘set-upon’ the poor filthy-rich old Catholic church is, spiced up with plenty of anti-abortion rhetoric and bile against gay people. I'm off to set up a sister site - ‘Protect The Bankers’ - that should garner about as much sympathy.
...since the fucking courts are not going to. The Supreme Court of the UK has now promoted Scientology from being a McReligion to a 'real' religion, thus potentially qualifying it for a tranche of misguided god-subsidies that 'real' religions are entitled to. This fact however - bad enough though that it is - is not the source of my main beef here. What I really object to is that ANY religion gets ANY form of preferential treatment in our society. Christ on a bike, we are actually giving tax breaks to loads of religious fruitcakes whilst people are eating out of food-banks.
'The Supreme Court has said that Scientology is a legitimate religion. This ruling undermines the automatic presumption that all religious groups are for the "public benefit", argues Terry Sanderson.
'It's not very often that you'll find me agreeing with Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, but he was right when he said that the taxpayer would not be happy to be funding Scientology.' (National Secular Society article).
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has put a list of detailed questions concerning documented child sexual abuse to the Vatican. Of course the Vatican has, depressingly though predictably, failed to answer. Hiding behind 'canon law' and the bullshit 'fact' the the Holy See is not the Catholic Church, the Vatican has declined to answer the UN questions. Whatever happened to 'real law' where child abusing scum receives justice and punishment?' Looks like the cuddly new guy in the frock is just a better PR man than Ratzinger was...
'The Vatican has failed to answer detailed questions by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on cases of child sexual abuse committed by members of the clergy, brothers or nuns or brought to the attention of the Holy See. These formal questions were raised as part of the review of the reports the UN Committee require states that have ratified the Convention of the Rights of the Child to provide every five years.
'In a formal response to the UN Committee's 'list of issues' or questions, the Holy See based its failure to answer them on the legal technicality that it is "related but separate and distinct from the Catholic Church". It added: "it is not the practice of the Holy See to disclose information on the religious discipline of members of the clergy or religious according to canon law, unless there is a related matter concerning international judicial cooperation with a State and the request by the State is made, generally, through specific procedures."' (National Secular Society article).
Of course the world should not need such a book, but it does. Sam Harris interviews the book's author Peter Boghossian to get the low-down on his approach to dealing with people who are superstitious. If you have any misguided God-squad friends, perhaps this is one for their Xmas stocking?
'Peter Boghossian is a full-time faculty member in the philosophy department at Portland State University. He is also a national speaker for the Center for Inquiry, the Secular Student Alliance, and the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. Peter was kind enough to answer a few questions about his new book, A Manual for Creating Atheists'. (Sam Harris interview).
To use journo-speak the 'land reform question' in Scotland is 'gaining traction', and it can't come soon enough. For too long has public money been shoveled to super-rich landowners simply for having land or for at best a bit of environmental tinkering. Just as the Scottish Parliament is discussing land reform, a 28,000 acre estate is on the market for a cool £11.4 million. So what you might ask? Well, a major selling point, as advertised in the sales particulars, is the fact that this estate is guaranteed £12,000 a week in agricultural subsidies and forestry grants. In other words we are giving someone who can afford an £11.4 million estate £624,000 income.
With stuff like this going on and the fact that 432 people/organisations own half of Scotland this shit is long overdue for sorting out.
'According to sales particulars issued by selling agents Knight Frank, the new owner of the 28,000-acre Auch and Invermearan Estate in Argyll can look forward to getting a guaranteed £12,000 a week from the taxpayer by way of agricultural subsidies and recurrent forestry grants. Long unquestioned, such hand-outs to Scotland’s super-rich lairds (and you have to be super-rich to afford Auch and Invermearan at an asking price of £11.4 million) are starting to attract both media and political attention. Reacting to the Auch and Invermearan figure (incautiously revealed by Knight Frank at a point when social security payments are being capped and jobless young folk forced to live on £56.80 a week), the Daily Record commented: "Something is rotten in the landed estates of Scotland." Glasgow Labour MP Ian Davidson was equally forceful, labelling landowners, as the Record headlined, Scotland’s "greediest benefit claimants."' (Andy Wightman article).
Whilst I'm not someone who instantly recoils at any new technology, the controversy around Hydraulic Fracturing of 'Fracking' has all the makings of a get-richer-quick scheme for Tory-boys. Of course Cameron and Osbourne keep spinning the yarn about how domestic fuel bills will tumble as cheap gas (as has happened in the US) will allegedly flood onto the market. The economics in the UK are very different to the US, and there is no evidence that energy prices will fall. Besides, where have we heard this before? Remember the 'electricity too cheap to meter' clap-trap for nuclear power?
So, at the same time this 'greenest Government ever' is slashing support for renewable energy it is offering massive subsidies for fracking. Why? The real reason is that fracking will shovel money into Tory investors pockets whilst Joe Public picks up the tab in their energy bills. Lord Howell (George Osbourne's father-in-law) of 'the desolate north' gaff, is already ensuring that the dash for shale gas will happen.
In a lovely irony we have a Tory minister saying that he wants to get a fossil fuel out of the ground in areas of the 'desolate north' after his pals made swathes of the north 'desolate' by destroying an industry dedicated to extracting a fossil fuel (i.e. coal out of the ground). Go figure.
Just like Bradley Manning and Julian Assange, Edward Snowden is being hounded by a vengeful US as a 'fugitive'. John Pilger hits the nail on the head in a superb essay exposing the lies and hypocrisy of the US and it's puppet allies.
'Imagine the aircraft of the President of France being forced down in Latin America on "suspicion" that it was carrying a political refugee to safety - and not just any refugee but someone who has provided the people of the world with proof of criminal activity on an epic scale.
'Imagine the response from Paris, let alone the "international community", as the governments of the West call themselves. To a chorus of baying indignation from Whitehall to Washington, Brussels to Madrid, heroic special forces would be dispatched to rescue their leader and, as sport, smash up the source of such flagrant international gangsterism. Editorials would cheer them on, perhaps reminding readers that this kind of piracy was exhibited by the German Reich in the 1930s.
'The forcing down of Bolivian President Evo Morales's plane - denied air space by France, Spain and Portugal, followed by his 14-hour confinement while Austrian officials demanded to "inspect" his aircraft for the "fugitive" Edward Snowden - was an act of air piracy and state terrorism. It was a metaphor for the gangsterism that now rules the world and the cowardice and hypocrisy of bystanders who dare not speak its name.' (John Pilger article).
It's not often that I am surprised by how low the Metropolitan Police will go, but today I am totally flabbergasted. Those of you who have followed the harrowing story of the horrific racist-murder of a black lad waiting for a bus in Eltham by some racist scum in 1993, will know of the appalling response by the Met, which ultimately led to the damning Macpherson Report that labelled the Met as "Institutionally Racist". It now looks like the Met not only botched their investigation into the murder of Stephen Lawrence because of their inherent racism, but, they actually spied on his friends and relatives in a despicable smear campaign. It also looks like they deliberately withheld details of this appalling operation from the original Macpherson report.
In response, our partially elected PM has today prattled on about some pathetic police-led inquiry (then I suppose the Eton posh-boy would probably suggest extinguishing a fire with a gallon of petrol) rather than a full, judge-led, public inquiry that should toast once and for all the racist filth that was in, and remains in the Met. If no-one ends up behind bars because of this, any free-thinker left in this country might as well fuck off to Ecuador.
'Dozens of officers could be put on trial for stealing the identities of dead children and sleeping with female activists whom they were spying on, according to the police chief conducting a wide-ranging inquiry into undercover policing conducted by the Met against protest groups.
'Mick Creedon, the chief constable of Derbyshire, also said his team would investigate claims from a police whistleblower, Peter Francis, that senior officers wanted him to spy on and even undermine the Stephen Lawrence campaign.
'In an interview, parts of which are being broadcast on Channel 4's Dispatches on Monday night, Creedon offered a "100%" assurance the matter would be properly investigated. He added that prosecutors were already being asked to consider whether criminal offences had been committed by generations of undercover operatives who had been planted in protest groups over the past 45 years.' (Guardian article).
This might seem like small beer in the greater scheme of things, but this story illustrates very well how the UK has a long way to go before it becomes a true secular democracy.
The good folks at the National Secular Society have spotted a nasty little piece of religious privilege and are launching a legal challenge against Woking Borough Council. Why? Well, the misguided fools at Woking BC have got a 'Pray & Display' scheme going on that currently only allows free parking to people attending a church on Sunday mornings. The Council has decided that everyone else does not warrant a supernatural-deity-subsidy so they have to Pay & Display in the normal manner. Good luck to the NSS with their important legal case.
'Whilst a number of local authorities have introduced charges for evening and Sunday parking in recent years, some of these authorities are allowing worshippers to park at subsidised rates or without charge whilst concurrently charging others for using the same car park at the same time.
We believe this constitutes unequal treatment; one that arbitrarily favours those wishing to attend a service of worship, whilst costing all taxpayers – regardless of whether they attend religious services or not – money. We argue that allowing free parking for worshippers and not other people amounts to direct discrimination on the grounds of religious belief.' (National Secular Society article).
This story should come, sadly, as no surprise. In a nutshell: our very own Prince Charles of our unelected regime is helping out another (highly repressive) unelected regime with a spot of 'good publicity' for some cash (£700,000) for one of his hobby groups of chums. So when Charles is not talking to plants, baking biscuits or helping his dear old open parliament, he's now filling his time with activities usually left to other sniveling toadies like Prince Andrew or Mark Thatcher.
'Prince Charles has been accused of “giving legitimacy to one of the world’s most repressive regimes” after sealing a deal on behalf of his architecture group who will advise the Bahraini government on housing and planning.
'According to the Bahrain News Agency, the £700,000 deal was signed by Hank Dittmar, CEO of the Prince’s Foundation for Building Community, and Bahrain’s housing minister Basim Alhamer earlier this month. It followed a meeting between Mr Alhamer and Prince Charles at Clarence House on April 26.
'The agreement will see advisers from the group “supervise and review” plans for a new 4,000-unit housing project in the south of the kingdom, which will take inspiration from Poundbury, the model village in Dorset created by Prince Charles 20 years ago. A team from the Foundation will visit Bahrain later this month to begin work.' (Republic article).
Big bad pharma megalith GSK is banging the PR drum in Africa about a partnership with the charity 'Save The Children'. Call me cynical, but are GSK's motives really about saving sick kids in Africa when the very same company has fought tooth and nail to deprive this continent of affordable life-saving drugs for decades? Or is it more likely to be a response to more recent bad publicity over GSK buying-off competition to its extortionately priced anti-depressant 'Seroxat'? Also, reading between the lines, 'Save The Children' is definitely edgy about whoring it with GSK, so it looks like this story may not have a happy ending...
'Britain's biggest drug manufacturer has launched a new partnership with Save The Children to develop medicines to tackle child mortality in Africa. GlaxoSmithKline and the charity said together they could save a million children's lives.
'Save The Children chief executive Justin Forsyth said there was the potential for "huge gains". But critics are wary about the close involvement of a pharmaceutical company in charitable work.
'Save The Children admitted that its alliance with GlaxoSmithKline would be controversial - but said the project would save children's lives. For example, a formula for mouthwash will be turned into a gel that can be applied to the umbilical cords of babies to stop infection.
The new medicines will be sold at cost price. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) said the partnership would set a new standard for how companies and charities could work together.
'Initially, two flagship programmes will operate in DR Congo and Kenya. These will be followed by other initiatives in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America.' (BBC News article).
It is common knowledge that Prince Charles, our hereditary heir to the throne, is well known to be on a nice little earner selling biscuits from Cornwall that 'earns' him about UKP 18 million a year. What is much less well known is that when someone dies down in darkest Cornwall without a will, this blood-sucker gets their assets too. However, keen to be altruistic he then generously shovels some of this unearned dosh to worthy causes like private schools and his other hobby 'charities'.
It's funny, however, that you never read about this shit in the Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mail or the Murdoch rags when they are banging on about 'scroungers'. The same mouthpieces then attack anyone who criticizes the royals - upon uncovering such breathtaking greed - as 'waging a class war'.
Fucking right, bring it on!
'Prince Charles has used money from people who die without wills or family in Cornwall to fund his own charities and to support bursaries at his old private school in Scotland.
'As Duke of Cornwall, a title that already provides him with an £18m private annual income, a quirk of history means Charles becomes the owner of the assets of anyone living in the county who dies "intestate".
'Last year that provided him with more than £450,000 and he is sitting on £3.3m in cash from many years of collecting Cornish legacies, latest accounts show.
'In 2012, the benevolent fund he set up to use the money made one of its largest grants of £5,000 to the elite public school of Gordonstoun in Scotland where a place now costs £30,000 a year.' (Guardian article).
George Monbiot analyses the role of the new UK Government Chief Scientist Mark Walport regarding the proposed EC ban on neonicotinoids because of the rapidly declining bee population that is essential for crop pollination.
'What happens to people when they become government science advisers? Are their children taken hostage? Is a dossier of compromising photographs kept, ready to send to the Sun if they step out of line?
'I ask because, in too many cases, they soon begin to sound less like scientists than industrial lobbyists. The mad cow crisis 20 years ago was exacerbated by the failure of government scientists to present the evidence accurately. The chief medical officer wrongly claimed that there was "no risk associated with eating British beef". The chief veterinary officer wrongly dismissed the research suggesting that BSE could jump from one species to another.
'The current chief scientist at the UK's environment department, Ian Boyd, is so desperate to justify the impending badger cull – which defies the recommendations of the £49m study the department funded – that he now claims that eliminating badgers "may actually be positive to biodiversity", on the grounds that badgers sometimes eat baby birds. That badgers are a component of our biodiversity, and play an important role in regulating the populations of other species, appears to have eluded him.
'But the worst example in the past 10 years was the concatenation of gibberish published by the British government's new chief scientist on Friday. In the Financial Times, Sir Mark Walport denounced the proposal for a temporary European ban on the pesticides blamed for killing bees and other pollinators. He claimed that "the consequences of such a moratorium could be harmful to the continent's crop production, farming communities and consumers". This also happens to be the position of the UK government, to which he is supposed to provide disinterested advice.' (Guardian article).
On the very day that our disgusting coalition government gives a huge tax cut to millionaires and hammers the poor, one little old lady billionaire has had a tidy little top-up. Yes, our unelected head of state has just trousered a UKP 5 million pay rise, raising the bundle of public money that our royal parasite gets from UKP30 million to UKP 36 million per annum.
However, the keen-eyed among us have noticed that as Buckingham Palace is owned by the state, then Liz effectively lives in 'social housing' - and this old house has rather a lot of spare bedrooms. Curiously though, the sniveling coalition toadies don't seem to have applied there disgracefully regressive 'bedroom tax' to this old dear. Funny that.
'The Queen has received a £5m boost in the funds she receives from the taxpayer to carry out her official duties.
'The sovereign grant, which covers the running costs of the Queen's household, has been set at £36.1m for the 2013-14 financial year.
'The figure has increased from the £31m allocated during the previous 12 months which included £1m to cover the extra costs of the diamond jubilee.
'The sovereign grant replaces the old funding system of the civil list and grants-in-aid and came into full effect at the start of the new financial year, which began on Monday. It also covers the maintenance of the royal palaces in England and the cost of royal travel for official engagements in the UK and overseas tours.
'Under the new grant the Queen receives 15% of the profits from the Crown Estate, but from funds two years in arrears.' (Guardian article).
Having been interested in the old-time American hobo lifestyle for some time, it has come as a great surprise and pleasure to find a thriving subculture of modern hobos still riding freight trains across the US. PBS has a superbly evocative film about hobos here.
Indeed, some old-timers are still out there migrating by freight-train to find work but there is a new wave of hobo riding simultaneously. It would appear that the new younger generation of 'bos' brings a decidedly 'punk-attitude' that simply rides the rails just for the sake of riding the rails - wonderful stuff. This creates an amazing mixture of young punks and old hobos doing the same thing, just for different reasons.
Riding the rails is also referred to as 'freight-hopping' or 'train-hopping' and there is quite a bit of stuff out there. Railroad Semantics is the website of Aaron Dactyl who publishes his own 'freight zine' about his adventures and is well worth a read. Northbank Fred has a very comprehensive website that has loads of hobo stories and links.
There is also a ton of stuff on YouTube and I particularly liked the videos from Wizehop.
Sarah George's documentary Catching Out is also a good all round study of the modern hobo. (Isohunt torrent download).
It's pretty obvious that Mr. Ratzinger did not quit because he's old and infirm. There's definitely bigger things brewing; money laundering and child sex-abuse scandals, threat of arrest if he leaves the Vatican, etc. But the latest theory revealed in the Italian press about a 'gay network' in the Vatican, if true, could really see the wheels come off of the Catholic Church. Fingers crossed.
A potentially explosive report has linked the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI to the discovery of a network of gay prelates in the Vatican, some of whom - the report said - were being blackmailed by outsiders.
'The pope's spokesman declined to confirm or deny the report, which was carried by the Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica.
'The paper said the pope had taken the decision on 17 December that he was going to resign - the day he received a dossier compiled by three cardinals delegated to look into the so-called "Vatileaks" affair.
'Last May Pope Benedict's butler, Paolo Gabriele, was arrested and charged with having stolen and leaked papal correspondence that depicted the Vatican as a seething hotbed of intrigue and infighting.
'According to La Repubblica, the dossier comprising "two volumes of almost 300 pages - bound in red" had been consigned to a safe in the papal apartments and would be delivered to the pope's successor upon his election.' (Guardian article).
It looks like Mr. Ratzinger is so rattled by the prospect of being held to account for his cover-up of the child sex-crimes of Catholic priests on his watch, that he is going to stay holed-up in the Vatican after he stops being God's representative on Earth. Of course someone, someday, might put a stop to the nonsense about the Vatican being a 'state', and then he's toast but I'm not holding my breath. Contrast the international kid-glove treatment of this vile individual to the hounding of Julian Assange, and one gets a good insight into the priorities of powerful western nations...
'Pope Benedict's decision to live in the Vatican after he resigns will provide him with security and privacy. It will also offer legal protection from any attempt to prosecute him in connection with sexual abuse cases around the world, Church sources and legal experts say.
'The Vatican has consistently said that a pope cannot be held accountable for cases of abuse committed by others because priests are employees of individual dioceses around the world and not direct employees of the Vatican. It says the head of the church cannot be compared to the CEO of a company.
'Victims groups have said Benedict, particularly in his previous job at the head of the Vatican's doctrinal department, turned a blind eye to the overall policies of local Churches, which moved abusers from parish to parish instead of defrocking them and handing them over to authorities.
'The Vatican has denied this. The pope has apologized for abuse in the Church, has met with abuse victims on many of his trips, and ordered a major investigation into abuse in Ireland.
'But groups representing some of the victims say the Pope will leave office with a stain on his legacy because he was in positions of power in the Vatican for more than three decades, first as a cardinal and then as pope, and should have done more.
'The scandals began years before the then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected pope in 2005 but the issue has overshadowed his papacy from the beginning, as more and more cases came to light in dioceses across the world. (Reuters article).
Christ on a bike! What with his own complicity in the Catholic Church's sex abuse scandal cover-up, we now have the Archdiocese of L.A. robbing a 'grave maintenance fund' to help pay a $600 million child-abuse settlement. It's no wonder Mr. Ratzinger threw in the towel...
'Pressed to come up with hundreds of millions of dollars to settle clergy sex abuse lawsuits, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony turned to one group of Catholics whose faith could not be shaken: the dead.
'Under his leadership in 2007, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles quietly appropriated $115 million from a cemetery maintenance fund and used it to help pay a landmark settlement with molestation victims.
'The church did not inform relatives of the deceased that it had taken the money, which amounted to 88% of the fund. Families of those buried in church-owned cemeteries and interred in its mausoleums have contributed to a dedicated account for the perpetual care of graves, crypts and grounds since the 1890s.
'Mahony and other church officials also did not mention the cemetery fund in numerous public statements about how the archdiocese planned to cover the $660-million abuse settlement. In detailed presentations to parish groups, the cardinal and his aides said they had cashed in substantial investments to pay the settlement, but they did not disclose that the main asset liquidated was cemetery money.' (Los Angeles Times article).
The surprise resignation of the PPPP (Paedophile Priest Protecting Pope) could open up new avenues for this odious little man to be sued. US court cases have already featured letters from 'Cardinal Ratzinger' linking him directly to the Catholic Church's cover up of their child sex abuse scandal. Bring it on!
'Yesterday’s resignation by Pope Benedict was merely expedient - he has become too old to cope. It would have been both astonishing and courageous, a few years ago, had it been offered in atonement for the atrocity to which he had for 30 years turned a blind eye - the rape, buggery and molestation of tens of thousands of small boys in priestly care.
'His “command responsibility” for this crime against humanity goes back to 1981, when he was appointed Prefect (i.e. Head) of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican body that disciplines errant priests. Although the CDF files are a closely guarded secret, letters from Cardinal Ratzinger have emerged in several US court cases, always protective of rapist priests. As father Hans Kung, the eminent Theologian, put it in his open letter to Catholic Bishops in 2010, “There is no denying the fact that the world-wide system of covering up cases of sexual crimes committed by clerics was engineered by the CDF under Cardinal Ratzinger”'. (Independent article).
Well, okay, I maybe extrapolating things a bit here, but hell, the God Squad does it all the time. So, am I the first to link the resignation of Mr. Ratzinger with the hillarious story of a 'gay' dog called Elton and a Catholic gob-shite called 'Bill Donohue'? I think dear old Ratzinger read this story and said: "Right, fuck it, I've had enough of this Catholic shit, I'm off!" Enjoy. (Daily Kos article).
War company Raytheon has developed some software called RIOT (Rapid Information Overlay Technology) that is designed to deal with vast amounts of personal data on social networking sites etc, with the aim of giving anyone who wants to pay for it the ability to spy on and/or track people. Good! Now will all those Twitter and Facebook numbskulls out there, happily sloshing their personal information all over the internet, pay attention? Probably not, the me-me-me generation I fear is here to stay...
'If you have attracted the “wrong kind” of attention by the government, then the intrusive data-mining analytic software developed by defense contractor Raytheon may be able to figure out your next move before you make it.
'Wikipedia explained the “extreme-scale analytics” systems that Raytheon calls Rapid Information Overlay Technology (RIOT). It “allows the user to track people's movements and even predict their behavior by mining data from social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter, Gowalla, and Foursquare. Raytheon claims that it has not sold this software to any clients, but has shared it with US government and industry.”
'The software is not “new,” but the video obtained by the Guardian is new to us, the public. In it, Raytheon's 'principal investigator' Brian Urch explained how RIOT software works. He used a Raytheon employee dubbed “Nick” before showing how to use the software to find pictures of Nick as well as where he checks in or has otherwise given away his location. Some of the most disturbing quotes include, “Now we know where Nick’s going; we know what he looks like and now we’re going to try to predict where he may be in the future.” The results showed the top ten places where he has checked in.' (Computer World article).