"I too get lumped as a posh boy aristo, by virtue of my private education, but my accent is very northern."
If it helps I have never thought of you as posh. My image of you is as a somewhat darker skinned version of the Ronnie Barker character in the following sketch:
Smarmeron Good quip, but this proposal is a poll tax in the making, terrible idea!
Rather than tinkering with the details of how money is pilfered from us it'd make a pleasant change if the govt focused on taking less and spending less.
If you want to see a radically lower level of tax and spend, you ought to support the proposals: along with the "how your money is spent" document, it would be a reminder of how much is paid over.
A poll with the Tories in the lead and the word crossover not mentioned once. What's happening?! Saying that, probably an outlier, a 5pt move to any party in any direction seems a bit much.
Grandiose I am not saying we end healthcare provision or unemployment benefits or income support for those in need and the old, but at the moment contributions based JSA and the state pension are based on NI contributions and a reward for years spent in the workforce. Most other countries in the EU have a basic safety net, and then fund most of unemployment benefits, pensions and healthcare through insurance. We should be moving in that direction, not the other way. As I said, a dreadful idea
ComRes/ITV News: generally speaking the posher you are the more likely you are to vote to remain in the EU
Has that been determined by filtering through the A/B/C1 social class categories?
It's an interesting observation, if true. I am regularly placed in the "posh" category, I presume due to my accent, conservative dressing habits and private school education. However, I'd imagine Conservative voters would be higher amongst this group than the broader population. And that's probably only 5-10% of the UK population, if that.
But the wider public might perceive "posh" much more broadly: anyone who enunciates with no strong regional accent, eats healthily, is redbrick university educated, shops selectively and enjoys (or talks about enjoying) the high arts & culture.
The latter category is much more left-wing than the former.
Thanks. It looks like a pretty crude social class filter to me. I'm not sure how intermediate admin or professional count as "posh". Posh seems to me to be sometimes used today as shorthand for anyone who isn't fully out-and-out flat cap and ferret.
On an aside, the results might indicate something more complex. I know (plenty) "posh" colleagues and friends who'd read into this that the more educated/intelligent are pro-EU - because they're enlightened/progressive/internationalist etc. - and it's only the stupid, ignorant proles who are anti.
However, perhaps the white-van man small business owner and tradesmen who deal with EU regulation at a SME level (and regularly travel to the continent) are more informed about the effects of EU membership. Particularly compared to the wealthy, guardian reading, hoity-toity public sector workers who depend on public largesse for their livelihoods, and whose only real contact with the EU each year is either 'progressive' regulation for their favourite pet hobby horses (which don't directly affect their living standards, of course) or their skiing trips to Val d'Isère and summer holidays in Tuscany.
"I too get lumped as a posh boy aristo, by virtue of my private education, but my accent is very northern."
If it helps I have never thought of you as posh. My image of you is as a somewhat darker skinned version of the Ronnie Barker character in the following sketch:
Smarmeron Good quip, but this proposal is a poll tax in the making, terrible idea!
Rather than tinkering with the details of how money is pilfered from us it'd make a pleasant change if the govt focused on taking less and spending less.
If you want to see a radically lower level of tax and spend, you ought to support the proposals: along with the "how your money is spent" document, it would be a reminder of how much is paid over.
Yes; transparency is the best way to get the low tax message over and I've always favoured, as a start, printing a breakdown of taxes on invoices/receipts etc. I'm also instinctively in favour of this on a tax simplification level too.
A poll with the Tories in the lead and the word crossover not mentioned once. What's happening?! Saying that, probably an outlier, a 5pt move to any party in any direction seems a bit much.
Was mentioned on the previous thread a few times.
Much relief.
Just for you.
Crossover is here! oh happy days. Crossover is here! oh happy days. Crossover is here! oh happy days. Crossover is here! oh happy days. Crossover is here! oh happy days. Crossover is here! oh happy days. Crossover is here! oh happy days. Crossover is here! oh happy days.
There are 2 types of JSA - contributory, paid regardless of savings based on at least 3 years of NI contributions for 3 months, and basic JSA, paid based on need and means tested. It would be completely wrong to remove contributory JSA and just leave basic JSA as this proposal suggests. In the same way there is the basic State Pension paid out based on NI contributions, and pensions credit means tested based on need. Could the State Pension also be under threat?
A poll with the Tories in the lead and the word crossover not mentioned once. What's happening?! Saying that, probably an outlier, a 5pt move to any party in any direction seems a bit much.
Was mentioned on the previous thread a few times.
Much relief.
Just for you.
Crossover is here! oh happy days. Crossover is here! oh happy days. Crossover is here! oh happy days. Crossover is here! oh happy days. Crossover is here! oh happy days. Crossover is here! oh happy days. Crossover is here! oh happy days. Crossover is here! oh happy days.
There are 2 types of JSA - contributory, paid regardless of savings based on at least 3 years of NI contributions for 3 months, and basic JSA, paid based on need and means tested. It would be completely wrong to remove contributory JSA and just leave basic JSA as this proposal suggests. In the same way there is the basic State Pension paid out based on NI contributions, and pensions credit means tested based on need. Could the State Pension also be under threat?
For the youth of today, yes, why not tell them to save properly for their retirement rather than hope the current Ponzi scheme staggers on?
There are 2 types of JSA - contributory, paid regardless of savings based on at least 3 years of NI contributions for 3 months, and basic JSA, paid based on need and means tested. It would be completely wrong to remove contributory JSA and just leave basic JSA as this proposal suggests. In the same way there is the basic State Pension paid out based on NI contributions, and pensions credit means tested based on need. Could the State Pension also be under threat?
I cannot believe Osborne would bring forward a revolution like that - there would be too many losers; it would be an absolute nightmare. Reading The Times' front page, there is no hint of such a rebasing of key benefits.
There are 2 types of JSA - contributory, paid regardless of savings based on at least 3 years of NI contributions for 3 months, and basic JSA, paid based on need and means tested. It would be completely wrong to remove contributory JSA and just leave basic JSA as this proposal suggests. In the same way there is the basic State Pension paid out based on NI contributions, and pensions credit means tested based on need. Could the State Pension also be under threat?
I cannot believe Osborne would bring forward a revolution like that - there would be too many losers; it would be an absolute nightmare. Reading The Times' front page, there is no hint of such a rebasing of key benefits.
You are right - and it's hard to imagine any Chancellor ever being truly radical again (at least in the direction of travel that I favour).
Remember the uproar when he was just tidying up a minor tax inconsistency between cooked and uncooked pasties?
Douglas Murray @DouglasKMurray 6m More British Muslims have gone to fight jihad in Syria than there are British Muslims in the British army: http://specc.ie/1jDvyU2
GeoffM What we need is a proper insurance system for pensions and unemployment, I agree, but what this dreadful proposal does is remove the only insurance scheme we have, NI, merge it into income tax and leave a welfare and pension system funded entirely by tax!
Labour reduced to a few islands of urban misery ? So much for one nation. Even the Kipper support is more equally distributed.
The Tories look like hydrophobes, it is interesting to superimpose the LD euros map with their constituencies and see that there are very similar but the details look like big declines in north London, Norwich, Ceredigion ect.
Douglas Murray @DouglasKMurray 6m More British Muslims have gone to fight jihad in Syria than there are British Muslims in the British army: http://specc.ie/1jDvyU2
There is a positive spin on this: At least they are not many that could infiltrate the army.
GeoffM What we need is a proper insurance system for pensions and unemployment, I agree, but what this dreadful proposal does is remove the only insurance scheme we have, NI, merge it into income tax and leave a welfare and pension system funded entirely by tax!
It will have been done by someone, or group who couldn't find an English flag to burn. A bit like spraying obscene graphitti, slightly annoying and pointless, but kids do it anyway.
Indeed, but some people find huge cosmic significance in such things.
Tories doing much better than I would have expected in Scottish Lowlands, NE and other rural below the Highlands. A lot of SNP support was at tory expense. Is the goings on surrounding the referendum bringing voters there back to Tory?
UKIP didn't do poorly in London, they did poorly in Inner London.
Greens doing well in same places where liberals get relatively better vote, suggesting that a lot of disillusioned libdems are going green rather than Labour. Not good for Eds 35% strategy.
Labour did much worse in S Wales, Parts of Yorkshire and West Midlands than in other heartlands such as Inner London. UKIP seem to be main beneficiaries. Again not good news for Eds 35% strategy.
More evidence that Labour "electoral advantage" is unwinding.
We perhaps could see a position where both Tory and Lab get about 295 seats, liberal 20, UKIP 5 and nats/NI about 30 making it virtually impossible for anyone to get even a small majority with less than 3-4 parties in coaltion, with little prospect of a snap second election resolving matters - ie chaos. Interesting times.
GeoffM What we need is a proper insurance system for pensions and unemployment, I agree, but what this dreadful proposal does is remove the only insurance scheme we have, NI, merge it into income tax and leave a welfare and pension system funded entirely by tax!
NI is not much of an insurance scheme, and is basically a tax.
Showing it for what it is, is presumably the goal.
Web browsing is not private. If I look at my own company's web logs, I can see who (down to IP address) has been accessing the site, and usually from which previous site or the particular Google search they used. Access to certain web sites is clearly something potentially of interest to the intelligence services, so, yes, combining those two factors, I do think that, subject again to proper safeguards and oversight, they should be able to track web metadata.
Edit: Incidentally, it's probably more Google than GCHQ that you should be worried about in respect of web privacy.
An IP address is anonymous to you but not to GCHQ - that's the crucial difference.
And can't we be worried about both Google and GCHQ? HMG should be clamping down on both.
Mr Dancer, the idea that they will conquer everything on their silly map including retaking the ancient Islamic province of al-Andalus is so barking it hardly needs contradicting. The only reason the Middle Ages was subject to the rapid advance of the caliphate was because of deep divisions and a complete lack of discipline and organisation. When that changed under Charles Martel at Poitiers the Islamic invasion was stopped in it's tracks and slowly rolled back.
Mr. K, the Syrian 'caliphate' is as deranged as the Fourth Crusade.
Who do they think they'll be fighting and killing? Other Muslims, perhaps?
Even in its own lunatic terms, it's nonsensical.
I fully agree Mr Dancer. However, this is no arabian nights story and there will be bitter tears shed before the Mid-East quietens down; not least in civilised Europe.
Oh! - been out all day and so have only just heard the news of Rolf Harris. Seems as though every well known name from my youth were perverts. Feeling rather depressed..!
Update from the eastern front: There was a ceasefire extension agreement between France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine but Ukraine is backtracking on that agreement and is declaring martial law (or about to according to ukrainian media) after allegedly paramilitary elements had a chat with Poroshenko and talked about a military coup to remove him from office if he agrees with the EU-Russian proposal.
Short story, Germany and France will be pissed and Carl Bilt will be gloating.
Smarmeron Good quip, but this proposal is a poll tax in the making, terrible idea!
Rather than tinkering with the details of how money is pilfered from us it'd make a pleasant change if the govt focused on taking less and spending less.
If you want to see a radically lower level of tax and spend, you ought to support the proposals: along with the "how your money is spent" document, it would be a reminder of how much is paid over.
Yes; transparency is the best way to get the low tax message over and I've always favoured, as a start, printing a breakdown of taxes on invoices/receipts etc. I'm also instinctively in favour of this on a tax simplification level too.
We have this transparency already with Income tax for employees and every receipt I get shows VAT
In reality PAYE means we have just about the lowest income tax rates in the world at zero percent, because to all intents and purposes income tax and employees NI are actually levied on employers. What employees have never had they will never miss.
Rather than merging I am in favour of showing all taxes on payslips, and on the end of year statement including NI. I am also in favour of moving the employers NI to the employee as it makes no sense to me being on the employers side and is in effect a hidden payroll ta. I would guess that only a small percentage of people know the exact rate of taxation - in fact I have forgotten myself.
I suppose in essence we have lost the insurance element so why call it such as there are limited circumstances when people claim.
It is very similar to paying for prescriptions - I read that less then 10% of prescriptions are paid for in England in absolute terms because those most in need (pensioners, children, pregnant and nursing women) are exempt from charges. In effect it is a healthcare tax.
Mr. Jim, Persia was exhausted and weak at that time, and Heraclius was suffering terribly mental and physical anguish. He might just be the single most tragic emperor there was (possibly excepting the last Constantine). Just finished re-reading John Julius Norwich's first (of three) history of Byzantium. It's a brilliant read, even with the tragic undertone.
I would stress, though, that being utterly mental is not necessarily a bar to success. The foot soldiers can be zealous lunatics, but if they're directed by a calculating mind (which they may be) that could be an advantage. ISIS has been very clever regarding social media, has made substantial conquests (which allowed it to loot a bank and gain a large quantity of loot in Iraq) and is well-equipped and funded.
Oh! - been out all day and so have only just heard the news of Rolf Harris. Seems as though every well known name from my youth were perverts. Feeling rather depressed..!
Unlike Jimmy Savile, who I always felt was creepy when I was a kid, but couldn't put my finger on why I felt he was creepy, I never got that vibe from Rolf Harris.
It is very depressing when you think that these people were fronting programme's designed to appeal to kid's and abusing that trust in such shocking and upsetting way's.
Mr Dancer, the idea that they will conquer everything on their silly map including retaking the ancient Islamic province of al-Andalus is so barking it hardly needs contradicting. The only reason the Middle Ages was subject to the rapid advance of the caliphate was because of deep divisions and a complete lack of discipline and organisation. When that changed under Charles Martel at Poitiers the Islamic invasion was stopped in it's tracks and slowly rolled back.
If the Byzantines and Sassanids had not been exhausted from their endless warring, Islam might have remained a minor regional faith.
I don't understand why people are claiming that merging NI and Income tax will affect stat pensions and contributory JSA. NI was long ago turned into a straight tax. All you need to do is replace X NI contributions per year with X income tax per year.
What is more significant is that, even if on day one pensions and interest continue only to be taxed at 20% (share dividends at 10%) rather than earned income at 32%. It will make far too tempting a target for a future chancellor to ignore when he needs more revenue.
Plus I can see popular objection to unearned income being taxed at a lower rate than earned income once it is more obvious.
Alanbrooke I actually thought Osborne had started to get the economy going, but this proposal will only encourage a dependancy culture, and will undo much of his hard work
It goes to show how important the economy is to politics.
If this had been 2012 or early 2013 Cameron would have been in real trouble today, IMO. But with the economy picking up so well... Well, success brings success.
It also show's how irrational politics is to be honest (particularly Conservative internal party politics)
Mr Dancer, the idea that they will conquer everything on their silly map including retaking the ancient Islamic province of al-Andalus is so barking it hardly needs contradicting. The only reason the Middle Ages was subject to the rapid advance of the caliphate was because of deep divisions and a complete lack of discipline and organisation. When that changed under Charles Martel at Poitiers the Islamic invasion was stopped in it's tracks and slowly rolled back.
"deep divisions and a complete lack of discipline and organisation" yeap that is todays civilized world. They have mass war, we have mass tweeting.
Mr. M, indeed, or if Heraclius had not been so ill at that time.
Mr. Speedy, we'll have mass war again. It's just a question of time.
Edited extra bit: Mr. Jim, you've utterly bested me with that name, unless it's the long way of saying 'Saladin'.
I quite like that Richard the Lionheart and Saladin were friends. The only bits I've really read about them were in Sean McGlynn's excellent book on brutality in the medieval world: By Sword and Fire.
Web browsing is not private. If I look at my own company's web logs, I can see who (down to IP address) has been accessing the site, and usually from which previous site or the particular Google search they used. Access to certain web sites is clearly something potentially of interest to the intelligence services, so, yes, combining those two factors, I do think that, subject again to proper safeguards and oversight, they should be able to track web metadata.
Edit: Incidentally, it's probably more Google than GCHQ that you should be worried about in respect of web privacy.
An IP address is anonymous to you but not to GCHQ - that's the crucial difference.
And can't we be worried about both Google and GCHQ? HMG should be clamping down on both.
AIUI a private user IP address is anonymous unless you can be bothered or have the authority to get the ISP to tell you who was using it at the time concerned. And if you have the authority you won't do so without good reason as budgets are not unlimited.
Basically in simple terms your privacy is inversely proportional to how much you annoy people online.
@MrGin -I know exactly what you mean about both culprits – But Rolf Harris was supposed to be the good guy, stupid I know, but it seems to makes it worse.
@MrGin -I know exactly what you mean about both culprits – But Rolf Harris was supposed to be the good guy, stupid I know, but it seems to makes it worse.
Mr. Jim, Persia was exhausted and weak at that time, and Heraclius was suffering terribly mental and physical anguish. He might just be the single most tragic emperor there was (possibly excepting the last Constantine). Just finished re-reading John Julius Norwich's first (of three) history of Byzantium. It's a brilliant read, even with the tragic undertone.
I would stress, though, that being utterly mental is not necessarily a bar to success. The foot soldiers can be zealous lunatics, but if they're directed by a calculating mind (which they may be) that could be an advantage. ISIS has been very clever regarding social media, has made substantial conquests (which allowed it to loot a bank and gain a large quantity of loot in Iraq) and is well-equipped and funded.
ISIS or the Caliphate as they are called now, are lead by people much smarter and stronger than most of their neighbours.
Good news is that Iznogoud might be back in fasion to try once more to become Caliph in the place of the Caliph.
Mr Dancer, the idea that they will conquer everything on their silly map including retaking the ancient Islamic province of al-Andalus is so barking it hardly needs contradicting. The only reason the Middle Ages was subject to the rapid advance of the caliphate was because of deep divisions and a complete lack of discipline and organisation. When that changed under Charles Martel at Poitiers the Islamic invasion was stopped in it's tracks and slowly rolled back.
"deep divisions and a complete lack of discipline and organisation" yeap that is todays civilized world. They have mass war, we have mass tweeting.
I don't think we are in anything like the state that 7th century world was. These extreme jihadists are far more likely to end up very very dead than in charge of a caliphate stretching from Cadiz to Cairo and on to the Caucusus and down as far as Colombo.
ISIS have the support of the underground Baath network, hence their rapid advance. Whether the fanatical element in ISIS falls out with the Baaths and the local populace we shall see, but clearly they prefer to be ruled by their own rather than the Shias.
Mr Dancer, the idea that they will conquer everything on their silly map including retaking the ancient Islamic province of al-Andalus is so barking it hardly needs contradicting. The only reason the Middle Ages was subject to the rapid advance of the caliphate was because of deep divisions and a complete lack of discipline and organisation. When that changed under Charles Martel at Poitiers the Islamic invasion was stopped in it's tracks and slowly rolled back.
Never mind Spain, I see from their map they intend to take the Crimea and a chunk of southern Russia as well. Good luck with taking on Uncle Vladimir for that one. Any such efforts in that direction are more likely to result in a lot of areas on that map not currently in Russia ending up in Russia! Given the opportunity, I suspect the third Rome would like nothing more than to occupy the territory of the its orthodox motherland, the Second Rome.
Do ISIS really want Uncle Vladimir being crowned as Byzantine emperor in Hagia Sophia (an explicit aim of the Romanovs and one Britain fought the Crimean war to prevent)?
Just publishing that map gives the Russians an excuse to get far more involved in Syria and Iraq.
Mr Dancer, yes it is indeed the full version of Saladin who by the standards of the time was quite civilised and certainly committed no worse atrocities than the crusaders.
Mr Dancer, the idea that they will conquer everything on their silly map including retaking the ancient Islamic province of al-Andalus is so barking it hardly needs contradicting. The only reason the Middle Ages was subject to the rapid advance of the caliphate was because of deep divisions and a complete lack of discipline and organisation. When that changed under Charles Martel at Poitiers the Islamic invasion was stopped in it's tracks and slowly rolled back.
"deep divisions and a complete lack of discipline and organisation" yeap that is todays civilized world. They have mass war, we have mass tweeting.
I don't think we are in anything like the state that 7th century world was. These extreme jihadists are far more likely to end up very very dead than in charge of a caliphate stretching from Cadiz to Cairo and on to the Caucusus and down as far as Colombo.
We are getting close though. Continental Europe is weak and declining rapidly, Russia (Golden Horde), Scandinavia (vikings) and Islam are up. Only one of the Caliphate neighbours is powerfull and willing enough to oppose them, Iran. Neither Turkey, nor Saudi Arabia are willing or capable to go on the attack because they are sunnis and Egypt is far away.
Web browsing is not private. If I look at my own company's web logs, I can see who (down to IP address) has been accessing the site, and usually from which previous site or the particular Google search they used. Access to certain web sites is clearly something potentially of interest to the intelligence services, so, yes, combining those two factors, I do think that, subject again to proper safeguards and oversight, they should be able to track web metadata.
Edit: Incidentally, it's probably more Google than GCHQ that you should be worried about in respect of web privacy.
An IP address is anonymous to you but not to GCHQ - that's the crucial difference.
And can't we be worried about both Google and GCHQ? HMG should be clamping down on both.
AIUI a private user IP address is anonymous unless you can be bothered or have the authority to get the ISP to tell you who was using it at the time concerned. And if you have the authority you won't do so without good reason as budgets are not unlimited.
Basically in simple terms your privacy is inversely proportional to how much you annoy people online.
Actually, your IP address is a lot less anonymous than you think.
Of course, governments can turn up to BT or Virgin or whoever, and say "who did you assign this IP address to on a given day and time".
But for a mildly able criminal, there are ways. In the banks of Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, etc., there will be stored sessions - the following IP was associated with the following session, and the following user logged in using that IP. If you have an IP address you want to check, and you have access to the server logs at a couple of these big companies (or at CDNs like Akamai) you can usually work backwards and find out roughly who an IP came from.
"Iznogoud is the second in command (Grand Vizier) to the Caliph of Baghdad Haroun El Poussah (Haroun El Plassid in English, a pun on the historical Caliph, Harun al-Rashid; "poussah" is roughly translated as "oaf") but his sole aim in life is to overthrow the Caliph and take his place. This is frequently expressed in his famous catchphrase, "I want to become Caliph instead of the Caliph" ("je veux devenir calife à la place du calife"), which has passed into everyday French for qualifying over-ambitious people who want to become chief. Iznogoud is always assisted in his plans by his faithful henchman, Dilat Larath (Wa'at Alahf in English)."
He's like a french-middle eastern comic version of Blackadder
Mr. Beds, point of order: Putin isn't technically a tsar.
YET :-)
More seriously. By stating that they intend to invade Crimea and southern Russia, ISIS have effectively declared war on Russia, and given Putin an excuse to get more involved in Syria and the rest of the region. That map is strategically suicidal.
Islamists! Hear ye, hear ye! The Caliphate has been declared! Rejoice amongst yourselves! Celebrate with champagne sparkling water, women loads of other blokes, and a great deal of glee confusion. Come on! It's time to go! Hey guys, the Caliphate has been declared! You've been banging on about this moment for ages now. Book your flights! You can now all finally live in the splendour squalor which you have long-imagined and campaigned for! ISIS, those brave warriors for freedom, have said that the 'Islamic State' is now in full force. Don't you understand? Wait... what do you mean you don't want to go? Come on Anjem, come on Hamza, come on Jamal ...Jordan!? It is time to live under the Shariah! I'll even book your flights for you! No? You don't want to go to an extremely dangerous region, you say? Oh you want to remain in the comfort of the West, suckling at the teet of the taxpayer while holding marches in favour of the caliphate on our streets? Hmmm. What do you mean it might get "hairy" over there? Don't be silly. Islamists wouldn't hurt one of their own, would they? Oh, I see what you mean. They did kill that guy who was friendly with a Hamas leader. But that's in Gaza right? They're all nuts there! What? They crucified fellow jihadis for not being extreme enough? Hmm, well... I'm sure you can all work on your extremism on the plane, no? We'll make sure the airline has a wide variety of 'On Demand Anwar al Awlaki' videos for you. Oh COME ON guys. Don't let us all down now. You've been flying the bloody flag for this thing for so long now, and once you finally get it, you don't want it?! Bloody ingrates. Those ISIS guys have been doing all your dirty work and this is how you thank them! Well fine, stay here then. But let me tell you something. I don't want to hear a peep out of you about this bloody 'caliphate' rubbish anymore. Find a new drum to bang! Like climate change. Or the Bedroom Tax. At least those guys are totally not hypocrites, right? Er... right? (h/t Ghaffar Husain for the idea for this piece)
Paul Once the insurance principle is removed there is nothing to stop a future Chancellor using the tax revenues for whatever he wants, and just forgetting there ever was a contributory principle in the welfare system
Morris Dancer Indeed, it is more likely we will have a Middle East civil war between Iran and Saudi and their Shia and Sunni offshoots
Web browsing is not private. If I look at my own company's web logs, I can see who (down to IP address) has been accessing the site, and usually from which previous site or the particular Google search they used. Access to certain web sites is clearly something potentially of interest to the intelligence services, so, yes, combining those two factors, I do think that, subject again to proper safeguards and oversight, they should be able to track web metadata.
Edit: Incidentally, it's probably more Google than GCHQ that you should be worried about in respect of web privacy.
An IP address is anonymous to you but not to GCHQ - that's the crucial difference.
And can't we be worried about both Google and GCHQ? HMG should be clamping down on both.
AIUI a private user IP address is anonymous unless you can be bothered or have the authority to get the ISP to tell you who was using it at the time concerned. And if you have the authority you won't do so without good reason as budgets are not unlimited.
Basically in simple terms your privacy is inversely proportional to how much you annoy people online.
Actually, your IP address is a lot less anonymous than you think.
Of course, governments can turn up to BT or Virgin or whoever, and say "who did you assign this IP address to on a given day and time".
But for a mildly able criminal, there are ways. In the banks of Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, etc., there will be stored sessions - the following IP was associated with the following session, and the following user logged in using that IP. If you have an IP address you want to check, and you have access to the server logs at a couple of these big companies (or at CDNs like Akamai) you can usually work backwards and find out roughly who an IP came from.
You can often get it down to town level just by going to places like...
Mr. Beds, I'm not sure ISIS are known for their well-balanced approach to things.
Mind you, they have made tremendous progress in the war. It'll be interesting to see how the Iraqi counter-attack to reclaim Tikrit goes. If the ISIS land starts to crumble it may wither as rapidly as it grew.
Trebor @Trebor_1872 · 36m Absolutely disgusted and sure a lot of people around the Stirling area will be embarrassed with this image pic.twitter.com/WNpl77Rhwd
When, where and by whom was that image taken/flag burnt? Could have been anyone as fr as I can see at the moment It's not in recent Google image searches for Bannockburn and I would have seen any reports of a serious political demo by now. The only prior image I can find suggests it may be a Rangers vs Celtic thing - note that the missing centre of the flag means it could be one of several variations popular with the fans.
The EXIF data has been stripped from the image which makes it 99.999% certain to be a hoax.
Web browsing is not private. If I look at my own company's web logs, I can see who (down to IP address) has been accessing the site, and usually from which previous site or the particular Google search they used. Access to certain web sites is clearly something potentially of interest to the intelligence services, so, yes, combining those two factors, I do think that, subject again to proper safeguards and oversight, they should be able to track web metadata.
Edit: Incidentally, it's probably more Google than GCHQ that you should be worried about in respect of web privacy.
An IP address is anonymous to you but not to GCHQ - that's the crucial difference.
And can't we be worried about both Google and GCHQ? HMG should be clamping down on both.
AIUI a private user IP address is anonymous unless you can be bothered or have the authority to get the ISP to tell you who was using it at the time concerned. And if you have the authority you won't do so without good reason as budgets are not unlimited.
Basically in simple terms your privacy is inversely proportional to how much you annoy people online.
Actually, your IP address is a lot less anonymous than you think.
Of course, governments can turn up to BT or Virgin or whoever, and say "who did you assign this IP address to on a given day and time".
But for a mildly able criminal, there are ways. In the banks of Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, etc., there will be stored sessions - the following IP was associated with the following session, and the following user logged in using that IP. If you have an IP address you want to check, and you have access to the server logs at a couple of these big companies (or at CDNs like Akamai) you can usually work backwards and find out roughly who an IP came from.
You can often get it down to town level just by going to places like...
As technical administrator, I once did a quick and lazy dump of all the IP addresses of the people accessing PB.
The most common IP addresses were: the Houses of Parliament, the Conservative Party, News Corporation, and DMGT. Plus there were a surprisingly large number of hits from multinationals like Goldman Sachs, McKinsey and Barclays,
I kept meaning to match up usernames and IPs, particularly to work out who was posting from CCO, but never got around to it.
Mr. Beds, point of order: Putin isn't technically a tsar.
YET :-)
More seriously. By stating that they intend to invade Crimea and southern Russia, ISIS have effectively declared war on Russia, and given Putin an excuse to get more involved in Syria and the rest of the region. That map is strategically suicidal.
Mr. Beds, I'm not sure ISIS are known for their well-balanced approach to things.
Mind you, they have made tremendous progress in the war. It'll be interesting to see how the Iraqi counter-attack to reclaim Tikrit goes. If the ISIS land starts to crumble it may wither as rapidly as it grew.
The situation in Iraq resembles that after the collapse of the german army after Falaise in France in 1944, they are regrouping close to their heartland forming a defensive crust around Baghdad first. They need mass infantry and artillery formations (I estimate 250 thousand infantry troops at least, half a million to be sure) in order to recapture the cities by following the russian example in the second chechen war, only then they will need mobility to cross the desert to Raqqa.
In short the only way to beat an enemy who is at total war is by going to total war yourself. Mass conscription, mass army, mass war production ect ect. If you don't then you have lost.
BBC4 tonight at 10pm. Re-run of "Edge of Darkness", BBC Cold-War thriller from the 1980's, in the days when they still made riveting drama (as opposed to turgid politically-correct pap.)
All round great performances, accurately depicting the paranoia that were the Reagan-Thatcher years...
Tories doing much better than I would have expected in Scottish Lowlands, NE and other rural below the Highlands. A lot of SNP support was at tory expense. Is the goings on surrounding the referendum bringing voters there back to Tory?
UKIP didn't do poorly in London, they did poorly in Inner London.
Greens doing well in same places where liberals get relatively better vote, suggesting that a lot of disillusioned libdems are going green rather than Labour. Not good for Eds 35% strategy.
Labour did much worse in S Wales, Parts of Yorkshire and West Midlands than in other heartlands such as Inner London. UKIP seem to be main beneficiaries. Again not good news for Eds 35% strategy.
More evidence that Labour "electoral advantage" is unwinding.
We perhaps could see a position where both Tory and Lab get about 295 seats, liberal 20, UKIP 5 and nats/NI about 30 making it virtually impossible for anyone to get even a small majority with less than 3-4 parties in coaltion, with little prospect of a snap second election resolving matters - ie chaos. Interesting times.
Actually the Tories as shown in Scotland are pretty much at a level and in places where one would expect them - Perthshire (etc) and the border counties. I have a mental benchmark of about 20-22% for Tory voting in Scotland so that's about right. But it is a perfectly valid observation of yours, especially as their favourite FPTP system is suicidal in Scotland and gives a very misleading impression. The current Scottish Pmt voting is more like reality.
No SNP figure! Pity as it would have been interesting.
Oh! - been out all day and so have only just heard the news of Rolf Harris. Seems as though every well known name from my youth were perverts. Feeling rather depressed..!
Unlike Jimmy Savile, who I always felt was creepy when I was a kid, but couldn't put my finger on why I felt he was creepy, I never got that vibe from Rolf Harris.
It is very depressing when you think that these people were fronting programme's designed to appeal to kid's and abusing that trust in such shocking and upsetting way's.
Genuinely gutted that Harris is guilty...cant compute that he is a wrong un
But he is
As you say, Saville.. I didnt know, I had never thought about it, but I wasn't at all surprised
Trebor @Trebor_1872 · 36m Absolutely disgusted and sure a lot of people around the Stirling area will be embarrassed with this image pic.twitter.com/WNpl77Rhwd
When, where and by whom was that image taken/flag burnt? Could have been anyone as fr as I can see at the moment It's not in recent Google image searches for Bannockburn and I would have seen any reports of a serious political demo by now. The only prior image I can find suggests it may be a Rangers vs Celtic thing - note that the missing centre of the flag means it could be one of several variations popular with the fans.
The EXIF data has been stripped from the image which makes it 99.999% certain to be a hoax.
Ah! Thank you. A good and constructive comment - and one that takes us forward.
MikeK I refer you to the Rasmussen general election poll last week, in which she beat the GOP top-tier by at least double Obama's margin over Romney. She's running!
Hillary Clinton 47% Chris Christie 33% 14 Hillary Clinton 50% Ted Cruz 37% 13 Hillary Clinton 46% Rand Paul 39% 7 Hillary Clinton 50% Rick Perry 36% 14
Tories doing much better than I would have expected in Scottish Lowlands, NE and other rural below the Highlands. A lot of SNP support was at tory expense. Is the goings on surrounding the referendum bringing voters there back to Tory?
UKIP didn't do poorly in London, they did poorly in Inner London.
Greens doing well in same places where liberals get relatively better vote, suggesting that a lot of disillusioned libdems are going green rather than Labour. Not good for Eds 35% strategy.
Labour did much worse in S Wales, Parts of Yorkshire and West Midlands than in other heartlands such as Inner London. UKIP seem to be main beneficiaries. Again not good news for Eds 35% strategy.
More evidence that Labour "electoral advantage" is unwinding.
We perhaps could see a position where both Tory and Lab get about 295 seats, liberal 20, UKIP 5 and nats/NI about 30 making it virtually impossible for anyone to get even a small majority with less than 3-4 parties in coaltion, with little prospect of a snap second election resolving matters - ie chaos. Interesting times.
I live in outer London, it is a different place entirely from Zones 1 and 2
BBC4 tonight at 10pm. Re-run of "Edge of Darkness", BBC Cold-War thriller from the 1980's, in the days when they still made riveting drama (as opposed to turgid politically-correct pap.)
All round great performances, accurately depicting the paranoia that were the Reagan-Thatcher years...
MikeK I refer you to the Rasmussen general election poll last week, in which she beat the GOP top-tier by at least double Obama's margin over Romney. She's running!
Hillary Clinton 47% Chris Christie 33% 14 Hillary Clinton 50% Ted Cruz 37% 13 Hillary Clinton 46% Rand Paul 39% 7 Hillary Clinton 50% Rick Perry 36% 14
MikeK I refer you to the Rasmussen general election poll last week, in which she beat the GOP top-tier by at least double Obama's margin over Romney. She's running!
Hillary Clinton 47% Chris Christie 33% 14 Hillary Clinton 50% Ted Cruz 37% 13 Hillary Clinton 46% Rand Paul 39% 7 Hillary Clinton 50% Rick Perry 36% 14
I had a look at iplocation. It seemed to think I was either in Milton Keynes, Colchester, Daventry or Headington in Oxford. None of which are in the same county as I am! Even Google thinks I am in the next village from my town (it usually thinks I'm in one of the above or other places even further afield)
Even if they got my town right then, there is not a lot they can tell other than I am in Dorriesville, Bedfordshire, population 10,000 and on the same ISP as half the population.
On the other hand if I was to start falsely asserting here (or anywhere else online) that X and Y were engaged in secret discussions about the constitution of Uganda in a country hotel honeymoon suite, then I'm sure X and Y would have my address out of my ISP before you could say m' learned friends...
MikeK I refer you to the Rasmussen general election poll last week, in which she beat the GOP top-tier by at least double Obama's margin over Romney. She's running!
Hillary Clinton 47% Chris Christie 33% 14 Hillary Clinton 50% Ted Cruz 37% 13 Hillary Clinton 46% Rand Paul 39% 7 Hillary Clinton 50% Rick Perry 36% 14
Mr Dancer, the idea that they will conquer everything on their silly map including retaking the ancient Islamic province of al-Andalus is so barking it hardly needs contradicting. The only reason the Middle Ages was subject to the rapid advance of the caliphate was because of deep divisions and a complete lack of discipline and organisation. When that changed under Charles Martel at Poitiers the Islamic invasion was stopped in it's tracks and slowly rolled back.
Never mind Spain, I see from their map they intend to take the Crimea and a chunk of southern Russia as well. Good luck with taking on Uncle Vladimir for that one. Any such efforts in that direction are more likely to result in a lot of areas on that map not currently in Russia ending up in Russia! Given the opportunity, I suspect the third Rome would like nothing more than to occupy the territory of the its orthodox motherland, the Second Rome.
Do ISIS really want Uncle Vladimir being crowned as Byzantine emperor in Hagia Sophia (an explicit aim of the Romanovs and one Britain fought the Crimean war to prevent)?
Just publishing that map gives the Russians an excuse to get far more involved in Syria and Iraq.
Comments
"I too get lumped as a posh boy aristo, by virtue of my private education, but my accent is very northern."
If it helps I have never thought of you as posh. My image of you is as a somewhat darker skinned version of the Ronnie Barker character in the following sketch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sESuM88KDA
If you want to see a radically lower level of tax and spend, you ought to support the proposals: along with the "how your money is spent" document, it would be a reminder of how much is paid over.
On an aside, the results might indicate something more complex. I know (plenty) "posh" colleagues and friends who'd read into this that the more educated/intelligent are pro-EU - because they're enlightened/progressive/internationalist etc. - and it's only the stupid, ignorant proles who are anti.
However, perhaps the white-van man small business owner and tradesmen who deal with EU regulation at a SME level (and regularly travel to the continent) are more informed about the effects of EU membership. Particularly compared to the wealthy, guardian reading, hoity-toity public sector workers who depend on public largesse for their livelihoods, and whose only real contact with the EU each year is either 'progressive' regulation for their favourite pet hobby horses (which don't directly affect their living standards, of course) or their skiing trips to Val d'Isère and summer holidays in Tuscany.
Crossover is here! oh happy days. Crossover is here! oh happy days. Crossover is here! oh happy days. Crossover is here! oh happy days. Crossover is here! oh happy days. Crossover is here! oh happy days. Crossover is here! oh happy days. Crossover is here! oh happy days.
Rolf Harris fronting a video campaign against child abuse in 1985:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sduX3i9zokg
Remember the uproar when he was just tidying up a minor tax inconsistency between cooked and uncooked pasties?
Douglas Murray @DouglasKMurray 6m
More British Muslims have gone to fight jihad in Syria than there are British Muslims in the British army: http://specc.ie/1jDvyU2
Seems like the various polls offer some comfort to just about everyone, possibly excepting the Lib Dems. Any more due?
Who do they think they'll be fighting and killing? Other Muslims, perhaps?
Even in its own lunatic terms, it's nonsensical.
What is it with these people?
Tories doing much better than I would have expected in Scottish Lowlands, NE and other rural below the Highlands. A lot of SNP support was at tory expense. Is the goings on surrounding the referendum bringing voters there back to Tory?
UKIP didn't do poorly in London, they did poorly in Inner London.
Greens doing well in same places where liberals get relatively better vote, suggesting that a lot of disillusioned libdems are going green rather than Labour. Not good for Eds 35% strategy.
Labour did much worse in S Wales, Parts of Yorkshire and West Midlands than in other heartlands such as Inner London. UKIP seem to be main beneficiaries. Again not good news for Eds 35% strategy.
More evidence that Labour "electoral advantage" is unwinding.
We perhaps could see a position where both Tory and Lab get about 295 seats, liberal 20, UKIP 5 and nats/NI about 30 making it virtually impossible for anyone to get even a small majority with less than 3-4 parties in coaltion, with little prospect of a snap second election resolving matters - ie chaos. Interesting times.
Showing it for what it is, is presumably the goal.
Oh, wait...
@JohnRentoul: I missed EdM's response to PM's Juncker statement, but @simonsketch's is a mood-picture of the awfulness http://t.co/ighozXIMJV
And can't we be worried about both Google and GCHQ? HMG should be clamping down on both.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2674736/ISIS-militants-declare-formation-caliphate-Syria-Iraq-demand-Muslims-world-swear-allegiance.html
#megapollingmonday
There was a ceasefire extension agreement between France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine but Ukraine is backtracking on that agreement and is declaring martial law (or about to according to ukrainian media) after allegedly paramilitary elements had a chat with Poroshenko and talked about a military coup to remove him from office if he agrees with the EU-Russian proposal.
Short story, Germany and France will be pissed and Carl Bilt will be gloating.
In reality PAYE means we have just about the lowest income tax rates in the world at zero percent, because to all intents and purposes income tax and employees NI are actually levied on employers. What employees have never had they will never miss.
I suppose in essence we have lost the insurance element so why call it such as there are limited circumstances when people claim.
It is very similar to paying for prescriptions - I read that less then 10% of prescriptions are paid for in England in absolute terms because those most in need (pensioners, children, pregnant and nursing women) are exempt from charges. In effect it is a healthcare tax.
I would stress, though, that being utterly mental is not necessarily a bar to success. The foot soldiers can be zealous lunatics, but if they're directed by a calculating mind (which they may be) that could be an advantage. ISIS has been very clever regarding social media, has made substantial conquests (which allowed it to loot a bank and gain a large quantity of loot in Iraq) and is well-equipped and funded.
It is very depressing when you think that these people were fronting programme's designed to appeal to kid's and abusing that trust in such shocking and upsetting way's.
What is more significant is that, even if on day one pensions and interest continue only to be taxed at 20% (share dividends at 10%) rather than earned income at 32%. It will make far too tempting a target for a future chancellor to ignore when he needs more revenue.
Plus I can see popular objection to unearned income being taxed at a lower rate than earned income once it is more obvious.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2675025/Cameron-kicked-EUs-Van-Rompuy-Number-10-furious-row-staging-vote-gets-Brussels-job.html
If this had been 2012 or early 2013 Cameron would have been in real trouble today, IMO. But with the economy picking up so well... Well, success brings success.
It also show's how irrational politics is to be honest (particularly Conservative internal party politics)
They have mass war, we have mass tweeting.
Mr. Speedy, we'll have mass war again. It's just a question of time.
Edited extra bit: Mr. Jim, you've utterly bested me with that name, unless it's the long way of saying 'Saladin'.
I quite like that Richard the Lionheart and Saladin were friends. The only bits I've really read about them were in Sean McGlynn's excellent book on brutality in the medieval world: By Sword and Fire.
Basically in simple terms your privacy is inversely proportional to how much you annoy people online.
Good news is that Iznogoud might be back in fasion to try once more to become Caliph in the place of the Caliph.
Do ISIS really want Uncle Vladimir being crowned as Byzantine emperor in Hagia Sophia (an explicit aim of the Romanovs and one Britain fought the Crimean war to prevent)?
Just publishing that map gives the Russians an excuse to get far more involved in Syria and Iraq.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2674345/Paddy-Kenny-reports-Leeds-pre-season-training-enjoyed-summer-break-little-much.html
Continental Europe is weak and declining rapidly, Russia (Golden Horde), Scandinavia (vikings) and Islam are up.
Only one of the Caliphate neighbours is powerfull and willing enough to oppose them, Iran.
Neither Turkey, nor Saudi Arabia are willing or capable to go on the attack because they are sunnis and Egypt is far away.
Mr. Jim, indeed.
Of course, governments can turn up to BT or Virgin or whoever, and say "who did you assign this IP address to on a given day and time".
But for a mildly able criminal, there are ways. In the banks of Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, etc., there will be stored sessions - the following IP was associated with the following session, and the following user logged in using that IP. If you have an IP address you want to check, and you have access to the server logs at a couple of these big companies (or at CDNs like Akamai) you can usually work backwards and find out roughly who an IP came from.
"Iznogoud is the second in command (Grand Vizier) to the Caliph of Baghdad Haroun El Poussah (Haroun El Plassid in English, a pun on the historical Caliph, Harun al-Rashid; "poussah" is roughly translated as "oaf") but his sole aim in life is to overthrow the Caliph and take his place. This is frequently expressed in his famous catchphrase, "I want to become Caliph instead of the Caliph" ("je veux devenir calife à la place du calife"), which has passed into everyday French for qualifying over-ambitious people who want to become chief. Iznogoud is always assisted in his plans by his faithful henchman, Dilat Larath (Wa'at Alahf in English)."
He's like a french-middle eastern comic version of Blackadder
More seriously. By stating that they intend to invade Crimea and southern Russia, ISIS have effectively declared war on Russia, and given Putin an excuse to get more involved in Syria and the rest of the region. That map is strategically suicidal.
Rejoice amongst yourselves! Celebrate with champagne sparkling water, women loads of other blokes, and a great deal of glee confusion. Come on! It's time to go! Hey guys, the Caliphate has been declared! You've been banging on about this moment for ages now. Book your flights! You can now all finally live in the splendour squalor which you have long-imagined and campaigned for!
ISIS, those brave warriors for freedom, have said that the 'Islamic State' is now in full force. Don't you understand?
Wait... what do you mean you don't want to go?
Come on Anjem, come on Hamza, come on Jamal ...Jordan!? It is time to live under the Shariah! I'll even book your flights for you!
No? You don't want to go to an extremely dangerous region, you say?
Oh you want to remain in the comfort of the West, suckling at the teet of the taxpayer while holding marches in favour of the caliphate on our streets? Hmmm.
What do you mean it might get "hairy" over there? Don't be silly. Islamists wouldn't hurt one of their own, would they? Oh, I see what you mean. They did kill that guy who was friendly with a Hamas leader. But that's in Gaza right? They're all nuts there!
What? They crucified fellow jihadis for not being extreme enough? Hmm, well... I'm sure you can all work on your extremism on the plane, no? We'll make sure the airline has a wide variety of 'On Demand Anwar al Awlaki' videos for you.
Oh COME ON guys. Don't let us all down now. You've been flying the bloody flag for this thing for so long now, and once you finally get it, you don't want it?! Bloody ingrates. Those ISIS guys have been doing all your dirty work and this is how you thank them!
Well fine, stay here then. But let me tell you something. I don't want to hear a peep out of you about this bloody 'caliphate' rubbish anymore. Find a new drum to bang! Like climate change. Or the Bedroom Tax. At least those guys are totally not hypocrites, right? Er... right?
(h/t Ghaffar Husain for the idea for this piece)
Morris Dancer Indeed, it is more likely we will have a Middle East civil war between Iran and Saudi and their Shia and Sunni offshoots
http://www.iplocation.net/
Mr. Beds, I'm not sure ISIS are known for their well-balanced approach to things.
Mind you, they have made tremendous progress in the war. It'll be interesting to see how the Iraqi counter-attack to reclaim Tikrit goes. If the ISIS land starts to crumble it may wither as rapidly as it grew.
The most common IP addresses were: the Houses of Parliament, the Conservative Party, News Corporation, and DMGT. Plus there were a surprisingly large number of hits from multinationals like Goldman Sachs, McKinsey and Barclays,
I kept meaning to match up usernames and IPs, particularly to work out who was posting from CCO, but never got around to it.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/2016-poll-hillary-clinton-drops-below-50-for-first-time-lackluster-book-rollout-blamed/article/2550305
They need mass infantry and artillery formations (I estimate 250 thousand infantry troops at least, half a million to be sure) in order to recapture the cities by following the russian example in the second chechen war, only then they will need mobility to cross the desert to Raqqa.
In short the only way to beat an enemy who is at total war is by going to total war yourself.
Mass conscription, mass army, mass war production ect ect.
If you don't then you have lost.
BBC4 tonight at 10pm. Re-run of "Edge of Darkness", BBC Cold-War thriller from the 1980's, in the days when they still made riveting drama (as opposed to turgid politically-correct pap.)
All round great performances, accurately depicting the paranoia that were the Reagan-Thatcher years...
No SNP figure! Pity as it would have been interesting.
But he is
As you say, Saville.. I didnt know, I had never thought about it, but I wasn't at all surprised
Ah! Thank you. A good and constructive comment - and one that takes us forward.
Hillary Clinton 47% Chris Christie 33% 14
Hillary Clinton 50% Ted Cruz 37% 13
Hillary Clinton 46% Rand Paul 39% 7
Hillary Clinton 50% Rick Perry 36% 14
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationwide_opinion_polling_for_the_United_States_presidential_election,_2016
Even if they got my town right then, there is not a lot they can tell other than I am in Dorriesville, Bedfordshire, population 10,000 and on the same ISP as half the population.
On the other hand if I was to start falsely asserting here (or anywhere else online) that X and Y were engaged in secret discussions about the constitution of Uganda in a country hotel honeymoon suite, then I'm sure X and Y would have my address out of my ISP before you could say m' learned friends...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-28089671
Always nice to see a sinner repent
Joe Saward has two interesting articles up:
Word is Lotus will become the fourth Mercedes-powered team next year:
http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2014/06/30/lotus-to-switch-to-merc-engines/
And Caterham might be about to be sold to Swiss/Middle East investors (presumably not from the caliphate):
http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2014/06/30/change-coming-at-caterham/
Great news for Lotus, if true, and if Caterham do stick around we might have 13 teams (or even more) in 2016.
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