Always knew there was more to it....

Already posted this on Twitter, but thought I would blog too as it made me chuckle.
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Via imgur.com

Is @ns_mehdihasan for real?

My mind is currently boggling somewhat at something written by New Statesman's Mehdi Hasan, about the latest polling of British attitudes towards Islam where he asks,

If the majority of Britons (60 per cent) admit to pollsters that they "don't know very much about Islam", why then do they choose to "associate" Islam with terrorism and extremism and take such a firm view on Islam's treatment of women?

Is he serious? Is it not obvious? They may not know a lot about it, but what they do know is what they've witnessed on TV or the streets of London etc which has so often involved people blowing themselves up, or women dressed it manners which they might think slightly repressive, and they've made prejudgment based on those observations and actions.

It doesn't mean they're right of course, but to wonder how they can say such things suggests one is either a gibbering idiot or they've been living in a very dark hole as a hermit since September 10th 2001.*

I guess as well, when people read or hear audio online like that below, they might, rightly or wrongly, come to sweeping conclusions and generalisations too (video via Harry's place).



Yes. That is (allegedly) the aforementioned Mehdi Hasan who cannot understand why some Britons might have prejudicial and negative views towards Islam.

As the title of this post asks, is Mehdi Hasan for real? I find it difficult to accept that he can be so naive as to not understand how people cannot know about Islam and equally hold a negative view of it. As I said, doesn't mean they're right, but it's not difficult to understand why they might think like that.

As long as the dominant and most memory engraving moments of Muslims are connected to massively negative events, it will be difficult to shift such sweeping assumptions and conclusions amongst poll respondents.

You've got to laugh really....

Via imgur.com

Dear BBC Radio 4....

As someone who drives to work each morning, traffic news can be quite important. There is, after all, nothing worse than finding yourself stuck on the motorway when you could have gone round the problem had you know about it. Not a problem though really, just listen to the radio and you can hear where the problems are. Not, however, if you choose to listen to the Today programme on BBC Radio 4.

Listening to Today will get you the news, the headlines, the sport, the weather, racing tips and all manner of things but not a general overview of what major things might be going on on the main roads of the UK. Likewise, if you listen to PM, the other news show at the other end of the "rush hour" day you won't know about traffic issues unless it's some sort of multi-car pileup like the 1991 M4 crash which then becomes "news".

Of course, you could configure your radio to automatically switch to local commercial radio traffic reports, but the interruptions can ebcome irritating. Isn't it about tiome that the two flagship current affairs shows on Radio 4 (listened to by a vast number of drivers), start having some sort of high level motorway traffic reports in their news bulletins?

Labour spent £51K on fancy bins....

The headline says it all really, but this post really only exists because I saw this on Twitter,

Shocking huh? Well shocking if it was true, but if you click the link you go to a BBC News story which says,

Defra says the cost was justified. The 2007 report, which has been deposited in the House of Commons library, argues the case for getting rid of bins beneath civil servants' desks in favour of centralised "recycling stations" on every floor.

Spot the problem, yes, that's right, the report is from 2007, October 2007 in fact and can be downloaded here.

So, far from it being a waste by the "ConDem" Government as "Tweet4Labour2 would have people believe it's actually evidence of the complete insanity and profligate wastefulness of the last Labour Government.

Should we be surprised?

Amusingly, "Tweet4Labour" is adamant that because the BBC report was published today it must be referring to spending since the Government was formed.

Never let the actual words in the BBC report, or the actual DEFRA report itself get in the way of the truth huh?

Time for incentives on road tax too?

The "big" news this morning appears to be the planned scrapping of pay as you throw bin taxes, in favour of a more incentive driven approach that rewards people for recycling. Now, I've always been a rather big fan of a pleasure over pain Benthamite approach to environment policy and beyond, so such a move is welcome, but how about applying it further?

One area we could take the incentive approach is on "vehicle excise duty", more commonly called "road tax", the basis of which is currently an unfair arbitrary assumption about carbon emissions of a given car and completely ignore the usage of the car. Think of it like this. Currently, all owners of a 1.6L Ford Mondeo pay exactly the same road tax every year, yet the amount each person uses their car will vary wildly.

Every year, when you get an MOT, your mileage is recorded and the details of that MOT certificate submitted to a central database so that when cross-referenced with insurance, road tax can be issued. So, how about offering incentives, in the form of some sort of discount, based upon annual mileage as well?

Many people own cars with high road tax, but do minimal mileage, which means, perversely, their being punished on the basis of the arbitrary emissions of their car, whilst in fact they may be producing less emissions than someone with another small car who is paying less road tax for having that smaller car.

If you want to make people drive less, make it pay for them to do so, by factoring in their usage into their road tax cost. It's not rocket science now is it?

UPDATE: A number of people in the comments have said this already exists with fuel tax. That's not strictly true though. Fuel tax is a tax, I'm talking about incentives. If you need to drive somewhere you do it, and you pay for fuel with little choice. This is about adding an incentive to people by offering a discount or at least acknowledging that they're driving less in an area of tax where it is easiest to do so.

Carry on as normal....

Remember what I said on the morning of polling day about how it didn't matter who won the election "the Government" would still be in charge? Here's some evidence of how little really changes.

Mr Watson: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office (1) how many (a) current and (b) former employees of (i) the Liberal Democrat Party and (ii) the Conservative Party have been issued with a (A) Cabinet Office and (B) 10 Downing Street security pass;

(2) which Members of the House of Lords have been issued with (a) Cabinet Office passes and (b) Number 10 Downing Street security passes since 6 May 2010.

Mr Maude: Passes for access to 10, 11 and 12 Downing street and the Cabinet Office are issued to staff who work in the building and to individuals who require access for business purposes.

Simple question that should furnish a simple answer but does it? Of course not. Obfuscation and avoidance continue as before.

Yay for open and transparent Government huh?

Thankfully he's not in Government

Newbie Labour MP, Chris Williamson asks the Home Secretary not to rule out allowing only criminals to own guns.

Will the Home Secretary give an undertaking that she will not rule out the possibility of the complete prohibition of the private ownership of firearms as the best way of preventing such atrocities in future?

What a prat.

Do you pass/fail the "posh" test?

What with Mrs Dizzy being Italian I was already at two for saying yes to 9 and 12.

Apparently I'm posh because I answered yes to more than that. *shrugs*

Hat Tip: @timmontgomerie

The solution to the West Lothian Question!

An utterly pointless yet alarmingly curious little gem can be found over at If It Was My Home which helps you pick a place in the world and get a feel for just how big the BP oil spill is.


In fact, I think BP may have inadvertently solved the West Lothian Question.

Note: This is a joke OK. I don't really want to drown Scotland in oil. Wales yes, Scotland, no. Deep-fried Mars bars are a good thing, plus we need to keep taking their oil. It would be silly to waste it by drowning the country with it!