HIgh Quality Care for All - the dazzling new NHS of Lord Darzai - “ludicrous” the new health centres would lead to privatisation of GP services

Hillside Bridge Healthcare Centre in Butler Street West, Bradford 3 is run by Local Care Direct, a nationally recognised social enterprise organisation, built through the Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT) programme.

The Centre will include Speech and Language Therapy, Podiatry, Dietetics, Physiotherapy, Family Planning, Drug and Alcohol Services and Social Services. Practitioners with a Special Interest have been furnished with space and resource to enable them to offer Outpatient Clinics and Minor Surgery. Any member of the public will be able to use the additional services provided by these health centres, while staying registered with their local family doctor. GP appointments are available 12 hours a day with no need to be registered or book an appointment, with a guarantee that patients would be seen within half an hour.

Mr Johnson described as “ludicrous” the suggestion by campaigners that the new health centres would lead to a privatisation of GP services.

Quite why there was a campaign against this is beyond me. This quite clearly refutes the allegations that were being made. “Many of the people involved in the campaign knew that they were, quite frankly, talking rubbish and how could Her Majesty’s opposition oppose something that is so valuable to communities?

“It is not about replacing existing GP services, it is about enhancing them. The whole point about this is to provide extra capacity, not to damage existing GP services. “There were various arguments from the BMA about what this could mean for their members – we were very much on the side of the patients.

“Patients should be able to access primary care, which is the gateway to the health service, much more easily and at times that are suitable to them, not suitable to the health care professional.”

Mr Johnson described as “ludicrous” the suggestion by campaigners that the new health centres would lead to a privatisation of GP services.

Supply Chain
Accent Foundation Limited – Design & Build Contractor
West & Machell Limited – Architect
Bridges Pound Limited – Civil & Structural Engineer
OPERON – Building Services Engineer
Barry Chinn Associates – Landscape Architect
Sanderson Associates – Highways Engineer
Carillion Construction Limited – Principal and Building Contractor
Shepherd Engineering Services Limited – Building Services Contractor

GP Health Centres play a key role in the Primary and Community Care Strategy, published as part of Lord Darzi's Review of the NHS High Quality Care For All published on 30th June 2008. Summary pdf Full report pdf which reminds us at the outset that In 1996/7, the budget for the NHS in England was £33 billion; in 2008/9 it is £96 billion or nearly £2 Bn a week.

On 10 October 2007 the Secretary of State for Health, Alan Johnson, second hand car salesman manque announced a £250 million access fund. The fund will enable the NHS to establish over 100 additional new GP practices in under-served areas - and to create over 150 GP health centres (one in each PCT).

Outside the NHS there is little understanding and even less knowledge of the objectives outlined by Lord Darzi ... One is ...

Implementing wide ranging programme to support the development of vibrant, successful community health services. Where PCTs and staff choose to set up social enterprise organisations, transferred staff can continue to benefit from the NHS Pension Scheme while they work wholly on NHS funded work. We will also encourage and enable staff to set up social enterprises by introducing a ‘staff right to request’ to set up social enterprises to deliver services.

Social Enterprise organisations ?

Find out about these at this part of the NHS - and here ...."Encouraging social enterprise in health and social care is a key part of the patient led reforms. It offers patients and users a greater choice from a wider selection of convenient, innovative and responsive services.
Social enterprises involve patients and staff in designing and delivering services, improving quality and tailoring services to meet patients' needs"

Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT) programme ?

LIFT is a well established and successful scheme, enabling trusts and local authorities to develop new capital schemes faster than traditional procurement methods and providing a framework for long-term partnership between the public sector and private sector developers. Further information about LIFT wich is part of the Public private partnerships can be found here :

This is how it is introduced....

The Department of Health has entered a national joint venture with Partnerships UK to develop and encourage a new market for investment in primary care and community based facilities and services. They have established a joint venture company Partnerships for Health (PfH).

PfH deliver NHS LIFT, on behalf of DH, in partnership with the local health economy through the establishment of a LIFT Company. This is a limited company with the local NHS, PfH and the private sector partner all as shareholders.

This limited company - the LIFTco - owns and maintains the building and leases the premises to PCTs, GPs, Local Authority Social Services, dentists, pharmacists, etc. The local PCTs are shareholders in the LIFTco to protect the public interest .

In opening the centre the Minister said ..."I congratulate Local Care Direct - a social enterprise which successfully competed for this contract - on their determination to contribute towards tackling health inequalities in Bradford."

Local Care Direct ?

Local Care Direct is based at Unit 3 Pennine Business Park, Longbow Close, Bradley, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, UKHD2 1GQ

It has an Advisory Council , Non Executive Directors and Executive Directors and employs people ... currently they are looking for Salaried GPs at the Hillside Bridge Health Care Centre - Bradford (full & part time) £60k -£70k + NHS Pension Scheme and a part time Practice Nurse
LCD at Hillside Bridge Health Centre - Salary £26 to £28k + NHS Pension Scheme.

You can apply on line to become a member of Local Care Direct (Local Care Direct currently has 788 members) it is not immediately evident what this means or benefits it provides .. nor is there any evidence who appoints the Directors, their salaries and contracts of Employment.



This is the Deeplish LIFT named by Alan Johnson when he was in town on 17th October as "NyeBevan House" Total cost to build - £9.474m The scheme consists of a new four storey care centre of 4,342m2. It will have:• 4 GP practices • PCT services including OT, Dental, Orthoptics, Podiatry, Audiology • Integrated Care Assessment and Treatment services ICATS • Imaging suite . Annual running costs have been identified as £3.252m

ICATS are called Integrated Care Assessment and Treatment services (ICATS) and it will also be provided by the independent sector.

These services are ..."a radical development whereby the independent sector will provide triage, assessment, diagnostic and some treatment services in a number of specialties, outside local acute trusts, on referral from GPs. The specialties are; ENT , General surgery , Gynaecology , Orthopaedics , Rheumatology ,Urology "- the BMA fears that plans for these privately-run CATS centres in England could represent a significant threat to local NHS hospitals by jeopardising NHS finances, threaten medical posts, and create potential conflicts of interest.

Hillside Bridge Health Care Centre have benefited from the Bradford and Airedale Teaching Primary Care Trust (tPCT)and their private sector partner – Accent Foundation and have successfully commissioned public art work in most of our new facilities, the total value of which exceeds £40,000.

Three murals – ‘Spiral’, ‘Sunflower’ and ‘Tree’ – were expertly produced for Hillside Bridge Health Care Centre using ‘the celebration of diversity and connectivity of life on our planet’ as the key theme. Year 5 pupils from Barkerend Primary School helped with the designs and the Hillside Bridge Health Care Centre Public and Patient Involvement Group also assisted in the creation of the art work. The chief artist, Jo Knowles, used acrylic paint in the application of the designs.

Funding: Bradford and Airedale Teaching Primary Care Trust
Art’s Organisation: Kirkgate Studios and Workshops (www.ksandw.org)
Artist: Jo Knowles

Woolworths - A modest proposal

"It's difficult times for government. It's difficult times in the country," said pint sized, tap dancing, biker Hazel Blears in April on BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "I believe we can take the economy through these difficult times" said Scottish, son of the manse, Gordon Brown to bespectacled BBC political editor Nick Robinson in July. Last week he was at it again ..."We are taking the policy that is absolutely essential to take people through these difficult times."

After doing the sums about public finances revealed with the Pre-Budget statement here at Patel Towers we beieve we live not if diffcult times but desperate times ... and desperate times need desperate remedies. A Modest proposal Redux

THE PROBLEM
The UK Government needs to boost income .. fast.

THE SOLUTION
Burdened with taxes, impost, fines, council tax, there is a no enthusiasm for more taxes...but we have a history of voluntary taxes... taxes on alcohol, taxes on tobacco, taxes on gambling, Harold Macmillan's brilliantly conceived Premium Bonds, the National Lottery....

A tax on Cannabis.

We haven't learnt from the Dutch about MRSA in hospitals but we can take a leaf (sic) out of their book by establishing a National Monopoly of supply through transforming the national city centre network of Woolworths shops into cannabis / coffee shops - of which there are 228 in Amsterdam alone . Half of all the licensed 729 coffee shops are in the four main Dutch cities of Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Utrecht and Den Haag.

105 local councils throughout the rest of Holland , have between them a total of 353 coffee shops.

75% of those councils now want the national government to regulate wholesale supply to the coffee shops. Although they are allowed to have 500 grams of cannabis and hashish on the premises, large-scale cultivation of marihuana plants and the wholesale trade which supplies coffee shops is forbidden by law.

As a consequence the mayors of several cities are experimenting with introducing regulations for the supply of cannabis to the coffee shops. In Maastricht (famous for its treaties), on the Dutch-Belgian-German border, they voted unanimously last week to move coffee shops to the edges of the city to reduce the nuisance caused by 4,000 drug tourists who flock to the city on a daily basis.

THE PLAN
1. Legalise cannabis use with the Government being the sole supplier.
2. Retail only supply available through Government owned and run coffee shops in what were Woolworths shops. (see National Milk Bars as a precedent)
3. Growers licensed and research in improved varieties to be undertaken by DeFRA ( there are now only 3 experimental farms where there used to be 11 - John Innes to start on GM modified varieties with high THC content)
4. Precedents - Gin flavoured with cloves in 1984 in the The Chestnut Tree Café and Brave New World's soma.... "All the advantages of Christianity and alcohol; none of their defects .. there is always soma, delicious soma, half a gramme for a half-holiday, a gramme for a week-end, two grammes for a trip to the gorgeous East, three for a dark eternity on the moon..."

IMMEDIATE BENEFITS

Necessary legislation can be introduced next week in Queeens Speech, Woolworths premises find an immediate landlord, staff to be re-trained, boost to agricultural industry.. eg greenhouses heated by Drax power station waste heat could grow cannabis instead of tomatoes .. fully sustainable systems.

....and

My God how the money will roll in ...and quickly. Woolworths turned over £3 Bn. with a 75% Gross margin that could put £2.3 Bn in the Treasury coffers in the first 12 months. Enought to cover the immediate loss on nationalising Royal Bank of Scotland yesterday.

SECONDARY BENEFITS

Improve the market for other retailers for cheap tat and toffees by removing Woolworths as a competitor.

Maintain employment.

Pacify the unemployed - maybe a ration for them as is currently done in all prisons.

Remove criminality from supply.

Ensure Standards of supply.

Boost the tourist trade.

Develop the finest chain of drug centres in the world.

Irish American flame haired temptress Samantha Power to kick ass for Obama on Foreign Policy

"I am confused by what's happened to Gordon Brown. I thought he was impressive."

March 2008 Daily Telegraph

"We fucked up in Ohio. In Ohio, they are obsessed and Hillary is going to town on it, because she knows Ohio's the only place they can win...... She is a monster, too — that is off the record — she is stooping to anything... You just look at her and think, 'Ergh.' But if you are poor and she is telling you some story about how Obama is going to take your job away, maybe it will be more effective. The amount of deceit she has put forward is really unattractive."
March 6th The Scotsman

The Obama transition team have now made it public that outspoken, Irish/ American flame haired temptress Samantha Power has been on board from the very beginning of the State Department transition team as a member of the National Security Team see change.gov .



An expert on genocide and a historian of the Bosnian genocide (A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide - "A Problem From Hell" is what Secretary of State Warren Christopher called the Bosnia war. ) when the Bosnians were aided by the US in the ethnic cleansing of the Bosnian Serbs in Krajina she naturally supported General Wesley Clark (who organised bombing Yugoslavia from 22,000 feet) in the 2004 Presidential elections. For the role of the US in "Operation Lightning Storm", see Friday, December 09, 2005 - Ante Gotovina - A man with interesting friends in Virginia

The current Economic Team for “Bold, Clear, Decisive Steps” was declared on Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Timothy Geithner, Treasury Secretary-designate
Larry Summers, Director-designate of the National Economic Council
Peter Orszag, Director-designate of the White House Office of Management and Budget

All said to be disciples of former Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin, *** one of the key Democratic architects of the financial deregulation undertaken in the Clinton years.

Christina Romer, Director-designate of the President's Council of Economic Advisors
Melody C. Barnes, Director-designate of the Domestic Policy Council
Paul Volcker, Chair of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board

This supports the view held by many observers that those printed in red form the core of the Zionist cabal led by Obama's White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel that represents the views and policy positions of the AIPAC.

Meanwhile the world waits to see if Shrillary is going to get the nod for State.



Democrats who voted for Obama who thought they were getting a progressive, liberal minded, inclusive tolerant leader and not a man taking on the mantle of the worlds policeman.

UPDATE 3/12/08 WSJ :re *** Mr Rubin - 'No Line Responsibilities' What Robert Rubin did for his $115 million.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122826632081174473.html#articleTabs%3Darticle

" Mr. Rubin was reportedly critical to securing the latest federal bailout of Citi -- $20 billion in preferred shares plus taxpayers taking on most of the risk in a $306 billion portfolio of dodgy assets. This is on top of the $25 billion in Citi preferred shares that taxpayers bought in October. Giving Mr. Rubin the benefit of the doubt that he is the fixer who delivered the federal cash, this could make his paycheck appear more reasonable to many shareholders." .. regarding his US$115 Mn paycheck over the years.

UBS admits they helped US citizens defraud the IRS - 19,000 had an offshore account with them

On Thursday the shareholders of UBS gathered to here a litany of woe from their Directors - not least that the world’s biggest wealth manager was bowing (they claim) to Governments pressures to release the names of an unspecified number of American customers who may have committed tax fraud in having their affairs handled by the financial wizards of the bank’s Geneva, Zurich and Lugano offices

This admission is seen by observers that the approximately 19,000 US citizens who held offshore accounts indicates a settlement in the long-running investigations into alleged tax evasion may be imminent. Peter Kurer (see pic) UBS chairman had to admit that such fraud that, “Our investigations have uncovered a limited number of cases of tax fraud under both U.S. and Swiss law.” (NYT) See Sunday, July 20, 2008Massive UBS scheme to help US taxpayers to defraud IRS of tax on at least US$18 Bn.

The US department of Justic (DOJ) is claiming that the "limited number" of cases is in the region of 17,000 of their American clients who have evaded US $300 million a year in taxes through hidden offshore accounts.

Raoul Weil, who as Chairman and CEO of Global Wealth Management & Business Banking oversaw UBS’s well organised and systematic illegal cross-border private banking operations until 2007, was indicted this month by an American grand jury in Florida on a charge of conspiracy.

The indictment provides details and alleges the bank trained desk heads and bankers evading detection by U. S. authorities, for example, by changing hotels and using encrypted laptop computers. It says the bank reminded clients that it had a record since 1939 of concealing client identities from the United States - many of whom had been recruited as clients at the Art Basel Miami Beach, a major annual arts fair in Miami Beach.

Mr. Weil faces a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 if convicted on all counts.

Bradley Birkenfeld, 43 , a former UBS banker pleaded guilty in June to helping billionaire real estate developer Igor M. Olenicoff from Orange County, CA evade U.S. taxes on $200 million hidden in Swiss and Liechtenstein bank accounts (his Olen Properties Corp., in Newport Beach, Calif., owns 11,000 residential units and 6.25 million square feet of commercial space in California, Nevada, Florida and Chicago - The Billionaire With The Empty Pockets) . Birkenfeld also agreed to 'fess up and to "co-operate with investigators".

Birkenfield has been released on a $100,000 secured bond, and a $2 million personal surety bond, surrendered his passport and is subject to electronic monitoring. Another defendant, Mario Staggl, 43, a Liechtenstein citizen and resident, remains at large, the government said.

According to the indictment, Staggl was the owner of New Haven Trust Company Ltd., a Liechtenstein trustee of accounts used to hide Olenicoff's ownership of assets and he "devised, marketed and implemented tax evasion schemes for United States clients."

It may be of interest to some citizens that Page 9 para 28 of the Indictment states ..

28. On or about December 17,2001,I.O. caused to be wire transferred approximately$89.4 million from the Bahamas branch of the large bank based in London bank account to anaccount at the Swiss Bank.
Filings in federal court in Santa Ana, Calif., show the real estate magnate had accounts with Barclays Bank in the Bahamas for which Olenicoff was a signatory. (see IRS - Examples of Corporate Fraud Investigations FY2008)

Who wants the Government as a major shareholder in their bank ?

Scottish con - man , even the politicians were fooled by his money , charm and wit

One has to feel sorry for excessively generous Liberal Democrat Party donor Michael Brown who has been convicted by a jury jury of three men and nine women of theft of the inherited millions of pounds (in excess of £8Mn.) from the notoriously tight fisted ex-Manchester United chairman Martin Edwards.

He was unanimously convicted four counts - two thefts, one of furnishing false information and one of perverting the course of justice between February 9, 2005 and April 17, 2006.

42 year old goatee bearded Michael Brown, disgracefully pretended his father was a Lord, (such people should be avoided at all costs) claimed connections with royalty and promised investors staggering returns of up to 50%.

Brown lived a life of lies and claimed he had clients "vetted" by US embassy officials and Special Branch before accepting their money, and the Glasgow-born businessman eventually netted some £36 - £2.4 million found it's way by way of a a company called 5th Avenue Partners without questions being asked into the Lib Dems' 2005 General Election war chest.

Brown besides hob-nobbing with the then alcoholic party leader Charles Kennedy also splashed out £2.5m on a private jet, £400,000 on an ocean-going yacht and £327,000 on an entertainment system for his home in Majorca.

The reason for feeling sorry is that he or his solicitor chose to use the services of that star at the bar , Julian Bevan, QC, who told London's Southwark Crown Court (evidently without much conviction) his client had done nothing wrong.

Probably the most inept and incompetent barrister around - who saw his client Sally Clark imprisoned for 2.5 years of a double murder of her children before she was acquitted. the first time he saw his client was when she appeared in the dock. see Sally Clark Part 1 2/17/2006

His appearances for the prosecution have been as outstanding - he will never be forgotten for the way he conducted the case for 93 days at a cost of £20Mn. against seven soldiers in the dock in connection with the death and the alleged assaults and ill-treatment received by Iraqi civilians held for a period of about 36 hours at a temporary detention facility in Basra on 14 and 15 September 2003. see - Wednesday, March 14, 2007 Julian Bevan ..The Star at the Bar

Only one was found guilty and that was an honest man, Cpl Donald Payne , 35, formerly of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment, now of the renamed Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, who admitted inhumanely treating civilians in Basra four months after the official end of the war but not guilty to manslaughter and perverting the course of justice at the start of the first court martial of British troops accused of war crimes under the International Criminal Court Act (ICCA) 2001.

The Iraqis had been moved to a detention facility where they were repeatedly beaten, kicked and punched while handcuffed and hooded with sacks, made to maintain a stress position for prolonged periods and deprived of sleep. They were kept hooded with hessian sacks while the temperature rose to 60C. Some who pleaded thirst had water poured on their heads instead of being given drinks. "One civilian, Baha Mousa, died as a result, in part, from the multiple injuries he had received there being no less than 93 injuries on his body at the post-mortem stage, including fractured ribs and a broken nose."

However one might feel sorry for Julian Bevan, the gilded ornament of the bar, Brown has done a runner , so probably Bevan will end up without payment of his no doubt modest fees for representing this very effective Scottish con-man.

A curiousity amongst Christmas festivities - catalonian caganer's

Catalonians are not Spanish, they do not speak Spanish, they speak Catalan.

Catalonians also have a curious Christmas tradition, el caganer, a much-loved element of the Christmas celebration in Catalonia, despite an obscure origin.

They have a verb vt : Cagar to shit / crap - they also have another for defaecate.

The Catalonians have in the Christam manger nativity scenes a character who hides in the shadows of the stable .. El Caganer. The squatting shitting man is an essential component of the Catalan Christmas and with his traditional red cap (Catalan barretina ) seems to have first appeared in the late seventeenth century, but didn't really achieve widespread popularity until the nineteenth century.

Why ?

Well the widely accepted Catalan response is disarmingly simple and almost beleivable. Their human ''fertilizer'' enriches the earth around them, thus promising a buena cosecha (a good harvest) in the forthcoming year.

El Caganer is a family business whose sole product now appears to be a range of images which now encompass such icons as Popular Serb / Catalan Barcelona footballer and impressive goal scorer Bojan Krkik , Angela Merkel and President to be Obama, Gordon Brown and Carla Bruni and her husband French President Sarkozy.

This firm , claiming to be the premier supplier of up to 25,000 hand painted icons a year, (@ 12 Euros a pop) the most popular figure, is the traditional farmer figure and in 2nd place, the squatting version of outgoing US President George W. Bush.

The Catalans have not however exhausted the possibilities of merriment caused by shitting and also have the tió de Nadal . This is a hollow log about 12 inches long held up on sticks with a broad smiling face painted and fancy red sock hat on the higher of the two ends, enhanced by a little red sock hat .

Beginning with the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (December 8), one gives the tió a little bit to "eat" every night and usually covers him with a little blanket so that he will not be cold at night.

On Christmas day the tio is placed in the fireplace and orders it to "crap" beating it with sticks and the children sing songs of Tió de Nadal. (MP3 available here) The stored 2sweets" , nuts, toffees etc., are then revealed and shared with the happy , smiling children.

Apparently there is also a roaring trade in sweets and chocolate covered confectionery in the form of turds at this time of the year.

Home Office flip-flops on alcohol policy -

Cops spend £30,000 on flip flops - so drunk girls can walk home safely! is headline news today . The newpaper of record the daily Mirror reveals that a Home Office funded-scheme starts in Torquay, Devon, next month when flip-flops emblazoned with "booze warnings " will be handed out to tottering totties in Torquay.

Media hungry Chief Supt Chris Singer is quoted saying: “We hope it will help protect dozens of women who are vulnerable to injury after a night out.”

He appears to be ignorant of the requirement that under the Licensing Act , licensees must not serve customers who are drunk and that under section 141 of the Licensing Act 2003 they can be prosecuted. Powers requested by ACPO when the control of licenses was changed. ..vide Offences under the Act ...

141 Sale of alcohol to a person who is drunk
(1) A person to whom subsection (2) applies commits an offence if, on relevant premises, he knowingly—
(a) sells or attempts to sell alcohol to a person who is drunk, or
(b) allows alcohol to be sold to such a person.

The 2003 law requires the licensing authority (the local authority) , in considering any application for a licence must have regard to “the licensing objectives”:The prevention of crime and disorder; public safety; The prevention of public nuisance; and The protection of children from harm.

Lord Patel could take any policeman into virtually any bar after midnight almost anywhere in the country on a Friday and Saturday night and he would discover that it would be almost impossible to serve anyone who was not DRUNK.

Apparently 6% of all NHS admissions are now related to drinking alcohol, and the number rises 10% per annum.

Officials estimate that the true figure for alcohol-induced admissions last year was 811,000.

The Office for National Statistics say in 2005/6, hospitals admitted 208,000 people with diseases caused by drink. That was double the figure 10 years before.

Alcohol is thought to cause about 17,000 cases of cancer a year and £2billion of NHS money is spent every year treating patients with alcohol-related diseases.

Mark Hoban MP on Wednesday 19th March asked the Home Office how many prosecutions for sale of alcohol to a drunk person have been pursued in each criminal justice area in each of the last 10 years; and how many resulted in conviction. The Home Office could only provide Data for 2004 to 2006 only as prior to the Licensing Act 2003 coming into force, data for the offence was not held to the level of detail required.

The Totals for the whole of England & Wales was 1 in 2004 , 32 in 2005 and 47 in 2006.

See post Tuesday, May 06, 2008 UK Police ignore section 141 of the Licensing Act 2003 as public drunkeness soars. and also Sunday, March 23, 2008 Police refuse to implement Law (s.141 Licensing Act 2003) to stop sales of alcohol to drunks

In Scotland the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 has the offences ;

Section 112 - Obtaining of alcohol by or for a drunk person235. This section makes it an offence for any person to buy or attempt to buy alcohol for someone who is drunk or to help a drunk person to obtain or consume alcohol. The offences only apply where the alcohol is to be consumed on relevant premises.

Section 113 - Sale of alcohol to a drunk person
236. This section makes it an offence for any responsible person working on relevant premises to sell alcohol to someone who is drunk.

Relevant information on prosecutions is not available.

This insane publicly funded scheme is designed to encourage the sale and consumption of alcohol by drunk people... still Plod got his picture in the National Press.

Damian Green MP has ruffled feathers in the Security Industry Authority - hence Plod's anti - terrorist overkill

Douglas Carswell MP for Harwich and Clacton had the keen sense to telephone the Speaker's office to find out if Mr Martin sanctioned the raid on the offices of Damian Green MP in the House of Commons yesterday. He says he was told "there is a process to be followed that was followed". Naturally and sensibly he takes that as a yes.

As he points out , the unprecendented raid by Anti-terror police on the Commons office of an opposition spokesman was not in Zimbabwe, or Pakistan.

However Gorbals Jimmy desperate to cover his arse may point to a transatlinc precedent in the US. FBI agents searched Rep. William Jefferson's office in the Rayburn House Office Building in May 2006 - the first time FBI agents have searched a lawmaker's Capitol Hill office.

They had however previously and famously turned up the previous August a stash of $90,000 in cash in the freezer at his Washington home.

Jefferson now faces a 16-count indictment due for court on December 2nd., including charges of bribery, racketeering, fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice. The charges relate to what the Justice Department refers to as schemes in which Jefferson allegedly agreed to help businesses obtain contracts in western Africa in return for payments to companies controlled by family members and, in one case, a staff member. The trial has however been deferred again.

Damian Green's offence however was to disclose that the Criminal Records Bureau had approved (at least - the exact figure is uncertain as there is no such thing as a record of illegal immigrants) for 5,000 illegal immigrants were working as security guards and bouncers. see Wednesday, November 19, 2008 Criminal records Bureau Chief Vince Gaskell to head the ID card launch ... IDeal man for the Job

Vince Gaskell, 56, head of the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) who he admits ..." It must be remembered of course that CRB checks are also undertaken not only on directly on behalf of Public Sector organisations but also private companies and individuals through such bodies such as the Security Industry Authority -"Last year, for instance, we completed over 116,000 checks for the security industry." see an interview in 2007 to info4Security (see also, his interesting remarks about sharing data internationally).

Vince of course is the man carefully selected to join the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) board as a member and executive director for New Service Implementation to increase capability in the run up to the start of the National Identity Scheme.

Lord Patel's mole in the Home Office (most certainly not Peter Edmundson of Policing Policy & Operations Directorate Policing Powers & Protection Unit) tells us that it was this revelation which has caused enormous problems for the CRB - it was this revelation that has led to this preposterous raid involving up to 9 anti- terrorist officers at his home yesterday.

Lord Patel's mole at the Home Office says ... this is only the tip of the iceberg about the alleged "vetting" of security personnel for the Security Industry Authority - who of course employ many current serving and retired Plods.


The SIA is a fascinating body chaired by well known Jewish academic and bridge player Baroness Ruth Henig who was appointed by renowned academic Dr James Reid. She has a long relationship with the Plods and was Chair of Lancashire Police Authority from '95 to 2005 and chair of the Association of Police Authorities from '97 to 2005.

Fascinating to see how organisations like Group 4 (Now trendily called G4S) who have such a close working relationship with the Home Office are and have been represented and employee 40,000 in the Uk alone and have a turnover of £1.2 billion.

When G4s merged earlier this year with Global Solutions Ltd (all shares of which were held by DeFacto 1119 Limited, which is a holding company created exclusively for the
purpose of holding the shares of GSL) it required EU approval and the review document (COMP/M.5036 7/3/08) is well worth a read - especially as ..."the parties are two of only three to six private firms currently providing these services under contract in Great Britain. In particular, the parties' combined market shares in value of the services that are being outsourced from private operators are [30-40] % and [45-55] % in relation to the operation of police custody suites and the provision of transportation of offenders and of immigrant/asylum applicants in Great Britain respectively.

One to watch - especially connections with the Isle of man, Guernsey and Jersey.

UPDATE from our favourite lawyer : Officers from the Met 's counter-terrorism unit, arrested Mr Green and searched his premises under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act procedures. As such (and to the confusion of some), the enquiry falls under the counter-terrorism commander's remit because there is a possibility that Green’s alleged source might be / could be / maybe / possibly could be charged with an offence under the Official Secrets Act. Special Branch has always had the responsibility for OSA cases since the very first such Act, passed in 1889.

In 2006, Special Branch was merged with the Met’s Anti-Terrorism Branch (which actually used be the investigative arm of Special Branch until it was separated off in 1972) to form a new Counter Terrorism Command."

LINK :'10,000 illegal immigrants' work in security - Daily Telegraph November 15th
DT Copies of the August 2008 e-mails discussing how to handle the affair here ..." Press Office advise that should the media discover that a Home Office NDPB has issued thousands of licences to illegal workers and that some of those workers have been employed in high-profile security jobs there will be significant criticism of the Home Office and our processes." etc., etc.,

FURTHER UPDATE : Friday 28th Nov 2008 - The Anti terrorist squad took away from Damian green's home, consituency office and his House of Commons office, bxes , bags of papers , correspondence and PC's hard disks etc., .... le's hope they don't get them somehow mixed up and ddsicover pornography, paedophile images ......

BBC2 Newsnight sued for libel by Hanif Malik over “The BBC’s Children in Need charity and the 7/7 bombers”.

BBC 2 Newsnight had a lead story in August this year “The BBC’s Children in Need charity and the 7/7 bombers”.

Leeds community leader Hanif Malik claims that the BBc2 programme , that through a charitable body he led, he was responsible for fraudulently and improperly diverting money provided by Children in Need for educating disadvantaged children to Islamic extremists.

He has instituted libel proceedings in the High Court against the BBC and is asking for damages of £100,000 from the BBC. (Press Gazette today)

The writ, claims that the Newsnight story also alleged that the money was used to produce radical Islamist propaganda and to give financial support to some of the men later responsible for the terrorist bombings in London on 7 July 2005.

Malik claims that his character and reputation had been seriously damaged, and that he had suffered considerable distress, embarrassment, anxiety, and injury to his feelings. He also wants aggravated damages, saying the allegations were extremely serious and highly damaging, given his high profile in Leeds, and his prominent role in multi-faith and community initiatives before and after the bombings.

He accused the BBC of failing to carry out any proper checks before broadcasting the allegations. he maintains that one of the principal BBC sources is unreliable.

Malik says that the BBC failed to give him any chance to reply to the allegations. Apparently BBC journalist Richard Watson (he received a second Royal Television Society award - this time for his investigation into the Officially infiltrated MI5 /6/ SAS radical Islamist group Al Muhajiroun) left a message saying he would like to ask questions about funding.

Malik said there was nothing to suggest the story concerned Leeds Community School or terrorism, and he saw no reason to respond to the message, and he did not do so.

Neither Watson nor anyone else from the BBC made any attempt to put the allegations to him, he claimed.

Malik argued that there was no urgency to publish the story, and that the BBC had no reason for not carrying out proper checks or giving him a proper opportunity to respond before the story was broadcast.

He is also seeking an injunction banning repetition of the allegations against him.

Richard Watson has his own page on the BBC2 Newsnight website where you can see selections of his reports - curiously omitting “The BBC’s Children in Need charity and the 7/7 bombers”.

The page has some fascinating external links - well it did just now..



The Charity Commission show Hanif Malik is a Trustee of 1043485 -
ISLAMIA EDUCATIONAL TRUST LEEDS - 1081006 FAITH TOGETHER IN LEEDS 11
1110303 THE ORPHAN CHILD Details of Faith Together can be found on the Communities and Local Government website.

Prospect magazine -"Taking sport seriously"
This is not the first time these sort of allegations have been made , when Prospect magazine made similiar claims they published an apology in December 2007 which you can find here ....

HANIF MALIK: AN APOLOGY

In issue 135 we published an article entitled "The Making of a Terrorist" by Shiv Malik. A letter by Martin Gilbertson commenting on certain aspects of this article was published under the title "My brother the bomber 2" in Issue 136. Both the article and the letter made reference to Hanif Malik, a prominent community leader in Beeston and the former director of the Hamara Healthy Living Centre. The article and the letter made a number of serious allegations about Mr Malik. These included allegations in both publications that he promoted the spread of radical Islamist ideas and in the letter that he allocated public funding in a discriminatory way, controlled a gang of Muslim youths known as the "Mullah Boys" and had dishonestly concealed the closeness of his relationship with the 7/7 bombers.

We accept that there is no truth whatever in any of the allegations made. Mr Malik is a respected community leader who has repeatedly expressed his shock at the 7/7 bombings and has been prominent in a number of local multi-faith initiatives. He has never been a supporter of radical Islamism. We are happy to take this opportunity to put the record straight and to apologise unreservedly to Mr Malik for the upset and distress which was caused. We have agreed to pay him substantial damages for libel along with his legal costs. The article and the letter have been removed from our website. (See review of article at Yahya Birt Director of City Circle )

Those not too familiar with the 7/7 story might not remember how Mr Gilbertson - from Blackpool, but a longtime resident of Yorkshire - who was / is a former Hell's Angel and Motorhead roadie and was said to be now working towards a university thesis on the radicalisation of Islam in Leeds.

But it was his IT expertise that was sought out by the men who ran four entwined institutions in Beeston frequented by two of the July 7 bombers - the Iqra Islamic bookshop, the Leeds Community School, the "al-Qaida gym" and the Hamara Youth Access Point (YAP), an offshoot of a mainstream Muslim community centre nearby.... read more about this fascinating man ... Guradian June 24th 2006

Poor Journalism 13th Oct 2005 exposed has some fascinating information about the fascinating journalist Shiv Malik ..

Shiv Malik is a Leeds graduate who has worked on recent articles for the Independent on Sunday and New Statesman. His claims to fame are "outing" Dilpazier Aslam, the Guardian trainee, and also calling a lot of other employers to inform them that they are employing members of Hizb ut-Tahrir. He has also written disparaging articles about other Islamic groups including Young Muslims
and Islamic Society of Britain.

A story in the Independent on 15th July 2005 just after the 7/7 bombings shows that Hanif Malik was recognisable as a community leader / spokesperson.

The BBC are of course a highly reputable, extremely well funded international news organisation who employ lots of MI5 contacts, MI6 contacts, fact checkers, solicitors, Editors, sub-Editors, Researchers, gofers, ladies with clip boards etc., and cannot possibly have made a mistake or been stupid enough to believe these stories. Can they ?

Unless of course they had another agenda?

War on Children : Tools for Urban Living 38

Thanksgiving. Costs up 9% and food producers do really rather well despite higher costs

The American Farm Bureau's 23rd annual informal price survey of classic items found on the Thanksgiving Day dinner table indicates the average cost of this year’s feast for 10 is $44.61, a $2.35 price increase from last year’s average of $42.26.

Turkey prices are up 8%. Rolls, cranberries, sweet potatoes and even pumpkin pie are more expensive.

The cost of a 16-pound turkey, at $19.09 or roughly $1.19 per pound, reflects an increase of 9 cents per pound, or a total of $1.46 per turkey compared to 2007.

This 6% increase in national average cost reported this year by Farm Bureau for a classic Thanksgiving dinner tracks closely with their quarterly marketbasket food surveys and the federal government’s Consumer Price Index

Higher prices aren't reflected in food producers profits as commodity costs have risen faster than the prices consumers pay, resulting in lower gross margins.

For example Hormel Foods reported on Tuesday . The company blamed higher feed and fuel costs for hurting margins in its Jennie-O Turkey Store segment. Total fiscal fourth-quarter profits fell to 50 cents per share, from 73 cents.

Earnings were also affected by the company's "rabbi trust", which is a vehicle used to defer executive compensation. The name comes from a specific IRS ruling - the IRS determined that .. an irrevocable trust established for a rabbi by the rabbi's congregation was not subject to current income taxation of the assets therein because the assets remained subject to the claims of the congregation's general creditors. In other words a cunning and "tax efficient" way to reward the fat cats that run the shop - inappropiate maybe for a company famous for its pig products.

That didn't stop the good news for stock holders though ..."The annual dividend on the common stock of the corporation was raised to $.76 per share from $.74 per share. " .. the 322nd consecutive quarterly dividend paid by the company.

"The two-cent increase follows strong sales for many of the company's new products and the strength of many traditional product lines in 2008," said Jeffrey M. Ettinger, chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer, Hormel Foods. "Our focus on innovation continues the drive toward achieving $2 billion in total sales of products created since 2000."

CEO Jeffrey M. Ettinger anticipates "a slow start to fiscal year 2009", but is hopeful that the second half of the year will be stronger. He predicts HRL will earn between $2.15 and $2.25 this fiscal year, which is below the consensus earnings estimate of $2.29 per share. (PE 11.4)

This came after Campbell Soup Company revealed that its gross margins were hurt by higher commodity costs. Gross margins for the company's fiscal first-quarter fell to 40.2%, on an adjusted basis, from 40.8% a year prior.

Sales still rose, however, increasing 3% to $2.25 billion - Russia and China represent approximately 50% of their global soup consumption and they are actively preparing to expand their businesses in both markets in fiscal 2009. A slight increase in volume and a 7% improvement in price and sales allowances caused the revenue growth. This, plus fewer shares in issue showed EPS to total 77 cents, 10% higher than a year ago and a cent above expectations. (WSJ July 2007 ) "In China, 320 billion bowls of soup are consumed each year, compared with 32 billion in Russia and just 14 billion in the U.S.”

See IHT story July 2008 about Campbell's sales successes in China and Russia...."In Russia, the company said, 70 % of the people who try Campbell products buy them again."

The really, really bad news is that commodity price hikes meant Gross margins for the company's fiscal first-quarter fell to 40.2%, on an adjusted basis, from 40.8% a year prior. (PE 10.43)

War on Children : Tools for Urban Living 37

Baby a real pain ? Then mommysesentials has the answer with a baby keeper. Patented, lightweight, easy to use, just needs a wipe with a damp cloth to keep clean.

Apparently they are working on one for teenagers and have plans for a model for grandparents.

Thanksgiving. US Embassy in Kabul is bombed

A suicide car bomb has exploded about 200 yards (The Times says 60 m) outside the main entrance to the U.S. Embassy in an attack against a nearby American convoy. The latest in over 130 suicide bomb attacks this year.

Kabul police chief Mohammad Ayub Salangi says one person was killed and six wounded in the attack. The city's head of criminal investigations told reporters that four had died in the bombing and Abdullah Fahim, the spokesman of the health ministry, says the attack killed four people and wounded 18 others.

The U.S. Embassy was hosting a Thanksgiving Day footrace, and Americans and other Westerners were entering the embassy compound at the time of the explosion. Today is the last day of the visit by the United Nations security council delegation.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai (shortly due for election) sharply criticised the international community effort in Afghanistan at a news conference with the secretary general of NATO, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

"We haven't accepted the international community so our lives would get worse," he said. "we accepted them so our lives would get better. We can accept some destruction – even some civilian casualties – if we have hope for the future of security and peace... but this fighting can't be the only way forever."

He has also criticized the detention of hundreds of suspects for years without trial at Bagram air base and at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Suicide bomb attack on Italian troops on Saturday

The Taliban claimed responsibility for an attack on a team of Italian soldiers building a bridge in a town near Kabul on Saturday.

Three schoolchildren are among six civilians killed. An Italian soldier was killed and 11 people, including three other Italian troops, were injured in the attack west of Afghanistan's capital.

Nazanine Moshiri, Al Jazeera's correspondent at the scene of the attack, said the children had gathered around the engineers and soldiers as they often gave out sweets and chocolate.

Moshiri said the injured Italians had been working on a bridge "for four days consecutively when this suicide attack took place around 10 [0530 GMT] this morning".

"They were surrounded by local children who were curious about what was going on.

"It's also normal for soldiers or engineers or reconstruction workers to give out sweets and chocolates," she said.

The NATO umbrella that protects the Baltic States

Remarkable what happens in the sky over what we now have learned to call Europe. Air Force Link today tells us of the exploits of the brave Top Guns of the 493rd Expeditionary Fighter Squadron who are, says Capt. Andrew Carlson, a 493rd EFS pilot in a , " high standard of readiness and a constant vigil, ready to police the sovereign airspace of the Baltic nations at a moment's notice. "

To perform this NATO air defense mission,(started in 2004) the aircrews expect to be airborne within minutes after lights and sirens indicates an imminent threat; leaving the pilots and maintainers of the 493rd EFS little room for error.

Maintainers and aircrew are on 24-hour standby, awaiting an alert. Once the signal is given, separate crews, consisting of a pilot and three crew chiefs, sprint out to the jets and prepare to launch. The F-15 Eagles are normally in the air within five to 10 minutes. The 493rd deployed F-15s and 130 Airmen on October 2nd 2008.

At the time Lt. Col. Michael King, 493d Expeditionary Fighter Squadron commander said, "The United States is committed to the air sovereignty of its NATO allies and to ensuring the regional peace and stability for these countries. The 493d EFS is ready to do our part in demonstrating U.S. Air Forces in Europe's continued resolve to provide air defense for the Baltic region."

If weather permits, practice is undertaken daily, allowing them to sharpen their quick response skills.

During these exercises, they practice mock scrambles and one-on-one intercepts. They learn tactics and communication tools to intercept any bogey (sic) , whether a friendly aircraft or a hijacked commercial plane, in the airspace over Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Several nations have taken over the duties since 2004.


NATO Air Force Q.R.A. detachments to Šiauliai (Zokniai) aerodrome -Lithuania. Map

30 March 2004 Belgium, Belgian Air Component F-16FA/M Fighting Falcon

1 July 2004 Denmark, Royal Danich Air Force F-16A/M Fighting Falcon

30 October 2004 United Kingdom, Royal Air Force Panavia Tornado F.3

1 January 2005 Norway, Royal Norwegian Air Force F-16A/M Fighting Falcon

30 March 2005 Netherlands, Royal Netherlands Air Force F-16A/M Fighting Falcon

30 June 2005 Germany, Luftwaffe F-4F Phantom 11

12 October 2005 United States Air Force F-16C/J Fighting Falcon

1 January 2006 Poland, Polish Air Force Mig-29A

31 March 2006 Turkey, Turkish Air Force F-16C Fighting Falcon

1 August 2006 Spain, Spanish Air Force Mirage F.1M

1 December 2006 Belgium, Belgian Air Component F-16A/M Fighting Falcon

1 April 2007 France, French Air Force Mirage 2000

1 August 2007 Romania, Romanian Air Force Mig-21 Lancer 'C'

1 November 2007 Portugal, Portugese Air Force F-16A/M Fighting Falcon

16 December 2007 Norway, Royal Norwegian Air Force F-16A/M Fighting Falcon

15 March 2008 Poland, Polish Air Force Mig-29A

30 June 2008 Germany, Luftwaffe F-4F Phantom 11

30 September 2008 United States Air Force F-15 Eagle

The German contingent were much embarassed when on September 19th 2005 a Russian Su-27 fighter aircraft that crashed in Lithuania. What began as a curious -- but by all accounts accidental -- air mishap has rapidly spiraled into a heated diplomatic imbroglio between Lithuania and Russia. A Russian Su-27 Flanker pilot en route from Russia proper to the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad reportedly experienced a navigational malfunction and became disoriented. The pilot expended his fuel and ejected safely, leaving the plane's remains smoldering outside the village of Veliouna, 35 miles northwest of the city of Kaunas. Local authorities detained the pilot while Vilnius investigates the incident.

The Su-27 Flanker is a high-performance long-range aircraft equipped with powerful avionics and engines. It has a maximum range of 2,312 miles -- more than enough to get from Russia's Northern Military District to Kaliningrad.

Initial Lithuanian reports suggested that the aircraft's navigational equipment failed, causing the pilot to burn off fuel while trying to get his bearings.

If the plane had full fuel tanks when it left its base in Russia, however, the pilot would have had to have been lost for quite a while to burn off the Flanker's huge fuel reserve. It is possible, if the ferry flight occurred over the Baltic, that the pilot misjudged his left turn, thinking he was flying into Kaliningrad instead of Lithuania. More

Kennedy, the Fed, EO 11110 and simply doubling the money in circulation

Few people know and less remember that on June 4th 1963 President John Kenndy before his brain was air conditioned in Dallas signed an Executive Order :

Executive Order 11110 AMENDMENT OF EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 10289
AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE PERFORMANCE OF CERTAIN FUNCTIONS AFFECTING THE DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

By virtue of the authority vested in me by section 301 of title 3 of the United States Code, it is ordered as follows:

Section 1. Executive Order No. 10289 of September 19, 1951, as amended, is hereby further amended-
By adding at the end of paragraph 1 thereof the following subparagraph (j):

(j) The authority vested in the President by paragraph (b) of section 43 of the Act of May 12,1933, as amended (31 U.S.C.821(b)), to issue silver certificates against any silver bullion, silver, or standard silver dollars in the Treasury not then held for redemption of any outstanding silver certificates, to prescribe the denomination of such silver certificates, and to coin standard silver dollars and subsidiary silver currency for their redemption
and --
Byrevoking subparagraphs (b) and (c) of paragraph 2 thereof.
Sec. 2. The amendments made by this Order shall not affect any act done, or any right accruing or accrued or any suit or proceeding had or commenced in any civil or criminal cause prior to the date of this Order but all such liabilities shall continue and may be enforced as if said amendments had not been made.

John F. Kennedy The White House, June 4, 1963.

It appears that this EO has never been revoked but since Lyndon Johnson took over after Kennedy's asssination has been totally been ignored. A number of "Kennedy bills" were indeed issued with the heading "United States Note" (see pic - note red ink) - but they were quickly withdrawn after Kennedy's death.

One source says .." As a result, more than $4 billion in United States Notes were brought into circulation in $2 and $5 denominations. $10 and $20 United States Notes were never circulated but were being printed by the Treasury Department when Kennedy was assassinated"

This is seen by many students of the curious nature of the Federal Reserve as a swipe at Fed and it's powers... as explained here

The "Federal Reserve System" is a network of 12 central banks to which most national banks belong and to which state chartered banks may belong. Membership rules require investment of stock and minimum reserves.

Privately-owned banks own the stock of the Fed. This was explained in more detail in the case of Lewis v. United States, Federal Reporter, 2nd Series, Vol. 680, Pages 1239, 1241 (1982), where the court said:

Each Federal Reserve Bank is a separate corporation owned by commercial banks in its region. The stock-holding commercial banks elect two thirds of each Bank's nine member board of directors.

Similarly, the Federal Reserve Banks, though heavily regulated, are locally controlled by their member banks - these privately owned banks actually issue money:

The Federal Reserve Act was a law which created Federal Reserve banks to act as agents in maintaining money reserves, issuing money in the form of bank notes, lending money to banks, and supervising banks and is administered by Federal Reserve Board. President Wilson's signed it on December 23, 1913.

This is what he said subsequently ..

"I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men."

In 1964, the House Committee on Banking and Currency, Subcommittee on Domestic Finance, (pdf - essential reading) at the second session of the 88th Congress, put out a study entitled Money Facts which contains a good description of what the FED (para 47)is: "The Federal Reserve is a total money-making machine. It can issue money or checks. And it never has a problem of making its checks good because it can obtain the $5 and $10 bills necessary to cover its check simply by asking the Treasury Department's Bureau of Engraving to print them". Any one person or any closely knit group who has a lot of money has a lot of power. Now imagine a group of people who have the power to create money. Imagine the power these people would have. This is exactly what the privately owned FED is! "

Do read this clear simple analysis of what the Fed is and how it acts.

The Fed moves to buy up debt today

The Fed pledged today ( announcement was released at 8:15 a.m. ET )to purchase up to US$500 Bn. in so-called agency debt as well as up to US$100 Bn. in direct debt of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the world’s two largest mortgage buyers, and Federal Home Loan Banks. The
Fed also said it would set up a $200 billion program to support consumer and small-business loans. They call this in the bewildering world of credit crunching programs - the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF). (Terms & Conditions pdf)

Together, the programs almost match the $864 billion of U.S. currency in circulation, as reported by the Fed in a Nov. 20 statement.

Whilst mortgage rates quote dropped from say 6.5% to as low as 5.25% the biggest drag on house sales in the US is the unsold stock.

In 2005 this stock was equal to 4.5 months sales, in 2007, the supply averaged 8.9 months - it was 10 months in September 2008 and according to the National Association of Realtors said in a Nov. 24 report 10.2 months. In 2007, the supply averaged 8.9 months, almost double the 4.5 months in 2005, the end of a five-year housing boom.

Together, the programs almost match the $864 billion of U.S. currency in circulation, as reported by the Fed in a Nov. 20 statement.




These guys don't fuck about when you cross them ...

Peter Mandelson inserts his sticky fingers into the Woolworths pick'n'mix take over / bankruptcy / insolvency

Lucky old Ardeshir Naghshineh who escaped from Iran in 1979 when the iron democrat Shah Pahlevi was rudely overthrown, with but £2,000 of jewwllery and his lovely wife Clare, the daughter of military historian, Correlli Barnett.

Having seen his 10% stake in Woolworth's become almost worthless and losing him him £5 Mn he will be delighted that "a Minister" from the Ministry of Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) - the department so skilfully run by Lord Mandelson of Foy ("We are intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich." , called John Varley (Downside , Oriel, and solicitor and devout Catholic) , chief executive at Barclays on his ever present Blackberry , as well as the Bank of Ireland's Burdale divison and GMAC, to ask why the banks were pushing the 99-year old pic 'n' mix retailer and purveyor of cheap Chinese made tat for the masses into administration.

Phew !!

Ardeshir Naghshineh, no slouch when £5 Mn. of his ( well probably HBOS actually after a major re-financing of his company Targetflow in 2002) wrote to the retailer’s entire board this afternoon to ask them for one final meeting to discuss a deal.

Meanwhile the BBC is negotiating to buy upWoolies 40 % stake in 2Entertain, the DVD business, for a fugure not unadjacent to £100 Mn. The pension fund is entitled to the first £50 Mn. of any 2 Entertain disposal under an agreement struck between the trustees and the Woolworths board last January which would almost meet the pension fund deficit of 58.2 million pounds as at August 2nd.

At stake of course are the jobs of 30,000 voters and the pensions of 20,000 pensioners which are threatened by a massive shortfall on their pension fund.

Mr Naghshineh (says the Times) declined to comment, but it is understood the Iranian tycoon has found financial backers who could give the company an immediate cash injection.

They also report that Mr Naghshineh is seriously considering the futile gesture of legal action against the board if the company goes into administration. The board meanwhile are anxious to avoid breaking the law by trading whilst insolvent. They are desperately trying to juggle their cash position by not paying suppliers so they can meet the payroll on Friday.

It is interesting at this point to consider a letter John Varley wrote to staff when the bank decided to reject the Queen's shillin' ad take the ones on offer from the Middle East (text Daily Telegraph) which includes the following....

The conversations we had around the Board table over that period were very clear: even in ordinary times, it is important for a business to have the right to determine independently what its strategy should be. And that point is even truer of extraordinary times like these. You don’t want your risk management compromised. You don’t want your strategic options constrained.

It was very clear from the conversations that I had with the UK Government over that weekend that it would, as a shareholder, influence our dividend policy; it would influence our lending policy; and it would become involved in the formulation of strategy. Of course the role of the Board is to protect the interest of shareholders and to create the circumstances in which, over time, we can maximise value on their behalf. And that was what was in the mind of the Board as we came to our decisions: we felt that our ability to do what our shareholders would expect of us would be compromised if Barclays was nationalised.

Perhaps nobody has told Peter that the Government (well not yet anyway) don't own Barclays.

Whilst Barclays have produced a seruies of fraudulent Balance sheets , and declared fat dividends on the basis of non-existent profits we have little sympathy for Mr Varley et al.

Our advice to Mr Varley and his counterparts at BOI and GMAC is to tell the slimy reptile Mandelson to fuck off and take his probing fingers and place them where they might receive a more receptive welcome.

UPDATE : 5.30 GMT - At 6pm Woolworths Board will officially announce they are calling in their advisors, deloittes as administrators this will not inlcude 2 Entertain.

UPDATE & APOLOGY : We regret if we gave the impression that only the unelected Lord Mandelson had been poking his person into the business of Barclays / Woolworths. It now appears from a contact within the IT department of Woolworths that another unelected person -the deeply loathsome and unelectable overweight busybody, shrieking Duchess Shrita Vadera had been active on the e-mail front in sticking her ample form into proceedings.

Copies of the alleged electronic messages are said to be forthcoming ... keep your eyes skinned.

Meanwhile our advice remains the same as that proffered to Varley in the case of Mandelsons limp wristed entreaties - tell them to fuck off. Not the first time of course that she has stuck her nose in ... see Thursday, November 08, 2007 - Northern Rock - full figures revealed - Ugandan babe exposed as busy body and unwanted by Darling