So the people who run our country have been caught with their hands in the cookie jar! It comes as no surprise to the electorate though some are shocked at the extent of the fraud as each new revelation breaks the news. And make no mistake, fraud it is. Not only will heads roll in the cabinet and Westminster in general but it seems that there is such an appetite from the public for criminal charges to be brought for some of the most blatant 'accounting oversites' that have occured that some of the more outrageous shisters might find themselves in court. This story is going to run and run.

The moral bankruptcy that permiates is clear for all to see. It makes a lie of the whole idea of democracy. If I hear the phrase 'it was within the rules' one more time I think I might put my foot through the TV. Of course if I were an MP I could put a claim in for a nice new 42" flatscreen, but as it is I have to buy my own out of what's left after I've paid my taxes and my mortgage so I'm restraining myself. The people who deem to tell us what to do have been stealing from us for years. They have tried their very best to stop it from becoming public and now it is clear why. They are a disgrace. For the most part they are self promoters who have been feathering their own nests with our money.

As government moves inexorably toward more and more transparency we'll clear out these parasites who have no moral compass and care about nothing but themselves. As they have consistently shown they will fight it every step of the way. The most corrupt fight hardest of all. It will take a long time but the exterminators are in and they're starting to clear out the vermin. It's a start.

Power to the people!

Ukrainian version of Katy Perry's "Hot 'N' Cold".

Possibly one of the best cover versions ever.

Looking forward to their version of "I kissed a girl"

I saw a story about this on the news last night and think it needs to be shared so as not to be missed.

Take some farmers in the Brecon Beacons, some subservient sheep and some very talented sheep dog and this is what you get.

My vote for best comedy moment of the year. Shame that this clip doesn’t give you the whole set up but it’s still quality. Enjoy...

Follow this link for my Comedy Moment of the year

Whether it is him or not, and I see no reason why it wouldn't be, I thoroughly recommend you follow this guy:

http://twitter.com/cwalken

Most amusing tweets on a daily basis from, hopefully, the great man himself.  Can't read them without hearing his voice in my head.

Ever sent someone a YouTube link and informed them the certain section of content you want them to view is about a minute and a half in?

Well now you can send a link and append the following to the end if, for example, you want to go 1 minute and 45 seconds in:

#t=1m45s

where m is the minute and s is the second

So, whereas normally you'd send a link such as:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKgCXWGM3wY

and say "watch this for the greatest free kick you're ever likely to see, but if you don't want to watch highlights of a great game then spin on to about 4m40", you can now just send the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKgCXWGM3wY#t=4m47s

Personally I think this is a great technique and now you think about it you wonder why it took so long to come about in the first place!

As it’s Christmas Eve and it’s wind down day, I thought today’s blog entry would be somewhat self indulgent whilst loosely work related – as this is something we talk about in the Gencia office’s quite a lot, here are my top 3 Soprano’s endings.

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It hasn’t been thought through. It will create the largest congestion charging zone in Europe and will severely penalise city centre business.

Many businesses will change their working hours and therefore the rush hour will turn into the rush 2 hours.

City centre traffic has not increased in Manchester for fifteen years so why the charge now?

It is actually nothing to do with congestion. If it was effective at reducing congestion that it would not generate any income. It is purely and simply another way to tax drivers who have no choice other than to get a job outside Manchester. For many, a choice that they will be forced to make!

A mere 18 additional miles of tramway, to be paid for by the charge, is estimated to cost over 1.2 BILLION. We are all very familiar with how these type of public works costs escalate so the actual costs are likely to be much more.

The one sided propaganda, lies and half truths propagated by the yes campaign and paid for by residents taxes has been a disgrace.

PLEASE, PLEASE SEE THROUGH THE PROPAGANDA AND VOTE NO!

As a buyer, I think PayPal offers a great service - making it so so easy to get those latest gadgets I need, without even thinking about it, or having to dig out my credit card from wherever I put it...

As a seller, I'm not so sure.

Paypal advertise on their website that they Accept payments globally, safely and easily

Starting at the end, we have always found PayPal to be hard work to deal with - sending email to them is completely pointless - as you'll generally get back a reply something like this:

Dear ....,

 

Thank you for contacting us in relation to the status of your Buyer Complaint (XXagent to insert case IDXX). We can confirm that (XXagent to insert brief summaryXX).

 

It is my pleasure to assist you. Thank you for choosing PayPal.

 

Sincerely,

 

.....

- This has been copied word for word from the last email we recieved from PayPal - and was the 6th in a series of more and more non-sensical emails for this case. (One of the previous emails had advice which we presume related to somone elses case - it certainly wasn't relevant for ours!)

So as far as we are concerned, the easily claim is an outright lie.

Moving on then, we get to the safely claim.

PayPal offers NO protection to sellers of non physical products and services

What this means, is that unless you have shipped a physical item, to the PayPal confirmed registered address (using an approved tracked delivery service) then you have no protection at all against fraudulent transactions / charge backs.

So anyone that is providing an online service using PayPal for charging customers (and it really does cost money to provide these services) has no gurantee that they will actually recieved the funds from PayPal, even when PayPal has instructed them that the funds have been transferred...

So, more acurately, I think PayPal's strapline should be:

Accept payments globally, safely (for PayPal not you!) and with extreme difficulty!

Kerry Katona always provides quality car crash TV, but  this latest wreckage is one from which she possibly may not emerge. 

and that's why mum's go to Threshers