Rupert Murdoch’s company, News Corporation, is planning to charge a fee for access to their newspaper websites.
This means that you will have to pay to read the dailies such as the Times and the Sun and Sunday newspapers, the News of the World and the Sunday Times online.
This is prompted by soaring online subscription revenues at the Wall Street Journal and the fact that News Corp’s quarterly operating profits crashed by 47% to a meagre $755,000,000.
Ah bless, you can’t even get a decent meal for that nowadays, can you?
Has he contemplated the fact that there is a recession, and one of the first things to go is forking out for a newspaper every day?
Does Mr Murdoch and his team think that electronic newspapers share brand loyalty with the printed version?
Wake up Rupert, mate. This is the 21st century. If you start charging, readers will simply click on to the Daily Telegraph or the Daily Star and then, bang goes the advertising revenue from your websites!
Don’t forget, nearly every television company in the world have sites with news pages, some, even, with videos of the stories, and they don't charge to view them.
Remember what the Duke of Wellington said, “Publish and be damned”!
Thursday, 7 May 2009
Wednesday, 6 May 2009
Flogging A Willing Horse
According to a report by the National Institute for Economic and Social Research, to bring public debt under control in the next ten years, the Government will have to raise the state pension age to 70, or raise the basic rate of Income Tax by 15p in the pound, or cut government spending by 10%, sending education, the NHS etc to the wall!
Why didn’t the Government put this money into their piggy bank instead of committing British troops, and billions of pounds, on the invasion of Iraq, and spending money like a sailor on shore leave, bailing out greedy banks?
I’ve heard of people working past retirement age to pay off their own debts, but this is the first time that I’ve ever heard of anyone doing it to pay for someone else’s mismanagement of money!
Daft I call it!
Why didn’t the Government put this money into their piggy bank instead of committing British troops, and billions of pounds, on the invasion of Iraq, and spending money like a sailor on shore leave, bailing out greedy banks?
I’ve heard of people working past retirement age to pay off their own debts, but this is the first time that I’ve ever heard of anyone doing it to pay for someone else’s mismanagement of money!
Daft I call it!
Tuesday, 5 May 2009
Parent power
The Government are outlining plans today for a shake up in education whereby parents in England could get the power to force councils to improve the quality of their local schools.
Parents would be able to demand action at a school in their area, even if their children were not pupils. From what I understand, this would by-pass an OFSTED inspectors enquiry and Government intervention.
It would give parents of primary school pupils the right to complain about a secondary school that their children may be attending in the future. The local authority would have to take these complaints on-board and make every possible effort to raise the school standards. This includes replacing the head teacher, if the authority deems it necessary.
This is all well and good, but to me it seems like the Government has run up the white flag on education.
If the Government has washed its hands of the most basic element of a civilised society, education, then it has washed its hands of the country.
Do you want the country to be governed by a rabble that has turned its back on the future?
No? Nor do I!
Parents would be able to demand action at a school in their area, even if their children were not pupils. From what I understand, this would by-pass an OFSTED inspectors enquiry and Government intervention.
It would give parents of primary school pupils the right to complain about a secondary school that their children may be attending in the future. The local authority would have to take these complaints on-board and make every possible effort to raise the school standards. This includes replacing the head teacher, if the authority deems it necessary.
This is all well and good, but to me it seems like the Government has run up the white flag on education.
If the Government has washed its hands of the most basic element of a civilised society, education, then it has washed its hands of the country.
Do you want the country to be governed by a rabble that has turned its back on the future?
No? Nor do I!
Monday, 4 May 2009
The Pandemic That ’Flu Out Of the Window
Some pandemic this is turning out to be. After the World Health Organisation (WHO) put the fear of God up the whole of Earth’s population just a few short days ago, we are now seeing headlines saying “Swine ’flu in decline in Mexico” and “UK swine ’flu is being contained”.
Scientists have said that it is a mild strain of the ’flu virus, at the time of writing, after Mexico has adjusted its figures, only seventeen people worldwide are known to have died after contracting it. Compare this with the quarter to half a million deaths across the world each year from your common or garden ’flu and it starts paling into insignificance!
Because of an almost daily morning smog at the seat of the outbreak, Mexico City, there are over half a million respiratory cases reported, anyway.
I know that the WHO has to look after the interests of the world’s wellbeing, but wasn’t this a knee jerk reaction on their part?
I only hope that I don’t have to eat my words!
Scientists have said that it is a mild strain of the ’flu virus, at the time of writing, after Mexico has adjusted its figures, only seventeen people worldwide are known to have died after contracting it. Compare this with the quarter to half a million deaths across the world each year from your common or garden ’flu and it starts paling into insignificance!
Because of an almost daily morning smog at the seat of the outbreak, Mexico City, there are over half a million respiratory cases reported, anyway.
I know that the WHO has to look after the interests of the world’s wellbeing, but wasn’t this a knee jerk reaction on their part?
I only hope that I don’t have to eat my words!
Sunday, 3 May 2009
Flight Of Fancy
They’ve upped the ante on yesterdays Home Office taxi story. Now the Government are looking to rent a private jet for a couple of years, for the use of Foreign Secretary, David Milliband.
Ministerial code dictates that scheduled flights should be used, unless deemed impractical. So, apparently, all scheduled flights must be impractical, (and less glamorous?) if he has to have a private jet to take him everywhere.
In 2008, Mr Milliband made more than twenty state trips, Why? Are other countries interested in what he has got to say? Have they even ever heard of him? Possibly the answer to these questions is a resounding NO!
I dare say he could do his job just as well as they did in the ‘old days’, by telephone, but then again, he wouldn’t get a free, all expenses paid holiday every fortnight, would he!
Ministerial code dictates that scheduled flights should be used, unless deemed impractical. So, apparently, all scheduled flights must be impractical, (and less glamorous?) if he has to have a private jet to take him everywhere.
In 2008, Mr Milliband made more than twenty state trips, Why? Are other countries interested in what he has got to say? Have they even ever heard of him? Possibly the answer to these questions is a resounding NO!
I dare say he could do his job just as well as they did in the ‘old days’, by telephone, but then again, he wouldn’t get a free, all expenses paid holiday every fortnight, would he!
Saturday, 2 May 2009
"Taxi!"
Here’s a story that has managed to keep a low profile this week. The Home Office has spent almost £2,000,000 on taxis and hire cars in the past year.
The bill for taxis was £1,045,671, (excluding tips, I’m assuming), and hire cars cost £917,908.
They are costing the taxpayer thirty three times more for riding in style than they did when Labour came to power in 1997!
So who’s burning all of this rubber? I have a friend who works for the UK Borders Agency, he doesn’t get afforded the luxury of a taxi, even though he has to work awkward hours. Another friend works for Customs and Revenue, he has to use his own means of transport.
My guess is that no non-executive workers who are employed by the Home Office get a free ride in a cab, so who does?
Does Jacqui Smith’s husband call a buckshee cab to pick up his tacky videos? Does the top brass hail a taxi outside of their Whitehall office on Friday afternoon to take them to their weekend retreats down in Cornwall?
We are in a recession so shouldn’t they be leading by example? Surely there is a tube/bus/train that could take them to their destinations!
As Norman Tebbit once said, “Get on your bike!”
The bill for taxis was £1,045,671, (excluding tips, I’m assuming), and hire cars cost £917,908.
They are costing the taxpayer thirty three times more for riding in style than they did when Labour came to power in 1997!
So who’s burning all of this rubber? I have a friend who works for the UK Borders Agency, he doesn’t get afforded the luxury of a taxi, even though he has to work awkward hours. Another friend works for Customs and Revenue, he has to use his own means of transport.
My guess is that no non-executive workers who are employed by the Home Office get a free ride in a cab, so who does?
Does Jacqui Smith’s husband call a buckshee cab to pick up his tacky videos? Does the top brass hail a taxi outside of their Whitehall office on Friday afternoon to take them to their weekend retreats down in Cornwall?
We are in a recession so shouldn’t they be leading by example? Surely there is a tube/bus/train that could take them to their destinations!
As Norman Tebbit once said, “Get on your bike!”
Friday, 1 May 2009
Even The Blind Can See
Former Home Secretary, David Blunkett, may be blind, but he can see the Labour Government’s future.
He has told the Guardian newspaper, "Labour has lost its political antennae and needs to get them back. We have no underlying domestic social policy. There is a void at present."
"We have got to get back to old-fashioned politics that's in touch with people we seek to represent and avoid self-inflicted wounds."
So, Mr Brown has left us up the creek without a paddle? Well, no, actually. The poor guy is just the scapegoat.
Tony Blair has to take the blame for all of this. Wasn’t he the one who hoisted the New Labour flag up the mast, back in 1997? He was the one who turned his back on the day to day running of Great Britain. In the ten years of his premiership, what great social reforms did he bring to the country? What was his equivalent to Aneurin Bevan’s National Health Service?
On being elected, he had his eye on the main chance. He wasn’t concerned with being the PM of a tiny island stuck out in the Atlantic Ocean, he wanted to be seen as a world leader. To make himself look powerful, he wooed, no, make that sucked up to, George W Bush, and sent British troops on an unlawful invasion of a country that was no threat to the UK, or the world for that matter!
What he really wanted to be, and still does by all accounts, was the first President of the United States of Europe. In his pursuit of self interest, he let the UK and the Parliamentary Labour Party run itself into the ground, now poor old Gordon is picking up the tab!
Sorry Mr Brown, but you have passed the point of no return. Go to the country now!
As a footnote to this, 10,000 people have signed a petition on the Downing Street website calling for the Prime Minister to resign. That says it all!
He has told the Guardian newspaper, "Labour has lost its political antennae and needs to get them back. We have no underlying domestic social policy. There is a void at present."
"We have got to get back to old-fashioned politics that's in touch with people we seek to represent and avoid self-inflicted wounds."
So, Mr Brown has left us up the creek without a paddle? Well, no, actually. The poor guy is just the scapegoat.
Tony Blair has to take the blame for all of this. Wasn’t he the one who hoisted the New Labour flag up the mast, back in 1997? He was the one who turned his back on the day to day running of Great Britain. In the ten years of his premiership, what great social reforms did he bring to the country? What was his equivalent to Aneurin Bevan’s National Health Service?
On being elected, he had his eye on the main chance. He wasn’t concerned with being the PM of a tiny island stuck out in the Atlantic Ocean, he wanted to be seen as a world leader. To make himself look powerful, he wooed, no, make that sucked up to, George W Bush, and sent British troops on an unlawful invasion of a country that was no threat to the UK, or the world for that matter!
What he really wanted to be, and still does by all accounts, was the first President of the United States of Europe. In his pursuit of self interest, he let the UK and the Parliamentary Labour Party run itself into the ground, now poor old Gordon is picking up the tab!
Sorry Mr Brown, but you have passed the point of no return. Go to the country now!
As a footnote to this, 10,000 people have signed a petition on the Downing Street website calling for the Prime Minister to resign. That says it all!
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