Author: Londonbear

This is not another hype about “Codex Alimentarus” which litter this and other blog sites. I am cross posting it on a couple to ensure that those scaremongers do not engage in another round.

As the BBC reports, the European Court of Justice has ruled in favour of a Directive from the European Commission which will ban the sale of certain chemicals and restrict the dosage of others in preparations sold as health supplements.
The Directive was agreed by Governments in 2002 after the proposal was made by the Commission and approved by the European Parliament. This is the notmal process for such directives. It is now up to the national governments to implement legislation which will put the decision into effect. It should be noted that some like the British tend to already have or put in place regulations that are more restricive (so-called “gold plating”)

None of this affects the US unless at some time it apples to join the EU when compliance with this as part of the acquis would be necessary. Conmpanies  which export to the EU will now have to comply with the regulations. It was the industry and a lobby group promoted by them which took the case to the Court.

There is an approved list of vitamins and other supplements. If a company wants to continue to use a chemical, it can submit a dossier declaring that it has been used and is considered safe. After 2009, the company will have to demonstrate the safety of the ingredient in its product. (I praphrase from a TV interview with a spokesperson from the British Dietetic Association).

The sensible way of looking at this decision is to look at what the Consumers’ Association, an independent consumer body owned by its memebers, say as quoted in the BBC item:

(Sue Davies, of the consumer magazine Which?) said: “It will ensure that products are safe, that they contain forms of vitamins and minerals that offer some benefit, and that they are clearly labelled.

“Contrary to the many misleading reports put out by those wishing to promote and sell supplements free of controls to protect consumers, the directive is not anti-consumer choice.

” It will instead mean that at long last consumers can make informed choices about the supplements they take.”

The number killed in Bush’s “War on Terrorism” is not known. We know the number of “allied” killed but we do not know the number of casualties among Afghans or Iraqis.

Bush’s war officially started when a fairly small group of individuals caused the deaths of around 3,000 people to promote their political ends. So far in reaction maybe 150-200,000 have been killed. But a smaller group of murderers killed a very few people and that led to the deaths of over 70 million.

Terrorism is not a new technique. As Ken Livingstone pointed out on Friday, its history goes back to at least the 19th century. The Cold War may have disguised a reality that terrorism is an integral part of city life. If so, maybe we should be finding better reactions that unleashing the Dogs of War.
Conan Doyle fans may recall that Sherlock Holmes had several encounters with shadowy “anarchist” organisations bent on destroying Victorian society. They have come under various guises to encompass their political or social aims. Anachists or the IRA, ETA, the Red Hand Gang, the Red Brigades, Bader Meinhoff and even the mafia in the USA were using the techniques of terror to simply get money.

For the most part the reaction has been to view these people as criminals. Churchill was criticed for over-reacting when he ordered naval guns to be used in the Seige of Sidney Street. The most extreme reaction so far was to a political murder. The killing of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarjevo by nationalists precipitated World War I and in turn that “unfinished business” re-erupted in 1939. The total killed in those two conflicts was over 70million.

Today the motives of the killers include a perverse interpretation of religion, seeking to punish those who  insult their distortion of teachings by killing. That’s whether the reaction is against liberal interpretations of Islam like Bin Laden or his copycats or by the fundamentalist Christians in the USA who bomb abortion clinics and kill doctors.

Let’s recognise that terrorism is not new, not confined to one religion, for a variety of motives and that its sole purpose is to get the survivors to change their behaviour or policies. There may be good reasons to change policies and this should be done if those are right, but not because of the terrorism. We must as a general rule not change our policies and not over-react. We have seen the result of over reaction in the past couple of years in Iraq and Afghanistan. Counter-oppression is the aim of terrorists because it feeds the cause of the discontent they exploit. Those 70 millions died in wars that started with a gunshot in Sarajevo. Let’s not let Bush take us further along that road.

The amount of explosives in each of the London bombs was very small and indicates controls have been effective in limiting the impact. Point out that the way the population of the USA can be protected is by       common sense, vigilence and staying calm and resolute not to be affected. Bush has broken Iraq and ways must be found to fix those wounds before the US disengages but point out the best way to protect American cities was not to send the huge numbers of police and firemen who are in the US reserve forces to foreign lands in pursuit of lies. Challenge the propagandists when they mealy mouth about “attacking freedom”. The truth will set you free.

There are some indications that the bomb that exploded on the London bus was not intended to go off there. If so, the wrong explosion could have saved a lot of lives in other Underground trains or even large numbers of American tourists. There is even more reason  to believe that the “terrorists” may have been a very small group or even only one person.
At first sight the London bombs are superficially similar to the Madrid bombs however there are significant differences:

The Madrid bombs were large and contained in rucksacks. There is every indication from the extent of the injuries and compartively small loss of life in crowded underground trains that these were much smaller. Rucksacks are difficult to leave on a London tube train but a smaller device concealled in, say a folded newspaper left on the windowsill (not an unusual sight) is easier to conceal.

The Madrid bombs were left on trains going into central Madrid from several suburbs. Evidence is that the London bombs could have all been planted in one station.

The Madrid bombs were carefully timed to go off at the same time, the London bombs went off over a period. There is a possibility that at least one bomb went off early and certainly not in the location intended.

It is probably fair to assume at this stage that there was an “Islamic” motive behind these bombs. This does not mean that the bomber(s) were members or trained by any particular organisation and certainly they could have been British muslims influenced by numerous grievances and whipped up by fundamentalist Imams distorting the Koran. We saw groups of youths with such views during the General Election when even George Galloway’s election meetings were disrupted by youths telling people that elections are anti-Islamic. During that campaign several of the candidates including Galloway received threats.

I understand from what the BBC security correspondent says he has been told (sorry about that roundabout way of putting it but I wanted to be precise) that the bomber(s) could be home grown and are British born muslims. The co-incidence of the first day of the G8 meeting cannot be dismissed and Bush’s presence in the country, even hundreds of miles away, would provide more publicity.

He also reported that they are looking at whether the tube bombs were placed on the trains at Kings Cross. All the trains passed through that station and the bus No30 which blew up leaves from outside that station. The bus however was not on its normal route and had been diverted down the road where it exploded. Apparently someone was heard asking what road it was. Could that have been a single bomber going to plant further bombs who then panicked and set off more he was carrying? If the target was the tube network, the bus diverted just before it got to Euston station where two lines run through that do not serve Kings Cross. Another possibility is that the bomber was headed for the London Planetarium/Madame Tussauds Waxworks which are very popular with US tourists.

Apart from a nebulous “tube network” could there have been more specific targets? The Aldgate station is a few hundred yards from the big East London Mosque and is just in Galloway’s constituency. Could it have been a punishment for voting against their interpretation of the Koran? Alternatively, two of the bombs started on routes that would have taken them under Westminster and the third near to Trafalgar Square. Planting more at Euston would hit the Northern Line through Charing Cross (Kings Cross is on the wrong branch) and Victoria, close to Westminster and a route away by tube.

While all this is speculation, there is at least a strong possibility that this is not analogous to the sleeper cell organisation in Madrid but much more like a British version of Timothy McVeigh.

George Bush has surrendered to Brazil afer it made a moplaint to the World Trade Organisation and has announced he will propose the scrapping of the US subsidies to cotton farmers and exporters.

Or to put it another way, Bush has dragged his feet and only the treat of sanctions from Brazil has forced him to concede he will have to finally accept the abolition of subsidies.

Either way its bad news for a few huge cotton farm owners in about 4 US states, including Texas and good news for the developing world’s farmers who have been undercut by the highly subsidised US exports.
The dispute over cotton is long standing and the WTO finally ruled on Brazil’s complaint in March this year. That found against the US system of of subsidies for the cotton growers and 10 year credit  guarantees for exporters. The cotton indusry in the US has managed to get huge subsidies on the back of lobbying and promoting the image of the small family farm. In reality they are huge corporation owned agribusinesses.

The effect of subisidies and guarantees is conservatively estimated to depress the world price by 13%. This is about the lowest figure, others suspect the real effect is much greater. What is fairly certain is that an increase in the world price might mean that a small African farmer or farm worker may be able to afford a pack of writing paper so their kids can go to school and that cutting the subsidies Bush will be able to pay for the doubling of aid to Africa he has just announced.

A good thing all round apart from a few lobbyists then? Well no, Bush has dragged his feet on this one. The WTO gave the US to June 30 to end the subsidies. On July 5 Bush announced he would be asking Congress to legislate the abolition. That was after some half-hearted adjustments to the details in the guise of complying with the ruling angered Brazil so much they formally asked the WTO to allow them to impose import taxes on some US goods in retaliation to the continued illegal subsidies. This is more of a sabre rattle than a real threat but got the right reaction as Bush caved in. BBC Story.

An interesting sideline with all these WYO rulings against the US is that Bush has found it impossible not to comply with them. The relative weakness of the US economy means it can no longer ignore retailation threats and it no longer has the military power to impose its will on any awkward customers.  

(x posed form Daily Kos)

Today Live8 is holding concerts across 9 time zones. As I write, the one in Japan has almost finished, the one in Johannesburg has started, the London one is about to start and the sound checks are starting in the USA. It’s laudable aims are to influence the leaders at the G8 meeting next week to focus on Africa and the world’s other poorest nations to provide a series of measures including increasing aid to the UN target figure of 0.7% of GNI (Gross National Income). I want to propose a greater challenge – to achieve an aid budget to Africa as a whole of zero, that’s right nothing.
If Live8 reinforces the perception of Africa as a impoverished disease-ridden continent whose peoples are waiting for a hand out, they are in danger of committing a greater crime than any of the old colonial powers. Africa has tremendous challenges to face of dealing with AIDS, malaria and a host of other insect borne infections. We do need to offer as much help as we can until these are solved but this is not by shipping in loads of food or giving money for drugs providing the country complies with the agenda of the “born again” Jesus junkies in the US. One of the most obscene boasts Bush made this week was the amount of food aid the USA sends. For food aid read “subsidised over production dumped on poor countries so their farmers go out of business”.

Africa is not a poor continent. It has huge natural resources which are sucked out by the G8 at the cheapest prices possible while they restrict their markets for goods from Africa or, a new development, highly subsidised finished goods from the sweat shops of China out-compete the factories in Africa. China gets cheap cotton from the USA where every $5 worth is subsidised by $8 in payments to US farmers. This is made into the t-shirts and socks in huge factories built by the Red Army and staffed by very cheap labour. China then uses its artificially under valued currency to ensure that it is the cheapest supplier. Free trade arrangements that came into force earlier this year made the situation worse. Previous quota arrangements meant that African and South Asian factories had a market. Abolishing them meant that the long term damage to the economy in Sri Lanka is worse than the effects of the tsunami.

The continent at the moment has its fair share of the world’s corrupt and evil leaders. All of the G8 can to some extent share in the blame for this. The ex colonial nations left countries in which the principles of democracy and equality were not enshrined and too often “fathers of the nation” became their country’s rapist. Geo-political rivalries in the Cold War meant that the failings of many of the client states’ leaders were ignored and even today they are excused if they keep the oil (and other basic commodities) flowing.  Too often those leaders have learned the lessons of the west. The race hatred of the Nazis and the way in which propaganda was used by them was repeated from Uganda to Rwanda. Ethnic “superiority” of the Zulu was exploited by the Apartheid regime to divide the “nie blankes” and led to violence in the early days of the move to democracy. Yet all over the continent leaders are finding they cannot hide their corruption. The deputy President in South Africa has been fired and despite foot dragging from some countries like Switzerland the huge funds siphoned from Nigeria are being paid back.

Neither are the peoples of Africa indolent in the payment of debts. While many countries have historic debts with the World Bank and bi-nationally caused by bad investments, corrupt leaders taking the money and natural disasters, there are others like Lesotho who have worked hard to pay off their debts and are now to some extent being punished for doing so. Many of its problems today are caused by the reduction in demand for gold as many of its people were migrant miners in South Africa.

The West should and must admit its mistakes, both past and present, but the leaders of the continent must also be held to account. The African Union was “too busy with other more important matters” to comment on the disgusting demolitions in Zimbabwe which have left hundreds of thousands homeless and more who have lost business income from “illegal” commercial buildings. Don’t be too cynical about business people – these include the grandmother who built offices in her garden to provide income to support her grandchildren who had been orphaned by AIDS. It was easy for Mugabe to get this political cleansing of the towns ignored by the AU when several of the leaders had also used the technique to clear the inconvenient from land they wanted for one of their grand projects.

With some very honorable exceptions, the West has failed to give development aid at the UN target of 0.7%. Although a large donor in cash terms, the USA is one of the worst. While the official figure is .12%, much of this is in the form of highly conditional aid so that, for example, it must be used to buy US goods and services and that will continue with Bush’s proposals. A recent report estimated the amount of real, unencumbered development aid from the US to the third world is as low as .02%

But in addition to short term real aid, the people of Africa need justice. Justice in internation trade and justice from their leaders. The grandiose projects are not needed – far better to provide large numbers of micro loans for the women to set themselves up in business than to build fancy parliament buildings. We need to work with the people of Africa, if necessary through NGOs over the heads of their leaders and the World Bank. Examples of good practice are there, they just need to be encouraged and hugely expanded. There is no quick fix but the goals for 2015 of having the numbers in the deepest poverty should be only a start. For those who quibble about local charities in the US or Canada not being able to exploit the goodwill at Live8 for their purposes, the definition of this is an income of less than $2 a day per person.  A tankful of gasoline in the US costs more than families in Africa have to feed and clothe themselves for a week. Paying a minimal carbon tax on it so that CO2 trading can truly take effect would mean more for social justice in Africa than donating to charities after Live8 because of Bob Geldof’s abuse.

People in Africa are hungry for food and water in some parts. Many more are hungry for decent (or any) basic education for their kids. In the short term we must ensure that we give enough to kick start the economies, health and education systems in Africa and promote good governance. Debt relief must go hand in hand with measures to abolish corruption so taxes can be collected to pay for schools and hospitals, not presidential palaces and executive jets. Western companies who encourage corruption must be punished and their directors jailed longer than bank robbers – they are after all stealing food from the mouths of the starving. We must pressure our leaders to abolish subsidies that take our taxes and pay farmers to dump crops on the world market.

Singapore has shown that without corruption, without military coups and with the sort of educational and entrepreneurial expertise that is suppressed by the current abject poverty, it is possible for Africa to emerge from the malaise it is currently suffering. Singapore needs no aid. Europe needed aid after the World Wars and is now giving aid to spread development east combined with demands for good governance of the sort we should be demanding in Africa. We must give aid to the poorest countries in Africa now, not because of some form of guilt, not because the poverty helps “promote terrorism” as Bush seemed to suggest, not even because it is right. We should do it from self interest because if we give now, hopefully our children will see a time when it is no longer needed.    

From the BBC:

Euan Blair, the prime minister’s eldest son, is to work in Washington DC as an intern for Republican politicians.

The 21-year-old will spend three months working for the Committee on Rules in the House of Representatives – the lower chamber of the US Congress.

Republican Congressman David Dreier of California is the Chairman of the House rules committee so junior will have plenty of chances to get into the thick of partisan battles. The Congressman was also the co-chairman for Californians for Bush and chairman of Governor Grope’s transition team. Dreier, you may recall, received the “Roy Cohn Award, in recognition of 24 years of working against gay and lesbian rights while living as a gay man” by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
Euan was arrested at the age of 16 in Leicester Square, London for being drunk and incapable after celebrating the end of school examinations. In terms of Leicester Square, that charge is usually reserved for those so drunk they are lying on the pavement vommitting and is as much for their protection rather than a criminal matter. The incident did put the dampner on one proposal from Blair’s government for “on the spot” fines for drunken behaviour. A laughable suggestion was that this would mean the police would march the offender to an ATM to get the money (providing they were sober enough to remember their PIN number).

Euan first sprung to public attention with the Blair’s choice of ssecondary school at age 11. Blair himself went to an exclusive fee-paying Scottish private “Public School”. As a Labour politician it would have been embarrassing for the Blairs, despite their joint incomes exceeding ten times the national average (he with an augmented MP’s salary and her earing far more as a senior lawyer), to send their children to fee-paying schools. Instead they got both the older two sons places at the exclusive “London Oratory School”.

This is an exclusive Catholic school which gets state funding. Despite getting virtually all its funding from taxes (the only exception for this category of school was a 10% contribution from the church for building works) the school was able to operate a highly selective admissions policy to maintain the “exclusive” “high attainment” of its pupils. They stuck to the “comprehensive” (all ability) admission rules because children were “banded” – assessed as being in one of three ability bands. Schools were obliged to admit a certain percentage from each band but in London Oratory’s case they were able to select the most able from each band and those parents who would be most supportive of the school. Unfortunately for the Blair’s this policy was well known so their plan to claim good Socialist credentials by not sending their kids to a private school were dashed.

A further point about their choice was the amount of travelling this put on the kids. I happen to have lived near the school, worked in education administration and applied for a post at London Oratory which I decided against when I was told by the principal about their selection policies. The school in in west London (on the east side of Wormwood Scrubs for those with a map) whereas the Blairs lived in Islington in north east London which at the time was quite badly served by public transport. The minimum travel time by public transport would have been an hour because of their relative locations. Incidentally the current Labour MP for Islington is honest about the position and does send her kid to a fee paying school to avoid the local schools which do not have very good reputations.

Euan was used by his father as a “sounding board” to stay in touch with the ideas of “kids in the hood” (Yes he is almost as pathetic as that) The exhibits and contents of the Millenium Dome were designed on the basis of “what would appeal to Euan”. Supposed to be open for at least a year, the Dome consistently failed to attract visitors despite drastic cuts in the admission charges and closed before the year’s end after loosing hundreds of millions.

Euan’s University experience was a little spoilt when it was revealed that his parents had bought an apartment in a presige new block in Bristol so he had somewhere to stay while studying. While this could be seen as a generous and considerate guesture by rich parents, the Blairs spoilt it by purchasing two apartments in the block. (The two were later sold to help pay the deposit on their $9 million “family house” in an exclusive London square the Blairs purchased for the time they have to leave the free Prime Minister’s accommodation in London and the countryside at Chequers)

So Euan is a rich spoilt brat with an alcohol history, involvemnt in huge business losses whose father adopts a fake accent and who has got him a much sought after post using personal influence.

Sounds a bit familiar doesn’t it?

There has been a lot of discussion about precise meanings with the “Downing Street Minutes” in particular what was mean by “fixing around”. Much of this has been couched in terms of what the Oxford English Dictionary definition showed. This type of confusion is going to continue and mistakes will be made, even among those who have a knowledge of everyday UK English unless you clearly understand what language you are reading.
English has many variants besides the schism between the USA and Britain. Described as a language that goes out and mugs other languages for words, it is amazingly adaptable and can be used highly creatively. Fusion with other cultures produces new words and structures. Words change meaning and are frequently misused – like the common conflation of “imply” and “infer”. Often a double meaning can be used for comedy or deliberately concealing the actual intent. Let me give you a personal example.

More years ago than I care to remember, I worked for a chain of photographic and electrical retailers here. In our shop we stocked a number of well known brands in addition to the company’s usual ranges as we served a particularly well off area (as an example, we stocked the upper end of Nikon cameras). One particular customer purchased a radio/cassette recorder made by a well respected (brand x)name. Putting it bluntly, it did not meet the expectations he had of it at the price – these were the early days of such machines and things like Dolby were yet to trickle down. He returned it and we first exchanged it for another example. The third time he came back claiming the performance was not adequate we sent it for repair. It came back after being in the repair shop and he came back with it the following day. That time we had it thoroughly tested and they found the example he had exceeded the stated performance figures given by the manufacturer in their documentation. I got involved at this point and explained this to him. He scrutinised it and claimed there was a crack in the plastic of the cassette mechanism. After I got one from the display and another from our storeroom, he finally agreed with me that it was indeed a moulding mark. I then suggested that as a goodwill gesture we could exchange it for a different make and pointed him to one of our own-brand models that we had found was both better quality and more reliable at the same price. I told him that I would have suggested it to him when he first came in (I knew he had insisted on buying this brand name). He aggressively demanded to know why we stocked brand X. I am afraid that I snapped at this point and told him  albeint calmly (even sweetly) “Because people like you buy them”.  Now this was intended, and delivered, as meaning “because f***ing idiots like you insist on buying them because it has “brand x” on it”. However if I had been challenged I could have claimed I said “Because people, like you, buy them” meaning we stock them because there is a demand in the area for that brand.      

Yet if English is capable of double meaning, it can also be extremely precise. This is probably more so in standard British English rather than the US version.  Thus in the UK it is possible to distinguish between:

   A computer program programme  and
   A computer programme program.

The first is a scheme to install software, the second a program to schedule a scheme to introduce computers. Here we are getting nearer the language of the DSM.  We are moving away from slang or informal to formal English. The sort of language you will see in British newspapers on in news broadcasts from the BBC. Even these are diluted to be more friendly to even a well educated audience. The DSM are however written by those using and even more formal version which you could call legal or Whitehall English. The minutes were not written by a junior clerk who would use slang. These are official documents meant to be precise historical records. If the leaks had not happened they would have only become public in 30 or 50 years when they are finally declassified under the Official Secrets Acts.

Blair uses this linguistic difference to mislead without lying. Listen carefully to his answers and you will find he makes statements in precise legal language which if not critically examined will deceive if you assume he is using informal English. It is how the Pentagon, learning the same trick, are able to say that Napalm bombs were not used in Iraq. No bombs using Napalm were, bombs containing a chemical with a different combination of chemicals that had very similar incendiary effects were.
Which takes us back to the “fixing around” quote from the DSM. As I said, these were not written by a menial using esturine English. They were written by senior, highly educated graduates who had been trained in Whitehall procedures and the proper use of language within formal documents. This is why it is important not to isolate “fixing” from the sense of the extract. This formal sense of accreting the information to the policy is as in ” the Christmas decorations were fixed around the tree”. There is absolutely no circumstances under which the slang or informal usage as in “the boxing match was fixed” would be used in these official documents unless they were directly quoting someone. In the context of the minutes, this is not the case. Commentators like Hichins who have claimed otherwise are either disingenuous or, as is possible from someone who shared the “public school” education of many of these Whitehall “Mandarins”, he is setting out deliberately to deceive.

The Bush administration slipped out a press statement in April detailing new passport requirements for US citizens travelling to nearby countries. Not a lot of people noticed it but it will affect anyone who wants to take a Carribean cruise which they return from after 1 January 2006. Two years later you will need a passport even to pop over the border to view the Niagra Falls from the Canadian side (and to get away from the frankly rather bleak parking lot that doubles as a “national park” on the US side) or to spend Spring Break in Tijuana. The bus loads of elderly stocking up on prescription drugs in Canada will need them.

There is a yellow box on the front page of the State Department site with a link to the details but many US citizens are used to casually slipping over the borders and are unused to the need for passports. All this is being done in the name of national security but there’s a line in the announcement that could mean these measures are a way of getting National Identity Cards accepted by stealth.  
This is the “proposed timetable” on the State Department site:

# December 31, 2005 – Passport or other accepted document required for all travel (air/sea) to or from the Caribbean, Bermuda, Central and South America.
# December 31, 2006 – Passport or other accepted document required for all air and sea travel to or from Mexico and Canada.
# December 31, 2007 – Passport or other accepted document required for all air, sea and land border crossings.

The press statement lists a few exceptions to the passport requirement. These mostly apply to journeys to Canada or Mexico.

As previously noted, the passport (U.S. or Foreign) will be the document of choice for entry or re-entry into the U.S. However, another document that we anticipate will be acceptable under the travel initiative is the Border Crossing Card, (BCC – or “laser visa”). Currently, the BCC serves in lieu of a passport and a visa for citizens of Mexico traveling to the U.S. from contiguous territory. Other documents that we anticipate will be acceptable under this Initiative are the Customs and Border Protection Secure Electronic Network for Travelers Rapid Inspection (SENTRI), NEXUS and Free and Secure Trade (FAST) program cards.

These othere schemes seem designed mostly for frequent travellers who are not US citizens but the list of documentation required for a Sentri ID is interesting:

   1. Evidence of Citizenship. Birth Certificate, U.S. Passport, or Naturalization Certificate
   2. Valid Passport/Visa or other entry document, if applicable
   3. Evidence of Lawful Permanent Residence in the United States, if applicable
   4. Valid Driver’s License issued by the state in which you reside
   5. Current Vehicle Registration (not vehicle title) and evidence of U.S. Automobile Insurance – if the vehicle is not registered in the name of the applicant, a notarized letter authorizing its use by the applicant is needed. A company vehicle requires written authorization on company letterhead. Vehicles registered in Mexico must be covered by an insurance policy written by a company authorized to write motor vehicle liability insurance in the U.S.
   6. Evidence of Employment or Financial Support. Most recent year’s tax return, most recent pay receipts, or Direct Deposit Salary Statement. Self-employed applicants must present business license, current tax information, and bank statements.
   7. Evidence of Residence. Mortgage or rent payment receipts and utility bills

Back to the press statement,

Additional documents are also being examined to determine their acceptability for travel. The public will be notified of additional travel document options as those determinations are made. The government would expect that acceptable documents must establish the citizenship and identity of the bearer, enable electronic data verification and checking, and include significant security features. Ultimately, all documents used for travel to the U.S. are expected to include biometrics that can be used to authenticate the document and verify identity.

So although they say they are currently looking at non-passport ID documents issued by other countries, these have to include biometric data. Acceptable documents within the EU for ID and travel entry (where these border controls exist) are passports or National Identity Cards. Here is where an initially voluntary ID card could be sold in the US. Make it valid for travel to the areas currently passport free for US travellers and it is a good alternative for many. Add a selling point that it makes identity theft difficult (an angument used by Blair here) and the Homeland Security message and who could resist getting one at cheaper cost than one of those clumsy passports?

We are all quite used to the most unlikely characters finally coming good. We are more used to this in the UK where a minister who has exoressed the most obnoxious views comes under the influence of civil servants and comes out with some very liberal policies. Now it looks like Paul Wolfowitz has “gone native” as it is called here but has a rather old fashinoned connotation with him.

For the past week Wolfie has been travelling Africa in his new role as chief of the World Bank. He is starting to make statements that stongly support a new deal for the continent and go directly against Bush’s policies.
It looks very much like Wolfovitz has een persuaded by the Plan for Africa commissioned by Blair and due to be discussed at the G8 next month. In this statement he also looks as though he recognises the previous problems of the conditions attached to loans and aid so that things like forced privisations of utilities will not be as prevalent. The told the BBC at the end of his trip:

“I hope I can push the Bank staff to look at the mistakes of the past so that we don’t repeat them,”

It is also reported that earlier in the trip he criticised farm subsidies in the west, including cotton subsidies in the US, that distort world trade against the interests of third world growers.

His apparent signing up to many of the policies promoted by “Live 8” and Blair, he is contrary to Bush who has not been persuaded to make the increases in direct aid that form a one leg of the package of debt reduction, increaded aid and fair trade.

If he follows through on this in future dealing at the World Bank, we may have to be rather knder to him than his previous record deserves.

Buckingham Palace has confirmed that Queen Elizabeth has purchased an Apple i-Pod (hereinafter known as the Royal “We”Pod)

So far the Palace has declined to state what is in the machine’s memory and whether Betty or a flunky download music into it.

Suggestions what should be on it appreciated.