David Davis who hates ID cards , Fleishman-Hillard, Kevin Bell and getting "Public Acceptance" of ID cards... and more

Paul Borge
paul.borge@fleishman.com
+44 20 7395 7120
This is the man who on 13th June Registered DAVIDDAVISFORFREEDOM.COM with the address 40 Long Acre London WC2E 9LG which magically changed on Monday 16th to David Davis, 32 Main Street, Willerby, East Yorkshire, HU10 6BU

Lots more at Famous for 15 megapixels , ahead of the pack as usual, there are also especially well informed commentators on the subject of Mr Borge's employers who are Fleishman-Hillard Inc., one of the world's leading public relations firms, visit the Fleishman-Hillard Web site at http://www.fleishman.com/.

Fleishman-Hillard is a part of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC) (http://www.omnicomgroup.com/).

Kevin Bell, Regional Director of FH (and also a M. Thatcher groupie) spoke at the conference organised by Intellect , ID Cards: Towards Procurement and Implementation a one-day conference held in London on June 6, 2005 - the Title of his talk was "Achieving public acceptance". See Intellect web Page about event here.

Many of the companies involved in that event were also members of Eurim who describe themselves .."EURIM brings together politicians, officials and industry to help improve the quality of policy formation, consultation, scrutiny, implementation and monitoring in support of the creation of a globally competitive, socially inclusive and democratically accountable information society. It works across all boundaries to help set the agenda, stage constructive debate and report on progress." ..and example of their work was a meeting last week

Identity Management & Information Assurance: Keys to the Kingdom?
EURIM-APGIF Parliamentary Showcaseon Identity Management and Information Assurance
Attlee Suite, Portcullis House, Westminster, Tuesday 10 June 4pm to 8 pm
Introduced by Margaret Moran MP and Philip Dunne MP
Guest Speeches begin at 5.30pm with Martin Kearsley, Strategy Director, VocaLink and Duncan Hine, Director of Integrity, Identity and Passport Service. Web Page here

The showcase will provide demonstrations of proven, large-scale, secure identity management and information assurance systems from both private and public sector. The event is designed to enable Parliamentarians and invited guests to learn about practical experience with the people and processes, not just the technology used to support these. Event Sponsors ;


Alcatel-Lucent
Lucent Technology Services was considered one of the world's premier communications companies with blue chip customers. It had begun a fledgling customer reference program but needed to broaden and better leverage its relationships in a way that demonstrated their impact to sales and marketing efforts. Fleishman-Hillard consulted with Lucent, acquired by world communications leader Alcatel, to help build a best-in-class program, including measurement vehicles, customer acquisition and fulfillment protocols, audio and video customer testimonial summaries, online customer communities, customer advisory councils, and podcasts to market the program within the company. Today the program enjoys wide support across business units and regions worldwide.

Atos Origin andGovernment Gateway
BT
CSC
DeLaRue
Experian
Edentity
Fujitsu
IdenTrust
Identity and Passport Service
Sapior
VocaLink

FH have good friends too their Homeland Security group can call on ;

Tom Ridge, the first secretary of Homeland Security.
William S. Cohen, former secretary of defense.
David A. Kessler, M.D., former U.S. Food and Drug Administration commissioner.
Dr. Louis Sullivan, former U.S. Department of Health and Human Services secretary.
Howard Safir, former New York City police commissioner and chairman and CEO of SafirRosetti, a full-service security consulting, investigative, and intelligence firm.

PS : As of writing DD still hasn't technically resigned.

Policing your Freedom - War criminals escape

BNP’s Richard Barnbrook (and Mayoral candidate for Bristol) leading Januaru 24th's coppers’ march of shame (Barnbrook’s ’s on the left of the picture looking pleased with himself in the light brown suit)

Searching for details of the news bunny (don't ask) this popped up on Google, thanks to thebristolblogger.wordpress.com who evidently has some sort of long running row with the Editor of the Bristol Cancer (who Bristol Blogger calls News Bunny Norton).

This pic shows 650 brave local bobbies (20% of all serving officers of the Avon & Somerset Police) - who apparently managed to get all the way from Hyde Park Corner to Westminster without stopping for doughnuts or writing off a police car - no room was found in the paper for the uncomfortable truth that this poor hard-done-by bobbies’ march was led by a senior member of the BNP and defied the very SOCPA laws the coppers are happy to violently uphold on most weekends while trousering generous overtime payments.

The law Bristol Blogger refers to is of course the The Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (Designated Area) Order 2005 which restricts demonstrations in the purlieus of the House of Commons (The Mother of all Parliaments).

It is interesting to note that the march today protesting about the war criminal President George Bush was refused entry down Whitehall . The Daily Mail reports smart arse Deputy Assistant Commissioner Allison of the Metropolitan Police saying : 'We have not banned their march. They asked for a particular route. That route is just not open to them. Part of Whitehall has to be closed, and is being closed, on security grounds.' Film at Indy media as Mp4 or as .wmv Uniformed coppers using batons and then the heavy mob move in. Also available at YouTube

The Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (Designated Area) Order 2005
is of course another of those restrictions on freedoms of expression and right to demonstrate that David Davis and the Conservative Party were happy to support.

See Liberty Briefing Wikipedia Entry Repeal SOCPA website meanwhile if you have trouble going to sleep read this BBC report

A broad consensus in favour of a military strike against Tehran's nuclear facilities ....

The Israeli government no longer believes that sanctions can prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons. A broad consensus in favour of a military strike against Tehran's nuclear facilities -- without the Americans, if necessary -- is beginning to take shape. Spiegel ONline "We will see the Middle East in Flames"

Israel can only depend on American support for as long as current George "Dubya" Bush is still putting his boots on the table in the Oval Office. They are convinced that the country cannot truly depend on any of the candidates to succeed Bush in office.

A single nuclear strike would have devastating consequences for this small country, which is half the size of Switzerland. International strategists commonly refer to Israel as a "one-bomb country."

Jerusalem's military leaders claim that Tehran could curtail every Israeli military campaign, in the Gaza Strip, for example, with only the credible threat of a nuclear strike. Despite its military strength, they say, the country would be practically defenseless.

Even worse, the mere existence of an Iranian nuclear bomb, the government in Jerusalem believes, would trigger an exodus of the educated elite that could spell disaster for the country, both economically and culturally. "Iran would be in a position to destroy the Zionist dream without even pressing a button," says Ephraim Sneh, a retired general and cabinet minister for many years.

Former Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, who travels regularly to Jerusalem and Washington for political talks, warns that Israel could see the Bush presidency as its last chance to gain American support for a military strike. "Politically speaking, the window for action is now, in the last months of George W. Bush's term in office," Fischer wrote recently. "The Middle East is headed for another major confrontation."

Others share this sense of unease. Karl-Theodor Freiherr zu Guttenberg, a foreign policy expert and member of the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), says that he has "the unsettling feeling that the contemplation of a military option against Iran is gaining a new dynamic in Israel." He is on the German Bundestag's Foreign Affairs Committee, adviser to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and a staunch supporter of Israel. He was at the NATO Riga summit where people like Uzi Arad, formerly Mossad Director of Intelligence and foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Netanyhu and H.E. Oded Eran Ambassador for Israel to the European Union, Israel were present when the new NATO stance to the Middle East were discussed.

Vice President Dick Cheney "would still want an attack," says Flynt Leverett, a former official in the US State Department and now a Middle East expert with the New America Foundation.

Many Israelis still hope that the Americans will do the job for them. "It could still be the case," says , Dani Yatom, a member of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, "that George W. Bush wants to guarantee himself a place in the history books with this last act." Jerusalem recently received approval from Washington for a purchase of F-22 stealth bombers after a visit by Gates and the House of Representatives lifted ban on sale.

PS : The Dream Of Afghan Democracy Is Dead - By Anatol Lieven, New America Foundation The Financial Times June 11, 2008... "public statements of faith in Afghan democracy are coupled with private expressions of near-despair when it comes to hopes of improving Hamid Karzai’s administration" so Gormless Gordon sends more troops ...after wehave Tommy Taliban "on the back foot"

They have a seminar at the New Americ Foundation tomorrow Lessons from Iraq Avoiding the next War

For details of the new centrifuges at Natanz shown to IAEA see :
Iran Installing More Advanced Centrifuges at Natanz Pilot Enrichment Plant: Factsheet on the P-2/IR-2 Centrifuge
Meet Iran's new centrifuge

This is a very rare photograph of 50 that Lord Patel took in April this year when President Ahmenididjad toured the Natanz Uranium fuel processing facility.


Here is one showing the critical bottom bearimg


More available on request.

Compact, pre-fabricated factory built housing - design that should be easy, but isn't

There is a fascinating exhibition at MoMA "Home Delivery - Fabricating the Modern Dwelling" , which few can visit, but a brilliant and absorbing website that everyone can.

Prefabricating modern dwellings should be easy. It isn't . Few people try to attempt it on any large scale although small, easily transported housing is in massive demand in the wake of environmental disasters.

There are six projects underway at MoMA - Cellophane House - Burst 008 - Micro Compact Home - Housing for New Orleans.

This A340 crew rest cabin fascinated -
Simply go to the website and explore - there is a great deal more.

Also see this article today in the Baltimore Sun which takes up the theme of the MoMA exhibition "No need for nails - Home based on sustainable design tosses out conventional building practices"

Malalai Joya's Memoirs "Raising My Voice" to be published by Random House imprint ..

The memoirs of Malalai Joya, "Raising My Voice" have been bought by Judith Kendra, the much-respected publisher of Random House imprint Rider - Judith worked for the highly respected NGO, Minority Rights Group in the '90's.

Malalai Joya who was recently awarded the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, was suspended a year ago from the Afghan Parliament after she likened it to "a stable or a zoo... full of animals". "Raising My Voice," will be published in the US, Canada, Australia and across continental Europe, will recount Joya's story as well as chronicling the situation in Afghanistan, through war, occupation and terrorism and what she sees as the current mockery of democracy.

In the House of Commons, Mohammad Sarwar asked about the Foreign Secretary about her dismissal from Parliament and received this answer from Gobshite Welshman Kim Howells.... :Kim Howells (Minister of State, Foreign & Commonwealth Office; Pontypridd, Labour)9th June 2008

"In May 2007 Malalai Joya was suspended for three years (until the end of the legislative term) by her peers in the Afghan parliament for contravening Article 70 of the Afghan parliament's rules of procedure. Article 70 states that members of parliament who insult others are subject to disciplinary action. Action was taken against Ms Joya after a media interview in which she said that the Afghan parliament was worse than a 'stable or zoo'. (She actually said " "A stable or a zoo is better [than the legislature], at least there you have a donkey that carries a load and a cow that provides milk. This parliament is worse than a stable or a zoo." )

Ms Joya has the right to challenge the decision and has indicated her intention to do so. Together with EU partners, we regularly raise the issue of freedom of expression in Afghanistan and look forward to Ms Joya and the Afghan parliament resolving this internal parliamentary issue.A member of our embassy staff met with Malalai Joya on 1 May 2008.

Ms Joya gave an account of her suspension (to our Ambassador perhaps?) by the Afghan parliament and discussed Afghan politics.

So that's alright then. Article 70 (which was especially promulgated to deal with Ms Malali Joya) can stand then. We, who pour Billions into this sordid corrupt country run by warlords , gangsters and drug dealers can carry on. Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch noted that members of parliament have regularly criticized each other, but no one else has been suspended.

"The article banning criticism of parliament is an unreasonable rule that violates the principle of free speech enshrined in international law and valued around the world," said Adams. "The Afghan parliament should be setting an example by promoting and protecting free expression, not by stamping it out."

It is to be hoped her book details the shitty intrigues of the nasty Diplomatic staff in Kabul who deny democracy keep the puppet Karzai with his gangster family on top of his throne of bayonets.

This is a woman with balls... Read her speech in Florence on receiving the Giglio D'oro award July 23, 2007 ..." For speaking the truth against warlords, I am receiving constant death threats, but when they could not silent me by threats, assassination attempts and any kind of abuses, they finally kicked me out of the parliament. But I am happy about that, it shows that I have been successful in my mission to uncover the mask of some criminal and dark-minded elements like Sayyaf, Rabbani, Qannoni (who MJ has publicly exposed embezzled US$25MN from the Education Ministry) , Gulabzoy, Ulumi, Haji Almas, Haji Farid, Mohaqiq, Kazimi, Farooqi and many other such murderers.

Defend Malalai Joya website here

How to buy a Labour MP's vote in one easy lesson by Gordon Brown and Jacqui Smith

Some citizens may have missed the sordid detail of how one Labour MP's vote was purchased after meetings with the Prime Minister ...

Mohammad Sarwar (Glasgow Central, Labour)



I want to thank the Home Secretary and my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister for the various meetings we have held to address the concerns about the impact that counter-terrorism legislation has on law-abiding British Muslim communities. What safeguards can my right hon. Friend guarantee to ensure that individuals who are arrested and detained for more than 28 days are fully compensated for the immense damage done to them and to their families and communities?


Jacqui Smith (Home Secretary; Redditch, Labour)


I am glad that my hon. Friend has been willing to engage in such a constrictive way in ensuring that we deliver provisions that safeguard all our people regardless of their background. He identifies the wholly exceptional nature of holding anybody in detention beyond 28 days and for up to 42 days. I know that he, like others in the community, has expressed concern about those who have subsequently been released without being charged, and because of the representations that he has made, I have asked my officials to develop an ex gratia scheme that, because of the exceptional circumstances, would be available to compensate those who had been detained and then released without charge, or who had faced any other executive action. I hope that that offers my hon. Friend some reassurance, both about the exceptional nature of our proposals and about the fact that they are designed to protect all our communities, regardless of their background.

"... the Taliban ..on the back foot.... leadership ... severely dislocated and fractured.."licking their wounds" Brig. Gordon Messenger : Part : II

Now that Johnny Taliban is well on the back foot - and as a result of the Commander in Chief's visit to see Gordon Brown the BBC report Defence Secretary Des Browne is due to give details to MPs at 1530 BST that more British soliders are to be sent to a certain death in Afghanistan.

This increase in suicidal soldiers visiting Afghanistan at public expense is expected to bring overall UK suicide soldiers Afghanistan to more than 8,000 - mostly based in Helmand.

The PM, speaking at a press conference with President George Bush, said the military presence would be increased to keep up pressure on the Taliban - who is ..on the back foot.... lacking leadership ... severely dislocated and fractured.. er ..."licking their wounds"

MOD Operations In Afghanistan: British Casualties Official website

13th June - Ministry of Defence confirms the deaths of Lance Corporal James Bateman and Private Jeff Doherty of 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment (2 PARA) on Thursday 12 June 2008 in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

Commanding Officer of 2 PARA, Lieutenant Colonel Joe O'Sullivan, said ""They died doing what they had been asked to do, operating in difficult country against a dangerous enemy to make it harder for the enemy to influence the people and give those people the chance of a better life."

Cyril Smith and Punishment

There have been frequent and interesting comments made recently to the post Tuesday, February 26, 2008 The UK elites and their prediliction for sex with children which some readers may have missed.

Born again .... or dead in the water ?

There is a curious born again feeling about the (so far) public declarations of support for David Davis. There are some like Tim Collins, BBC 's RentaGobshite on War, Iraq and military pride, you wouldn't really want to travel on the same bus with ... Lord Patel was involved from Day 1 with Craig Murray in successfully unseating the evil Jack Straw in Blackburn in May 2005 - fighting on a single issue ticket.

In this neck of the psephologists dugout we are anxiously waiting for David Shayler to appear ....

UPDATE : The exciting news is that Lord Patel has (with the help of Toni Fabuloso on Make-up) been appointed Official Speechwriter to Miss Gemma Garrett prospective MP for Haltemprice and Howden.

The full texts will be available at her special webpage here.

The first task is to draw up a list of all the legislation which David Davis (59, and boy he looks it) and the Conservative Party have supported the Government which reduces freedom, increases surveillance, proscribes expression of what, where and when a citizen may express their views, maintains databases inaccessible to the public about their movements and personal Details - CCTV - Automatic Number Plate Recognition - Travel (especially to the USA) - DNA (many held by Private companies) - Fingerprints (run by a US defence company) - Bank Transactions (Swift) etc., etc.,

Any help in drawing up this detailed list would be very welcome.

For example :
Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000
2000 CHAPTER 23 (Full text) Which received Royal Assent on 28 July 2000
HMG Explanatory Notes are here
There is a website that tracks the use of this Act : Regulation of Investigatory Powers Information Centre

The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (full text) Which received Royal Assent on 18 November 2004
HMG Explanatory Notes are here
It is worth noting the Act "confers a power on Her Majesty (or in certain very limited circumstances, a senior Minister of the Crown) to make regulations if an "emergency" has occurred or is about to occur. ...Subsection (1) defines "emergency" for the purposes of Part 1. Events ..... disruption of fuel supplies.

All these speeches will be in the context of The Police State Road Map which if you haven't read it you should, it is available here http://www.policestateplanning.com/chapter_1.htm

Gemma Garret will show that the Conservative Party and their Shadow Home Secretary and wannabe leader David Davis have agreed with every piece of legislation over the past 10 years the only time they have forced a vote in the House of Commons is over 42 days detention without charge in the current Counter Terrorism Bill.

That vote was not to enforce a long held freedom, to defend an ancient right, they gave those away a long time ago, it was held purely to embarass a hounded Prime Minister. Nothing wrong with that, but it doesn't give you bragging rights on the Magna Carta and habeas corpus.

Gemma Garret will ,through a series of superb speeches lay bare the way for a Police State has been prepared, relentlessly and with bi-partisan zeal, and in conjunction with Governments of Foreign Powers.

KeyCorp, Fifth Third and making mistakes on SILO's and LI-LO's about Tax deductions, dividend cuts ... slaughter on Wail Street

On Friday, May 30, 2008 the US Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a statement .

Key Bank (NYSE:KEY) and PNC Bank (NASDAQ :PNC) had a partnership which operated a Sale-In/Lease-Out (SILO) transaction on German municipal utility in Wuppertal - to whit , one trash disposal and energy generation plant. The banks claimed their partnership acquired the plant for US$423Mn. and leased the plant back to the utility for at least 25 years on the same day- December 7, 1999. The utility continued to use and operate the plant without interruption, while the banks claimed depreciation deductions on the plant and interest deductions on loans used to finance the SILO transaction.

Judge James Gwin ruled these paper transactions did NOT represent a purchase and that the US$100 plus US Tax deductions were improper and that his court ,"held the partnership was liable for penalties for substantial understatement of tax." The Court DENIES the Plaintiffs’ claimed depreciation deductions under § 168, interest expense deductions under § 163(a), and amortization of transaction costs deductions. The Court also upholds the IRS’s imposition of accuracy-related penalties at the partnership level for substantial understatement of tax liability under § 6662(a). Slam Dunk.

This decision, says the DOJ marks the first time a federal court has addressed the propriety of tax deductions from a SILO transaction. Earlier this year, a jury in Cincinnati ruled in favor of the government in a case involving several Lease-In/Lease-Out (LILO) transactions executed by Fifth Third Bank. (see IRS Press Release from 1999)

A consequence is that Cleveland based KeyCorps Board has decided to halve the dividend on KeyCorp's common shares by 50 % starting Q3 2008 dividend, to an annualized dividend of $0.75 per common share. The dividend reduction will result in Key retaining approximately $200 million of capital annually. The Directors also issued stock (dilution) in order to raise US$1.65B (gross) in fresh capital on Friday the 13th. KeyCorp , the Directors explained will take an after-tax accounting charge to earnings and capital in the range of $1.1 billion to $1.2 billion for the leveraged lease tax litigation and all of KeyCorp's other contested leveraged lease transactions.(The Directors declared a Qtrly regular cash dividend of $0.375 per share of its common stock on 15th May)

Ouch!

Which if you look at KeyCorps share price - it took a nosedive and halved and it looks like someone took out some mighty big sell orders last week.

Now how many more SILO's / LI-LO's are out there with their accompanying fancy Federal Tax deductions and "penalties for substantial understatement of tax"? How many dividends were earned by "tax deductions" , how many handsome "bonuses" paid ? How many tax lawyers took their fees ? Keep an eye on Comerica (NYSE: CMA ) and Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB )still declaring good yields at 8.3% and 12.0%. Comerica down 26.7% and Fifth Third's stock down 41.5% since January .....

PNC Bank

To those interested in how banks minimise their liabilities here is a remarkable tale ....

Lilia Odhner was employed by Pittsburg based PNC Bank in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, as a Customer Service representative on September 28, 2006 when Lilia suffered a traumatic brain injury at her workplace and became permanently disabled. Her employment was terminated by PNC Bank after 90 days of her disability for allegedly "abandoning her work." Her full and permanent disability was confirmed by a Federal Judge in her Social Security Disability decision in November 2007.

Her disability Workman's Compensation insurance coverage was denied by PNC Bank and Zurich American, a unit of Swiss insurance giant Zurich Financial Services.

Even so Lilia doesn't have memory of immediate events resulted in her brain injury, the alarming circumstances around Lilia Odhner's injury were recorded by the bank branch surveillance video camera. However, PNC Bank and Zurich Insurance Company refuse to surrender the videotape to the court despite of Lilia's attorney requests to the Workman's Compensation Judge Michael Rosen and to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry Workers' Compensation Appeal Board presiding by the Commissioner Joseph Hoeffel.

More Links here
http://loveyourbrainnow.com/
http://www.wikileaks.org/wiki/PNC_Bank_Pensylvania_and_Zurich_Insurance_Lilia_Odhner_case
http://wordpress.com/tag/insurance-finance/feed/

"... the Taliban ..on the back foot.... leadership ... severely dislocated and fractured.."licking their wounds" Brigadier Gordon Messenger June 1st

In a well-coordinated attack , which had taken 2 months to prepare, at 9pm on Friday a huge tanker truck bomb blew open the front of Sarposa prison, Kandahar. After a brief battle between 30 attackers on motor bikes and prison staff / police 1,000 prisoners including 380 Taliban "insurgents" escaped many in minibuses ready to take them away.

Wali Karzai drugs overlord, Governer of the provincial council and brother of President Hamid Karzai (in Paris currently begging for more money from the West to give to his crony warlords) was amazed.

"There is no one left," Wali Karzai said after the jailbreak.

----------------


British Troops Put Taliban On The Run In Helmand Province


The Taliban have been tactically routed in southern Afghanistan, with enemy forces "licking their wounds" after a series of emphatic defeats, say senior British military commanders.

In one of the most bullish assessments yet of the conflict in Helmand province, Brigadier Gordon Messenger said the Taliban's command structure had been "fractured" and its fighters forced on to the back foot.

As British forces continue to consolidate positions throughout the Helmand valley, Messenger said latest intelligence indicated that the ferocious fighting that had defined Helmand for the past two summers was unlikely to be repeated. "It's become apparent that the Taliban are very much on the back foot. Their leadership both south of the border [Pakistan] and also their local leadership has been severely dislocated and fractured.

"We are not complacent and suggesting that they do not have the capacity to regenerate, but they are very much off the front foot and licking their wounds." ... Read more of this gung ho shite here in the Guradian - Observer Sunday June 1st

ISAF and Coalition Continue to bomb the shit out of Iraq and Afghan in the name of Freedom and to win Hearts and Minds

48 close-air-support missions were flown as part of the ISAF and Afghan security forces, reconstruction activities and route patrols.

In Afghanistan, Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles performed shows of force to deter enemy activities in the vicinity of Bari Kowt, Gardez, Gereshk, Lashkar Gah and Qalat. On-scene joint terminal attack controllers (JTAC) confirmed the missions successful.

An Air Force B-1B Lancer dropped guided bomb unit-31s and a GBU-38 to destroy enemy rocket teams in the vicinity of Bermel. A JTAC reported the mission successful.

In the vicinity of Deh Chopan, a B-1B dropped GBU-38s to destroy anti-coalition members. A JTAC declared the mission successful.

In total, coalition aircraft flew 48 close-air-support missions for Operation Iraqi Freedom.

On June 10, USAF and RAF tanker crews flew 52 sorties and off-loaded approximately 2.4 million pounds of fuel to 201 receiving aircraft. (Which is a lot more than usual) .

Another MQ-1 Predator and US$ 9.6 Mn bites the dust

Premature Expectations and Excitement over Haltemprice and Howden ?

The Independent today raises a point of interest. David Davis MP has not actually resigned.

Boris Johnson was the last MP to resign and became the new Crown Steward of the Manor of Northstead on 4 June 2008.

By tradition application for this office of profit under the Crown, alternates with the office of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Three Hundreds of Chiltern (Stoke, Desborough, and Burnham) the last holder was his sainthood Anthony Charles Lynton Blair.

For the record when Saint Tony resigned, the Treasury issued a Press Notice which can be examined here ;

27th June 2007

Three Hundreds of Chiltern
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has this day appointed the Right Honourable Anthony Charles Lynton Blair to be Steward and Bailiff of the Three Hundreds of Chiltern."

So perhaps we are all getting our undergarments in a tangle over nothing.

David Davis .... touching a nerve in the country

The resignation of David Davis has shaken the kaleidoscope.

It is far too early to clearly understand the timing of the decision, the reasons for the decision and it's short and long term consequences.

The summer is a bad time for politics. The media are swamped with pictures of busty ladies in funny hats at weddings, horse races and garden parties. Men are off watching rowists, shooting pheasants or catching the dwindling fish species our polluted rivers still support.

Increasingly the TV / Press will praise to death the few Olympians amongst us , ready for their eventual slaughter when they so nobly fail in Beijing.

Not a good time to raise concerns about brown men in beards given an extended opportunity to read their Korans in the comparative ease of Paddington Policer Station whilst Plod ploughs through terabytes of trash.

Whilst Davis is not a loner, his name does not conjure up a tightly knit cabal of like minded souls anxious to slot into an alternative posse of Shadowy Ministers, ready to lever out the toff persuasion.

There is little evidence of planning - when he faced a bemused press to tell them of his decision, he appeared to have no Press release, no supporters, straining every sinew to leap into action to unfold the master plan. No Billionaires, millionaires or modestly wealthy car traders have heard the clarion call. There was no itemised list of the incursions on our liberties - which is just as well because a "bi-partisan" approach to terrists means he and his party were happy to vote for most of them.

The Press, forced to think, are consequently all over the place ... Rupe the Poop however has sprung into action and is ready to spend the odd shilling to promote as candidate, in the late summer by-election his Performing Monkey, the absurd Kelvin McKenzie (proud inventor of the News Bunny and Naked darts) - although the call is even now, sounding a little uncertain.

In the short term, Cameron and his gang of monied shysters are safe - David Davies will not unseat him , soon or easily, although his actions will unnerve him and his callow gang. It may even make them improve their act.

What is certain however is that David Davis has sniffed the faint scent of a hunted , disaffected and numerous crew. There is out there, beyond the world of the Metropolitan mutterers a less than gruntled class of sturdy voters. Over 50, educated, capable not only of reading the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail but also completing the crossword. They listen to Radio 4, Radio 7 rather than Five Live and Kiss FM, they mourn Humph and Alan Coren, would like to meet Ed Reardon and whilst earnest readers with a well used library ticket and keen on self improvement have never read a Booker Prize winner.

There is out there, an ageing , solid middle class who are feeling increasingly dispossessed, harassed, as they slide into the necessary clutches of the state through the NHS. As they and their family become entangled in the many and insanely bueaucratic branches of what are laughingly called the social services ,their concerns mount.

Bewildered, they watch the breakdown of marriage, many of their their own children, the remorseless rise in abortion, illegal drug use, urban squalor, alienation in their own home towns swamped in unwanted multiculturalism.

In Lord Patel's patch , a prosperous urban retreat on the edge of the Pennine moors , in one of the northern Greater Manchester Metropolitan Boroughs, returning Conservative councillors for periods of geological time - a BNP candidate forced the Liberals into third pace in the May elections.

They fight by shuffling papers; they have bright dead alien eyes;
They look at our labour and laughter as a tired man looks at flies.
And the load of their loveless pity is worse than the ancient wrongs,
...

We hear men speaking for us of new laws strong and sweet,
Yet is there no man speaketh as we speak in the street.
......

...we are the people of England; and we have not spoken yet.
Smile at us, pay us, pass us. But do not quite forget.

Are some lines from G. K. Chesterton which seem somehow appropriate. Probably not what Blunkett, Charles Clarke, kebab eating, plump Mrs Smith understand by Englishness..or even Britishness.

It would be a fool who writes off the maverick David Davis. There is in the hinterlnds a voiceless throng, Mr Brown and Mr Cameron ... and even Mr Clegg would be unwise to dismiss their concerns.

MOD splashing out £Billions on more toys for the boys Part 2

The U.S. Marine Corps variant of Lockheed Martin Corp's US$70 Mn a pop F-35B fighter jet, with Pratt and Whitney engines took it's first (44 minute) flight on Wednesday, Taking a conventional take-off and landing, it climbed to 15,000 feet (4,572 metres) for a series of handling, engine and other systems checks.

The US$300Bn program is the world's largest (well costliest) military program and should eventually produce 3 versions Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy. The B version will be bought by the Royal Navy at a cost of £1.8Bn. for the two £3Bn (well at least £6Bn because they will overun budgets by 100% and be delayed 5 years) Aircraft Carriers now put into production.

The Pentagon estimates the overall F-35 program, including research and development, will cost $298.8 billion. Each plane is forecast to cost almost $70 million, based on plans for the U.S. military to buy 2,443 F-35 fighter jets through 2034.

The single-seat, single-engine fighter, designed to be based nearer front lines, is expected to be in the field in 2012. Graham Tomlinson, a former British military pilot, was the controls of the jet, guiding up to an altitude of 15,000 feet where he tested the F-35B's handling, engine-power variations and subsystems.

MOD splashing out the £Billions on more toys for the military boys.

Bumped into the beautiful,blonde, Blairite Baroness Ann Taylor ( Minister for Defence Equipment and Support ) who is excited to tell everyone that the third hugely expensive Skynet C satellite is aloft. (Note she doesn't seem to get the freebies to the sund and sand of Afghanistan like the men do)

Skynet C now joins Skynets A (launched March 07) and B ( November 07) aloft after a successful launch from Ariane Launch Complex No. 3 (ELA 3) in Kourou, French Guiana, South America at 11.0 o' clock last night, as we were getting our Horlicks and toddling off to sleep.

The Ariane 5 ECA rocket (183rd launch) , delayed from May 30th had a dual payload and also carried the Turksat 3A satellite - to be utilized by Ankara-based Turksat, providing telecommunication services and direct TV broadcasting of pornographic films for Turkey, Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia.

This Hi Tech wizardry provides global communications with a relay capability for UK armed forces and other government agencies, and also is available to approved international defense, governmental and multinational organizations - including NATO It also supplies a handsome and regular income and a stonking pile of dosh under a £3 Billion Private Finance Initiative (PFI) for Paradigm Secure Communications, and EADS-Astrium who built the satellite itself, partly at their unit in Stevenage.

Skynets world-beating antenna technology improves data rates, giving a significant enhancement to operational capability for UK forces.

Such as ...er... providing free messages between service personnel on operations and their families and friends.... which beats paying them a decent wage or providing decent married accomodation.

It also enables us to control the single armed Reaper UAV we have currently in operation over Afghanistan ,( of the three the MOD bought as an "Urgent Operational Requirement", ( 1 crashed 1 on backup delivery) for £50 Mn.) that can drop an LDGP Mark 82 Raytheon 500lb (226kg) Paveway II-class laser-guided bomb (£55,000 per shot) or fire a Lockheed Martin AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-surface missile(£70,000 per shot) on a land cruiser (when it is cloud free) or a building / compound (when it is cloud free) that operators are happy is free of civilians, women, children etc.,

This Paveway bomb is different from the "enhanced" version 1,000 lb Paveway bomb on the GR9A Harriers in Afghanistan developed by hastily cobbling together joining the body from a UK Paveway 2 and the Enhanced Computer Control Group from a Paveway 4 as an "Urgent Operational Requirement". "Make do and mend dear boys ...."

This hybrid weapon gives the GR9A an integrated, precision bombing capability, through cloud ...which, given the mountains there, happens not infrequently.

2 members of the Parachute regiment on foot Patrol in Sangin, Helmand came under enemy fire and were killed and another was injured yesterday. 5 members of the regiment have been killed in 5 days - the worst experience since the Falklands war..

Pic of "Mike" Jackson in Macedonia where things are nicely hotting up for EU/NATO forces .. daer old Mike..."The Army looks after it's own" .. Jackson. The Lion of Basra.

UPDATE : US Ethanol producers and flooding in Iowa and US$8 a bushel corn

Earth2tech provides a handy chart of the recent performance of ethanol refiners shares , with commentary on the way rains and subsequent floods have hit the mid west... and Gormless Gordon says the world needs to build 1,000 nuclear power stations - The Prime Minister (whose reach doesn't extend to controlling his back benchers) called for a "new global approach on oil and energy" - about 30 reactors open every year for the next 30 to 40 years ..er.. apparently - currently 439 operating . (Scotsman)

Mr Driscoll (?) of Citigroup and other analysts have woken to the broken dreams of ethanol refiners.

He says , without naming them, that 5 ethanol refiners have been shutdown as costs to run the plants are far outweighing profits. He predicts BioFuel will report a 2008 loss of 18 cents a share, compared with an earlier breakeven estimate.

The Denver-based Biofuel which went public last summer, plans to start running its first 2 ethanol plants in Nebraska and Minnesota by the end of this month, he said. The corn will be supplied by agriculture giant Cargill Inc.

BB&T analyst Heather Jones, claims that Vera Sun has no corn hedges and much of its corn is bought from Iowa farmers. Iowa has shouldered the brunt of the flooding. ( see pic.)
The Chicago Board of Trade July Corn contract closed at US$7.09 last night.

Wallace Tyner professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University is predicting US$8 a bushel for corn but Douglas Tiffany, a research fellow at the University of Minnesota ( top researcher on biomass ethanol generation) , estimates that with oil prices above $130 a gallon, at least some ethanol producers could afford to pay as much as $9.50 a bushel for corn.

Click to enlarge picture/graph

UPDATE 10.00pm BST Iowa hospital, residents evacuate as floodwaters rise AP
UPDATE Saturday

US Bio-ethanol shares slump as effects of mid west floods become clearer - Bill Gates cuts biofuel investment 50% .. renewable energy dreams fade ..

The midwest floods have had a dramatic effect on the steadily declining share price of US ethanol producers reflects the loss making industry with shuttered plants and shattered dreams.

Shares of Archer-Daniels Midland (ADM) fell US$ 3.76 = 10% today to US$ 33.52,

VeraSun Energy (VSE) lost 63 cents = 12% to and sank to a new low of US$4.70

BioFuel Energy (BIOF) lost 94 cents = 24 % (gulp) trading at US$2.96 , below $3 a share for the first time.

On top of this Citigroup have said that US government regulations may change in ways that divert some of the corn inventory currently ear-marked for alternative fuels back to the the food chain, because of rising concerns on food prices... and an election is due soon.

Readers might like to re-examine a post Friday, June 16, 2006 Dot Corn Boom : Vera Sun IPO soars when it was pointed out that the IPO issue price ," ... put(s) a value on the company of 200 times its annualized earnings from the March Quarter 2006. Compare that with (say) 50 for Google."

This was followed by Thursday, June 29, 2006 Will the investment boom in ethanol from corn feed the bulls ? when Aventine Renewable (AVR) was launched , initially priced at US$37 the IPO increased by 1 Mn to 8Mn shares and the offer price to US$43. Yesterday they closed down 26 cents = down 5.25% @ $4.69 ... not a happy time for those who bought into the Ethanol dream.

We revisited US ethanol stocks again last year Thursday, October 04, 2007 US Ethanol glut, shuttered plants, shattered dreams

Pacific Ethanol, Inc. (PEIX NASDAQ) (who have yet to make any profits) was another boosted biofuel stock riding on the back of an investment by Bill Gates - he took up 27% of the stock - 5.25 MN shares at US$16 a share ,a total investment of US$84 Mn. "Bill Gates is invested in one of the hottest growth sectors in the stock market." said CNN Money at the time. They IPO'd at the same time as Vera Sun and Aventura and Pacific shareholders have seen the same one way helter skelter slide ...and yesterday they closed @ US$ 2.37 down a hefty 41 cents = down 14.75% .

Very sensibly Bill tells us , he has been selling his stake down which started (IHT) in November 2007 by converting the original preferred stock to 10.5 million common shares and selling off began in May and continued in the first days this month (June 2008) . So he has cut his holding by at least a half (June 4th report) .... taking a big hit selling between US£3 and US$4 a share. At best these sales have recovered US$10 Mn. and he is left with stock worth half that from the original US$84 Mn investment.

All of which makes a bit of a mess of Dubya's plans for sidelining the Saudi black gold... and also the very much oversold cellulosic ethanol ,derived from biomass ***, a fancy name for vegetable matter, corn stalks etc., Now with corn over US$7 the absurd economics of corn based ethanol become hopelessly uncommercial - as pointed out -US Midwest Flooding cuts crop prospects - corn prices hit record high

Federal law requires that the U.S. nearly doubles the amount of ethanol it uses annually to 7.5 billion in 2012 from 4 billion gallons in 2006. There are said to be some 130 ethanol refining plants working today in the US , and as many building...

Hmmmmm... Looks like good news for Brazilian ethanol refiners from sugar cane.

PS : *** If you want to see the bullshit that passes for promotion of scientific nonsense visit the Xethanol website (XNL : AMEX) and read this , and note it was published on April 1st 2008, and certainly do NOT buy their stock...." For the three months ended March 31, 2008, the company reported a net loss of $2.0 million, or ($0.07) per share, as compared to a $5.5 million net loss, or ($0.19) per share, for the same period of the prior year" and they add this interesting note to the quarterly results. "Because of the continued high prices for corn and gas, on May 1, 2008 the company temporarily ceased production of ethanol at its Blairstown plant to reduce its operating losses."

Look at the birdy ....

Oi...You lookin' at my bird ?