No fertility treatment for fatties

Well fertility treatment on the NHS anyway. This is the headline I've just seen. Apparently fatties are less likely to have successful fertility treatments than stick insects.

This leads the fascists that run the NHS to conclude that they therefore should not have access to the treatment on the public purse. To conserve scarce resources you see. Should the fatties then not have right to opt out of paying for the NHS? What these folks have be made to understand is that the fatties are amongst the Owners of the NHS having been forced to pay for the bloody thing..

Mr Johnsen ex MP, crook and soon to be Conservative MP

I just saw in the web version of Morgunbladid that former conservative MP Arni Johnsen has received a pardon or more accurately his criminal record has been cleared of any mention of the embezzlement that landed him in jail. This executive action has been carried out by three conservative party members, the Justice Minister, President of Parliament and Solicitor General, as executors of Presidential powers during the President's absence. I guess our ex communist President would not have been willing to sign off on the Pardon.

These news coincide neatly with news that Mr Johnsen has plans to run for Parliament again where it not for the pesky problem of his criminal record. You see in Iceland you have to have a clean slate to be an MP. If there ever was a clear-cut case of abuse of powers by Icelandic politicians this is it. I have for some time felt that it was necessary for Icelandic democracy that the Conservatives loose power. That they had just become so corrupted by their long hold on the reigns of government that they had lost all respect for the institutions of State and now just governed by self interest without any underlying principles informing their actions.

This just enforces my view. A failed party member, and comrade in arms, wants to reenter parliament but can't because the law of the land says he does not qualify. What to do? Politicians that felt that maybe, just maybe, their claim to power was not guaranteed might think twice before abusing their powers in the cause of this ex MP. But not our glorious troika.

I wonder if I still have a membership card in the Conservative Party to send them in protest.

Travel Story

Yesterday I escorted my mum from the South of France to the door of her aircraft going from Heathrow to Iceland. In Iceland she was met by my nephew who also happens to be called Thoroddur. She was, thus, never on her own except in an aircraft full of other Icelanders. For reasons having to do with booking our flights very late we had to travel from Nice to Paris Orly (domestic terminal), and then from Paris CDG (international terminal) to Heathrow where she flew to Iceland. I mention that because it gave us the opportunity to maximize our experience with security.

Our experience with security was tragicomic. In Nice they go trough the old gals hand baggage and make a great fuss off her hair comb. It was a typical old lady hair comb with a thin metal handle that spikes at the end. Obviously a lethal weapon particularly in the hands of an 83 year old and must not be allowed on the aircraft. In Paris things, however, got much worse. Clearly, Mum had not believed me when I told her that no liquids where allowed in hand luggage or possibly she does not believe her creams count as such.

When we go through (the first) security station at CDG they again pull mum (83 year old, gray haired, diminutive terror suspect) aside and demand to go through her bag. This time the inspection is performed by a young French girl who'’s primary qualification for the job appeared to be not speaking English, this would have been a real scene if I had not been there to translate. She pulls some eight different tubes with various creams out of Mum'’s bag. What all of those where I have no idea but they where not coming with us, although, we where offered the option of checking them in. Presumably we where supposed to buy a bag to check in because our bags had already disappeared into the maw of the airport building.

Poor Mum was completely distraught by having her stash of beauty products confiscated but worse was to come. As where were going to the UK there was a second security point at CDG before boarding the aircraft. At this point they where systematically checking all bags for beauty related contraband, this time a very brusque but competent seaming and English speaking French woman was in charge. She practically emptied Mum'’s bag and came up with two mascaras and a lipstick. These went into the bin greatly adding to Mum'’s distress.

On we go to Heathrow with little to report other than crying children and one very distressed cat. Except, of course, when we got to transit security at terminal 2 and the octogenarian'’s bags get scanned by "English" scanners. Again, I have no idea what she needs these products for but Mum was still holding on to two tubes, a can of some sort, three lipsticks and what I presume was her last resort mascara. The very courteous and, I must say, gigantic English security guard explained to my poor Mum, that no these would not be traveling with her to Iceland. At Heathrow they did give us the option of mailing the offending items to Iceland which we did.

Now while I greatly admire the vanity that means an 83 year old girl is carrying ten tubes of creams, an can of creams, three mascaras and four lipsticks and I hope she does keep it up, I have no idea what she was doing with all of this. This has got to be more stuff than many women have on their night table! Just how many products does an octogenarian need to slap on her face before she can show it to the world.

What this story tells me about the security at airports, however, is not very comforting. I can understand the Nice security as that was a French domestic flight that is probably operating under different parameters than the UK flights. The other three checks, however, are supposed to be operating under European Joint Aviation Authority rules and should follow the same procedures, have staff trained in the same manner and have compatible scanners. Yet, it took three separate scanners and manual checks to reveal all of Mum's contraband. Either it is the considered opinion of the security staff that the rules are rubbish and they are not fully implementing the rules or security is just a crowd control measure. They clearly are not getting anywhere near all the stuff they say must not be let onto aircraft.

Mum got home sound and save however!

Israel’s Invasion of Lebanon

I encounter a lot of criticism of Israel these days, with people mainly of the left/progressive political persuasion being barely able to conceal their anti-Semitism. Pointing out that Israel, regardless of its current actions, does in fact face a host of enemies with the stated goal of exterminating the state of Israel does not in any way stem the hateful stream of bile that otherwise normal people sprout on the subject. It is just remarkable how, people who pretend to be democrats will effectively provide verbal, moral and financial support to what are at the end of the day despotic regimes and their supporters. Naturally, many of these folks sooner or later descend into a more familiar anti-Americanism and Bush is the anti-Christ delusions as you point out the factual deficiencies of their arguments.

What I do feel is missing from the entire discussion both from those folks and the media is a separation Israel’s moral justification, modus operandi and the likelihood of it ultimately gaining from its actions. Essentially,

1. Moral justification: i.e. is Israel morally justified in attacking Lebanon from the ground and air. I believe it is. I am not talking about either of the other two points below but simply the narrow question of moral justification. The undeniable fact is that Israel faces enemies that are bent on its destruction and the mass murder of its citizens. When these enemies are states it is easy to see how provocation such as kidnappings and rocket attacks would provoke justified self defence. When the enemy is a nebulous organisation that operates as a virtual state within a state in an otherwise peaceful neighbour it is tempting to maintain that this is different and does not constitute a sovereign attack on Israel. Rather that, Hezbollah’s attacks where a form of terrorism that should be dealt with by the International community as would any other forms of terrorism. I think this is wrong. A country that fails, either deliberately or not, to control a group within its borders that then goes on to attack another sovereign state has in my mind forgone its right to sovereign integrity. Attacking that country is therefore self defence and thus, morally justified;
2. Modus Operandi or the question of whether Israel’s, morally justified, attack on Lebanon was conducted in an appropriate manner. Another way of posing this question is whether Israel, a democratic state, is justified in destroying Lebanon’s infrastructure and attacking civilian targets where those are being used for offensive purposes. Here I completely disagree with the Israeli position; if Lebanon had attacked them in an all out war then destroying infrastructure is simply a normal and acceptable way of winning the war. Similarly, in an all out war you do accept civilian deaths as regrettable but inevitable and therefore, fire at civilian sites that are somehow being used militarily. But an all out war between two sovereigns is not what we have here. Israel is not only the dominant, by some distance, military power here, it is fighting, not a sovereign power but a militia that exists as a sort of parasite upon the Lebanese nation. This militia numbers in the thousands, the fighting part of it that is, and is not in any way a terminal threat to Israel. In other words Hezbollah can never win or even seriously harm Israel militarily. For, Israel to demolish the entire civil infrastructure of a third party to this conflict, however morally justified their fight, is simply excessive. Shelling civilian cites even when those are being abused as shelter by the militia is not only counterproductive it is not civilised behaviour when you are the stronger party. Israel as the stronger party and a democracy to boot has a duty of care to the non combatants that is not only part of International law but a simple matter of decency. In the end the Democracy that is also the superior military force must be held to a higher standard than the terrorist.
3. And finally what does Israel stand to gain with all of this. I mean to destroy Hezbollah’s militarily is without a doubt an worthwhile objective but is there not a higher objective that should take precedence? I am thinking about living in peace with one’s neighbours which must be the long term goal of Israel. If all Israel wanted to achieve was short term victory over Hezbollah then no doubt they’ve done a sterling job. But without being an expert on Lebanon, or the Middle East for that matter, I rather suspect that what Hezbollah has lost in military strength it has gained manifold in political strength. I have heard people suggest that Hezbollah basically started a civil war and got Israel to fight it on its behalf. Furthermore, the anger that the war has generated across the Middle East will take a generation to calm down. So what Israel has achieved appears to be to strengthen its worst enemy, weaken the democracy next door, and ruin what goodwill it may have had amongst Muslims. Probably, not a good bargain in the long term for Israel. I really don’t know what information the Israeli Government possessed in order for them to think this a good bargain. Or did they just miscalculate. Whatever, the facts I don’t think their long term position has been improve.

Not a pretty picture is it.

Cool Cockpit

I do very occationally get up to some cool things in my job. Above are pictures of me in the pilot seat of some Russian aircraft belonging to a company we are thinking about working with.

The last pic is of the cockpit of a Tupalev TU-134A a completely analog cockpit whos design basically dates back to WWII. The TU-134 is also a very cool aircraft because it was designed as a Bomber and has this glass nose where the navigator sits (middle picture). As a bomber it would of course have a big gun at the front.

Then we inspected a YAK-40D (top pic) that is basically a small private jet originally build so that the leaders of the People's Republic did not have to mix with the people in any way. It is also very cool and completely analog. Notice the giant metal tupe that the stearing wheal is attached to. This is connected by vire directly to the wings! Both of these aircraft where build in the '70 and are still going strong even if they are very expensive to operate and very polluting.

Current Travel Schedule

Friday 11, London - Reykjavik;
Sunday 13, Reykjavik - London;
Monday 14, London - Paris - Nice;
Tuesday 14, Nice - London - Moscow;
Friday 17, Moscow - London.

Not one of my better weeks to be frank.

Funding of Political Parties II

Posted again over at the Review of the Funding of Political Parties. This time on political donations by unions:

They are asking three questions:

• Do you think that any cap on donations (see Cap on donations discussion) should apply to Trade Union affiliation fees and/or donations?

• Do you think that donations from Trade Unions should be treated differently or the same as donations from companies or other organisations?

• Do you think that Trade Union financing of political parties is solely a financial issue or does it raise wider issues?

My Responses:

1. I don’t believe donations should be capped at all regardless of whether they are from individuals or organizations. If there is an argument to be made that union donations should be capped it applies equally to corporate or individual donations. Therefore, the only cap I would apply to union donations is any cap that would be applied generally.
2. The only difference between an union and any other donor with a special interest is that unions are not truly voluntary organizations. As many union member need to belong as a conditions of their employment or because their employment would be untenable without union membership there is a degree of coercion in union membership. In other words you can not argue that when someone joined an union he knew they where indirectly donating to a political party but still joined. I therefore believe the membership of unions should be polled on Party donations. I also, believe that due to the element of coercion you can not simply hold a general poll of members rather you must allow individual union members to decide individually where their donations go.
3. All donors to political parties have agendas be they ideological or plain self interest and this is entirely proper. This is also true of unions who are in the business of advancing the interest of their members. That many people believe unions to be misguided in their methods and/or demands should not be relevant. Therefore, donations by unions a financial matter only.

Heathrow closed, bomb plot foiled

It appears I only just got into the country yesterday when coming in from Atlanta as today the whole system is in disarray due to new security measures. So far Heathrow is closed to incoming traffic (for flights not already in the air) and as far as I can understand no one is allowed onboard with any hand luggage. Apparently, all they will let you have is travel documents (passport & tickets) , your valet and essential medicine. So ipods and laptops have to go into the hold. As this just hit the traveling public this morning everyone is trying to stuff their laptops and other miscellany into their bags on the floors of airports and the whole system is creaking due to the increased volume of checked in luggage.

Apparently, the police have just foiled a plan to blow up 20 aircraft in the air. The aircraft targeted where aircraft going from the UK to US. What concerns me, however, is the implicit admission that the normal security procedures/protocols/technology are not capable of telling an ipod from a box stuffed with semtex A. Really, makes you wonder...

Fat Matt's Rib Shack

Lunch yesterday in Atlanta was at Fat Matt's as I felt I could not go Georgia or the Southern US without having ribs. As you can see from the menu it is a fairly basic place but mmm finger licking good! Coming back one day at night to listen to the live blues!

Atlanta is a funny place that I'm pretty sure humans where not supposed to live in. That actually goes fort entire state of Georgia. My colleagues say the heat has broken when it drops to 34 degrees centigrade! 40 is normal and the air is so humid that you can actually touch it. The bugs are the size of house pets...

Executive Compensation in Iceland

The Icelandic press is full of anguished commentary on what they call Super-Salaries or excessive executive compensation. The commentators are primarily of the political variety i.e. members of parliament, and the comments are for the most part a combination of economic illiteracy, envy, and naked political partisanship. The consensus that is clearly appearing is that compensation at these levels is wrong and that it is up to politicians to do something about it.

The reasons why excessive (i.e. CEO’s receiving up to 200 times the income of their lowest paid employees) compensation is considered wrong mostly fall into two categories. The first one is the eternal obsession of lefties namely equality. Iceland has traditionally not had very large companies and therefore, the only people that earned serious money where successful entrepreneurs. Now a number of companies and in particular the four major Icelandic banks have become of an size that makes them serious international players, with pay scales and options similar to their international competitors. Senior managers and specialist earning big salaries is, therefore, a new development that apparently is also very undesirable as this is viewed as creating a small cohort of winners an a large mob of losers. The second reason most often give is that this development is somehow not in sync with Icelandic society and what are supposedly its egalitarian values. This is often rather comically referred to as being incompatible with “Íslenskur Veruleiki” or literally the Icelandic State of Being. So bottom line is high salaries are undesirable if not immoral because they are a source of inequality.

Now having decided that the current compensation levels at the biggest Icelandic firms are excessive it is not hard for meddling politicians to take the next mental leap and decide it is up to them to fix the problem. The most popular solution is naturally the lefty’s solution to all problems namely higher taxes. There is talk of very high taxes i.e. over 50%, on income over a certain level and to categorise some capital gains as normal income (this would catch many of the option grants) and thus tax them at 36% rather than the 10% applied to capital gains. These politico’s, or at least some of them, however, understand that capital is flighty and these top earners employ advisors that are much better than anything the government can afford. Thus, even the Greens are looking for alternative ways of stemming the tide of high compensation. In today’s papers they seem to have hit upon the idea that maybe the principal role of the country’s pension system should not be to manage their assets for the benefit of its members but to police the morality of the country’s business. Roughly, pension funds should vote against excessive compensation and refuse to support companies that don’t fall into line. There is naturally no guidance as to who gets to decide what is excessive but never mind.

I have a much simpler solution to propose. Why not just run all of these high earners out of the country through whatever means necessary. A combination of restrictive legislation regarding compensation and high taxes should do the trick. If not there are always ways in which the companies themselves can be squeezed until they move their HQ’s and high earners somewhere else. This will bring equality right into line as the numerator (salaries) will collapse but the denominator (number of people earning salaries) will hardly change thus the average and range of salaries will be brought right down. Iceland’s Gini coefficient will also come right down with the added benefit that Icelandic lefties will be able to hold their heads high in lefty jamborees. Furthermore, this will ensure a collapse in real estate values thus, removing another source of inequality between real estate haves and have nots!

Interest Rates... and my Mortgage

ECB up 25 bps, BoE up by the same and more expected. I’m perplexed by all of this (and glad for my fixed rate mortgage) because I thought that:

• China was exporting deflation i.e. making our T shirts cheaper than ever before even if the big twat in Brussels tries to prevent us from buying their goods;
• Consumers where overextended on their credit lines both because of unsecured borrowing and exploding house prices;
• The Pound Sterling was overvalued vis-à-vis the currencies of its main trading partners;
• Inflationary pressures such as they are where mainly driven by energy prices which are not sensitive to steering rates;

So if we are experiencing inflation, mainly in asset prices and energy, driven by cheap money, and oil prices is it really all that sensible to be raising the base rate. I mean the only one of those that the central bankers can reasonably expect to influence is asset prices. They are hardly hoping to burst the property price bubble as that would be a cure much worse than the disease. Oil prices will not go down just because interest rates go up in Europe.

Whereas, certainly in the UK where floating rate loans are common, the impact on the consumer market will be immediate and quite possibly severe. All the central bankers can really expect is a good recession which I can not really believe is their intention. A good recession of course would lower Oil prices as demand would go down but talk about the cure being worse than the disease.

I know world economic growth has been quite rapid for the past four years or so and that this traditionally means inflation. But this spurt of growth has been driven by the BRICs and America. I’ve not noticed particularly high economic growth in Europe although asset prices have been under pressure... very confusing.

Accidental Shooting Victim

The press reports this morning that not only has the IPCC (Independent Police Complaints Commission) found the shooting of Mohammed Abdul Kahar accidental he’s been charged with possession of child pornography. The same day?

As I understand the sequence of events here the Police:

• Raided someones house (and subsequently tore it apart) on the basis of bogus intel;
• Shot one of the inhabitants (Mr Kahar) causing “grievous” bodily harm;
• Removed property from the house including PCs;
• Held the innocent, and now injured, Mr Kahar and his brother for 2 weeks in custody;
• Whilst holding them in custody spread libellous rumours about the brothers including suggesting that one of them had fired the gun that injured Mr. Kahar;
• Grudgingly releases the brothers as an investigation by the IPCC gets under way.

Now even in this country of minimal rights to defend oneself against the authorities the above would give cause to serious litigation and damage claims. But what if one of the victims, say the one that got shot, had porn on his PC, make that child porn. Would make it a lot harder to prosecute any claims certainly would diminish the sympathy effect.

Neat coincidence don’t ya think!

Funding of Political Parties

I have just left the following comment on the site of the Review of the Funding of Political Parties.

The idea that caps on donations will in any way prevent political parties from eliciting and receiving large donations suffers from the all too common an idea that banning an activity will prevent people from engaging in that activity. It may prevent most people most of the time but it will not prevent all of the people all of the time. In the case of donations to political parties the effect will merely be to move large donations off balance sheet via affiliated organisations or some other method of concealing donations. All we can really hope to do is impose transparency so that we at least know who the paymasters of our politicians are.

This, the funding of political parties that is, is actually an issue that annoys me a lot these days. Not because I have sleepless nights worrying about the funding of political parties. It is rather the suggestion that taxpayers money should be used to fund political parties that absolutely horrifies me.

Apart from my rather strongly held views that the entire current political class is corrupt I honestly think that a political party that can not sell its ideas in the marketplace of ideas, and thus obtain funding, deserves to disappear. Having the poor taxpayer fund political parties is simply a recipe for stagnation. Not only will there be no turnover of parties (as is already the case) intellectual stagnation is almost guaranteed. It is the need to obtain funding and participation from within society that is the principal drive for political parties to remain relevant.

Here in the UK we basically have a two party system with a completely entrenched funding and power structure. The two big Parties, the Tories and Labor, basically only update their policies and ideologies in response to disasters that nearly destroy the parties. Thus, Labor needed 18 years of Tory dominance, mostly under Lady T, to abandon (well radically change) their pro Soviet heavily centralized socialist platform. But even though the party had become a total irrelevance it did not disappear.

Very much the same can be said of the Conservative Party which has received three total trouncings in general elections to wake up to the fact that maybe, just maybe, the electorate thought they needed to change. If there was any kind of fluidity in the market for political parties both the Tories and Labor would have seen new parties rise to challenge them for the votes of their natural constituencies.

Now imagine a system whereby the need to sell your ideas to feepaying members and donors is removed...

Welcome

Welcome to my blog... I have not decided what I am going to do with this site but at the moment it is just a holding page that I redirect my domain to.