Another Barack Obama misspeak

Barack Obama seems to have a problem with exaggerating, some might say with telling the truth. There are plenty of examples on the web and many on this blog, see my last post for some examples.

The latest example comes from a news conference in Israel

How odd, Barack Obama calls the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, "my committee". Very odd as the members of this committee are listed as:

"Christopher J. Dodd Chairman (D-CT)
Tim Johnson (D-SD)
Jack Reed (D-RI)
Charles E. Schumer (D-NY)
Evan Bayh (D-IN)
Tom Carper (D-DE)
Robert Menendez (D-NJ)
Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI)
Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
Robert P. Casey (D-PA)
Bob Corker (R-TN)
Jon Tester (D-MT)
Richard C. Shelby Ranking Member (R-AL)
Robert F. Bennett (R-UT)
Wayne Allard (R-CO)
Michael B. Enzi (R-WY)
Chuck Hagel (R-NE)
Jim Bunning (R-KY)
Mike Crapo (R-ID)
Elizabeth Dole (R-NC)
Mel Martinez (R-FL)"

As far as I am aware, in his long and brilliant career in the US Senate, Barack Obama has held assignments on the Senate Committees for Foreign Relations, Environment and Public Works and Veterans' Affairs up until December 2006. In January 2007, he left the Environment and Public Works committee and took additional assignments with Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. He is also Chairman of the Senate's subcommittee on European Affairs. Barack Obama's website seems to agree with me and not him - here.

What was he thinking of? Surely he wasn't deliberately fibbing so presumably he will set the record straight at the earliest opportunity.

I presume Barack Obama's mistake will be headline news on the BBC today, or is that privilege reserved for American Republican and British Conservative politicians not for American Democrats and British Labour politicians?


UPDATE: The story gets even more strange, it appears that Barack Obama is on record as opposing the bill he claimed to have


PowerLine report that (my emphasis):

"Senator Obama did not appear in the Senate to vote on the Kyl-Lieberman Amendment calling on the government to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist entity and thus suffer the imposition of sanctions. On the day of the vote on the amendment, however, Obama issued a statement announcing that he would have voted against it. In the statement, the closest he came to addressing the merits of the amendment was his assertion that "he does not think that now is the time for saber-rattling towards Iran." The amendment passed the Senate 76-22 on September 26, 2007, with many Democrats including Hillary Clinton, Harry Reid, Richard Durbin, and Chuck Schumer voting in its favor."

Do read the PowerLine piece as it also details the three very different positions on this matter that Barack Obama has taken subsequent to the vote.

Many people have fallen for Barack Obama in the way that many fell for the easy charm and the "pretty straight guy" persona of Tony Blair. I believe that Barack Obama is as straight a politician as Tony Blair was. Just like Blair, Obama wants power and probably also the money and lifestyle that goes with that power.

Eventually the penny dropped that Tony Blair was not a "pretty straight guy" and one day the same will happen re Barack Obama. I just hope that America and the world do not have to suffer because the US electorate were taken in by a smooth talking (when on auto-cue) salesman, supported by a star-struck liberal media.

Barack Obama yet another misspeak that will get little publicity

I have previously blogged here, here and here examples of Barack Obama's unbelievable errors when speaking; errors that if made by a Republican would be headline news, but as they are made by the new messiah`they seem to receive little or no mainstream coverage.

The latest example is from Barack Obama's trip to Israel:

"Let me be absolutely clear," Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, said today at a press conference in Amman, Jordan. "Israel is a strong friend of Israel's. It will be a strong friend of Israel's under a McCain...administration. It will be a strong friend of Israel's under an Obama administration. So that policy is not going to change."

Yes, apparently Israel is a strong friend of Israel and that will continue under a McCain presidency. He's really on the ball this Barack Obama, isn't he? And yet the left criticise George W. Bush for his language problems.

Do have a look around my site for other examples of the ineptitude of Barack Obama, because you won't hear or read about it on the BBC.

Barack Obama seems confused again

I read in many places that Barack Obama ever keen to avoid giving offence on his trip to Middle East had issued some helpful hints to female reporters accompanying him on the trip. These hints included:

Do not wear nail polish.
Women should only wear a limited amount of jewelry.
Shoulders and arms must be fully covered (no strapless tops, no tank tops, no short sleeve shirts.)
Do not wear green. (Explained later as the color of Hamas)
Closed-toe shoes, women should also wear stockings.

NeoCon Express has some photos that show "modest" Israeli girls.

Barack Obama was of course confusing the multi-cultural, democratic country of Israel with the Islamic theocracies that mostly surround it.

How tall should James Bond be?

Apparently Sean Connery and Timothy Dalton were both a relatively lofty 6ft 2ins, whilst Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan were 6ft 1.5ins. Daniel Craig is a more height restricted 5ft 10ins. The tallest James Bond however was also the shortest serving, George Lazenby was 6ft 2.5ins tall.

Two interesting pieces of Opinion Poll news

The first is from America and relates to the US Presidential elections. From the BBC coverage of these elections you would assume that a Barack Obama victory was a dead-cert as almost every interviewee expresses a preference for Obama. However I see on Gallup that

"Obama Has Modest 4-Point Lead" and that "Barack Obama maintains a modest 46% to 42% lead over John McCain among registered voters nationally in Gallup Poll Daily tracking, with no sign yet of a significant "bounce" from Obama's high-visibility world tour."

Meanwhile I noticed a very telling remark on Political Betting where in an article on the latest MORO opinion polls I read (my emphasis)"

These are the figures with comparisons on a month ago CON 47% (+2): LAB 27% (-2): LD 15% (-2). These figures, like all MORI surveys are based on those “certain to vote”. The fieldwork ended on July 20th - so it’s up to date.

The pollster which is the only one that does not applying a political weighting to its samples. has undergone a major methodological review which took place following the London Mayoral election. All surveys are now done by telephone and the pollster takes measures to ensure that it is not over-representing public sector workers in its samples.

Now why would not over-representing public sector workers be important? Could it be that Gordon Brown's client state is more likely to vote for the hand that feeds it than the rest of the population?

A Labour Home Secretary completely ignores the point

The BBC report the, what should be shocking but isn't, news that:

"More than 500,000 official "spying" requests for private communications data such as telephone records were made last year, a report says.

Police, security services and other public bodies made requests for billing details and other information.

Interception of Communications Commissioner Sir Paul Kennedy said 1,707 of these had been from councils.

A separate report criticises local authorities for using powers to target minor offences such as fly-tipping.

Figures show public bodies made 519,260 requests to "communications providers" such as phone and internet firms for information in 2007.

Under available powers, they can see details such as itemised phone bills and website records. But they are not allowed to monitor conversations.

The total number of requests for last year - amounting to more than 1,400 a day - compared with an average of fewer than 350,000 a year in the previous two years.

...

But a separate report, by Chief Surveillance Commissioner Sir Christopher Rose, criticises the techniques employed by local authorities to deal with minor offences such as fly-tipping or avoiding council tax.

He said some councils had a "tendency to expose lack of understanding of the legislation" and displayed a "serious misunderstanding of the concept of proportionality".

Some authorising officers were inexperienced and suffered "poor oversight", he added.

He called on town halls to invest in properly trained intelligence officers who could operate covertly."

Sounds dreadfully worrying, but our (as crap as the previous holders of the position) Home Secretary was on hand to completely miss the point as she reassured us thus:

"The commissioners' reports offer valuable oversight and provide reassurance that these powers are being used appropriately.

"These powers can make a real difference in delivering safer communities and protecting the public - whether enabling us to gain that vital intelligence that will prevent a terrorist attack, working to tackle antisocial behaviour or ensuring that rogue traders do not defraud the public.""

Don't you feel reassured? What, you don't, but Jacqui Smith says the powers are being used appropriately, so surely they must be...

Hate Speech?

This New Yorker cartoon has generated a lot of fury as the usual suspects have fulminated long and hard at the sheer vileness of portraying Barack "messiah" Obama and his delightful wife as anything other than pure of mind and deed. Even John McCain had to condemn the cartoon or face the full fury of the liberal media.

I wasn't going to bother posting about this as it seemed so predictable, but then I found this article by "A Western Heart" which points out that a cartoon depicting John McCain in a Vietnamese bamboo cage being tortured by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and oddly George W. Bush received no such condemnation. The John McCain cartoon is this one...
As A Western Heart says:

"It is an example of the golden rule of hate speech: Only conservatives can utter hate speech (or hate cartoons) while anything that Leftists say is "free speech", no matter how offensive it is."

"He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy"

The Peoples Cube have a piece that accurately reflects the deification of Barack Obama. Here's a short extract

"With the refrain that "it is all Bush's fault" echoing through the halls, it was little surprise that the New-Age Faiths offered their unanimous endorsement to Senator Barack Hussein Obama's presidential campaign.

"Here we have a true Lightworker," explained Alexis Virago, High Harridan of the Church of the Holy Hooter (commonly known as the Boobtists). "He is probably not really human, or at least not totally human; I suspect that his father was a spiritual being residing temporarily in physical form in order to accomplish The Obama's incarnation.""

Do read the rest, it is seriously funny and worrying.

I feel unwell

"There may have been something sticky on his hands but it was only for a few seconds that he touched the prime minister"

Do you really want to learn more?

The above quotation is from a piece on the BBC website and has some more interesting quotes amongst the levity.

"A campaigner against Heathrow Airport's third runway has attempted to glue himself to Gordon Brown at a Downing Street reception."

Seems a rather foolhardy act, did he know when Gordon Brown last washed his hands?

"Dan Glass, a member of Plane Stupid, was about to receive an award from the prime minister when he stuck out his superglued hand and touched his sleeve.

Plane Stupid says Mr Glass, from north London, then "glued his hand" to Mr Brown's jacket as he shook his hand.

But Downing Street said there had been "no stickiness of any significance".

"No stickiness of any significance"? If this was Superglue then it is not a great advertisement for their product.

...

"Downing Street confirmed an exchange had taken place but denied that Mr Glass had glued himself to the prime minister.

"There may have been something sticky on his hands but it was only for a few seconds that he touched the prime minister," a spokesman said. "There was no stickiness of any significance."

He added: "This was certainly not seen as a serious protest. It was very light-hearted. This was not a serious incident."

I am trying to picture the scene, Gordon Brown goes to shake hands in his very natural way with a member of the public and the member of the public tries to grab hold of his jacket sleeve so as to glue himself to it...

"Speaking afterwards, Mr Glass said: "My left hand was covered in superglue and I stuck it to his sleeve.

"I just glued myself to him and after 20 seconds he tore my hand off - it really hurt. He had to give it a couple of tugs before it came away."

So the Downing Street spokesman said the incident lasted "only for a few seconds" whilst Mr Glass said it lasted "20 seconds" before his hand was torn away from the Prime Ministerial jacket. A wise move to choose the jacket and not the tie as we know what Gordon stores on the back of his ties...

"He was just grinning about it. He didn't seem to take me seriously."

No Mr Glass that's Gordon Brown's set expression when meeting "ordinary folk", he thinks it shows that he has a cheery disposition - he is so wrong.

Now here is the best line -

"The Metropolitan Police said there had been no breach of security."

Now why does that not surprise me? A man superglues himself to the Prime Minister using glue smuggled into Number 10 in his underwear, but there was no breach in security. I wonder what would constitute a breach in security? I drove near Whitehall today and saw the armed police that are now a familiar part of the London scene. I t would appear that they are very happy to carry arms and look "hard", but less happy to acknowledge breakdowns in their security systems.

US election campaigning - Jib Jab style

Send a JibJab Sendables® eCard Today!

"...I've got one or two things to say about change, like the change we must change, to the change we hold dear, I really like change, have I made myself clear?"

The BBC censoring their own output

I saw this report on the temporary banning of "crispy duck ovens" in Chinatown on heath and safety grounds, when it went out early on Monday evening. What the BBC are not showing is the appalingly inept interview that followed this piece. The interviewer asked a question that was so poor that the interviewee (Ching-He Huang) even made a "what the heck was that about" face and the cameraman had to pan awkwardly away from her and onto the young female interviewer.

The myth of consensus on Man Made Climate Change explodes as the APS opens a global warming debate

The science of climate change is settled, or so assert some of its leading proponents, including Al "The science is clear and compelling. We humans are changing the global climate" Gore, John "There’s no longer any serious debate among climate scientists about either the reality of global warming or about the fact that its substantially caused by human activity…" Quiggin and David "I think that the scientific debate has now closed on global warming, and the popular debate is closing as well" Miliband. of course the truth is somewhat at variance with these statements but those trying to impose their "truth" and policies on us, don't care too much for the truth. I have blogged many times about the inaccuracies that bedevil much of the Man Made Climate Change propaganda.

Now I learn from Daily Tech that

"The American Physical Society, an organization representing nearly 50,000 physicists, has reversed its stance on climate change and is now proclaiming that many of its members disbelieve in human-induced global warming. The APS is also sponsoring public debate on the validity of global warming science. The leadership of the society had previously called the evidence for global warming "incontrovertible."

In a posting to the APS forum, editor Jeffrey Marque explains,"There is a considerable presence within the scientific community of people who do not agree with the IPCC conclusion that anthropogenic CO2 emissions are very probably likely to be primarily responsible for global warming that has occurred since the Industrial Revolution.""

The article continues:

"The APS is opening its debate with the publication of a paper by Lord Monckton of Brenchley, which concludes that climate sensitivity -- the rate of temperature change a given amount of greenhouse gas will cause -- has been grossly overstated by IPCC modeling. A low sensitivity implies additional atmospheric CO2 will have little effect on global climate.

Larry Gould, Professor of Physics at the University of Hartford and Chairman of the New England Section of the APS, called Monckton's paper an "expose of the IPCC that details numerous exaggerations and "extensive errors"

In an email to DailyTech, Monckton says, "I was dismayed to discover that the IPCC's 2001 and 2007 reports did not devote chapters to the central 'climate sensitivity' question, and did not explain in proper, systematic detail the methods by which they evaluated it. When I began to investigate, it seemed that the IPCC was deliberately concealing and obscuring its method."

According to Monckton, there is substantial support for his results, "in the peer-reviewed literature, most articles on climate sensitivity conclude, as I have done, that climate sensitivity must be harmlessly low."

Monckton, who was the science advisor to Britain's Thatcher administration, says natural variability is the cause of most of the Earth's recent warming. "In the past 70 years the Sun was more active than at almost any other time in the past 11,400 years ... Mars, Jupiter, Neptune’s largest moon, and Pluto warmed at the same time as Earth.""

Man Made Climate Change is a myth, unfortunately to say so invites derision and hatred from the liberal intelligentsia who unfortunately do run this Country.

Boom boom

A driver is stuck in a traffic jam on the motorway. Nothing is moving. Suddenly a man knocks on the window.

The driver rolls down his window and asks, 'What's going on?'


'Terrorists down the road have kidnapped Gordon Brown, Alistair Darling, David Miliband, and Jack Straw.

They're asking for a £10 million ransom.

Otherwise they're going to douse them with petrol, and set them on fire.

We're going from car to car, taking up a collection.'


The driver asks, 'How much is everyone giving, on average?'


The reply - 'Most people are giving about a gallon.'



Boom boom as Basil Brush would say...

An end to the era of celebrity (part xx)?

I have blogged several times before about Gordon Brown's false promise regarding ending the era of celebrity; now I read on the BBC that

"Tony Blair was well known for inviting showbusiness figures to his country home Chequers - and it seems Gordon Brown is carrying on the tradition.

Film legend Lord Attenborough, Beatles producer Sir George Martin and Four Weddings and a Funeral writer Richard Curtis have visited in the past year.

Sir Alan Sugar - star of BBC One's The Apprentice - and entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson also attended.

...

From the media world, Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre, Sun editor Rebekah Wade and former Mirror boss Piers Morgan - now a TV talent show judge - visited.

Playwright Sir Tom Stoppard and novelist and historian Lady Antonia Fraser were entertained.

Retailers on the list include Sir Terence Conran - founder of the Habitat shop chain - Marks and Spencer boss Sir Stuart Rose and Tesco chief Sir Terry Leahy."

The BBC try to defend "their man" with these weasel words:

"While many of Mr Brown's guests are household names, there is not quite the celebrity focus of the list given for Mr Blair last year.

That included the likes of singer Charlotte Church, DJ Chris Evans, TV presenter Adrian Chiles and the then England football coach Steve McLaren."

However they then list the people invited to be brave and sup with Gordon Brown:

"Among the more famous guests invited by Mr Brown were:


ROYALTY

Duke of York

SHOWBUSINESS

Sir Alan Sugar, child psychologist Tanya Byron, screenwriter Richard Curtis, presenter Emma Freud, chief executive of Royal Opera House Tony Hall, Beatles producer Sir George Martin, playwright Sir Tom Stoppard, Lord Attenborough

AUTHORS

Kathy Lette, Richard North Patterson

OTHER CELEBRITIES

Designer Sir Terence Conran, architect Lord Foster, historian Lady Antonia Fraser, former Mirror editor, writer and TV judge Piers Morgan, architect Lord Rogers"

Hmm I do wonder at some of those names.


The first time I blogged about Gordon Brown ending the era of celebrity was this from May 2007 when I wondered

"wasn't it GB who was first politician to comment on the earth shattering Shilpa Shetty affair? Wasn't it also GB who had "secret" drinks with that political guru Kylie Minogue. I presume he wanted to keep that meeting secret and that it was leaked to the Sun by a political enemy, maybe not... Maybe he has always admired Kylie's musical ability and shapely bottom. Maybe he admires "Kylie Minogue, the pop sex goddess of the moment, hip chick, gay icon, and a fair old belter out of a dance tune" (David Lister, Independent, 23.02.02), I wonder why? I am sure that the lunch had a serious purpose, who else attended? Stephen Fry, one of my favourite comics and I am sure one of GB's as well."

. The next time was later that same month when I blogged

"the person who awarded the Greatest Businessman prize to Innocent Smoothies was Gordon Brown. I am sure he had a very good reason for being there but I doubt if it helped show he is serious about ending the era of celebrity. You can read more about the awards presented here or you could just luxuriate in the natural warmth of Gordon Brown's smile"

The next time was in November when I blogged about Gordon Brown's incredible Countdown birthday message. The next time was when I blogged about Gordon Brown's possible job offer to GMTV's Fiona Phillips - completely unconnected with his love of appearing on the GMTV sofa for a long hard interview.

An article by John McCain that will get very little publicity

Whilst Saint Barack Obama continues his tour of photo-opportunities and the BBC and other western media moisten as they cover his passage, you might have thought that some coverage of John McCain would be in order. The only coverage that I have seen was of John McCain playing golf with George Bush (George W.'s father), shown in order to make him look as old as possible. If you, unlike the BBC, are interested in the issues and what John McCain has to say, then take a look at this piece on Iraq.

Interestingly this article was written as an "op-ed" piece for the New York Times but was rejected by that impeccable left-of-centre paper. As The Drudge Report reports:

"An editorial written by Republican presidential hopeful McCain has been rejected by the NEW YORK TIMES -- less than a week after the paper published an essay written by Obama, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

The paper's decision to refuse McCain's direct rebuttal to Obama's 'My Plan for Iraq' has ignited explosive charges of media bias in top Republican circles.

'It would be terrific to have an article from Senator McCain that mirrors Senator Obama's piece,' NYT Op-Ed editor David Shipley explained in an email late Friday to McCain's staff. 'I'm not going to be able to accept this piece as currently written.'...

Shipley, who is on vacation this week, explained his decision not to run the editorial.

'The Obama piece worked for me because it offered new information (it appeared before his speech); while Senator Obama discussed Senator McCain, he also went into detail about his own plans.'

Shipley continues: 'It would be terrific to have an article from Senator McCain that mirrors Senator Obama's piece. To that end, the article would have to articulate, in concrete terms, how Senator McCain defines victory in Iraq.'"

In other words, we won't publish a John McCain article unless it meets some new criteria that we have just thought of... oh yes, and don't forget to VOTE OBAMA.

Any chance of Gordon Brown and his "team" following suit?

I note that:

"The Ivory Coast government is halving the salaries of its ministers to pay for a reduction in the price of fuel.

Prime Minister Guillaume Soro said the managers of state-owned companies would also have their pay cut in half, to pay for a 10% cut in fuel prices.

"Having heard the people's cry from the heart, the government has decided to cut the price of fuel," Mr Soro said."

So how about it Gordon, do you feel our pain?

Bad news chaps

The BBC are reporting that

"Gordon Brown will be in charge of the government this summer even while he is away on holiday...

When his predecessor Tony Blair jetted off for sunnier climes, his deputy John Prescott famously took the reins.

But this is not the case for Mr Brown. His spokesman said: "The prime minister is the prime minister and remains in charge whether he's on holiday or not.""

So it looks as though there will be no relief from Gordon Brown's terminal stupidity for the whole week he might drag himself away from the office for.

Margaret Thatcher's state funeral

I must lay my cards on the table; I don't think that Lady Thatcher should have a state funeral, they should be reserved for royalty although I would have agreed with one for Winston Churchill. However the venom directed by the usual suspects on the left of politics has been pretty disgusting. Here are some of the comments from contributors to The Guardian online:

"I don't care what method people use to celebrate the fact that the bitch is dead. But for most people it will be a celebration. Dancing on her grave? Too bloody right, I will.
yeractual

A 19-GUN salute? Only if they were all aimed at her.
imasmadashell

I rather like the suggestion that whatever happens she is going to be buried at sea, by the time everyone has finished p***ing on her grave...
greymatter

State funeral! She should be burned at the stake!
4danglie

‘The country owes her a 19-gun salute.’ Yeah, but we’re not cruel, she can have a blindfold as well!
BurgermaS

A state funeral would be a farce. But how about nationwide street parties or perhaps auctioning coffin nails? I’d pay good money to hammer the lid down.
Ifweworkers

I'll be there protesting and throwing eggs even if they promise to extraordinarily rendition me. Never. It’d be a crime to honour this self-serving, divisive politician who governed with minority support and who created the s*** we live in today. She did more to destroy ‘the family’ than a hundred Roy Jenkins ever could. No, no, no. Just throw some petrol on the corpse, chuck a match and let the wind do the rest.
bass46

I'd go along with it on three conditions: 1) The son Mark is stripped of his hereditary baronetcy. He has done nothing to deserve it and everything to lose it. 2) We can get it over with as soon as possible. Friday week would be good for me. 3) We do a special offer (Buy One Get One Free) with the current Prime Minister. The fact that both of them are still breathing should be no obstacle.
EastFinchleyite

State funeral? A televised public execution would be far, far too good for her.
RoyalFamily

Why waste money when half the country will be having a party to celebrate her demise, anyway?
NemesistheWarlock"

Lovely people, the "left" are so much nicer than the "nasty party" aren't they?

There have been some equally disgusting remarks on some other "left" forums:

"When Margaret Thatcher was Minister for Education, she took away free milk from schoolchildren. I created the slogan ‘Thatcher, Thatcher, milk snatcher’ and put it on a wanted poster with her picture. When she became prime minister, we wrote to her from the Chiswick Women’s Aid refuge and asked her what she would do for victims of domestic violence. A minion replied on her behalf and said that she was ‘not interested in women’s issues’. A state funeral would be an insult to this nation.
Erin Pizzey, Guardian newspaper."

Do you think Ms Pizzey is missing the point of Margaret Thatcher's comment that she wasn't interested in women’s issues, might she not have meant that she was not a WOMAN PM, she was a Prime Minister who was a woman.

"The headline ‘State funeral planned for Lady Thatcher’ is deeply irresponsible. When it appeared, I honestly thought that the week had got off to the best possible start.
Chris Gibson, Guardian newspaper."

Oh very witty Chris Gibson. Are you happy being on record wishing someone dead?


I see that some other non-Royals have been given State Funerals in the UK:
* Sir Philip Sidney (1586)[citation needed]
* Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson (1806)
* Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1852)
* Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (1865)
* Charles Darwin (1882)
* The Rt Hon. William Gladstone (1898)
* Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts of Kandahar (1914)
* Edward Carson, Baron Carson (1935)
* The Rt Hon. Sir Winston Churchill (1965)

Looking through the above list, maybe Lady Thatcher should have a State Funeral after all.

The law of unintended consequences

I hear that the RAC are reporting that rising petrol prices seem to be having another unwelcome result as breakdowns caused by the theft of fuel from cars have more than doubled since the start of the year. Apparently the problem is worst in London where there has been a five-fold increase between January and June.

Yet another Treasury U-turn

The Telegraph has a nice report on Alistair Darling's latest U-turn, this time on the matter of taxing the foreign profits of UK based companies. You can read all the details in the Telegraph article but I reproduce here a handy list of Alistair Darling/Gordon Brown's recent U-turns:"

1 Fiscal rules: Treasury to reconsider Gordon Brown’s two closely watched borrowing rules.

2 2p fuel tax.

3 Abolition of the 10p rate of tax

4 Income shifting: Last December the Treasury announced plans to tackle “income shifting”, where family firms structure their affairs to minimise their tax bill. In the Budget it announced that the plans would be delayed until 2009.

5 Tax on non-doms: Darling used his first Pre-Budget Report to announce a new levy on non-domicile workers. After heavy criticism he was forced to write a letter to tax advisers “clarifying” his plans, effectively watering down the plans.

6 Capital Gains Tax: Alistair Darling surprised businesses last autumn by introducing a new flat-rate CGT of 18pc. In January, after uproar from businesses and entrepreneurs, he announced that the first £1m of any gains will be taxed at 10pc.

7 Foreign profits: This move effectively dilutes a number of the proposals laid out by the Treasury in relation to multinationals’ tax treatment."

Prudence is dead, as is consistency; all that is left is panic.