BBC expenditure

I think this maybe the next area where scrutiny falls, how does all the licence fee tax get spent?

You cannot fault BBC for providing good service, although maybe in recent years it has been more ratings chasing rather than taking risks and providing good original programming. I still feel more fairer split of the licence revenue amongst production companies would be better.

So I am hoping this will be the next area, if only to even up the coverage of the Commons.

Reform stampede

Labour and the Conservatives are falling over each other trying to promote reform of the Commons (and other institutions).

Some of the things I heard today:

- A constitution
- Reform of the Lords
- Reform of other public institutions (why should they miss out?)

The list went on, really all rather surprising - maybe another deflection tactic, many of the things to be proposed will have been obvious for years to the outside.

Listening: Best of Cream

Listening to this collection of original recordings from Cream. Some memorable tracks on it and songs which were later made famous by advertising usage.

As with all old recordings the production does sound quite limited and basic. Of course this reflects on the technology of the time, but it always leaves me feeling slightly let down by the recording (again we are spoilt by modern techniques).

Tax returns - tax deductible

A while ago I posted on the fact that accountancy charges for tax returns should be tax deductible, i.e. you pay for them from the tax you have already paid.

http://dontgetdemoralised.blogspot.com/2009/02/tax-returns-tax-deductible.html

The reasoning was that it would provide a motivation to make taxes simpler.

It turns out that MPs already are "piloting" this scheme, charging their tax affairs to the expense budget.

Shame we had to find out about it through a freedom of information request!

Newcastle relegated

Yesterday Newcastle along with Middlesbrough and West Brom were relegated.

There is certainly smaller sides that could have gone down, but it is not about that. Newcastle in particular have been in self destruct mode all year. Alan Shearer came too late either to do anything or to take the blame for anything (he has however presented himself well as a manager).

It is sad to see a side that has historically provided some of the best premier league games drop out, but in their current state having them survive and have another year of turmoil seems unfair to the memory.

Despite the great games, they won nothing in their latest top flight run. Next year now presents a massive chance, rebuild around things that are sustainable, and get a team that can win the championship. The fans will also learn that there is football outside of the top league, and probably find that it is more fun getting there then actually playing in the premiership.

Film: Star Trek by J J Abrams

I went to see the new Star Trek yesterday, having heard it was another rebirth of a franchise. Overall it was not a bad film, and worth seeing for the special effects alone. They are impressive but not so overdone that they take over the film.

But overall I felt a little disappointed, I am by no means a hard core Trekkie. The good points:

• It is a wind back of the clock to what made the original series popular, action and lots of it. None of the endless diplomacy of the next generation
• The characters of the old series are pretty well done, Spock, McCoy, Kirk, and Scotty in that order (Scotty is somewhat of a placeholder and put in to deliver a few jokes).
• There are some good respectful references to the old series (not least the use of Nimoy as his future self).
• Franchise wise it does make up for those who were disappointed with the really poor Star Wars films.
  

The bad points:

• At times it did feel a bit Independence Day hyped, which made it difficult to see as a Star Trek film.
• Kirk is overplayed as a chancer who gets his breaks because of some innate talent that we can never quite put our finger on. Had he joined Starfleet in the way he had done I would hope he would be cleaning toilets for the first few years!
• The use of the Nimoy adds a time dimension to the plot which is a little tenuous.
• Absurd initial sequence where the father of Kirk gets to name his newborn while ploughing to his death in a spaceship.
  

Overall worth seeing for the visuals and the characters if not the slightly weak plot, 6/10

Not feeling sorry for MPs

Not after seeing tonight's news, MP's in the house deflecting the criticism onto the speaker by asking him to resign!

Not very honourable, but I suppose these are desperate times. Still it would make history, it has not happened for 300 years apparently.

Listening: Magic Hour by Cast

Finally got round to changing to a new CD in the car, Test for echo has lasted for too long.

This is a great CD with track after track of good music. I would not have thought Cast could have produced an album like this, but I am glad they did.

However reading up on this CD, it was a commercial flop - failed to sell even 60000 copies. That is a surprise, I think it deserved better than that but it was released toward the end of the Brit Pop phase.

(Almost) Feeling Sorry for MPs

I'm almost feeling sorry for the MP's over their expense fraud, ok not fraud but "gaming" the current too lax rules.

The papers have really picked on the cases that are clear abuses and are beyond the spirit of the current rules. But I think this will be a minority of MPs - well at least I hope it is. I can imagine many MPs hand this kind of thing off to their accountants who will play the rules on behalf of the client. In the real world the revenue are always adjusting rules to close loop hole exploits. But it is hard to think of a profession where 50% of your earnings are from expenses (on top of an already reasonable public service salary).

It does however send a clear message to our elected representatives, this episode has gone down very badly in the wider country, and a lot of respect will have been lost.

Difficult to know how to repair the situation, better regulation, more open systems of expenses will work in the future - but do not really do much to mend the damaged reputations.

Government Spending

We are getting primed for some tough decisions, given that we've backed our banks and landed ourselves with years worth of debt.

People might have to work longer, funding might get cut for key projects, it is a story of woe.

But one small ray of light, ID cards might get scrapped - now there is a project that could do with a cancellation. It will save billions in IT mismanagement and contracts, and nobody will notice the difference.

I sometimes wonder if our goverment keeps such projects alive for situations like this!

Book read: The (Mis)Behaviour of Markets but Benoit Mandlebrot and Richard Hudson

I've just finished this book that looks into economic theory and puts a case for applying fractal techniques for financial modelling.

It paints a pretty gloomy picture of ecomonics, an over reliance on theories that have long since been disproved by events (rational investors, price change independence, normal distributions the list is long). It makes one good comparison with Astronomy where observation drives the theory - in the case of economics the theories often ignore the observations!

The book also puts a case for using fractal techniques in modelling of a stock price. It has to be said it never really gets beyond a high level description of this, probably all that can be expected from a layman guide.

Any such techniques would probably only be an advantage for a while, since widespread use would then ensure that the expectation would be "priced in" to the stock.

Not a bad read, some good historic examples, 7/10