Ethical Companies – The Blog

On the matter of Britain: 10 things NOT to like.

I spotted the above article on the Anna Raccoon blog recently, followed from a link on another blog (can’t remember which, sorry). Some of the “dislikes” are not specifically British things, whilst some are British and understandable (Jonathan Ross !) However, being in a positive mood today (must be something in the water) I wondered what my “10 things I like about Britain” list would be like, and some are purely selfish on my part, some trivial, some you will agree with and some you won’t agree with:

1. I like the way that realistically you can drive to most places in the country and home again within a day. None of this trudging across country staying at motels, catching flights and so on, like the USA. Ok it’s not perfect, a trip to John O’Groats and back is a long day but the point is it’s “doable”.
2. The weather. Don’t snigger …. We get a wide range of weather in the United Kingdom, from snow to blistering hot sunshine, and that’s what I like, the VARIETY. Ok, so I don’t like days and days of snow, or weeks of heatwave sunshine, but that’s what you get in some countries isn’t it ? No wonder the Inuits have so many different words for “snow”
3. The “benefits” service. It’s far from ideal, but the fact is for a lot of people it’s absolutely necessary to ensure they maintain a life whilst looking for employment. The fact remains that despite there being a lot of jobs on the market we still have very high levels of unemployment, and benefits provide the necessary “safety net” for those people who can’t find employment, and then there’s the disabled, the elderly and so on. Don’t listen to the hype, the vast majority of people on benefits are not “scroungers” and aren’t “milking the state” but get by, thanks to our benefits system. It’s easy to sneer when you’re working and complain your taxes pay their wages, but there “but for the grace of God goes you”, you might need that safety net yourself one day, walk a mile in their shoes ….
4. The NHS. More or less “ditto” on the above entry about benefits. Least you don’t have to sell your house or go bankrupt when you need a major operation in the UK, like you do in the USA.
5. The food. It’s far from ideal in some places, but we have a very eclectic range of food in Britain, and some of it is world class and outstanding as programs like Rick Stein’s Food Heroes have shown us. You can now get decent Chinese, Indian, Italian, Thai and French food here, as well as traditional British eateries and even great fish and chips !
6. The countryside. It’s mostly green and “pleasant”, no deserts here.
7. The history. Great Britain has stacks of it.
8. The seaside. It’s never too far away !
9. Individual freedom in speech and action. Ok, it’s far from perfect, but we have more than many countries.
10. Variable geography. Forests, fields, hills, mountains, flat bits, wet bits etc.

Not everybody will agree with me, but I think there’s a lot worse places to live than Great Britain.

Steve

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As you may already be aware (and if you weren’t you soon will be) that the Daily Mail website, amongst its articles has little “mini polls” where you can click yes or no in response to a topical question. Questions such as “Does Britain still have a special relationship with America ?” After selecting yes or no you get to see the results.

You may also be aware that I don’t believe in banning the burka, from my recent posts on the subject. So on this article here: The burka empowering women? You must be mad, minister. I spotted a poll (presumably some of the polls on the specific pages are contextual and bear a relationship to the article surrounding them) entitled “Should Britain ban women from wearing a burka in public ?” and voted no. Here are the results at the time of writing this article:

Now maybe I just don’t “get it”, but do 88% of British people really want to ban the burka in Britain ? I just don’t understand the problem here. I get the whole thing about possible coercion into wearing them and the idea they are a “walking coffin” (in some people’s minds) but do 88% of British people (well 88% of the Daily Mail readers who do polls at least) care one way or the other about burkas ? Is banning them not just replacing one form of control with another ? Maybe I’m just stupid, but I really don’t see what all the fuss is about. If you’re one of the “yes” crowd then please explain what the problem is you have with them.

Thanks in advance.

Steve

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‘Wicked’ woman who cried rape is jailed for three years despite being seven months pregnant.

A young woman who ripped her clothes and gave herself a black eye to support her rape lies was yesterday jailed for three years. Leyla Ibrahim, described as wicked by a judge, is seven months pregnant and will give birth in prison. Her false rape claims started a £150,000 police investigation in which four students were arrested and subjected to humiliating examinations. They were questioned for nearly three days during which time one attempted suicide. They were later victims of public abuse, and one has since left the area. But the 22-year-old woman had invented the whole incident in order to teach her friends a lesson after they abandoned her at the end of a night out, a judge said.

Words fail me.  The damage this “woman” (I use the word very loosely) has caused to these men’s lives is utterly disgraceful.  Yet more fuel to support the argument that men accused of rape should be granted anonymity UNLESS they are actually convicted of the charges.  How many men have had their lives destroyed by false accusations of rape and/or ended up in prison for a crime they didn’t convict ?

The four wrongly accused – two of whom were under 16 – are still suffering as a result of the stigma caused by the false allegations, Carlisle Crown Court was told. All were ’subject to name calling and abuse in the street’ following their arrests, with one describing the ordeal as torture. Another said he was devastated by the harrowing experience and had been unable to eat or sleep. One suspect complained: ‘We were treated like s*** and not a stint (sic) of an apology.’

Whatever happened to “innocent until proven guilty” ?

Even the doctor in the case described the examinations as ‘intimate, embarrassing and uncomfortable’. A senior police source said the four were still ‘really struggling’ with the aftermath of the case. Detectives had initially taken Ibrahim’s account that she had been raped or sexually assaulted on her way home from a night out seriously, launching a massive manhunt involving 40 officers.

The frilly dress and leggings she had been wearing had apparently been ripped in the attack, clumps of her hair had been hacked off and she had a black eye and scratches to her breasts and legs. But police became suspicious, and tests showed the Libyan-born former children’s holiday rep had ripped her own clothes and inflicted the injuries herself to back up her fabricated claims. After failing to withdraw her allegation she was charged with perverting the course of justice and convicted. Judge Paul Batty, QC, told her such false allegations made it harder for women who genuinely had been raped to secure their attacker’s convictions. ‘Not only did these false allegations have an effect on four young men, but also a considerable effect on your own family,’ he said. ‘You were convicted on clear and compelling evidence of wickedly fabricating a grave crime, causing countless anguish to all involved. Your behaviour was thoroughly irresponsible and some may say wicked. I’m entirely clear in this case that you craved attention and wanted your friends to think they left you and you were then attacked. You wanted to teach them a lesson.’

So, when the “game was up” and she had a chance to withdraw the allegation she still carried on with these charges ?

Ibrahim, who had been denied bail following her conviction, smiled and waved at her family as she was led into the dock. Her mother Sandra covered her face with her hands following the sentence, calling out: ‘It’s OK darling, we’ll always be with you.’ The family insisted they would ‘fight forever’ to clear her name. Ibrahim, who came to Britain from Libya with her family when she was nine, worked at a petrol station at the time of the supposed attack in Carlisle on January 4 last year. She had argued with a male friend who refused to lend her the money for a taxi home after a night out drinking. She told police two youths had knocked her to the ground and assaulted her as she walked home. She claimed she grabbed a pair of scissors from her handbag, only for one of the pair to snatch them and cut off a clump of her hair. Crown prosecutor Linda Vance said: ‘This sort of case, where someone fabricates an allegation of sexual assault, and continues with that allegation, is very rare.’

Really Linda ?  I wonder how rare it really is ….  It may be rare in actual reported cases, but I’ve known at least half a dozen women over the years who claimed to have been raped and not reported it, and in some of those cases I had serious doubts as to how truthful they were.  For some women is it not simply a cry for attention (albeit an evil one) ?

I’m glad to see this woman sent to prison, but only 3 years ?

Steve

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Calls grow for burka ban in Britain as French outlaw Islamic ‘walking coffins’.

Britain faced growing calls to ban the burka today after French MPs voted overwhelmingly to outlaw full-face veils in public. Politicians in France united yesterday to ban Islamic veils that cover a woman’s face, which some described as ‘walking coffins’. Deputies in the country’s 557-seat lower house, the National Assembly, voted in favour of the ban by 335 votes to one.

I guess French politicians have nothing important to be dealing with …. Oh, you know, like national deficits, unemployment, recession and so on …. Let’s ban burkas instead …. Hmmm.

Support for a ban in Britain has come from Tory backbencher Philip Hollobone and the UK Independence Party. Mr Hollobone has tabled a private members’ bill which would make it illegal for anyone to cover their face in public. The Kettering MP, who has previously likened full face veils to ‘going round with a paper bag over your head’, said: ‘It is unnatural for someone to cover their face and it not a religious requirement. ‘We are never going to have a fully integrated society if an increasing proportion of the population cover their faces’. His Face Coverings (Regulation) Bill is the first of its kind in Britain, and is one of only 20 private members’ bills drawn in a ballot for the chance to make it into the statute books.

And long may he stay a back bencher ! As for it being “unnatural” to cover your face there is no law against it. So if I want to go out of the house with a paper bag over my head (I’d make some eyeholes), or with underpants on my head and pencils up my nose (can you tell I like Black Adder ?) or even wear a pink bra as ear muffs, then I WILL DO SO.

The bill, which had its first reading in June, stands little chance of becoming law due to limited Parliamentary time and a lack of support from the main political parties.

Oh dear, what a shame, snigger.

Mr Hollobone has insisted that his bill has widespread public support: ‘People feel that something should be done about burkas, but so many are afraid to speak out for fear of being labelled a racist.

Really ? Let’s do a snap poll on the streets and I bet the resounding response most British citizens would give to the query “should wearing burkas be made illegal ?” is “who cares what they wear, it’s not my problem, and utterly unimportant to me”.

‘Part of the British way of life is walking down the street, smiling at people and saying hello, whether you know them or not. You cannot have this everyday human interaction if you cover your face. ‘These people are saying that they don’t want to be part of our way of society.’

You should try walking down Tottenham Court Road in London Mr Hollobone (see previous post below), I didn’t see that much smiling, just people going about their business.

Far-Left groups such as the Communists joined president Nicolas Sarkozy’s ruling UMP party in voting for it, although Socialists and Greens abstained. Communist MP Andre Gerin said yesterday: ‘Talking about liberty to defend the wearing of the full veil is totally cynical – for me, the full veil is a walking coffin, a muzzle. ‘The result follows months of heated debate during which immigration minister Eric Besson also described the burka as a ‘walking coffin’, while prime minister Francois Fillon accused wearers of ‘hijacking Islam’ and displaying a ‘dark sectarian image’. Recent polls suggested that more than 80 per cent of French people wanted the burka banned, including some of the country’s five million Muslims. Under the terms of the bill, anyone caught wearing a burka, which covers the entire face and body with just a mesh screen for the eyes, or a niqab, which has a slit for the wearers’ eyes, will face a £117 fine.  Men caught forcing a woman to wear a burka or a niqab will face a year in prison or a £25,000 fine.

The garments are seen as undermining women’s rights and a threat to France’s secular status. The proposed legislation, which is colloquially referred to as the ‘anti-burka law’, is officially called ‘the bill to forbid concealing one’s face in public’. The draft bill backed by Mr Sarkozy’s government will now pass to the Senate upper house where it could be ratified in September to become law. But it could be shot down by the European Court of Human Rights and France’s constitutional watchdog, the Council of State, which has warned that the bill may be illegal because it does not allow freedom of expression. This would be a humiliation for Mr Sarkozy, whose government has devoted much attention to a bill that only affects around 2,000 women in France. It could also dampen efforts in other European countries to outlaw veils. Belgium and Spain have begun the initial stages of burka bans. The main body representing French Muslims fears the ban will stigmatise the religion, which it says does not require women to cover their faces anyway.

A French tycoon is setting up a fund to help Muslim women pay ‘burka fines’. Muslim businessman Rachid Nekkaz has pledged to sell property worth 1million euros to finance the fund.

I’m glad that the motion to introduce an anti burka law in the United Kingdom is unlikely.  I mean really, if these women choose to wear them then let them.  If they want to burn them (and possibly burn their bras at the same time) then let them.  We are supposed to be a tolerant society, yet we have this sort of nonsense proposed.  Our government has far more important things to be worrying about, let’s deal with those instead and scrap the idea of banning burkas and save a few quid in the process ….

Now, where did I leave my pink bra ….

Steve

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As you may well recall I have published a number of posts here on my blog concerning Google’s Street View software (you might want to check the older posts if you’re not too familiar with the software). Yesterday I spotted the following article on the Daily Mail’s website, which presumably appears in the actual newspaper as well:

Mother’s fury after Google Street View publishes naked picture of her son, three, online.

A woman has told of her horror after Google published a photograph of her young son naked on the internet. Claire Rowlands, 25, was stunned to see the image of Louis mears playing on a sunny day in his grandmother’s garden in Walkden, Greater Manchester.

We can see where this is going can’t we ? A Warholesque fifteen minutes of fame, a bit of “publicity” in the media (somewhat not surprisingly the Daily Mail) and can’t you just smell a whiff of compensation demands coming on ?

Louis, three, had been snapped by Google’s controversial ‘camera car’ as it took pictures of every road in Britain for the search engine’s Street View service. The company blurred out the registration plate of a car on the drive of the house – but the image of Louis, who was wearing nothing but his shoes, was uncensored. In another image, taken seconds later, Louis’s face was clearly identifiable, but his modesty was preserved by a fence. Shocked Claire, who lives on the same road as her mother, said she had no idea the pictures had been taken and accused Google of invading her son’s privacy. She said: ‘I just felt sick to my stomach when I saw the naked picture of Louis on the internet. I’m angry, disgusted and upset about it – they should be checking every image before it goes up. ‘They should be extra careful on warm days because this is what children do – he was just playing in the garden and we didn’t expect in a million years he’d have his picture taken and put on the internet for anyone to see. ‘It’s such a clear image, I see it as an indecent photograph – my concern is that paedophiles could see it and there’s no way I ever wanted my son to be seen naked all over the world. ‘Louis was on private property. Surely residents should be asked if they’re happy to have their pictures taken before this is allowed to happen.’

We can argue the privacy issue surrounding Google Street View until the cows come home. However, in my opinion these are “images” anyone could have seen walking down the street in Walkden, Manchester. It’s a nice sunny day, if I walk around my town long enough I’ll probably find a naked child if I look at people’s gardens …. I was at Astbury Mere the other day (it’s a lake near Congleton with sandy “becahes”, very popular when hot outside. There were loads of small children around in various states of undress, as well as a number of women in limited “dress”. I saw nobody learing out of the bushes ogling the children, perhaps it’s time we laid this “every other man is a paedophile” myth to rest ? I don’t deny that such people exist, but I doubt it’s anywhere near as common as the media might have you believe. Besides why scour Google Earth/Google Street view for such images ? I’m not a paedophile, but I’m aware there’s far easier ways of finding images of naked children than this.

Google has now apologised and said it has blurred the image. The company’s software automatically obscures car number plates but does not detect human bodies. A spokeswoman said: ‘We take issues around inappropriate content in our products very seriously, and we removed the image in question within an hour of being notified. For us, privacy and user choice remain paramount. ‘This is why we have put in place tools so that if people see what they believe to be inappropriate they can report them to us using the simple tools and the images will be quickly removed. We apologise for any inadvertent concern this may have caused.’ Privacy groups have already blasted Street View, which they branded a ‘burglar’s charter’ when it was launched last year. Alex Deane, from the Big Brother Watch group, said: ‘This is not the first time this has happened but the excuses are wearing thin. ‘Google still needs to take greater responsibility for people’s personal privacy and introduce stronger safeguards to the system.’

Google has done more enough concerning this issue as far as I can see. As for Alex Deane …. Big Brother Watch ? Surely there’s better on television to watch ?

So yet more people moaning about Google Street View ….  I still can’t see what all the fuss is about, I consider it to be a great piece of software, and very useful.  The final word on naked bodies (children or otherwise):

“If you don’t want people to see you naked when outdoors, then KEEP YOUR CLOTHES ON, it’s not rocket science is it ?”

Steve

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Well a mixed review this time …. Tenko is the story of a group of women (mostly British or Dutch) from Singapore who are captured by the Japanese in World War 2 and imprisoned in a camp, a sort of POW camp for civilians. Series 1 starts to set the scene and establish a number of key characters as they go about their lives in Singapore (a great place by the way, but I digress), through their capture, imprisonment and events that occur in the camp. Series 2 is …. Well more of the same, more about life for the women in the camp. Then series 3 deals with their release and events following. Tenko Reunion special …. Well you can work it out I am sure, it’s not rocket science.

The biggest “stars” in the series are undoubtedly Bert Kwouk, Stephanie Cole and Stephanie Beacham. Bert plays the commandant of the camp, but you may remember him as Cato, Inspector Clouseau’s man servant in the Pink Panther films who used to attack his “master” when he returned home, or as Entwistle in Last Of The Summer Wine. Stephanie Cole was of course Diana Trent in the superbly funny Waiting For God (interestingly Daniel Hill who plays Harvey Baines in Waiting For God also appears in Tenko). Stephanie Beacham went on to star in Dynasty, The Colbys and Seaquest DSV (hey I liked Seaquest DSV, wouldn’t mind watching it again actually). Stephanie Cole’s role is (in my opinion) the “biggy”, where she plays Dr Beatrice Mason who battles against the odds to keep the prisoners alive, despite limited medical supplies.

So, how does it rate ? This is actually a tough one. Series 1 and 2 are superb, 9/10 without a shadow of a doubt. However, series 3 (and the dreaded reunion special) “drag”. As series 3 onwards deals with the women’s life after release it becomes rather mundane and basically boring, series 3 and the reunion are mediocre at best in my opinion, only 6/10 material. Therefore I am not giving an overall rating for Tenko. However, I do recommend watching it, if only to see some good drama and some superb acting.

As for the DVDs, well it’s not cheap. The individual series appear to be deleted, but the “complete” boxset comes in at over £100, so you might want to borrow/rent it someplace:

Steve

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“Economists say Britain faces the deepest spending cuts for a generation as it tries to plug the £ 167 billion black hole left in the public finances by Labour” – Spotted today here.

Ouch.  That’s a lot of “cash”.

Steve

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Is Britain the new Japan ?

I was reading the the behind Blue Eyes blog today and the article “Is Britain the new Japan ?” got me interested.  Whilst the article itself is interesting I noticed someone made the following comment:

“Blue, you made a rather large omission – you failed to tell us what is actually MADE in Britain these days so we can decide if we want to buy it.”

Well I’m always keen to buy British and support our own country (yes I know my car is German before some smarty pants that knows me comments) so let’s hear it, what is still made here in Britain that we should be proud of ?  I’ve just bought a Ford Courier, I wonder if that’s a Dagenham made Ford or made in Germany ?

So let’s hear some suggestions for ways to buy British please.

Steve

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Broadband Britain – how far down the league ?

Apparently Great Britain is 31st in the global “broadband league.”

Can’t say as I’m that impressed with my 50mb Virgin Media cable connection.  It strikes me it ought to be significantly faster than it is.

31st: that’s just pathetic.  Come on Virgin etc, get it sorted out.

Steve

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This morning I read an article by Jarvis Cocker in the Sunday Mail men’s supplement (I forget what it’s called but it’s one of the “freebies” that comes in the Sunday Mail every week) about holidays in Great Britain.

Jarvis Cocker states he feels the credit crunch is a good thing, because it causes us to re-evaluate our priorities and re-assess how and where we should find our pleasures in life. He then goes on to discuss the idea of holidaying in Britain as oppose to flying off to Marbella or Ibiza. Personally I think he has a point, the grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence …. I can see why 2 weeks of sun, sand, alcohol and casual sex (well for some of us, in my case unlikely) appeals; but the intrinsic problem with going on holiday is something is always there which doesn’t change: YOU. Surely a holiday for many of us is as much about different experiences as it is about “relaxing”. You can relax at home; you can relax anywhere in fact if you put your mind to it …. Heck I’ve had ten minutes shuteye and relaxation in some odd places.

A holiday to me seems a very materialist “thing”; we assess it in terms of cost and equate that to potential enjoyment and relaxation etc. But should a holiday should be a “thing” ? One of my things I recall quite vividly from university was a great optional module which I took called “Systems Thinking” taught by a very clever and intelligent (in my opinion at least) lecturer called Andy Bass (apparently he’s also had an excursion into stand-up comedy, at which I would imagine he excels). One of the things taught was about language theory and linguistic paradoxes including the concept of “nominalization”. Wikipedia’s entry on nominalization is a little over the top in my opinion but simply it’s the idea of taking a process and turning it into a “thing”. Andy’s example was the idea of a business seminar where the speaker states “we need better communication” as if communication is a “thing” or an “object” rather than a process; what the speaker should say is “we need to communicate better” because it makes a lot more sense.
Still with me ? I realise today’s entry is a bit long winded…. Well let’s expand the idea of nominalising to our holidays. Should we be taking holidays or should we be holidaying ? I say we should be holidaying. And there comes the crunch, do we need to go abroad to do this ? Possibly. Or should we merely find things, in which we can take pleasure, find new experiences and find relaxation and variety ? They do say (not sure who “they” are) “variety is the spice of life”.

This is fair from a new idea, and has been discussed before extensively by Alain De Botton (a modern day popular philosopher) in “The Art of Travel”, and he expands upon these ideas further than just holidaying but to other aspects of life in his other work also. But I think it’s worth re-iterating the point. Maybe the credit crunch has done us a favour, we might reconsider our “holidaying” due to financial constraints and in the process rediscover simpler pleasures in life such as camping or walking holidays or other leisure pursuits such as fishing etc. Know what I’m planning to do this year ? I’m going on a weekend course on baking bread. It’s a 2 day course on the whole process of bread making, I can’t wait. To me this is far more interesting than 2 weeks in Ibiza ….

Steve

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