Friday 20th February 2015

mikems · Post by **mikems** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 5:43 pm

Re: deflation being a good thing. What else can they say?

The story seems to be that cheap oil is good because it will help the real productive economy. And it might, but if people expect prices to drop even further, they might also put off investing and buying. One thing sure to tip the balance into deflation is more austerity. Lack of demand, falling wages, falling prices, falling tax revenues, increasing personal and public debt, haven't they done well!

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 5:48 pm

LadyCentauria wrote:I wonder whether the delegates to the Scottish Conservatives Conference have considered adapting an old Scottish rallying cry to modern times? Viz; So long as but one hundred of us remain we really shouldn't have booked the main hall of Edinburgh Conference Centre.

Whatever the reason for it being a bit quiet here at the Haven so far today, it probably wasn't because half our members had decamped up there or the audience for Ruth Davison's speech would have been a fair bit larger. Not that the speech itself would likely have been better received than the polite smatterings of muted applause it actually got. Perhaps she was building up to a big finish but, as the conference was running late, and due to the BBC's scheduling commitments, I'd have had to shift on the BBC Scotland website to continue watching. Ho hum.

Bit thin on the ground, were they? (Ruth Davison has always come across to me as one of the less supid\objectionable\shortsighted of them, though.)

gilsey · Post by **gilsey** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 5:49 pm

PorFavor wrote:Semi-rhetorical question -

Why is the threat of deflation now being turned into a good news story for the government? Or is there at least some logic\justification for it? (I'm asking for help here from the more economics-savvy among you, please.)

Edited to add -

I'm not suggesting that I've heard anyone say, "Deflation would be great!" but the general story is that things are going swimmingly, prices have dropped, etc etc, and possible deflation isn't being factored in as a problem.

Edited (again) to remove a rogue "j"

It may not be a problem, at this stage I don't think anyone knows, if you laid all the economists end to end they still wouldn't reach a conclusion, etc..

Cameron and Osborne need it to be good news so that's how they're spinning it, tbh I think they're too thick to understand the downside potential, and they think/hope we're too thick to understand it either. How could a fall in petrol prices possibly be bad news, after all?

TechnicalEphemera · Post by **TechnicalEphemera** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 5:51 pm

Major story in the Indy and every word of it totally bollocks.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ho ... 58543.html

Does nobody in the media have the ability for critical questioning, or do they just print rubbish from the MoD without question.

Maybe the RAF is an advertiser or something.

Sure Russia could kick our ass, if we shared a land border with them. And will somebody think of those poor Typhoons, having to fly all the way from Lincolnshire to Cornwall.

mikems · Post by **mikems** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 5:53 pm

The thing about tories is that though their behaviour can be loathsome and despicable they are also victims of our class system, forced to assume their roles down the generations as we are.

Marx said that capitalists lived in a gilded cage, forced by their system into their soulless activity and reproduction, but rolling in wealth and excess as they did so. Their subordinate classes are also forced into this parody of life, placing importance on all the wrong things : material success, social position, power etc.

We need to free them from capitalism for their own good, to put an end to their sufferings!

mikems · Post by **mikems** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 5:55 pm

The defence secretary has a dangerously unhinged world view in my opinion.

LadyCentauria · Post by **LadyCentauria** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 5:56 pm

GetYou wrote:Times are hard, austere even. I know, let's give away some money to perpetuate the house price bubble!

http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/tenancie ... esuccess=1 (Signup access only (but it is free))

George Osborne has announced an £84m pot to offer social tenants up to £30,000 to buy a new home on the open market.

The policy, announced in a major speech on housing this morning, will allow tenants who would have qualified for the Right to Buy to leave their social home and buy a new property.

Dubbed the Social Mobility Fund, it will be offered to tenants across England from April.

Local authorities will bid for a share of the cash, which they can then offer to tenants. The deadline for bids is 18 March.

The maximum discount available will be £20,000 across England and £30,000 in London, which is substantially lower than the £70,000 and £100,000 respectively offered under the Right to Buy.

A Treasury spokesperson said this was because the tenant gets a ‘substantial additional benefit’ of being able to select their home.
What the fuckedy fuck???????????????

Is he totally unaware that such a scheme already exists? It's called Right to Buy (Portable Discount)

Or does he just think that half the planet are totally unaware that such a scheme already exists? So he buffs it up and presents it as something new 'cause it's got a shiny new name!

The amount each Local Authority offers differs, as it's set locally rather than nationally (I think.) Last time I checked, it was £25,000 in this London borough, on average, but dependent on how long you've been a tenant, how many bedrooms you're vacating by giving up your council house/flat, and is limited to a set percentage of the average award under the main Right to Buy scheme. And it's been in operation for as long as there has been any form of Right to Buy.

Toby Latimer · Post by **Toby Latimer** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 5:57 pm

Police release new footage of possible suspect in hunt for killer in Lucy Beale investigation [youtube]7ht11TSA7OM[/youtube]

Tubby Isaacs · Post by **Tubby Isaacs** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 6:04 pm

TechnicalEphemera wrote:Major story in the Indy and every word of it totally bollocks.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ho ... 58543.html

Does nobody in the media have the ability for critical questioning, or do they just print rubbish from the MoD without question.

Maybe the RAF is an advertiser or something.

Sure Russia could kick our ass, if we shared a land border with them. And will somebody think of those poor Typhoons, having to fly all the way from Lincolnshire to Cornwall.

And if we weren't part of an alliance with other countries....

LadyCentauria · Post by **LadyCentauria** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 6:06 pm

PorFavor wrote:
LadyCentauria wrote:I wonder whether the delegates to the Scottish Conservatives Conference have considered adapting an old Scottish rallying cry to modern times? Viz; So long as but one hundred of us remain we really shouldn't have booked the main hall of Edinburgh Conference Centre.

Whatever the reason for it being a bit quiet here at the Haven so far today, it probably wasn't because half our members had decamped up there or the audience for Ruth Davison's speech would have been a fair bit larger. Not that the speech itself would likely have been better received than the polite smatterings of muted applause it actually got. Perhaps she was building up to a big finish but, as the conference was running late, and due to the BBC's scheduling commitments, I'd have had to shift on the BBC Scotland website to continue watching. Ho hum.
Bit thin on the ground, were they? (Ruth Davison has always come across to me as one of the less supid\objectionable\shortsighted of them, though.)

Just a bit. Ok, very thin on the ground. I'd agree about Ruth Davison, from what I've seen of her in debates in Holyrood – but she didn't really seem to be stirring the troops, although that's always hard when your audience is thinly scattered across an auditorium.

GetYou · Post by **GetYou** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 6:11 pm

LadyCentauria wrote:Is he totally unaware that such a scheme already exists? It's called Right to Buy (Portable Discount)

Or does he just think that half the planet are totally unaware that such a scheme already exists? So he buffs it up and presents it as something new 'cause it's got a shiny new name!

It does seem to be a recurring theme, announcing old schemes as "new".

yahyah · Post by **yahyah** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 6:22 pm

Just following on from TE's link and some of our comments about the Lenovo adware story yesterday.

It seems it only affects laptops, not desktops [or at least desktops made before mid 2014].

LadyCentauria · Post by **LadyCentauria** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 6:24 pm

Toby Latimer wrote:Police release new footage of possible suspect in hunt for killer in Lucy Beale investigation [youtube]7ht11TSA7OM[/youtube]

Although a part of me hoped it'd be a Beagle called Lucy. I like Beagles.

I've now found a way to see the embedded youtube vids that I can't see:
1) select Quote to open a reply box
2) copy alpha-numeric code in between [ youtube ] and [ /youtube ], in this case 7ht11TSA7OM
3) go to youtube.com in another tab or window
4) enter the code in the search box there
5) Result! In this case it's http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ht11TSA7OM (or you could follow the first couple of steps and remember to type youtube.com/watch?v= in front of the code in the address bar...)

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 6:24 pm

@pk1 - thinking of you and your elderly dog - and hoping for the best that can be. We love them and try to give them the best we can for as long as we can. Our gorgeous gal Musica has been to the vets on an emergency visit today as well. All very stressful.

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 6:27 pm

Lib Dem private polling
http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/blog/archives/9259

Anthony Wells debunks them private polling releases by parties - and sort of makes them sound almost dirty.

Even if the full details of private polls are released, with all the methodology and tables available for scrutiny, you should still view them sceptically. Parties decide which polls to release or brief journalists on, if any. One thing you never see is a political party releasing a poll that is not helpful to them, so even if the polling itself is above board, there is a strong publication bias; only the stuff that helps the party is published.

yahyah · Post by **yahyah** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 6:28 pm

Goodnight & sending best wishes to PK, RR2 and their dogs.

TechnicalEphemera · Post by **TechnicalEphemera** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 6:29 pm

yahyah wrote:Just following on from TE's link and some of our comments about the Lenovo adware story yesterday.

It seems it only affects laptops, not desktops [or at least desktops made before mid 2014].

This article tells you all about it, towards the bottom it tells you how to check if you are a victim of this stupidity, how to fix it and critically how to kill the rogue cert.

http://marcrogers.org/2015/02/19/lenovo ... s-all-ssl/

LadyCentauria · Post by **LadyCentauria** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 6:33 pm

rebeccariots2 wrote:@pk1 - thinking of you and your elderly dog - and hoping for the best that can be. We love them and try to give them the best we can for as long as we can. Our gorgeous gal Musica has been to the vets on an emergency visit today as well. All very stressful.

Oh no! Please give the beautiful Musica my love and hold her paw – they always hold ours at difficult times. Hope she'll be ok. xxx

yahyah · Post by **yahyah** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 6:34 pm

TechnicalEphemera wrote:
yahyah wrote:Just following on from TE's link and some of our comments about the Lenovo adware story yesterday.

It seems it only affects laptops, not desktops [or at least desktops made before mid 2014].
This article tells you all about it, towards the bottom it tells you how to check if you are a victim of this stupidity, how to fix it and critically how to kill the rogue cert.

http://marcrogers.org/2015/02/19/lenovo ... s-all-ssl/

My husband's checked and is in the clear. Also, isn't it to do with wifi ?
We are some distance from neighbours, no through traffic from cars or people with mobiles/lap tops so wouldn't be an issue unless the sheep are connected to the net ?

Tubby Isaacs · Post by **Tubby Isaacs** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 6:42 pm

RobertSnozers wrote:
mikems wrote:The defence secretary has a dangerously unhinged world view in my opinion.
He's MP for Sevenoaks so it doesn't surprise me. If ever a place wanted to set itself up as an independent Duchy it's Sevenoaks. Fallon's an objectionable character.

Fallon was on £350 an hour in The City before he became a minister. He went straight into politics from university.

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 6:49 pm

: Lib Dems As Fattened Pigs.jpg (40.99 KiB) Viewed 12289 times

Faisal Islam ‏@faisalislam 2h2 hours ago
Libdems compare themselves to pigs fattened by Conservatives & Sigourney Weaver's Alien, responding to @PCollinsTimes

Willow904 · Post by **Willow904** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 6:52 pm

WelshIan wrote:Willow from last night:

Thanks for the info, although I have to confess I'm more confused than ever. If participation in education or training for 16 and 17 year olds was 93.9% in 2010 and is now 92.8%, the policy to have all young people in education until 18 introduced in 2013 seems to have had the opposite effect than the one intended. Can that be right or am I reading it wrong?
Yes, you are reading it correctly, participation has decreased since it was made compulsory.
Although reading the below from Citizens Advice (my bold), it doesn't sound as if it actually is compulsory!
http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/e ... cation.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In England a young person must continue in education or training until:

from summer 2013, the end of the academic year in which they turn 17, and from summer 2015, until their 18th birthday.
This does not necessarily mean a young person will have to stay on at school after Year 11. The compulsory school leaving age is not being raised, so the young person cannot be forced to stay in school or college, nor participate in post-16 education or training. A young person will be given a choice about how they want to participate post-16, which could be through:

full-time education, such as school or college
work-based learning, such as an apprenticeship
part-time education or training if they're employed, self employed or volunteering for 20 hours or more a week.
The local authority is responsible for making sure that a young person has a suitable offer of a place in post 16-education or training.

Ah, now I've been thinking about this and it occurred to me that even if the Coalition continued with Labour's plans for raising the participation rate as was intended, because they axed EMA at the same time, that would, indeed, most likely lead to a drop off in participation as there is little councils can do to encourage young people to remain at college with no funding whatsoever that could ever counter the discouraging effect of young people no longer being able to afford to get there. Whether Labour will be able to find the money to replace EMA if they get back in, is hard to say, and how many FE colleges have actually gone to the wall in the meantime due to the Coalition's disastrous funding policy I don't know. It's just yet another area on which the Coalition's dead hand of doom has fallen. It's going to be a struggle to piece our country back together again as it is - 5 more years of the Tories and we really could pass the point of no return.

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 6:52 pm

LadyCentauria wrote:
rebeccariots2 wrote:@pk1 - thinking of you and your elderly dog - and hoping for the best that can be. We love them and try to give them the best we can for as long as we can. Our gorgeous gal Musica has been to the vets on an emergency visit today as well. All very stressful.
Oh no! Please give the beautiful Musica my love and hold her paw – they always hold ours at difficult times. Hope she'll be ok. xxx

She's on the sofa with Mr Riots - covered up with his filthy fleece which she loves. She's not OK ... she's never going to be properly OK again ... but as long as she's still got quality of life we'll give her the best shot we can.

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 7:01 pm

Goodnight, everyone.

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 7:05 pm

Nigel Farage Is Avoiding The Media In His Bid To Get Into Parliament
Nigel Farage led UKIP to the cusp of a national breakthrough thanks to endless media appearances. But now, as he battles to get elected to parliament, he’s choosing to avoid the TV cameras to save his career.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/emilyashton/nig ... es-on-kent

Party officials told BuzzFeed News that this is part of a deliberate strategy to ensure Farage comes first in the three-way race between the Conservatives, UKIP, and Labour in the Kent constituency. The great media performer is now having to learn the art of patient door-to-door campaigning.
“We’re in the middle of an election campaign,” his Ramsgate office angrily told BuzzFeed News when we rang to set up a meeting. “We’re far too busy to talk to the press.”

citizenJA · Post by **citizenJA** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 7:05 pm

StephenDolan wrote:
RobertSnozers wrote:
WelshIan wrote:It's not a blindness to do with funding, they always make the link between union backing and Labour policies. I don't know why the link is not made between the Tory party and their backers, as they seem to have more influence than the unions do with Labour.
Moreover, why is it not seen as legitimate that bodies representing the interests of thousands of working people might have some influence on policy?
Because it's thick plebs blindly giving money to Red McCluskey so he decide the Labour leader and policies that suit him personally. Or something.

A lot of resources are invested in buying the environment most people live in every day.

We're social beings, we're impressionable & we each live about 75 - 80 years, some few more, many less, but that's all. There's only so much wisdom we can download in any given lifetime. Intellectually we understand history, social & political influences affecting outcomes. Most of us are compassionate. We also make irrational decisions throughout the course of our lives. Reading Neil Kinnock's warning to the electorate prior to people voting for Tories some more, I wonder how anyone could've done that. Then I recall I've the benefit of hindsight as well not burdened with a trust fund or independent wealth. His speech is iconic, placed in history, a powerful narrative.

A lot of resources are invested in buying the environment most people live in every day.

citizenJA · Post by **citizenJA** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 7:08 pm

goodnight, PF, I love you & our friends.
xx
JA

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 7:10 pm

Jim Murphy ‏@jimmurphymp 41m41 minutes ago
Here's a look at who is cheering loudest for the SNP.
http://tinyurl.com/n7l8gml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

TechnicalEphemera · Post by **TechnicalEphemera** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 7:17 pm

yahyah wrote:
TechnicalEphemera wrote:
yahyah wrote:Just following on from TE's link and some of our comments about the Lenovo adware story yesterday.

It seems it only affects laptops, not desktops [or at least desktops made before mid 2014].
This article tells you all about it, towards the bottom it tells you how to check if you are a victim of this stupidity, how to fix it and critically how to kill the rogue cert.

http://marcrogers.org/2015/02/19/lenovo ... s-all-ssl/

My husband's checked and is in the clear. Also, isn't it to do with wifi ?
We are some distance from neighbours, no through traffic from cars or people with mobiles/lap tops so wouldn't be an issue unless the sheep are connected to the net ?

No absolutely not, afflicted users are impacted wherever they connect and whatever they connect with. Mr Rogers explains why here.

The certificate is used to fool the users that they are connecting to a trusted site and getting a secure connection. When you connect to yourbank, the superfish software talks to yourbank instead of you. It negotiates the connection and establishes SSL between it and yourbank. Then the superfish software presents a fake certificate that claims to be yourbank back to your browser. Your browser trusts it because of the certificate in the root store. So you carry on and do your banking thinking you have a secure connection when you dont.
The problems dont just stop there. Because this certificate is so weak, anyone can take it’s private key use the password and sign anything from fake certificates to viruses or malware and your PC will trust it because it is signed by a trusted certificate.
All those controls to stop malware by only allowing signed programs? now worthless on one of these laptops. I cannot understate how evil this is.

To join the dots - disclaimer I only understand this at a high level, I haven't looked at the details for 12 months and it is the stuff that makes your head hurt. So from memory I may be confused.

The big issue is they install a root cert on your machine in a way that your machine is told to utterly believe the authority of this certificate - like it was Verisign.

Even if you delete the software if you leave this cert in place you are screwed, here is why.

Anybody who knows the private key of that cert can create a fake website and sign it with that private key. You use the public key to decrypt it, and you have been told that signature is to be utterly trusted.

Worse still because they work back to back in secure sessions they had to install this mega secure private key on your machine. Worse worse they used an easy key and a weak crypto, it has been broken and everybody knows what that key is.

So every impacted laptop will believe my fake bank site is HSBC religiously, because I signed it with the private key of this mega trusted authority. You can connect over AES with 4K key length if you want, on military grade secure fibre, you are still screwed.

God knows how much damage this has done and will do.

ohsocynical · Post by **ohsocynical** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 7:18 pm

Incredible. Osborne sliding out of doing anything about HSBC and the tax dodgers. Intimated it wasn't his job.
Just Google: Osborne. Tax. Then any year from the past five. 2011 is productive.

I've Tweeted some of the links with the dates.

diGriz · Post by **diGriz** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 7:20 pm

rebeccariots2 wrote:
Nigel Farage Is Avoiding The Media In His Bid To Get Into Parliament
Nigel Farage led UKIP to the cusp of a national breakthrough thanks to endless media appearances. But now, as he battles to get elected to parliament, he’s choosing to avoid the TV cameras to save his career.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/emilyashton/nig ... es-on-kent

Party officials told BuzzFeed News that this is part of a deliberate strategy to ensure Farage comes first in the three-way race between the Conservatives, UKIP, and Labour in the Kent constituency. The great media performer is now having to learn the art of patient door-to-door campaigning.
“We’re in the middle of an election campaign,” his Ramsgate office angrily told BuzzFeed News when we rang to set up a meeting. “We’re far too busy to talk to the press.”

Roll on the GE and let's see how much support he really has and how much is the protest vote. I think the latter and they'll lose Rochester. I doubt he'll become an MP too.

ohsocynical · Post by **ohsocynical** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 7:22 pm

PorFavor wrote:Goodnight, everyone.

Night PF

Willow904 · Post by **Willow904** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 7:27 pm

ohsocynical wrote:Incredible. Osborne sliding out of doing anything about HSBC and the tax dodgers. Intimated it wasn't his job.
Just Google: Osborne. Tax. Then any year from the past five. 2011 is productive.

I've Tweeted some of the links with the dates.

He proudly claimed it wasn't up to him to decide who to investigate or prosecute. He's taken a week to come up with this and seems to have completely forgotten that he is the main spokesperson for the victim of this fraud - Her Majesty's Government. If I had been the victim of fraud and had had a large sum of money stolen it may not be my place to investigate or prosecute the crime, but you can be sure I'd be on to the police at every opportunity to give them a kick up the ass and ask them if they've nabbed anyone for it yet. Is anyone seriously going to be mollified by his "nothin' to do with me guv" routine?

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 7:27 pm

Robin Brant ‏@robindbrant 5m5 minutes ago
bbc colleague @iainjwatson reports tories pulled out of negotiations with lab & lib dems over joint venue for pressers in london during elex

ohsocynical · Post by **ohsocynical** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 7:31 pm

Willow904 wrote:
ohsocynical wrote:Incredible. Osborne sliding out of doing anything about HSBC and the tax dodgers. Intimated it wasn't his job.
Just Google: Osborne. Tax. Then any year from the past five. 2011 is productive.

I've Tweeted some of the links with the dates.
He proudly claimed it wasn't up to him to decide who to investigate or prosecute. He's taken a week to come up with this and seems to have completely forgotten that he is the main spokesperson for the victim of this fraud - Her Majesty's Government. If I had been the victim of fraud and had had a large sum of money stolen it may not be my place to investigate or prosecute the crime, but you can be sure I'd be on to the police at every opportunity to give them a kick up the ass and ask them if they've nabbed anyone for it yet. Is anyone seriously going to be mollified by his "nothin' to do with me guv" routine?

He had plenty to say about evasion and clawing it back a few years ago.

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 7:31 pm

Robin Brant ‏@robindbrant 3m3 minutes ago
will @ukip now step in, after they were excl (i understand) by @conservatives?

Ah, now I'm beginning to get it. It's rather similar to the TV debates strategy.

Hobiejoe · Post by **Hobiejoe** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 7:50 pm

RobertSnozers wrote:
yahyah wrote:Just following on from TE's link and some of our comments about the Lenovo adware story yesterday.

It seems it only affects laptops, not desktops [or at least desktops made before mid 2014].
I've been doing some contract work for NHS England over the last year.

Guess who provides all the IT - Atos

Guess what laptops they issue everyone - Lenovo

PWC still go with Lenovo Thinkpads.

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 7:52 pm

Sky News Tonight ‏@SkyNewsTonight 10m10 minutes ago
Eurozone officials say a deal has been reached to extend the Greek bailout by four months. Economists react:

There's a video link in there somewhere to show you 'economists react'. Love that line. They probably all change position on a count of three - and settle.

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 7:55 pm

Survation. ‏@Survation 9m9 minutes ago
We'll publish a batch of large sample seat polls next week. Join our PR list here: http://eepurl.com/mOK8P" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; for info. Have a great weekend!

TechnicalEphemera · Post by **TechnicalEphemera** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 8:03 pm

Hobiejoe wrote:
RobertSnozers wrote:
yahyah wrote:Just following on from TE's link and some of our comments about the Lenovo adware story yesterday.

It seems it only affects laptops, not desktops [or at least desktops made before mid 2014].
I've been doing some contract work for NHS England over the last year.

Guess who provides all the IT - Atos

Guess what laptops they issue everyone - Lenovo
PWC still go with Lenovo Thinkpads.

Fortunately they didn't install this on business machines. But anybody allowing BYOD, or buying cheap consumer laptops has a problem.

TechnicalEphemera · Post by **TechnicalEphemera** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 8:14 pm

Talking of dubious organisations.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/scien ... 60676.html

When will law enforcement step in to put a stop to this? Donations for what exactly, they have no hope of getting the kit together to do this.

ScarletGas · Post by **ScarletGas** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 8:16 pm

ohsocynical wrote:
Willow904 wrote:
ohsocynical wrote:Incredible. Osborne sliding out of doing anything about HSBC and the tax dodgers. Intimated it wasn't his job.
Just Google: Osborne. Tax. Then any year from the past five. 2011 is productive.

I've Tweeted some of the links with the dates.
He proudly claimed it wasn't up to him to decide who to investigate or prosecute. He's taken a week to come up with this and seems to have completely forgotten that he is the main spokesperson for the victim of this fraud - Her Majesty's Government. If I had been the victim of fraud and had had a large sum of money stolen it may not be my place to investigate or prosecute the crime, but you can be sure I'd be on to the police at every opportunity to give them a kick up the ass and ask them if they've nabbed anyone for it yet. Is anyone seriously going to be mollified by his "nothin' to do with me guv" routine?
He had plenty to say about evasion and clawing it back a few years ago.

Whilst Osborne can try to slide out of responsibility on this questions as to the appointment of Lord Green still need answering.Our media seem to have done their usual stellar job in allowing this to become yesterdays news.

Post by **refitman** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 8:20 pm

Sorry it's a bit late, I have spent the day in Bolton.

Anatoly's round up:

AnatolyKasparov wrote:One local council by-election yesterday:

Carmarthenshire - Labour hold, narrowly beating the Plaid candidate in what had been a knife edge three way marginal in 2012; the other of the 2 seats here being taken by the localist People First group - formed by a former Plaid councillor who has some following locally - and Plaid narrowly missing out after polling just a handful fewer votes than Labour overall. Plaid may be disappointed not to have won given that they easily took both places here in 2008 and split the ward with Labour in 2004 (though they comfortably won most votes overall then due to Labour only fielding one candidate) whilst after topping the poll overall last time, PF saw their vote crash by over two thirds - coming fourth behind UKIP who outpolled them by almost 2 to 1 as they got 15% in their first contest here. PF were also only just ahead of an Independent - though their vote was also well down on three years ago - whilst a Tory candidate (their first showing here since 2004) came last with 5%.

No principal level contests next week, but four to begin March.

AngryAsWell · Post by **AngryAsWell** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 8:22 pm

rebeccariots2 wrote:
LadyCentauria wrote:
rebeccariots2 wrote:@pk1 - thinking of you and your elderly dog - and hoping for the best that can be. We love them and try to give them the best we can for as long as we can. Our gorgeous gal Musica has been to the vets on an emergency visit today as well. All very stressful.
Oh no! Please give the beautiful Musica my love and hold her paw – they always hold ours at difficult times. Hope she'll be ok. xxx
She's on the sofa with Mr Riots - covered up with his filthy fleece which she loves. She's not OK ... she's never going to be properly OK again ... but as long as she's still got quality of life we'll give her the best shot we can.

Love and healing thoughts to both poorly dogs
Hugs to PK & RR2 Thinking of you both xx

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 8:29 pm

I was on the doorstep in Fishguard this morning. A lady answered the door to me and seemed disappointed I was canvassing for Labour. Then we got talking - and boy was she angry. She's a woman of a certain age and really pissed off with the Condems for their pension changes - she's losing out big time. After telling me she will be voting Labour she said she's waiting, hoping, for a Conservative canvasser so she can let rip at them. Would love to be there when she does - she has a list of their policies that's she's furious about.

Hobiejoe · Post by **Hobiejoe** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 8:41 pm

TechnicalEphemera wrote:
Hobiejoe wrote:
RobertSnozers wrote: I've been doing some contract work for NHS England over the last year.

Guess who provides all the IT - Atos

Guess what laptops they issue everyone - Lenovo
PWC still go with Lenovo Thinkpads.
Fortunately they didn't install this on business machines. But anybody allowing BYOD, or buying cheap consumer laptops has a problem.

Bugger. I had to buy a new laptop at very short notice at the end of the last VAT quarter after the 2nd hand IBM Thinkpad that I got for £200 on eBay because it had XP installed so I could carry on doing my accounts and stuff finally expired. It did me well for five or six years.

I found a basic Lenovo at PC World that had both Windows 7 and 8, and 7 supports XP programmes. although when I got there I discovered that it was only available from the Business dept. and, no, it would have to be delivered. Squeaky-bum time getting that return in on time. I shall have to get onto PC World about this, then.

TechnicalEphemera · Post by **TechnicalEphemera** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 9:21 pm

Hobiejoe wrote:
TechnicalEphemera wrote:
Hobiejoe wrote: PWC still go with Lenovo Thinkpads.
Fortunately they didn't install this on business machines. But anybody allowing BYOD, or buying cheap consumer laptops has a problem.
Bugger. I had to buy a new laptop at very short notice at the end of the last VAT quarter after the 2nd hand IBM Thinkpad that I got for £200 on eBay because it had XP installed so I could carry on doing my accounts and stuff finally expired. It did me well for five or six years.

I found a basic Lenovo at PC World that had both Windows 7 and 8, and 7 supports XP programmes. although when I got there I discovered that it was only available from the Business dept. and, no, it would have to be delivered. Squeaky-bum time getting that return in on time. I shall have to get onto PC World about this, then.

If it is a business machine it may be ok, and if you follow the instructions for checking and removing certs if necessary it will be ok.

Tubby Isaacs · Post by **Tubby Isaacs** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 9:38 pm

Christ, DT is still throwing punches.

Hobiejoe · Post by **Hobiejoe** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 10:07 pm

TechnicalEphemera wrote:
Hobiejoe wrote:
TechnicalEphemera wrote: Fortunately they didn't install this on business machines. But anybody allowing BYOD, or buying cheap consumer laptops has a problem.
Bugger. I had to buy a new laptop at very short notice at the end of the last VAT quarter after the 2nd hand IBM Thinkpad that I got for £200 on eBay because it had XP installed so I could carry on doing my accounts and stuff finally expired. It did me well for five or six years.

I found a basic Lenovo at PC World that had both Windows 7 and 8, and 7 supports XP programmes. although when I got there I discovered that it was only available from the Business dept. and, no, it would have to be delivered. Squeaky-bum time getting that return in on time. I shall have to get onto PC World about this, then.
If it is a business machine it may be ok, and if you follow the instructions for checking and removing certs if necessary it will be ok.

Thanks, I hope so, but I paid something like £280+VAT, with a £50 cashback, so I'm not expecting too much, but I'll look into it.

Of course, I can't see too many people being interested in the terrible trading figures of a small Devonian pub.

Post by **PaulfromYorkshire** » Fri 20 Feb, 2015 10:14 pm

"A unique unprecedented coalition of people who would like to break up our country. The only people who can stop them are us, the people in this room."

Who said that?