Tsunami relief swept locals aside, study finds

I can’t be the only one to have noticed the vogue for quiz shows designed to reproduce, repackage and reinforce existing class relations for primetime TV. The latest incarnation is Poker Face:

Each show will see six new contestants face five rounds of questions. Throughout the game they will know exactly how many they have right and how much money they are accumulating… However they have no idea how well their fellow contestants are actually faring… At the end of each round one person must leave the game. Read More

The Carnival of Art #2

Anyone else get the impression that it’s take out the trash day?

On a day when Labour fundraiser Lord Levy has been arrested and Israel seems to have declared war on Lebanon, David Cameron looks to be quietly dropping the one policy pledge he’s actually made.

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Information wants to be free, but the Foreign Office doesn’t
FOI and Crown Copyright how-to

Riding Along On A Carousel
The ABC of VAT fraud

The political victimology of Zizou
Zidane, racism and the left

The story of the Bermingham Three has finally made it from the business news to the front pages of the papers.  The alleged fraudsters have been fighting extradition for over two years but now that their last appeal has failed, they will be put on a plane for Houston on Thursday and will probably be held on remand in a US federal penitentiary for over a year before they come to trail.

The case is controversial because the former Nat West employees have been extradited under the 2003 Extradition Treaty which the UK incorporated into law but which the US Senate has not ratified. However, today’s Financial Times argues that they could have been extradited under the previous 1972 treaty and that, by neglecting to ratify the treaty, “the senate has provided a perfect smokescreen for three men who have a real case to answer.”

The extradition of the Bermingham Three will send a shiver through the management teams in many British companies. Many UK companies are already subject to American legislation and regulation, even if they do very little business in the USA. America’s willingness to seek the extradition of foreign executives gives these regulations real teeth.
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A moderately successful World Cup on Betfair got me thinking about pundits and probabilities. Or, if you prefer, technocrats and managerialists. As any decent gambler will tell you, heuristics beat opinions. Thankfully, there aren’t many of those about Read More