Kate Hoey MP, via TheyWorkForYou.com:

Will the Leader of the House find time next week for those of us who disagree with the Justice Secretary’s decision to overrule the Parole Board on the Ronnie Biggs case to discuss that, given that we allowed hundreds of terrorists and murderers to go free in Northern Ireland, and we also allow murderers who have done much worse things than Ronnie Biggs to go free? The Justice Secretary overruled the Parole Board, which he could not do under today’s law. Will the Leader of the House find a way for us to discuss this matter and bring it to the House’s attention?

And we wonder why the criminal justice system is failing!

Let me get this straight. Because the UK government let a load of convicts out early as part of the cease-fire negotiation with sectarian terrorists, we should now let all criminals out early? Because the UK government has utterly failed to provide enough prison space and has to let some convicts out early we should let everyone out early?

And there was I, a naive citizen, thinking that the reason the state puts people away is to stop them from causing further harm. What does Ms Hoey think the reason is? To appease the mob? To keep them safe from the hands of the vigilantes?

Ms Hoey does have a point about consistency, though. Life should mean life, 30 years should mean 30 years, suspended sentences should be abolished and the law should be applied uniformly to all criminals no matter what hand-wringing excuses their lefty lawyers come up with. I suppose that is the difference between someone who can see the consequences of their thought processes and those who cannot.

For once, Mr Straw has got it right. If Biggs had not skipped jail in the first place he would have been a free man a long time ago. It also goes to show that, no matter how cleverly you design a system, there will always be curious results thrown out by a complex machine. There should always be room to overcome clearly “immoral” decisions. Three cheers for the old law. Up yours, Hoey.

My three loyal readers will remember that when I moved to my own server I promised to give up my stats addiction. Well I have. Well at least I am not addicted anymore. However I have recently noticed an upswing in the number of interesting comments left so I thought it would be interesting to see whether that is a result of existing readers dipping their toes into the commenting water or if it is a genuine increase in circulation.

All I will say is that the number of “hits” has been increasing. I won’t say by how much or to what level, just remember that an increase of one per month would be a large percentage.

What I will say is that over the last month these posts have been the most popular:

A blogger’s right to anonymity?
Blue Eyes is a liar
Will the last productive person to leave New Britain please turn out the lights
Does that make me a libertarian?
Whatever happened to Gold Top?

Thank you for coming. Blogging is no fun if nobody interacts. I always welcome new commenters, especially if they agree with me… I hope I can hold your attention.

Particular thanks to Julia, Raedwald, HG, Hoggers and Mr Patently for sending your visitors my way. Every clickle helps!

My blog hero Mr Hogday recently told a sobering story of his efforts to help a victim of domestic violence. It got me thinking. While violence has obvious external effects on people it also does deep psychological damage too. But it is not just a physical attack which has the power to hurt the victim of bullying. Bullies put their victims into a state of mind where they begin to think that it is their fault. The bully chooses his battles carefully, chooses the time and location of the battles themselves, never puts himself in a situation where he cannot win.

My broad definition of a bully is someone who will do something to a person which they would not expect to have done to himself; a person who expects others to do things which he would not do himself.

We have all been victims of bullying at one time or another. Hopefully not many of us have been victims of abuse by a partner or family member, but I would venture that nearly everyone has been involved in workplace bullying. Everyone knows what it is like to be bullied. There is that unique feeling of the combination of frustration, anger, weakness, feeling trapped; that knowledge that we have been here before and that we should have learned by now. We are all victims of bullying by the state.

I work for a bully. My boss’ idea of management is to look at the work required, divide it up between his minions then go to lunch. When he gets back from lunch he goes around haranguing everyone until he is satisfied that enough work has been done for the day. Every now and again he will do some morsel of work himself and boy! will he let you know about it. He’ll spend the rest of the day (or even week!) reminding you how he did such-and-such to “help” you out. He won’t accept any advice from anyone else. He will criticise, belittle and undermine. He will mock other people’s clothes, accent, nationality or intelligence. But he cannot take even the slightest poke of fun sent in his direction.

Bullies are the most deeply insecure people. They try to project an image which hides their insecurity by punching people away in case they get too close. They throw hate at others in the vain attempt to keep attention off themselves. But it doesn’t work. Everyone else can see through you. Nobody respects a bully. Bullies often get themselves into positions of indispensability. This is their strategy. Their victims want to get away but the bully has some hold over them.

But the victims are actually the stronger people. Bullies are the weak ones trying to hide that fact. Anyone strong enough to survive a bully for long must be the stronger person through straightforward resilience. And bullies can be put back in their box. When I started working for my boss a more experienced hand told me that all I needed to do was stand up for myself and he would soon back down. But that is easy to say and less easy to do. Because bullies are such sensitive souls under their brave exterior it is quite easy to poke them in a weak area. And it works.

It is, unfortunately, impossible for a third party to solve a bullying issue. No intervention can prevent a bully from carrying on his attack. It is for the victim to stand up and be counted. It is for the victim to find an escape route or a way of exerting his personality. No law can banish bullying, no policy can eradicate a bully’s deep and insoluble insecurities. The victim has to build up the strength and determination to rid himself of the oppressor. Nobody can do it for you.

Just as women oppressed by unpleasant husbands must throw off their own burkhas rather than have them removed by a new bully of a law, we must all throw off the shackles of the bully state. We cannot get someone else to do it. Freedom cannot be imposed on a nation by external force. We cannot expect the state to leave us alone of its own accord. We must demand it.

I had a meeting with a client today who was complaining about the situation whereby the finance that would have been available to him a year ago just isn’t there now. I thought we were past the credit crunch? Anyway I didn’t delve too deeply as I wanted the client to spend lots of money on hiring my brain for a few hours rather than dwell on his money problems and leave my head unrented. Compare and contrast: I have been moaning (mostly to myself) about the fact that my student loan repayments (paid direct from my payslip so I don’t “see” it before it zaps off into the government’s coffers) still reduce my take home pay by about 10% after more than five years working my backside off in the real world. I have been debating whether to put some of my mortgage repayment savings into repaying the final couple of grand of my loan so as to boost my monthly net.

Cue a trip to the Student Loans Company web site to find out whether the interest rate on my debt is higher than the puny amount I am getting in my ISA. After umpteen years of having a loan with these people I have finally discovered how they work out the interest rate! The rate charged is whatever the RPI is in March, but the new rate doesn’t come in until September. Logical, eh?! Statements come out around April, but only updated to January. But [stupidly] the statements can’t include (because they don’t know in January) any payments made by people who do Self Assessment (as I do). Luckily their web site enables you to estimate how much you owe by you telling it how much you have repaid. Daft, but at least I know roughly how long I have left to go.

Anyway, the RPI in March was negative! So in theory student borrowers should be having their capital sum reduced every month! Woohoo! Except HMG has found some clever clogs clause which enables them to suspend the usual interest rate and replace it with zero. So come September I will be paying nowt to service the remaining few quid of my loan. My ISA suddenly looks like a decent deal, after all.

It’s a complicated world out there, folks, and I am nowhere near working it out. But as I was saying to nobody in particular earlier, repaying debt teaches you why getting into debt is such a bad idea in the first place. It’s easy enough to wave the credit card around when you really want something. But when it comes to repay that debt, you still have all your usual outgoings but with the added pain of having to find some extra to throw into that bottomless pit. And then you wonder why you needed that phone with email on it or those “they were never even that fashionable” clothes you hardly ever wear. The day my student loan dies will be a happy day for me.

Photos (c) Blue Eyes and a good reminder of how I got into so much debt in the first place. One day I will be able to afford to go back to South America.

There is too much horrible stuff going on to think about. But it’s too hot to think about it. So instead this evening I bring you something nice to look at. It’s time to cool down ladies and gentlemen.

This is the Perito Moreno glacier in the universally wonderful Argentina. If you haven’t yet been to the land of wine and beef, make plans to do so before your liver collapses or you become wheel-chair bound. Perito Moreno is one of the few glaciers which is getting bigger (or at least it was when I went). The scale is impossible to capture on camera, as is the atmosphere and experience of watching a chunk of ice the size of Camden Town come crashing into the water.

A geyser in the mountain desert on the Bolivia/Chile border. This photo was taken at approximately 5000m altitude. I can exclusively reveal that I find high altitudes quite hard work. As I did while walking the Inca Trail – Dead Woman Pass, altitude circa 4200m:

Closer to home, a sneak view of my fridge, to prove I am not just a parochial Little Englander.

Click to enlarge, all pics (c) Blue Eyes.