It looks like public servants are getting comfortable with the Time Value of money and the effect of economic incentives. Central Government – for reasons that are unclear – intends to continue the questionable Council Tax Freeze Grant system, which in previous years offered a 2.5% payout for a zero increase in Council Tax. This year, the offer is 2% of last year’s budget over 2 years. But 1.99% over 1 year and therefore 4.04% over 2 years if the trend continues seems more palatable to Mayors and councillors than a potential 2%.

In Bristol, the last £4.5 million from the 2011/12 freeze grant is included in this year’s [2013/14] budget. This is 2.5% of required annual funding, so you should anticipate some entertainment – possibly tap dancing – from the Mayor and company when it comes time to do the 2014/15 budget.

An interesting situation will arise if the party or coalition in power after 2015 does in fact schedule a national referendum on EU membership. If I were a local councillor or Mayor who wanted to get a stonking great Council Tax increase past the Localism Act, I’d be planning to present a referendum-triggering budget. I would then wait for the government of that day – and it doesn’t really matter which party is in control – to ponder the effect on turnout when two simultaneous questions are being asked:

1. Would you like to pay an extra 100 quid of council tax? and by the way
2. Do you want to stay in the European Union?

No doubt a more generous scheme for Freeze Grants or similar neatly wrapped bundles of other people’s money would magically appear.

Useful link for broke Mayors:

• The Local Authorities (Conduct of Referendums) (Council Tax Increases) (England) Regulations 2012 – Regulation 18 - Combination and timing of referendum and election polls: conduct of referendum

   

The post Referenda on Council Tax appeared first on James Barlow.

The Tragedy of the Euro, by Phillip Bagus  (English Translation of Die Tragödie des Euro)

There has been a fight between the advocates of two different ideals from the beginning of the European Union. Which stance it should adopt: the classical liberal vision, or the socialist vision of Europe? The introduction of the Euro has played a key role in the strategies of these two visions. In order to understand the tragedy of the Euro and its history, it is important to be familiar with these two diverging, and underlying visions and tensions that have come to the fore in the face of a single currency.

The post The Tragedy of the Euro – PDF Download appeared first on James Barlow.

A particular category of scams is that of Fake Jobs and/or Homeworking opportunities. Purporting to be legitimate attempts to recruit staff, these scams are common methods to conduct cheque fraud in the US, and more generally to launder, hide and move money obtained through other illegal schemes. Now if you received one of these as unsolicited email, you might quickly disregard it. But what if you’re looking for work, and are listed on Job Search websites. Say you receive an email referencing your CV uploaded to those job sites? Perhaps your normal scepticism might not be triggered.

So, this is the job advertisement even now being received by people registered at a popular Job listings sites:

DSP Finance Company is looking for a candidate:
* Vacancy – Finance Assistant (No Experience Required).

Requirements:
 *  All ages 18+.
*  Sufficient English language skills.
*  Candidates must be eligible to live and work in the UK.
*  Meticulous attention to detail.
*  We are looking for an individual who is capable of working. independently and on their own initiative.

What we offer in return:
 *  Absolutely Free: computer Tests, practice, exams, study in UK with a trainer, providing Software DS-3A.
*  Opportunities to progress and develop.

Salary:
  * Full-time: 24300+
* Part-Time: 17600+

Email  back and  We will send you an email with information on how to continue.

HR Manager

Via the 2011 Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, the UK figure for median gross annual earnings for full-time employees is £26,200. So £24K for a job which requires no prior experience sounds pretty compelling. If you respond to the email, you’ll receive the following:

Return-Path: <mary_pittman@dspfinance.com>
Received: from [98.139.244.32] by tm9.access.bullet.mail.mud.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 15 Dec 2011 17:00:58 -0000
X-Yahoo-Newman-Property: ymail-3

Received: from [98.139.221.126] (mary_pittman@https://apps.db.ripe.net/search/query.html#resultsAnchorwith plain) by smtp108.biz.mail.bf1.yahoo.com with SMTP; 15 Dec 2011 09:00:19 -0800 PST
Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2011 16:09:16 +0000
From: “Mary W. Pittman” <mary_pittman@dspfinance.com>
Organization: DSP Finance Company
Subject: Vacancy Information – Application – 15.12.2011
MIME-Version: 1.0

More detailed information about available position

Please fill out the “Application form” carefully and send
the form by email.

P.S The application must be completed in full detail
Our manager will call you within 1-2 working days.

Sincerely , Mary W. Pittman
HR Department , DSP Finance Company

Originally sent from a browser session somewhere in the University of Manchester, referencing a domain hosted on Yahoo’s US cloud and registered by a private individual using Yahoo’s Australian registrar partner, the email contains two Word Documents.

The first document describes the duties and benefits of a role with the MFI Consulting Corporation as a Finance Assistant.

I particularly like the pseudo-official Notary stamp on this one. A nice touch.

The second document is described as a Job Application Form, but also contains language suggesting it is a contract.

So, you’ve got your application form, details of the job and its generous salary and benefits. But, you’re still wondering… Is it too good to be true? Is it a scam?

The Short Answer: Yes

The Long Answer: Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssss.  [rhetorical hat tip to ZP]

First thing, let’s look at some warning signs in the documents and website:

• The proposed salary and benefits seem high given the absence of previous experience or skills.
• The document contains frequent grammatical errors, judged by American English or British English writing convention.
• Depending on which document or website you look at, you are dealing with MFI Consulting Corporation or DSP Finance Company, all described as “Registed in the USA”. There is not such thing as a Company “Registered in the USA”. Unlike the UK and many European nations, the USA does not maintain a national corporate register for limited, privately-held companies. The most common jurisdiction for registration is Delaware.
• Anyone doing business in the UK relating to shifting money around is required to have a Financial Services Authority registration, even if they have no national presence. The company purports to sells a Financial Product (Merchant Cash Advances – a seriously dodgy way for retailers to obtain cash in exchange for a percentage of receipts from future credit card payments), but despite claiming an FSA registration they have no listing in the FSA’s database of registered companies for financial or payment services.
• The listed corporate address appears to be an empty piece of scrubland. 3795 NW 84 Avenue, Suite 116 Doral, Florida 33166, whereas the picture on the website appears to be a stock photo of New York.
• The website appears to have been built using Yahoo Site Builder; a worthy and user-friendly tool but not typically the starting point for the web presence of a global financial services company.
• The Document Info on the Word Documents references a non-existent UK company “SLK Financial Planning Ltd”, and one of the documents is “stamped”, which is to say a picture of a pseudo-official notary-style stamp has been pasted into the document, which would be funny if the goal here wasn’t to get people to participate in something dodgy.
• When was the last time you saw a Job Application form with an attached Force Majeure clause and a request for your Bank Name?

Any one of these is a good reason to disregard the offer (or if you’re feeling keen, report it to the authorities).

If you receive a job advertisement, particuarly via one of the larger job sites, then just look for these two warning signs:

1. An Improbable Proposition

If it looks too good to be true, it is.

2. A Vague Identity

If you don’t know who you are dealing with, then don’t deal with them.

The post Two simple ways to spot a Fake Job Scam appeared first on James Barlow.

Nothing on Craigslist in Bristol yet.

Boyfriend cheating on you? Girlfriend didn’t pay back that money she borrowed? Go on - shop one of this lot. Sod civic duty or respect for the law; do it for petty vengeance or spite. No one will ever know it was you.

Click this link for the full gallery of looters.

The post A riot is the language of the unheard appeared first on James Barlow.

My view: The state does a very poor job of most things to which it turns its hand; it has demonstrated little competence when undertaking such relatively simple tasks as mending roads, emptying bins or managing the economy. Why on earth would anyone want the state to have the power to kill people?

Private gun ownership, Concealed Carry permits and a Castle Doctrine on the other hand; that’s a step toward deterring violent crime.

The post Capital Punishment appeared first on James Barlow.

From a packet of Cheese Doritos. What the hell is that?

The post Weird things in my crisps No.1 appeared first on James Barlow.

Agenda Items

5. RAPID TRANSIT MAJOR TRANSPORT SCHEME BIDS: ASHTON VALE TO TEMPLE MEADS AND CITY CENTRE BUS RAPID TRANSIT SCHEME; NORTH FRINGE TO HENGROVE PACKAGE, AND SOUTH BRISTOL LINK

Toward the end of 2010,  the UK’s Coalition government came it with a new plan to cut the national debt and make Britain’s society more economically viable, by raising taxes in real terms and continuing to spend recklessly on grandiose infrastructure projects. This was called the Spending Review Settlement. Don’t quite understand how it works, myself, but then I’m just a mathematician, not an economist.

Bristol’s  latest request for a chunk of money on the never-never is to fund three Bus Rapid Transit schemes. Less politically sensitive than previous efforts to run a bus down the Railway Path, these capital projects should be completed about half an hour before internet-based homeworking and new-cottage industries render them obsolete.

Using my standard public sector modelling tool, which predicts that a capital project which has cost elements removed during funding negotiations will end up costing the original amount, plus 15% of the differential to put in all the things that were removed to save money in the first place, brace yourself for £200m of local taxes, or £200m of local borrowing in your name; profits from which will probably sort out decorations for the Xmas Party at the City’s banker. [Drinks bill paid separately from the Old Vic's Overdraft]. . Fingers-crossed, the NFHP project that miraculously halved in size during “value engineering” will be an exception that proves the rule.

6. RESIDENTS PARKING SCHEME UPDATE Ward: citywide

Well, I have to admit it’s pretty cushy being able to park on the street outside my house. Screw the rest of you. Having successfully priced Nurses, Paramedics and Cleaners off the road, the Council is keen to keep up momentum:

[13.] The Council is aware that many other communities close to the city centre are experiencing parking problems that are comparable to those that existed in Kingsdown prior to the introduction of the scheme.

[14.] Indeed, since the Kingsdown scheme has been in operation, a number of requests have been received for the consideration of similar arrangements to be put in place in other local communities. An initial assessment has been carried out of potential RPS areas.

Prisoner’s Dilemma anyone?

Live in the Kingsdown Parking Zone? Want to make some friends in the local community? Buy an extra book of Daily Parking Scratchcards and send them to Bristol Royal Infirmary’s Accident and Emergency Ward. The address is “Accident and Emergency Department, Lower Maudlin Street. Bristol. BS1 2LX”

7. STRUCTURAL APPRAISAL OF TRENCHARD STREET MULTI STOREY CAR PARK AND OPTIONS FOR REPAIRS AND FUTURE LIFE CARE PLAN Ward: citywide

A £1m punt to keep the Trenchard Street Parking structure barely operational, but it’s still likely to smell of piss all the time. £250k from reserve, the rest from that helpful man at the bank.

Just sell the damn thing. It’s bonkers that the City Council is in a position to both prevent people from parking on the streets in an area, and make money running a parking facility in the same area. While waiting for a sale, consider that Trenchard is ugly but functional concrete behemoth. Rather than tarting it up and paying for constantly failing barriers and dodgy payment machines, you could pay a few local lads to stand at the front and sell tickets. And then maybe it wouldn’t smell of piss.

Sell it. It’s a money pit.

8. SCHOOL ORGANISATION STRATEGY Ward:citywide

There’s no easy answer to providing every parent with a nearby Primary School place for their child. Apart from smaller schools, less centralised bureaucracy, fewer half-arsed pedagogical interventions, and more emphasis on parental responsibility generally in education.

For next year’s school spaces shortages crisis, rest assured there will have been meetings, biscuits, flow charts, bar charts, wall charts and possibly even a consultation. So buy your kid a nice, stout pair of walking shoes and an A-Z. The British Police are unlikely to arrest you for doing this.

Parental guidance: the “Statutory walking distance” below which you’re expected to sort out your own kid’s transport is two miles for
children aged under eight, and three miles for children aged eight and over.

9. REVIEW OF DENOMINATIONAL TRANSPORT POLICY ARRANGEMENTS IN BRISTOLWard: citywide

Bristol spends £6.6m annually transporting 3,102 children to school as part of its statutory duty under the relevant Act of parliament. But a third of that wasn’t statutory after all; it was discretionary.

Historically, Bristol City Council has used its discretionary powers to provide free home to school travel to any child baptised into the Faith  of their nearest appropriate Voluntary Aided Church school

Hold on a second. There are 38 weeks in a state school year; call it 190 days ignoring bank holidays, strikes and the like. That’s £11.20 a day per pupil for transport. Even First Bus aren’t charging that much.

So, that’s a couple of million saved. Job’s a good’un. If this review turns into an actual recommendation…

The likelihood of that happening will depend on pragmatic political calculus. Since  ”[O]ver 88% of respondents to the consultation did not agree with the proposal to withdraw free denominational travel support “, even now somewhere in four different political party offices, someone is comparing these two maps. The left is the people who sent in complaints; the right is ward councillors.

10. COMMUNITY INVESTMENT STRATEGY 2012-15 Ward: citywide

S.2 Local Government Act 2000 gives the council a general power to do anything which it considers is likely to promote or improve the economic, social or environmental well-being of the area. This includes the allocation of  community/voluntary funding where no specific legal power exists

The Community Investment Budget is a Council slush fund for transferring cash to the politically well-connected members of the Voluntary and Charitable Sector, who always work not-for-profit but never not-for-salary-and-benefits.

This round of funding, there’s a cool £1million per annum up for grabs. The shibboleth is Bristol Green Capital. If you’ve failed to toe the party line, then don’t even bother submitting an application.

11. FIRST REVENUE BUDGET MONITOR 2011/12 Ward: citywide

Two months into the Council’s financial year, and the city is £4.8m over budget.

12. FIRST CAPITAL MONITOR 2011/12 Ward: citywide

More money from Whitehall for miscellaneous navel gazing. Another £700k of local money to stop Bridge Valley Road collapsing.

PART C: OTHER KEY DECISIONS TO BE DETERMINED:

13. ASHLEY DOWN ROAD – HIGHWAY IMPROVEMENT WORKS Ward: Ashley, Bishopston

£900k of works, paid for by S.106 bribes developer contributions to infrastructure costs.

PART D: NON-KEY DECISION / INFORMATION ITEMS:

14. WASTE SERVICES PROCUREMENT – PREFERRED BIDDER Ward: citywide

New rubbish and recycling contractor: http://www.maygurney.co.uk/

Back when the tenders were floating about, the estimated value of the contract was £20m, of which 10% would be earned from selling dry recyclates. Both the last and the current government continue the political class’ love affair with kerbside recycling, and since it’s now law (EPA s.45A) [with some wiggle room] that at least two recyclates must be separately collected, it will be interesting to see whether the new contractors maintain the economically unviable food waste, paper and cardboard collection, or concentrate on metals, plastics and batteries.

15. YOUR LIFE, YOUR COMMUNITY – HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT Ward: citywide

After an intensive round of city-wide consultations, the Council has established that member of the local Voluntary and Charitable Sector prefer rich tea to bourbons. An Equalities Assessment is currently underway.

Crowd Sourcing Opportunities

Life is too short to spend it reading documents. (I mean my life, not yours). Help me out:

• Work out which council wards would change hands at election if all the people who complained about not getting free transport voted against  the incumbent.

Third Sector Opportunities

Live in the Kingsdown Parking Zone? Buy an extra book of Daily Parking Scratchcards and send them to Bristol Royal Infirmary’s Accident and Emergency Department. The address is “Accident and Emergency Department, Lower Maudlin Street. Bristol. BS1 2LX”

The post Bristol Council Cabinet Review – July 2011 appeared first on James Barlow.

Star Trek Fight Music Ring Tone

The post Star Trek Fight Theme Ringtone for iPhone appeared first on James Barlow.

This has probably done more to raise the profile of Bristol than millions of pounds worth of White Elephant Museums, World Cup Bids, Local Partnerships or Burlesque shows (although let’s not be too hasty about ditching that last one). I think we can comfortably say that Bristol is the only International Tourist destination that is prepared for the dead rising (apart from the Vatican).

Well done to Council Communications Director Peter Holt, and his team. According to the document information on the FoI response, it took them 16 minutes of document writing to achieve international awareness of Bristol. Impressive, efficient and cheap.

The post Bristol prepares for Zombie Apocalypse appeared first on James Barlow.

Download Excel Year Planner

1. Excel 2010 format (.xlsx)
2. Change the date [dd/mm/yy format] in the top left cell (A1), and the calendar will redraw. Default is an Academic Calendar running August -> July.
3. The Calendar description is editable (default: Academic Calendar)
4. The print area is sized for European ISO 216 A-series but it will still print well on Legal/Executive ratios.
5. Having pondered week numbers, I’ve structured the sheet so that they will always be ISO 8601 compliant. Yes, sometimes years do have 53 weeks. That’s ISO standards for you. The prefix for the Week numnbers (default “WK”) is stored in cell A2.
6. There’s space beneath the sheet for your branding or useful information, and I’ve left in a couple of numbered boxes to use as “tally mark” [I once took this out, but apparently people use it for tracking annual leave, sick days and other miscellaneous info]
7. Colours are customisable. You’ll need to change some text colouration if you change the corresponding background colouration, as in some fields there are obscured numbers used in calculations.
8. Feel free to put your own branding on the sheet, but please do not remove the Creative Commons statement.

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