Thoughts on the interest rate cut

Last time interest rates were at 2% was 1951.

When Labour lost an election and didn't return to power for years.

We can but hope!

You know you're getting old...

When you're watching Father of the Bride on the Sky Plus box, and you're looking at the wedding from the father's point of view.

Might have had something to do with the gorgeous eight month old baby on my knee at the time.

You know you're settling into Brentwood....

It's been the end of an exhausting fortnight - I went over to Ireland for my brother's wedding, returned home last Monday only to have to go straight back to Ireland for my grandmother's funeral (I actually got the call as the boat was pulling out of Dublin Bay). Home again for a couple of days, before heading up to my grandmother's house for a night.

And the realisation I was finally, finally settling into the area as we pulled off the M25 onto the A12... I was thinking "finally, we're home".

Education....

I was a bit puzzled by the stupidity displayed by Caroline Flint in her Newsnight video:



But according to her Wikipedia page she has a "BA (Hons) in American Literature and History combined with Film Studies from the University of East Anglia."

I'm not puzzled any more.

UKIP and 42 days

The recent UKIP policy document on Criminal Justice Policy says

We regard detention without trial as in improper state of affair

That would explain Bob Spink, UKIP's only MP support for the government in last night's vote to extend the period for locking up terrorist suspects for 42 days without trial.

Watching Prime Minister's questions last night - I couldn't believe that Gordon Brown had the cheek to lecture the Conservatives on the risks of terrorism. It was clear which side won the argument - sadly, they lost the vote because the Prime Minister saw fit to maintain the old Irish tradition of bribing MPs (or TDs) to vote with the government in exchange for supplying their constituencies with cash.

Irony....

So, I'm spending a few minutes glancing through Hansard from the early days of the online archives, and I found this gem from Defence questions:

Mr. Darling : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he has any plans to strengthen the security of sensitive defence computer systems.

Mr. Archie Hamilton : Yes. For security reasons I am not prepared to disclose details.

Mr. Darling : Can the Minister tell us whether British defence computer systems have been interfered with? Can Britain's defence computer system be infiltrated as happened in the United States when computer hackers spread a virus in the system and so compromised defence? The Minister sounds a little complacent, as if he is seeking to hide behind a shroud of secrecy. Will he answer my question and give the House the assurances it needs?

Isn't it somehow ironic that years later, Mr Darling was the Chancellor when HMRC managed to lose the details of 26 million people?

But who chose them in the first place.....

Tim Worstall points out (rightly) that the MEP Tom Wise, who was the subject of a rather damning report in the News of the World about MEPs "riding the gravy train" hasn't been a member of UKIP for some time. Ashley Mote, the MEP who was sentenced to nine months in jail for benefits fraud and attempted to avoid prosecution by claiming immunity as an MEP, had the whip removed by UKIP within weeks of his election. As for Robert Kilroy Silk, I'm sure that UKIP would feel the less said, the better. In 2004, UKIP had 12 MEPs elected. In other words, they've lost 25% of their elected representatives, mostly under a cloud (and Godfrey Bloom isn't exactly a walking advertisment for a modern political party either).

This does rather beg the question though - what does it say about the party that thought the three of them were fit to nominated in the first place?