Vox Polis

I am concerned by the increasing number of homeless living on our streets without warmth, food or shelter. Unfortunately as most homeless people are not going to vote (no house to register from for example) most politicians don’t care if they freeze. Similarly most people would rather ignore the Big Issue sellers and begger’s shouts for spare change than try to do something about the problem. Well I have the solution.

This idea came to me as I was wondering down the bleak and far too busy Oxford “clone” street in London. As I was very slowly making my way past crowds of consumerists, I noticed these fellows holding up signs pointing to the back street sandwich shops, ski sales and closing down sales. According to the Guardian these are the so called “board guys”, who kindly direct people to the “hidden” bargains in discreet out of the way shops, or to the nearest McDonald’s just in case you miss that big red and yellow arch. This is the way shops bypass planning rules which demand that any permanent sign must be cleared by the local council. By having movable and transient signs, shops can have the flexibility to advertise when they need it, for example during sales. We need to apply this great idea to the homeless.

Although bad boy Berlusconi now refers to himself as the “Jesus Christ of Politics”, I think that position has to go to old Lib Dem leadership contender Ming. That’s not because I think he’d be the saviour of the Lib Dems but because he seems to have avoided committing any sin. All the other candidates have had their skeletons dragged out of the closet: ‘Rent Boy’ Oaten, ‘I hate gays but am one’ Hughes and just last weekend “I had my hand in the EU till like all the other MEPs but I don’t think I’m a millionaire” Huhne. But nothing has appeared on Campbell. He’s been in politics the longest yet no one’s done the nasty on him yet. Perhaps as we’re in the last week of the leadership campaign something will appear.

With the government’s ID plans moving forward it’s instructive to remember some of their previous IT achievements. Siemens Business Services were ejected from the Immigration and Nationality Directorate in 2004 after spending £77m on a failed computer system. They’ve now been welcomed back with a £6.7m contract to handle cashiering.

Personally speaking if someone had wasted £77m of my money (and let’s not forget that this is our money) that’d be the last business they’d get from me but apparently the civil service is more forgiving. Given this decision it’d be nice to know if SBS were bidding for a part of the far more lucrative ID card scheme and its associated databases. Unfortunately we’re not allowed to know who’s bidding how much for what due to the “commercially sensitive” nature of the information. All in all it raises the often asked question of exactly who are our government running the country for? It doesn’t seem to be the tax payers.

More at The Register.

Further to our coverage of the plaudits Michael Crichton has been receiving for his “journalistic” abilities the International Herald Tribune are reporting on a meeting between Crichton and President Bush in 2005. Bush requested the meeting after reading (having read to him?) Crichton’s global warming denial fantasy State of Fear. Apparently the delusional pair were in “near total agreement”. I can only wonder what effect Jurassic Park will have.

The GM Truths page has now been updated. Lesson 3 discusses the EU’s regulatory framework governing GE crops.

There are certainly those who either wish or still believe that the Cold War never ended and criticisms of Russia’s (lack of) economic and political reforms are certainly not difficult to find. The recent discovery of a listening device hidden in a rock is a reminder of those covert (or in this case not so covert) espionage tactics of the Cold War. But this is not evidence in itself of a return to the days of military standoff between two super powers. And certainly a return to a Cold War doesn’t appear, at least on the surface, as likely. However we must seriously look at the resurgence of Russia under Putin’s leadership.

Europe’s January gas shortages were a shocking wake up call for the EU. The sudden realisation that the EU is in fact just the destination at the end of the pipeline not the important geo-political power that it strives (or at least dreams) to be, worried many leaders in Europe. In a world where the hold over natural resources equals power, Europe appears as if it is standing naked in the centre of Red Square in the middle of winter. Once again Russia has become a threat to the stability of Europe.

Putin is also re-evaluating Russia’s position in the world hierarchy. He is carrying out reform to convert Russia’s large army into a professional rapid reaction force, and investing in new technology.

Then we have Russia’s close relationship with Iran to worry about. There is still hope, however unlikely this may appear, that Russia will help to solve the standoff over nuclear facilities. However their close relationship means that western leaders, who needs Russia’s help, are reluctant to criticise Russia.

Worryingly still is Putin’s plans on the domestic front where we have seen the centralisation of power and movements away from democracy. For example in 2004 Putin abandoned elections for regional governors, effectively making them Kremlin puppets and last year created restrictions on NGOs in Russia.

So should we be worried?

The return to a bi-polar world conflict is extremely unlikely. The future is going to consist of multi-polar powers including India and China. Russia is just re-evaluating its position. It is now the second largest exporter of oil and the largest exporter of gas. With resources comes power and a resurgent Russia is certainly something we will have to get used to. What is more worrying is Europe’s preparations for the future. This week we saw gas prices increase by 22% in the UK. There will be further increases to come. Europe needs to develop its own energy strategy, maybe it should take advice from Sweden, the only country that has pledged to rid itself of fossil fuels by 2020. If it doesn’t then we’re all going to rely on whether Putin wants to keep the tap running or not.

Directors (Minimum Age)

Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will bring forward legislation under which the minimum age of directors for public limited companies will be at least 18 years.

Mr. Sutcliffe: At present, under company law, there is no minimum age for directors. The Company Law Reform Bill introduces a minimum age, 16, for a natural person to be a director of any company.

Clearly there are too many 15 year old Directors out there so new legislation is definitely needed!! Sure some of them act like children, but they all look over 40 to me.

As expected the Lords’ amendments to the ID cards bill to require a new bill before adding any compulsion to the cards were cut by MPs yesterday. The government are claiming that the cards are still voluntary because they are issued with a (voluntary) passport. It doesn’t take a genius to spot that this means that it will eventually become impossible to escape the country without getting an ID card (and more importantly been recorded in the national identity register). I for one will be renewing my passport shortly before the arrival of the cards to allow a window to get out.

At some point in the future someone will wonder how we sleep-walked into a state where ordinary citizens had their every move tracked by the state and criminals ran free on their ’secure’ and 100% trusted fake IDs.

Michael Crichton has been awarded a journalism award for his novel State of Fear. The novel describes a fictional scenario in which:

[A] theory quickly draws support from leading scientists, politicians and celebrities around the world. Research is funded by distinguished philanthropies, and carried out at prestigious universities. The crisis is reported frequently in the media. The science is taught in college and high school classrooms.

The story then runs with the premise that global warming has been made up by a group of politicized scientists. At one point the theory of global warming is compared to eugenics to give you an idea of the tone. Crichton isn’t known for his journalistic skills and you might think that there’d been a mix up until you found out that the award is from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

“It is fiction,” conceded Larry Nation, communications director for the association. “But it has the absolute ring of truth.”

Now that’s something you couldn’t make up. More at the NY Times.

This written question is interesting- its another example of how good we are at recycling:

Batteries

Mr. Rogerson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what percentage of batteries were recycled in each European Union country in the last year for which figures are available.

Mr. Bradshaw: Information on percentage of batteries recycled in European Union countries is not readily available for all battery chemistries. Member states have not been required to provide this in the past. However, officials are in the process of acquiring this data.

Portable battery (small consumer type batteries—used in phones, clocks, watches, cameras) collection rates are available for 2002 for the following countries:

Collection rate as percentage of sales in 2002
Austria- 44
Belgium- 59
France- 16
Germany- 39
Netherlands- 32
Sweden- 55
Spain- 14

And how many does the UK recycle?

UK- 0.5

A little room for improvement you could say.