The rooshians are coming

BBC News - RAF spots Russian jets near Western Isles:

A RAF Tornado below one of the TU-160s

"Two Russian bombers were intercepted by RAF fighter jets near Stornoway on the Western Isles, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has revealed.

The Tupolev TU-160 aircraft were shadowed by two F3 Tornados scrambled from RAF Leuchars in Fife in the early hours of 10 March."

hahahahaha.

Really, what on earth did they think they were doing?

BBC News - Ex-ministers in 'cash for influence' row under fire:

"Labour MP Stephen Byers was recorded as saying he would work for up to £5,000 a day and was like a 'cab for hire' in the Sunday Times and Channel 4 probe.

Patricia Hewitt allegedly said she would need up to £3,000. Both MPs firmly deny any wrongdoing.

Chancellor Alistair Darling says what happened was 'ridiculous'.

...

Questioned about the newspaper's claims by the BBC's Andrew Marr, Mr Darling said:
"The best answer when you get a call like that is to put the receiver back down again. It's obvious.There are rules about serving MPs - we've said that we're going to have to, I think, get a statutory-backed code of conduct to deal with former ministers. But really, what on earth did they think they were doing?""

Just touting for business, I suppose, Alistair.
Ha ha ha. Fail.

Gotcha! More very bad men, and women too

Labour takes on lobbying after MPs caught in sting over cash for influence | Politics | guardian.co.uk:

"Stephen Byers, the former cabinet minister and arch-Blairite, (who) was filmed describing himself as a 'bit like a sort of cab for hire'. He offered to trade Westminster contacts for £3,000 to £5,000 a day.



Others who were targeted in the undercover operation included former cabinet ministers Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt. Margaret Moran, the Labour MP for Luton, was also involved.

Labour tried to limit the damage last night by saying some MPs were 'mortified' by how stupid they had been.

...

The chancellor, Alistair Darling, said it was 'ridiculous' that the MPs had been caught out in the sting. He told BBC1's Andrew Marr show: 'The best answer when you get a call like that is to put the receiver back down again. It's obvious."

In other words, don't get caught.
Ah, too late. What a pity. Never mind.
We're well rid of these chiselling Blairites.

A very bad man

Tony Blair got cash for deal with South Korean oil firm | Politics | guardian.co.uk:



"Tony Blair has received cash from a South Korean oil firm in a deal kept secret until the business appointments watchdog intervened"

Come on you Tucker!

Malcolm Tucker's election briefing | Comment is free | The Guardian:

"Clegg the kingmaker. Yeah, right. This guy couldn't make a king out of a two-piece Duplo 'Make a King' kit without putting the arse on the head."

Rofl. Quality.

Death = religion, life = art, cinema's half dead

Peter Greenaway's pact with death | Film | The Guardian:



"Greenaway is no longer interested in cinema per se – it's a half-dead medium wasted by taking its cues from books, 'telling bedtime stories for adults. Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings are illustrated books. Not cinema. I want to be a prime creator. As every self-regarding artist should do.'"

Bust the union, or bust

BA strike plan is classic union-busting technique | Business | guardian.co.uk:

Gregor Gall makes this astute point in the Guardian, about the aims of Willie Walsh (below) and the directors of BA:



"You'd think in the case of something close to mutually assured destruction, BA would seize upon the opportunity to avoid a damaging strike, especially when it's making huge losses.

Yet, here's the rub. Yes, BA will lose £100m in the strike, but the prize for it is much bigger. That prize is the decimation of Unite as a serious force in BA."

Flattery? Getting you nowhere, Stephanomics

BBC - Stephanomics: Not lagging, but not leading either

But note how much public sector jobs growth continues to flatter the figures.

The number of public sector workers grew by 7,000 between September and December, while the private sector workforce shrank by 61,000 over the period.

With job losses already being announced in town halls, we cannot expect that to last.

Yeah, "flatter the figures".
More like "keeping the actual economy afloat", Steph.

No cuts. Take it off the bankers.

Smartest guy

Jim O'Neill faces red card from Goldman Sachs | Business | guardian.co.uk

Jim O'Neill, Goldman Sachs' chief economist, is part of a group seeking to wrest control of Manchester United from the Glazer family Photograph: PR handout

Today, O'Neill is regarded as one of the world's leading commentators on global economics, having devised the acronym Bric in 2001 to underline the shift of economic power from the west to Brazil, Russia, India and China – a trend that defines modern, international economics.

Clearly a genius, then.

Foot note to history

Labour's Foot mythology has finally run out of time | Seumas Milne | Comment is free | The Guardian

it was not the manifesto or even Foot that gave Labour its worst election result since 1931. Two other factors were far more important. The first was the Falklands war, which transformed Thatcher's poll ratings on a wave of jingoism (and was unwisely given unqualified support by Foot). The second was the schism in Labour and the breakaway of part of its leadership to form the media-feted Social Democratic party, which split the anti-Conservative vote and kept Britain's most socially destructive postwar prime minister in power for the rest of the decade.

We're still paying for that.