Bel is thinking

Seems like British Airways may soon be having second thoughts about its £240 second bag charge.

Perhaps there just might be someone sensible in that company after all.

I expect to see the charge scrapped soon. Just as soon as they realise the disastrous effect on their sales.

By the way, when is the next baggage handlers’ strike?

I have never known a company manage to infuriate both its customers and employees at the same time. Some companies manage one, but not the other.

Perhaps,  like Peter Hain, the BA management could benefit from a few basic lessons in business and economics.

According to the Telegraph:

The BBC has spent another £700,000 of licence payers’ money replacing its on-screen links between programmes, it announced today.

The corporation racked up the bill while creating seven different scenarios - made into 14 short clips - in which the camera pulls back to reveal the viewer is looking at the world in an unexpected way through the figure “2″.

Three of the new BBC2 shorts were shot in South Africa, apparently because the film-makers wanted sunny weather.

This on top of the £1.2 million they spent on “rebranding” the BBC1 shorts last year. Spending other people’s money, such a wonderful thing, isn’t it?

I’ve updated my sidebar to include some more links. I operate a reciprocal links policy, so if you link to me and don’t have a link to my site, kindly let me know, and I’ll add a link. Same applies if you would like to link up.

I’ve just discovered that I don’t visit enough leftwing blogs. Thanks to blogpower, I have come across some quality ones. I also discovered a few very good ones this week. I think I’ll make an effort to visit them more.

It’s Sunday, so it can only mean one thing: politicians are attacking City bonuses. They certainly seems to make a habit of it on Sundays (see here and here).

This time, it is our old friend, Peter Hain. He has returned to his favourite theme. Now he wants City workers to pay two thirds of their bonuses to deprived communities.

Exactly what is it about private enterprise that Peter Hain does not get? Is it the bit about what companies pay their staff being no business of the Government? Or does he not get that these bonuses have already been subject to high taxes, which in turn were supposed, under Labour, to have already been ‘redistributed’ to these deprived communities he so champions? Or perhaps he does not understand that people are generally paid what the market feels that they are worth?

What is it that Mr Hain cannot understand? I would have thought that these were truths apparent to a secondary school economics student, even in these dumbed-down times. I know the Left traditionally has a history of woeful ignorance in matters of the market, but at this stage of his political career, there is frankly no excuse for Peter Hain.

Peter Hain, and by extension, this Government, must learn that not everything is to be determined by political decisions, or legislative action. Some matters transcend even the so-called ‘good intentions’ of a Labour government.

By making this suggestion, Mr Hain is admitting that his Government has failed in its avowed pledge to tackle poverty. In 2005-06 (see pdf), this Government collected £405 billion in tax. It paid out a net sum of £17.3 billion in tax credits in that same year. Going by previous years, the taxman estimates an overpayment of tax credits of almost £1.8 billion.

So having collected, and ‘redistributed’, the above sums, there are still deprived communities in the UK, to which Mr Hain wants City workers to contribute? Unbelievable.

Under this Government, we have seen taxation rise to the highest levels for a long time, with nothing to show for it. If Peter Hain wants to act concerned about the plight of deprived communities, perhaps he could start by questioning his own Government about their failures in this regard. He could ask them precisely how it came to be that despite record tax levels, and despite their claims to care about the underprivileged, we are in the situation that we are.

Then after doing that, he could take a few weeks off work and enrol in a community college in Neath for a crash course in economics.

The envirofascists are out in full force, and this time, they have St Valentine’s Day bouquets in their sights.

Latest Government figures show that the flowers that make up the average bunch have flown 33,800 miles to reach Britain. …

Environmentalists warned that “flower miles” could have serious implications on climate change in terms of carbon dioxide emissions from aeroplanes.

Some official from the Friends of the Earth feels it would be better if we grew our own, rather than depending on those from Kenya and other far-flung places. Oh, leave us alone, will you?

Some families of soldiers killed in Iraq have been trying for a long time to meet Tony Blair. They have organised demonstrations, launched petitions, and done their utmost to get a meeting. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister has been too busy to see them. As far as I know (please correct me if I am wrong), he hasn’t met a single one yet. Well, except for Reg Keys, who challenged Mr Blair for the Sedgefield seat in the 2005 General Election, stood on the platform with him while the results were announced, and delivered a speech denouncing Blair and his decision to go to war. I suppose, in a sense, that could count as ‘meeting’ Blair.

Anyway, how lucky for Shilpa that she managed to secure a meeting with the busy Blair. In his office at the House of Commons, no less. So it can be done, then? Perhaps the soldiers’ families should try harder.

When are the Police going to arrest Abu Izzadeen on suspicion of incitement to murder?

This fellow, some of you may remember, is the loudmouth who heckled John Reid at an East London mosque, for daring to go to a ‘muslim area’ after many muslims had been arrested under this Government.

This deeply unpleasant man has reappeared in the news again, this time, advocating the beheading of any muslim who joins the British Army. He is seen on video uttering the following words to an apparently receptive audience:

“Whoever allies himself with the kaffirs [non-believers] against the believers, he is one of them. So those enemies to Allah who join the British Government - because remember, the British Government are crusaders who come to kill and rape Muslims - whoever joins them, he who joins the British Army, he is a mortal kaffir and his only hukum [punishment] is for his head to be removed.

…

“Whoever changes his deen [Muslim code of life]: Kill him.”

As expected, once confronted with the evidence, Izzadeen claimed that he was merely explaining islamic law to the audience.

Really? Does islamic law really say that, then? Not according to some other clerics who accuse Izzadeen of not speaking for islam. So which is it exactly? Does the koran ‘permit’ beheading in such circumstances, or does it not? Is it really just a question of interpretation? If Izzadeen is right, and the koran does say this, then we know that the problem is with the koran, first and foremost. Of course, legally speaking, whether or not the koran permits this, is immaterial. What matters is the law of the land. However, I feel we should still inquire into the source of all this confusion. 

So what does the koran mean, and what does it not mean? I don’t know about you, but I am sick and tired of contradictory statements about what the koran does or does not mean. As a Bible scholar, I appreciate the challenges of interpretation that attend upon studying any scriptural text, but I think, in this case, enough is enough. It is one thing to debate leisurely the different interpretations of religious texts, but when that very interpretation is a matter of life and death, it is time to be serious. Arrest him and charge him, and let us see if he cites the koran in his defence.

UPDATE (8 February 2007). Sky News is reporting that he has been arrested, although this apparently relates to another speech he made, not the one mentioned above. The report says the arrest was made under the Terrorism Act. I would have thought the incitement charge was an easier one to handle, but I don’t know what other evidence the Police have.

So Gary Glitter will be out of jail sometime in the next 18 months.

For someone who was reportedly facing the death penalty at one stage, he should consider himself very fortunate.

To which country will he be heading on release, I wonder.

How well do you know the Bible? Here are my results:

To tell you the truth, I am not that surprised. My ma taught me well.

Hat tip: Tom Paine.

An interview with David Cameron in the Daily Telegraph. I couldn’t be bothered to read it, but one sentence stood out:

“People are really beginning to feel that this government is like a house with a door that’s rotting and they want to boot it off its hinges.”

Is this really what David Cameron would do if he encountered a rotting door hanging off its hinges? Does he think that this is the natural thing to do in such circumstances? I know we live in ASBO times, but even a cynic such as myself would hesitate before assuming that our nation’s yobs would always act in such a fashion.

Perhaps politics brings out the violent streak in all of us, even in a seemingly mild-mannered man like Dave. It certainly puts Prescott’s pugilistic exploits into context.