Microsoft have been lobbying hard for an American solution to the Commander in Chief’s Blackberry addiction. Security issues have been very much to the fore (Blackberries are made by RIM of Canada). Data security being what it is only the best will do for the President.

According to the manufacturer, General Dynamics, the phone was

Developed for the National Security Agency’s Secure Mobile Environment Portable Electronic Device (SME PED) program, the Sectéra Edge is certified to protect wireless voice communications classified Top Secret and below as well as access e-mail and websites classified Secret and below.

It is military standard quality (see this stress test video) and for sale only to U.S. security cleared purchasers. It runs Windows CE with a stylus and costs $3,350. Unfortunately, unlike Guido’s Xperia™, it doesn’t come with a cameraphone…

Gordon Brown: “I called for global financial reform ten years ago” – Prime Minister Gordon Brown during his speech on Britain and the Global economy at the Foreign Press Association claimed today that he had been warning for ten years that the international financial markets needed to be more strongly regulated.

“by moving away from the old blanket approach, of 100 per cent form-filling and 100 per cent inspection that is inefficient and wasteful of your time, to a new approach based on risk… And I believe, too, we should consider how we can continue to extend our risk-based approach, applying the concept of risk not just to the enforcement of regulation, but also to the design and indeed to the decision as to whether to regulate at all… And we will take the fight on deregulation to Europe.”

Source: Speech to the CBI, 5 June 5, 2006

You are often left wondering if he really believes what he says. Does he really think Britain is best placed to weather the financial storm? Does he really think Britain has a low debt economy? He says these clearly untrue claims which are not accepted by any independent observers or global financial investors.

If Gordon does believe what he is saying you have to assume he is delusional, if he doesn’t believe it, than he’s a liar. Not much of a choice…

Peter Hain is due to apologise to the House at 3.30pm via a personal statement. Will he try to claim his reputation and integrity are untainted?

Don’t think so Peter. After all, paying your 80-year-old mother thousands of pounds out of public funds to do constituency work when she is never seen in the constituency office is somewhat questionable. That fiddle can’t be blamed on someone else or even his own incompetence.

Not in possession of her security pass, she launched into the full “Do you know who I am?” routine. Not the first time she has tried to undermine our security. Must have been her disarming nature…