The National Memorial Arboretum - What a disgrace.

11/09/2009 by The Daily Male.

A quick quiz for you. Can you answer for me the following;

What is the National Memorial Arboretum?
Where is the NMA?
How do you get to the NMA?

No? Thought so!

You see we have an impressive monument to those brave souls who have given their life for our country. It looks great, very… umm… monumental. The problem is it is stuck in a field in the middle of Staffordshire where no one can get to it? Monuments to our service men and women who have died in action should be right bang slap in the middle of London, outside the Houses of Parliament, so those “not so brave” politicians have to walk past it every day and be reminded of the human cost of their decisions. Stuck, as it is, hidden away in the middle of nowhere, allows the Gordon Browns and David Camerons of this world to forget what has gone before. Will I ever see it? it is unlikely, it is way too far away and off the beaten track for me to make a special visit. Plus I have to pay £2 before I can pay my respects. This is not a National Monument, it is a Monumental National Disgrace.

Posted in Politics, Society | Print | 1 Comment »

ID Cards.. The Scary Truth.

15/08/2009 by The Daily Male.

Well, It has been a good while since I posted. I have been somewhat distracted of late. But I am back and I hope to get some more rants online soon.

Anyway, Interesting article in the real Daily Mail… http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1204641/New-ID-cards-supposed-unforgeable–took-expert-12-minutes-clone-programme-false-data.html

 For anyone who thought my earlier blog stating that the new ID cards will be easily cloned, copied or faked but were doubtful, perhaps you will not accept this scheme is a very very very bad idea.

Posted in Politics, ID Cards, Society | Print | 1 Comment »

Planet westminster - a strange world indeed.

23/04/2009 by The Daily Male.

Gordon “IAM” Brown has had a great idea to deal with all these sleazy expenses claims. Where in the past they had to account for all the money they robbed from us to watch porn and furnish their many houses, now they can do all this without any accountability at all. Gordon wants MPs to get money (over and above their salary) for turning up to do their job? great idea Gordon, I can’t wait to apply that to my work. An extra few hundred quid a day for hauling my lazy ass out of bed will come in very handy. And no questions asked, fantastic, I look forward to all those long evenings with a John Lewis catalogue and 24/7 cable smut. Oh, sorry, I missed the part where this gross misuse of public money only applies to MPs, silly me.

Gordon, you truly are an utter moron.

Posted in Politics, Society | Print | 1 Comment »

Dick Cheney is so very wrong

21/04/2009 by The Daily Male.

Former US VP Dick Cheney has stated that torturing prisoners is justified because it may have yielded some results. Interesting, on that basis then when we have the inquiry into why Bush, Cheney and Blair went to war with a country based on a lie, Dick will be happy to be tied down to a plank and have water poured onto his face thus simulating drowning. We can repeat this “interrogation” hundreds of times, day and night, until the “Iraq Three” confess to starting an illegal war.  Thanks Dick, I like the idea, I can’t wait to see it!

Posted in Politics, Society, Law & Disorder | Print | 1 Comment »

MyRail Lite… an update

16/04/2009 by The Daily Male.

In the continuing saga of MyRail lite I thought I would update you on my progress. After getting a rather bland response to my complaint from NRE I decided to complain to the OFT (Office of Fair Trading) about what I believe to be restrictive practice on the part of NRE. I have had a response to say that they will be investigating NRE and advised that I may want to contact the competition commission, which I will do this weekend. I will let you know how it goes.

Here is the letter I got from the OFT (Consumer Direct)

Dear [The Daily Male],

Thank you for your enquiry to Consumer Direct dated 06/04/09. Your reference number for this case is [removed] and should be quoted in all further correspondence regarding this case.

Based on the information that you have provided, there is legislation in place that prohibits businesses from advertising ‘free’ services that are actually not free, so the details will be passed to Trading Standards. If an officer requires any further information, they shall contact you within 5 working days on receipt of this enquiry.

We thank you for bringing this matter to our attention.

In order to assist you further, you may wish to consider also reporting this matter to the Competition Commission who are an independent body and may be able to offer some further information:-

http://www.competition-commission.org.uk/

CC Public Enquiries: +44 (0)20 7271 0243

E-mail: info@cc.gsi.gov.uk

I trust the above information is of some assistance to you. If you require any further information or clarification on this case please do not hesitate to contact Consumer Direct quoting your above reference number on Tel No: 08454 04 05 06 our offices are opened Monday to Friday 8am - 6.30pm and Saturday 9am - 1pm. If this is not convenient please feel free to contact me at the email address below.

Thank you for your enquiry.

Yours sincerely,

[removed]

Consumer Direct South East

Posted in Society, Travel | Print | 3 Comments »

Big Brother is watching you.

06/04/2009 by The Daily Male.

You will be glad to know as of Today the fact that you have visited my blog is now recorded by your ISP and stored for the next 12 months. This is just in case you are an international terrorist who has mistaken my blog for a site that contains fiendish plots to bring down the UK government. Now I am all for bringing down this bloody awful government but I wish to do so via the normal democratic process. I am not saying I am somehow special by the way, in fact all of your web activity is being recorded by your ISP. And not just your web browsing but also your email, in fact every email you receive or send from now on will be logged and recorded. This is in addition to your mobile phone activity which is already being recorded by HM Government.

So, do you feel safer knowing that all your electronic communications are now being monitored, knowing that Gordon “IAM” Brown will be able to check back to see what You Tube films you have watched, who you are talking to on face-book, what news articles you are viewing on the BBC. Or, like me, do you feel this is just another nail in the coffin for freedom and privacy in this country. Will this actually be used for anti terrorist behaviour, or, like the Regulation of Investigatory Powers act, be used by local authorities to track down “Serious Criminals” such as those who would send their children to the wrong school. Perhaps a disgruntled and violent policeman will use it to trace his abused parner after she has gone into hiding. The one thing I can absolutely guarantee is this power will not once be used to trace or convict a terrorist. The truth is that criminals will hide their web activity behind web proxies and false email accounts so the only people being recorded is you and me, well as you read this it is actually just you. Feel safer?

So what next for Gordon, what new goodies does this paranoid PM have in store for us in the future? perhaps we should all have cameras in our houses, just like ID cards, if you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to fear, and I am sure most parents will be happy that some stranger in a CCTV monitoring room is there to watch your children getting dressed for bed, ensuring no harm comes to then. well what do you think? sounds okay doesn’t it? will you sleep safer at night under the ever watching eye of big brother?

BBC Article : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7985339.stm

Correction, It has been brought to my attention that the BBC News article was incorrect (it has now been corrected) and Mr B will not be collecting our web history, just our emails and phone calls, so that is okay then! 

Posted in Politics, Privicy, Technology, ID Cards, Society | Print | 1 Comment »

National Rail Enquiries (update)

02/04/2009 by The Daily Male.

In an earlier post (This weeks greediest corporation award goes too….) I named and shamed Network Rail. I also wrote to them to outline my anger and accused them of sharp and uncompetitive practice. This was their reply.

Network Rail Email

Dear [The Daily Male]

Thank you for your eMail.

I am sorry to hear that you are unhappy with the cost of the National Rail Enquiries iPhone Application and the subsequent withdrawal of the MyRail Lite iPhone Application.

I can confirm that we did not withdraw the real time licence for MyRail Lite as the application was never licensed to use that data in the first place.

Although the MyRailLite application was not licenced to use National Rail Enquiries real time data, National Rail Enquiries did suggest an alternative solution to enable the product to continue but the developers refused.

National Rail Enquiries has not imposed a limitation on developing rail applications for iPhone. Timetable data is widely available and developers are free to use such data to develop applications if they wish having sought the relevant permissions from the industry data providers.

National Rail Enquiries provides a number of mobile web services including the iPhone application, which does have a one time £4.99 download fee. Our other services include WAP (though iPhones do not support WAP) and our PDA site at pda.ojp.nationalrail.co.uk, which are free to use.

The cost of the iPhone Application is not for the data but development and support costs. The data is offered to users of the application for free and the same data can be accessed through other channels such as the website.

Regards,

[removed]

Customer Services

www.nationalrail.co.uk

The implication from this email is that rail timetable data is FREE to use and only the app development costs have led to the £5 cost of the rail enquiries app. This is even worse. They have admitted that they are providing free data to their own app developers but restricting the flow of this free data to any or all rivals based on their own licensing rules. This is most definitely uncompetitive behaviour and my next course of action will be to contact the OFT (Office of fair trading) and request an investigation into Network Rail Enquiries practices.

Posted in Technology, Society, Travel | Print | 2 Comments »

This weeks greediest corporation award goes too….

31/03/2009 by The Daily Male.

Network Rail.

Why? well let me explain. I have an Apple iTouch, a fantastic piece of kit and especially because you can download loads of funky new apps. One in particular, MyRail, a FREE app, was very good indeed and allowed you to view live departure and arrival information for any train station. However this app no longer works because Network Rail have not renewed the licence for the app owners to use their live data. At the same time Network Rail have introduced their own app that does exactly the same job except they want us to pay a fiver to use it. The greedy bast%*#s.

Here is my call to all iPhone and iTouch users… Boycott the Network Rail app.

Posted in Technology, Society, Travel | Print | 1 Comment »

The UK burns whilst Jacqui fiddles.

31/03/2009 by The Daily Male.

I think we need to be very clear why what Jacqui Smith has done is an appalling abuse of power. There is a lot of innuendo about her expenses but everyone (the press) are too scared to spell it out. So let me do it for them.

Jacqui thinks “I really could do with decorating and furnishing my home, but boy! is it going to be expensive”.

“Ah, hang on, there is a loop-hole I can use.  I will say I live with my sister and say my home is my SECOND residence. I only have to pop in to my sisters a few times a month to make it look good.”

 ”Jobs a goodun! I can now claim £116,000 of tax payers money to literally feather my own nest.”

 Note from Me. Dear Mr Tax Man. I have decided to live a few days a month at my mum and dad’s house, is it okay if I now get a new kitchen and bathroom fitted and claim it as an expense? what? No you say? but if it is good enough for Jacqui bloody Smith, the Home Secretary no less, then why not for me?

Posted in Politics, Society | Print | No Comments »

Porn Free.

30/03/2009 by The Daily Male.

So, Jacqui Smith’s has been claiming expenses for her husbands “Play-Per-View” films. You just don’t know if you should laugh or cry. The thought that the tax payer has been footing the bill for the Home Secretary’s husbands presumed onanism is so bizarre as to make me pinch myself  in case this is some kind of weird dream. This is the woman who is charged with keeping us all safe, ensuring that those that would seek to harm us are detected and stopped, yet the fact that she had claimed expenses for “Debbie Does Whitehall” went by unnoticed.

 I think the trouble with politicians is that they spend so much time with their hand in the till they don’t even know they are doing it. It is like a sort of Pavlovian response, they hear the ching of the till opening and they automatically dive in. You then question why they are doing it and they look shocked and amazed, as if the greedy hand was not actually part of them. It is a form of kleptomania, they want to be good people but they just can’t help themselves. 

Posted in Politics, Society | Print | No Comments »