30/03/2009 by admin.

Which is more serious - that Jacqui Smith’s spouse claimed on her expenses for two naughty films he had ordered or that her claim for a second home allowance is probably somewhat dubious? The former certainly provides the press, including the Telegraph, with long and closely-researched stories. But after April 1 when shoals of expense claims will be made public the newspapers will have a heck of a job sorting out the best stories - what should be the priority doubtful items or doubtful sums of money? The latter in my materialist opinion. Who is the most expensive rider on the gravy train?

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29/03/2009 by admin.

The cost of the G20 summit, as far as we know, will be around £19 million. Security costs are bound to escalate if reinforcements are needed which is at least possible. We know from demonstrations at previous G20 meetings that legitimate demonstrations are often hi-jacked by provocative anarchist thugs of all political shades. We must pray that this doesn’t happen and that the meetings will go ahead peacefully but also produce real progress in alleviating the dire global economic situation. This seems a bit doubtful in the light of the leaked but hastily withdrawn draft of the final communiqué. Let the legitimate demonstrators against politicians and bankers through but we must curb chaos.

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28/03/2009 by admin.

Methodspace

Sage have set up an interesting new networking site which you can connect to by clicking the above link. If we are still interested in research methods we should, perhaps, have something to contribute to this forum. I’ve registered and made my small contribution but I don’t notice any of you there yet so I’ll get lonely unless another of our fraternity , or sorority, joins. Please at least take a look at it.

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26/03/2009 by admin.

You may comment on a particular post by clicking the symbol to the left of the title of the post. You will then be asked for your name and  email address but the latter will not be published. I would encourage serious comment.

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26/03/2009 by admin.

Brown ‘Terribly Fragile’ After Bond Auction Flops (Update1) - Bloomberg.com

Gordon Brown could have done with a better press before the G20 summit next week. First of all there was the absolute refusal of his so-called deputy in the House yesterday to say whether the Government did or did not agree with the statement of Mervyn King that the scope  for future fiscal measures was, and should be, severely limited. Then came the incomplete take-up of the Gilts issue yesterday. This prompted an extraordinarily unfavourable review of Brown’s position by Bloomberg (Click the above link) . They end by comparing his position to that of John Major just before he lost the 1997 election. But of course this should not unduly encourage the Conservatives who still need an enormous shift in their popularity in the key marginals before they can assume that they will form the next government.

Are we, in fact getting to the hopeless stage where some Conservatives may not even wish for this? We shall see next week how far the unrest that will undoubtedly occur might change people’s minds. Chaos is no answer to the crisis of democracy and it is to be hoped that we shall see the rule of law prevail.

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24/03/2009 by admin.

Those of you who have visited this site before will see that I have been busy redesigning it. I hope this makes it more readable and slightly more aesthetic. Word Press make it easy to do this which is just as well because my knowledge of html is severely limited. This will have to do for a post today since the sun is still shining - though it’s still cold - and I must get out.

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23/03/2009 by admin.

BBC NEWS | UK | Call to scrap ‘illegal databases’ 

There are quite strong grounds for demanding new stringent rules to regulate government databases. There is even a question about the legality of some of them. So says Professor Ross Anderson - a “financial, ethical and administrative disaster” is how he describes the present situation. Click the link above to read more.

I have a feeling we needed someone to come out and say this fearlessly and loudly. We appear to have created a totally muddled, inefficent and therefore rather dangerous set of official databases. Not,of course, to mention the implications for confidentiality and natural or statutory  justice. What do you think?

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22/03/2009 by admin.

I am sure there are members who twitter. We know at least half a dozen who are Facebook members. Is it that members are shy of revealing this? Most young people  have few inhibitions in inviting friends to both these sites but I often hesitate to do so because of fear of offending them.

Anyway - many of the people in the USA that I follow on Twitter are obviously concerned that the Obama honeymoon is over. Their comments are far more enlightening about the current state of affairs than official news sources. I guess the same would be true here except not a lot of people are inteested in politics enough toi have political blogs.

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20/03/2009 by admin.

I trust you have all been busy looking at Google Street View? Sheer curiosity (ha ha!) led me to look up a few people this morning, mainly relations I haven’t seen for some time. Very revealing in some cases. It is possible to import Street View but I think it may be intrusive. What do you think?

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18/03/2009 by admin.

And de boid is on the wing…but where are the green shoots? If we all wished hard enough maybe they would be there. If we could summon up enough enterprise to employ two million people we would have a chance. If… but meanwhile here’s a picture of some cheerful flowers which were on my hall table and might encourage bright thoughts. Click on the  thumbnail to see the picture better.

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