Britain does shoeshining

Never mind that our muppet chancellor said that we're about to hit the worst economic shoals for sixty years.

Never mind that we hit Peak Oil in the North Sea in 1999 and worldwide in November 2005. Never mind that Peak Gas followed straight behind it. Never mind that no one in the cabinet appears capable of even mouthing the terms (but backbenchers do give it a mention). After, what is unspeakable is unthinkable. Never mind that the government was warned in a parliamentary briefing in 1999 in no uncertain terms. Never mind that energy still fails to equate in the government's economic calculations and predictions - something known as the Solow Residual, where "energy" turns out to be a very convincing missing link. Never mind that the U.K. doesn't have a Sovereign Fund. Never mind the fact that you never even heard of a Sovereign fund.

Never mind that the UK and EU is hopelessly dependent on gas supplies from Russia, whilst making aggressive noises regarding the situation in Georgia (and never mind that the U.S. and Israel had boots on the ground in Georgia, training their armed forces before they rolled into South Ossetia).


Never mind any of this. (And hat tip to Patrick Vessey of the UK Libertarian Party for this one.)

Mind what Darling missed out. What the media missed out. Again. Mind your opinion of the U.S. Economy. Mind your opinion of the strength of the dollar (representing as it does, USA Plc). Think the U.S. economy is running on hot air? Possibly about to fully tank in the near future? Think that UK Plc is taking a hit too? Then don't read on.

Since June last year, the U.K. has increased it's holding of U.S. Treasury securities, from $50 billion to $280 billion. Here is the raw data. This means in the space of one year, the UK has gone from the world's 8th to the world's 3rd largest holder of US debt.

Nations buy securities (debt) from other nations as good investments. Or at least that is what they should do. That's what governments who look out for the interests of their citizens might do. UK Plc has just gone and purchased a f**kload of debt from the same place that brought us subprime mortgages and the crash of Northern Crock. Bailed out by "us". The socialisation of corporate debt.

Now we're seeing something truly remarkable. At the beginning of our own, balls against the wall, economic crunch, we're now seeing what could be the socialisation of another nation's debt and it's death-spiral economy. There's nothing short of a miracle that could make these securities good investments. And where will the buck stop for paying this one? You and me. Again.

Now we know what that strange group of islands off the North-West coast of continental Europe is for. You know, that one that isn't buffered by being part of the Eurozone (p.s. speaking to some European friends recently, they don't want sterling to join the Euro, why? Too much debt.... uhh....). Now we know what it's for. It's going to be a doorstop for the crashing US economy.

Skids up kids.

Londoner stopped by bullsh*t

Watch here to see a U.K. citizen stopped and searched recently under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

Hopefully, this ballsy video capture of the police in action will actually bring home the meaning of "anti-terrorism" to more people.

A less choppy version of the video can be found here if you're having trouble with the above version. It is worth looking at the first link however for the comments.

Note that he has no choice about whether he can consent to being searched and have his property rifled through (including one of the officers apparently taking note of the details on one of his credit cards). He must either comply or be arrested (and subsequently face all of the additional consequences such as having his fingerprints and DNA taken and put on the national database).

Remember, if you are stopped under Section 44, Liberty currently have a search monitoring form that you should fill in. If enough of us do this Liberty will have some kind of statistical evidence for highlighting the bullsh*t that it is.

It is also worth noting the Police's own propaganda on this issue.

While I'm at it - here is a comprehensive debunking of the "nothing to hide" 'argument'.

If your initial response to all of this is to say that the police are just 'doing their job', you might want to refamiliarise yourself with the Nuremburg defence.

Here is a link to the author's blog, where he considers his reaction to the police.

And hat tip to John Sabotta over at Samizdata for this quote:

"So passed, to all appearance, from the minds of men the strange dream and fantasy called freedom."

- G. K. Chesterton, EUGENICS AND OTHER EVILS