Conference Catchup.

I've finally managed to bring myself up to speed on goings on at the Conservative party conference. The big event yesterday (6/10) was the speech by the shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne. In this speech Osbourne announced that the Conservatives plan to scrap government funded child trust funds and child tax credits for families earning over £50,000. Maintain the 50% top rate of income tax. Slash the Whitehall civil service budget by 30% and cap their pensions.Freeze the pay of public sector workers earning over £18,000 (national average wage = £24,000) and raise the national retirement age by a year to 66. The idea of these policies is to reduce Britain's annual debt of £170bn by around £17bn. It also means that the Conservatives campaign slogan for the next election will be something along the lines of "Vote for Us. We'll make you work harder and pay you even less!" That makes it very hard to tell if the Conservatives are deliberately trying to alienate middle class voters in the hope they'll vote Lib Dem causing a hung parliament or if they're trying to put the most positive spin possible on the brutal realities that Britain now faces. Either way if you recently gave up smoking in hope of enjoying a long retirement you don't half look stupid right now.

The main event of today was shadow Home Secretary, Chris Grayling's speech on Law & Order. Unlike Cameron's and Osborne's speeches the BBC didn't cover this speech live instead opting to screen a double bill of the Flintstones, you know, the modern, stone-age family. Although the Conservatives will no doubt take this as an insult the BBC were actually doing them a bit of a favour. Prepared months in advance the main themes of Grayling's speech were all about how the Conservatives would get tough on political extremists, anti-social behaviour and binge drinking (hello there) and even the delegates looked like they were beginning to accept that idea is fast running out of steam. Theatrics aside I did pick up on one policy which hopes to cut down on alcohol fuelled crime by increasing the cost of a liquor licence for businesses trading in designated problem areas. The obvious problem with this is that by increasing a businesses overheads you force them to compensate by increasing their sales volume. In the pub trade increased sales volume translates as more drunk people.

Away from the conference the British state *coughs*pay frozen*coughs* have been making alot of noise about the conviction of a high profile drugs lord. Curtis Warren, who was apparently known as a cocaine king in the 1980's and 1990's, was today convicted of trying to smuggle £1million worth of cannabis into Jersey from the Netherlands. Although I've never heard of Curtis Warren I did used to know a guy who's given name was Warren who I suppose, using the strictest legal definition, could be described as a cannabis dealer. Therefore the story appears to be an attempt to promote discussion of this Warren character by scaring me and other people who know of him into thinking that he's just been sent to prison. While I haven't been in contact with him for quite some time I think that this prospect is very unlikely to be true because I haven't heard anything. The coverage of the trial has also given the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA/ FBI Lite) lots of airtime to boast about how they used wiretaps and covert surveillance to crack the case and warn those who are involved in organised crime that even if they don't notice it SOCA are always watching them. I hope that is true because if I'm not under at least SOCA level surveillance I'll be forced to take it as an affront to my ego.

Domestically it has been alleged that, in a material breech of patient confidentiality, the Croydon mental health team today telephoned my father to inform him that they are sending out a letter offering me an appointment for CBT*. Obviously I can't confirm this but if it is true and such a letter does arrive I think we can all guess what my answer's going to be. Today we've also been having a little bit of a drama because my grandmother's bankcard and a quantity of cash has gone missing. She thinks they were stolen by the man she saw in her living room at around 05:00. My father thinks she's hallucinating because of her senility. I think that it's a situation that will have to be resolved. Incidentally the police have still not been in touch over August's burglary so that looks like it's going to have to end with a fine far exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.

*I should clarify that the psychiatric symptoms that the Brits are desperate for me to be cured of are that I don't think they're particularly competent nor do I think they're particularly trustworthy. Against the current backdrop I'm sorely tempted to go for it just to see if I can make a psychiatrist cry.