Another scam to watch out for

My elderly (but luckily savvy) aunt just had a call from an Indian on a bad line claiming to be from Microsoft telling her that her firewall wasn't working and that he could fix it.

He asked her if she was near her computer. Luckily she wasn't. She asked him what she should do but she didn't catch all the details. She then rang me to check whether it was a scam.

A quick google shows this is quite common. I can see how a non-tech savvy person may fall for this. Warn your elderly relatives!

Daily Mail outrage at LibDem influence

Over at the Daily Hate Mail, they have an article seething about the "price in political correctness" paid by George Osbourne to his LibDem coalition partners.

Be amazed at the outrage as the coalition gives money "back to poorer parents", gasp as they recoil in horror at the thought of helping 'disadvantaged' (their quotes!!!) children.

I am, like many LibDems, a little queasy over some of the spending decisions, but just this once, indulge yourself. Take a little time out from the soul-searching and self-doubt and just read the article and feel an overwhelming sense of pride.

Met lets corrupt officers get away with it (again)...quelle surprise

It's all just depressingly predictable really. Here is the article.

If you think this"financial mess left by Labour" rhetoric is overblown...

It seems to be an increasingly common view now that saying that the state of the country's finances are much worse than expected is a dishonest ruse and of course we knew how bad it was.

Well, let me draw your attention to this one counter-example.

Remember way back when during the election campaign when we were boldly going further than all the other parties in spelling out what cuts we would have to make? I distinctly remember repeated assertions that we would save about a billion by taking the tough choice of cutting our commitment to the third tranche of Eurofighters. I also remember Andrew Neil picking us up (either Nick or Vince) on whether we could really make this saving and in the impartial (hah!) way that he has he implied we were lying whilst promising to check it later. We were still adamant.

Fast forward to the coalition getting at the books...

According to this article in The Register, whilst the country were still committed to buying the third tranche of Eurofighters, from 2005 the MoD under Labour just simply pretended the Eurofighter commitment didn't exist and removed the set-aside money from it's books!!

So, in a way, Neil was right. There was no saving to be had, but we certainly thought there was before the election!