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As our money flows out to save the UK banking system, it seems that a number of the banks Chief Executives are destined for the job queue!

Well perhaps not, as all of them will be receiving various payments for their excellent stewardship of their part of our financial system.

Will they every face the wrath of the ordinary person in the street? I expect not and I suppose they will all pop up again in another City job as their friends and colleagues sort out how best to get their greedy hands on the public bail out cash.

So we see a return to UK Politics for Peter Mandelson. It’s amazing how much effrontery is used by politicians when organising ‘jobs for the boys’.

Again Mandelson, is at the receiving end of astonishing amounts of money, this time to come back to help Gordon Brown with his range of problems.

Not an elected MP? No worries, just make him a Lord – I thought the Labour Party wanted the end of the Lords – and he can waltz right in to a top job.

With the latest news that Blair did influence the F1 tobacco advertising  relief, is it any wonder that many people have no faith in politicians and in Labour in particular.

Had a few days in France for a well earned rest. I think that I’ve been going to  France for either business or holidays for over forty years and yes it has changed over that time, as has the UK, but somehow it seems to have still retained a slower pace of life compared to the UK.

We (my wife and I) decided to visit another of Frances’ cities that we had not been to before on our way to friends in the Rhone valley, this time stopping over at Auxerre.

What a beautiful city, the French seem to have been able to retain much of their many medieval city’s in their original form yet still seem able to cope with the modern day demands. Such as this automatic Pizza vending machine! Just like a bank ATM, but dishing out dough based products of another kind!

Of course with many French Cities and Towns, there is always a fantastic Cathedral/Church, far too many to describe or add  photographs of each that we found on our trip in this post. But Auxerre had three fantastic examples as did Moulins where we stayed on our way back up across central France.

One of the main things I wanted to do on this trip to France was to visit the new (relatively for me) Millau Bridge. Designed by Michel Virlogeux and Norman Foster and built in a very unique way by sliding the new bridge out over the 150/250M high piers from both sides to meet in the middle! It has turned out to be an impressive sight that certainly lives up to the pictures I saw in the documentary about its construction. Many pictures have been taken of this bridge, but here is my panoramic effort of the bridge and the city below on a fairly dull/misty day.

With its many different regions, France still has a hold that will take me back there on many more trips to further enjoy the Scenery, Wine and Food.

I nearly forgot here’s some of the pictures of the churches I mentioned above.

We’ve all heard about Wikipedia and its vast collection of information. Here’s another similar site Wikileaks, though this time its about Whistle Blowers and Information Leaks.

There’s even a page covering leaks specifically focused on the UK. It’s a fascinating site that can probably keep you very busy as you trawl through the various leaks.

Of course, it’s also a place where you can place your own leaks if you have any.

The UK Government is looking for ideas from YOU about better ways of creating public Information.

What does that mean? Well it might mean finding out about crime statistics in the area in which you live or finding out whose getting what Farm Subsidy, it might be a bout being able to report some graffiti that needs cleaning up.

If you can come up with a new idea, you could be up for a prize of £20,000!

Here is the background info about the completion which closes at the end of  September. How many people have already entered? See some of their examples here.

Why is this country so bad at looking after its own historic sites?

Surely one of the places that was central to the UK surviving WW II was Bletchley Park with its concentration of Mathematicians and Cryptographers contributing so much to the decoding of enemy messages warrants looking after?

Despite a number of fund raising campaigns in the UK including a group of 97 senior scientists who wrote to The Times to highlight the plight of the museum, it seems that the pockets of UK citizens and companies have been so shallow that Bletchley Park have teemed up with IBM and PGP to try for restoration funds from the USA!

I visited Bletchley Park in May last year and saw some of the work that the Trust was doing, however as with any restoration and preservation project, it requires ongoing access to funds.

I am not sure why the UK Government or Lottery funds cannot be made available help with this important Heritage work. Perhaps its the same head-in-the-sand attitude that lost the UK its position in the emerging computer industry after WW II!

The trust has a donation site, so if you want to help save a fundamental piece of history that,  if Bletchley Park had not been successful with its work, it’s likely that you would not be reading about it now!

So said Boeing when they lost the contract to supply the USAF with a new fleet of refuelling tankers and the contract was awarded to Northrop Grumman to be based on plane supplied by Airbus.

However, Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary has now cancelled the contract as it appears many US politicians were upset at the contract not being awarded to Boeing. Suddenly, so the so called champions of Free Trade, is not!

It now seems that the procurement will be run again in January 2009 after the new administration has taken office. I’m sure of course, that this will be run as a fair comparison and Northrop/Airbus will stand an equal chance of winning again. I hope so for the numerous European jobs that will be depending on this deal.

I think that Rose McGowan will come to regret her recent remarks that she would have 100% joined the IRA if she had lived in Belfast!

“My heart just broke for the cause and I have a lot of respect for the intelligence and the honour that these people carried.”

I hope that this morning she is regretting her remarks, but not half as much as the Fathers, Mothers, Brothers and Sisters and other family members that lost relatives in the sectarian violence that was Northern Ireland for so many years.

Perhaps she thinks that it was an honourable thing that happened on the 25th August 1998 when all these people were killed by the Omagh bomb planted by the IRA!

It seems that not every women in the USA is enthusiastic about Sarah Palin being the Republicans choice for their VP position. Women against Sarah Palin has some very vocal opposition to her and it’s all from women.

It also seems that if you were a women who suffered a rape when Palin was Mayor of Wasilla, the city charged you for any medical tests that were carried out after the rape as part of any police investigation, as if being raped was not bad enough.

I heard on the news today that during her interview yesterday Sarah said that thinks it’s a good idea to go war with Russia if they invade Georgia again (that is after they join NATO), great to know that we could have another push the button nutcase in charge if McCain’s pacemaker gives out!

Slowly we are beginning to see costs being discussed for a roll-out of High-Speed broadband across the UK. From around £5.1 billion up to a massive £25 billion, it’s not going to be cheap!

But on the other had it is a chance for the UK to leap ahead of its rivals and turn the UK into a truly 21st century country, it could change the way that we would do almost anything, of course a downside would that Big-Brother would have even more ways of tracking what you do.

However, to me the advantages may outweigh the disadvantages.

Here’s the full story so far.