Demonstration outside the Russian Consulate in London

It is the 31st of the month and Strategy 31 will be holding its usual demonstration outside the Russian Consulate on Bayswater Road in London, nearest tube stations being Notting Hill Gate and Queensway. There are many buses as well. All the information is here.

Is this likely to work?

Do we even know what the purpose of it is? Never mind, it sounds good. I am talking about Big Society Capital, formerly known as Big Society Bank but renamed on the insistence of the Financial Services Authority, who has now acquired a Board. What do you mean it is not a bank? It may not have any money but it has a Chairman and a Board and good intentions. What more do you need?

The money will be supplied by the government from what they are pleased to call "dormant accounts" and four very reluctant high street banks: HSBC, Barclays Capital, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Bank Group. They are insisting that money should be loaned on commercial terms (i.e. not handed out to anyone who comes up with what looks like a bright idea of social investment). On top of that, there is the problem that the Commission might call using "dormant accounts" state funding and that particular problem has not been cleared yet. Also, people might turn up and claim said accounts.

The combination of the lack of state aid clearance and the banks’ conditions on their support means that Big Society Capital as yet has no money in the bank, Nick O’Donohoe, its chief executive, said.

But it has approved in principle its first investment of £1m through the Big Lottery Fund, which is holding proceeds from the dormant assets until clearances are received from the European Commission and Financial Services Authority.

The investment will go to the Private Equity Foundation to develop social impact bonds to get disadvantaged young people into work.

Disadvantaged, in this case, means those who have committed criminal offences.

Social Enterprise gives a warmer welcome to this idea and lists all the Board members but mentions the same problems with the European Commission and the FSA.

Although neither state aid approval from the European Commission or regulatory approval from the FSA has been finalised – both of which are needed before Big Society Capital can get its hands on the money – Minister for the Cabinet Office Francis Maude, who hosted this week’s announcement at 70 Whitehall, said he was confident that both were proceeding without the prospect of a problem.

Sir Ronald Cohen, the renowned venture capital and social investment pioneer, has agreed to serve as the unpaid, interim chair of Big Society Capital Limited until it is fully operational and its board has conducted a search for a more permanent chair.

Of course, it is possible that a better education system, more training and a less tax and regulation encumbered economy would be a better idea in the long term. But would that provide quite so many jobs and positions for people who are already in the system?

What are we to make of this?

RIANovosti (RIAN) and other outlets report that

Norway’s twin terror suspect Anders Behring Breivik trained at a secret paramilitary field camp in Belarus earlier this year, a Belarusian opposition politician said on Thursday, citing security sources.

The politician is Mikhail Reshetnikov, the head of the opposition Belarusian Party of Patriots and he gave his information to Gazeta.ru.

Reshetnikov also claimed Breivik had participated in “sabotage-terrorism drills” under a former Belarusian special service officer and that he had used a fake passport to enter Belarus.

“His codename in Belarus’s KGB was Viking,” he added. “Rumors say he also had a girlfriend in Belarus.”

“The theory that Belarus’ special forces were involved in training Anders Breivik seems, of course, far-fetched,” political expert Viktor Demidov was quoted by Gazeta.ru as saying.

“On the other hand, [Belarusian] President Alexander Lukashenko’s friendship with Muammar Gaddafi is no secret - neither is his fondness for Adolf Hitler.”

Norway is taking part in NATO operations in Libya and Gaddafi has threatened attacks against Europe.

If true or even half-true, this puts a slightly different perspective on the shooting and bombing. As Viktor Demidov points out, and as this blogger immediately recalled, Lee Harvey Oswald had also spent time in Minsk. [Here is the article in Russian.]

The news from Spain is not very good

Moody is threatening to downgrade Spain. Apparently, the latest Greek bail-out rescue package has done nothing to stop the eurozone problems. One can't help wondering whether anybody at all is surprised by that.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Zapatero has dissolved Parliament and has called an election for November 20, about six months before it was due. The right-wing People's Party (Partido Popular) who won a resounding victory in May's local elections is hopeful that they will be forming the next Spanish government (though why anyone should wish for that particular poisoned chalice is a mystery). Various politicians in that party maintain that they will manage to pass the necessary reforms to sort out Spain's economy this time round.

Good letters in the Telegraph

It is a pity that the Telegraph, true to its mission statement of supporting the Conservatives whoever they might be, gives first slot among the letters to Bill Cash's ramblings. Not that he is entirely wrong - of course this country needs economic growth and, of course, it is difficult, not to say impossible with all those regulations pouring out of Brussels (and Whitehall, let us not forget). But, but, but ....

We cannot renegotiate a different relationship with the EU as we do not exactly have a relationship with it. Mr Cash knows that but he cannot go against party policy and call for a complete renegotiation of all matters, that is called withdrawal.

It is not the Lib-Dims who are the obstruction but the leadership of Mr Cash's own party but, clearly, he cannot actually say that. I shall pass over his well-known obsession with Germany, rooted in the fact that his father was killed during the Normandy invasion.

The second letter, on the other hand, from Lord Willoughby de Broke [you have to scroll down] makes an excellent point and does so very briefly. It ought to have been top of the list. Just exactly, why did George Trefgarne "forget" to mention the ring-fenced though ever-growing sums we hand over to the EU every year?

And so it goes

The news from Cyprus (well, the southern part of it that is in the EU and, indeed, the euro, is that its government has resigned under a great deal of political pressure as it is expected to ask for a bail-out. To be absolutely fair, the reason for the downgrading by Moody, the threatened bail-out and the promised wide-ranging reshuffle of the government were all caused by a massive explosion.

Christofias's centre-left administration has faced unprecedented public fury from the blast, caused when a cargo of confiscated Iranian munitions exploded next to the island's largest power plant, killing 13 people.

Cypriots have taken to the streets in their thousands to demand the resignation of Christofias and his government.

On Wednesday, Moody's downgraded Cyprus to three notches above junk status due to the fiscal fallout from the blast, adding to the strain on the economy from its exposure to Greek debt.

Since the blast, markets have trained their sights on the east Mediterranean nation as a possible fourth recipient of a euro zone emergency rescue after Greece, Ireland and Portugal, and political wrangling now risks derailing much-needed economic reforms.

The island's central banker Athanasios Orphanides has warned that without urgent action, Cyprus could be forced into seeking a bailout.

There have been calls for Christofias, a Communist whose term expires in 2013, to step down, but that appears unlikely. As leader of Cyprus's dominant Greek Cypriot community, he leads reunification talks with estranged Turkish Cypriots to clinch a peace deal to end decades of conflict. The absence of such a deal is harming Turkey's bid to join the EU.

In the circumstances, Turkey may not be all that interested in that bid, though, clearly its government goes through the motions.

Bring it on!

Just had a wide-ranging discussion with the Oracle in which we covered issues such as the TPA hiring ToryBoy blogger par excellence and the general closing of ranks among them. No criticism to be allowed, no dissidents to be tolerated and, above all, the Conservative Party must be presented as the only possible outlet for euroscepticism. Could it be, as this blog has suggested before, that the next General Election is closer than we think?

Or could it be that the various Conservative sites, blogs and organizations are worried about the threatened crack-down on all right-wing sites, blogs and organizations in the wake of the Norwegian mass murder? If so, then their actions are useful in that we can now separate the wheat from the chaff. As one of the right-wing bloggers that might come under that attack (low down on the list as it does not have as many followers as some but a known right-wing blogger, nevertheless) I can only say: "Bring it on!". It is good to know that blogging is once again a worth while occupation, especially if you are on the right of the political spectrum. Or, to quote another great line: "Make my day, punk!". Punk? Well, there are many, starting with the Boy-King who is pretending to be this country's Prime Minister.