Who knew?

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Govt ministers 'couldn't run private companies'
Government ministers would not have the skills or background to run a private company, a new survey suggests.

A questionnaire of chief executives at the UK's top 100 companies pours cold water on government claims of successful management.

Ben Farrugia, policy analyst at the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "Comparison with the most successful business leaders in the country reveals that the people running public services lack appropriate experience, have near impossible tasks to do and are never in their job for long enough to engage properly with their departments."
Via DK


Emperor of Pluto

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Charlie Brooker on 9/11 and conspiracy theorists
Look hard enough, and dementedly enough, and you can find "proof" that Kevin Bacon was responsible for 9/11 - or the 1987 Zeebrugge ferry disaster, come to that. It'd certainly make for a more interesting story, which is precisely why several thousand well-meaning people would go out of their way to believe it. Throughout my twenties I earnestly believed Oliver Stone's account of the JFK assassination. Partly because of the compelling (albeit wildly selective) way the "evidence" was blended with fiction in his 1991 movie - but mainly because I WANTED to believe it. Believing it made me feel important.

Embrace a conspiracy theory and suddenly you're part of a gang sharing privileged information; your sense of power and dignity rises a smidgen and this troublesome world makes more sense, for a time. You've seen through the matrix! At last you're alive!

Look out! She's got a styling comb in her hand!

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The general of onions and garlic
Here is the "next thing" in the war against terror: the war against hairdressers. After Hamas took over half the Palestinian people, in no small measure because of Israel's policies, after we tried to fight Hamas with weapons and siege, destruction and killing, mass arrests and deportations, the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security service have invented something new: a war on shopping malls, bakeries, schools and orphanages. First in Hebron, now in Nablus.

The IDF is closing beauty salons, clothing stores and clinics, and even one dairy farm, all on the pretext that they are connected to Hamas, or the rent they pay is given to a terror organization. These bizarre pictures of a closure order issued by the general of command, stuck on the window of a cosmetics store or a physiotherapy center, of a confiscation order stuck to a pita oven, show that the Israeli occupation has gone crazy.
Via Jews Sans Frontiers

Loadsamoney

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The working class hide their light under a bushel of cash
Not every intelligent working-class child betrayed by the school system meekly accepts his or her fate, as many supporters of grammars imply. Many find a different route up and out.

Specifically, formal education's loss has been entrepreneurship's gain. There are many explanations for the stunning success of British business in the past quarter of a century - is it possible that the decline of the grammar schools is one? Smart men and women of humble origin, previously assimilated into the anti-business culture of the educated middle class, have instead raised British retail, catering, fashion, finance and entertainment in some cases from mediocrity, in other cases from the dead. The difference between them and their grammar school-educated predecessors is that as they moved up, they did not adopt middle-class cultural values.
Crampton's got a point in this piece, particularly about the rejection of middle-class mores.

Looking on the bright side...

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Winehouse warned on lung disease
Singer Amy Winehouse could suffer a "slow and painful death" from the lung disease emphysema, her father has said.

Mitch Winehouse told Sky News she had "a small amount of emphysema in the top of one of her lungs" but it could become "a lot more serious."

"I want people to understand - even if they give her one cigarette, they're causing her harm," he said.

He added that Winehouse would stop performing live shows "for the foreseeable future".

No Papers Today

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Sorry folks but there is no PaperRound this weekend. I'm making some changes to the site and to what gets posted here. I'm not sure quite how that will pan out yet but I'll be experimenting over the next week or so.

I've had a quick squint at the papers this morning and, frankly, if you didn't bother with them at all today I don't think you'll be missing much.




If your job clashes with your beliefs get another job

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The decision in favour of a registrar sets a dangerous precedent
In a decision with potentially disastrous implications for the government's equality agenda (not to mention the idea of a secular society), an employment tribunal has upheld a claim from a Christian registrar that she suffered direct discrimination after she was "bullied" and "harassed" for refusing to conduct civil partnerships for gay couples.

The ruling appears to place the religious "conscience" of registrars above their legal duty to carry out parliament's legislation. If it is not overturned on appeal, and it sets a precedent, where could it lead? Will other public servants be permitted to refuse services on the grounds that their religion does not permit them to approve of their clients lifestyles?

Firemen refusing to rescue co-habiting couples from burning buildings? Doctors refusing to treat people with HIV? Police officers refusing to come to the aid of unmarried mothers?

Is David Davis bonkers?

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David Davis claims 'stunning' byelection victory

Davis wins his safe seat back at a time when the Labour government is reviled and expected to be thrown out of government the moment they go to the country, fighting against a piss-pot collection of no-hoper opponents because both Labour and LibDems decide not to stand and with a turnout of just over a third of the electorate and he calls it:

A Stunning Victory.

Nurse! ...Nurse!


Nothing sensible can come out of a place called Merthyr fucking Tydfil

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Police check for school run
A spokesperson for Merthyr council said: "We cannot comment on particular cases but can confirm that CRB checking is a requirement of our transport provisions in relation to adults travelling on home-to-school transport in the capacity of an escort.

"This is a standard requirement and has been for several years.

"Any adult acting as an escort will, in the public gaze, be viewed as acting with the full acquiescence of the council and hence with its implied authority.

"For the protection of the council and all vulnerable persons in its care it's essential all those endowed with an authority, implicit or explicit, should meet the security requirements within the transport contract provisions."
Yes, all very proper and whatnot except for one little thing.

The 'escort' being referred to is the child's MOTHER for fuck's sake!!


The opposite of comedy is not tragedy...

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...but embarrassment: AA Gill
I once had to judge Tatler’s humorous-writing competition. It was a deadpan thing, like watching painters die — the most effortfully chronic collection of constipated whimsy, punning slapstick and tomfoolery. I learnt a useful lesson: the opposite of comedy is not tragedy, but embarrassment. The horrible rictus of trapped punch lines and strained setups. After a weekend of reading the Christmas-cracker dross and after-dinner aperçus, I sent in a memo of resignation, saying I couldn’t stand it any more, that I’d rather be forced to live a life as a metal Mozart street mime in a shopping centre on Moss Side than read another Day-Glo line.

I’d always imagined that the worst thing that could happen would be to be buried alive; but I realised it would be to be buried alive with whoever came second in the Tatler humorous-writing competition. I had to laugh: my resignation letter won.

The slow death of newspapers?

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Responsible Journalism
Do our newspapers have a responsibility to make the public space a better place?

How many times have you thought about cancelling your daily newspaper but didn't get round to it?

Or decided against it because you quite enjoy the celebrity gossip, the sudoku and tips on where to go for your next holiday?

Perhaps another reason for buying your paper is the television schedule or - in these credit-crunch times - you might have been developing a new interest in the business pages?

But what about the political reporting and commentary which - once upon a time - were the main reasons people bought newspapers?

Many readers now resent smart editors telling them what to think and they now feel that they can get better and more balanced information off the internet. As a consequence, the British press is on the slide with sales and advertising crashing


Full programme transcript HERE

Listen again to the radio programme HERE