Penguin Island

Will the food run out

2008-04-29T09:25:00.004Z

Food prices are seemingly in the news constantly at the moment. So here is an article i wrote for the New Statesman in January.

THE weekly shop and the morning loaf of bread are becoming more expensive, but while most of us may barely have noticed, rising food prices are hitting the world's developing nations hard.

Global reserves of cereals are at an all-time low, mounting food costs have sparked riots in Mexico and there are hunger warnings across sub-Saharan Africa. A seldom-mentioned casualty of the price surge, though, has been the aid agencies, which are struggling to buy in food aid. With prices predicted to remain high, they are increasingly seeking new ways to feed the world's hungry.

The boom in global food prices, in part driven by demand for biofuels, is stretching resources at the UN's World Food Programme (WFP). Over the past five years, the agency's food procurement bill has rocketed by 50 per cent, according to Robin Lodge, spokesman for the organisation.

"There has been a cost increase across the board in major grains and pulses, such as maize, wheat and rice," he says. The escalating price of grains, described as agri-inflation among economists, has been rapid. The price of wheat, for example, doubled in 2007.

Paul Horsnell, head of commodities research at Barclays Capital, blames increased use of land for biofuels, reduced supply and an insatiable demand for food and animal feed from the world's emerging markets. "Biofuels, China and some poor harvests have been a recipe for a very sharp rise in grain prices," he says.

The WFP's finances are further hit by record oil prices. This impacts on grain prices by pushing up the cost of fertiliser and also adding to the agency's food-aid distribution expenses.

"Transport costs have soared over the past few years, adding enormously to our costs; also the rates shipping companies charge have increased. We are being hit all round," says Lodge.

The WFP's problems are unlikely to diminish since, in the long term, global warming will push up food prices, predicts John Ingram of Global Environmental Change and Food Systems, an organisation which monitors environmental change and food security. "Climate change is going to make things more difficult," he says.

The influences of climate change are already evident; as the US and Europe search for alternative carbon-neutral energy sources, land is diverted from food to fuel crops. "It's not rocket science to say that if you take land out of food production, the price of food will go up," says Ingram.

Another impact of global warming on the cost of food is the projected increase in extreme weather events, such as Australia's continuing drought and the serious floods of 2007 across Africa. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts that by 2100 we will experience heavier rainstorms, causing soil erosion and crop damage; droughts producing lower crop yields; and widespread soil salination from rising sea levels.

Responding to the growing crisis, Jacques Diouf, director general of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, is demanding urgent steps to boost crop production. The UN agency is also seeking to address the problem from the other direction - by seeking means to prevent shortages, rather than simply managing them. "We look at ways of mitigation," says Lodge. "We are trying to increase farmers' yields by providing a ready market."

Handing out vouchers or small amounts of cash to stimulate local trade, rather than shipping in and distributing food aid, is one method increasingly used by the WFP. It has also started to buy directly from farmers, creating a stable market price that encourages production.

"World commodity prices are high, but this is not reflected at the farm gates. By being on the spot, we can guarantee a price," explains Lodge.

Nonetheless, the WFP is warning governments that if official development assistance doesn't keep up with rising food prices, the agency will be unable to maintain current levels.

"The bottom line is that if the donations remain static, we cannot feed all the people we are feeding at the moment. And unless donations go up, we may have to cut programmes," says Lodge.

Review: control

2007-12-20T23:29:00.000Z

Drugs and drink didn’t kill Ian Curtis. It was guilt. That is the implication from Anton Corbijn’s new film about the Joy Division front man.

For Curtis, born in Maccasfield in the late 50s, Joy Division was a tool to express his loneliness and depression, allowing him to pursue his fascination with self-abrogation in the most dramatic of ways when he committed suicide at the height of his, and the band’s fame in 1980.

For people who have never heard of Joy Division, simply by listening to Curtis’ dark, broody and isolationist lyrics in Love Will Tear Us Apart – the most famous song in the band’s two album repertoire – will explain the man’s cult following for generations of lost romantics.

Control is a depressingly grave biopic of Curtis. It is a cheerless arresting 2 hours, portraying a troubled genius, whose deep baritone voice reverberates in the film’s ample performance scenes and which underscores the feeling of impeding tragedy from the very start.

For Joy Division fans, Sam Riley (24 Hour Party People) as Ian Curtis won’t be up to the job, but the superb performance of Samantha Morton (Elizabeth: The Golden Age) as his homely and naïve wife, Deborah, will go some way to make up for the disappointment.

In Deborah Curtis’ book, Touching From A Distance written before the film came out, she hints the singer always harboured desires to commit suicide. And this is skilfully evident with Matt Greenhalgh's screenplay which occasionally inter-splices images of the couple’s drying rack - the eventual modus operandi of his death.

Despite the film’s annihilist nature, there are points of humour, injecting relief; particularly when the charismatic Manchester impresario Tony Wilson signs a contract with Joy Division in his own blood. This amusing nod to history, backed by the scene of the Sex Pistols’ legendary gig at Manchester’s Lesser Free Trade Hall, will go down well with die-hard fans.

Control is Corbijn’s first feature film, and its stylish finish is clearly due in part to his background directing music videos for U2, Nirvana and alike, as well as his work as an acclaimed black and white photographer of musicians which has spaned three decades.

In Control’s case filming in black and white was perhaps the obvious choice for Corbijn, considering the sad nature of the movie. But at times colour, particularly with the rare landscapes, or for a flavour of Deborah’s floral dresses would have been appreciated.

The film, possibly overly sympathetic to Curtis, avoids pandering too much however, and is a gripping interpretation of his sorry and romantic life. One that will be watched by Joy Division’s fans and new-comers alike; who will all tap their fingers lachrymosely to its fantastic score, from start to finish.

UK: MP's facebook closed down

2007-12-20T16:13:00.000Z

Steve Webb, Lib Dem MP, had his facebook account closed because the social networking site thought it was a fraud.

His profile with 2500 friends was deemed a fake and only reinstated after he contacted the host and a group - Steve Webb is real - was set up.

Read Odds and Sods
Steve Webb’s website

End

US: States reject - safe-sex is no sex

2007-12-18T17:25:00.000Z

Sex education relying on preaching the virtues of abstinence is being shunned by states, amid growing realisation that it doesn’t work.

The news from the Washington Post proves the US isn’t falling headlong into Christian fundamentalism quite as quickly as sections of the Euro press would have us believe.

END

Review: Cloud Nine

2007-12-06T11:49:00.000Z

Watching Cloud Nine I was reminded about what Noam Chomsky said about nonsense, he called it “colourless green ideas sleep furiously”.

By using this set of incomprehensible words, the great linguist was trying to show how language can be grammatically correct but meaningless.

Nonsense, is in fact, an established genre of writing. It deliberately fuses order and chaos to present a confusing world that is humorous precisely because it appears to make no sense. Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland is a prime example, as is Dr Seuss and countless other pieces of children’s literature.

Caryl Churchill’s Cloud Nine certainly isn’t for children but it is nonsense all the same. The play’s two acts are set in Victorian colonial Africa and 1970s London, between the two periods the actors change roles but the characters remain the same, having aged little over the intervening 100 years.

In act 1, men play women, women play boys and white men play black men. It is a deliberate attempt by Churchill to highlight the constraints of Victorian society through confusion. The result is undeniably funny, but disturbing, especially when the play points a comical finger at the issue of paedophilia.

Churchill has been writing plays since the 1950s but it was Cloud Nine, first performed in 1979 that really established her. She has since gone on to write numerous radio and television plays for the BBC and is now considered one of Britain’s foremost dramatists.

The Almedia’s adaptation of Cloud Nine is well acted, particularly James Fleet (Four Weddings and a Funeral) who plays Clive, a colonial old boy in act 1, and Cathy, a 5-year-old girl in act 2. Joanna Scanlan (Girl with a Pearl Earring) is also as Clive’s mother in law, and then in the later act, his daughter.

As the play canters into act 2 it becomes less confusing and more approachable, adopting a rhythm that eases the audience out of mysterious colonial Africa into the recognisable settings of a London park. This is in part testament to the director, Thea Sharrock - returning from her much applauded direction of Peter Shaffer’s Equus at the Gielgud Theatre. Throughout, she keeps the dialogue tight and the scenes seamless; getting the best out of the difficult cross gender roles that work well in making us question our assumptions on relationships and sex. Even the issue of colonialisation, sitting uneasily among the other themes is provokingly explored.

Good acting, directing and script, why then was Cloud Nine such a let down? Perhaps the set, which is basic, could have been better put together. Or the play itself could have spent more time bedding in the context. Or simply, because it is nonsense.

Cloud Nine, Almeida Theatre, until 8 December.

Review: Shibboleth by Doris Salcedo

2007-11-25T18:53:00.000Z

After a string of dull commissions in the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, the new Shibboleth by Doris Salcedo is a welcome breath of fresh air.

On first impressions, Shibboleth, which starts as a hairline crack in the floor, does little to fill the vast space of the Turbine Hall like previous pieces such as Holler’s slides or Kapoor’s red PVC Marsyas. But that is just the impression it is meant to give.

Shibboleth is a Hebrew term by origin and means a word or phrase that distinguishes a group of people from another. Salcedo has used the name to highlight the differences between Colombia, where she was born, and the prosperous countries of the west.

Running the length of the Turbine hall, the crack, like a bolt of lightening, splits and widens to become a growing chasm, big enough for children to play in. Walking along it, the installation purposely concentrates the eye on the floor, allowing the viewer to forget the enormity of the space they are in.

Salcedo’s most famous work to date, is a tower of 1550 chairs between two Istanbul buildings for the city’s biennale. The eighth artist to be shown as part of the hall’s Unilever Series she has succeeds where many of her predecessors failed. Producing both a visually interesting and contemplative piece, leaving viewers, as they follow the crack’s 167m path, wondering just how it was made.

Like 1550 Chairs, which was built to draw attention to the anonymity of economic migrants, Shibboleth is also a political piece. By fracturing the hall it symbolises a world divided by racism and colonialisation. The deliberate use of steel mesh inside the fissure adds to the feeling of tension, by seemingly holding the sides of the crack apart, preventing it from healing.

Salcedo is the first artist outside Europe and North America to take on the challenge of filling the immense hall; following the drab aural collage of Nauman’s Raw Materials and the unoriginal plastic boxes of Whitehead’s Embankment, lets hope Salcedo is not the last.

Review: call of the wild

2007-11-16T13:05:00.000Z

Jack London wrote in White Fang: “One cannot violate the promptings of one's nature without having that nature recoil upon itself.” It is lesson in self-destruction depressingly played out in the short life of Christopher McCandless - the subject of a new Sean Penn film: Into The Wild.

Sean Penn’s fifth film as director doesn’t disappoint but it also doesn’t excite. Taking on the form of a road movie it follows the troubled McCandless, whose naivety and obsession with wilderness leaves a trial of sadness the length and breadth of America.

It is based on the true story of McCandless, who, as a 22-year-old college graduate disturbed by the fake bliss of his parent’s lives, gave away his entire savings to embark on an anonymous life tramping around America.

From start to finish it is filmed in superb cinematography as McCandless - played sympathetically by Emile Hirsh - walks or hitches from the South Dakotan grain fields, through the alien rock formations of Arizona, to the white wilderness of Alaska.

Into The Wild is also a literary film. Penn applies a Byron poem at the start to underscore the grand American landscapes with powerful prose. And with voiceover narration from both McCandless and his sister (Jena Malone), uses Pasternak’s Dr Zhivago, Tolstoy and Thoreau to romanticise McCandless naïve dismay at 1990’s American life.

At one point the cheerless subject quotes directly from Thoreau: “Rather than love, than money, than fairness, give me truth.”

Penn, himself, is renown for playing intense, bitter characters and he has done well to bring this out in Hirsh, whose good looks where always in danger of making the self-obsessed McCandless seem too likable.

With the film focusing almost entirely on McCandless, periphery characters are nonetheless memorable and strong -particularly the reformed drunk Ron Franz, played admirably by Hal Holbrook (Deepthroat in All the President’s Men) who tries to adopt McCandless toward the end of the film.

Yet despite the great acting, innovative camera work and realistic dialogue, the film fails. It is long and slow, rarely changing pace or suggesting to viewers an ending of anything other than the predictable.

In perhaps film’s only light point, McCandless finds out he must wait 12 years for permission to paddle down the Colorado River. It is a scene used to underline the hopelessness of leading a life outside the bureaucratic white picket fence norm of 20th century America. But this is a theme we saw decades before in Easy Rider and Penn has nothing more to add.

Overall, Into the Wild has been received well and it should get the recognition it deserves - that of being a beautiful and poetic film - but we should stop short of labelling the film a masterpiece of American introspection.

Film's official site here.

Review: millais delights

2007-10-09T16:49:00.000Z

Commercial sell-out is an accusation often levied at the painter John Everett Millais - by curating a varied range of his landscapes, portraits, illustrations and historical works, it is a view the Tate has impressively dispelled.

Born in Southampton in 1829, it didn’t take long for Millais to be recognised. Accepted into the Royal Academy at 11, by 19 he had founded the Pre-Raphaelites - a movement based on the fashionable painting style before the emergence of renaissance artist Raphael.

Characterised by vivid colours Millais’ Pre-Raphaelitism feels medieval and dreamy. Only the intriguing detail of the subject’s natural surroundings stops him crossing into the symbolism of Gustave Moreau, who was painting at the same time.

The exhibition’s first room contains some of Millais’ finest pieces and is worth the ticket price alone. Aside from his famous Ophelia it holds Pizarro Seizing the Inca of Peru; painted when Millais was 16, its shows a classical training through a pyramidal composition, where plain faces convey pain strikingly through the eyes.

The gold picture frames throughout the show accentuate Millais’ expertise, in room 1 these are arched, window like, ensuring the viewer looks in on the painted scene. As the exhibition continues the frames straighten and the painted subjects begin to look directly at the viewer, drawing you into the image. It is a masterful skill particularly accomplished in the thought provoking The Vale of Rest.

There are times, particularly in his early work, when Millais’ technique fails; depth can be flat, proportion unsettling and space unnatural. Note for example Isabella, in which a dog seems to float above the ground.

The exhibition cleverly guides you through Millais’ artistic repertoire. Lighting is sensitive, and walking through the rooms the paintings get noticeably larger until you are treated to a finale of Millais’ rare Perthshire landscapes. Sadly, their overbearing horizons and naïve rural images disappoint.

The photograph of Millais’ spatial studio in room 6 shows the obvious commercial success he enjoyed while alive. The room’s large portraits by which he made his money, strike artistic poses, rarely facing the viewer directly. The sad image of Disraeli, arms crossed looking helpless to the events unfurling outside the picture, is particularly memorable.

Outside the Tate Britain, a large statue of Millais is draped with a plastic wreath. The tired garland is hardly fitting for the master. The exhibition however, is an impressive tribute by which the great British painter could be proud.

Millais, Tate Britain, Milbank, until January 13

END

UK: Mail rumbled

2007-10-04T19:26:00.000Z

Trust in the British media dealt further blow.

It’s not just the television media lying to us, now the newspapers are at it as well.

The Daily Mail, shock horror, have been caught out in their attempt to bribe a Polish man to drive to England and flout British driving laws.

The plan was to pay £800 to a Pole, get them to drive around the south of England, braking the speed limit, parking illegally and not paying London’s congestion charge while being followed by a Daily Mail photographer.

An article was then to appear about Poles flouting British law.

The offending Mail journalist amazingly decided to contact a prominent Polish blogger to do the dirty deed and even more amazingly, then confirmed it be email.

END

UK: No protest please, we're sitting

2007-10-02T18:42:00.000Z

New rollback in civil liberties, prevents demonstration.

The Met have told anti-war demonstrators they cannot hold a protest next Monday because parliament will be in session.

The new excuse is a worrying development in our right to protest.

Stop the war coalition, in accordance with the law had been seeking permission to march. According to a statement by the group, all had been going well until the police suddenly denied permission.

Restrictions on the right to protest have been subject to a 1 mile exclusion zone around Parliament since August 2005. Critics say the zone is too big and an over reaction to Brian Haws “eye-sore” encampment.

END

Read BBC article on Brian Haw
Read Tony Benn writing in Comment is free

Sudan: When the dust settles

2007-08-02T11:44:00.000Z

One of the greatest fallouts from the Iraq war has been Darfur. Now it seems the world’s attention has finally turned into action on this dusty corner of Sudan.

Seems is the operative word here. The new security resolution to back a 26,000 strong hybrid peace-force (if ever there was such an obvious oxymoron), for many, is toothless. Similar to a previous resolution which failed to get off the ground last year, it doesn’t threaten sanctions for non-cooperation or allow disarming of fighters.

By relying on cooperation from Khartoum - dab hands at stalling the international community – the jury is still out on peace and we will have to wait and see. All the time remembering that we are actually talking about real and desperate lives here.

Pathetically it seems that the only reason China got on board was due to threats of an Olympic boycott, has it really come to this? Thousands of lives hanging upon a sporting event.

Meanwhile the Security Council’s connections with the Khartoum government continue to come to light.

China with its obvious oil interests (it’s accused, here, of swapping arms for oil). Russia also likes to make money from selling the country weapons. British companies, including Barclays and even the Church of England continue to invest in oil operations (source) and the US are using Kharhtoum for its activities in Somalia and Iraq (source). With friends like these…

Oh and has anyone mentioned the Janjaweed? Surely we don’t expect them to simply ride off into the sunset and take up office jobs.

END

Detailed critique of resolution, here
Slightly over-the-top comment in Guardian
how about a German point of view?

Biofuels and climate change mean food price increase

2007-08-01T12:01:00.000Z

Pigs, strawberries, cocoa, coffees, corn and wheat, are all flying high; their prices that is. The world is in the grip of rising food prices and it is having serious impacts.

In a reverse to the long-term trend of declining food prices, Merrill Lynch has termed this recent phenominum, agflation.

The impact of the global inflation of food prices is double edged. Some aid organisations such as the World Food Programme are finding it more and more expensive to carry on donating food but at the same time it has been predicted that small farmers in developing countries may benefit by utilising unused land for crop production.

It is thought that a combination of climate change, biofuel crops being grown on farming land, oil prices efffecting transport costs and greater demand for animal feed are causing the inflation.

The long-term affects are unknown, but worrying if you’re against GM crops.

END
WFP
Read FT debate on rising food prices
UPDATE: IPPR comment on UK food prices

“The worst epidemic of the decade"

2007-07-31T18:15:00.001Z

Haemorrhaging blood from the nose, mouth, and gums is one of the symptoms of Dengue fever, a mosquito borne disease that is sweeping through South East Asia.

According to the article in the Guardian, “no country has been left untouched in the region”.

The disease is carried by Aedes mosquitoes which are thought to be on the increase because of rapid globalisation and urbanisation. Building sites are seemingly the focus of outbreaks.

Well at least it isn't due to climate change.

END

Read the Guardian article
WHO

Sudan: Water-borne peace in Darfur

2007-07-18T14:20:00.001Z

A natural underground reservoir has been found in Darfur. The remnants of an ancient lake which is laying hidden, is about the size of Massachusetts. Spotted from space by satellites, it’s thought that the water will help stabalise the region.

Mentioned in MSNBC, it’s a nice story and certainly gives a little hope to the war-torn area.

But to suggest that the violence meted out by the Janjaweed is due to lack of water, neglects the issue of oil and Arab vs African racism.

If anything, with the Janjaweed’s natural lands from the North being gradually encroached on by the Sahara, the offer of irrigated pasture land in Darfur is likely to increase their eagerness to drive the Darfurians out.

For an idea of what’s going on in Sudan, read my interview with Nick Clooney

END

UK: Gotta get out of this place

2007-07-16T16:15:00.000Z

Westminster’s new buzz phrase is social mobility. Or how much an adult’s life is determined by their childhood surroundings.

A nation with high social mobility means that the poorest have the potential to achieve success. Growing up in a crappy area doesn’t mean that you’ll always have to stay there.

The IPPR have said that in deprived areas: death rates are 1.7% higher; teenage pregnancy is higher; you are 2.5 times more likely to be mugged or burgled and there is a higher fear of crime (then in nicer parts of the UK).

There are initiatives to improve areas, such as the single regeneration budget, the new deal for communities and neighbourhood renewal but they have had a small and slow impact.

The IPPR suggests that there needs to be a better mix of rich and poor in areas and are looking into the fact that strong growth in house prices has increased social polarisation.

Meanwhile Britain’s low and declining social mobility is set against a growing income inequality proving wrong the dominant ‘80s and 90s idea that growth would redistribute itself.

END

UK: Mayor; is he serious?

2007-07-16T15:34:00.001Z

UK: Hi ho, it's off to war we go

2007-06-28T13:50:00.000Z

Photo credit
So when’s the earliest plans were drawn up for the UK to invade Iraq?

Penguin Island has found evidence that it was as early as December 4, 2001.

2 ½ months after 9/11, the US army were plotting the invasion of Iraq, in which it was assumed the UK would give bases, allow flights over British air space and troop support.

If you want the proof, it’s out on the web. If you can’t find it, comment with an email address and PI'll send it over.

End

Want a good timeline of events? Click here

UK: Blair goes, am i bothered

2007-06-27T10:50:00.000Z

One last time.....

END

"Rampant Kidnapping"

2007-06-27T09:42:00.000Z

"The world's worst humanitarian crisis" in Darfur, Western Sudan is well known, less so that the conflict is spilling over into the neighbouring Chad.

Now news is coming out of another unfolding disaster in neighbouring Central African Republic (CAR).

In CAR’s lawless Northern territories, bordering Sudan and Chad, gangs of armed bandits are kidnapping and looting from local villages with little risk of capture.

The bandits or Zaraguinas are able to operate due to the CAR army concentrating on battling APRD rebels who are angry at what they see as the present government’s corruption and its annulling of a legitimate government in 2003.

Compounding the terror, Amnesty reports that the government is killing civilians they suspect of aiding the bandits; and reminiscent of Janjaweed tactics in Darfur are burning down entire villages during reprisal attacks.

It is thought that some of the Zaraguinas are coming from Chad and Cameroon.

Hello UN, is there anyone there?

END

Read Washington Post article

An artificial world

2007-06-26T15:32:00.001Z

A robot zoo has opened in Portugal. A robotarium complete with 45 robots including 14 different species are living together in a glass structure. Interacting with each other and the public the robots crawl, roll, slither around their cage under solar power. Proving that robots are only human some even have a vicious streak attacking their smaller counterparts.

But that's not all. While the robots in the robotarium may look like something a two year old might draw in crayon, there is a more sinister side to robot animals. As nanotechnology advances Cornell University is injecting "microfluidic devices" into larvae, which when hatched become insects with a machine component that can then be used for monitoring and security surveillance. It's working the other way too, scientists are putting insects inside robots so the wee beastie can control a machine.

So next time you see a moth in your room better think twice about killing it.

End

Back end of June

2007-06-04T20:39:00.000Z

Gone to work at the New Statesman for a while.

RIP Doha

2007-04-29T16:40:00.001Z

Above: Definitely not Beavis and Butt-head: “money, money, trade, herher, more money, hehe herher”

Monday will mean a further blow to the WTO’s Doha Development Round as trade giants the EU and US meet for their annual summit in Washington.

In a pre-summit speech Commission President Barroso (pictured) has stated "the summit will sign up to a transatlantic economic integration framework" (source). PI translates this as supporting and enhancing bilateral trade between the US and EU - the meeting will formally ratify the Open Skies Agreement, for example (source).

According to the WTO DG, Pascal Lamy, bilateral trade agreements are counterproductive to the WTO's mission (source) and shouldn’t replace multilateral agreements (source).

But with Doha at an impasse, Monday’s meeting is clearly treading the bilateral path.

PI notes the Washington meeting, which lasts all of 2 hours is also meant to address climate change and the Middle East.

Yeah who are they trying to kid?

END

WTO
Read why Mandy says bilaterals are ok.
Read about the Doha Round.

The green gold rush.

2007-04-27T10:30:00.000Z

Above: Not for the faint hearted, boffins Schneider and Heller discuss CC and CTS. Yawn, ooops sorry, no this is serious stuff (Google Tech Talks 27/01/07).

The European systems of carbon credits and offsetting are in danger of becoming more climate headache than climate antidote.

A FT investigation suggests: organisations are paying for phantom emission reductions, huge profits are going to credit trading companies and polluters are getting paid to reduce emissions, which they where going to do anyway (source).

In another piece, the UK environment department (Defra) has come under criticism for promoting an EU emission trading scheme (ETS) which effectively, offers “permits to pollute” (source).

Permits to pollute, because far too many credits were given at the start of the ETS, making them too cheap and not a representation of the true cost of cleaning up a tonne of carbon.

PI will be down B&Q buying its own trees from now on.

END

Lowdown on EU ETS
Carbon offsetting a misguided philosophy?

UK: Rubbish news

2007-04-26T10:19:00.000Z

There is a lot of rubbish in the news, most of it coming from the Daily Mail.

Headlines screaming “outrageous fortnightly pick-ups,” forget to tell us that actually it’s still weekly but the types of bins emptied, alternate each week.

Critics stating that alternate collections won’t increase recycling back up their argument with the whopping 4% of LGAs that have high recycling and weekly pick-ups.

But the biggest distortion is that this poorly researched and reactionary reporting completely misses the point.

The important thing about alternate collections is that it makes us think about when and what we throw away. So we start to reduce our rubbish, reuse our rubbish and as a last resort recycle it.

Today’s issue of the Mail is laughably hypocritical. On one page they want us to keep weekly collections, maintaining a vehicle for our throw away culture, on the other page they're campaigning against too much packaging.

Umm, if it’s harder to throw away, than we won’t buy products with excess packaging, and the retailers will stop stocking them.

PI wonders if the Mail is printed on mahogany paper?

END

Read this, then you decide.

Read the Guardian article

UK: Intelligence leak

2007-04-25T17:57:00.000Z

Who's been "putting lives at risk"?

At a guess Steve Bates, Reid's special adviser.

Naughty naughty, Mr Reid.

PI may be wrong of course and certainly can't prove it!

END

What's this all about?
Or try this
More background

Is compensation justice?

2007-04-25T10:15:00.000Z

A Japanese millionaire has been found not guilty of murdering the British woman, Lucie Blackman - who died 7 years ago.

In the trial jurors where shown 100s of home-made videos of the defendant, Joji Obara, raping other women; heard how he had been with Lucie on the day she died and that her body was found on his estate.

In the same trial he was convicted of nine other rapes (one resulting in a death, source) but not of murdering Lucie.

Unjust perhaps? Until you find out, prior to the verdict, Lucie’s father accepted nearly half a million pounds in compensation (source).

Was this blood money the reason Obara was found not guilty of Lucie’s murder?

If so, by accepting the money has the father greedily stood in the way of justice for his daughter?

No, he hasn’t.

The monetary and psychological cost of the last 7 years to the Blackman family has been high. By imagining that justice is a conviction and prison sentence, we take an archaic and simplistic view.

Given the facts, Obara is most likely the murderer and he is in prison. And the family have probably received more compensation than if he had been found guilty of her murder.

Ask yourself, what would Lucie have wanted?

So, penguin island is left thinking once again: with prison numbers at an all time high, surely there is a better way of deterrent justice than the retributive and utilitarian form of steel bars?

END

See Lucie Blackman Trust
Ask Rachel North about Compensation and 7/11
Read about the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Sorry

2007-04-24T15:52:00.000Z

The legacy of the slave trade continues to impact on African economic development, the Centre for Economic Policy Research has told us.

Their report establishes that topography impacts on a country’s economy. Countries with mountains find it harder to establish trade and utilise productive land, so the more rugged your country’s terrain the bigger the disadvantage. Interesting enough.

But the report finds the reverse in Africa. The continent’s mountain communities have prospered relative to their counterparts on flatter land, who had their populations decimated by slave traders.

However as Africans ran for the hills, to escape the traders, problems associated with mountainous living have been exacerbated by the population pressure.

END
* If you want to say sorry on behalf of Tony and Elizabeth, why not do it this way?

* Why we love the Daily Mail. Make sure you read the article's comments.

I particularly like this one from a priest "I do not expect the descendants of the Vikings to apologies for rape......look how successful descendants of slaves often are."

UK: Woolf cries foul over Home Office reforms.

2007-04-24T09:04:00.000Z

The problem with the Home Office reforms, so says Lord Woolf, is that the Lord Chancellor will need to look after prisons & probations compromising his relationship with the judiciary.

Other problems foreseen are that the court budget might be squeezed if it’s included within the prison’s. And that important constitutional checks and balances will be upset.

With the new department (the Ministry of Justice) due to start up next month, Penguin Island wonders if the Government has fully thought this through.

Background to issue?

Back Tuesday

2007-04-16T20:00:00.000Z

Gone to Turkey to check out the state of secularism.

What ever happaned to care in the community?

2007-04-16T10:12:00.000Z

The Government's proposed Mental Health Bill is due to be discussed, (again) today in the HOC.

Critics of the Bill don’t like that it proposes locking up people before they’ve committed a crime - turning Drs into jailers. And that it makes treatment compulsory to certain metal health patients (CTOs)(source).

But the most important critique in PI’s mind, is that it might actually turn off sufferers from seeking treatment in the first place.

Proponents say that it's an important step to closing a loophole and will only lock up the most dangerous and untreatable psychopaths, preventing killings such as the Russell murders ever happening again.

In 1992 PI was on the train at Finsbury Park station when schizophrenic Christopher Clunis killed Jonathan Zitoin. Several million pounds and years later we’re still no closer to settling the care in the community issue.

Perhaps, the argument is too complex and it’s just a waste of time and money?

Obviously it may prevent murders and will look good for any government that can push the Bill through.

But let’s get it context. There are about 50 mental illness related murders a year, 10 times less than alcohol related and 5 times less than killings due to domestic violence.

Maybe it's time to move on and try and spend the money on improving access to mental health services instead?

Read how the Government were going to shelve it.

Terror, it's that word again

2007-04-15T12:01:00.000Z

The Maghreb’s bomb tally for the month has just risen to 7, with 38 dead.

Algeria, which has had a terrorist problem since its annulled 1991 election – which the Islamists won - has taken the brunt of the casualties.

Consider this and the news that a major Algerian terrorist group has merged into the al-Qaeda franchise (source) and the country looks increasingly like a new terrorist front line. One that is manned with around 800 highly skilled extremists who cut their teeth in the Afghanistan war – the “Afghani connection” (source 229).

Morocco - since the massive Casablanca bombs in 2003 - is also waking up to a growing terrorist threat.

The upsurge in attacks should not come as a surprise.

Way back in 2005, a UK Foreign Affairs Select Committee report, to which PI submitted evidence, implied that Algerian human rights abuses (source 246) and worsening Moroccan living standards (source 257) is helping to provide a climate for extremism.

The US is also worried, setting up anti-terrorist units in the Sahara (source) and the Germans only last February, issued an intelligence report predicting an Islamic terrorist revival in the region (source).

So take this new wave of bombings, add the fact that more than half of the accused in the Madrid train bombings were Moroccan (source), mix together with the large North African/European community and suddenly Europe has a sizable worry on her doorstep .

Traditionally the Maghreb has not been seen by the UK as diplomatically important but our continually blinkered foreign policy means we’re going to have grow eyes in the back of our head.

Read about yesterday’s attack.
Find out if you’re local youth club is a terrorist organisation.

Son of a gun

2007-04-14T12:44:00.000Z

Le Pen is colluding with Sarkozy - the latest election conspiracy according to Liberation (source). The reason: his “you’re not French enough" attacks on Sarkozy are so low that it’s forcing voters to feel sympathy for Sarko (source).

Le Pen’s insistence that he is of a different “more French” stock than Sarkozy, will also win the latter votes (from those who were worried the two were too similar).

In other accusations of collusion, the papers highlight the fact Sarkozy’s far right policies are adding weight to Le Pen’s. And the comments from a member of Sarko’s team calling for some sort of proportional representation - a system which would favour the National Front.

Apparently Sarko is now being dubbed ”son of Le Pen” (source).

Bad behaviour at the World Bank?

2007-04-13T08:59:00.000Z

Yesterday the World Bank and IMF started their joint Spring Conference.

The two organisations, which financially assist developing countries have long been criticised. Namely, for giving aid on condition the recipients commit to an economic model of market liberalisation. One in which, NGOs claim, means their fledgling markets and public services are put up for sale to Western companies (source).

When arch neo-con and Iraq war architect Paul Wolfowitz was appointed to the post of World Bank (WB) Director, you could almost hear the aid workers asking for their P45s. But in fact this unusual man - famous for his holey socks – has been congratulated for stamping out corruption amongst recipients and ensuring aid is more efficiently used.

Recently Wolfie has been ratcheting up his ambitions to give the WB a spring clean (source). Well needed, but also conveniently diverting attention from a nepotism scandal that threatens his career.

A woman from the WB, with whom he is supposed to have a romantic connection, has been promoted and seconded to the US government as well as given a substantial pay rise - all on his orders (source).

Outrageous hypocrisy from a man whose working mantra is to root out corruption.

IMF
WB

Senator sliding

2007-04-12T18:04:00.000Z

Above: An amusing rundown of some of the candidates in the US presidential campaign (Comedy Central 03/07).

John McCain – a Vietnam POW - has delivered a cliché peppered pro-war speech in an attempt to save his presidential campaign chances.

Defending something as “necessary and just“ (source) when over 60% of the country are fed up with it, may not be the greatest platform to campaign upon.

PI won’t be that sad to see him fall off the radar, his dubious political links with the King of Morocco and tendency to wade in on the Saharawi issue, has won him few friends in that part of the world.

Know about the Saharawi issue? Read this and tell PI what you think.

Heads in the sand

2007-04-12T08:49:00.000Z

Yesterday, Blair “lurching into total frankness” tells us the spate of knife and gun incidents is being caused by a distinctive black culture (source).

This comes on the back of being told black dads are more likely to go AWOL - implying they make bad fathers – and that black school children are underperforming.

When Penguin Island found itself chatting to Ken Livingston at a recent party conference, the conversation centered on black on black crime. Penguin Island remembers, rather ashamedly the confidence at which it spoke on the subject, even offering up advice to London’s black community.

The point? Unqualified opinions, patronizingly suggesting it is a cultural thing that needs to be sorted out within the black community. And not that it is a wider social problem based on poverty, lack of jobs and “made it” role models.

Blair thinks he’s telling us how it is, cutting the political correctness. Penguin Island thinks straight talking is good, but let's have it when it's educated and productive, not just because you don’t know the answer and find it easier to take a swipe at political correctness.

Fancy a wilf? Here's one way to waste your time.
Want to make an informed comment? Read this first.

Creating friends

2007-04-11T22:51:00.000Z

Royal will “distant” herself from Bush if she is elected, her spokesperson has said to the US ambassador in France (source). Although the loaded statement was uttered to a visiting corps of Republican and Democratic party advisors, one imagines it was directed somewhere else.

Guess she won’t be invited to the US to visit the new anti-evolution, Creation Museum anytime soon.

Are you sitting comfortably?

2007-04-11T08:33:00.000Z

Penguin Island doesn’t usually like to talk about Iraq, it's too depressing. But at least three news pieces, which don’t involve the word bomb or body numbers, warrant a comment. It’s not positive however.

The Red Cross report life is getting so bad for Baghdadis that they no longer aspire for simple things such as water anymore. People aim a lot lower; just wishing the bodies are cleared away (source).

In London, Oxfam tells us the foreign policy disaster in Iraq means the UK has lost diplomatic influence restricting our ability to do good elsewhere (source). Barbara Stocking sums this up neatly, by informing us that Lebanese citizens hold Britain responsible, in part, for the Israeli attacks last year (source) - because we didn't have enough clout to stop the IDF's bombs.

In Baghdad, the US is thinking of dividing the city into sections. "It didn’t work in Vietnam so why should it work here?" The papers say. Well apparently it has already succeeded in Iraq’s Tal Afar. Hmmm not a great example as the city has now slipped back into the insurgent’s hands (source).

And in Washington plans to appoint an apocalypticly sounding War Czar (source) to look over Iraq and Afghanistan are seriously being considered.

Can it get any worse than this?

Time for a donation, Penguin Island thinks.

Somalia sliding

2007-04-10T15:26:00.000Z

Above: Aidan Hartley's documentary on Jamhuuriyadda Soomaaliya is a little out of date but gives you a feel nonetheless (Unreported World, Hearts and Minds and Holy War,C4 06).

A story woefully underreported in Penguin Island’s mind is the speed at which lawlessness, death and fear are returning to Somalia.

When the Islamic Courts (UIC) - linked to al-Qaeda by its enemies and the United States - were sent back into the countryside, six months of relative prosperity and security went with them.

Granted, for many the idea of a UIC government threatening to outlaw many of life’s pleasures as anti-Islamic - such as watching football - is unappealing. But if there's one thing that we‘ve all learned from Iraq, is that democracy is no substitute for security.

Let’s hope that things get better soon.

Somali blogs.
Recent BBC report of 1000 dead.
Follow US meddling in the region.

An open and shut case?

2007-04-10T08:22:00.001Z

Natalie Evans' - who is now infertile - only chance of children is to use her pre- fertilised embryos, which the courts have demanded she destroys. She will find out today from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) if she has been successful in overturning this decision.

Simple enough it is not. Mr Johnson who originally fertilised the embryos has since withdrawn his consent for their use.

Ms Evans has gone to ECHR because it stipulates it's a human right to have a family.

Penguin Island expects her to be unsuccessful, without Mr Johnson’s consent would it be a family? Devastating for her and you wonder why Mr Johnson doesn’t have a bit more compassion; but the right decision it will be.

In today’s world where men aren’t taking enough responsibility when spreading their oats, it is important that this ruling shows that the choice for having a baby is one of both man and woman.

We must get away from run-away dads and men who don’t think past their dicks, if the court rules in Ms Evans' favour it will be a step backwards.

Nature, nurture

2007-04-09T09:30:00.000Z

It's not your fault you’re a paedophile - blame your parents.

Feeling suicidal? Get on with it, jump! There’s no point resisting.

Sarko has given an interview claiming he is a strong believer that nature (our DNA) predetermines our way of life. A convenient argument for anyone with a penchant for groping women, torturing animals or if his unemployment and homelessness policies start to fail.

It's a depressing signal to the young. One implying those born in the rundown estates of the Paris banlieue are predestined to live there and no amount of hard work will get them out.

Rather unwise Penguin Island thinks, seeing as youth unemployment and the banlieue unrest, are one of the election’s major issues.

The Little Napoleon’s comments are stupid but more importantly they epitomise a French system of politics that is highbrow and philosophical. You only need to glance over the number of epic length biographies, setting out each candidate’s vision of France, to get this impression.

It could be said that it's a refreshing break from the party driven, gutter politics of the British system. But critics claim that the French way is more elitist, chauvinist and out of touch.

With an electoral turnout similar to the UK’s, it is impossible to say which system works better. But you are left wondering, with a increasingly uncompetitive economy, unemployment anything up to 12% and yearly rioting, that the French have more to go to the polls about than we do.

Practice your French here.

Virtually reality

2007-04-07T14:08:00.000Z

Above: The reality of Sarkozy’s France?
Picture: from a popular email doing the rounds in France. This banner outside Sarkozy’s party headquarters reads: “Let's imagine the France of tomorrow.”

In April the headquarters of French far-right presidential candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen were destroyed.

Staff at the embassy who were lightly armed with push guns – that repel aggressors through the air – were overrun by assailants carrying grenade launchers, loaded with explosive pink pigs.

A fantasy world? Yes, but true all the same.

The battle took place in the cyber realm of Second Life and is a mark of just how hi-tec the French presidential race has become.

All four of the major hopefuls (Le Pen, Sarkozy, Royal and Bayrou) have campaign offices in this virtual world, each one built to reflect the candidate’s characteristics.

Royal’s is made out of wood reflecting her green credentials. And Bayrou’s underlines his countryside roots by including a farm complete with cows and a tractor and horse riding activists wearing “Sexy Centralist” T-shirts.

Clinton and Obama have also set up in offices in Second Life alongside the BBC, Reuters and a Swedish Embassy.

The mind boggles.

All hail the Croydonian, which originally brought us this story a few weeks ago.

Read the original Washington Post article.

Moroccan double standards

2007-04-06T10:13:00.000Z

Morocco is holding a development conference on African poverty (BBC 06/03/07).

Presumably the issue of 150,000 Saharawi refugees in the Algerian desert, won't be on the agenda.

The forgotten refugees, sent to one of the most inhospitable areas in the world by Morocco when it annexed Western Sahara in 1975, have been waiting on a UN referendum on self-determination since 1991.

You would have thought the UNDP who is supporting the conference would have checked with the UN's MINURSO first.

This is not the first time it's been said, nor will it be the last, but get your house in order UN.

Not heard of the issue? Not surprised it's been buried in the sand for 30years. Start learning here.

Update: Feed the World

2007-04-06T09:20:00.000Z

Maybe Brown/Benn read Penguin Island?

Yesterday Brown announced a 150million international aid package to "keep our promises".

While Benn spins:
"The [OECD] figures are disappointing, although we need to recognise the total in 2005 was the largest ever and 2006 figures are still about £20bn up on 2004. But countries have got to keep the promises they made, and Britain has certainly done so and we will continue to encourage others to honour their promises."

Penguin Island would like to point out that the reason UK aid has increased is because of commitments in Iraq - ( a lot of which is spent on mercenaries).

Read the Independent's article.

Talking cameras

2007-04-05T12:45:00.000Z

"the essential act of the Party is to use conscious deception while retaining the firmness of purpose that goes with complete honesty."

Last year we had security cameras that emit sound at a frequency only heard by the young - so moving them off street corners.

Yesterday we had cameras that tell us off. And today’s news is that we may have to take a lie detester test if we want to collect social benefit.

Penguin Island, (sorry Winston Smith) is uneasy at our seemingly unstoppable lurch towards an Orwellian Oceana.

Being watched and told what to do hits hard at our civil liberties. This notion that it’s permissible because it’s in everyone’s interest, makes it safer etc, is both patronizing and erodes at democracy.

Undemocratic because increasingly we can’t choose to do something, if that something isn't deemed “correct” by a few. This would be ok if the few – our MPs – made decisions for us, but more often than not they are taken for the party.

Could it be, that one day our actions will only be deemed permissible if they support the ruling party’s political doctrine or aren’t political at all?

For example Brian Haw’s peace demonstration on Parliament Square - little more than an eyesore and annoyance to New Labour - resulted in the Government curtailing everybody’s right to demonstrate.

The cordon’ s apologists may say it’s because of the terrorism threat. But this is convenient in itself, as the fear of terrorism can be turned into making us a more compliant electorate, increasingly blinded into support for Blair and New Labour’s decisions.

The cameras are the same. It turns safety - a rights issue - into a government tool. One in which the Government can make our actions more predictable, easier to control, homogenizing us so we are containable.

It is of course important for Government to use carrot and stick to change those habits that harm others, smoking, murder, racism, wasting energy etc. But talking cameras and the rest, take us down the road of “if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear”. Which is awfully close to saying, “if you’re not with us you’re against us”.

Read what other blogs are saying on the subject
Dizzy Thinks
The Croydonian

Political eel award goes to...

2007-04-05T08:59:00.000Z

Above: Westminster waffler John Reid.
Below: Rather vicious slippery eel.

John Reid is the UK’s most question dodging MP, Tony Blair second.

Reid, Westminster’s playground bully will only give a full answer in one out of every three questions posed to him (36%) . The newly titled Westminster Waffler who appears to be more brawn than brain, is a good 20 percent off the best three responders 34DD, Clegg and Ming.

If you can’t stand the heat, get out the Kitchen my friend.

Guess who ranked best out of Labour’s senior politicians? Answer here.

Airplanes kill

2007-04-05T08:15:00.000Z

Consumer warnings on car and flight adverts have been suggested today by Labour lovies the IPPR.

Nice idea. If we aren’t aloud to smoke because of the harm it does to second parties, then we shouldn’t be allowed to unnecessarily and unconsciously produce green house gases - because of the harm to second parties.

In the example of the flight adverts, the cigarette box style warning will give notice of the flight’s impact on climate change, suggest less damaging alternatives and compare the flight's emissions to an average person's yearly carbon footprint.

Of course it’s all pie in the sky unless we offer meaningful alternatives and sort out our train system first.

Calculate the emission figures for your flight to the Costa del Sol this summer.

Sailing free

2007-04-04T15:12:00.000Z

As Penguin Island predicted yesterday in its "on the way up section", the 15 sailors look like they are about to be released.

No more chess for you, back to scrubbing decks me hearties.

A victory for level-headed diplomacy.

Feed the World

2007-04-04T08:43:00.000Z

Above: The most patronizing song in history. Make this song history.

Do they know it's Christmas? No, because it isn’t.

Far gone are the heady days of 2005 when we were united under the national banner of making poverty history.

Tony was going to “push the G8 the whole way” forcing them to increase aid to Africa. And then we had Geldof cock-a-hoop over a “victory for millions” after the announcement of a £50 million African aid package.

The more cynical amongst us thought more action was needed or wondered if anything was going to happen at all.

Oh how right they were, when yesterday the OECD (source 03/04/07) told us how government aid donations fell in 2006.

So when the fresh faced Labour councillors come a knocking over the next month, telling you what the Labour party is doing for the wee Africans; rattle your own collection tin and get them to put their money where their mouth is.

Give aid to the Labour party here
Give aid to a better cause here

The Olympics stink

2007-04-03T20:05:00.001Z

The Olympics - a Great British travesty in self-promotion - has meant the Arts Council's Lottery funding has been slashed by 35% (source).

Sunday’s cut, will choke the already under funded British art scene.

The (buried) news of the cutback has prompted the usually nonpartisan Penguin Island to well and truly nail its colours to the mast.

Already the predicted cost is £9bn (watch it rise) – the original bid estimate was £2.35bn, they forgot the VAT. And Londoners are set to pay an extra £20 a year for 10 years in Council Tax, dismissed by Livingston as no more than a walnut whip (38p) a week.

Ken, you patronizing bleep no one wants to eat a Walnut Whip a week for the next decade in order to pay for yours and Blair’s legacy attempt. Or to be left at the end with a bleeping great concrete coach park over what was once one of London’s most beautiful wildlife areas.

Nor for that matter to be visually insulted over the next half century by the predictable onslaught of cheap badly designed buildings, serving no one but the greedy developers that persuaded you to bid in the first place.

Penguin Island will now take this opportunity to congratulate its Parisian friends in avoiding this fiscal no-ender, in the hope to go stay at theirs in 5 years time.

If you don’t think the money would have been better spent on schools and hospitals click here.

Tesco terrorism

2007-04-03T09:34:00.000Z

Above: Horaah for supermarkets.....but poor Chipper! 1963.
NB first 5 mins nostalgically amusing the rest about as boring as standing at the checkout.

Why does everybody hate me?

Well lets see. Bad music, strip lighting, subliminal messaging, loyalty scams, bad architecture…more?

If you insist.

Little more than oversized corner shops you stand accused of: destroying high streets, unfair trading with farmers, exploiting African labour, increasing food miles, encouraging intensive farming, deforestation, and (stop for breath) species homogenization.

Oh and today the Times tells us how Tesco is trying to convince the Competition Commission to define “local” as up to 30mins away. So it can continue to build on our high streets and truly saturate our postcodes.

Not finished yet. Apparently Tesco's hypermarkets are in healthy competition with smaller stores; because a “significant proportion” of shoppers spend more than 60 per cent of their weekly budget at Tesco Express or Sainsbury’s Local (source, Times 03/04/07) .

Jeez, I must have some good points, jobs, low prices, convenience?

Hmmm, possibly.

Ps Penguin Island tried one of those self service checkouts the other day. Impossible, gave up and went back to getting served by a human.

Click me if you hate supermarkets

Oh what a wonderful war

2007-04-02T19:47:00.000Z

One of the great travesties of war is that certain people make a good deal of money, while many others die, suffer or are condemned to a life in poverty.

Development NGO War on Want was in the news today, bringing this fact to light by exposing the role security firms play in Iraq.

For a while now Penguin Island has been following this interesting campaign as it slowly sheds light on this ancient and shady world of mercenaries.

War on Want tells us that these faceless men operate in relative immunity compared to regular squaddies, woefully disregarding human rights. Despite the fact that two security firms have been implicated in the Abu Ghraib scandal, how many mercenaries did you hear about being charged?

All the more unsettling is reading in the Guardian that 25% of the UK’s Iraq regeneration budget is spent on these so-called professional soldiers. (source 02/03/07)

Download WoW’s report Corporate Mercenaries (the 1st report on page)

Like playing war games? Check out the real deal ……sicko

Naughty Boy

2007-04-02T12:55:00.000Z

In ‘97 Brown looking for some extra cash, scrapped a 10% tax relief on the dividends earned by pensions schemes. Generally analysts don’t think this is the main reason for the pension crisis but the Treasury report - released late Friday – does claim he was made aware of the risks involved in the tax.

So instead the real story is all about Brown’s character. The report was deliberately released after parliament had broken up, he is blaming the CBI for advising the 10% tax, which they deny as Treasury spin. And of course there is the general bulldozer nature of the Treasury under his command.

Annoyingly it steers the debate away from the real issue - the pension crisis as a whole.

Fear not, a Penguin Island sixty-second synopsis cometh.

Thinking caps on? Here goes.

Three types of pension. The State pension, crap not linked to earnings and about £85 a week. Company pension, initially very attractive as linked to your salary (final salary pensions FSPs),but these days they tend to be linked to the stock market (money purchase). Thirdly there are personal pensions, sorted out by the banks and also linked to the market.

So, increasingly our pensions are invested at our own risk with no final sum guaranteed.

The nation is getting older and the returns on pension investment getting riskier - the recent dotcom crisis wiped 250bn off pension fund assets - coupled with Brown's 10% tax (which wiped about 50bn, source FT,02/04/07 ) means that companies no longer want to offer the “safe” FSPs. So as numbers of FSPs plummet our nest eggs are left at the whim of the market and as a result we aren’t saving enough for our retirement. Voila.

Still no clue, don’t blame you, try this.

Iranophobia

2007-04-01T11:21:00.000Z

Above: Housewife studmuffin Rageh Omar gives us an acclaimed documentary on Iran (Rageh Inside Iran, BBC4, 02/07)

A physicist friend of Penguin Island recently returned from Iran having rather suspiciously decided to go there skiing - just at the height of the current nuclear crisis.

Upon questioning, he spoke fervently about the power in the hands of the unaccountable and ubiquitously hated Revolutionary Guard.

The Guardian (31/03/07 p4) backed up his claims with an interesting twist to the 15 sailor story, suggesting the Revolutionary Guard may have snatched the sailors for internal political gains.

Set up by Khomeini to defend the Islamic revolution they are now a massive commercial and military outfit. After a series of crises, freezing of assets, arrests, disappearances etc it is suggested that they took the sailors to affirm their grip and cement support within the Iranian political system.

Of course it has nothing to do with Iranian paranoia induced by US agents operating and funding groups in and around the Shatt al-Arab Waterway.

Thought our political makeup was confusing? Check out Iran’s.

Its all in a logo

2007-03-31T18:16:00.000Z

Maggie's Conservatives

Penguin Island was surprised to find out how many people didn't know that the Tories had changed their logo. So here's the new one.

Modern Conservatives

Described as a child's scribble or as Tebbit suggests broccoli, note please how the tree leans to the right (the Scottish version leans far less).

Looking rather like the consumer stamp i would expect to find on a sustainably forested Ikea bed, there has never been a more blatant attempt at green wash.

Want to pass off your mahogany as sustainable? Download the new Tory logo here.

Blogger vs Paxman, Sir Michael White and Nick Robinson

2007-03-30T14:55:00.000Z

Above:Guido's wrath incurring Newsnight piece 03/07

Having accidentally given the laptop a bath Penguin Island has been off the scent for a while, but returned to find an interesting story not usually within its realm.

Namely, the recent appearance of popular political blogger Guido on Newsnight. Guido aka Paul Staines led with a piece criticising mainstream journalists as being too close to their sources, and tip toeing around them for fear of being frozen out and left without an interview. In essence compromising the story to maintain influential contacts.

Guido’s interesting point was bitterly put down with playground insults such as “oh grow up” from the BBC’s Nick Robinson, “you’re living in a pathetic conspiracy world” from Paxman and “look a bit of a prat” from the Guardian’s White.

Although Guido is about as camera savvy as a broken lens, I couldn’t help but notice how threatened these establishment journalists appeared, even in White's case going as far as lying on national TV to cement his integrity.

Watch White foaming at the mouth after Guido’s Newsnight piece
Did Sir White lie on national TV?
Robinson spits his dummy out the pram
Read Guido

Blaggers guide to Browns last budget

2007-03-22T12:39:00.000Z

So you work in one of the areas below and its down the pub friday night. Need to sound like you know something about the budget?

Development
You can say: "Unsurprisingly, there wasn’t much in it for us"

Taxing Chelsea tractors and dropping the stamp duty for carbon neutral homes will help to alleviate climate change aiding communities in the South. The £800 million will be a bonus for Hilary’s development projects, but we need greater action on the MPH promises.

Environment
You can say: "A drop in the ocean really"

Yes it moves in the right direction but he still doesn’t recognise the urgency of climate change. We need a comprehensive set of measures such as tax breaks and spending help as well as setting out an overall strategy for cutting carbon across all economic sectors. Environmental taxes are still not close to their 1999 levels.

Business
You can say: "Good Mr Brown but no cigar"

The 2% drop in the headline rate of corporation tax is welcome and goes someway to restoring our international competitiveness. In all its good news for the multinationals but those smaller businesses that don’t have a culture of investment won’t benefit from the capital allowances. Happily the rate increase in the small companies corporation tax will be neutralized by the R&D credits.

Labour
You can say: "Brilliant, pulled a rug right out from underneath …….eeerrr “Two Rugs”"

Drop in income tax and corporation tax, £6600 to be spent on each pupil, predicted growth highest in the G7. Amazing, the biggest tax reform in 20 years. Losing the 10p income tax base rate is easily wiped out by the working tax credit. Oh stop whining he made it clear it wasn’t a fiscal loosening.

Conservatives
You can say: "Childless and poor? Vote for Cameron"

The trade deficit is widening, average families will pay £1300 more in tax, and we will borrow 8 billion more than he said three months ago. So where has all the money gone? Pleased he has taken our advice by cutting income and corporation tax but he has to pay for it by dropping the 10p basic rate and raising national insurance. Tax con not tax cut.

Liberals
You can say: "More Sheriff of Nottingham than Robin Hood"

A 2p slash in income tax is a tax cut for the wealthy masquerading as one for the poor. This budget continues to widen the rich and poor gap, in some cases lowest earning households will pay a greater proportion of their income in tax than the highest. They say tax credits? We say inefficient and incomprehensible. Up to 40% of those who can claim it, don’t. And I’ll tell you where all the money has gone, Iraq.

Understand tax credits? Neither do I
Further reading from Christian Aid , FoE, CBI

Macavity steals the Rum Tum Tugger's clothes

2007-03-21T17:11:00.001Z

Judging by his final budget delivered today, Brown will clearly not be tip - toeing away from number 11.

An impressive 2p drop in income tax as well as a fall in corporate tax, left many astounded and the ruffled Tories branding Macavity a copy cat.

A full 9mins of the speech was given to the environment, proving its riding high up the agenda. But despite a further levy on Chelsea tractors, critics point out green taxes still makeup less of the overall tax burden then they did in the late 90s.

In all, the rousing budget seemed packed full of sweeties for companies, education, families and environmentalists. But one is left unsure how it all adds up, suspecting it’s merely a rearranging exercise not one of tax reduction. Smoke and mirrors spring to mind.

Read the suitably complex Treasury breakdown
Read what Dizzy Thinks about Gordon “Macavity” Brown
T.S. Eliot on Gordon Brown

Getting back to my roots

2007-03-15T12:04:00.003Z

Last night's speaker event at my branch meeting consisted of two party faithful dancing to the tune of Blair vs Brown. Interestingly while the Brownite saw little difference between the two, the Blairite - an ex Labour press officer - listed failing after failing in Brown. Was this more a case of unassured usurper or inexorable incumbent?

The debate took a turn for the worst when the ward members seriously discussed whether the glass eyed Brown was too Scottish. A nosedive for me but then i don’t remember the Welsh Windbag.

Otherwise the meeting was a refreshing example of local politics. Instead of the merits of regime change we argued on whether the leisure centre was to be refurbished or rebuilt.

Unsurprising however was learning that debt, riverlike flows from my Labour council all the way down to my branch. Seemingly the culture of credit Britain runs deep.

Ask Martyn Q about Brown's glass eye
Rather sentimental biography of the "Welsh Windbag"

Green is the colour

2007-03-12T12:21:00.000Z

Environmentalists sit back and prepare to be schmoozed.

Today Brown speaks at the frightfully high brow Green Alliance to outline his green credentials ahead of the budget. While tomorrow the Government will publish details of its draft climate bill.

Not to be outdone in the race to seem green, Cameron has come out with proposals on aviation taxes. Unsurprisingly these have crashed and burned with the aviation and travel industry, but in my mind seem quite innovative. They include an air miles tax - if you travel over a certain amount you get taxed more – and proposals to tax planes not passengers. Of course these will be replacement taxes and the overall tax burden won’t rise –he is a Tory don’t forget.

Another issue guaranteed to get the greenies going – the older ones at least- is Wednesday’s vote on renewing Trident.

So the debate is most certainly on, who is the greenest of them all?

With the Treasury consistently vetoing DEFRA’s attempts at coming up with ways of dealing with climate change in the recent review, Brown has a long way to go to appease the environmentalists.

Whereas Cameron seems to be saying all the right things. His insistence that the debate is not all about climate change but also about issues such as biodiversity will certainly get the grass root environmentalists raising a toast with their recycled glasses.

But as the ever charismatic Director of Friends of the Earth, Tony Juniper put it, “when in opposition it is much easier to speak green then go green”.

Read about Friends of the Earth
Read about Green Alliance

The coolest charity of the year?

2007-03-11T12:12:00.000Z

Last year's winner of Q Magazine’s Coolest Charity award went to the small international development organisation, War on Want.

It’s easy to see why. Its campaigns are supported by trendy pop stars - Bono or Geldof types may endorse elsewhere. They innovatively use channels such as myspace to disseminate their campaign messages and are staffed by empathic and approachable campaigners. A world away from the woolly hat brigade so often associated with other development charities such as Oxfam.

Last Saturday, without a thermos in sight, a group of its staff and members met in a small room aside the Thames.

Listening to the speeches, it was evident how the last couple of years had seen their articulate Campaigns Director elevate the organisation from relative obscurity to new levels of media exposure. Ground breaking reports such as the recent exposure of Tesco’s use of sweatshop workers to the provocative documentation of human rights abuses by Government funded mercenaries were recent examples of national coverage.

But what should have been a rosy session of back slapping nearly went pear shaped when the meeting erupted in scandal over the news that the AGM had been cancelled.

The AGM serves to appoint democratically elected War on Want members to the Council of Management. In turn the council determines the organisation’s long-term strategy and appoints its chief executive.

In the end a distinctly fishy excuse of legal technicalities left many a delegate whispering that the AGM had been cancelled because certain “undesirables” who might wish to depose the chief executive where to be appointed.

So one is left feeling that despite its cool charity status, maybe all is not fair in war on want.

Read about War on Want

Clear as mud

2007-03-08T16:08:00.000Z

So Straw succeeded where Cook failed and last night a whopping House of Commons majority voted for a fully elected House of Lords. Despite the decision going against the Government’s preferred (50% elected) hybrid model, Jack Straw sounded relieved that a decision had been made and the wheels of reform were finally turning.

The news served as a starting gun for the newspapers, who sped out of their blocks trumpeting “a triumph for democracy over feudalism” and “the sweeping away a 1000yrs of history”. False start.

Firstly this was merely an indicative vote, informing the Government. Secondly the Lords still have to agree to it. No prizes for guessing which way they’ll vote.

There is also a distinct whiff of sabotage. Why did all those MPs who had earlier organised against a fully elected house, suddenly about turn and vote in its favour? Because they knew that it would be the best way of resigning the outcome to a constitutional quagmire that no Government will try to push through for ages to come.

Ask yourself: will Gordon Brown really want to spend the first few months of his new office in a messy dog-fight with the Lords?

Perhaps the clearest thing about this decision is that it further muddies this increasingly opaque political issue.

This morning Jack Straw was posturing victorious, claiming the population wholly support an elected House of Lords but some of us are not so sure.

For starters there’s the MPs who will be sleeping uneasily at the thought of the upper house becoming more democratic then the Commons (should they be elected by any other means than “first past the post”) and there’s the rest of us who wonder, what’s the point of the old fuddy-duddies in the first place?

Cash for a peerage anyone?