Debora L.Spar, The Baby Business: How Money, Science, and Politics Drive the Commerce of Conception. HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PRESS 2006:

Deborah Spar’s latest book, ‘The Baby Business’ introduces a new and distasteful (?) subject of IVF (In Vitro Fertilisation), commonly known as “test tube babies”. This medico-scientific advances in human fertilisation has raised a storm of controversy involving, ethical, moral and commercial issues. Want a child, but don’t or can’t do it the traditional way, well you can go to your neighbourhood fertility clinic, with luck and sufficient funds for the baby of your preferred gender and optimal genetic mix using IVF. There are several different IVF techniques available, but the usual process involves; interalia, the women taking fertility drugs to help her produce more eggs. The eggs are then harvested and fertilized in the laboratory. The woman is given hormone drugs to prepare her womb to receive the fertilized eggs. The fertilized eggs are placed inside the womb and a normal pregnancy follows. As a result of IVF a child growing up today could have two fathers and three mothers. The sperm donor that produced the sperm, the woman that sold her eggs to the clinic, the surrogate mother who rented out her womb, and the infertile parents, that are bringing up the child.src="http://www.blogtopsites.com/tracker.php?do=in&id=18084"
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FAIT A COMPLIS FOR OXFORD UNIVERSITY REFORMS?

FAIT A COMPLIS FOR OXFORD UNIVERSITY REFORMS?
‘There are many arguments for the new proposals but one is that the Charities Act 2006, which passed into law on 9 November, brings Oxford and Cambridge - and the individual colleges - for the first time into the scope of charity regulators. A letter read out during the Congregation’s first debate on the White Paper showed that the Higher Education Funding Council strongly favours, though it will not immediately enforce, a majority of independents among a charity’s trustees’

SOURCE: FROM THE MASTER: LORD BUTLER OF BROCKWELL: - ‘UNIV NEWSLETTER’ ISSUE 25 MICHAELMAS 2006 – Page 1.
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Oxford Mail editorial comment

Describing Blackbird Leys, Barton and Wood Farm as some dingy neglected inner city estate in your editorial ‘A kick in the teeth for estates’ (Oxford Mail Monday 13th November 2006), seems to me far from the truth.

In these well appointed estates, which are bounded by Oxford’s glorious Green Belt, residents are never far away from green open spaces where they can enjoy fresh air as they exercise. Describing estates like Wood Farm as lacking in open space is so untrue .As North Oxford has a damp Port Meadow, Wood Farm has that natural treasure, that is Shotover Country Park, with its fantastic views, nature trails, woods and wildlife.

As for lacking in recreational facilities as you describe these so called neglected estates. Many neighbouring suburbs look on in envy at the council’s legacy of sports and recreational facilities available on these estates. Barton has its new pool, Blackbird Leys had its sports centre refurbished recently, no you can’t make the case that these suburban estates fit the picture painted in your editorial.

If parents are concerned about the fitness of there children, I suggest they take them to the other recreational sport facilities available to residents in this city. No the real question that needs to be asked, were there mistakes made in the location of such facilities. After all, Cowley Road seems to be blessed with sports facilities, while other areas like Marston, Rose Hill and Headington have been seriously neglected. http://www.oxfordprospect.co.uk/index.htm

Time to get Africa out of the aid habit

After a decade of aid fatigue and
dwindling development assistance,
foreign aid is once again at centre
stage. Recent years have seen a flurry of
new aid initiatives – the UN Millennium
Development Goals, the Monterrey
Consensus, the UK’s Commission on Africa,
and the G8 pledge to double the amount of
aid, to mention only the most significant
ones. And before 2010, governments’
spending on aid, as measured by the OECD,
is projected at well above $100bn a year.
Much as these initiatives should be
applauded for shining the spotlight on
many neglected issues of poverty and
human hardships in developing countries,
they also need to be judged against a
backdrop of our accumulated knowledge of
what works and what does not. That has yet
to happen. Indeed, there has been
widespread neglect of the knowledge and
experience we have gained from aid-giving
over the last 50 years, and this constitutes
a key problem in the new drive for aid. There
is a discrepancy between the rush to
increase foreign aid and the general lack of
interest in the quality of aid, meaning its
effectiveness. This not only suggests a
mismanagement of public resources but
also an absence of curiosity about
establishing which are the best methods of
helping poor countries to develop.
This is not to say that we already have the
answers to all the mysteries of poverty, welfare
and foreign aid. But we do know a lot and have
garnered enough experience to say over the
last 50 years aid has failed overall to deliver the
sort of economic growth and development we
had hoped for. And the prospects for the
future doesn’t look much better.

Of the researchers who have studied the
links between aid and economic growth, few
have found conclusive evidence that aid
gives a major boost to growth. On the
contrary, most research suggests a negative
correlation between the two. This doesn’t
mean that receiving developing aid is the
cause of a country’s low growth. In both
cases, a cause-and-effect relationship is
difficult to find through broad statistical
cross-country analysis; several researchers
have employed advanced analytical
techniques but the results have varied from a
weak negative effect to a weak positive effect
(the latter after adjusting for the type of aid
and the policy milieu in recipient countries).
The sad overall conclusion that has to be
drawn is that development aid does not have
the stimulatory effect on growth that donor
countries have always intended.
A case in point is development aid to
Africa that has amounted to more than $1
trillion since 1950. Between 1970 and 1995,
aid to Africa increased rapidly, with aid
dependency (measured as the aid-to-GDP
ratio) standing at nearly 20% in the early
1990s. Measured another way, the mean value
of aid as a share of government expenditures
in African countries was well above 50%
during the 20-year period up to 1995. During
the same period, per capita GDP growth in
Africa decreased, so that many countries in
Africa are actually poorer today than they
were when they gained their independence.
This sad truth does little to support the
idea that development assistance is the
flywheel that starts the motor of economic
activity. But the argument continues to be
that aid is an essential part of the process of
attracting new investment and fuelling
sustained growth. Because poor countries
lack the resources to finance investments,
runs this argument, there is a financing gap
between domestic savings and the resources
needed to finance the level of investments
required to achieve growth. If the financing
gap theory of aid (yes, it is merely a theory)
had been true, investment levels would have
risen considerably and long-term growth
would have resulted. In that case, using the
models applied by the World Bank and other
donor organisations, per capita GDP in most
African countries should be at the same level
as in New Zealand, Spain or Portugal.
Instead, it has declined overall in Africa.
Now a new version of the financing gap
theory is being used as the motif for the
present gearing-up of aid spending. The
leading economist Jeffrey Sachs, together
with others involved in the highly influential
UN Millennium Project, is advocating a “big
push” in public investments with the idea of
producing a knock-on effect on economic
growth in developing countries. But the really
poor countries, according to Sachs, are stuck
in a savings trap and do not have the
resources needed to make this development
push. The claim is that an additional $75bn in
development assistance could fill the gap.
This breathtakingly naïve view of aid and
economic growth in poor countries defies
basic economics and our acquired
knowledge of what works and what does
not. The history of aid clearly shows that
this type of assistance has been strikingly
inefficient and at times has proved more a
hindrance to development than a help.
So why is it that aid has failed to deliver
higher economic growth for developing
countries? There is no single answer; one has
to take several aspects of aid into account to
understand what has gone wrong, and how
our aid should be re-designed if it is ever to
achieve its targeted goals.
As a general rule, development aid has
not been spent in the way that was
intended. Instead of gearing-up
investments, the money has more often
than not been frittered away on current
spending and public consumption. Not only
is it difficult to find any positive effects as a
result of investment aid spending, but
worse the evidence suggests that aid has
actually had a negative effect on domestic
savings, and has thus weakened poor
countries’ ability to finance investments.
Several aid studies have also looked into
the issue of what economists call
fungibility; when aid intended for
investment was used for that purpose
recipient governments then reduced their
own investment spending in that area and
transferred those resources to additional
consumption, with the end-result of there
being no increase in a country’s net
investment. This pattern of fungibility has
also applied to aid that was intended for
spending on education and healthcare.
Aid has also contributed to corruption in
many developing countries. That is clearly not
the intention of aid, but the unintended
consequence of supporting corrupt
governments has been precisely that.
Furthermore, by supporting many state-owned
and para-statal enterprises, aid has boosted
corruption in more direct ways. These
enterprises have become arenas of rampant
corruption, and this has then spread to other
parts of society. The tragedy of aid that has
been revealed in a number of independent
evaluations and by World Bank research, is
that donors become part of corruption
problem by supporting regimes that erode the
governance structure. In those African
countries that have received a high level of aid
over time, this has become painfully obvious.
It has been sound economic policy, not
aid, that in recent decades has lifted billions
of Asians out of poverty and provided the
resources to combat, and in some countries
eradicate, starvation and many of the most
ravaging diseases. While Asian countries
were starting to open themselves up to trade
and foreign investment with the policies that
created the “Asian Tigers”, many African
countries were heading for a model of
economic autarky by closing their borders
and regulating the domestic economy to an
absurd degree. It is hardly surprising that this
was a development strategy that has failed
utterly. Yet western aid donors supported
these policies, and many of them are still
pouring money into countries whose
economic policies are detrimental to growth.
The good news, though, is that countries
are poverty-stricken because of bad policy,
not because of geography, an inferior
culture or any other deficiencies. Bad
policies can be changed; not by aid, but by
people insisting on change.

TURKEY IN OR OUT?

Politicians are again in the firing line again opinion polls inside Europe and Turkey are reporting declining support for the very idea that Ankara should join the European Union (EU) by 2015.
In fact opponents on both sides of the Aegean Sea utilise many of the same arguments in their case against Turkey joining as Europe’s first predominately Moslem Middle Eastern state.

On the European side there are distinct advantages in Ankara joining the EU, despite many European’s valid concerns and worries. But EU politicians should follow the advice of Italian political strategist Niccolo Machiavelli ‘take advantage out of a disadvantage.’ If the EU fails to implement the reforms required and make the necessary compromises in its negotiations over the role of the Turkish military and Cyprus, then the prospects of Turkey joining look increasingly doubtful.

To read more http://www.oxfordprospect.co.uk/Turkey.htm

'Who do you think will win next year’s French presidential election?’

'Who do you think will win next year’s French presidential election?’ I said and added. ‘Will it be the socialist politician Ségolène Royal or the conservative one Nicolas Sarkozy?’ We had a heated discussion about the relative merits of these two candidates, their policies, scandals and this being France their love lives. What came out was that their nomination as their respective party’s presidential candidates was not a done deal. Trudy agued ‘if the old political dinosaurs in the Socialist Party, like Jack Lang, let Madame Royal win the parties nomination, then there dreams of ever becoming president are over.

“The same goes for Monsieur Sarkozy; President Chirac regards Nicolas as a traitor to his political legacy and too popular by half for his own good.’ She went on to explain she thought Chirac has adopted the uncharismatic French Prime Minister De Villepin as his political heir in his desperate attempts to stop Nicolas Sarkozy getting his party’s nomination. Robin commented ‘in France the early front runner usually does not make it to the final hurdle.’
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Israel and Lebanon

In many ways the current situation in the Levant (ie. Isreal and Lebanon) is inevitable, given the power of the pro-Israeli lobby, in determining American policy in the area. We must live with the real politic and not some model of the world as we would wish it to be.



Egypt, Jordan and many in the Lebanese government have leant this hard lesson that it does not pay to oppose Israel on the battlefield. Instead, it pays to make a deal with Israel and the United States. Every year since 1979 Egypt has received over $2bn per annum and Jordan $500m a year. While the Lebanese government has had not much of a problem arranging foreign emergency aid since the August battles, already the EU have offered some €150m in emergency aid.



It is time Hamas and Hezbollah learnt this lesson, they should open negations’ immediately to make a financial deal. But this means they will have to transform themselves from rather disorganized militarily ineffectual terrorist groups, into respectable, democratic and not corrupt political parties, that the West can deal with.



Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland had to learn this lesson, it took courage and leadership, and hopefully Hamas and Hezbollah have the people to take such politically difficult decisions. In making such a deal, it is a win-win situation for the West and the people, Hamas and Hezbollah claim to represent. The poor in the West Bank, Gaza and Lebanon need the Western investment in economic development necessary to drag these people out of the despair of poverty, which nearly fifty years of conflict has not managed to do.



Respectability brings other benefits, being able to fight the pro-Israeli lobby in the US Congress and the world stage on a less unequal footing. While prosperity has proved a very effective weapon in undermining the influence of extremist terror groups, as both Britain found with the IRA and Spain discovered in its dealings with ETA.



As saying goes ‘aurea hamo piscari’ (money talks).



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David Cameron - a case of keeping up appearances?

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Keeping up appearances
David Cameron needs to learn more about business

It will be interesting for excavation industry analysts to assess in the months ahead which investment did more to promote a well-known brand of British digger — its sponsorship of a 300mph yellow car streaking across Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, in pursuit of the world land diesel speed record or its provision of a corporate jet to help an opposition politican move around the Indian sub-continent, opening a new plant in the process.
One project is eye-catching but irrelevant to the brand. The other is worthy but dull — or it would be if the politician were not David Cameron. Instead, his trip to India next month, paid for partly by JCB, has triggered an important debate before he even leaves the ground. Is his habit of corporate name-dropping an innocent by-product of his generous nature and background in public relations? Or is it evidence that even the prospect of power, contingent on an election still four years off, inevitably corrupts?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To read more http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,542-2322949,00.html
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The Taxing Question of Overseas Property

The Taxing Question of
Overseas Property

Did you know that at least 257,000 Britons now own an overseas holiday home? With a strong pound and booming economy, it looks like many more of us are joining the likes of Cliff Richard and are buying a place in the sun. It appears, we ‘…British have beaten the Germans when it comes to throwing our metaphorical towels over foreign rooftops,’ says John Barnes, of Newfound Property International. But what a lot of Britons seem to forget, is that just because they are away from home, does not mean, that the taxman has forgotten them. It just means it won’t probably be British taxman you will be paying, but a foreign tax official.

For the buyer, it will not only be property prices and the location that will matter but, also, the respective tax regime of the foreign country of choice. Just as in Britain, owning a home abroad does not make you free from taxes for example such as Capital Gains Tax (CGT), Inheritance Tax and Tax on Rental Income in the country of your choice! Ro read more http://www.oxfordprospect.co.uk/Overseas property taxes.htm
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BULGARIA EUROPE’S FAILED STATE?

BULGARIA EUROPE’S FAILED STATE?
By Nicholas Newman Editor Oxfordprospect.co.uk
18 August 2006
Could Bulgaria fail to win entry at the final post in its race to join the European Union (EU) on 1st January 2007? Bulgaria is waiting with trepidation, a favourable report from the EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn in September and unanimous approval from all member states at an EU Council of Foreign Ministers meeting in 16th October at Lahti in Finland.

Despite the EU expressing optimism shown by EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini that Bulgaria is ‘on the right track’ even the Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ivaylio Kalfin admits that ‘there is still work to be done.’ What could delay Sofia’s entry are Bulgaria’s institutional failures to crack down on to key political policy areas – justice and home affairs. In a desperate attempt to ensure a favourable report from EU Commissioner Rehn the Bulgarian MPs ‘…have given up their traditional long summer break, sunning on the beaches to pass the major changes in the constitution to ensure the necessary reforms are in place,’ says National Assembly Chairman Georgi Pirinski and PM Sergei Stanishev has stated that already Bulgaria ‘has completed 70% of the planned legislation needed to meet the targets set in the accession treaty.’To read more http://www.oxfordprospect.co.uk/Bulgaria Europe's Failed State.htm

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Do you know your Bulgarian?Or your АБВГД?

Do you know your Bulgarian?
Or your АБВГД?
By Nicholas Newman Editor Oxfordprospect.co.uk 14 August 2006
Probably not is the answer, but for translators in various European Union institutions, it is increasingly vital to have someone in your organisation that does. Especially, with the prospect of Bulgaria’s accession on 1st January 2007 only months away.

For the EU’s Directorate-General for Translation of the European Commission (DGT) which employs some 1650 and 550 support staff to translate some 1.3 million pages a year. The recruitment of the extra 60 translators that convert Bulgarian into any of the other 22 operational languages is proving challenging enough, especially with Bulgarian adding Cyrillic as the Union’s third official script after the Latin and Greek alphabets.
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Well done the security services!

Pakistani intelligence helped British security agencies crack a terrorist plot to blow up U.S.-bound aircraft, and has arrested two or three suspects in recent days, officials said Thursday.

“Pakistan played a very important role in uncovering and breaking this international terrorist network,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Tasnim Aslam. “Cooperation in this particular case was spread over a period of time. There were some arrests in Pakistan which were coordinated with arrests in the U.K.,” she said.
She declined to give details about the arrests, including the number of suspects, their identities or when they were arrested. But a senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to comment on the matter, said “two or three local people” suspected in the plot were arrested a few days ago in Lahore and Karachi.
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Heathrow

I'm astounded that so many people can question security regarding the hand luggage. My two girls go away with their grandmother in two weeks, if means they can not take their MP3 player or bottle of water on the plane, thats fine with me and i am sure OK with them too, as long as they arrive safely and return home safe, thats all that matters! some people really need to get a grip, i would prefer a delay and inconvenience rather than death. Thanks to staff and security. Dont let the bad guys win Praise God for our efficient Government and security.src="http://www.blogtopsites.com/tracker.php?do=in&id=18084"
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Africa - the continent that keeps failing

Africa - why it keeps failing?
by Nicholas Newman Editor Oxfordprospect.co.uk

Almost every day we hear that the West is to blame for Africa’s problems. Yet, every day we hear the only solution is more European Union (EU) aid is needed for sub-Saharan Africa, despite the EU spending some many billions, over the last five years in development aid.

There are many theories as to why foreign aid policy has failed in Africa. It certainly worked in South East Asia, which has transformed these economies into economic tigers. Such theories that try to explain why sub-Saharan Africa remains stubbornly poor could fill many shelves in a library.

Such theories as to why Africa has failed range from poor leadership to the terms of trade being unfair for developing countries. To read more
http://www.oxfordprospect.co.uk/Africa.htm
Africa - the continent that keeps failing


The blame of the continent’s woes has often been blamed on predatory and corrupt leadership. Certainly Mugabe and Mobutu have been accused of amassing massive fortunes while bankrupting their countries. Yet, it’s difficult to simply put it down to just corrupt leadership. Indonesia’s Suharto; despite amassing a similar sized fortune, still managed to achieve records in economic growth and poverty reduction.

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MOONLIGHTING MPS

A MPs ‘Outside Interests’ are those that he or she is required in the ‘Register of Members Interests’. This register set up in 1974 records what an MP’s additional sources of employment, outside Parliament he or she has been paid for. These are often jobs in the city, the courts or the media. Currently 101 Tory MPs, 34 Labour MPs, 15 Liberal MPs and 5 Minority MPs have lucrative directorships and legal practices.Well-known examples of such Members known for their moonlighting include William Hague and Boris Johnson MPs. Both were well known before they joined David Cameron’s front bench team of enjoying highly remunerative non-political employment outside the House of Commons. The main reasons why there has been such controversy over MPs having such outside interests include issues over how possible ethical issues and concerns over possible impact on an MP’s effectiveness as a representative.Let us look at the impact such outside interests can have on MPs productivity. During the previous Parliament Micheal Portillo had an extensive list of moonlighting engagements as author, columnist and TV presenter. This meant he had less time to devote to Parliament; he only took part in 38% of parliamentary divisions compared to MPs without such interests averaging 83%.Then there is the question of ethics, arising from employment by outside interests, their employers could unduly influence MPs. Such concerns raised about MPs who are also practising lawyers; who seem to be typically against government efforts to tighten up legislation the legal system, immigration and national security. Could it be they are putting their personal interests ahead of their constituents, since such opposition to reforms, could be interpreted as a threat to their potential income, rather than concerns about justice? Then there is concern about potential opportunities for corruption, there certainly have been numerous scandals over the years, including the Aitken Affair and Cash for Questions during the last Tory government.As to what has been done about regulating MPs outside interests, there have been several attempts to monitor and regulate the activities of ‘moonlighting’ MPs over the years, though with not much success. The efforts by MPs to self regulate have included a Register of Interests being set up administered by Parliamentary Commissioner who advises MPs over interpretation of rules.In general, MPs can accept any form of payment or gifts for work or advice along as he or she declares them to the Register. Despite the setting up of the register, there have still been allegations over breaches of the rules, also the system was further discredited when MPs failed to reappoint Elizabeth Filken to her post , due to complaints by some parliamentarians for her zeal in enforcing the system. This led to the Council of Europe in 2002 recommending that the UK Parliament should replace the current system with a new law; curiously this opinion has been ignored by MPs.

HOW TO TACKLE MOONLIGHTING

Its time we encouraged our MPs to ‘moonlight’, especially if he or she is a backbencher, since they do not have an official role in Westminster notes Charter88. In addition, the current working practices and procedures are not designed to facilitate the effective scrutiny of Government, nor give MPs a meaningful role in the policy process. Therefore, a bored MP has two options become a glorified and overpaid social worker or find some lucrative employment in the city, the courts or the media.Since many of our MPs consider that despite earning, at least four times the average salary, that they are not paid enough, we should encourage them to moonlight, so that outside interests can fund their demands for extra income rather than us taxpayers.Such encouragement would have the added advantage of resolving the complaint that there are too many career politicians representing us, who have no real experience of the working world outside politics. Perhaps being an MP should be like being a member of the TA, you should have a full-time non-political job, where your employer lets you have limited paid time off to conduct your political duties.As for MPs with a heavy constituency workload, it would be cheaper to employ a professional social worker to do much of the work. This would probably mean even less need for the current high number of MPs that represent us in ParliamentInstead, we should follow Hong Kong’s Legislative Assembly and have representatives elected to sit in the House of Lords, representing their profession, pressure group or trade union. At least if a House of Lords representative appointed by the legal profession announced proposed government legislation to reform the legal system was unjust, it would be clearer to the public, that he was fighting to protect the outrageous income that lawyers in his profession currently earn.MOONLIGHTING Politicians

Labour's NEC:Time for change?

LABOUR MEMBERS SHOW LITTLE INTEREST IN NEC POLL

Less than twenty percent of Labour Party members, even bothered to return their ballot papers for election of constituency representatives in this year’s Labour Party National Executive Council poll, on a slate dominated by soft literati left activists of the party.

The question that is now being asked is it time for the NEC to be abolished since a majority of members regard it as an irrelevant, time serving relic, which no longer represents the views of the majority of the membership, at this time.

Clearly, when four fifths of the party membership did not even trouble to participate in this poll, then this election is meaningless. These results demonstrate that those elected represent a small but organised unrepresentative group, able to punch above their weight, but not truly representative of the party as a whole.

'Make the A34 A motorway'

Local politicians are out in force posing for the headlines over demands for conversion of the A34 into a motorway. The trouble is this will not solve the problem of bad driving, traffic jams and lack of adequate investment in rail investment in the country’s rail freight network.

A better answer is to tackle this problem properly, we need to update and upgrades the railway links between Southampton - Oxford - Birmingham. Also convert the A34 into a toll road with variable toll rates. Improve the quality of public transport in the county in order to cut demand for private car use e.g. create a light rail network for Oxford and open up the old rail routes in Oxfordshire including the Oxford to Witney and Oxford to Milton Keynes routes.But the trouble is such useful pork barrel projects our county's politicians show too little interest in, since such useful projects that would really make life better for Oxfordshire residents. No they would rather spend the next ten weeks on holiday.

EU Accounts - Problems of Probity

Complaints in the media about the EU Accounts are hypocritical. The reasons why there is not greater probity on this issue or real political concern are as follows:
1. Any solution would have to increase the powers of the European Commission and Parliament to investigate and fine member states government’s public finances. I doubt our Chancellor would not permit an intrusion, nor would member states government be prepared to surrender such power to Brussels.
2. There is no European wide common standard of public finance accountancy; each state has its own traditions and standards. So it makes the job of the European Court of Auditors a very difficult one.
3. As the EU has grown the opportunities for human error and yes fraud have grown.
4. Member states implement over 90% of the EU budget on behalf of Brussels. Each with its own tradition of accountancy means it is not always fraud that is to blame for tracing funds.
5. Implementing EU policy is often very difficult, take the CAP, policy makers have to administer an agricultural policy that has to deal with widely different farming regimes from the giant agribusinesses of East Anglia to Artic rain deer herders and Spanish olive groves.
6. There is the problem of differing administrative cultures and languages, which can make it hard to achieve things.
7. The present system allows for politicians the flexibility to divert funds to pet public projects which a strict interpretation of the rules would not allow.
8. In public finance, accountancy traditions are not always the same as for business, if you read the background to the stories over the years, what you learn is much of the missing EU budget funds can not be accounted for to the criteria that the European Court of Auditors works to. Which can mean they know where much of it is, but do not have the quality of evidence required.
Just to put things in proportion the British Department of Work and Pensions has not had its books signed off for the last thirteen years. Also using a business comparison, an accountant signing off the books of a firm does not mean all is right with the firm, as investors found to their cost with ENRON.

If you really want this matter tackled then the following things have to be achieved:
1. The European Parliament has to have a powerful Parliamentary Accounts Committee that works with the European Court of Auditors with full powers to investigate and fine member governments.
2. A common European Standard of Public Finance Accountancy has to be introduced.
3. The European Commission has to take full control of implementing its £67.2 billion budget.
4. The systems for implementation of the budget have to be simplified.

I should think many a euro-sceptics and pro-european politicians would work together to prevent such reforms for improving the probity of EU accounts from ever being implemented.


More blogs about EU Accounts - Problems of Probity.

BRITDOC 2006

BRITDOC 2006
27 July 2006
A revolution is taking place behind the ancient walls of an Oxford college. No it’s not some new answer to the question of life in the universe and everything; instead it is an attempt by the British government to bring the British film industry into the twenty first century.More blogs about href="http://technorati.com/blogs/britdoc" rel="tag directory">britdoc.
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Science Fiction is better than Shakespeare

Science Fiction Better Than Shakespeare!

Science fiction has boldly gone further than even the story tellers of ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome could have ever imagined. Yet, even so, whether it is beings with superior powers, strange monsters or gods doing dastardly deeds, the basic ninety nine ways of telling a story remain the same.

Even the film Star Ship Troopers, uses the plot lines that fans of Jane Austin would be familiar with. Take Mansfield Park, like Starship Troopers, both are critiques on the social values of the day and how the characters in both stories adjust and grow up in the changing circumstances. In both we are seeing how an outside threat is likely to end the privileged life of the characters, e.g. the coming of the industrial revolution and the end of earth itself. In both we have a strong female heroin, who grows from a timid girl to a fully confident woman, who saves the day.To read more http://www.oxfordprospect.co.uk/Science Fiction.htm
Science Fiction is better than Shakespeare