It Makes You Sick!

Well, maybe not you, but definitely me!  And they'll say "we have come in under budget, saving millions of pounds" but where will those millions go?  Might it not have been better to use them to help ailing British business?

Australian business Bartco wins right to supply signs for London Olympics

If it works.... Hasn't so far, quite the reverse.

Cost-cutting concern over private prisons

Ministry of Justice plans for more private sector prisons are expected to bring innovation and cut re-offending.  But critics are warning about the risks to staffing levels and an erosion of professionalism, writes Vivienne Russell...

Government funds the lobbying of itself, subverting democracy and debasing the concept of charity

If a government department believes that new legislation would be beneficial, it is of course within its rights to make the policy case and persuade us, but there is something unsettling about doing this anonymously or through supposedly independent third parties.
Sock Puppets: How the government lobbies itself and why

Don't (for Heaven's sake) believe all you read

It is well documented that the European Commission has for years been funding dozens of environmental groups who lobby MEPs and promote EU policy at a grass-roots level. It also gives substantial sums of money to groups such as the Young European Federalists and the International Union of Socialist Youth, although we can find no evidence of similar grants being given to Eurosceptics or radical free marketeers.
http://conservativehome.blogs.com/platform/2012/06/from-cjsnowdon.html

Summons up visions of tanks rolling inexorably onwards

The German Chancellor's plans for a "two-speed Europe" will leave Germany in the driving seat of a European super-state which will beggar its neighbours.

"Mrs Merkel is openly calling for a German-dominated political union at the centre of Europe, with what George Soros recently called a 'depressed hinterland' around it.  Neither of those is a place the UK ought to be.  We are one of the world's major economies and a proud independent sovereign nation, not a vassal state that needs to be governed from Frankfurt, or picking over the crumbs from Europe's table.

"As George Osborne has admitted, a reshaped relationship with Europe would involve a transfer of sovereignty from the UK to Brussels.

"Mrs Merkel says that the EU's grand plan 'cannot stand still just because one country or another doesn't want to come along'.

.http://www.ukip.org/content/latest-news/2687-time-to-get-our-coa

Ignorance is bliss - and often dangerous!

. "It was not essential that CPUK were at the stadium," said a spokeswoman for Locog, the body organising the Games. "They were tested at bigger and more complex events and their performance was monitored by an accredited external fire engineer, the London Fire Brigade, and the venue teams, amongst others. They received very positive feedback from all parties."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jun/09/molly-prince-jubilee-stewards-conviction

Of course it is essential that they are tested at the stadium, they need to understand the space in which they are operating, be able to predict the way people will react in that particular space, to know how safety precautions work in that expected space.

It is ludicrous to suggest otherwise; ludicrous and dangerous, not to mention fool-hardy!

Piracy on the High Seas - a new approach?

Piracy all at sea: Maritime piracy, violence and the international response 

Researchers in Hong Kong have analyzed the incidence of maritime piracy during the last decade and have developed a way to predict whether or not a particular vessel, with a specific cargo, shipping in a given patch of water is likely to be a target for piracy and what degree of violence might be involved.