War in the Middle East, ID Cards and other strange creatures..

The Israel / Lebanon War
I've been watching this on and off for the last week. Frankly I can't blame the Israelis for the response they have chosen, however I can't help but feel its going to make things worse.

To be on the receiving end of the constant hatred they get, not only from their Arab "neighbours" but from the left wing media across the planet, it's hardly a surprise when they lash out in a disproportionate response.

The whole Middle East conflict makes me sure of only two things:

• The Israelis are only doing what they think best to protect their own people.
• Its whole ongoing conflict is only going to truely end when only one side is left standing.

Better minds than I have been trying to resolve the overall conflict for as long as I can remember, and got nowhere. I can't see that changing anytime soon.

ID Cards
via Longrider & Simon Hoggart in The Guardian I see that ID cards were being "discussed" in the Commons again, with Joan Ryan (Minister in Charge of Electronic Slavery Projects) trotted out to try and spin the government's scheme to the MPs gathered.

And what spin it was. Laden with Management Speak you could have played Buzzword Bingo until your consultants orgasmed in ecstasy. What it didnt tell us is anything new. The government is spinning so fast on this scheme it would make a pulsar look positively slow in comparison.

The main thrust of the argument this time seemed to be that ID Cards will prevent "Identity Theft", which is a bit rich considering that it is this government that wants to steal our identities and then lease them back to us.

What then ensued was a number of MPs pointing out the inaccuracies of this, which range from the figures quoted by the banks and Government on the cost of identity fraud being significatly different, to government departments selling identity information to criminal gangs for tax fraud purposes. Both points were acknowledged by Ms Ryan then studiously ignored. Nothing like avoiding facts that get in the way of a good bit of attempted PR.

So, when that tack failed miserably, she then threw out the old "essential in the fight to counter terrorism" spin. Which as we all know is a load of bollocks to say the least. Most of us that live in the South East and work in London for the last 20 or so years have lived with the threat of terrorism daily, firstly from the IRA and now from the Islamo-nutters. We didn't need ID cards then, we don't need them now.

The only terrorists we need protecting from are the 26 or so that sit in cabinet at No.10 Downing Street.

Home Office ReOrg
I see that John "Mad Dog" Reid has been moaning again about the Home Office and the terrible state it is in, with his latest wheeze to split it up so that Immigration is a seperate, quasi-independent company that reports to the Home Office.
Anyone want to take bets that the running of this spin off will go to some NuLab stooge without a clue, but with enough fingers in the pie that they get filthy rich in the process? Looks like another "deckchair shuffling" exercise to me.
Mad Dog recently described the Home Office as unfit for purpose. IMHO, that describes this whole NuLab government from the top down.