Don't be a stranger.

Imagine this happening in your town.

You go for a day  out with a friend, on the way home you decide to get some fish and chips. You spot 'something happening' and more Police than you've seen in years. It's all quite exciting, so you decide to take some pictures with your nice new camera so you can show the folks at home.

You are challenged by a Police Officer as follows:

“You are a stranger in *insert-town-name** and you are . . . . .”

“I am not a stranger in *insert-town-name* I have been here two years.”

“Then tell me who you are I’ve never seen you before.”

This actually happened to Stephen Russell, in Kidlington, near Oxford. He recorded events until :-

the officer manhandled me and switched off my camera,

He had his pockets searched, was taken to the police station. You can read the whole story on Stephen Russell's own blog.

Stephen also explains, in a later post, how easy it was for him to be confused with a terrorist.

There is a report about this incident on Amateur Photographer, along with a discussion within their forum. The Oxford Times also carries a report and goes on to explain the why the Police were there in the first place :-

Police spokesman Daniel Donovan said officers were called to the High Street at about 4.15pm after a gang hurled a bottle at a woman passer-by. 

And what happened to the bottle throwers?

Officers arrived and the louts were told to move on.

Good job none of them had a camera!

....

Power2010 update.

Power2010 is being updated. The site says

Sorry, we are currently changing our site.
For good.

Here's the latest email, dated 24th February.

After 4,500 submissions and more than 100,000 votes, I'm pleased to announce the POWER Pledge:

1) Introduce a proportional voting system.

2) Scrap ID cards and roll back the database state.

3) Replace the House of Lords with an elected chamber.

4) Allow only English MPs to vote on English laws.

5) Draw up a written constitution.

To sign the POWER Pledge you don't have to agree with all five reforms. You need only be in favour of a majority of the ideas - and a reforming Parliament that will act on them.

This is your manifesto for a better Britain - thank you so much for your help and support.

Now we need to let the politicians know we're serious - click here to sign the POWER Pledge and add your name to our call for change.

We couldn't have come this far without your support - and we'll continue to need it - but POWER2010 is growing.

If you haven't already, you'll soon hear from one of our regional organisers. They'll be taking the POWER Pledge out to the whole country.

We're fully staffed and will be launching a huge campaign - this is your moment to change politics. For good.

http://www.power2010.org.uk/ChangePolitics

Thank you, and best wishes,

Pam Giddy
Director
POWER2010

According to Man in a Toque though, this email might not be quite true, because Toque noticed this post by Dave Rickard referring to the topic that came fourth :-

So ‘English Votes on English Laws’ (EVoEL) duly made it into the list of the top-five proposals for political reform that were to form the basis of the ‘Power 2010 Pledge’, which all candidates at the election were going to be asked to support. Thanks to everyone who supported it. Except that this Pledge now appears to have been unexpectedly transformed into a commitment to back only a majority (at least three) of the reforms. As EVoEL finished fourth in the poll, this has understandably led some to conclude that Power 2010 has tried to ‘fix’ the result in such a way as to sideline EVoEL, just as – some allege – its political allies tried to fix the vote itself to try to bump EVoEL out of the top five. Rather unfortunate, in this context, that Power 2010 has now adopted the phrase ‘let’s fix it, not fiddle it’ as its tag line, with the ambiguity of the word ‘fix’ that will surely provoke mockery. .....

Please read both blogs to learn more, these folks are for more erudite than Mrs R - who, if this is true, is a little disappointed to be honest.

She sent people over to Power2010 hoping their voices would be heard, and can guess that others did the same because, well, because.

There's the thing about changing the voting system, which Labour suddenly thought was a good idea when they got worried about a FPTP result, and wanted to cosy up to other parties in case of a hung parliament, and suddenly thousands of other people agreed with them -  and oddly, benefit from a FPTP ballot!

The site's bound to be back up again soon, and we'll see what they have to say.
Links:
Toque
David Rickard @ Open Democracy
....

Convenient criminals

"Convenient criminals" were, according to this site created to dispel the myth of rising crime, and

Labour thought it would be a good idea to judge police performance solely on Targets. Set targets to Police Forces (sorry 'Services') to achieve a certain clear-up rate of crime and that would focus them.

Good idea at the time perhaps, but like Topsy the idea 'just growed'.

You aren't going to read the rest of the blog piece here, you'll have to visit this site to do that. Go on, it's worth it.

Maybe you'll be able to help them out too,

Do you know of someone who was, or were you the victim, and yet ended up with a fixed penalty ticket?

If so these are the criteria we need to meet:
1. Was the person a genuine victim of crime ?;
2. Was the victim (or bystander) issued with a Fixed Penalty Ticket by police and the criminal unapprehended?
3. Are there independent witnesses prepared to set out what happened?
4. Was the penalty paid rather than go to court?
5. Are they / you prepared to be interviewed on camera as part of a non-professional documentary for You Tube and elsewhere ?

If so please post an outline in the comments and we will find a way to get in touch.

Here's an example :

1. 26 year old male, (College sports coach) having a quiet drink with friends is hit in the face by a glass thrown during a fight which erupted at the other end of the pub. Bleeding heavily he is taken outside as police and ambulance are called. Those involved in the fight leave - they know the police are coming. Victim sits on the pavement waiting for ambulance.

Police arrive but the fight is over and nobody to arrest, that's bad news for the officers as with no criminal apprehended they fail the targets set by the Government. They walk out to the victim and this is where he became a Convenient Criminal.

In shock from his wounds and the heavy bleeding he loudly asks the police 'Where's the f***ing ambulance got to?'. Suddenly the police can, and do, issue a Fixed Penalty for a Section 5 Public Order Offence for his swearing and bingo their targets are met. Crime reported, officers attend and a fixed penalty ticket issued. Ticks all the boxes they need for Labour's police targets.

And, in case you missed it here's the link again.

h/t EUReferendum & Muffled Vociferation

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Worse than they thought? - In pictures.

Eh?

ONS got the numbers wrong?

Edmund Conway, Economics Editor of the Telegraph writes

it wasn’t merely the latest quarter worth of data that the ONS revised today – it also went back through a whole range of its statistics, and discovered that the recession was in fact significantly deeper than it previously thought.

So although in Q4 Britain ended up producing more or less the same amount of cash (actually £133m less, as I’ve pointed out), it produced even less than was previously thought in the preceding quarters. So, in comparison, the jump between Q3 and Q4 works out at 0.3pc rather than 0.1pc.

Read the whole article and see the original graph here

..........

And separately, these charts and graphs are courtesy of a Coffee House piece discussing an interview with Mr Brown. It's probably silly to show them on their own, but they do make a point.

t really is worth reading the whole piece, as well as the comments beneath it.

This first chart is alongside an excuse that "... Every country has had a build up of debt as result of the recession"

This next one, explained by the title, alongside one of Mr Brown's 'I'll ask myself a question and then answer it ...' moments - "... did we run too high a level of debt prior to the crisis? The answer is that we ran one of the lowest debt levels of any of the G7 countries."

And a statement that " ... there are two and a half million more people in work than in 1997."
Pity that so few of them are British born.

One of the comments below the article points out that

"A more powerful way of representing the data in Fraser's table would be to show the percentage increase in the debt figure over 4 years:

Ireland 250%
UK 102%
Spain 85%
France 42%
Portugal 39%
Euro Area 36%
Greece 33%
Germany 27%
Italy 17%

This is when the UK figures begin to look SCARY!!!"

....

A fool's guess?

Everybody else is doing it, so Mrs Rigby has decided to prove, once and for all, that she has little experience of things political so will make a fool's guess or two.

British people are getting tired of politics, they are getting tired of reading about badly behaved MPs, they're tired of obfuscation and dithering, and they're tired of being treated like fools. They're also getting tired of complaining and not being heard.

Long before the opinion polls started turning, the media began carrying predictions of a hung parliament. The polls are, naturally, now confirming this. (Look up self-fulfilling prophecy.) Some people like the idea of a hung parliament, because they don't want, in their lifetime, to see a single political group have such a clear majority that it lets them do whatsoever they wish. Some of these people assume the group with the most votes will get to lead a coalition.

Because of all this tedium and the oh so frequently-predicted outcome, some people are planning their own strategies. Some have decided not to bother voting, others have decided to mess up their ballot papers to make a point and some are planning to vote Labour, reckoning that because this government made the mess, it's their job to clean it up - with the expectation that that's what they'd do, because it's the right thing to do, what decent people would do.

Others, though, point out that if Labour were to win a coming election it would be seen as a mandate to continue, and expand, existing policies. It isn't worth trying to list them all, frankly it's too depressing for Mrs R to contemplate.

So, with all this running through her head and never having actually learned anything much about either politics or political processes, Mrs Rigby's instinct tells her when the election is likely to be. To support this gut feeling she's hastily scrabbled around for a few supporting bits and pieces.

People throughout the country, and of every political colour except red, have been politely requesting an election ever since Mr Brown became PM, and almost every request ends with the word, "Please,". But, of course, our 'caring, 'kind', 'fatherly', PM refuses - because he and he alone knows what's best for both the country and its population, he also knows what's best for the rest of the world.

Throughout this government April 1st has been the day much favoured for the commencement of new legislation, opening the doors of new 'agencies', the day new taxes are levied etc., it is also the beginning of the new tax year.

This year April 1st is a Thursday. It is the day before Good Friday and marks the beginning of the long Easter weekend, it is the day when many people, irrespective of their green credentials, will be either starting out on journeys or preparing to travel to an overseas holiday destination - to catch a bit of early sunshine to recover from a long, cold, winter.

If Britons mimic their New Zealand counterparts then around 33% will have already planned to be away from home over Easter this year, although not necessarily outside the country and may, therefore, not wish to be distracted by things political.

Not many people realise you can register at any time throughout the year because the register is updated every month, as set out in the provisions of the Representation of the People Act 2000.

Not many people realise that postal votes can be requested on demand, and unlike a proxy vote, once you have applied for a postal vote you are not allowed to vote in person unless you re-register - which can be done at any time.

April 1st may also be "All Fools' Day", a day for pranks and jokes, but Mrs R guesses that this date will be chosen for the 2010 general election.

There must be at least 17 working days between when an election is called and election day itself. In practice that means at least 20/21 days warning, including weekends, and would mean that there could be an announcement around 10th/11th March.

The results?

Whether on that day or any other, Mrs R predicts that most people who are happy with their existing MP will continue to vote for that particular party, even if their current MP has decided to resign. She thinks that, in some parts of the country, Labour will lose votes, perhaps even a seat or two, to the BNP and the Tories will lose votes to UKIP, whilst the Lib Dems and Greens will bumble  along, keeping about the same number of seats as usual, although it's more likely the Lib Dems will gain votes from the Greens because a lot of 'thinking' people are a bit annoyed with environmentalists just now.

From reading what people think, and also talking to family and friends dotted around the country, Mrs R thinks the media is calling the tune and the results will be close, possibly leaving no party with a clear, overall majority - as predicted by the polls - although she has some reservations about these polls because, for example, she is registered with YouGov but has not been asked a single political question since last autumn.

Apparently

Under constitutional convention, the Prime Minister can stay in Number 10 if his rivals do not win a majority, even if Labour loses the election.

Mr Brown seems to display a certain stubbornness of character, he has made it clear both in Parliament and in the media that he does not believe any other  political party is fit to run the country, so it's likely he will do his best to stay, demanding that all other parties do his bidding in a coalition under his control.

Okay, so Mrs R realises she's probably made a complete and utter fool of herself, so if anybody has a handy dunce's cap she'll happily wear it until the election - whenever it may be.

....

Taking the 'Pis'.

Thanks to David Charter and Graham Keeley in the Times and Mary Ellen Synon in the Mail maybe we now know why the Belgians, with their world-famous Manneken Pis statue, don't think much of the British.

A Libre Belgique reader believes

"The English are cretins, whose arrogance is only equalled by their mediocrity of spirit."

How much of this current bad-mouthing is down to Mr Farage's outburst against Von Rompuy and how much is to do with the esteemed Baroness Ashton has to be open to debate.

The Baroness, you may recall, was chosen to be the first ever EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. She is also the First-Vice-President of the European Commission. She has, therefore, significantly greater powers and greater authority than any elected representative, so you'd think she would take her job very seriously, and make sure she always does the right thing for the EU, such as going to Haiti after the terrible earthquake, or even attending important meetings related to her role.

Err, no. Fail on both counts.

She hasn't turned up to important defence meetings, her most recent excuse being that she had a prior engagement, to attend

... the inauguration of the new Ukrainian president

Perhaps the EU choosers were having a little joke, taking the 'Pis' when they chose somebody previously strongly affiliated to CND and, possibly also with the Soviets, when she was selected for her job of Defence Minister?

Daniel Korski, a defence analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said: “She has not really shown herself to be particularly interested in the defence portfolio.”

So, why is she still in the job?

....

44,000 new voters in the last 3 months.

Hmm, makes you think.

More than 44,000 British passports were handed out to foreigners in just three months as the number of applications for citizenship soared 30 per cent.

Latest Home Office figures reveal that 51,315 applications were made for citizenship in the final quarter of last year - a massive rise from the 39,325 requests made for the same period in 2008.

The number of immigrants granted UK passports rose 15 per cent from 38,955 to 44,870. It is much higher than the previous record average of 41,000 passports handed out each quarter in 2007.

To be able to vote you have to be British, and, as the Border Agency's "LifeintheUK site says

Settlement and citizenship

Becoming settled in the UK by getting indefinite leave to remain means you will have the opportunity to play an even more active role in your community and wider society. You no longer have to renew your permission to stay in the UK and you are free to come and go with the minimum of fuss, provided you do not remain outside the UK for more than two years.

If you are applying to become a British citizen, this will give you:

* the right to a British passport

* the right to vote in national elections

Not entirely sure what the, "provided you do not remain outside the UK for more than two years" means, unless it meant that if Mrs R chooses to wander off abroad somewhere or other and is away for more than two years she loses her Britishness ... but no matter.

There's a practice 'citizenship' test - it's written in English. Try it here and compare it with the one from 2005, shown on the BBC

You can register to vote if

you are:
* 16 or over (but you cannot vote until you are 18)

* A UK, Republic of Ireland or qualifying Commonwealth citizen. Qualifying Commonwealth citizens are those who have leave to enter or remain in the UK, or do not require such leave.

* A citizen of a European Union country living in the UK
A citizen of the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man or a British Overseas Territory living in the UK

....

Chancellor's "Red Box"

Mrs Rigby remembers Mr Brown leaving Downing Street carrying a brand new 'red box' , which is the traditional 'briefcase' of the Chancellor of the Exchequer and indeed the traditional briefcase of all ministers of the crown since 1860. They're meant to be bomb proof and acid proof, with a nifty design feature that makes the user lock the box before picking it up by the handle.

Mrs R thought she'd imagined seeing the new one because she's seen loads of pictures showing Mr Darling using an old, very battered red box, but it seems not.

Wikipedia sometimes get things wrong, so it was wise to check directgov which says

In July 1997, Gordon Brown became the second Chancellor [the other was Mr Callaghan] to use a new box for the Budget. Made by industrial trainees at Babcock Rosyth Defence Ltd ship and submarine dockyard in Fife, the new box is made of yellow pine, with a brass handle and lock, covered in scarlet leather and embossed with the Royal initials and crest and the Chancellor's title.

Here he is with his lovely new box. (Picture from BBC)

Wikipedia points out that

In March 2008, Alistair Darling reverted to using the original budget briefcase.

But it's a Wikipedia error, there are pictures showing Mr Darling with the lovely new red box - here's one from the Guardian, dated 12th March 2008.

A year later here he is with the battered old one. Picture from the Telegraph, 12th February 2009.

According to an old article in the BBC, the one linked to the picture of Mr Brown, these boxes are quite expensive, and this government has managed to get through quite a few, the information (from only some departments) being made public as a result of an FOI request, way back in 2007.

The total amount spent on the boxes between May 2002 and May 2007 was £57,260.05, according to a collection of answers to questions and Freedom of Information requests submitted by Mr Hemming. **

This is the breakdown

Transport - £8,853
DWP - £6,588
Defra - £1,500
DCLG - £7,420
Scotland - £1,620
DCMS - £1,598
DTI - £13,337.50
Innovation - none
Foreign Office - £6,990
Wales - none
Treasury - £1,899
Defence - £6,108
International Dev - £1,346.55

So it looks as if the Treasury spent £1,899 on Mr Brown's nice new red box - which has now vanished.

Does he get to keep it as a souvenier?

** John Hemming who made the FOI request is, incidentally, MP for Birmingham, Yardley. He has a blog too, but Mrs R hasn't drilled back through it to see if he wrote anything about these red boxes.

....

Advanced Science.

In a statement about Science and Maths A-level exams, Sylvia McNamara, from the QCDA, the body responsible for the development of the curriculum and qualifications in England, said

"This summer A-level students will sit the new style exams, which demand a more broader understanding ...

Sylvia McNamara is a very important person, in a high powered job. She is Executive Director for Policy Implementation at Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA), her background :-

... having worked at Birmingham City Council as Director of Education and prior to that as a lecturer in special educational needs at the universities of Nottingham Trent and Leicester.

She's obviously the best person the implement policy decisions across the whole curriculum, including those for bright, able, gifted and talented young people - because they too have been recognised as having special educational needs.

If your child is gifted or talented, talk to their teacher, the school's Leading Teacher for Gifted and Talented Education or the headteacher about the support available. You may also find it helpful to talk to your local authority's Gifted and Talented lead ...

Good for you Sylvia for remembering this, well done for making sure clever kids are catered for.

Let's look at the "more broader" Science Diploma Sylvia is so proud of. It should be good, because 

Schools Minister Jim Knight [...] asked the science community, employers and higher education experts to come together to ensure the new Advanced level Science diploma is of the highest possible quality.

These experts must have had lots of meetings, because they managed to produce all these documents

* Initial Scope 09-08
* Draft Themes 10-08
* Draft Themes Annex
* Draft Themes Summary
* Secondary Research Report - January 2009
* Market View Report - January 2009
* Market View Annex - February 2009
* Student Voice Report - March 2009
* Consultation Findings - March 2009
* Criteria Consultation Interim Report - May 2009
* Criteria Consultation Report - June 2009
* Employer Voice Report
* Advanced Level LoL*** - Final Draft for Consultation - February 2010

This diploma will

... be phased in over two years with the Foundation and Higher level being introduced in September 2011, and the Advanced Science diploma now being introduced in September 2012.

It's going to be so difficult that at age 16

* the Foundation level is equivalent to 5 GCSEs at grades D to G
* the Higher level is equivalent to 7 GCSEs at grades A* to C

Crikey, that sounds tough. Imagine the rigour. Imagine the challenges students will have to face to be able to complete assignments and pass tests in only one subject that is equal to all those GCSE passes - and to be able to do all that whilst also studying at least English and Maths and two other subjects to ensure 'breadth' of study. Anybody studying this syllabus must be incredibly bright, and so incredibly focused on learning that they won't mind having their noses glued to books for the two years needed to get through this syllabus.

Imagine how proudly superior these students will feel when they realise they've got a longer list of qualifications than those of their peers who have studied Biology, Chemistry and Physics as single subjects, and who are only awarded one GCSE pass for each. Imagine, too, what this amazing qualification will do to the league tables - every school will be eager to take it up.

It gets even better, because in the sixth form

* the Advanced level is equivalent to 3.5 A levels

Fantastic! It's amazing! Only the most able, the brightest will be able to stand the pace, after all, very few these days manage to do more than 3 subjects at A-level, not even Oxbridge expects that much. The students following this course will be scientific world leaders, so let's hope loads of teenagers sign up to study this diploma.

Ah, you're thinking, it isn't often Mrs Rigby is thrilled by innovative learning opportunities, so why does she sound so pleased?

Well, she's delighted to think the government, via QCDA, has at long last realised that academic rigour is, errm, de rigueur - that it's fashionable, it's common sense, it's the 'in thing' to do.

Mrs R knows that, by the time they reach (now compulsory) 6th form, every single student will have been through 12 years of full-time education and, in the state sector, every scrap of learning will have been dictated and micro-managed by the government and its agencies.

Mrs R knows that every single state school (in England) will have complied with the ruling that makes Science a key subject, a compulsory subject - so no individual student will have been able to avoid either lessons or (in England) assessment at the end of each 'Key Stage', and their results will have been written down on a list.

So it's interesting that the "Diploma in Science" site needs to ask this challenging question

"What is science?"

***
Oh, by the way, LoL in this context is not the internet acronym, it refers to "Level of Learning"

....

He did it again!

*shakes head*

Sri Lanka summoned the acting British High Commissioner in Colombo yesterday to protest over an address by David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, to a meeting of ethnic Tamil activists in the Houses of Parliament.

....