Lansbury's Lido

Only a short post but I can feel the bile rising! Back at the time of the G20 protests there was the situation where a protester was whacked by a police sergeant with a metal baton. The case was going to court and became a bit of a cause. Well the police sergeant was cleared today by the jury. Whether this was the right verdict or not was overshadowed by what I heard on the radio on the way home from work, namely that Nicola Fisher has involved in a deal with Max Clifford and was reputed to be picking up 26 grand. According to the London Evening Standard it's closer to 50 grand! And if I could be bothered to read the papers I would have known this months ago. Max chuffing Clifford! Max chuffing Clifford! I can't describe how sour a taste this leaves in my mouth. Someone who was protesting against a brutal financial system and the role of the police in guarding that system now gets on her hands and knees to drink from the very same trough. Digusted. Disappointed. Downri...

So there have been more bombs exploded on the subway in Moscow yesterday. At least 37 people have lost their lives. And that's also 37 families that are grieving. A myriad number of people can be affected by events such as these bombings. It's not all bad news though, at least according to the Daily Mail. Tucked away in the middle of their report is this gem: The Russian rouble fell to 34.25 from 34.13 against the central bank's euro-dollar basket, on concern the blasts could indicate the start of a bombing campaign against Russian cities. Russian equity markets were little changed, with the rouble denominated MICEX index up 0.04 percent. Am I the only one to show a little disgust at the Mail reassuring everyone the markets are ok in the midst of all the death and destruction? Do markets matter more than people? Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1261502/Female-suicide-bombers-Moscow-kill-30-attacks-tube-trains.html#ixzz0jYxeLB3W

Image by Planetgordon.com via Flickr 'All Monies Clause', doesn't sound interesting but it could mean losing your home! I was just going to throw out some financial tat that landed on my doorstep regarding the joining to the Santander Group by the Alliance and Leicester. You know the type of stuff that you automatically chuck in the bin. However, a section regarding changes cauught my eye. It says that for new mortgage, loan and overdraft customers an 'All Monies Clause' was going to be introduced. This clause means that any debt you have within the financial group can be secured against your mortgage. Yes, you read that right, secured against your mortgage. So if you have an overdraft with this group as well as a mortgage, if they call in the overdraft then your mortgage is used as security against that overdraft. Can't pay? No problem, they'll sell your house for you to ensure their profits remain and their shareholders benefit. So we have the gover...

Seems that this Labour government is facing a 'spring of discontent'. First we have the BA cabin crew, and coming along are the signallers from the RMT. A strike by British Airways cabin crew will go ahead after talks between the airline and the Unite union collapsed. The three-day walkout begins at midnight, with a further four days of action set to commence on 27 March. BA chief Willie Walsh said the strike was "deeply regrettable". The airline has said 65% of passengers will reach their destination during the action. Unite's joint general secretary, Tony Woodley, said that BA "ultimately wants to go to war with this union" - BBC News. So why now? Perhaps with the prospect of a Tory election win, or at least a hung Parliament the brash style of management is flexing it's muscles. With BA we have Wilie Walsh, who perhaps sees himself a 21st Century Michael Edwardes or Ian MacGregor, using a Trojan horse of 'changes in working pra...

This is the end. Or is it. H/T Matt Stone

Image by bisgovuk via Flickr Another unelected Government Minister is poking his nose into affairs that should be best left to elected representatives. 'Lord' Adonis has called the planned strike by BA cabin crew members of Unite as 'totally unjustified'. According to the BBC News Adonis has said: Let's be absolutely clear the stakes are incredibly high in this strike and I absolutely deplore the strike," said Lord Adonis . It is not only the damage it's going to do to passengers and the inconvenience it's going to cause - which is quite disproportionate to the issues at stake - but also the threat it poses to the future of one of our great companies in this country. It's totally unjustified, this strike, on the merits of the issues at stake, and I do call on the union to engage constructively with the company. Pass me the sickbag please. And I do call upon 'Lord' Adonis to get elected or keep his trap shut. How many more of these ...

There's a report in today's Guardian about Nick Clegg giving an interview to the Spectator where he apparently praised the legacy of Thatcher. The Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg today praises Margaret Thatcher and says her desire to take on vested interests must be replicated in Britain. In an interview with the Spectator, Clegg says he has come to view Thatcher's victory over the unions as "immensely significant" and goes further than the Conservative party in courting economic liberalism, by saying he would end the structural deficit with 100% spending cuts, as opposed to the 80% cuts the Conservatives have proposed. He's having a larf, surely? Or is every political leader shooting themselves in the foot? Remind me why I will never vote for the Libs.

Near where I live there's a debate raging over plans for the building of a new mosque on the site of an old Victorian school in Camberley . The local Bengali Welfare Association have been using the site for the past 15 years to meet and worship at the Al-Kharafi Islamic Centre . Over the past decade the increase in islamic and Bengali activity in Camberley has been obvious with the flourishing of a number of halal supermarkets and chicken takeaways in that stretch of town along the A30 road. And the Islamic Centre at the site serves an area larger than Camberley, indeed my next door neighbour Sam worships there. Their plan is to knock down the current buildings, which have been home to a number of schools over the past 120 years. As usual with any plans going through the local council machinations there's an awful lot of misinformation, lies and in the case of this application, bigotry flying about. First the council approved it, then they rejected it, then came the fact tha...

With Michael Foot's death it's almost as if a link to the past has been broken. Here's a silent film from Pathe News of him at the Anti-Polaris demonstration at Dunoon in 1961, two years before I was even born. No sound on this one. ANTI-POLARIS DEMO AT DUNOON <p><p><p>Your browser does not support iframes.</p></p></p> The Pathe News site is always good for wallowing in some nostalgia!