For this he had Duncan Bannatyne calling his workplace to ask why he had been ’slagging him off’ in public and mentioned the thinly veiled threat of what he thought of ‘UK libel laws and Twitter’. Was this really the best way to go? Surely it’s yet another example of heavy-handed businesses taking things personally when in fact they should be doing their utmost to please their customers and accept that not everything they do is 100% perfect and that there is always room for improvement.

The result of this encounter is a lot of negative PR and Matt finishes off his article with this:

As it is, an opportunity to generate some good PR has been wasted.

A suitable outcome would’ve been to get back a reply from Duncan Bannatyne saying that the situation was getting sorted and that Bannatyne’s Gyms were sorry for any inconvenience caused. That would’ve been a great bit of PR in actually getting a tweet from a multi-millionairre, who takes the time to listen to his customers, and does something about it.

If businesses want to succeed then they should take things less personally, be a little less trigger-happy in threatening lawsuits, and instead look at where the real problems lie, and improve their customer service.

The Twin Towers

So it’s September 11th again or 9/11 as it’s most commonly known as since that day 8 years ago. I guess there will always be that ‘where were you when it happened’  question and I know that I was in a University lecture when I found out what had happened and spent the afternoon watching reports on the TV in the Union bar. 9/11 a defining moment in our history.

Now I’m going to get a little controversial here and I will expect a backlash so apologies from me at this point. 9/11 was a very bad thing and I can’t even imagine what it must have been like especially with so many lives lost, but a little part of me is happy intrigued by the fact that there can still be chaos in the world and that a small group, or even an individual still has the freedom, the possibility, to do whatever they want. In times where everything is controlled, and our personal freedoms are being regulated and restricted someone can do something as extreme as hijacking a plane and causing massive devastation.

I don’t condone it. Not even for a second. Let’s get that straight, but it shows that we are not all drones and we could all do anything we wanted, but of course we are all pretty comfortable going with the flow and running through the motions.

I’m kind of not sure where all this is going, I guess I’m a fan of Hollywood action movies where one man can do so much, kick some ass, get the girl, and all against such great odds.

I suppose it takes something like this to shock us into realising that the world isn’t always a rational, neat place, and nothing is ever under our control. We think we have everything sussed but that isn’t the truth and it only takes one person to completely alter that perception. Take nothing for granted.

Alan Johnson, Home Secretary

Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, today announced that ID would no longer be compulsary and will now only be issued on a voluntary basis but the question has to be asked why they’re even bothering at all and not just scrapping it?

If you want to find out about what ID cards were all about then see this Q&A,but the gist of it was that everyone over the age of 16 in the UK would have their biometric data, finger prints and face scans added to a national register which would allow them to keep tabs on everyone. This brought up a great furore not only because of the infringements on civil liberties (see No2ID) but also because of the governments projected cost of £5bn to which London School of Economics says the true cost will be between £10bn and £20bn, with over £250,000,000 already spent on the scheme.

All in all it sounded like a bad idea right from the start but the Labout government wanted to force it though even though there was oppostion from the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats who both said they would scrap the scheme if they came to power. Most other political parties in the UK, including the SNP, Plaid Cymru, the Green Party and UKIP, are also against ID cards.

So I am happy that we will not have to have ID cards although this is probably not because the government realised they were pointless, but more than likely because they do not have the funds for it after bailing out the banks. At least they have admitted the suggestion the cards would help combat terrorism was exaggerated and the Home Secretary accepted the Government should never have allowed “the perception to go around that they were a panacea for terrorism”.

The card will now be focused on youngsters so they can prove their age when buying alcohol… what a turnaround and what a completely pointless reason for still rolling out the cards.

I’m also a little cynical that perhaps they have chosen to release this information at this current time due to the news being swamped with Michael Jackson related news, knowing that the Tabloids will ignore this news in favour of poring over a celeb’s death.

At least there has been this turnaround and hopefully in the near future it will be decided that the whole scheme is bollocks and it will be scrapped.

Update 1/7/09: BBC News – ID scheme is an ‘embarrassment’

But, and there is a but, if you don’t use your vote then there are plenty more who are willing to vote and in this current climate it appears that it’s the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and British National Party (BNP) who are looking to take advantage of the situation.

No matter how much the BNP seems to have changed, to have modernised, to present themselves as a legitimate political part, at the end of the day they are still racists, xenophobes, homophobes, and misogynists. I am half-Turkish and there is no place for me in a BNP state. According to them I am an immigrant and shouldn’t be in this country. That is rubbish, the same way that they believe that you can only be British if you are white. Bollocks! And this is what is at the heart of their policies. They are just bigots who wear suits instead of swastikas.

The important thing is for you to go out and use your vote and maker sure that the BNP and UKIP to not get any MEPs elected and the best was to make sure this doesn’t happen is to vote Green who are the best option politically, and the best placed to succeed electorally. They are one of the biggest ’smaller parties’ as Labour, Conservative, and Liberal Democrats will always get votes and the way the vote works is if another party can push the BNP and UKIP further down down. Have a look at the video below to see how the voting works (it focuses on the North-West but applies for everywhere.)

Daily Lies

The newspapers I read are either The Independent or The Guardian. I’m not being a snob, they are just the one’s I read and I feel that they are a lot less biased and hypocritical than a lot of the other newspapers available. Sure, they will have a slant in certain directions but I feel it is minimal.

There are however many many other newspapers who have their own agenda and distort stories to fulfil this and that makes me mad. What makes me even madder is that the readership of these papers, a very large readership,  do not seem to understand this, taking it as gospel, and then blindly accepting this view as their own.

If you are intelligent then you will already know the papers I’m talking about: The Sun and The Daily Mail being the main offenders. Some of the stories they write are so astoundingly biased, so absurd,  that it’s amazing that everyone can’t see through them and the politics behind every item, but no that is not the case.

There are however quite a few blogs that like to point out these and here are a selection:

• The Sun – Tabloid Lies
• Daily Mail Watch
• Angry Mob
• The Daily Quail
• Tabloid Watch

I’d recommend that you add these to your daily rss feeds so that you can get a view of the kind of tripe that the masses are fed daily and how ‘journalism’ can make any story out of just a few facts (even incorrect ones), usually with a smattering of xenophobia or homophobia thrown in for good measure.

The lesson is to look at the big picture and ask yourselves why they are writing these stories and what their agendas are.

You can view the video here.

The question is why would the IPCC want to block this video? They say it’s because the footage “would potentially damage” its investigation. How would it? Unless the fact is that they still haven’t interviewed all the police witnesses  in this case even after some 3 weeks after the incident.

You would really think that they would want to do a good job in light of the immense media attention this is getting.

More posts about the death of Ian Tomlinson here.

St. George's Cross

If you didn’t already know, today is St. George’s Day, the patron saint of England We don’t seem to get a huge amount to celebrate about in this country and I for one believe that we should make a little more of this day.

I’m not talking about putting on your England football shirt, having a few cans of Stella, and screaming out Rule Brittania which sadly is the most patriotic a lot of people get up to, but something a bit more substantial.

The main thing is to not let this get pounced on by far-right political groups such as BNP or the National Front, who equate being English with being white. Currently the fact that we don’t celebrate St. George’s Day is actually used as ammunition by these groups who refer to “political correctness gone mad” and over zealous councils wary of offending minorities as one of the main reasons why we don’t celebrate the day.

Should we celebrate this day? Yes. How do we do this? Not too sure.

Should it be that image of the Coronation with street partys and neighbourhoods getting together for a celebration? Should it be morris dancers and maypoles? Should it encompass what it means to live in England today and involve everyone no matter what their faith or background?

Is any of this possible? What are your views on making St. George’s Day a national holiday and how would you celebrate it?

This would be a lucky escape for KCC after continuing to deposit money into the banks even after the credit rating for the banks dropped from ‘acceptable’ to ‘adequate’.

To read the rest of the story go here (BBC link) and here (Kent News).

Of course this still means that £10 million may never be recovered…

The statement from the City of London Coroners Court overturns the initial assessment that the newspaper seller died of natural causes.

Just because the offender is a police officer he has been suspended where as if this were anyone else then they wouldn’t been charged by now. Do not think that I am out for blood but this cannot be swept under the carpet.