Drink 60 pints and get a Six-month hangover

I have had a few hangovers in my life but none like this

Six-month hangover for 60-pint Scotsman | The Register

Update on Barclays shares suspension

More on the story that Barclay's shares were suspended for a period at mid-day today.

This really just goes to show how nervous the market is at the moment about the sub-prime crisis.

I note there is very little about the story in the MSM. Is this a sign that they have been asked to layoff in case of another run on a bank. BBC at this time(14:50) has only this story on Barclay's from a week ago. Maybe a sign of the "clunking fist" in action.

Maybe it's just lucky the weather storms are the main news rather than the Financial Storms.

Barclay's shares remain steady at the moment at 456.75 down 29.50 on the day.

Update at 17:46: Is some one playing with the market? This article from Robert Peston the BBC Business editor is quite interesting. Barclay's shares finished at 474.50 down 11.75 on the day.

Barclays shares suspended after plunge | This is Money

Record UK Trade Gap For September

BBC reports that the September trade gap for goods and services was a record 7.754 bn. Just more good news for Gordon.


BBC NEWS | Business | UK trade gap widens in September

Congratulations to Glasgow

Congratulations to Glasgow

BBC NEWS | Scotland | Glasgow, Lanarkshire and West | Glasgow wins race for 2014 Games

Guido reporting - POUND PLUNGES AS BARCLAYS SHARES SUSPENDED +++

Guido reporting pound plunging as Barclays shares suspended.

Update Reuters has the following apparently shares were suspended for technical reasons.

Further update here statement from Barclays

"There is absolutely no substance to those rumors," a spokesman for the bank said when asked about a possible $10 billion writedown.

He gave the same response when asked if the bank planned an emergency rights issue or if John Varley, its chief executive, or Bob Diamond, head of its Barclays Capital investment bank unit, planned to resign.

He declined to comment on talk that the bank may issue an emergency statement, but reiterating it planned to issue a trading update on Nov 27. By 1220 GMT Barclays shares had pared losses and were down 4 percent at 466.5 pence.

Update 13:05 FT reports here

Poster (Lennon) on Political Betting reports

"In order to attempt to ease panic - a word of explaination. Shares were not suspended but placed into a volatitily auction. This happens on any share where large moves happen to ensure attempting to equally match buyers and sellers. Barclays has since come out stating that there is ‘No Substance’ to rumours of a £10Bn write-down in values."

Guy Fawkes' blog of parliamentary plots, rumours and conspiracy: +++ POUND PLUNGES AS BARCLAYS SHARES SUSPENDED +++

Drivers face disqualification for speeding twice

Good, let us only hope that anyone under 23 is not only disqualified on the first offence but also made to resit their test before being allowed back on the roads. This might stop the carnage and waste of young lives and their innocent victims on our roads all over Britain , but particularly in Aberdeenshire where I live.

Drivers face disqualification for speeding twice - Telegraph

Thoughts on Detention - Bob Marshall Andrews

Shockingly I listened to almost all of the speeches yesterday by Jack Straw and David Davis on the second day of the debate on the Queen's Speech.

DD was on tremendous form and laid into a number of Labour MP’s, who tried some off the cuff comments, with tremendous effect.

What was also very interesting was the performance of Bob Marshall-Andrews who laid into his own party not only on the detention limit but also on the number of law changes Labour has introduced.

On the 28 day detention limit he asked

Will the Home Secretary return to the vexed question of the number of days for which a suspect may be detained? We heard her being tested a great deal about that on the radio this morning. She is not naming a figure, but it is widely known that something like 56 days will be the Government’s preferred option. If that is right, and if the consultations that she has undertaken suggest that would be sufficient, will she say why, two years ago, Labour Members were whipped to approve a limit of 90 days? That appears to be about twice the amount that is required.
While I am on my feet, may I tell the Home Secretary that I said earlier that she was the human and attractive face of the Home Office? She was not here at the time, so I must add that I was making a comparison with her predecessors. [Laughter.]

and then

It is a pleasure and a privilege, as always, to follow the right hon. and learned Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Mr. Howard). The sentiments and views that he expressed I agree with entirely, and, indeed, it has meant that I can expunge totally from my speech the long passage that I had on intercept evidence, so he has done the House a considerable service.
I want to start with, and to spend some time on, the issue of imprisonment without charge or trial, and I shall begin by dealing with zealotry—not “their” zealotry but mine. I am zealous on the subject of civil liberty, which is the reason why I joined the Labour party and one of the reasons why I am still in it. I believe that civil liberty is the most important part of our political agenda, and it is our defining characteristic as a nation. It is worth repeating what the shadow Home Secretary, the right hon. Member for Haltemprice and Howden (David Davis), said in his speech, in a slightly different way. My parents’ generation did not fight—and in some cases die—in the last war for the national health service, the repeal of section 28 or many of the other entirely laudable and worthy things mentioned during the Lord Chancellor’s speech. Indeed, if we had given in to the blandishments of Herr Hess at the beginning of the war, we would probably now have a perfectly acceptable national health service—providing, of course, that one is not Jewish, black, gay, Serbian or any of the other persecuted minorities who came to this country and received here the security and freedom for which we are famous. I echo what the right hon. Gentleman said: that this House should give up the smallest part of those liberties through our collective gritted teeth.

and then

I say to the Minister, in one simple, compendious sentence, that we do not need any more legislation to reform the criminal justice system. To put a slight gloss on that, I can say that what would be desirable would be a large and compendious Bill that had as its purpose scrapping most of the legislation that has been passed in the last 10 years in the cause of so-called reform of the criminal justice system. In the last 10 years, the Government have suffered from legislative hyperactivity syndrome in respect of criminal justice matters. I have been to the Home Office only once. I went there briefly to see a Minister who subsequently fell from grace: these things happen. I did not explore the building, but in my mind’s eye I can see a vast, probably subterranean, room—similar to that immortalised by Roald Dahl in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”—out of which are churned ever more impenetrable subsections, deliberately designed to cause dismay and chaos in the criminal justice system. The figures are interesting. In the whole of the 19th century, 34 Acts were passed that affected criminal justice. In the first half of the 20th century, there were 15. In the second half of the 20th century and up to this date, there have been 48, of which 35 have been passed by this Government. It is something of a feat to pass, in 10 years, more criminal justice Acts than were passed in the whole of the 19th century. Some 400 new offences have been created and 500 new sentences. Some of the figures that are kited are far higher, but I have removed from the count old offences that have been retreaded as new offences.

It is well worth reading the whole exchange here.

Do read the response after the speech by David Davis and Bob's answer.

RAF Nimrod puts out Mayday call after 'major fuel leak' - Times Online

The Nimrod was never designed to conduct air-to-air refuelling

Very worrying indeed that this should occur.

Update 9th Nov at 18:02: I see that nearly 48 hours after this story was broken it has now become the top news article on the BBC online news. The Times meanwhile has the following article and also reports the Nimrod could not send out a Mayday message as they could not get air traffic controllers to hear his mayday call.

Text of RAF Incident Report

A. AIR INCIDENT SER KAF/089/07(902/31/07 AND KINLOSS 102/07)

B. NIMROD MR2, XV235

J. DURING AR A FUEL SPRAY WAS OBSERVED IN THE BOMB BAY. THE AIRCRAFT WAS DUE TO IN-FLIGHT REFUEL FROM A TRISTAR. THE JOIN AND INITIAL CONTACT WERE UNEVENTFUL. THE JOIN WAS MADE AT 260KTS AND BOTH AIRCRAFT ACCELERATED TO 270KTS BEFORE THE NIMROD WAS CLEARED ASTERN.

THE AIRCRAFT FUEL LOAD ON CONTACT WAS 32800 LBS. PRIOR TO CONTACT THE 4 TANK REFUEL COCKS WERE OPEN. WHEN CONTACT WAS MADE PRESSURE WAS OBSERVED ON THE ENGINEERS REFUEL PANEL AND BOTH 2 AND 3 TANK REFUEL COCKS WERE OPENED. A SINGLE CONTACT WAS MADE AND THE FUEL REMAINED FLOWING THROUGHOUT. SHORTLY AFTER CONTACT WAS MADE THE ENGINEERS INTERCOM FAILED AND HE HAD TO CHANGE HEADSET LEADS. THE FIRST 5000 LBS OF FUEL WAS OBSERVED ON THE ENGINEERS GAUGES AND CONFIRMED WITH THE TRISTAR CREW. THE CREW THEN REQUESTED THAT THE TRISTAR CREW TURN ON THEIR CARTER PUMP. THERE WAS A SMALL PRESSURE RISE AND THE PRESSURE NEVER EXCEEDED 35 PSI. APPROXIMATELY 20 SECONDS AFTER REQUESTING THE CARTER PUMP ON, THE CREW MEMBER WHO WAS MONITORING THE BOMB BAY THROUGH THE PERISCOPE REPORTED FUEL SPRAYING INTO THE BOMB BAY AND FLUID LYING ON THE BOMB DOORS. THE BOMB BAY PERISCOPE WAS MANNED AS THIS WAS THE FIRST AR FLIGHT THE AIRCRAFT HAD UNDERTAKEN SINCE AN FRS COUPLING CHANGE IN OCT 07. THE CREW MEMBER AND CAPTAIN HAD DISCUSSED THIS PRE FLIGHT AND HAD IDENTIFIED THE AREA OF THE NEW FRS COUPLING.

AN IMMEDIATE BREAKAWAY WAS CARRIED OUT AND THE AIRCRAFT TURNED TOWARDS KANDAHAR AIRFIELD. THE REFUEL COCKS REMAINED OPEN UNTIL PRESSURE HAD DISSIPATED ON THE ENGINEERS PANEL. A MAYDAY WAS DECLARED ON THE ATC FREQUENCY IN USE, THESE CALLS WERE NOT ANSWERED AND THE TRISTAR CREWS RELAYED. A FURTHER CALL WAS MADE DECLARING THE INTENTION TO LAND AT KANDAHAR AIRFIELD. THE AIRCRAFT WAS CLEARED FOR AN UNINTERRUPTED VFR APPROACH AT KANDAHAR THE AIRCRAFT MADE AN UNEVENTFUL LANDING. WHILE EXITING THE RUNWAY A REPORT OF A FUEL SMELL WAS MADE BY THE TAC CREW AND THE AIRCRAFT EVACUATION DRILL WAS CARRIED OUT. ON ENTERING THE BOMB BAY 20 MINUTES AFTER LANDING THE BOMB BAY DOORS WERE OBSERVED TO BE WET WITH FUEL AND THE BOMB BAY HEATING MIXING CHAMBER CLADDING WAS SOAKED WITH FUEL. FUEL WAS ALSO OBSERVED ON THE PIPEWORK ON THE ROOF OF THE BOMB BAY IN THE AREA OF THE MIXING CHAMBER.

K. (1) UNABLE TO REPLICATE REPORTED AIRBORNE OCCURRENCE UTILISING FULL SUITE OF CURRENT GROUND TESTING PROCEDURES.

(2) CONTRIBUTING FACTORS ASSESSED AS MOST LIKELY TO BE ENVIRONMENTAL

CONDITIONS ASSOCIATED WITH PREVAILING AMBIENT AIRBORNE ENVIRONMENT

(3) REFUEL CARRIED OUT THROUGH AAR PROBE ENDEAVOURING TO REPLICATE

REPORTED FLIGHT CONDITIONS. MAX FUEL PRESSURE OF 50 PSI ACHIEVED AND

MAINTAINED FOR ?5 MINUTES ON THREE SEPARATE OCCASIONS. ONE MINOR WEEP

IDENTIFIED FROM COUPLING PREVIOUSLY REPORTED UNDER GROUND OCCURRENCE

REPORT 902/23/07 ON THIS AIRFRAME. WEEP ELIMINATED BY RE-TIGHTENING OF COUPLING. LEAK RATE OF ?1 DRIP PER MINUTE DOES NOT ACCOUNT FOR

REPORTED AIRBORNE OCCURRENCE.

L. TF

M. CAT 1.

N. ON COMPLETION OF A FINAL APPLICATION OF GROUND PRESSUR TESTING

DURING DAYLIGHT THERE WERE NO FAULTS/LEAKS APPARENT. THIS WAS FOLLOWED BY NITROGEN PURGING OF REFUEL GALLERY. GIVEN THAT COMMON AAR AND GROUND REFUEL GALLERY IS ISOLATED AND SEPARATE FROM MAIN FUEL FEED SYSTEM AND REMAINS UN-PRESSURISED DURING FLIGHT CONDITIONS AIRCRAFT HAS NOW BEEN RELEASED FOR RETURN FERRY FLIGHT UNDER NON-AAR OPERATIONS TO DOB. FUEL SEALS AND PIPES REMAIN UNDISTURBED TO ALLOW POTENTIAL FAULT DIAGNOSIS (BEYOND CURRENT RTI PROCEDURES) TO BE UNDERTAKEN UNDER DIRECTION OF IPT. RECOMMENDATION THAT DETAILED INVESTIGATION AND ANALYSIS BE UNDERTAKEN TO POSITIVELY DETERMINE THE ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS AND CONDITIONS THAT ARE PREVALENT UNDER AAR FLIGHT CONDITIONS IN ORDER TO DEVELOP A MORE REPRESENTATIVE GROUND TESTING PROCEDURE FOR CONDITIONS THAT SEEM TO APPEAR ONLY WHILST AIRBORNE.

RAF Nimrod puts out Mayday call after 'major fuel leak' - Times Online

Families let down by lack of coroners reform

I see that the government of Mr Brown has yet again let down the Armed Services and in particular bereaved families of members of the services who have been killed in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This is particularly disappointing considering the verdict in the latest coroners report

Army logistics failings led to the unlawful killing of a Scottish solider, a coroner ruled today.

Gordon Gentle, 19, died when a Land Rover he was patrolling in was hit by a roadside bomb in Basra in Iraq in June 2004.

A coroner's hearing in Oxford had been told how electronic counter-measures (ECMs), designed to disable improvised bombs, were in Iraq at the time but had not been distributed and fitted to vehicles.

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Coroner Selena Lynch said: "The supply chain appeared to be chaotic and lacking in clarity."

The Royal Highland Fusilier, from Pollok, died of blast injuries.

The coroner said the inquest at Oxford had seen that the Army's in-theatre supply chain "appeared chaotic and lacking in clarity". Ms Lynch also branded the Ministry of Defence's policies for disclosure of evidence to her inquest "illogical and based errors of law".

These inquests should be held quickly to ensure there are no more needless deaths and injuries to the members of our Armed Forces fighting abroad.

It was widely expected that the Queen's speech yesterday would include a Coroners Bill that would have strengthened the investigative powers of inquests and reduced delays for the bereaved.

But the legislation was left in limbo after ministers decided other measures were more deserving of Parliamentary time.

The Royal British Legion condemned the move, saying families had been waiting for years for changes:

“The draft Bill was originally published in June 2006. It is extremely disappointing that the Government has not put this forward,”
he said.
“It is particularly disappointing that during this national week of remembrance it comes as a greater blow to bereaved families.”

The Legion has made the Bill a key part of its "Broken Covenant" campaign, calling on the Government to honour obligations to troops in return for their sacrifice.



Families let down by lack of coroners reform - Times Online

Requiem for the Roly-Poly

Not in our house!

A good "duffo" pudding is required at least once a week just to remind you of the good things that we are no longer supposed to eat.

Requiem for the roly-poly as sticky puddings become a sweet memory - Times Online

Brown to Regulate Flexible Working

How can there be a law to require flexibility? It is an oxymoron. Brown had proposed that flexible working is available by law for working parents. This is typical of Brown.

A discussion is ongoing on the Political Betting site on this issue.

Flexible working only really works when everyone can do it. Letting one section of the workforce do it and effectively penalising the rest will only lead to more and greater problems.

The company I work for has had flexible working for a number of years but how it works for individuals is dependent upon type of job and ability to cover so-called “core” hours. There always has to be a bit of give and take between the nature of the job and reality. Some employers would be hard pressed to provide flexible working because of the type of work performed and the actual nature of the business.

Unfortunately most of the people in public sector jobs who are getting smaller rises will be exactly the sort of people whose jobs are difficult to cover with flexible working.Rather than regulation it would be better to push/advertise the benefits of flexible working to all employers with a happier and less stressed workforce.

It doesn’t depend on Union representation, private/public, small/large it just requires common sense from both employers and employees. I repeat how can there be a law to require flexibility?

The main thing about flexible working is it only really works when there is trust between employees and employers. If there is no trust then it will fail at the first hurdle, this would almost certainly be the case if only employees with kids were allowed flexible working. All the other “special” cases like people with elderly parents, invalid partners etc will justifiably feel excluded.

politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Is Gord on to a winner with this?

Scotland and North Sea Oil Taxation

The attached article which appeared in The Press and Journal gives an insight into the reasons why companies are reluctant now to invest in the North Sea despite high oil/gas prices because of constant government tinkering.

It is the lack of coherent change, the tinkering, short-sightedness and the constant changes in tax levels that make both large and small companies disinclined to invest in the region as they require a degree of certainty. As the writer says

The current NSO tax regime creates distortions in the market, a legacy of the many overlapping bits of legislation introduced piecemeal.

The constant tinkering, for example with CGT, this year means that what last week was an opportunity is now longer on the board.

Most North Sea opportunities are now small and rely on good economics to get them investment when ranked against a vast range of similar opportunities throughout the world. If the tick box against consistent taxation cannot be filled in then the opportunity will passed by and the investment directed abroad.

The current system also doesn't cope with new alternatives for the use of the infrastructure in the North Sea such as the application of tax to infrastructure assets that could be used for a purpose other than to extract oil - alternative energy, for example.

At present, if a company were to use (or rely on) NSO infrastructure for purposes other than extracting hydrocarbons from the ground, it would create an adverse tax impact, negating the incentives.

This is stifling an industry which aspires to be as open-minded and creative as possible about making the most of existing asset. We only have to look at the recent cancellation by BP and it's partners of its plans to build the world's first carbon capture and storage (CCS) power plant in Peterhead, Scotland to see the impact this is having.

The unfortunate problem is that whilst the UK government is in charge, revenue from Oil Taxation will always be a minor consideration compared to what it would be if Scotland had control of all its Financial matters.


North Sea Oil Taxation