Superb job FW!

Problem is how to get those responsible for the losses of the data, and those responsible for the cover up, out of public service for life - without pay-offs and pensions. There has been gross abuse of the trust of holding public office here.

The last people to do anything about it will, of course,  be those who purport to represent English farmers

Caroline gets the credit for the RPA run of stories (she is out today). But I guess she would highlight this has only come to light because of some brave whistleblowers.

craman:

Superb job FW!

Agree, unconditionally.

This thread highlights first the moral turpitude of leadership pretty much through out this nation. If Kendall is so good let's see him subject government to a good bashing. He will not land one punch - I assure you.

Secondly, a gong is required for Ms. Stocks. Perhaps the ingrats (recall something about toff graduates) who posted earlier this year about her abilities would like the humble pie sent, because I am certain they ain't got the cajones to collect it themselves.

Third, this demonstrates the power of the fourth estate over the blogsphere. Life is all about people talking with people, if you want to get real stories.

craman:

Problem is how to get those responsible

Bring back the stocks.

With regard to the current FW Opinion Poll, it would be interesting if the internet server generating votes in favour of Cooper not resigning could be tracked down - .gov.uk, nfu.?!

I voted no he should be made to put the hole job right with no pay to meny put the cash in there pocket and just resign easy thing to do just leave a good mess behind them

motley:

Bring back the stocks.

I believe she is only on a long weekend

It just goes to show like during the FMD crises you only know whats happening through the pubications like FW.

Some how after reading today FW I can't see them actually finding out how to make sure it doesn't happen again and finding definitive proof of what happened to the remaining missing tapes because the Government is too busy trying to find who told and landed them in hot water. Great to see where their priorities lay.

My ears are burning a bit here!  Thanks for your kind words Motley and Craman, but like Is said, it's the whistleblowers you should be congratulating - goes to show there are some decent people working for the RPA, just apparently not at the top of the organisation.

craman:

With regard to the current FW Opinion Poll, it would be interesting if the internet server generating votes in favour of Cooper not resigning could be tracked down - .gov.uk, nfu.?!

I had exactly the same thought yesterday. I'll be interested to see how the results change on Monday when DEFRA people get back into their offices!

BTW Sam, that joke was terrible!

These are the stocks to which I refered sjk

I would like to be first when it comes to Cooper and there is room for another, who should it be? I would put in Beckett, the worst minister to oversee farming in history, in any nation.

craman:

With regard to the current FW Opinion Poll, it would be interesting if the internet server generating votes in favour of Cooper not resigning could be tracked down - .gov.uk, nfu.?!

 Just had a check on our poll. If you click on the comment tab underneath the poll on our homepage you can see where the last 500 votes were cast from. Interestingly, if you zoom in over London, you can see there have been votes cast from Westminster - I'm not sure how accurate the mapping is, but if it is correct it seems there was one cast from the Commons. Hilary perhaps? I wonder which way they voted...

 I didn't know you could do that. Cool. I would guess the green pins are for 'Yes'; the red ones for 'No'...though, which means the central London voter voted for Yes. Probably wasn't Hilary then...

 Aha - I was bamboozled by that complicated colour-coding system...

 I dunno, Hilary probably does want to see the back of Tony Cooper. It'd probably make his life much more stress-free if he got the chop

The site is, at the moment, unavailable. This could be because it is overwhelmed as RPA, RSPC, RSPB, Natural England and Defra staff place their  votes, or it could be that Redkite has infiltrated the site with his footpath campaign?

 I'm sorry I just couldn't help it

I would offer ours but unfortunately you can't padlock them so are not people proof (though perhaps with me there that is a good thing...

I see the map doesn't give KF much anonymity

The RPA's disasters just keep on coming - I almost feel sorry for them. The agency has admitted now that it 'misplaced' hill farm allowance claims for nine farmers in Cumbria  http://www.fwi.co.uk/Articles/2009/11/24/118876/RPA-admits-losing-more-farmers-details.htm

DEFRA's press guy was very keen to stress that the information on the forms was not confidential and that, even though the forms turned up three days later in Coventry (about 200 miles away from where they should have been), "fundamentally, nothing happened" (I had to smile - as a journalist it's one of the most amusing times when someone repeatedly insists "nothing happened", that it's a non-story, and there's absolutely no need to write about it ).

Even if the data wasn't confidential, it still brings into question the way the agency looks after and transfers its data. Is anything safe in the RPA's hands?!

The government, its departments and their associated 'agencies' and other quangos are all build like sieves.  Our taxes get poured in at the top and then run out at the bottom.  It seems as if our information is treated in much the same way!

caroline stocks:

I almost feel sorry for them

You are having a laugh. You are having me on init.

When someone, in this gaggle of quangos that mess in our lives - with the moral turpitude of skunks, has the cajones to quit. Then I will accept that there is a humility present. Even the medieval church, before Erasmus's teaching, and clergy resignations caused such duress that it fragmented, did not exhibit such arrogance as this lot.

At the moment I am still really seething angry with government and parliament. What I want is the election. There will be a hung parliament. For the first time in 25 years they will have to do less and work together, instead of continually meddling with the system. They will have to work with what thay have got, like the rest of us.

 There is too much male idea, that doing something is better than doing nothing. What we require, just now, is a masterful art of doing nothing.

Don't start me on "baroness" Ashton then I really will start ranting. She is the epitome of the new labour aristocracy who have risen with out trace. The Norman barons were more accountable than this new woman. She is the epitome of the babyboomer bunglers who are in the seats of power, at the moment.

motley:

caroline stocks:

I almost feel sorry for them

You are having a laugh. You are having me on init.

I knew someone would pull me up on that I said almost, only because the bloke who rang to admit it sounded so worried and desperate for me to understand that 'nothing happened'. But you have to wonder if they would have bothered admitting it if they didn't know that someone within the RPA is sharing their secrets...

I share your sentiments on Baroness Ashton anyway - my favourite line was in this article in the Telegraph, where she was described as the perfect woman for the role because she's "never had a proper job" and has never been elected. The mind boggles.

caroline stocks:

my favourite line was in this article

Thanks for the torygraph reference. I didn't have you down as a torygraph girl, though.

I could not resist it, I know I shoun't but when I saw the picture it makes me think unspeakable things that I can't put into print here without the sword of Damocles crashing down around my ears.

Proud parents?

There must be a rhyme or chime here surely? Is this the result of swimming in the shallow end of the gene pool?

Jacobus:

The government, its departments and their associated 'agencies' and other quangos are all build like sieves.  Our taxes get poured in at the top and then run out at the bottom.  It seems as if our information is treated in much the same way!

Not sure I quite agree with you on this one, Jacobus. yes - our taxes DO get poured in at the top - err - we don't see much coming out at the bottom except red tape!!

A worrying anagram for Herman Van Rompuy is " Unproven, may harm"

motley:

 

caroline stocks:

my favourite line was in this article

Thanks for the torygraph reference. I didn't have you down as a torygraph girl, though.

I'm not. I'm not sure I'm an anything - I get wound up by everything I read. I suppose I find the Torygraph and the Times least offensive though.

It is a great photo isn't it? It's actually a close call as to whether I'd prefer to see them or Tony Bliar standing there...

ploughshare:

A worrying anagram for Herman Van Rompuy is " Unproven, may harm"

 Others have found different anagrams

motley:

Thanks for the torygraph reference. I didn't have you down as a torygraph girl

You really ought to read a newspaper before, to use the language of the sociologist, 'labelling' both it and its readers with the kind of perjurative and sneering term seen on the pages of lesser read newspapers.

In fact the Telegraph publishes weekly articles by writers (Mary Riddel being an example) to the left of the political spectrum and has during this past year carried articles written especially for it by Gordon Brown. Alastair Darling. Alastair Campbell. Harriet Harman, Jack Straw .........  The Telegraph also acknowledges that the political left has a legitimate philosophy (with which it broadly disagrees) and a right to conduct its affairs free of the kind of sneering, snobbish and boorish labelling aimed at the right by those in academia whose knowledge of the wider world is based on theoretical contructs but sadly, lacking in the practicalities of the wider world.

The Telegraph also, according to a friend of mine in the BBC heirarchy has the best writers in English (with few exceptions- one being Matthew Paris of the Times [Ex Tory MP and Telegraph writer] ) of any of the serious press.

My own reading of the Telegraph started when I was fifteen because, at the time it opened up to me a world of ideas, reportage, commerce, business, industry and sport that could not be found in the Daily Mirror (my mother's paper) the Daily Herald ( my Uncle's paper), The Daily Express (my Father's paper) or the Daily Sketch (my Aunt's paper)

Labelling the Telegraph the Torygraph is an old canard from the same stable that said the Church of England is the Tory party at prayer. It is as accurate as my saying, that the Guardian is read by people in the BBC and academia because they need to feel a sense of kinship with others who have also failed to find their place in the world of action and change, and so need the solace of those who have retreated into the make-believe world of ideas and theoretical construct.

Peter Wells:

You really ought to read a newspaper

Ok.

Newspapers as we know are the dominion of men and old. the young don't do papers.

 For myself I purchase religiously,which is to say always

• the economist of a friday ( a bit right wing freemarket).
• a torygraph (good on rural/ a other views [except page who I don't read ever, like richardson in FW] a bit to the right of centre) and ft ( a bit american leaning but the best of the week with caudwell and tett outstanding together with eyres) of a saturday,
• the sunday times ( to see what the australian is up to with gop) and observer ( a bit of sauce for a  tyre kicker, like me?) of a sunday.

If I purchase during the week, because I have the urge ,I purchase any out of the times, gaurdian or independent. For example today I bought the times because I went to the dentist first thing. Normally I use the web during the week.

Next I will try my A, B,C......

motley:

Peter Wells:

You really ought to read a newspaper

 Motley. When quoting others it is usual to give the reader the benefit of seeing the quotation in its context. This is best done by sticking, as far as possible, to the original punctuation. I did not write " You should read a newspaper. "  but placed the comment in a context.

motley:

the young don't do papers.

I am sure that you would agree that Caroline is young (and beautiful) and she 'does papers, and it was, of course, her quotation from the Telegraph that prompted your initial item.

As to the Economist. I used to read it regularly but bought my last copy to read on the train to this years FW dinner. It was on this journey that I decided that the font size and type face used was now too difficult for my eyes to read, and so they have lost a regular (monthly) purchaser. 

This latter point ought to be of interest to editors everwhere who may not be aware of the effect their typefaces have on old and weary eyes.

Do other contributors have difficulty reading any particular publication. Page three of the Sun excepted?