The master of irrelevancy - by Richard... Thursday, September 29, 2011

The master of irrelevancy - by Richard... Thursday, September 29, 2011

With the nation poised on the brink of an economic catastrophe, the like of which may exceed in severity the Great Depression, The Boy steps in with an ultimatum … to supermarkets on their use of plastic carrier bags.

Mrs EU Referendum suggests the best use for one such bag might be to secure it over Cameron's head, for all the good he is as a prime minister. That he should be addressing such matters says all we need to know.

Technically, this is known as "displacement activity" where, unable or unwilling to confront the important issues, people turn to trivia and irrelevancies, using the activity to blot out matters they can't deal with. We are seeing the same with our media, as the pages fill with largely irrelevant tat and pointless clever-dickery.

Sadly – even with the conference season in full swing - our national politicians have written themselves out of the script. They have become irrelevant, as great events play out elsewhere and the moral fabric of the nation continues to fall apart.

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Passengers of events - by Richard...

One might expect a medical practitioner to take a professional interest in the death throes of a patient. For most ordinary people, though, the experience is distressing and, where unduly prolonged, is weighed down with an element of guilt-tinged tedium.

That is where we stand with the euro, but as we hover by the deathbed in anticipation of the long-awaited demise, it is hard to decide whether the figure of the German chancellor represents the grieving relative, the physician – or even the assassin.

Scanning the huge rage of comment on the issue, I am cautious of pronouncing – or even offering analysis – conscious that in such tense situations, much of what is said and done by public figures is for effect. It may not in any way reflect the truth of what they feel or intend, and most probably does not.

A further problem – to which we have alluded many times – is that figures at the centre of a storm rarely have perfect knowledge or understanding. Rarely, in fact, do they have even the ability to decipher the very mixed messages pouring from the media and the many other sources.

Centre-stage for today though is the vote at the Bundestag where Merkel will have to face hostile parliamentarians and somehow convince them that she should throw another shed-load of money at the Greek problem.

Sentiment, we are told, "remains passionately divided". Some labour unions, oddly, are calling for measures to be supported, while the conservative Mittelstands und Wirtschaftsvereinigung (small business alliance) is urging deputies to vote "no".

The politicians themselves are hopelessly split, and up to 19 rebels from Merkel's CDU may change the parliamentary arithmetic in an unpredictable way. However, in a Duke of York sense, we have been marched to the top of hill and down again so many times that it is hard to know whether we are either up or down.

Whichever way the vote goes, though, it won't mean nuffink. And no amount of clever commentary or analysis is going to make any difference either. No one is in control any longer. The idea that "timely and decisive action" - even if it was possible – can pull us back from the brink is so much moonshine. We are all passengers of events.

COMMENT: "THEY KNOW NOTHING ELSE" THREAD

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Totally domed - by Richard... Wednesday, September 28, 2011

"A Greek default will trigger an immediate 'magnitude 10' earthquake across Europe ... Holders of Greek government bonds will have to write off their entire investment, the southern European nation will stop paying salaries and pensions and automated teller machines in the country will empty 'within minutes'."

We really are totally domed.

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From Hell, Hull and Halifax … - by Richard...

Hull is not yet on the menu and we have not ascertained the Council Tax rate for a residence in Hell, although the liability orders are of a completely different kind. That then leaves Halifax or, more specifically, Calderdale Council, which has responded with speed and efficiency to our FOI request.

What is uncanny about these figures is that they yield a total charge of just over £12.6 million, within spitting distance of the total charged by the very much larger LB Bromley, with its population of 302,600 – against Calderdale's 200,100. A further apparent anomaly is that, while Bromley has sent out nearly 450,000 summonses and liability orders, the Calderdale total is only about 200,000 over the same 18-year period.

Basically, in historic terms, the impoverished Calderdale up on the flanks of the Yorkshire Pennines, has needed twice as much cash as affluent Bromley to produce the same documentation.

Currently, though, with Calderdale charging £91 for a set of documents and Bromley £95, while Calderdale's neighbour Bradford charges a "mere" £80, there does not seem a great deal of logic in the charging, even if it is taken at face value.

Work on an actual cost basis and there is even less logic. One might be looking at an illegal overcharge approaching £12 million. And with the high volume of paperwork churned out, it is very had to avoid the conclusion that debtors are being used as an additional – and illegal - revenue stream.

We have more answers to process and when those are done, I will produce a ranking – based on summonses and dwellings. In this, Bradford produces a startling result – one in four dwellings received a summons last year. Calderdale is not far behind, with one in five.

More to follow.

COMMENT: "ROBBING THE POOR" THREAD

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They know nothing else - by Richard...

More integration, more "Europe" bleats an ever-more desperate Barroso from the depths of the bunker. There is no "plan B". This is the only thing they know, their solution to every ailment, the remedy for every problem. They are imprisoned by their own ideology.

Even as the SS European Union capsizes and settles below the waves, they will be heard from within, tapping on the hull, screaming, "More Europe, More Europe". These people are domed.