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am i still ill?
Archive for Politics
March 5, 2008 at 17:05 · Filed under Politics
Pro-suicide is such a crude term and begs the question, “Are expressions like pro-bullying or pro-domestic violence valid in the same way?” Probably not. With that being the case, why are the national press compelled to use this term when broaching the subject of websites that give advice or guidance on the act of seppuku?
There have been calls from the usual backbench suspects - who clearly have very little to do outside of election year other than to stand up in the house and make absurd suggestions - to consider laws that could never possibly be implemented. Not without severe repercussions on freedom of speech and monstrous infringements of civil liberties.
For a government to inhibit the circulation of the theory of practices that are not punishable by law, but rather frowned upon by society, would make the position of countless other publications, unrelated to suicide, untenable. This would of course be across all mediums; print, online, television, radio. In essence, to prevent access by force, as is being suggested, to websites that glorify or ‘normalise’ suicide, would open the flood gates to all those who feel the desire to complain about anything that aggrieves them in the media.
As an example, citation of this proposed act could have been used in the case of The Christian Faith vs. Jerry Springer The Opera. The BBC received 55,000 written complaints when it was due to be aired on the BBC2 channel in 2005. Would this have been enough public outcry to warrant invoking this act, leaving us instead doomed to ‘Allo ‘Allo repeats (which itself could be censored if enough French people claimed racism) on that Saturday night?
Legislation is no substitute for treatment or prevention. If there was enough attention focused on mental health treatment, which there is not, then perhaps there should be no need to consider absurd censorship such as this.
In my county, Cardiff, there is currently a six month waiting list to see a councelor courtesy of the National Health Service. This has been same since at least 2001. I can tell you this from personal experience. If a person seeks help from their GP citing issues of mental health, they are first and foremost offered anti-depressant drugs and then asked if they would like to be added to the waiting list to see a specialist for counseling. For some people half a year is too long, but have no other choice. Private counseling is an an option that is not always viable, for a multitude of reasons.
It takes a lot of courage for somebody experiencing mental turmoil to turn to somebody for help and for them to be dealt with in such a manner when they do, even more so with the state of mind that they are in at that time, can be horribly detrimental to their health.
In the wake of the Bridgend crisis the UK government should take this opportunity to improve the mental health services available to these vulnerable persons who feel the need to visit ‘pro-suicide’ websites, before it’s too late.
May 2, 2007 at 14:40 · Filed under Politics
Why is it that the Welsh Labour party, in the run up to the Assembly elections on May 3rd are running such a negative campaign?
Any of the literature that I have seen dropped through the door or handed out in the street has been about how ‘if you vote for any of the other parties or independents, then you’re letting the Conservatives in through the back door, vote Labour so you don’t get the Conservative party’.
Well, that’s a profound reason. We want to let Rhodri Morgan and his bunch of do-nothing cronies continue to do barely anything for this country, just because…?
I can name three things that the Welsh Assembly government has done since it came into power, 7 years ago, none of them affect me though;
Free bus passes [but I'm not a senior citizen]
Free prescriptions [I'm rarely ill]
Smoking ban [this would have happened anyway, Assembly or not]
Even their 2007 campaign website doesn’t list much more than this as their acheivements over the past term, except for spurious claims such as “record spending on education” and “a huge increase in investment in health”.
First Minister Rhodri Morgan resided to loss a long time ago, announcing that if his party does badly in the polls, he will resign. This surely isn’t the mantra of a fighter, a leader, someone in control of his destiny or sure of his previous achievements.
All the other parties have latched onto this perception too, never before have I seen so much literature piled through my letterbox and this is simply because Plaid, the Liberal Democrats, the Conservatives, Independents and even UKIP know that there are potentially huge gains to be made with the greatest of ease.
I have a feeling that Wales will have a new, possibly coalition government come the day after polling, and for the better it will be too. Wales needs to be represented from within its own borders, but not in the way that it is now;
A small country with a small political voice.
We need to be a small country with a National Assembly that acts as a megaphone.
March 5, 2007 at 14:53 · Filed under Politics
So it seems that to wear Burberry in Wales now is as to sport the Swastika in Germany.
Of course, not that I am complaining. I’m proud not to own a single checked baseball cap or polo-shirt, but the principle is what is important.
For the wife of an American diplomat to wear a coat by Burberry on Friday when visiting the National Assembly for Wales was headlined in the local rag as a ‘gaffe’ or a ‘clanger’.
I have every sympathy for those who have lost their jobs due to Burberry moving work usually done by the factory in Treorchy to China, but does this mean that for every company that moves out of Wales we need to boycott their products and services?
Lloyds TSB moved a substantial number of jobs from their Newport call centre to Mumbai, India with a loss of 107 jobs and Norwich Union transferred 2,350 jobs to the Indian sub-continent in 2003. Yet, Aviva (parent company of Norwich Union) continue to thrive and are one of the leaders in the UK insurance market.
Fighting for your job, or the jobs of your constituents is an honourable cause, but there comes a time when you must admit defeat, in respect of the greater good.
The campaign, headed at political level by Assembly Member Leighton Andrews has undeniably tarnished the reputation of Wales as a place to set-up business.
In the current climate, it is a given fact that companies require greater flexibility than ever, in a global market which one day would be fine, the next, as we saw last week with the market plunges across the globe, we could be in a totally different situation where jobs need to be moved in order to ensure the survival of the business.
Unfortunately, what Mr Andrews and his colleagues are doing in continuing this campaign against Burberry is portraying Wales as a country which will fight to the bitter end and do everything that can be done to discredit organisations who try to remove jobs from the country.
How would this look to a prospective factory owner or big business who want to find somewhere to put their new call-centre? Surely this would make us look hostile and most certainly not a great country with which to do business. This crusade to save 300 jobs may halt the creation of thousands in the future, and it has been said the at least 1/3 of the employees of the Treorchy factory have already found new jobs, so who knows any many more will find alternative employment once the gates are shut for the last time, the placards are put away and attention is on future livelihoods.
The politicians may make out like it is, and the people believe them, but I’m sure that the closure of this factory will not spell the end of Treorchy, just as, though again it was promised by MP’s and union heads, the closure of the coal mines did not wipe out the Valleys as a whole in the 1980’s.
Treorchy has been given a decent settlement from Burberry; £150,000 a year to a community fund, to run for 10 years, a ‘loyalty bonus’ to staff and the company will hand over the factory to the community to be used as they wish.
The factory is due to close at the end of this month.
February 6, 2007 at 10:23 · Filed under Politics
So, sex offenders are to be required to supply their email addresses and chatroom names now when signing the register. Let’s think about this for a moment…
Obviously this is a PR stunt from the Home Office, trying to look like they are doing something to curb the crisis that is currently engulfing their department, but it also goes to show how out of touch the Home Office really is. If they think that having paedophiles, rapists and the like let them know what their email address is will stamp out these crimes, they are living in a dream world.
Addresses and aliases can be changed in a matter minutes, everybody knows this, how come Mr Reid and his department clearly do not?
Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, Lycos Mail, the list goes on. Free e-mail is everywhere and who says that you have to register with your real details? And if they are setting up email accounts with which to commit crimes, do you think they are going to be afraid of breaking law one more time and not informing the authorities of this additional or change of address? I certainly do not think so.
Why ask for potentially false or easily changable information? Yes, it’s a bit of a minefield, as anything with the internet involved is very easily manipulated, but, the Police could seek to identify the sex offenders’ ISP and make it a requirement that if or when they change providers that the company has to inform the Police, not leaving it up to the convict themselves.
With the information that could be obtained from their ISP, monitoring would be far more relevant as records of websites visited can be obtained. Even if the person used an anonymous proxy to do his web-surfing, records from the ISP would be able to show this, and surely this should is where a red-flag pops up and the person is questioned as to why they are using this method to gain access to websites.
Peering into citizens internet usage habits has been written into law for some time now, the Goverment has the authority to do this, so why not use it? If it can be used for terror suspects then why not convicted paedophiles?
Hell, we’ve already given the Yank’s the authority to go through the email accounts of British citizens who wish to travel to the USA, why can the fuzz not be seen to be actively doing this domestically?
Please, don’t patronise us Mr Reid.
January 24, 2007 at 17:12 · Filed under Politics
The full text of this article was retracted on February 5th 2007.
Please read the retraction notes for more information
Can we go three days without somebody calling for Rodney Berman to resign please? It’s getting boring.
Neil McEvoy, an unsuccessful Plaid Cymru candidate for various offices, isn’t happy with the fact that Cardiff County Council is attempting to keep its residents informed about a proposed ‘Controlled Parking Zone‘ scheme.
Mr McEvoy wants the head of Rodney Berman, council leader, on a stick for pushing leaflets through doors that give information on the proposed changes which are going to a referendum on Friday.
According to the BBC, Mr McEvoy said: “It is appalling that the Lib Dem Cardiff Council leader is scurrying around Canton with his activists, dropping anonymous leaflets through people’s letter boxes”.
It seems as though Neil would prefer the residents of Canton to just vote against the council rather than know exactly what they are voting against, which obviously is extremely non-constructive. I can only guess that Mr McEvoy is doing anything that he can to get himself some press-time before the Assembly elections in May.
The leaflet in question is freely available from the Cardiff Council website in PDF format, and from what I can see, bar any subliminal messages that I may have missed, the literature is simply a fact-giving material, so quite what McEvoy is trying to get at is quite beyond me.
Former one-term Councillor McEvoy hasn’t done so well in his endeavours to get into public office of late, after losing his council seat in the 2004 local elections, he came just 4th in the race for the Cardiff West seat at the general election in 2005.
Switching his efforts to Assembly candidacy for 2007, no doubt he is hoping to do better this time around, but with his latest aggrievement being petty and grossly overstated, I sincerely doubt he will be gracing the chamber of the Senedd any time soon.
May 30, 2006 at 15:49 · Filed under Politics
The National Assembly for Wales have once again managed to find the most expensive building contractors in Wales to undertake their latest project.
A £6,000 smoking shelter? Plus VAT?
I managed to have my old kitchen extension levelled, rebuilt and a brand new kitchen fitted for less than this. What type of shelter are they planning to build exactly? Even a bus shelter does not cost this kind of money and that type of design is what is frequently used in the private sector to accommodate their employees who desire to smoke.
Surely with the Assembly set to ban smoking in public places by next year, a high profile government building like this should be setting an example and giving limited to no smoking facilities?
As an ex-smoker I can sympathise with workers who require somewhere to go for their cigarette breaks, but surely at the same time they also need to be seen to be leading the way to a smoke-free Wales.
April 26, 2006 at 21:19 · Filed under Politics
Originally posted at insidecardiff.com
So, District Auditor Jane Jones’ full report on the shambolic actions of the previous administration in Cardiff County Council was finally released yesterday.
As expected, ex-Council leader Russell Goodway was condemned, as was Chief Executive, Byron Davies. Also, as expected, neither accept any blame whatsoever, and who would have expected them to? After all, this is the twosome that gave themselves a pay rises of 77% over three years. Surely we could not ever expect any honesty and integrity from them.
Neither will resign their current posts, Goodway as chief executive at the Cardiff Chamber of Commerce, Davies still chief executive of Cardiff Council.
So, with the publication of the report into the whole debacle which, inclusive of the costs that Mr Goodway and his leadership ran up contending the report in 2004, came to a figure of £4m, is, in Goodway’s own words, “closure of a very stressful period of my life”
Well, Mr Goodway, I’m glad that you think the matter is over.
If only we could solve all of our problems with a public enquiry which points out the faults, read it, throw it in the bin and carry on with our lives.
What consequences is Mr Goodway going to face, if any?
Surely recompense needs to be paid?
Over three years, Cardiff Councillors netted an extra £2.4m between them, and so far none of it has been repaid.
In fact, Councillors that have been asked about repayment have firmly refuted it.
Surely a person in a public position, receiving such enormous allowances, knowing that it has come from the public purse, must have questioned the legitimacy of said payments?
Is it naive to think that a person in such authority would realise that something was wrong and mention it at a council meeting, or dare I say even hand it back?
I propose this, Cardiff Councils plan to setup a ‘recovery committee’ be continued, with the following action as first route against the offending councillors;
i) Work out a repayment plan through garnishing of future allowances and salary
ii) If the above cannot be agreed with the individual, attempt to explore other avenues or repayment
- If none of the above can be agreed, the councillor should be asked for their resignation
Call me unsympathetic, but Cardiff Councillors have been having an easy ride for too long.
In central government, if Tony Blair had covertly increased his pay by 44-74%, would he not be accused of extortion, leading to a damning scandal?
My personal appeal to Russell Goodway is this;
Do the dignified thing and withdraw from public life.
As the once “highest paid councillor in the UK”, I’m sure he has enough of a nest egg other financial interests to continue comfortably in a more menial job.
If you really have the city’s best interests at heart, let Cardiff recover from your period in office and rise above your mistakes. Do not drag the relatively good name that has been made of our city through the mud any longer.
January 30, 2006 at 13:08 · Filed under Politics
Google’s censorship over the Chinese edition of its search engine has come into force.
For those who didn’t already know, last week Google decided to censor its site in compliance with strict government rules on free-speech so that it could finally be viewable in China, after many searches being blocked almost since Googles inception.
Google argues that it would be better for them to censor and be allowed to remain online in the country, that to pull out altogether.
Free-speech is almost non-existant in the worlds most vastly populated nation.
Bloggers have even been jailed, for blogging against the official government line or for being outspoken about state thuggery.
So, if you want to see for yourself how Google has turned itself into a tool to aid oppression, compare these two searches. One uses Google image search, US edition, the other uses Google image search, Chinese edition. Guess which one is which.
http://images.google.cn/images?q=tiananmen
http://images.google.com/images?q=tiananmen
December 8, 2005 at 13:15 · Filed under Politics
Here are todays agenda points, courtesy of the Daily (hate) Mail;
Let’s take a few moments to read over these crucial headlines that adorn the front page of the todays newspaper;
1) Stamps: First class post going up to 36p.
This is a blatant lie. First class stamps will be rising from 30p to 32p, I’m sure we can trust Aunty beeb on this one
This headline is placed here solely to scare little old ladies who will read this headline on the newsstand, buy the paper and then realise that inside it actually says, the price of stamps will be rising to just 32p. Not 36p as we screamed on the front page, thank you for reading, sucker.
Infact, what it does say inside is that by 2010 the price of stamps will be 36p
2) Robbie: Libel payout over gay slur
Good on him, if someone said in the national press that I was gay I’d want to sue them for millions too.
3) Health: Wait longer for your operation
Just what is the Mail’s agenda on the NHS? Firstly they were up in arms about the fact that waiting lists for operations are getting longer and longer, now, they’re giving their readers tips on how to wait longer?
Perhaps they’re giving tips on how to wait longer so that they can fabricate more front pages about long waiting lists when in fact the situation is much better now?
More ranting about the Mail soon, I should expect..
