“Third prize is: You’re fired.”

via the fantastic Glark blog.

And just like that, the world we live in has changed. One week we are one happy rich western world, the next we are bankrupt countries arguing about who owes whom?

Now, before you stop reading because you don't want to hear anymore about the state of the economy, let me assure you, this is about something far bigger than that.

Bigger than the economy? Yes, much, much bigger! It is about our freedom, our democracy and our way of life that are under threat from our own government...

But in order to explain this, I need to go into the latest economic developments first, so bear with me for a second.

About two weeks ago, the 12th bank in England, Kaupthing, asked the British government to take part in the bail out plan that they had drawn up. Kaupthing asked for a loan of £4bn on a budget of 5,000,000,000 pounds. So the 12th bank in the UK asked for LESS than 1% of this bail out fund, but were denied access by Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling.

A week later the poop hit the Icelandic fan. Its third bank, Glitnir was nationalized by the national bank of Iceland and a few days later Landsbanki, with its British arm Icesave went the same route. The Icelandic economy was going down the drain in less than 48 hours. But this national bankruptcy also hit the English shores. As it turned out British citizens, local authorities, and charities had some £8bn in accounts with Icesave, lured by the high interest rates the Icelanders were offering.

Now comes the confusing part of the story. In statements, made in Icelandic to the Icelandic press and people, Prime Minister Haarde stated that his country guaranteed all deposits made to this bank. Unfortunately, in the English part of his press conference has was less straight forward, and from what I have read in the British press, he was less forthcoming in conversations with Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling. In the Icelandic government there is to this day great confusion why the English government was not assured by their commitments. I think the answer to this might simply be a cultural one. Yes, Icelanders speak 'good English', they know all the words, but in order to negotiate on this level you can not simply translate the words.

Meanwhile, Iceland's biggest bank, Kaupthing, who also operate in the UK, kept putting out statements saying that they were healthy, with plenty of cash and working with the Icelandic government to find a solution to the nation's troubles.

And then we woke up one morning to read in the newspapers the the British government had used anti-terrorist laws to seize all of Kaupthing's British assets and sold them ING from Holland. They sold an £8bn company with a 60% discount to the first buyer they could find, leaving Kaupthing bankrupt and pushing Iceland into the abyss.

That they are bankrupt is sad, but not the most important thing in this development!

The English government used ANTI-TERRORIST-LAWS against a PRIVATE company!

This Anti-Terrorist law in (not so few words) states that the PM and his cabinet can do anything to anyone if they feel that there is a threat to the British society, its health or its interests without the immediate consent of the houses of parliament.

It is a law that actually predates 9/11, but had so far NEVER BEEN USED.

Let me put this in one big phrase for you. The British Government seized all assets of a privately owned company, because its owners hold the same passport as the owners of a different company, who may or may not be about to forfeit their duties in England.

That's right, because they held the same passport and were also a bank their possessions are up for grabs! No judge, no jury, no trial, all it took was the word of our leader...

Like I said, I do not care about the economy and although I have a personal relationship with Iceland, I have no sympathy for the upper classes there. Should they become beggars through all of this it might even put a smile to my face.

Now that I am back in old Blighty, my problem is with Gordon and his cronies and their interpretation of laws. And with my fellow countrymen who rewarded these dictators with a 10% boost in the polls! Now that Gordy has opened up this "can of worms" with some success, what else can we expect from a man with still his back against the wall?

Next time two Muslim doctors decide to drive their burning Range Rover into a public building, Gordon might order the arrest of all doctors who own a similar Rover.

Next time a black teenager from London stabs another black teenager from London the constabulary could round up all London teenagers and just lock them up.

Next time a chav kicks a father to death after a night out on the town, we should send in the builders. Build a wall around the nearest council estates without an exit and be done with it.

And that's not all. Now that we have set an international precedent with using these type of laws, the next time you fly to Thailand, the Thai government might incarcerate you. You are a tourist. You hold a British passport. Just like Gary Glitter did! And all the Thai people would be doing, is trying to protect their people.

Of course these are simplifications! Of course they are! But at the same time they are not. Once politicians find out the effects of these populist decisions on the electorate there will be no end to the abuse of these laws....

Like i said, i do not care about the economy, i do not care that much about Iceland and i did not lose any money this week, but i do care about liberty and democracy and those two got raped this week by the British government...

And after all this our Fearless Leader had the gall to call for a joint international approach to the credit-crunch. Joined, but please, no terrorists allowed.

Oh and one final, final thing before you start commenting. Please do not talk about "British interests" or "our money", because you'd be proving my point. It would be "your" money and "your" interests and not mine at all even if my council tax went up. Thus proving that this law was used unfairly, because "our" country,  "our" safety or "our" well-being was never in danger, but only that of a few investors and savers, however sorry i am for them!

I may be broke but I'm not flat busted.

1. She's "attractive", if you're into hairspray and sexy librarians.

People who think that women in eyeglasses are smarter than women in contact lenses are shallow idiots who don't deserve the right to vote. Ask the average sheltered Fox News viewer why they think she's even remotely acceptable as a VP choice, and they will trot out some excuse like "she seems very bright". No, she seems very bespectacled. And the hair is just over the top. Give me a brainwashed Condi Rice any day, at least she can play the piano during the talent portion.

2. She doesn't think global warming is man-made.

Anyone who's paying attention can see that drastic, terrifying climate change is taking place, far beyond anyone's expectations, and even the greedy GOP has admitted as much in a new platform document. But not Simple Sarah. Although she recognises the threat of warming, she refuses to accept that it could be man-made.

Considering Palin's cozy relationship with evangelical lunatics, she probably thinks this "cyclical warming", as she calls it, is just God's way of purging the world of the heathen. Denial of global warming due to lack of long-term evidence is one thing, but attributing it to natural cyclical changes is dangerous because it is founded on EVEN LESS THAN NOTHING.

3. Inexperienced and power-hungry is a deadly combo.

When pathetic neo-cons start listing off the so-called myriad ways that Simple Sarah is more experienced than Sen. Obama, the list of "experiences" always includes "being mother of 5" and (this is my favourite "experience") "being a very competent person with a compelling story".

Let's think about this in the simplest terms- she has so little experience that people are padding her CV FOR HER. If you were about to hire someone to be CEO of your company (or manager at Subway for that matter), would you feel confidence in someone who puts " very articulate, attractive, passionate, idealistic and courageous" down as a qualification?

4. She chases down wolves in a helicopter and shoots them when they get tired.

I guess that's why "compassionate" didn't make it into the list above.

5. Her academic record is vague at best.

Six colleges in six years, none of whom were contacted during the "vetting" period prior to her nomination, and some of whom can't even verify she was enrolled. Even basic referencing practices for mid-management jobs involve degree verification and psychometric testing.

6. Her "Christian values" only extend to members of her immediate family.

Setting aside the fact that her pregnant teenage daughter probably doesn't want to marry that poor kid any more than he wants to marry her (see "power hungry"), it would seem that Palin's anti-choice sentiments only extend as far as her immediate family. How else are we supposed to take the fact that she slashed housing funding for teenage mothers with babies under 18-months in HALF? Unless of course, she only thinks that babies from rich families are a "gift from God" and poor people's babies are the result of their dirty, filthy needs. All the rest of you poor types should go ahead and abort if you can't afford to pay for a place to live.

7. She is a secessionist!

You couldn't make it up. Even with all of the denials flying about, why would she record a promo for the AIP convention?

Useful Links:

Top ten Palin scandals.

Free Levi Johnston, America's Number 1 Political Prisoner.

Unrelated, but still awesome: Meghan McCain's blog.

Today's focus will be on beer. Recently Japanese beer manfacturers have been going through a slump due to the economic slowdown (blah blah) and the fact that young Japanese consumers are becoming increasingly health conscious. To counter this the Kirin, Sapporo et al. have been looking for new angles on the market. The first one of these up for review is Smooth by Kirin.

The packaging bravely declares "low alc." "low carbonization" "low fermentation" and then some silly slogan about how it makes you all comfortable. As I pop the cap, despite having gotten all shaken up as i walked home from the store it makes a small "pssht" sound as if i just took it out of the fridge after leaving it there for a week. The taste is very mild. Not mild in a horrible american beer that tastes like water sense but more like a pleasant sunday afternoon, spent sitting on a porch, maybe it's autumn, the birds are singing, leaves are falling but it's someone elses job to rake them.

As much as i'm against the philosophy of this beer I have to admit it's not bad, it's quite light but not watery, it's not bubbly but neither is it flat, it's something of a inbetween thing really. I can't really like it because it's not really beer, at the same time i can't really hate it since it's not bad. I'm a bit confused really.

These are perilous times, if we are to believe western international leaders. Men with beards from the Middle East hate our freedom and are willing to lay down their lives in the war against the infidel West.

These are also times of economic recession, if we are to believe financial pages in our news papers. The credit crunch and high oil prices are driving companies into bankruptcy. Inflation and unemployment are up, house prices and job openings are down.

All in all, these are scary and confusing times. Maybe that is why a local high street carpet store put this sign outside of their shop....

I just think this is stretching it a bit!

Digging through the Home & Garden section of Amazon, assumedly because she's probably weather-proof, I just happened to stumble on this...

but does she cook?

It is a "mail order Russian bride" blow up doll! And that name raises a lot more questions than it answers...

Of course there is a market for blow up dolls, and fair enough, this one comes from a mail order website.

But why is she Russian? Does she squeak with a thick accent? Does she smell of borscht? Do you have to fill her with vodka before you can use her? And how is she a bride? Does she wear a white dress? That might be exciting, but i doubt they throw in a bridal gown for the £100. And, by telling you she is a Russian bride, they limit your fantasy: never the naughty nurse, slutty librarian, nor the french maid; after sex the doll will start to nag you that it wants a new mobile phone, or a pink Juicy track suit, and now she has to go out to meet her friends and No, you can not come along. Seems to me that when you are resorting to a blow up doll, you don't need it rubbed in that you can't afford a real mail order bride.

That's IT! I've had it! Done and completely over it! They can kiss my butt....What happened? I'll tell you what happened!

When the Apple IPhone hit the stores here in good old Blighty the wife and I were there. She is a gadget freak and it has rubbed off on me and we had been looking forward to this moment for quite some time. In fact we had read almost everything there was to read about this toy on the web and when we were in the States a few months earlier had walked into the local Apple store several times just to play with this new toy. We were fully aware of the sales history of this apparatus in the USA; it is very expensive in the first few months and then the price drops rapidly. We had also read that the next generation of new and improved IPhone with much faster Internet was less than a year away. We had taken all this into account and still decided to buy it on the day of its release. Simply because we are greedy and because the IPhone is gorgeous, awesome, full of gadgets and also SHINY!

Just like we thought, just a few months later the price dropped by £100 or somewhere there abouts. Who cares? We had already been enjoying our phones for months. It is but a small price to pay! Sure, 6 months after our purchases the new IPhone is out and its Internet feature is much, much faster. I bet it has a lot more new cool gadgets and boy, it is even cheaper than the original. Who cares? Not us, who have the original hard casing instead of the lighter, weaker plastic version!

As i have written in an earlier post, I am a secret conservative and also a little scared. This means that I do not take chances, always buy insurance and live life by the fine print. Luckily my beloved geek wife is a little more courageous, so when she became bored with the standard tools on the iPhone she decided to take a bold step. she HACKED her phone (using http://www.ziphone.org/)!!! That's right, she hacked it! mind you, not to use a different telephone company or anything illegal like that, but just to be able to install some new gadgets that people have developed for the IPhone. Simple things like software for a better camera, a video camera, a slot-machine and a funny little program that measures your walking speed and then searches your IPhone for music that matches the rhythm. Now how cool is that?

She had me convinced and I too took this bold step and hacked my phone. I started taking artsy-fartsy black and white pictures, shot videos and played games. Of course I wanted to store my videos and pictures on my computer and so I connected the IPhone and i-tunes began to do its work; downloading and INSTALLING the latest update from apple! Before i knew it my phone was the same old phone it had been before I hacked it with the standard factory settings AND NOTHING MORE! Gone were the photos, gone were the pictures and gone were all the lovely little gadgets, only to be replaced by an Apple-approved tiny little icon to get easier access to my address book....

I fully understand that the Apple Corporation sells (third party) applications through their web-site and that they make a nice little side profit, but.... IT IS MY PHONE!

I PAID FULL PRICE FOR IT!

What if..... your BBC television, that you paid for, would not show any other channel? What if.... your MGM DVD player would not play movies from Universal? You;d go mad, wouldn't you? Even Microsoft allows third party software on "their" computers! Now that is saying something....

Of course i could buy all the lovely gadgets of their i-tunes web-site, but i have principles and am, lets face it, too cheap. But here is my revenge.... only 2 stars for this beautiful, slim, stylish, modern, must have gadget.....

Apple iPhone  Rating:

Surely I am not the only one who has read and seen the news about the XL Leisure Group and thought,"How strange that a profitable company purchased only 23 months ago, is so heavily in debt? what happened?"

The answers that I found may be considered good business practice in the real world, but I am truly confused to say the least. And to be honest, it reads a bit like a scam that Tony Soprano might pull off...

A timeline of events:

2004 to 2006- The Avion Group is formed and begins to acquire tour operators and airlines in France, Germany and the UK.

October 2006- The Avion Group sells nearly all airline holdings to a managerial group for $450m at a profit of $107m gross. The managers borrow a large sum of the investment capital from two Icelandic banks: Straumur Investment Bank and Landsbanki Íslands. The Avion Group guarantees the $280m loan to the managers from Straumur Investment Bank.

November 2006- The Avion Group becomes Eimskipafelagid, divested airline holdings become the XL Leisure Group.

August 2008- The XL Leisure Group is in debt to Barclays Bank for £10m due to fuel hedging issues.

September 2008- Eimskipfelagid (formerly the Avion Group), fearing that it may have to pay the guaranteed $280m loan, secures its position with the help of two Icelandic billionaires willing to invest. These men are father Björgólfur Guðmundsson (owner of West Ham United, who are sponsored by XL.com) and son Björgólfur Thor Björgólfsson, the richest man in Iceland. Together they are worth around $4.6 billion according to the Forbes list.
3 Days later it is curtains for the XL leisure Group in the UK. and they go into administration. XL France and XL Germany, both still profitable now belong to the Straumur bank to cover the still outstanding loan.

So far, so good and all looks pretty normal. But lets take a closer look at who is who in this game...

Lets start with XL Leisure Group. Well they are just XL, owned by a group of people who have been in the British travel industry for up to 2 decades.
Barclays is just Barclays, one of Britain's biggest banks.

And now lets look at the Icelandic site of the story;

Avion Group was the investment company started by Björgólfur Guðmundsson and Björgólfur Thor Björgólfsson
Landsbanki Íslands is 45% owned by Björgólfur Thor Björgólfsson, who is also the chairman of the board.
Straumur Investment Bank are at least 61% owned by Björgólfur Guðmundsson and Björgólfur Thor Björgólfsson, the last one is also the chairman of the board.
Eimskip is owned by Björgólfur Thor Björgólfsson.

There, that clears the whole thing up a bit. from now on Björgólfur Guðmundsson will be referred to as BG and his son, Björgólfur Thor Björgólfsson, will be called BTB...

Now... time to look at this history again

2004-2006 BG and BTB is formed and starts to acquire tour operators and airlines in France, Germany and the UK. BG and BTB name this operation XL Leisure Group

October 2006 BG and BTB sell XL Leisure to the managers of XL Leisure Group for $450m. BG and BTB make a profit of $107m before tax. The managers borrow a large sum of money for their investment from 2 Icelandic banks; BG and BTB and BTB. BG and BTB guaranteed the $280m loan to the managers from BTB.

November 2006 BG and BTB become BG and BTB

August 2008 The XL Leisure Group has run up a debt of £10m with Barclay's Bank.

September 2008 BG and BTB, fearing that hey may have to pay the guaranteed $280m loan, secure their position with the help of two Icelandic billionaires willing to invest in their business. These men are father BG (owner of West Ham United, who are sponsored by XL.com) and son BTB , the richest man in Iceland. Together they are worth around $4.6 billion according to the Forbes list.
3 Days later it is curtains for the XL leisure Group in the UK. and they go into administration. XL France and XL Germany, both still profitable now belong to BTB to cover the still outstanding loan...

Pretty simple and straight forward dealings! But some how it just does not feel right... 2 Years after selling their travel group BTB and Bg have their travel group back, but in a leaner, healthier form. The parts that didn't work have gone bankrupt without them carrying any real responsibility for it. They are not responsible for any debts that XL Leisure Group UK had with creditors, nor do they have to offer redundancy deals to any employees that would lose their jobs.

As it said in the timesonline.co.uk on sunday 14/09/08 "Behind the scenes, industry sources say, he (Peter Owen, then CEO of XL) began looking for investors to fund a new management buyout. The takeover, however, would have valued the business at much less than Wyatt and his colleagues had paid for it"

And with the National Bank of Iceland charging 15% interest, it would have been bad business if BG and BTB had lend the managers the money for the buyout for under 10%. That means that the interest alone to repay was $28 million, half of XL's annual loss.

How is it possible that a group of people who are renowned (and around Crawly hated) for their sharp business sense and with more than 15 years of experience in the airline industry did not see that this was simply a bad deal?! Did they lose their ability to calculate the worth of a company?

And last of all, WHY DID XL HAVE TO GO BUST? Why did BG and BTB prefer to cough up $280m to cover the loan, rather than..... GIVE BARCLAYS £10m, ADD THAT TO THE OUTSTANDING LOAN AND DEMAND XL SLIM DOWN ITS OPERATIONS? Why? Because BG and BTB are not about building companies, they are about quickly selling on at huge profits and do not care who gets done over! And now they get to sell XL France and Germany all over again.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bjorgolfur_Thor_Bjorgolfsson
http://www.invgr.com/bjorgolfur_thor_bjorgolfsson.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bj%C3%B6rg%C3%B3lfur_Gu%C3%B0mundsson
http://www.m-travel.com/news/2006/10/avion_group_ann.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straumur_Investment_Bank
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landsbanki
http://www.straumur.net/en/Investor-Relations/Share-information/Share-ownership/
http://www.eimskip.com/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-687/
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/leisure/article4748313.ece

In this day and age of economic recession, inflation and rising food cost I was happy to spot this in my local Sainsbury's:

That's right, Sainsbury's permanently dropped the price of B&J's Phish Food by 4 (four!) pennies to £3.95. So now you not only save the planet by eating B&J's ice cream, you also save money! I really don't understand how we can have 4% inflation here in England when Sainsbury's cuts ice cream prices by a full percentage point? Maybe i just dont understand how the economy works. Or, judging from the thick layer of frost on the containers, British people wouldn't know a bargain if it stood up in their tea. What I do know is that Sainsbury's made it just that little bit easier to balance this family's budget and for that I am grateful. When I have more time I'll write a full review about them, but for now I will just add half a star to their rating.

Sainsbury's Rating:

One warm Summer evening not so long ago i was sitting in our garden enjoying a pre-dinner glass of wine when a young lady came through the gate. She introduced herself as being from the NPower energy company, going around the village to sell cheap electricity.

Deep in my heart there is a conservative dormant. I like what I've got and am willing to pay for quality. And sure, I will overpay sometimes, but as long as the boat does not rock,I am happy. And I am happy with the electric company we've got, thank you very much. You flick a switch and light goes on, what more does one need?

Maybe you want the new company to call the old company to tell them their services will be no longer needed? Maybe you want to keep the emergency number to report power-outs already programmed into your phone? Maybe you need an energy bill that is at least 10% lower than what you are paying now? Hold on, 10%? At least? In this house that is almost 200 quid! So we signed, because i might be an in-the-closet-conservative, but I am not stupid. Plus the price of wine is going up too!

However, days after signing up, I still had a nagging feeling in the back of my mind, my insecurity playing with me. Was I saving enough? Had I made the right choice? Were they really looking out for me?

Luckily the old energy company, Southern Electric, came to my rescue by sending a lovely package through the mail. In it were two Philips Energy Saver lightbulbs and a letter explaining that, yes, energy was getting more expensive, and also something with the environment or other, and therefore Southern Electric was there to help us a little with TWO ENERGY SAVING BULBS. Oh, and by the by, prices will go up 10% next year.

Believe me they helped out a lot. Confirmation is all you need sometimes.

NPower Rating:

Southern electric Rating: