[notice] to blogpowerers

Please take the poll on the Blogpower site. It's fairly necessary.

[records error] looking beyond the lying itself

Happier days for Joan Ryan

The Association of Chief Police Officers confirmed that the Home Office rejected its plea last autumn for more cash to help it deal with a backlog of 27,500 cases which had not been entered on the Police National Computer. And it revealed that Ms Ryan - who has responsibility for criminal records - replied to its letter detailing the work of the three-strong unit processing the cases and voicing concerns about the sharing of criminal records across Europe.

This blog is not going to give this matter the Dalesque or Kitchenesque treatment. Go to the sidebar, click and any number of sites will deal with this. It’s simply going to ask a question and hopefully the question is not too stupid:

Why is it the case that the higher one rises in power, the more corrupt one becomes?

Why, for example, doesn’t a government minister tend more naturally to altruism, patriotism and citizen concern, the higher he or she rises? There are countless examples of young MPs going into parliament with high ideals, before they meet the whips, that is. Look at Tony Blair in his early days and look at him now.

Surely, the higher one rises, the less need for cash and the less pressure to be corrupt? And surely, in Britain, Wikipedia’s criteria for non-corruption have already largely been met and yet it goes on. Like with the non-necessity of Richard Nixon to do what he did, Britain’s pollies just do it.

Plato said take power out of the oligarch’s hands and give it to the philosophers. One blog says the way to cure corruption in high places is to take away the high places. A lovely but naïve idea. Stumbling and Mumbling would say put an end to managerialism.

Being of the Christian persuasion in this matter, it seems clear to me that, just as a baby is not born corrupt in real terms [leaving aside the argument over original sin], so the dirt trickles down from the top, not the other way round. But where exactly is the top? The PM or President? Higher? This quote gives one answer. But if that is so, then, in Fraser’s words from Dad’s Army: “We’re doomed, I tell ye.”

Everything seems to indicate that when men and women enter the sphere of power, they come up against, not the power itself but the minions and agencies of it, who are powerful enough adversaries anyway. I often quote Woodrow Wilson’s “since I entered politics …” and it's hard to refute. Given that, then the next question is what can be done about it.

[delayed meme] clearing my debt

Oh well, s’pose I’ll have to do this but I’m getting all Praguetory about it now. And to think I even started one of these before New Year, out of spite.

So, five things you might not know about me:

1] I once had a gardening practice, then a screenprinting business [of sports outfits]. The latter was called Sportsprint. When we tried to start up Futile Enterprises, Truly Ruly, marketing irrelevancies to the general public, they wouldn’t register us. We’d written the articles of association too but they felt we weren’t being serious. Us? And I gave it up for education. Is that crazy or is that crazy?

2] We had a mixed Indoor Cricket team which made the final, largely on the strength of our girls. It was called Silly Point and was the greatest rabble you’re ever likely to see. We had a couple of top lads who always weathered the storm early but the runmakers were a lady cricketer and myself. She could hit but not run. I could run but not hit so we stole almost every run. They stopped us in the final by drifting across our path slightly before the ball was bowled.

3] I used to make films and that got me into sound and light, which led to theatre, which led to directing several plays but my favourite of all time was a Wodehouse piece which went as per plan but the jazz music soundtrack was what people wanted to purchase later. Pity I didn’t follow through with that. We even had young ladies dressed as maids to serve refreshments at interval during that run and one or two were possibly available. Pity I didn’t follow through with that.

4] I rally drove a veedub for three years. I pitied the navigator, Halda or no Halda but only ended nose up the hill once. The skills learned at that time now stand me in good stead on the totally lawless Russian roads but the roads I rallied on were marginally better than the ones over here now. Plus there were no policemen suddenly leaping out at you from behind bushes, wildly gesticulating with black and white battens and falling flat on their backs on the ice.

5] On a mountain top, I proposed marriage to a lady whose face was covered in glitter and when she accepted, I said, ‘Pardon?’ I discovered that night that backseat shenanigans are anatomically difficult for the uncoordinated. One learnt though.

I’m not passing it on to anyone because it is cruel and inhumane to fellow bloggers. Except for the Canny Greek, of course, who thought he'd escaped last time.

[lpt] tell the truth

I scored 136. Maybe I lied.

[food prices] not lowered as much as promised

What an extraordinary headline, even for Iceland. Read on:

Sigurdur Jónsson, manager of the Federation of Trade and Services, said yesterday that Prime Minister Geir H. Haarde had promised more than he could deliver when he said food prices in Iceland would be lowered by 16 percent. Last year Haarde declared that the value-added tax (VAT) of food products would be reduced as of March 1 2007, resulting in an up to 16 percent price cut in groceries so that food prices in Iceland would be comparable to that in the other Nordic countries.

Er … how?

Jónsson further criticized the prime minister’s statement that dairy products will be lowered in price. What Haarde meant, Jónsson said, is that the price of dairy products will not increase, but not drop either.

Here is the government’s explanation:

Ragnheidur E. Árnadóttir, political assistant to the prime minister, told Fréttabladid that the economic term of a price of something remaining the same is “factual reduction” and therefore Haarde cannot be criticized for saying the price of dairy products will be lowered.

Yeah, right. So how about maths in general?

Árnadóttir said that the price of groceries will be lowered by “roughly ten percent,” which in Árnadóttir's opinion, could refer to 16 percent.

Meanwhile, another Árnadóttir [Ragnheidur's dóttir perhaps] is one lovely, quirky gal [check her clothed photo] into naturism in Iceland, presumably in winter. Won't any of you bored and lonely Londoners help her out?

[lazarus of the blogosphere] oh wonder, oh joy, he’s back

Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað

Far be it from me to say that the structure of lavatories cannot have ideological ramifications; after all, a well-furnished bog with a strong flush might stir up thoughts on the purifying power of violence; a smooth-cornered, pastel-coloured khazi might soothe momentarily one’s rage against the totalizing regime of the status quo; and should the seat not stay up, or the ball-cock be stuck down, one might well become distracted from ruminating on the contradictions of capitalism until a handyman or plumber could be found.