Just another day at work

What follows is the very literal version of the metaphor most of us go through during the working day.

Short Selling - Bit Early for Plaudits Gordon

I do enjoy conference season. It's about the only time of year outside the odd general election that the political parties come out and say what they're about. This time around, especially so given that Labour are woefully unpopular, the Tories are getting the dissent vote in the polls and the Liberal Democrats are actually changing their position for once after years of working out their previous stance just doesn't move the masses.

So as I will start harping on as things progress I'm just going to start raising things as they crop up. Firstly, I hate the bitchy jibes that come out as all parties break the fundamental rule of esteem: that you shouldn't bring down it of others to service your own.
As they all like to play that game it doesn't really do to condemn one side. Just pointing out that it only adds to the sense of childishness that one gets from watching them snipe at each in parliament. Grow up ladies and gents. It's not big and it's not clever.

Oh and whilst we're talking about point scoring. Don't take credit for actions that haven't been in place long enough to actually do anything yet. My understanding of economics should be merely elementary compared to a former chancellor but I know that the economy and especially the stock market is fuelled by confidence. The practice of short selling where there is incentive placed on the players to spread rumours or perform literally any dirty deed that will bring a share price down does absolutely nothing to inspire confidence. In fact it's clear as day it does the exact opposite.

This should have been spotted years ago and outlawed then. So don't even think about using it as a point to be proud of. Tougher regulation has been promised as it has become very clear that the finance sector has been given far too much leeway to do as it pleases. This is just the beginning. Just remember to evaluate for each scenario they roll out consider whether you think it should have been foreseen and they are shutting the gate after the horse bolted or they are putting in place sensible measures at the first prudent opportunity.

The Big Experiment

As confident as I am that the world will not end on Wednesday, with a magnetic field 100,000 times greater in strength than the Earth's natural one being generated in the middle of Europe, I'm thinking it is a good day to put a lot of distance between myself and the cutlery drawer.

Colourful Greenhouse Gases

The factors of meat production with undesirable releases:

clearing forested land, making and transporting fertiliser, burning fossil fuels in farm vehicles, and the front and rear end emissions of cattle and sheep.

The front up never gets as much attention does it. I knew the BBC would find a delicate way of saying cow guff.

The Touch

The Midas Touch
Named after King Midas where everything he touched turned to gold.

The Brown Touch
Named after half-term serving British Prime Minister Gordon Brown where everything he touched turned to shit.

Crime and the economic downturn

Mark Easton has written an informative piece about wrongly perceived causality. This time in relation to crime in a time of economic woe. You could be forgiven in thinking that as the economy suffers that crime will increase.

You could be forgiven. Our government ministers on the other hand are actually expected to know what's going on. With no correlation between the general economic state and criminal activity it is a bit brash to plan as if there is one.

Property crime increasing is the pointed prospect. Considering theft from residential areas is more in keeping with feeding a drug habit than meeting a mortgage payment I do wonder how that plays out in the finest minds in the Home Office.

And as soon as I read Tony McNulty was the one coming out to defend such thoughts I did have to refrain from placing my head in my hands. It's no wonder that Gordon Brown has him and Jacqui Smith working together. They are both such bastions (yes, I can think of another name to call them too) with such a complete and total lack of humility they are well suited to share an office.

As a nation we are so ridiculously wealthy that trying to pin an increase in crime in relation to GDP going down 0.1% is laughable. Look to more likely factors; drugs, deterents, security, the general dimished sense of personal responsibility that a liberal society generates... many things come before the country's balance sheet.