Posts by oldredlion 136 publicly visible posts • joined 8 Apr 2008
Well, two police officers (DCS Dave Cook and DC Jackie Haynes) were targeted and followed by the News of the World and the police did nothing, except have a lunch meeting with the NotW editor at the time and told them to stop. Nothing else happened, no investigation or fines or punishment of any kind.
Sherlock Holmes, 'cos he'd be spinning in his grave if he had one.
What they've done is to print off the various witness statements and then scan them back in. You can see photocopy blur/shadow marks at the edges of the pages.
This also means it is impossible to search them and it is impossible to simply cut and paste a quote from them.
Well done the BBC, another winner.
What exactly is wrong with this?
All EU countries should have independent media councils. Media councils should have real enforcement powers, such as the imposition of fines, orders for printed or broadcast apologies, or removal of journalistic status.
I hope El Reg aint going the way of the Sun...
Businesses don't pay taxes, their customers do. Jack up their taxes, and they'll just pass it on. So really, you end up taxing yourself. BRILLIANT!
You're arguing against tax in general, which in relation to this article is irrelevant.
If one business (e.g. a small UK based company) has to pay the tax, why shouldn't another company (e.g. a huge US based company) also pay the tax?
Also as we're in the EU economic zone they could move their company elsewhere in Europe and continue to sell into the UK and the UK wouldn't be able to do anything to stop them.
Wouldn't matter, as they would still be liable for UK corporation tax based upon UK sales profit. The current row is about reducing those profits by moving money made from UK sales into lower taxed areas (Caymans, Luxembourg etc)
How confident are you that it will be Z which is reduced rather than X going up or Y going down? Not very I would suggest.
The market will decide if the product is overpriced and Government will decide a minimum level for wages, so every business will compete on a level playing field.
At the moment every foreign multinational can under price a UK based firm. The current tax situation is hurting UK businesses.
"and the "subsidies" (actually special invisible levies added to electricity bills) which are the only reason any renewable powerplants exist."
What are his view on subsidising nuclear? Or other "low carbon technology"?
"Rumour has it that he was held in the best wing on the Beverly Hill Hilton, was given access to anything he wanted, including the best food and loose women."
Well that rumour is bollocks.
"A plea of mental subnormality and instability may work yet statistically, being afflicted in such a way has never stopped people being enlisted in Uncle Sams Army."
He was deemed mentally unstable BEFORE he was shipped off to Iraq, so it won't work now. The US wants a trial to show how serious they are, in a similar way that the British Military would shoot men suffering from shell shock for desertion during the Great War.
You have too much faith in the last "two thousand years" of history.
Look at society long before that, consider the great philosophers and thinkers, people of science who came up with beautiful theories and ideas without any machine other than their brains.
What our civilisation has done in the last two thousand years is insignificant, in the great scheme of things.
Thought for the day: Do unto others as you would have them do to you.
Social Engineering? What?
Setting or amending laws to reflect changing times and people is social engineering?
That bit about levellers and 1865 - you're not suggesting that instead of the Illuminati and the Masons it was really the gays we should be watching out for?
How bloody stupid is that?
“Theoretically, it shouldn’t matter where data is held as long as our rules apply,”
Well they don't apply because it's in the US. Good luck with getting them to play by your rules.
I'd expect this EU cloud to go live and the US security bods to be looking through the data that same day.
"The greatest strength of the current system of internet governance"
Where was this Governance when ICE was taking over thousands of website or when the DHS were tramping all over wikileaks? And where was the front line troops when ACTA, SOPA and PIPA raised their ugly heads? In bed with the **AA, that's where, selling out the little people who normally in the real world don't have a voice. Give it a few years and they'll lose that as well, because the US is just like every other tin pot dictatorship, looking after the interests of those with a lot money.
"Who's going to play the Tom Watson part & get those BAE skeletons out of the cupboards"
I doubt any MP will.
Remember the Serious Fraud Office investigation into alleged BAE bribery of Saudi officials to get rich defence contracts that was shut down by Tony Blair because the Saudis asked him to?
It's not really included, is it?
I mean, if you have to pay a third party provider before you can use it, it isn't part of the system, it is just something you can buy and then you'll get any additional benefits - a bit like any other piece of software.
It won't look good on the marketing blurb so why do they bother? And if MS isn't adding all the extra bits and bobs that people apparently want, why should people pay for a MS OS? It's easy to stick a linux variant onto a PC nowadays and you'll end up with the same functionality.
Patents and copyrights will slowly strangle MS. Ha ha.
"declare all network traffic illegal. Or unlawful."
They could simply declare that encrypted traffic is illegal, *unless* it is from a recognised retailer or bank or an official site of some description, or a proper business, the name of which you have to provide to make sure it is state approved.
After all, you are legally obliged to give up passwords to your encrypted hard disks and such like, so why should real-time data be any more private?
Not sure if he'd be a future leader but he is the Olympics minister and with only a few months to go they will not have time to get someone else in place, so they will do their utmost to keep him in place.
IMO it will mean uncomfortable press reports for the Government but to try to get someone else in place and up to speed would be even worse - any little problem that befalls the Olympics would be blamed on the new minister and then on Cameron for his lack of judgement, so it would be best for Dave and the Tories if Hunt stays in place.
I think the "so on" category covers the heinous villains who try to get their children into better state schools or put paper in with the non-recyclable waste, things like that.
Dropped an apple core on the street - rather than put it in your pocket - because you couldn't see a bin?
They'll grab a frame from the CCTV, use a face scan to find out your name and then dig into your email and phone communications. They'll track your car number plate and build up a complete log of your movements via CCTV and your mobile phone GPS data and when they cannot find any further crimes, they'll serve you with a fixed-penalty £50 fine.
And because the Big Brother cameras are already in place and the various databases will be filled by information from official documents you provided (DVLA, Council tax etc) it'll only take one security bod to press a button to do all the checking, meaning it won't cost very much. It's a win-win situation.
"to maintain the capability for the security services to access certain data on terrorists, criminals and so on."
If these terrorists and criminals are already known to the security services, why don't they lock them up?
I think she actually means *suspected* terrorists and criminals.
In other words, as anyone can be a criminal or terrorist, the best way to catch them is to snoop on everyone's data and then watch for red flag words and phrases that could mean someone may be a criminal or terrorist, and then apply intensive techniques to gather as much info as possible and look for further evidence on that person and anyone they've communicated with.
A bit like the Private Investigator at the centre of the Leveson inquiry, except this has State approval.
"People might think it old-school but the Services pride themselves on not being Mossad or KGB."
Well, we assume that there are foreign agencies "working" in the UK - for example the poisoning of Litvinenko and the recent murder of the Russian banker - so it doesn't need to be UK services doing the dirty deed. We can probably assume that those agencies do not always communicate with our services that they are "working".
"The whole thing sounds much more like incompetent investigation than cover up"
That is very possible, agreed. Be interesting to see what his field of expertise was, though.
"But in this case the Moon was unusually near, more able to affect the oceans, and on top of that the Earth had passed its closest in a very long while to the Sun just the day before."
When is this alignment going to happen again?
Step 1: Give vague prediction - "a watery based event will happen"
Step 2: wait for calamitous event that is noticed by the media
Step 3: point out my prediction
Step 4: Prophet?
Step 5: Profit!
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