You have lost how much?????

This is an amazing story for all the wrong reasons.

It shows complete and utter "words can not describe" incompetance.
And who is the big boss........the one the only Bob Ainsworth.

It transpires today that nearly £7 billion of military equipment has gone missing from Ministry of Defence.

Un-bloody-believable............or actually given the man at the top yes very believable.

The National Audit Office has refused to sign off on MoD records that £6.6 billion of assets exist because of “inadequate levels of evidence”.

The assets include about a sixth of all vehicles, weapons and radios used by British forces and are equivalent in value to the entire annual defence equipment budget.
Please note that last sentance.

The items in question include £1.25 billion of equipment deployed with British forces, such as machine guns, night vision goggles, encrypted radios and body armour.

Defence officials were unable to account for £350 million worth of fighting vehicles that were in theory being used for training and operations.

The remaining £5 billion of assets that could not be accounted for were predominantly raw materials and spare parts, ranging from bolts and oil to jet engines and propellers.

Are we not currently in a war with the constant stories from families of the fallen, injured servicemen and women, military chiefs bith serving and retired that the above equipment is needed in theatre but nothing is forthcoming. Shortages of equipment, including night vision goggles and radios, have been blamed for the deaths of several British service personnel.

Well apparently it is about but can not be accounted for, well a good chunk of it anyway.
The MoD insisted last night that the equipment was “never physically lost” and that the NAO figure was an “extrapolation” from its audit.

It said that at the time of the report, the Defence Storage and Distribution Agency, which is responsible for supplying the armed forces, was unable to satisfy the NAO’s demand for paperwork to verify the assets.

Utter cobblers.
I have blogged on the complete incompetance of the MOD method of procurement before. See here.
This is another blatant example of a government deparment completely out of touch with reality.
Having to spin lines like - the NAO figure was an “extrapolation” from its audit, just goes to prove my point.

So come on Bob........bust a gut and sort this one out!!!!!

Recession Worse Than Expected

I posted last Thursady about the stream of lies and non-beliefs that seem to pour forth from government about "The reccession".

Basically we have no clue really.
The bending the twisting of facts actually makes me think we are really in a worse predicament than we thought.

I feel if the actual true fact were out there then yes...........the summer of riots etc could actually happen.

The peasant revolt could actually happen again so to speak.

I also know for a fact having seen Mervin Kings take on things this am that
1. He is at major odds with the government, Mandleson, Brown and Darling over fiscal policy
2. He is no Labour voter.

From this am and I quote:-The recession has hit the economy harder than previously thought but the prospects for economic recovery were "somewhat stronger", the Bank of England has said.

The Bank said it expects the economy to shrink by around 5.5% at the lowest point this year before beginning its recovery.

But it had seen encouraging signs that its efforts to pump more money into the financial system were taking effect.

Bank governor Mervyn King said: "It is likely that output stabilised in the middle of this year.

"Business surveys and other short-run indicators suggest that growth is more likely than not to resume over the next few quarters."

In its quarterly inflation report, the Bank forecast that the inflation benchmark used by rate-setters would stay well below its 2% target for much of the coming two years.

Mr King said it was more likely than not that he will need to write to Chancellor Alistair Darling later this year to explain why inflation has fallen more than one percentage point below the target.

The Bank said that, while the economy had shrunk more than expected at the beginning of the year, the pace of contraction had slowed.

And stronger results from business surveys "suggested that the trough in output was near".

Personally I am a damn site more inclined to listen to Mervin King than No11.

But basically

Trough in output was near- So we have not got to the worst bit yet!
The economy had shrunk more than expected at the start of the year, the pace of contraction had slowed - but not stopped, so the budget prediction of a 3.5% growth was cobblers (but we knew that)!
Inflation about to go negative - which is just as bad as hyper inflation.
Indicators suggest that growth is more likely than not to resume over the next few quarters - so when may we actually see it START and I am only asking for a start here to grow!
Unemployment went another 220K the wrong way.
Government debt totally out of control and the worst in our history.
Mortgages although saying more are being granted are becoming a point of a fast buck to lenders desperate to recoup money.

We are many years from seeing the end I am afraid.

Who do we believe??

We have all seen the latest headlines over the past couple of days.

For eg
Car sales soar by 2.4% thanks to scrappage scheme
House prices rise by 1.1% in July

However,
The Bank of England today poured cold water on early signs that the UK's fragile economy is recovering as it extended its 'quantitative easing' scheme by £50 billion. The surprise move to extend the programme to £175billion shows that the Bank is cautious about an economic recovery despite a raft of recent positive figures.

So just to confirm the Zimbabwe type policy of just printing money has pumped £175 Billion into our economy.

And also to confirm the BoE can not just do that without it being rubber stamped by number 11.

At some point despite our outrageous levels of borrowing...........this 175 Billion has to be returned.

The Bank's ratesetters also decided to keep interest rates on hold at 0.5 per cent, as was widely predicted in the City.

In a statement explaining the decision, the Bank said the recession 'appears to have been deeper than previously thought'.

While the pace of decline has slowed and business surveys suggested the low point in activity was 'close at hand', money growth remains weak, the Bank said.
The news sent the pound down by almost a cent against the dollar.

Financial Secretary to the Treasury Stephen Timms said there was a 'growing sense of optimism' about the economy but conceded there remained a 'great deal of uncertainty'.

Timms......you have to be having a laugh with that statement. A group of experts have also warned that up to 400,000 households could default on their mortgages.

Another report says we could hit 3.5 million unemployed by 2011.

So who do we believe?

We are no where near the end of it despite what Robert Pestons Labour loving comments on the BBC state.
We are not even half way.

UKNDA Report...........Worrying from so many angles!

Funding for Britain’s Armed Forces must be protected from public expenditure cuts, in spite of the heavy financial pressures faced by the Government, and the defence budget should be increased over the next three years to at least three per cent of GDP, according to a paper published by the United Kingdom National Defence Association (UKNDA).

The full Paper is here.

The paper states that increasing Britain ’s defence budget represents the best value for national resources even in the midst of recession, and that any future Strategic Defence Review must, of necessity, recommend an increase in funding for defence and national security.

Indeed a defence budget review is set for after the next general election.

The paper also accuses the Treasury of squeezing the defence budget to the point where the Navy, Army and Air Force are competing with one another for an adequate share of the limited resources available. This is a clear indication of failure to recognise the potentially wide-ranging dangers to Britain ’s security. The only adequate defence provision, say Roberts and Sykes, is one that maintains a large, flexible, general contingency in all three Services.

Defence funding, the paper argues, should be “threat-driven, not budget-driven”. Britain is at the greatest risk when it is financially weakest, and recessionary pressures world-wide are increasing political instability in already unstable regions. Current and possible future threats to national security are large and growing. The sums required to strengthen Britain ’s military capability are both affordable in the national context and represent excellent value-for-money, even in the present severe economic crisis.

The foreward to the document is written by a gentleman called Irwin Stelzer. Irwin Stelzer is an American economist. He is Director of Economic Policy Studies at the Hudson Institute. I find his foreword deeply concerning.

In his Foreword to the paper, he highlights the risk to the Anglo-US Special Relationship if Britain fails to invest adequately in defence: “If Britain does not shore up its military,” Stelzer writes, “so that it is capable of holding up its end of the bargain implicit in the Special Relationship, that relationship will be under severe threat. In fact he re-itterates this at regular points through the document.

This is not the first time the "special relatinship" has come under question.
Please see here.
The recent "Panthers Claw" has had some MSM coverage of this very deeply worrying point.

I have a grave concern about the loss of life.
Ok the MSM was doing its job in reporting from all sides, all angles and even probing other reasons, but a report from an American economist highlighting the same said relationship makes me cold.

Diageo

Yesterday 20000 people in a show of unit marched through Kilmarnock to protest at Diageo's plans to cut 900 jobs from two sites.

700 jobs are threatened in Kilmarnock, where the Johnny Walker brand has had a presence since 1820.

Opponents say unemployment in Kilmarnock could rise by 70 per cent as a result of the proposed cuts.

Mr Salmond said: "Today's march and rally demonstrated that the people of Scotland stand behind Kilmarnock and the campaign to keep Diageo in the town.

Alex Salmond has been very critical of Diageo and has also made some very strong statements which cause me concern.

Firstly the Diageo descision leaves a lot to be desired here. I still can not see the economics clearly, but big Eck has not gone on record to state that public money could be used to save hundreds of jobs being axed.
Very honourable Eck. Indeed Mandleson made similar pledges for the car industry, also worth noting not a penny has been given to the car industry.

The Scottish Government could channel money through Scottish Enterprise to help the company avoid sacking a total of 900 staff at its Johnnie Walker plant in Kilmarnock and its distillery in Port Dundas, Glasgow.

Mr Salmond met Diageo chief executive Paul Walsh yesterday, along with Scottish Enterprise boss Jack Perry, for talks that were described as "constructive" by the First Minister.

Ministers, union officials and Scottish Enterprise are trying to form an alternative business plan for the company and hope to convince it not to shed the jobs.

Ok lets look abit further into Diageo shall we.

Diageo has offices in 80 countries
It sells in 180 countries
Its half yearly sales to the end of Dec 2008 were 6.7 Billion pounds.
It owns 101 different beer, wine and spirit brands.

Eck, do you really think you will change the mind of a company that big.

You can not pour a rake of public money into that company and somehow turn it into a political victory for yourself. You are giving away cash, you are being naive to think they are that interested.

Yes they are loaded cash wise. They are a huge powerful group.

And right now they hold all the aces. You piss them off they walk.
They were going to do that anyway.

I sadly can not see how this is going to be resolved. I fear greatly for Kilmarnock and Port Dundas.

Debt and Labour Lies

Within four years, almost 9p in every pound of tax paid by British individuals and companies will be spent directly on servicing the Government's debt, rather than on services such as hospitals and police, or the costs of running defence or the welfare state, according to new calculations. At present, the debt interest costs an average of around 5p for every pound in tax.

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research said that costs of servicing government debt will rise from £25.6bn this fiscal year to £50.7bn in 2013/14, due to a combination of higher interest rates and a far greater debt burden. The warning underlines the cost facing taxpayers as the Government debt rises at the fastest rate in peacetime history.

Remember our last budget. Big Al stood up, Gordon in the background having written his speech for him and we held our breath, what is he going to say......

.....and following poured forth from his mouth.

He predicted that the UK would see growth of 1.25% next year and 3.5% the year after that.

He then based all budgetary consideration for the next five years on that assumption.

Did we rejoice.......NO
Did we think what a load of sh*t......YES

3.5% ....... in our hayday we only ever saw a growth rate of 2.9% max. So how the hell you go from zero to hero inside of 18 months made us realise that it was all just lies.

And the figures today just go to reaffirm that it indeed was just lies.

Odd Fact......is it a coincidence

Ok we know we are in a bit of hole money wise in the UK.

Especially when we read things like this.

Spending cuts now recognised to be a definate no matter who is in the hot seat in a years time.

And despite the horse keek regurgitated by the PM in PMQ's when sparring with "Call me Dave" no one believes him.

But when we look at corporation tax losses due to failed comapnies, more people out of work, reduced taxation incomes due to slow sales we see that taxation blackhole as reported in the times.

But does anyone realise how big that number is or what it actually compares too?

Well currently that number is 90% of our 2009/2010 defence budget.

The Defence Budget

£million 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11
Resource Budget 32,618 33,602 35,165 36,702
Capital Budget 7,404 7,871 8,187 8,871
Total Departm (DEL) 32,579 34,057 35,365 36,890
Of which near cash 29,411 30,763 31,921 33,628

So is that not a good idea to get the boys to come home????
Or am I being to simplistic??????

UPDATE: so as not to take any more stupid emails yes I am aware that the defence budget is not ALL being spent in Afghanistan. Good god.

In Typical French Style.

No I am not refering to Chablis.
Nor Escargo
Nor Rachida Dati

I refer to the usual French method of sticking 2 fingers up to the establishment and going hell for leather to get what you want.

It transpires that in Châtellerault, in central France, 336 laid-off workers have been occupying the New Fabris car parts plant since it went bankrupt in May. They have rigged it with acetylene and butane gas bottles, and are demanding car giants Renault and Peugeot – which provided most of the firm's business – give them redundancy pay.

If not, they say they will ignite the gas and destroy the factory.

Staff warned they would destroy the New Fabris plant in central France if they do not receive compensation for their lost jobs by July 31.

New Fabris was declared in liquidation in April, so the workers stand to get no redundancy money, although they are entitled to draw state unemployment benefit.

They want Renault and PSA Peugeot Citroen to pay 30,000 euros (£28,500) for each of the 336 staff at the factory - about £8.6m in total, in return for its remaining stocks of equipment and machinery.

"The bottles of gas have already been placed at various parts of the factory and are connected with each other," CGT trades union official Guy Eyermann said.

"If Renault and PSA refuse to give us that money it could blow up before the end of the month," he added.

A delegation of the workers has a meeting on Thursday with Renault, which had no immediate comment.

Police also declined to comment on the threat by the workers, who are occupying the New Fabris factory at Chatellerault, near Poitiers.

The company is the successor to Fabris, founded in 1947 and put into liquidation in 2007. It was later acquired by Italian firm ZEN.

The case is the latest example of sacked French workers adopting militant tactics in order to improve their payouts.

The practice of 'bossnapping' - where managers are held hostage in their offices - has become relatively common during the economic crisis in France.

See the full story here.

Now I am certainly not advocating terrorism tactics but I do sometimes feel we roll over a bit too much here. I kinda feel maybe a bit more of this attitude over here and we might find our services are a damn site better.

A climate of Fear

Do you feel scared in your own neighbourhood?
Is it a worry when you leave your house?
Gangs of kids in hoodies with bottles of buckfast on street corners!

So tell you what lets give them a punitive punishment if they do something wrong.
If we are hurt, attacked, have property stolen, or a crime is committed lets arrest the offenders and put them before the court.
Let a jury or other group make a decision on the puishment and if it warrants send them to a jail.

A place of safety for us (maybe rehabilitation for them) but a place as the crime they have committed means they should be removed from society for a period of time.

No
Not really
It does not work.

Why because prison is no punishment, its a badge of honour

And stories like this go to prove it .

We cant control our prisons, they are over crowded.
We do not have a system that works.

Yes they are over crowded............and the solution is actually simple.
BUILD MORE PRISONS.........dont water down the law or the legal system to make it fit!!!

But when Jack Straw is in charge of the Justice dept of should I say what was 1 half of a useless home office, I should really not be surprised and drop back into plain old acceptance.

I am stunned ..........Again!!!

Defence Cuts...............what again?

Defence Cuts........what again

So a strategic report now suggests cuts to defence spending are needed.

So supposed big hitters got invloved in this report such as Paddy Ashdown and former defence chief George Robertson.

In its report for the think tank IPPR, the commission suggests cuts be made to projects to build aircraft carriers, the joint strike fighter, the Type 45 destroyers and the Astute class submarines.

Major innovations are needed to adapt to the "post 9/11 and post recession world", with investment in cyber-warfare and the creation of a joint civilian-military stabilisation and reconstruction taskforce, it says.

It says that Britain should be prepared to put part or all of its nuclear weapons capability on the table as part of international nuclear disarmament negotiations.

The commission also called for a major overhaul of policy making.

Defence Minister Bill Rammell admitted there were "immense challenges" to the funding of defence projects.


Subrosa made a post last night with regards to Gordon Browns re think on Trident.

Ok heres a suggestion.

It is widely known the Labour government has sacrificed the lives of our servicemen in both Afghanistan and Iraq by amongst other things under funding resulting in poor equipment and resources. Their contempt for the British Military is easy to see every day.

Our government is useless in running the defence of this nation.
2 example are
1. 8 Chinook helicopters ata a cost of £422 million pounds being grounded since 2001 because of the wrong radar.
2. The appointment of Bob Ainsworth as a replacement for John Hutton as defence secretary.

We need a startegic defence. We can not rely on the USA.

So lets keep or defence and review regularly.
1. Lets not throw money at useless repatriation programs for asylum seekers who as a result of a million quid being flushed away has help 1 bloody family.
2. Lets get our immigration under control and not throw money at foreign lay abouts who know a good deal when they see it, and will cross continental europe to get to the UK on purpose.
3. Lets revisit the benefits system and encourage people to work not sit on their arse.
4. And above all DO NOT DO NOT invest more billions in a i/d card system that makes the defence budget look like pocket change.

UPDATE Am I good or what. I make a post on my blog and a mere 6 hours later this pops up on the radar.