Top Banana

Fear not, polla2256 - your wishes are coming, whether you want it or not. I introduce the global e-ID program, so that your betters may monitor protect you. http://www.worlde-idcongress.com/program?postTabs=2#p2a22

Vicanna, have you considered the Paris Catacombs at all? I'm considering it at the end of the summer. Plus I really, really want to go here. My own interest is photography. I'm a Paul Jaspers wannabe! http://www.pauljaspers.com/

Thanks for that, LM. I had run it through Google Translate, so YMMV. With regard to the BoE, I read it as described. RBS GBM can have a whale moment or CDS exposure or whatever and suddenly find itself with no liquidity. Then I, as a subsidery customer have my "guaranteed" money going straight to the bail-in fund. With regard to the quote I understand his position however I was highlighting the ideas which two weeks ago would never have been publicly suggested being thrown around now.

The EU seems to tear up the rule book every day. The capital controls in Cyprus go against its own treaties. "Free movement of capital is at the heart of the Single Market and is one of its 'four freedoms'. It enables integrated, open, competitive and efficient European financial markets and services - which bring many advantages to us all." http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/capital/index_en.htm Now the precedence has been set, other countries are going to steal from savers. New Zealand is hoping to implement its OBR - Open Bank Resolution Policy. "The implementation of OBR would see all unsecured liabilities that rank equally among themselves, including deposits, having a portion frozen. If a bank fails under OBR, all depositors will have their savings reduced overnight to help fund the bank?s bail out." Spain, it would appear, has changed constitutional rules to enable a so-called ?moderate? levy on deposits. http://economia.elpais.com/economia/2013/03/19/actualidad/1363720713_602578.html Joerg Kraemer, chief economist of the German Commerzbank, has called for private savings accounts in Italy to be levied at 15%. ?A tax rate of 15 percent on financial assets would probably be enough to push the Italian government debt to below the critical level of 100 percent of gross domestic product,? he told Handelsblatt. What constitutes "financial assets"? The value of your house? In December 2012 the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Bank of England published a joint paper outlining their new approach for how to resolve any future collapse of one of the Too-Big-To-Fail banks, called ?Resolving Globally Active, Systemically Important, Financial Institutions?. The paper is the blue print for how collapses, at what it calls G-SIFIs (Globally Systemically Important Financial Institutions) will be dealt with in future. Section 34 states -: 34 The U.K. has also given consideration to the recapitalization process in a scenario in which a G-SIFI?s liabilities do not include much debt issuance at the holding company or parent bank level but instead comprise insured retail deposits held in the operating subsidiaries. Under such a scenario, deposit guarantee schemes may be required to contribute to the recapitalization of the firm, as they may do under the Banking Act in the use of other resolution tools. The proposed RRD also permits such an approach because it allows deposit guarantee scheme funds to be used to support the use of resolution tools, including bail-in, provided that the amount contributed does not exceed what the deposit guarantee scheme would have as a claimant in liquidation if it had made a payout to the insured depositors. http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Documents/news/2012/nr156.pdf What it says is that the money that the Deposit scheme contains would now be used to bail out to the bank in order to prop it up. In other words the new system makes the Deposit Guarantee fund available for use as bail out money, and in effect, useless as protection for you and me. Now, if I was a "reckless investor" I might expect to lose money sometimes. But, I'm not - I bank with NatWest. However, if RBS Investment Bank decides to mess up again, then according to some commentators here I should pay for their mistakes. I haven't done my due dilligence in checking the health of the Bank. However, given overnight money markets, LIBOR, dollar swaps, derivatives, shadow banking, bond markets, EURIBOR, PMI's and whatever else, just how the hell am I supposed to do that?

To say this situation is "nothing to do with the EU", or is against the deal is utterly absurd. I notice no links to support the claim. To quote Olli, 4/03/13 -: "In parallel, the Commission will continue to work intensively with our partners in the Troika and with the Cypriot authorities with a view to concluding talks on a programme that can help to steer Cyprus though the difficult adjustment it is now undergoing. I welcome the support of the Eurogroup to accelerate our work on the building blocks of the programme and we target an agreement to conclude this process in the second half of March." http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-13-183_en.htm Who is Olli? He is Olli Rehn, Vice-President of the European Commission and member of the Commission responsible for Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Euro. What is the Troika? The tripartite committee led by the European Commission with the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, that organised loans to the governments of Greece, Ireland and Portugal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troika Plus of course Spain and now Cyprus. What is the Eurogroup? The Eurogroup is a meeting of the finance ministers of the Eurozone. This group is related to the Council of the European Union and was formalised under the Lisbon Treaty. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_Group To say the EU was against this option, or to say this was Cyprus's own choice is wrong. The original deal was imposed on the Cypriot Government by the Troika on Thursday 14th March, against the wishes of that Government. Indeed, it was first meant at 40% as Germany's Finance Minister Schaeuble and the IMF demanded. Also, it is against the Cypriot Constitution -: Article 24, Section 3 No tax, duty or rate of any kind whatsoever shall be imposed with retrospective effect: Provided that any import duty may be imposed as from the date of the introduction of the relevant Bill. http://www.kypros.org/Constitution/English/ And, of course, there is the russian element. (humour) http://dts4h52y4acn7.cloudfront.net/7566654164141004A28DD00A36598B4Df.png I'm with Boris on this one. (/humour)

From my sources...

At the moment I prefer being single. It gives me space to follow whatever path I choose. Nicki, I was also in a physically abusive relationship, however as a former soldier and now copper I felt incredibly isolated and lonely. You cannot talk to mates "on the job" and friends that we had were retained by her in the break-up. You should learn to value your freedom. By your logic, I should consider all women to be scumbags, but I don't. An entire gender should not be tainted due to one bad apple.

I have done this for a colleague. The iPhone should back up every time it connects it iTunes. Use this Windows program - http://www.iphonebackupextractor.com - and then these instructions - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2667637?start=60&tstart=0. Passcode location is shown on this image here -: http://media.idownloadblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/backup-extractor-416x400.png Should be fine. Edit to add - have just noticed that this does not work post-iOS5. As we restored from iOS4 try to find a backup dated between 21 Jun 2010 and the iOS5 update in Oct 2011. Sorry.

To quote Field Marshall Lord Slim -: "Managers are necessary; leaders are essential." It seems across all senior aspects of the Public Sector, we have a great deal of the former, and are sadly lacking the latter.

Some counter points. When Boris came in he inherited 31,398 warranted officers in the Met. Livingstone had budgeted for extra numbers and they reached 33,404 in 2009. Latest numbers are 31,163 officers serving, so London has lost 2,241 officers, whilst the population has increased 12% from 2001 to 8.2 million. The Met also now has a ?232m hole to fill to balance the books by 2014/15. Confidence in the Senior Management in near invisible. Recruitment is now almost solely from internal sources - i.e. Specials and PCSO's. I hear now that latest internal proposals state met officers will only investigate 40% of crimes reported and screened in. How many man-hours were lost on the hacking, expenses and plebgate investigations? Considering the lack of decent results - far, far too many. Man-hours that could of been deployed elsewhere... Targets were introduced for fuzziness and deception. Is crime falling, as Damion Green so confidently states? Walby & Allen 2004:24 estimates some 720,000 sexual assaults on over 400,000 female victims in the 12 months leading up to the 2001 British Crime Survey which is horrifying. But the survey also adopts the standard criminal justice definition of rape and sexual assault that makes the principle of consent of the victim, or the lack thereof, a key consideration. This is the grey area, and is the main reason convictions of this type are so low. Whether the Southwark Officers on Sapphire were "leant on" for targets remains unclear. However, there is no way those 720,000 sexual crimes could of been investigated if reported - there just isn't the manpower. Edit - Met Staff survey shows 61% do not have confidence in the Met leadership. Edit # 2 - Just remembered something. When I got smacked in the face a few years ago, it wasn't assaulting a police officer in the execution of his duty - it was resisting arrest as it was over the "target" for assaults.

"Oh good come back by the way Top Banana. Clearly you are a more measured and calmer person than me.." Thank you for that kind comment. *blushes* I find myself at a crossroads. I'm debating whether to go all-in on financial crime with the CoL Police, with all the paperwork, book-reading and analysis that the role dictates, or to go practice the Sam Vimes ideal somewhere else. See other posts.

To me, yes, you are absolutely correct. The law should be used with discretion - that is how society works. However, if you are confronted with a private sector contractor, with enabled powers but targets to hit then discretion will not be used. Revenue must be made and profits must be made.

Um no, you misunderstand me Mr Woodrot. All I am trying to do is make sure people do not lose a valuable commodity through lack of knowledge. I am completely apolitical. Any legislation can be designed for one problem with the best intentions, then woefully misused with RIPA being one such classic example. Your example - I am not going to take your alcohol because you seem like decent types, whereas I AM going to take your alcohol cos you seem like a scrote - is never going to work in real life.

Thanks for the responses so far... @Pickle - yup, male. Pies I can deal with. Not a lot of experience in that particular aspect of criminality but I am a fast learner. Climate..? I guess I like summer to be summer - warm - and winter to be winter - snow. I would like to see the occasional cricket match as I have been to Napier before. Well done to both the men and women today who both kicked arse. Canterbury?

There are regular recruitment drives from the NZ Police and I am seriously interested. I am single, 38, in good fitness, no family issues and sound finances so can use the talented worker section of the skilled migrant scheme. The questions is...where? I have heard really good things about Rotorua and the Bay of Plenty. I don't want a particularly large city and would like a nice house with possibly some land. How easy is it to get to skiing areas on the South Island? Any suggestions?

The point was, Kel, that I do know people who had wine taken from them on a picnic in Greenwich and then had to suffer lots of "nanny state gone mad" types whinges for weeks after. It was just to inform those who weren't aware of local restrictions.

In the spirit of community cohesion, I thought I would bring this map to your attention - especially with regard to the alcohol confiscation zones. http://bannedinlondon.co.uk/map.html For instance, you can have a nice picnic with wine in Dulwich Park, but not in Peckham Rye Park or Brockwell Park. Alcohol does not have to be open to be confiscated. Alcohol confiscation powers have been granted to various members of the stasi to civilians, including private security guards and council officials under the Police Community Accreditation Scheme. Please note it is not required that you are behaving in a disorderly manner to have your alcohol confiscated ? only that the stasi accredited person ?reasonably believes that a person is, or has been, consuming alcohol [within the designated area] or intends to do so?. Unopened containers can be confiscated. The refusal to surrender alcohol is an offence, punishable with an on-the-spot fine or prosecution. If you are on the wrong end of Barry Road and come across a particularly officious member of the stasi accredited person then you could well have it confiscated from your shopping - although I must stress I personally have never heard of this happening. Mind you, you never know in this day and age. TB.

Possibly, fish. Possibly.

Slightly OT concerning trains - does anyone else recall those psychedelic 70's carriages that were on the late night trains back to ED about 4 - 5 years ago?

Of course, the very fact I am criticising the EU means I should really turn myself in as the criminal I am. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1325398/Euro-court-outlaws-criticism-of-EU.html Next time I finish my shift of scraping much-hated cyclists off the floor, dealing with gang activity and whatever else concerns the good citizens of our much-loved capital, I shall remove my stab vest and hand myself over to the other side of the desk. "So stop this silly partially informed Europe bashing - that it is based on national prejudice is clearly obvious you refuse to identify any of the parties without naming the country of origin. You clearly see their nationality as part of the crime." Clearly.

"So stop this silly partially informed Europe bashing - that it is based on national prejudice is clearly obvious you refuse to identify any of the parties without naming the country of origin. You clearly see their nationality as part of the crime." Er...that last paragraph was a direct quote from the Independent - see the link. But nice, criticise EU regulations and you are automatically nationalistic and racist. Stay classy, Huguenot. Stay classy.

Cameron hasn't won anything yet. It has not been signed off by the EU Parliament. EU Parliament President Martin Schulz is the man with the final say. It doesn't matter what our "leaders" decide. If Schulz is against the deal, Parliament will most likely reject it.

The FSA was indeed created by the Food Act 1990 and is currently still capable of food inspection. However, their own strategy 2015 document states that -: "If we become aware that food contains unsafe ingredients, or is labelled in a way that makes it unsafe for some people to eat, we will have it removed from sale. We do this in conjunction with other enforcement organisations, such as port health authorities, trading standards and environmental health." http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/strategy20102015.pdf I have never disputed that. I have no doubt that nearly all the UK food network points are adhereing to current regulations. However, note the little "IF", there. They cannot proactivly test and/or check food imports from the EU. They are not allowed to under EU law. Article 5 of Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 implements the HACCP strategy across the EU. http://ec.europa.eu/food/food/biosafety/hygienelegislation/guidance_doc_haccp_en.pdf As Lord Haskins (former chairman of Northern Foods) stated on Today this morning -: "You can't get away from the odd cheat or the odd failure, but this is so widespread, it's endemic, it's institutional fraud right across the piece. Thousands of people must be aware of what?s going on. There's a huge amount of form-filling going on by the way. Everybody fills in forms to say they are doing the right thing but they don't actually go and look at the factory to see what is happening inside the factory". That is my point. Everybody is making sure the boxes are ticked whilst ignoring the failures and fraud. "It came from abattoirs in Romania through a dealer in Cyprus working through another dealer in Holland to a meat plant in the south of France which sold it to a French-owned factory in Luxembourg which made it into frozen meals sold in supermarkets in 16 countries." http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/horsemeat-found-in-british-supermarkets-may-be-donkey-8489030.html Food regulation is an exclusive EU competence. And it is these regulations that have spectactularly failed. I stand by my statements.

I'm guessing Malumbu is a Civil Servant because I haven't read a more ignorant comment on this story. The whole food production chain is regulated by the EU, having replaced the UK regulatory regime - NOT the Food Standards Agency. The FSA can only check any product if they have firm evidence of a prior problem. In other words, they cannot carry out preventative checks at point of entry or production - this is illegal under EU law as discrimination on the ground of nationality. Now a problem has emerged, then the FSA can involve itself and the police - both here and in Europe. Stable door, horse bolted etc. This is an exact replica of the breast implant and hip replacement problems, and is another perfect example of EU regularory failure. Our own internal systems in all these cases is entirely dependant on the good faith and efficiency of EU member states in maintaining standards and to make sure that what is in the boxes is what is on the EU-regulated tin. And, of course, it has AGAIN been shown to be a complete failure.

South London Healthcare's problems have been complex and longstanding but can be entirely nailed down to PFI. PFI was an utterly insane idea by both Conservative and Labour.