Skip to content

April 2008

The OFT and Regulation

OK, so yet another investigation into the supermarkets. But this is the bit I found most interesting:

The OFT has also been plagued by actions from rivals of companies against whom it has dropped investigations – and this is the Irishman\’s biggest bugbear.

"People out in the market should compete in the market. Not by using public resources as a way of manipulating their rivals," he says.

That\’s extraordinarily naive: perhapos businesses should compete out there in the market, but that doesn\’t mean they will.

That, of course, being the very basis of having an Office of Fair Trading, that while they should compete in the market, they don\’t always do so.

And if you\’ve got a regulator out there that you can complain to, if that complaint is successful your competitor gets fined 10% of turnover, well, why wouldn\’t you make the complaint? And if the complaint isn\’t successful, you\’ve still caused them great expense and management time defenmding themselves from the allegation.

In fact, you\’ve actually got an incentive to enter into a collusionary pact, or at least discuss doing so. Go along, nod at the right time and then shop your rival to the OFT and see them being fined 10% of turnover. You get off scott free because of the whistelblower\’s provision, that he who confesses first don\’t get punished.

The housebuilders\’ fines are expected to dwarf the OFT\’s record £121.5m fine levied on BA last summer.

Of course, no one has deliberately done that to a rival yet, but they could do.

Ahahaha…Bwahahahahah..Oh, Dear, Gurgle…Ahahaha…

Amanda Marcotte has her first book out.

There\’s been a certain, umm, consternation shall we say, about the accompanying illustrations.

Here.

\"\"

Snigger. Oh Lord, what were they thinking?

Well, here\’s what the publishers say.

Readers will know that I\’m not exactly a fan of Ms. Marcotte\’s work and thinking (yes, this is that famous British understatement) however, her response I do like.

I’m sorry. Plain and simple.

We all screw up at times and when we do complete and abject surrender followed by an apology and a promise to at least attempt not to do it again is the best option. You know. like Mom told us to.

Umm, it might be some time before Amanda gets an approving word from me so make the most of it while you can.

A Confused Guardian

Higher prices may sometimes be justified, but a conspiracy of producers against the public is always the wrong way to bring them about.

Indeed.

In a report on alcohol last month, the home office proposed changing the law so supermarkets are no longer forced to respond to cut-throat competition by selling cut-price liquor. The idea of imposing competition with an eye on the wider public interest could have more general application. Regulators guard their independence jealously, but they need the freedom to apply it more flexibly, because there are times when lower prices come at a high cost.

Eh? So with the justification of higher prices being needed you\’ll agree to a conspiracy of producers against the public?

And I thought Leaders were written by the bright people?

Would Be Interesting to Know

Rationing, shortages and profiteering hit garages yesterday ahead of the planned strike at the Grangemouth oil refinery as motoring organisations and government ministers pleaded with drivers not to panic-buy petrol.

Many stations in Scotland limited customers to £10 or £20-worth of fuel, a few ran out of diesel, and a small number raised prices by up to 10p a litre.

So, did those stations which raised prices run out of fuel or have to impose rationing? For one can use either price of quantity offered to choke off demand: we usually find that the former works better.

Well, Quite

Vicki Woods:

I can\’t ever read another survey about that other great curse of modern women, which is widely misrepresented. The fact that women have both a) a gender pay gap and b) babies annoys a great swathe of right-thinking women (if "right" is the word, which it probably isn\’t) who cannot or will not do the sum that proves that a) is a direct consequence of b).

It\’s a maternity pay gap, not a gender pay gap, and the figure-fiddling about part-time and full-time work is unfair: many women embrace part-time work and would hate to be full-time.

You may or may not have noted that argument being made around here from time to time.

Despite Where the Idea Comes From

This might in fact not be all that bad an idea.

Silvio Berlusconi\’s wife added her voice yesterday to the growing calls for Italy to be partitioned.

It\’s only been a united country for what, 140 years or so? Is there anything about the current system of internal borders, the current situation of the world, which has to be kept for all time?

Maybe Garibaldi was wrong and the Risorgimento was itself a bad idea?

Calling Paris!

Guys, you still want them?

Taxpayers may have to come to the rescue of building plans for the London Olympics because the project has been hit by the global credit crisis.

Australian-owned Bovis Lend Lease, which was selected last year to construct the £2 billion Olympic Village in east London, is struggling to raise money to finance the project.

…

Bovis Lend Lease intends to build 4,200 homes, lease them back to the Government to house athletes and officials and then sell or rent them afterwards on a profit-share arrangement.

But with house prices declining and fears of a crash, it is impossible to estimate the price, or rent, the company will be able to secure for the flats after the Olympics.

Anyone got the Hotel Matignon\’s number?

Humphrey Lyttleton

Has died.

Not sure if this story will make it into the obituaries. Vignettes of VE Day:

"of the Old Etonian trumpeter (and young Guards officer) Humphrey Lyttleton playing "Roll Out The Barrel" as he lurched on a handcart from Buckingham Palace to Trafalgar Square and back followed by a long swaying line of revellers going the conga;"

I know he did much more than that but still, a nice image of the man.

Oh, How True

Satire doth uncover the deeper realities:

*In fact, Polly has many admirers, not least of all a certain Tim Worstall who manages to blog about her at least once a day in between the rest of his anti-woman commentary, the pig! It is an open secret in the blogosphere that Tim (who is not very brght) is madly in love with clever Polly but unfortunately his hatred of all that is female causes his love to manifest in a deranged and twisted form.

Dion Dimucchi

I wouldn\’t say this is the most inventive music ever. A very solid blues chug more than anything truly innovative.

But good for all that: this at high volume just before leaving the office this evening will give you some bright eyes with which to spot that first pint of the weekend.

The second song features that not often heard instrument, the rock\’n\’roll violin.

Lenin on Climate Change

Just a quick reminder: we could well be finished soon. Yes, the WWF are back with new results that confirm the worst: the arctic ice caps are melting even faster than we thought. As the ice melts and more of the surface is water, the temperatures rises more because the water can absorbe heat that would be reflected by the ice. The climate doesn\’t change in a linear fashion: it has sudden flips. It can sustain stability, like a canoeist, under immense pressure from different fluctuations. But beyond a certain point, it capsizes. The tipping point as far as arctic ice is concerned is that elusive point when nothing we can do can make any difference at all, and it has just got closer. If the tipping point is reached soon, then the arctic ice is gone for good.

Apart from the blithering ignorance of the science (the arctic ice floats, you see, so melting would not lead to higher sea levels, as one example) there are really only two questions for Lenin:

1) Will all of this happen before or after Captialism collapses of its own inherent contradictions.

2) Will this happen before or after the inevitable arrival of true communism?

British Legion

Yes, they\’re advertisers here (although only people reading from the UK will see them). Worth plugging their campaign more directly as well:

Inquests can be very confusing for the families of Service personnel, particularly for those without knowledge of the legal system or the military. Solicitors can be expensive and funding is only available in “exceptional cases” where the family is financially eligible. The power to grant public funding for representation at inquest lies with the Lord Chancellor. Interestingly, all cases where someone has died in prison, in police custody or detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 are automatically classed as “exceptional cases” and the need to meet the financial eligibility criteria can be waived. However, Service families need to apply to the Lord Chancellor fortheir case to be classed as “exceptional” and they must meet the financial criteria. We are demanding that all Service families should be provided with legal advice, representation and advocacy during inquests at public expense.

Baedeker Raids

I\’m not entirely convinced by this, you know?

Plans to deploy to the Eastern Front had been delayed for what became known as the Baedeker Raids because Hitler chose his targets from the popular tourist guides. Richard Flohr-Swann, Mr Schludecker’s translator and co-pilot on what he expects to be his final mission to Bath, said: “The rumour in his unit was they were trying to kill Churchill. They thought that was why they had been ordered to bomb the city centre.”

Churchill was rumoured to be staying at the Abbey Hotel in Bath. Although the bombs damaged 19,000 buildings, the hotel was not among them. Mr Schludecker, a pilot with Kampfgeschwader 2, stationed in eastern France, had never heard of Bath before the pre-mission briefing.

19,000 buildings in Bath alone? I\’m afraid I\’m hugely, hugely, unconvinced.

The population of the City now is about 80,000 and given the Georgian architecture of the centre, that part is pretty much all multiple occupancy. I expect (but don\’t know) that the population 65-70 years ago was lower.

I do know where at least some of the bomb damage was: Bear Flat, Queen Square, bottom of the Wells Road, Southgate and where the Tech is now (although at least some of that was caused by the City Council later), top of the High Street and so on, but 19,000 buildings would have been what, a quarter, half, the City?

As I say, hugely, hugely unconvinced.

Eh?

“Cheap cigarettes are smuggled or fake and can contain five times more cadmium, 5.8 times more lead, 160 per cent more tar, 80 per cent more nicotine and 133 per cent more carbon monoxide.”

Produce 133% more CO I can get, but contain?