Monday, August 31, 2009

Pain

  I know that this might be the stupidest thing I might have thought of. But then again, whenever I thought of any happy end or something with him, I really suck and I began to cry aimlessly. If it has to be this dramatic, I might have thought of it in a hopeless romantic manner that I really do not want to leave his side. However, the thoughts of both having him and losing him must've mixed in my brain in a twisted manner: it's as if both are all one and the same in my mind. It's damn freaking annoying because this time I'm sure I'm feeling...

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Big Brother BBC

Public service broadcastingIt's well worth reading the full text of James Murdoch's Edinburgh speech attacking our Big Brother tax-funded BBC. Because his message - self-serving though it may be - goes far beyond the BBC and our state media commissars. It is a powerful attack on the very foundations of big government:"The consensus appears to be that creationism - the belief in a managed process with an omniscient authority - is the only way to achieve successful outcomes. There is general agreement that the natural operation of the market is inadequate,...

Friday, August 28, 2009

Education Education Education

Fool's goldEvery year we blog the latest downward lurch in exam standards (eg see here and here), and every year we listen to the same tired old debates on Newsnight and the Today programme.Are exams getting easier?The left, government ministers, and the teaching unions say no. The facts say yes.The best independent survey - the one conducted by Durham University’s curriculum, evaluation and management centre (see here) - says A Levels are two whole...

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Socially Useless

According to FSA head Lord Turner, much of the activities of the City of London are "socially useless".Er... how does he reckon that?Unless Tyler has got this wrong, the City has long been Britain's big success story. It has generated a large chunk of our national income, paid humongous taxes, and provided hundreds of thousands of highly paid jobs. It's also paid for all those cheap clothes and tellies we now import from China: Doesn't sound useless....

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

The Wrong Man

Very confusing - these rich boys all look the sameNo time for a proper blog today on account of helping one of the Junior Tylers make his new home approximately habitable. But as we lifted unsavoury carpets and shuttled rubbish to the dump, we listened to the BBC's adulatory obits for Ted Kennedy. And I suddenly realised I've lived most of my life under a terrible delusion.You see, I'd always believed Ted Kennedy was that womanising drunk who killed...

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Politics Of Envy (cont)

We already have big redistributionPol was back on an old favourite this morning:"A high pay commission would change the climate of what is socially acceptable by challenging the self-serving myths of mega-earners... With powers to investigate, it would make transparent who is earning what and why, ending secrecy: information has transformative power. I would go further and make all income tax returns public documents. The initial shock would be salutary,...

Monday, August 24, 2009

The wages of unemploymentGiven that romantic strolls along sunset beach were out (on account of there being a howling gale and no sunset), one staycation evening Mrs T and I found ourselves watching a new C4 reality TV show.It's about a woman who lives in a huge eff off mansion (Thornbridge Hall above), having made an even huger pile of cash.She seemed jolly pleased with herself, as well she might. As the number one player in a growth industry, her...

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Same Old Same Old

The roller-coaster of government debt - here we go againTime to catch up after our staycation in the grey sunless Westcountry (hope Mr Dale has better luck this week). Except there's nothing much to catch up on: it's just more of the same old grey sunless same:1. NHS sick leaveAs we've blogged many times (eg here), sick leave in the NHS is higher than in any other organisation known to man. Updated stats were released last week: "The average NHS...

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Remorse

  I read a lot of things lately regarding what I have done and said before. Sometimes, my mind goes crazy again and I'll get in a fit of anger towards him and at times I would be glad it is over between us. Another thing inside of me triggered by romantic emo songs and other memories makes me feel sad and weary for doing everything that had made him quite the abnormal guy I always imagined that he was. With these conflicting ideas in me, I cannot think which one is the right one. I know I need guidance, signs, and whatsoever help from up above...

Friday, August 14, 2009

Staycation

Doing their bitMr and Mrs T are heading West for a week's staycation. According to the Met Office five day forecast, they'll be enjoying "sunny intervals" - which is why they're packing their bicycle capes and waders.Times are tough out West: as the Western Morning News says:"RAIN-LASHED holidaymakers are considering shunning the Westcountry after the Met Office's U-turn on a "barbecue summer" forecast.Travel firm Lastminute.com said interest in...

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Gee Thanks Guys

Would you risk losing this? Tyler is a big fan of the US. We owe them bigtime. Not just for all those bailouts over the years, but also for inventing the future. It's difficult to imagine how much poorer we'd be - in all senses - without the free market dynamism and risk-taking capacity of our American cousins.Yet for all that, they are sometimes a little... well, what should one say... a little brash. And their current beating up on the NHS is an...

Really now, I really feel that I'm being tricked and derided[derideVerb[-riding, -rided] to speak of or treat with contempt or ridicule [Latin deridere to laugh to scorn] derision nCollins Essential English Dictionary2nd Edition 2006 © HarperCollins Publishers 2004, 2006] by someone. It's as if this whole crappy thing I was planning before backfired and led me to an emotional psychopathic torture played by this certain someone. It sucks, well for the fact that I wasn't that trained to counter emotional torture and of course, add the fact that I...

Pumped-Up On Experimental Drugs

At least he tested it on himselfAs regular readers will know, we are very concerned that the Bank of England is overdosing us with monetary stimulants. We're especially concerned at the Quantitative Easing (QE) programme - or printing money as we old-timers still call it.Last week, against all expectations, the Bank announced a further dose of QE, taking the total from £125bn to £175bn. Which has worried us even more. Because as others have said,...

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Thank God For Mandy

Even the horriblest truths can't touch MandyOn a morning when unemployment soared to a 14 year high, we listened to Mandy being interviewed by Evan Davis on BBC R4 Today. It reminded Tyler precisely why he must bust his gut to get Dave and co elected next May.Yes, we do want Dave et al to be far more radical on public sector reform. And yes, we do think they should be much more ambitious on rolling back Big Government, tougher on crime, more focused...

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

To Fundamentally Reform

Surely George ought to know better: "We need to fundamentally reform the way public services are delivered."To fundamentally reform? What kind of talk is that? I mean, we understood George had received an expensive education at one of Britain's very toppest schools. Surely a school like that doesn't have the motto Fide et Literis for nothing, does it? What would his old English master have said?I'm afraid the Major was so appalled he was quite unable to concentrate on the rest of George's speech, and was forced to repair to the 19th hole for immediate...

Cereal Bunglers

Nostalgiafests don't butter any parsnips - let alone feed 7 billion people The top three stories on last night's C4 News formed an instructive conjunction:Story 1The government's panic programme to dish out Tamiflu like Smarties (see this blog) has backfired badly. It seems that for children at least, the side effects are worse than the swine flu Tamiflu was meant to be treating.Now who could possibly have foreseen that?Well, the Doc for one. When...

Monday, August 10, 2009

Legacy Of Ruin

Things can only get betterSources close to My Lord Mandy have told BOM that the government will shortly introduce measures to make Britain's boardrooms more equal.When selecting directors in future, FTSE 100 companies will have to give preference to candidates who are qualification-poor.An official at the Department of Bollocks told BOM "His Magnificence is determined to help people who have been denied the educational and work advantages enjoyed...

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Underling

self-worth (self′wʉrt̸h′) noun one's worth as a person, as perceived by oneself   There was such a time in my life when I thought I was this worthless: a worthless piece of shit existing just to please two ningens living with it just to satisfy societal and human conditions—in order to survive barely with its coexistent stuffs altogether living in a bare house of stone designed chiefly to torture this piece of shit—coexisting with other ningens who deem themselves “HIGH AND MIGHTY” and the “CREAM OF THE CROP” among all worthless...

350 Years Of Defence Waste

HMS Royal James* - serious cost issuesDateline Woolwich Dockyard - 21 July 1662 - "While the Royal James was bringing towards the dock, we went out and saw the manner and trouble of docking such a ship, which yet they could not do, but only brought her head into the Dock, and so shored her up till next tide.But, good God! what a deal of company was there from both yards to help to do it, when half the company would have done it as well. I see it...