Never mind the election, just deal with it

There was going to be a political entry but there's  not really been any politics although I feel the maxim war is just the continuation of politics by any other means is quite true as "The War" struck here Monday and regular politics got shut down in the aftermath although frankly I'd have no stomach for it in the circumstances, feeling that decision makes sense.
We're three weeks near enough to go to the Great Bore of 2017, there a few manifestos where the parties promise you everything have yet to be launched which is when the press are invited and someone picks a few ideas, sells them and takes questions before answering with another of their own such as UKip's who decided to break from the fray and launch theirs on Thursday. *Cough*
I'll no doubt return to my thoughts about the manifestos before June 8th but I'll talk more around some topical issues more in fitting for the Third Form school debating society.
Something since the Manchester atrocity people have been talking about is "people known to the authorities" who regardless of view are seen as threat because either what they exalt others to do or what they may do themselves such as incitement to riot or as we saw this week, to bomb civilians.
Apparently there are thousands on lists, said to be watched, sometimes because of things they made plain publicly, sometimes through reports by concerned citizens including their own families and yet with each tragedy we hear that phrase "Was known to...".
Just how much resource is into this? Seemingly only 7 out over 1,000 people are followed, less than 1 percent. Not that I'd cast any doubts at all about those who are trying to do it but is there enough people to actively monitor and let's be blunt spy on these people for our own protection?
The man responsible for Monday's action, the one President Trump called a "loser" came back into the UK from Libya seemingly unchallenged although he was "known to", that the French had concerns he was involved in something. 
Just how come he can just leave the airport when he left the UK to fight for so-called Radical Islamic Groups whose activities we know only too well?
There is a large part of me that would send anyone who went to fight for such an organization straight back and if you leave this country to join any such conflict in effect you'd void your British Citizenship. We don't need you and your warped notion of World-wide so-called Islamic state being fought here, slaughtering our children whose only crime was having fun.
I say so-called Islamic State cos it's a sick perversion of Islam to even link it as angered and upset Muslim leaders here have said over the last few days who do not deserve the suspicions cast on them by these sick individuals actions but no doubt sadly will. Whatever our religious differences our common humanity and belief in the rule of law override them as it should.

Exploring together

I wasn't too good over the last two days although I got up okay, messaging a friend and getting the last mammoth blog entry published with links at all the usual spots to make it easier to people to follow it. Shortly afterward I felt a migraine coming rather quickly so I quickly got my tablets out a jug full of water with glass, closed the curtains and went bed.

 It wouldn't be me in the midst of all that to be thinking of other things, I mean it's so funny but sometimes I'm more together when it comes to thinking ideas up when I'm  like that than any other time.
One is how many times we hear of people who do something a little outside of the mainstream such as follow a dress style and wear it, have aspects of our lives that others may not be so keen on such as your gender identity, sexuality and being a little and so on who struggle to have people they feel they can be open with as friends. And this in age of forums, emails and social media.
Sometimes it may be that the individual has difficulties forming and holding down personal relationships which may not be helped if others are way too quick to judge elementary mistakes but life if you appear not to be able to learn from them can be hard.
Sometimes groups have very much a "My way is the only highway" approach, setting very exacting positions people are at least to go along with if not openly endorse which at times is so ironical being in mind the reason for  existence of some groups is the very excludedness those people felt from others they project themselves.
To  me it seems in order to progress we need to be open to difference, able to tolerate difference and understand  the expression of differing views often leads to more informed thoughts and decisions.
If we find understanding something hard - and it genuinely can be -  we need to be prepared to  work with someone who will explain it and engage with them changing what we are doing if it isn't helping us.
We also need to learn to hold hands more with the people who can helps us explore and grow as people which may include learning more about some of things that unite us but may not be part of other peoples lives.
If you're a more child-like as I am, you need to find those spaces you can let this side of you out openly without the distractions of regular adult stuff going on.

Just a few days to go

A few days before the grand politics day and things sure are hotting up as each party tries hard aided by their press supporters to dig up some dirty or proof of  saying one thing while personally doing quite the other.
What concerns me more is Apathy could well be in the winning lead as people just switch off  from accusation to counter accusation and that some of the material produced for the televised election broadcasts have come over as really rather poorly executed satire failing to get over what it is I and several million others should know before I consider giving you my vote.
For me, any group of people who don't have a clear plan to simplify the role and governance of the institutions of the European Union fail simply because as it has gotten bigger like any organization it needs to change, (something very belatedly the Co-operative Group in the UK have come to realize) sort out what is its core roles, put an end to the Strasbourg shuffle every month for a week and when it is clear a member state isn't happy with how it does things work with to have good trading terms outside of it.
It must be frustrating to many members to have people who just don't appear to share it's principals trying to stay in by opting out. 

*Blogged with Pale Moon under  Windows XP Pro!

The skinny cat returns!

Well, after a long time campaigning  in what at times has been a bitter and somewhat personal affair it's all over with.
He's back and I can come out of the coal bunker!

Really as Americans it's your affair, it's your gig, but what those of us outside of the States want from a President is a person who knows it's your job as the leading democracy in the World to engage with that World, a person who knows how to use those special relationships especially with the English speaking democracies such as Canada and Great Britain to improve international trade, co-operate in the attempt to resolve conflicts peacefully and encourage those where democracy isn't the norm to transform their own societies. We don't need more regime change that destabilizes regions, allows less amenable regimes in and cost all our soldiers their lives.
You know it takes a long time before any one can see what their programs are set out to deliver.
If, whatever your own misgivings and the difficulties your Country is going through,  you gave him a chance in the polling stations yesterday may I say thank you for returning him to office.

An end of an era

This isn't a a post I personally felt like making earlier on but actually with some some redacts I shall.
As many of you are aware I enjoy anime and manga reading much about it, buying magazines and spending money on it.
Here in the UK there is a very good 4 weekly magazine, NEO, published by Uncooked Media that has played a big role in popularizing anime and it's subcultures such as cosplaying as well as Asian culture.
Well from the moment I first saw it, I bought every issue and one of the things it had was  a website that offered more up to the minute news and a lively forum where people talked about things, contributed to threads that influenced the magazine covering  suggestions for content, reviews.
Coming from a close involvement with a forum with more drama than Shakespeare could come up, with it was a forum where I felt everyone gelled well together sharing their mutual interests even if complaints about a prominent magazine advertiser stocking counterfeit goods tended to be ignored time after time and anything critical regarding this disappearing.
Then at the beginning of this year, there was a bombshell as the Magazine and by extension its owner ditched the forum for a Facebook page as its sole means of communicating with it's readership with not even an announcement to forum members, dropping of any mention of it in side the magazine.
Because it relied as some forums do on manual authorizing of accounts for a period new members couldn't use it and because no one with administrator privileges was dealing with this, it was ripe for spamming.
Somewhat belatedly a person was given responsibility for looking after it but without making any personal comments the impression one forms is it isn't really their priority and attempts to allow involvement by long standing responsible members stalled for reasons I'm not going into.
The problem as anyone who knows about these things are, your core members drift off  - and many have - and with the problem around authorizing, moderating and banning spammers not really solved and looking very much that it won't be  is simple: Over time the forum dies off.
Now I have no issue with using differing media to interact with readers but a forum is a very different beast than a Facebook page with 'likes' and entries to just reply to and treating a community you created like that comes over as very shabby.
I shall be at Anime UK news under a new username. If you're at CR too you can message me there for it.

Down with Austerity!

Okay, I could easily write about other stuff here in this Blog, really I could and I have something altogether different in mind for next week but it seemed when I woke up this morning to make more sense to continue with  what we were talking about last week.
Well, Austerity it would appear isn't terribly popular with the voters when one looks at the results of elections either here in the UK, France or Greece although apathy was the biggest winner of all underlining that disconnect between politicians and people.
In the UK some but not all Council elections place and the governing parties (Tory and Liberal Democrat) lost over 800 seats with most areas offered Elected Mayors rejecting the offer outright in referendums with the opposition Labour Party being the big winner.
Depressingly so much of the talk was less about local politics but more on National issues which local councils have little or no say over, so much so that in some respects it was more like an opinion poll on that rather than the proper business of what and how the Council should be doing for its citizens.
To that extent, we can say most appear to disagree with at least how the "Austerity" is being implemented with a strong feeling some are more in this together compared to others (The rich, bankers, corporate chair people etc.).
People see pay cuts, job loses, increasing prices, reduced public services and others doing well thank you from it and say NO!
The anti European Union party UKIP doubled its vote underlining this countries schism with Europe I wrote about over a year ago and probably not helped being asked to pay for another currency blocs mistakes when your own are experiencing sharp cuts in the standard of living.
People here expect it it's a matter of time before the Euro implodes.
The French had a Presidential election resulting in Mr Hollande the socialist winning on a rewrite the Euro stability agreement ticket which didn't go unnoticed by the Gerrman Chancellor Mrs Merkel who has issued a warning shot already of this although he's a clear mandate to seek it.
The Greeks bless 'em had a General Election that saw the Socialists and Conservatives lose to more left wing and even Fascist parties but with a twist. They as of now can't appear to form a coalition and any coalition is very likely to reject the terms of the next financial bailout because that was the overriding message of the voters.
The result genuinely shocked the financial institutions who didn't realize how unpopular the measures agreed between Greece and the reminder of the Euro zone really were on the ground.
It would be inconceivable any new Greek government would cave into to demands  to honour it so it looks likely Greece will default and at some point have to exit the Euro adopting a new currency which may not be a bad thing for Greece but as the Euro was at least as much about politics - one bloc united by a common currency and economies - it's the one thing others especially Germany not would wish for because it would leave the door open for Spain, Italy and even Ireland to follow suit.
The patient indeed doesn't like and refuses to take the medicine prescribed.

Confused.com

Sometimes you really wonder if there's a grown up left running the country and this last ten days has been one of those moments with me. Take taxation for instance, in the UK the tax book is biggest anywhere in the Western World with so many exceptions that even the Tax Inspectors don't really understand it never mind people such as business men and women who are told ignorance is no defence.

Mr Osbourne, the UK's Finance Minister decided there were a number of inconstant rulings and loop holes in Value Added tax, the tax that is levied on goods and services ever since the UK joined the then Common Market (the current European Union) and announced a number of measures to deal with them. It also helped he'd get some money from it too.

One revolves around food. In the UK if you buy food from a place providing an eating experience such as a restaurant you pay the tax (VAT) on your bill. If you buy food from a place that runs a 'take away' service such as a Fish and Chip shop or Chinese takeaway to eat at home then that attracts VAT too.

Until now if you went to say a bakery and bought a cake, pie or sausage roll you didn't and it was this he decided to change. In essence he's saying if it is hot compared to 'ambient temperature' then this counts as cooked so should be liable.

The problem lies in comparing a freshly baked pie to a roast chicken isn't a meaningful one in that the chicken comes as a chicken and is roasted being sold as a roast chicken, which is a service that adds value to the product.

A freshly baked pie has to be prepared from scratch and baked to become a pie so people can buy it, period.

It follows then that the only way of making a distinction is through the temperature which will mean testing each batch before being placed for sale and offering 'cold' and 'hot' for each product.

And this is from a government into reducing red tape???

It's easy to accept the idea that offering to 'warm' a product for a customer to consume immediately is a VAT liable service as would say putting seating by or in your shop for patrons could be seen as 'proof' you were a 'takeaway'.

And it gets worse.

To beat the potential of a oil tanker driver strike, Ministers called for people to fully fill their gasoline tanks (many run with a third of a tank in) and better still to fill cans with fuel just in case'.

The result was predictable - a run on gas at the pumps leading to a good number being out of fuel and severe criticism from fire fighters for the dangers posed by people stockpiling gasoline at home in confined spaces.

If they had to say anything, it would of made more sense to have called on the Trades Union (UNITE) and the Employers to attend talks with the arbitration service ACAS who had offered to step in to facilitate an resolution of the issues between them.

The Norwegian tragedy July 22, 2011 (reflections)

It came to me as much as I guess anyone else to think a bright clear Friday morning was going to be linked forever with the deaths over 85 or so individuals in bomb blasts in Oslo and on a nearby island where a youth camp for Norway's Young Labour party members was taking place.
To say it's shaken me to the core perhaps is an understatement as someone who has had dealings with Norwegians over the years and to which I have had enormous respect for how they shaped their society.
As shocking as Anders B Breiviks actions were and are, that's not the only aspect that concerns me.
Because I imagine of the terrorist atrocities that occurred here in the UK and also in New York people have linked Islamist Extremism to this kind of act and by early Saturday morning, the mass media had already decided they were guilt with all the fear and yes prejudice that goes with it.
But it soon turned out the person responsible regard themselves as a Christian and a Freemason fighting some battle against his idea of a Moslem take over of Norway and the reminder of Europe, but at no point did the media apologize for getting it wrong.
In Norway as unlike for a period in the UK, immigration and assimilation have been able to be debated openly without fear that 'the ruling groups' would shut down the debate which as uncomfortable as it sometimes is nonetheless has to happen in a free and democratic society.
The other aspect is that no one has picked up on the fact many of these young people were the brightest members who would of entered the fields of law and politics contributing to the direction Norway's society would develop -the only right judgment in my opinion Mr Brevik made being why he targeted them - and as such this is a huge loss and not just in terms of loss of family members as tragic as those things always are.
It is good to see Norwegians of all races and religions coming together in torchlit processions to say this man and his ideas will not be allowed to tear apart everything they have worked on since WW2.