Evidence based medicine

The Left finds something else to tax. Others will fisk this statist outrage far better than I, but I was struck most by this statement:

Dr David Walker, a GP in Lanarkshire, said many people eat their entire daily calorie requirement in chocolate, on top of their normal meals.

"Many" is meaningless. Is it ten? A thousand? One percent of the population? He wants to impose a nationwide tax because he has a feeling that 'many' people are stuffing their faces with chocolate. Personally, I prefer an independent study with verifiable results. Unusually for the BBC, they allowed a single dissenting voice, though they were at pains to point out her industry connection, twice. When a source is favoured by the BBC, they are simply labelled "an expert".

Anyway, as another commenter said - "there goes the womens vote!".

Gun control works

Apparently.

If this was in America, the article would be accompanied by some lobbyist from a fake charity saying lax gun controls were responsible. Germany has very tight gun control laws, hence the perfunctory and almost embarassed report.

Little Brother, endorsed

Put aside for a moment your revulsion at the people prosecuted here. Yes, your first impression (and probably further ones, too) is that these are the sort of neighbours you'd move to Somalia to avoid.

Instead, read with horror the remarks of the judge:

Deputy District Judge Alan Fowler said the CCTV cameras, which had been pointed into the couple's back garden by the four neighbours, did invade their privacy but they were entitled to do this by law as they were detecting a crime.

Is behaving "very odd" a crime? Is simulating sex on your own property a crime? Vulgar, of course, but a crime? Every television executive in Britain should be arrested, they broadcast far worse.

But the coup de grace...you can set up CCTV cameras to monitor the private property of your neighbours if you are 'detecting a crime'. Of course, as Labour have introduced about one million new laws, there's a fair bet that you will catch someone doing something.

So, incredibly, it is now legal and permissible to film the private lives of your neighbours. The State is happy as it gets a cadre of willing spies and informants, and it is only a short step from private monitoring to State monitoring.

Communism sidles closer

Comrade Harperson pronounces judgement.

This is typically New Labour, in that they always choose an extreme target as a shield for extending their illiberal rule. Godwin is, obviously, a useless greedy failure who is feathering an enormous nest when he should be broke, if the Market was truly allowed to perform. However, he has a contract and the f*cking government approved it, so that is that.

Anyway, how sinister is this line from the Harpy?

The sum was unacceptable in "the court of public opinion"

Is that the one which used to be called Bow Street Magistrates court, I wonder? What, it isn't actually a real court? Funny how you can despise populism one minute, and tearfully wave the tattered populist flag the next. She'll be saying that he is "an enemy of the people" next.

What the Government wants to do is to break a contract unilaterally and steal a legally agreed pension. If they can do that to this c*nt, they can do it to you as well. After all, they need the cash, don't they?

EU recommends more power for the EU

BBC reports it as a good idea (i.e. no contrary points of view allowed). Obviously, given the previous track record of the EU, this will be a tremendous success, and it certainly wouldn't be used by the French and Germans to legislate the City out of existence to benefit their own financial centres, of course not.

While the BBC liberally smears scare quotes over any proposal or phrase it is suspicious of, it reports an EU body calling for an EU power grab without even raising an eyebrow. Nor does it point out the truism that the further away a supervisory body is, the less accountable it is.

Still, it's another step on the way to political union, and that's good enough for the BBC.

It is called 'printing money'

The BBC manage to publish a government press release without mentioning what it will do, which is merely print money.

Quantitative easing effectively allows the central bank to write cheques to banks in exchange for assets.

The BBC are using the word'effectively' in the sense of "it means the same as" rather than doing something effectively. They key phrase, though, is "in exchange for assets".

What assets are these? My guess is that they will be the tarpaper shack of Mr and Mrs Hillbilly, Esq. of Tenessee, last valued at $740,000 but whose true value is probably around $59.99. Our savvy and bold government will give the banks $1m of loans in exchange for this asset, because they haven't got a fucking clue what they are doing. Oh, and also because it isn't their money.

Brass neck of the year

Branson gives his views to his panting, adoring public. No bail-outs, but £1.4bn of subsidy just isn't quite enough for the entrepreneurial genius.