Is the Irish government collapse a sign of what is to come in Britain?

Published by calhoun on January 23rd, 2011 - in News, Politics

Government ProblemsIreland is having a rough period it seems from financial collapse of the economy to the latest in a series of problems. The Irish Green Party has abandoned a coalition government which means the ruling party of Ireland no longer has a majority government.

In a face saving effort, worthy of what Gordon Brown should have done, the Fianna Fail leader and Prime minister has agreed to step down as party leader. He has however opted to remain as Prime Minister of Ireland until a general election – provided they last that long.

In response, Green leader Mr Gormley stated: “Our patience has reached an end”. Irish labour party has called for a vote of no-confidence later this week the result of which will likely cause a general election and a new government will be faced with many problems.

As part of a bailout for the financial troubles, the International Monetary fund and European Central bank has insisted the Government secure a substantial hike in Tax. If the government breaks up before that, negotiations may well need to begin once again to secure a financial bailout.

Comparing with the government back home, it is clear that a delicate balance between the Conservative and Liberal Democrats exists. The general consensus that most people voted against Labour rather than for the conservatives will not make the government’s position here any stronger.

In the event of a desertion of the coalition here, the opposition would likely be in a position to call for a vote of no confidence in the leadership here. The resulting general election would most likely swing back to Labour. The Liberal Democrats have a tarnished reputation mostly due to going against education like their pre-election promises.

References
NewYork Times

Fuel to rise, business to go bust, Government Happy.

Published by calhoun on January 22nd, 2011 - in News, Politics

Fuel prices to rise government bags all.Trains are overcrowded, late, and cant operate in the rain, snow , hail, wind or at least that is what Northern Rail wants us to believe. With the threat of a leaf on the track derailing a 100 tonne train it is no wonder people are turning to alternative means of transport.

Despite the railways shutting down for hibernation purposes, the daily commuter still needs to get from his snow blocked in house to work to feed himself.

We recently took on a US client, and we were discussing the cost of fuel – they pay on average just £0.80 per l for petrol meanwhile with the UK Government imposing Duty and VAT upon fuel the United Kingdom has the proud reputation as the second most expensive place in the whole of Europe (and perhaps the world) to purchase fuel.

Around 80% Tax (including VAT) means that the government is simply lining their pockets with huge sums of cash. Many business however especially small businesses who rely on vans for their work are facing going out of business as they can no longer compete with competitor companies.

One day, the Government must wake up and realise that by imposing huge taxes across everything we do has a negative impact on the economy. More people start looking at benefits so they can afford to work. Since 2004, there has been a 64% rise in the number of people claiming Working Tax Credits. So peoples wages are low, and getting a top up from the tax man to be doing what their wages should be doing. Then the tax man puts up tax on things we buy, so people need more working tax credits to pay for the tax rise. Circular tax logic can not serve a productive economy.

According to the BBC, Government ministers have been looking at a stabilizer system which would help ease the problem of hikes in the price of oil. However a spokesperson for the government said this might be complicated to implement. Surely however as a government duly elected by the people they have a responsibility (they certainly have the wages to justify it) to take these complicated decisions and do what will help the United Kingdom out of this.

Road map to put “Great” into Britain:
Free Education – Let people Learn skills and capabilities without a cost – get the bright guys in to boost the economy.
Nationalise Public Transport – Look at how other countries do it, Public transport in Sweden operates very well.
Reduce Tax on things – Reducing Tax by 50% will have the same effect as a 50% wage rise to every person in the United Kingdom.

When more money is in peoples wallets instead of the government, people will spend money in shops, shops will start paying huge taxes on  profits instead of fund raising for charity so they can claim tax benefits and reduce what they give to the government. This leads is to a positive incremental economy instead of spiraling down into despair and disaster. The sooner the government comes to realise this the better – there is not an infinite amount of time.
A CNN article had a comment which really shows how bad it is, unfortunately the article itself has gone, so I cannot verify this to be true, although I have a hard time believing otherwise:

I see in a CNN Business list that 4 of the 5 most expensive places in the world for petrol (gas) are in the UK.Nick Keith

Well, thats my 2cents for today I’m off to pay what little money I have to the Council Tax now!

References
BBC News
The Filter
HMRC

eAcademy

David Cameron expected to confirm he’s ruined the UK Economy

Published by calhoun on January 17th, 2011 - in News, Politics

David Cameron British Prime MinisterDavid Cameron is expected to announce a number of radical points in a speech today. They cover reforms to NHS and education which Britain is in desperate need of. The reforms will extend to justice as well, where the Conservatives already have a poor reputation with the removal of Legal aid services and threatening to close the Supreme Court down. Can they really be serious about taking a step towards a modern Britain – one which requires a honourable Justice System, an education system that people can actually afford to be educated in and a health care system which doesn’t cause patients to become more sick?

One of the reforms will see health care responsibilities devolved to the GP level, where by your local Doctor will be responsible for funding the practice from government funding instead of going via the Health Care Authorities. This of course can be translated into: Sack the Middle Management (more cuts are on the way).Surely It would be beneficial if a doctor spent his time, oh I dunno say curing people of illness?

Now let us imagine a world where public services are corporate entities , so your local council suddenly becomes your phone line provider as well. This is exactly the kind of world that David Cameron envisions with a white paper to be published this year seeing public sector to become privately ran … can anyone remember how that went the last time? I think it was something along the lines of ruin and disaster. Even charities can give a pitch in now to run the public sector albeit in the case of certain councils the council tax does seem to be a charity service rather than providing a real service to justify it so they might be an improvement there!

“There are things government does today that it will stop doing,” he will say“  – is he referring to thinking and work here?

References
The Telegraph

Tunisia from an observers view

Published by calhoun on January 15th, 2011 - in Politics

Tunisian FlagWe recently went on holiday to Tunisia, before the travel advisories were changed to recommend against travel to the country. So I now have my first two stamps on my passport, of course, naturally my passport expires in a couple of years so I will end up with one of those fancy shiny ones which means I can pass through the passport control quicker with those subway-style gates.

The riots currently going on about the President being corrupted I seem to agree with, he has huge photos absolutely everywhere across the country. There was a distinct air of corruption in the way affairs are handled within the country.

Market sellers are a major problem for the country and tend to hurt the economy significantly. They try to sell the wares they have at overly bloated prices to tourists but really they have no business model to speak of so they are not going to make a profit. With an ornamental blade and 3 T-shirts and a fake Armani belt, they wanted to be paid in the region of £350 with our “Special 50% discount” by being introduced by his Brother.

Of course, this 50% discount works out at 30%. We brought the price down to about 1/3rd of what they were looking for, however upon closer inspection after getting back to the hotel we really should have dropped that figure by a half again – the quality of the Blade’s Sheath was less than satisfactory and not to mention on the design of it, it was broken.

People are asking for money all over the place – some even without offering a product or service – some kids came up and asked for money. When getting off a bus on a tour we got thrown postcards and maps at us and they wanted money despite giving it back to him several times he still tried to get it out of us. In the desert we got given “for the group” an opened up bottle of Cola then after drinking it he looked for money – he never received it quite possibly he went home and rethought his business model!

So with the events that are going on there now, perhaps a general election will lead to a more progressive government and an era of change from corrupt dictators to deocratical government.

Education is the future for Britain why resist it

Published by calhoun on January 10th, 2011 - in Politics

Newton AppleWe build too many walls and not enough bridges.
-Issac Newton

The United Kingdom has for the last century been falling into disrespect and disrepair by wave after wave of conservative government, even when the government is not conservative. It has been one thing after another that has lead us to this situation. Britain was once a Great nation, indeed Great even is in the full long title of this country.

When will the government realise that the Mighty British Empire has fallen from grace, we are no longer a powerful military our fleet has been mothballed and we can barely defend our own border never mind wage war on many fronts. Our heavy industry and ship yards have closed, our light industry has gone to china so really what is left for Britain to be considered Great?

The government needs to realise the future is in Knowlege, Scientia potentia est.

Britain can rise once again but only if it adopts a culture whereby people are encouraged to learn know skills – we can become a powerful nation by learning our way out of this slum. It is not possible for Great Britain to become Great without a new generation of Darwins, Shakespears, Newtons and many more – they all belong to the top 10 greatest Britons of all time.

The question that our Political minds must answer is When will they wake up and realise the British Empire has fallen, we are an industrial country falling to darkness and despair and the light can be found at the end of a technological civilization. In the past Britain has passed on opportunities that would put it ahead of others – when BT was privatized we skipped an opportunity to roll out Fiber Optic to the home across the country – meaning we would have been then where Japan is now.

Can the political minds really imagine a world where we forgot to create such great items as the Tin Can, Electromagnets, Electric Motors, Internal Combustion Engines, Jet Engines, Light Bulbs, Penicillin, The Steam Engine, Television and Even The Internet. Without these, Britain would never have became what It was, it would never have been a Great country – indeed it is likely that without those geniuses, Britain would still be a developing world.

Bring forth the wardrums of education, Free Education for the whole of Britain, State funds should pour into the Treasury of the universities and colleges, let us educate our way to a modern Great Britain where we’re proud to be called Britisih not ashamed of the actions of our political leaders whom have no connection with the civilized world.

The government is introducing its top up feeds for students – after all, they are the richest amongst us (assuming you kill all the MPs) – in other nations education is cherished above other things – Sweden has it free for example. With fees on average in the region of £4K a year for a full time course, where is someone wanting to change their career to find that kind of money. Many people are being paid off due to government cuts in the public sector – what use is huge fees to them it becomes a barrier to higher education and life long learning two most highly valuable things in getting people back into work.

Processing card payments should be straight forwards

Published by calhoun on January 1st, 2011 - in eCommerce

House built from £20 notesMoney makes the world go round treat it with respect.

I have been working in my current position for nearly a year now. I have seen clients ask for strange things, insist we spend stupidly long amounts of time moving things just for them to say we don’t want it there anyway.

The one thing that I find that consistently causes loss of payments comes down to the money part.

Recently we tried to acquire some new software for the business, being a UK business we have a UK Issued Debit Card, many Europeans will have similar types of card. These are not recognised by payment systems as being credit cards, so when we found the company did not actually accept payments on anything other than a credit card, we were forced to re-evaluate our purchase. They lost the sale.

I just attempted to pay my partner’s phone bill online, he is with orange, and one of the reasons I recently moved away from Orange (there was more than just not having the phone I wanted), I discovered not too much to my surprise as I have experienced it many times as an Orange customer: The classic “There has been a problem, your error has been logged”. My error? Trying to give those guys money? So Orange are left without money.

I recently tried to update my Self Assessment online – well, what should have been a 5 minute job (including finding the log in details) turned into a 3 month trek. They finally got it sorted last week.

Magento Delete Products and Categories

Published by calhoun on December 23rd, 2010 - in Magento

Magento LogoThe database structure used in Magento can be very complex to new starts – hence why recently I outsourced a major database manipulation project.

Part of this project involves wiping the database of products and categories frequently. So I decided to put this post into place – not because its nesessary original discovered or particuarily interesting. I created it simply so I can easily come back to the information I need when I am cleaning the database on test runs I got bored having to google each time and as you’ll see this is not exactly easy to remember.

Delete Categories:


TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_product_bundle_option`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_product_bundle_option_value`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_product_bundle_selection`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_product_entity_datetime`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_product_entity_decimal`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_product_entity_gallery`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_product_entity_int`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_product_entity_media_gallery`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_product_entity_media_gallery_value`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_product_entity_text`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_product_entity_tier_price`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_product_entity_varchar`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_product_link`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_product_link_attribute`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_product_link_attribute_decimal`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_product_link_attribute_int`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_product_link_attribute_varchar`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_product_link_type`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_product_option`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_product_option_price`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_product_option_title`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_product_option_type_price`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_product_option_type_title`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_product_option_type_value`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_product_super_attribute`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_product_super_attribute_label`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_product_super_attribute_pricing`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_product_super_link`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_product_enabled_index`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_product_website`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_product_entity`;

TRUNCATE TABLE `cataloginventory_stock`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `cataloginventory_stock_item`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `cataloginventory_stock_status`;

insert  into `catalog_product_link_type`(`link_type_id`,`code`) values (1,'relation'),(2,'bundle'),(3,'super'),(4,'up_sell'),(5,'cross_sell');
insert  into `catalog_product_link_attribute`(`product_link_attribute_id`,`link_type_id`,`product_link_attribute_code`,`data_type`) values (1,2,'qty','decimal'),(2,1,'position','int'),(3,4,'position','int'),(4,5,'position','int'),(6,1,'qty','decimal'),(7,3,'position','int'),(8,3,'qty','decimal');
insert  into `cataloginventory_stock`(`stock_id`,`stock_name`) values (1,'Default');
Delete Categories:

TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_category_entity`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_category_entity_datetime`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_category_entity_decimal`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_category_entity_int`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_category_entity_text`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_category_entity_varchar`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_category_product`;
TRUNCATE TABLE `catalog_category_product_index`;

insert  into `catalog_category_entity`(`entity_id`,`entity_type_id`,`attribute_set_id`,`parent_id`,`created_at`,`updated_at`,`path`,`position`,`level`,`children_count`) values (1,3,0,0,'0000-00-00 00:00:00','2009-02-20 00:25:34','1',1,0,1),(2,3,3,0,'2009-02-20 00:25:34','2009-02-20 00:25:34','1/2',1,1,0);
insert  into `catalog_category_entity_int`(`value_id`,`entity_type_id`,`attribute_id`,`store_id`,`entity_id`,`value`) values (1,3,32,0,2,1),(2,3,32,1,2,1);
insert  into `catalog_category_entity_varchar`(`value_id`,`entity_type_id`,`attribute_id`,`store_id`,`entity_id`,`value`) values (1,3,31,0,1,'Root Catalog'),(2,3,33,0,1,'root-catalog'),(3,3,31,0,2,'Default Category'),(4,3,39,0,2,'PRODUCTS'),(5,3,33,0,2,'default-category');

Her Majesties Head Could Come Off…

Published by calhoun on December 19th, 2010 - in News, Politics

Royal Mail 1st Class Stamp … the stamps of the postal service.

You might not think that this is an important element of the post system but the main postal operator, the Royal Mail is a Royal service which is why Her Majesties head is on postal stamps. In the event that plans to privatize the Royal Mail are pushed ahead with, then there is the chance that the new organization may wish to remove the Queens head from postage stamps.

Buckingham Palace has been in negotiations with ministers to ensure that the head should remain stuck on the stamp should the privatization go ahead. To think that with a multi billion pound deficit and international wars on multiple fronts that the Queen thinks her head being on a stamp is an important issue to take up ministers time with. I for one support removing the queens head even if privatisation doesn’t go ahead.

The legislation set forth for privatisation requires that any organizations which wish to use the monarch’s head must get royal approval first. But the business secretary indicates there is no perogative in the legislation that mandatorily requires them to even use the image of the monarch at all.

References
Telegraph

Iceland agrees to repay the UK for bank collapse

Published by calhoun on December 10th, 2010 - in News, Politics

Credit CrunchGordon Brown once said: “We are facing a global financial crisis which is probably the first truly global financial crisis of the modern world”. A statement which went on to prove to be accurate with the worldwide financial system collapsing around us it is no surprise that commercial entities were forced to close their doors to the public.

One of the biggest losers in this financial game of high risk investment where the risk outweighed the gain was the Icelandic banks. How many of us would expect to invest in a risky venture and be guaranteed our money back at the end of it? This is essentially what has been stalling negotiations over the last two years.

The collapse of the bank left many accounts out of pocket and the government issued a loan to the Icelandic government to ensure they could pay up for the closure of the banks.

Britain faced its share of troubles in this but companies that closed down as a result of the crisis and our vastly state owned banks dont even pay us dividends for the huge profits they are now paying. Nor do they seem interested in paying back money given to them in investment form by the government. Why should our banks be different from the Icelandic ones?

In a refferendum, Iceland voted 93% against an interest rate of 5% on the loan to Britain branding it an excessive interest rate which it quite rightly is excessive. The government should bear the responsibility of the loss and write off all interest on the loan – call it a we’re saving the world act.

References
Telegraph
Telegraph

United States should take responsibility for Wikileaks

Published by calhoun on December 8th, 2010 - in News, Politics

Dilbert Data SecurityIf Wikileaks has been acting like a terrorist organization it is most likely because the United States is trying to push the blame for the leak on Wikileaks. That is not however entirely accurate, we are referring of course to predominately United States Military and Diplomatic reports.

They key word there: United States.

United States Military Personnel and Diplomatic Staff have generated the reports, passed it on to their superiors, or their superiors secretaries whom in turn handed it in to their superiors most likely. So for every document that’s at least 3 people have seen it, although i would be surprised if it was just 3 there’s probably a whole bunch of personnel have access to the information.

This is where the leak came form, not from Australia, Julian Assange is by no means responsible for causing the leak – at most he might be responsible for distribution of the information but how is that different from what Blogger have done in response to the documents, likewise the news channels and papers around the world have reiterated some of the information. Does that mean we all need to hand ourselves in?

The problem lies with the United States personnel whom likely have commited Treason by releasing these documents to unauthorized parties. There is where justice must be sought. More importantly, given the scale of the security breach it must really bring into question how much trust countries can place in the United States in its position of dominance.

The release of the cables are a strong indicator that the United States does not take national security that seriously and should not be trusted with any information of a sensitive nature. Until such a time as they start considering this a serious problem countries must view discussions with US Personnel as something that will inevitably fall into the hands of unauthorized persons.

Australian foreign minister Kevin Rudd dismissed US diplomatic comments regarding him that came out from wikileaks as irrelevant – which it entirely is – it does not effect his ability to do his job. He has judged however that the US should consider this problem and deal with the culprits of the crime instead of using Assange as a scapegoat.

References
Guardian

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