http://www.johnband.org/blog The idle musings of John B Fri, 16 May 2008 10:15:43 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I'm not sure Boris would approve: (photographed by me at Kings Cross St Pancras station, 14/5/08 at 2215) http://www.johnband.org/blog/2008/05/16/the-next-train-is-for-enlightenment/ You'll be delighted to hear that The Sharpener is back online and that I have a new post there on why it's right to treat politics as a trivial and irrelevant sideshow. Also, now that the Sharpener is back up, I'm going to try and get back into the habit of ... http://www.johnband.org/blog/2008/05/15/good-news-everybody/ A comment on this Guardian thread, about the prospect of extending the insane Tube drinking ban to - even more insanely - cover all public transport expresses confusion over why this is a problem: "I haven't lived in the UK for some time but where I live in Europe I frequently ... http://www.johnband.org/blog/2008/05/09/on-antisocial-behaviour/ Two possibilities: 1) you believe that people should go to jail and be registered as sex offenders for owning pictures of consensual bondage; or: 2) you should sign this petition. http://www.johnband.org/blog/2008/05/09/extreme-ly-important/ It ought to be pretty obvious that banning drinking in a place is completely different from banning drunken louts from a place. If you ban drinking in a place, it prevents people who aren’t louts but fancy a beer from having one, while doing absolutely nothing to prevent louts who are ... http://www.johnband.org/blog/2008/05/07/if-we-ban-harmless-things-then-harmful-things-will-magically-disappear/ A non-Londoner asked me on Saturday what I thought Boris Johnson would be like as London mayor. I said that I really didn't know, which was the main reason I hadn't voted for him (I also can't stand his Wooster-ish public persona, but I'm quite happy to vote for someone I ... http://www.johnband.org/blog/2008/05/05/how-big-is-boriss-tent/ Justin is looking for constructive suggestions on what Labour could possibly do to get over their steamrollering. Mine include: 1) keep the 21% basic tax rate; abolish tax credits; and use the money saved by abolishing the 10p band to raise the personal allowance; 2) abolish NI and raise the basic and ... http://www.johnband.org/blog/2008/05/02/100-hindsight-100-of-the-time/ Simon Jenkins: No good is served by incarcerating an illiterate drugs "mule" in Holloway for 14 years for a first offence when she had no clue what she was doing and has left four children on the streets of Jamaica. She will be sent back in seven years, after Britain has ... http://www.johnband.org/blog/2008/04/30/if-you-disagree-with-this-you-have-no-soul-and-no-brain/ Diamond Geezer's coverage of the mayoral race has been entirely on fire. The latest, possibly last, and definitely funniest summary of the campaign I've so far seen, is the London Mayoral Hustings 2012: Paxman: Ahhhhh yes, transport. What are your priorities for the next four years? Boris: Crossrail, yes, er, that's something ... http://www.johnband.org/blog/2008/04/30/final-mayoralty/ If you think that Gordon Brown carried out a tax raid on pensions in 1997, which was the main cause of the end of final-salary pension schemes in the UK private sector, then you are wrong. In 1997, the government did indeed abolish the tax relief on dividends paid by firms ... http://www.johnband.org/blog/2008/04/29/more-clarifications-of-the-obvious/