Friday, 7 January 2011
"He Was a Straight Man"
Welcome to Planet Westminster. According to convicted fraudster Dai Chaytor's best butty Graham Stringer he was "the straightest man most of us knew".
Well, if that's the case then they should all be in prison shouldn't they?
Monday, 27 December 2010
Of Tenners and Teardrops.
As anyone who has been in a relationship for some period of time will know, over time you come to notice all the little quirks of behaviour of your partner. Some of these little quirks may be quite endearing, some of them less so.
Maybe a similar logic applies to political parties. In which case you might have been forgiven for hoping that Plaid would have cottoned on by now to some of the less endearing behavioural traits of its senior coalition partner, Labour.
Of course it’s true that Labour in Cardiff Bay, now its last remaining UK stronghold, is no stranger to partnership. And of course it’s well known that Labour is apt to ditch partners that no longer suit its interests too. And sometimes, of course, in a partnership things crop up that either party may not want to confront. Maybe they threaten the end of the relationship. Labour has an answer to this kind of scenario too.
They set up a Commission.
So those of us with long memories will recall that when Labour was rolling around in the sack with the Liberal Democrats, and the thorny issue of “more powers” came up, Labour agreed to set up a Commission – the Richard Commission. Unfortunately, this Commission then came to conclusions that Labour still didn’t want to hear. And so it came to pass that, shortly after Richard made his recommendations, Labour dumped the Lib Dems.
The bastard child of this canoodling was the Government of Wales Act 2006.
And so, fast forward 6 years and here we are, Labour are now cwtched up in bed with Plaid, a referendum on “extra powers” is in the pipeline and Labour are whispering sweet promises of another Commission in Plaid’s ear – a “Holtham” style commission”. Plaid have been banging on for years about funding, and now Labour are suddenly making empathetic noises. The fact that Labour maxed out the credit card and cleared out the piggy bank in this intervening 6 year period seems to have passed some people by.
Of course, you could argue that fundamentally, Labour are simply less idealistic about relationships. Certain ecstatic elements in Plaid dreamed of a whirlwind romance, leading to marriage, an alchemical union of parties that would deliver real social justice for Wales. It’s doubtful that Labour ever entertained this fanciful notion.
On a personal level, I suspect that few blokes are naive enough to entertain the notion that if they go out on the piss, spend a bit too much money, and wake up next morning next to an absolutely stunning bird, that this means they’re going to get married (in a non-conformist chapel of course) and live happily ever after, but it seems that certain elements in Plaid do indeed fall into this category of credulousness.
It’s just a pity that they’ve forgotten the famous saying of Ronald Reagan - that politics, as the second oldest profession, often bears a striking resemblance to the first – prostitution. Some people will do anything for money, yet for all the fundamental usefulness or relevance of their promises, Labour out of power where it counts - London - might as well claim that it’ll still rain in Wales the day after a yes vote, but that it’ll be raining tenners, instead of raindrops.
Or tears for that matter.
Maybe a similar logic applies to political parties. In which case you might have been forgiven for hoping that Plaid would have cottoned on by now to some of the less endearing behavioural traits of its senior coalition partner, Labour.
Of course it’s true that Labour in Cardiff Bay, now its last remaining UK stronghold, is no stranger to partnership. And of course it’s well known that Labour is apt to ditch partners that no longer suit its interests too. And sometimes, of course, in a partnership things crop up that either party may not want to confront. Maybe they threaten the end of the relationship. Labour has an answer to this kind of scenario too.
They set up a Commission.
So those of us with long memories will recall that when Labour was rolling around in the sack with the Liberal Democrats, and the thorny issue of “more powers” came up, Labour agreed to set up a Commission – the Richard Commission. Unfortunately, this Commission then came to conclusions that Labour still didn’t want to hear. And so it came to pass that, shortly after Richard made his recommendations, Labour dumped the Lib Dems.
The bastard child of this canoodling was the Government of Wales Act 2006.
And so, fast forward 6 years and here we are, Labour are now cwtched up in bed with Plaid, a referendum on “extra powers” is in the pipeline and Labour are whispering sweet promises of another Commission in Plaid’s ear – a “Holtham” style commission”. Plaid have been banging on for years about funding, and now Labour are suddenly making empathetic noises. The fact that Labour maxed out the credit card and cleared out the piggy bank in this intervening 6 year period seems to have passed some people by.
Of course, you could argue that fundamentally, Labour are simply less idealistic about relationships. Certain ecstatic elements in Plaid dreamed of a whirlwind romance, leading to marriage, an alchemical union of parties that would deliver real social justice for Wales. It’s doubtful that Labour ever entertained this fanciful notion.
On a personal level, I suspect that few blokes are naive enough to entertain the notion that if they go out on the piss, spend a bit too much money, and wake up next morning next to an absolutely stunning bird, that this means they’re going to get married (in a non-conformist chapel of course) and live happily ever after, but it seems that certain elements in Plaid do indeed fall into this category of credulousness.
It’s just a pity that they’ve forgotten the famous saying of Ronald Reagan - that politics, as the second oldest profession, often bears a striking resemblance to the first – prostitution. Some people will do anything for money, yet for all the fundamental usefulness or relevance of their promises, Labour out of power where it counts - London - might as well claim that it’ll still rain in Wales the day after a yes vote, but that it’ll be raining tenners, instead of raindrops.
Or tears for that matter.
Sunday, 24 October 2010
Thursday, 15 April 2010
So This is Wales Under Labour
A word of advice: if you're going to put a flag in your manifesto - make sure it's a new flag...
Sunday, 18 October 2009
The Real Level of Welsh Unemployment
In the week the BBC reported on the newly released figures for unemployment in Wales. In the space of 3 months it's jumped from 106000 to 130,000, the highest jump in the UK. As the BBC usefully informs us "the last time unemployment was this high was in 1993".
Which puts us squarely back into the good 'ol days of Tory government.
Of course, back in those days Labour were routinely jumping up and down and screaming "fraud" whenever the unemployment figures came out, as it was generally accepted that the Tories had been fiddling the figures to disguise the huge structural unemployment they had created in the 1980s, when they shut down huge chunks of our manufacturing base. A 1997 report by Sheffield Hallam University that looked in detail at this practice was requested for circulation amongst Labour MPs by the then Shadow Chancellor, Gordon Brown.
Unfortunately for Labour, Sheffield just kept on producing these wonderfully insightful reports. And what they essentially documented was that Labour had retained the Tory practice of fiddling the figures. The most recent report, in 2007, documented a real unemployment rate of 2.6 million, when the claiment account was barely a million people. This figure included a "hidden" unemployment rate amongst the UK's incapacity claimants of around 1 million people.
So let's do a little math, as they say in America.
Sheffield Hallam estimated that this hidden figure was concentrated across the older Industrial areas of the UK, including, of course, South Wales. Areas like Merthyr were notable examples.
However, if we generously assume that as we have approximately 1/20th of the UK's population, we will take 1/20th of the "hidden" incapacity figure, that makes for 50,000 people. It's not likely this figure will have changed in the last 2 years as it's basically structural, and not linked to the "boom and bust" cycle that Broon claimed to have abolished.
We add that 50,000 to the 130,000 "official" rate, and we have 180,000 people out of work, still in all probability a gross underestimate. It works out at a real unemployment rate in Wales of at least 12.6%.
So after 10 years of Labour rule, we are pretty much back where we were in the mid 1980s, under the Tories. The Tories threw huge numbers of people out of work, and Labour have done so too. And like the Tories, Labour have decided to disguise the real figures to suit their own cynical political ends.
You can guarantee that Brown, who's Thatcherite deregulation of the financial system has led us to the current mess, won't be requesting the newest version of Sheffield Hallam's report, which shows a real unemployment rate of 3.4 million people for the UK as a whole. Ideally, it should be stuffed down the greedy gullet of every grasping MP in the whole sorry edifice that passes for the "Mother of all parliaments".
The least we can do next year is add 600 to this sorry, growing tally of human misery.
Which puts us squarely back into the good 'ol days of Tory government.
Of course, back in those days Labour were routinely jumping up and down and screaming "fraud" whenever the unemployment figures came out, as it was generally accepted that the Tories had been fiddling the figures to disguise the huge structural unemployment they had created in the 1980s, when they shut down huge chunks of our manufacturing base. A 1997 report by Sheffield Hallam University that looked in detail at this practice was requested for circulation amongst Labour MPs by the then Shadow Chancellor, Gordon Brown.
Unfortunately for Labour, Sheffield just kept on producing these wonderfully insightful reports. And what they essentially documented was that Labour had retained the Tory practice of fiddling the figures. The most recent report, in 2007, documented a real unemployment rate of 2.6 million, when the claiment account was barely a million people. This figure included a "hidden" unemployment rate amongst the UK's incapacity claimants of around 1 million people.
So let's do a little math, as they say in America.
Sheffield Hallam estimated that this hidden figure was concentrated across the older Industrial areas of the UK, including, of course, South Wales. Areas like Merthyr were notable examples.
However, if we generously assume that as we have approximately 1/20th of the UK's population, we will take 1/20th of the "hidden" incapacity figure, that makes for 50,000 people. It's not likely this figure will have changed in the last 2 years as it's basically structural, and not linked to the "boom and bust" cycle that Broon claimed to have abolished.
We add that 50,000 to the 130,000 "official" rate, and we have 180,000 people out of work, still in all probability a gross underestimate. It works out at a real unemployment rate in Wales of at least 12.6%.
So after 10 years of Labour rule, we are pretty much back where we were in the mid 1980s, under the Tories. The Tories threw huge numbers of people out of work, and Labour have done so too. And like the Tories, Labour have decided to disguise the real figures to suit their own cynical political ends.
You can guarantee that Brown, who's Thatcherite deregulation of the financial system has led us to the current mess, won't be requesting the newest version of Sheffield Hallam's report, which shows a real unemployment rate of 3.4 million people for the UK as a whole. Ideally, it should be stuffed down the greedy gullet of every grasping MP in the whole sorry edifice that passes for the "Mother of all parliaments".
The least we can do next year is add 600 to this sorry, growing tally of human misery.
Tuesday, 22 September 2009
Home Rule: The Mount Estate Way.
The Mount estate is a deprived community on the outskirts of Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire. It hit the news three years ago when the National Grid ran their giant high-pressure pipeline through a woodland run by the community - without any consultation.
Today the Mount Estate hit the news again, with a more positive story. Tenants on the estate are being ballotted to draw down the power to run aspects of the estate themselves, through a TMO or Tenant Managament Organisation. This initiative, the first of it's kind in Wales, is being pioneered by the Mount Community Association, who are confident of a positive outcome to the ballot.
I'm all for these kind of initiatives. There are those on the Left-wing of Welsh politics who have a very ambiguous attitude towards this kind of development. As commentators like the Independent Working Class Association have pointed out, the Left has unfortunately become conflated with statism, so that community-driven solutions are automatically labelled as "backdoor privatisation". This is certainly my experience in Wales, which seems unfortunate to me, as what should be important is what benefits tenants, and not Left-wing activists.
Some years ago, I ran a small campaign in Bridgend in support of a "third option" in the local Housing Transfer ballot. The two existing options were, stay with the Local Authority as council tenants, or transfer to a Housing Association. I argued that there was another option, which was to transfer to a Housing co-operative, or Community Mutual. This option has been specifically designed and pioneered by the Welsh Assembly, and is designed to be tenant led and controlled. In my idealistic young mind, the principle was simple: council tenants live on the estates, why should they not decide how they are run?
In running this campaign, however, I was brought up short by the pointed insights of an experienced local housing activist, an independent character who gave me a lot to think about. He pointed out that the Mutual option had actually been looked at, at an early stage in the housing transfer process, but enthusiasm for the option was very limited. The ballot campaign itself was beset with apathy and indifference. His conclusion was simple, but rather depressing. Tenants in the area just didn't have the confidence to run their own estates, and for that reason, a tenant-run housing co-op just was not feasible.
In light of this, it's revealing to realise that while this is the first TMO of it's kind to be developed in Wales, there are some 270 in existence in England. Why should it be that council tenants in England are that much more ready to take the management of their estates into their own hands? I suspect that somewhere between the dogma of many activists on the left in Wales, and the lack of confidence that seems to afflict many welsh council tenants, you will find the answer.
Looking back now at this seemingly negative experience, the Mount estate gives me a little hope. It sounds to me like people in the area have enough confidence to take that first tentative step towards self-determination. If people on the Left want to brand that as "privatisation" that's up to them. If tenants find that it frees up money to invest in real changes on the estate, and gives them the confidence and self-respect that comes with the realisation that they can manage their own affairs, they are bound to be for it.
At the end of the day, they should be the judge, and no-one else.
Today the Mount Estate hit the news again, with a more positive story. Tenants on the estate are being ballotted to draw down the power to run aspects of the estate themselves, through a TMO or Tenant Managament Organisation. This initiative, the first of it's kind in Wales, is being pioneered by the Mount Community Association, who are confident of a positive outcome to the ballot.
I'm all for these kind of initiatives. There are those on the Left-wing of Welsh politics who have a very ambiguous attitude towards this kind of development. As commentators like the Independent Working Class Association have pointed out, the Left has unfortunately become conflated with statism, so that community-driven solutions are automatically labelled as "backdoor privatisation". This is certainly my experience in Wales, which seems unfortunate to me, as what should be important is what benefits tenants, and not Left-wing activists.
Some years ago, I ran a small campaign in Bridgend in support of a "third option" in the local Housing Transfer ballot. The two existing options were, stay with the Local Authority as council tenants, or transfer to a Housing Association. I argued that there was another option, which was to transfer to a Housing co-operative, or Community Mutual. This option has been specifically designed and pioneered by the Welsh Assembly, and is designed to be tenant led and controlled. In my idealistic young mind, the principle was simple: council tenants live on the estates, why should they not decide how they are run?
In running this campaign, however, I was brought up short by the pointed insights of an experienced local housing activist, an independent character who gave me a lot to think about. He pointed out that the Mutual option had actually been looked at, at an early stage in the housing transfer process, but enthusiasm for the option was very limited. The ballot campaign itself was beset with apathy and indifference. His conclusion was simple, but rather depressing. Tenants in the area just didn't have the confidence to run their own estates, and for that reason, a tenant-run housing co-op just was not feasible.
In light of this, it's revealing to realise that while this is the first TMO of it's kind to be developed in Wales, there are some 270 in existence in England. Why should it be that council tenants in England are that much more ready to take the management of their estates into their own hands? I suspect that somewhere between the dogma of many activists on the left in Wales, and the lack of confidence that seems to afflict many welsh council tenants, you will find the answer.
Looking back now at this seemingly negative experience, the Mount estate gives me a little hope. It sounds to me like people in the area have enough confidence to take that first tentative step towards self-determination. If people on the Left want to brand that as "privatisation" that's up to them. If tenants find that it frees up money to invest in real changes on the estate, and gives them the confidence and self-respect that comes with the realisation that they can manage their own affairs, they are bound to be for it.
At the end of the day, they should be the judge, and no-one else.
Thursday, 26 March 2009
Only in America...?
This is a post from an American forum. There are a lot of angry people in the US right now, and not JUST in the US either. Enjoy - it's pure poetry...
DEAR Wall Street,
What a bunch of whiny f**king babies. John Galt would be puking blood for 200-pages over this load of sh**, you bunch of sobbing welfare queens. You f**ked up. You ruined everything. You broke it, and we f**king bought it, because big baby was too big baby to fail.
We get it all ways from you motherf**kers. You're robbing us of our present and future now, but first you stepped on our throats on your way to the top. You raked in the money with a bunch of made up fantasyland bullsh** that wouldn't fool a counting horse on America's Funniest Home Videos, but somehow suckered in every major bank in the world.
Credit default swaps.
Those things are so f**king dumb that when you explain them to somebody and they laugh about how dumb they are you've got to act like ooooh they're so magical and complicated. Far too complex for the plebes to get. No! Wrong! Go into OTB and put fifty dollars on Rambo's Beautiful Blood. You just bought a credit default swap. Whoaaa you're blowing my simple pea brain with your fancy Wall Street talkin'. You sadsack ****ers.
So everybody bought into your big scheme, even when they didn't know they were playing, and now the whole thing has come crashing down because too many people won the f**king unbelievably obvious bet that a million illegal immigrants were going to default on million dollar home loans. Suddenly all your stupid fake money is gone, but if it's gone the whole system of bullsh** lies collapses and you look like d**kheads. So whoopty-doo, now we gotta make the fake money turn real or else the house of sh**ty c**t cards comes crashing down, only there isn't enough real money to cover all the fake money, so we're making more real money.
Then there's A.I.G., the bad seed, the carbuncle on our anus, the weeping wound in our tit, the sorry source of all our misery and woe. This is the monster garage full of miscreants that dreamed up the fire-breathing nitro-gulping predicament we're in right f**king now. Their financial products division created the derivatives market from lies and their executives raked in billions in bonuses and easy money. While they were peddling bad bets, median wages in the US stagnated and poor working schmucks leaned increasingly on credit to get by. Prices on everything were going up, but credit was easy to come by what with all that bullsh** money to throw around. And then the good days ended, for the poor sh**head in the middle class anyway.
While you a**holes on Wall Street were lining up for your first round at the government trough, the poor f**kers that had been using credit cards to maintain their standard of living from the 1990s were beginning to lose everything. Their houses, cars, health care, and even their jobs were disappearing. F**kers at Merrill-Lynch, A.I.G., Citi Group, Bank of America, and on, and on, and f**king on were taking huge bonuses or executive compensation packages. They were "retiring" to third world countries where their fortunes would set them up like kings.
And listen up motherf**kers, because we f**king paid for it. Us. The f**king taxpaying public. The dudes you have been grinding beneath your heels since you first read Ayn Rand and sociopathed your way through econ 101. We're your paymasters now, f**kers. And yeah, your tools in the government and in the press are between you and us for now, but we've got one trick up our sleeve. One and only recourse while you're raping us for our last f**king dollars.We can get ****ed. We can let the hate take over and form a f**king mob. When you take home bonuses from our money, when you get our bailouts and have your lobster luncheons or your strippers and coke parties at the Mirage, we'll be there with our torches and our f**king pitchforks.
And just because you got your little crybaby letter in the New York Times, just because "the media narrative" is turning back in your favor, doesn't mean we have forgotten. We're ****ed and we know what you did.Jake DeSantis, you f**king narcissist, don't give me that bullsh** self-pitying resignation letter. Don't tell me you weren't the dick that has been f**king this country, just the hand on its throat. Don't make me laugh with your charity donation lesson in life.
Let me give you a life lesson.
We'll go through the Red Cross and the March of Dimes to get to you. We'll leave Jerry's Kids mewling and thrashing in the gutters and overturn the Salvation Army Kettle to get our f**king money back.You're all scum. Villains. And before this is through blood will be shed. Human blood that doesn't come out of a gigantic f**king vagina like yours, DeSantis. It's not a threat, it's a promise you're making to us."Come get us," you're sneering."I hope you like to eat turds from a human butt," we're sneering right back.Your offices will be lit from within by the fires of a thousand burning evil motherf**kers and their evil personal assistants. There will be chaos. Triple chaos. Saigon all over again. They'll be pushing G5s off the deck of an aircraft carrier to make room for the next private jet escaping New York. We'll string the filth of the NYSE from lamp posts and Rick Santelli's empty sockets will look out on the streets, choked with useless paper and cars torched for insurance money.The orgy of our outrage will be legendary. We'll cut off hands and feet and gouge out tender parts. We'll feed chopped up guts to dogs and rotting carcasses can fertilize urban gardens.
Remember that tree they put Conan on? No, that's not for you, that's for your wives! You should be so lucky!The last of you, the scarred remnants of your horrible tribe, can read this to a congressional hearing, your voices quivering with indignation while pale fists hammer on the glass and cry to see your blood spill out in a red gush across the steps of the Capitol.You motherf**kers had better be afraid. You haven't learned your lesson yet, but we have. DEATH TO WALL STREET!
Sincerely and with warmest
regards,
***********
DEAR Wall Street,
What a bunch of whiny f**king babies. John Galt would be puking blood for 200-pages over this load of sh**, you bunch of sobbing welfare queens. You f**ked up. You ruined everything. You broke it, and we f**king bought it, because big baby was too big baby to fail.
We get it all ways from you motherf**kers. You're robbing us of our present and future now, but first you stepped on our throats on your way to the top. You raked in the money with a bunch of made up fantasyland bullsh** that wouldn't fool a counting horse on America's Funniest Home Videos, but somehow suckered in every major bank in the world.
Credit default swaps.
Those things are so f**king dumb that when you explain them to somebody and they laugh about how dumb they are you've got to act like ooooh they're so magical and complicated. Far too complex for the plebes to get. No! Wrong! Go into OTB and put fifty dollars on Rambo's Beautiful Blood. You just bought a credit default swap. Whoaaa you're blowing my simple pea brain with your fancy Wall Street talkin'. You sadsack ****ers.
So everybody bought into your big scheme, even when they didn't know they were playing, and now the whole thing has come crashing down because too many people won the f**king unbelievably obvious bet that a million illegal immigrants were going to default on million dollar home loans. Suddenly all your stupid fake money is gone, but if it's gone the whole system of bullsh** lies collapses and you look like d**kheads. So whoopty-doo, now we gotta make the fake money turn real or else the house of sh**ty c**t cards comes crashing down, only there isn't enough real money to cover all the fake money, so we're making more real money.
Then there's A.I.G., the bad seed, the carbuncle on our anus, the weeping wound in our tit, the sorry source of all our misery and woe. This is the monster garage full of miscreants that dreamed up the fire-breathing nitro-gulping predicament we're in right f**king now. Their financial products division created the derivatives market from lies and their executives raked in billions in bonuses and easy money. While they were peddling bad bets, median wages in the US stagnated and poor working schmucks leaned increasingly on credit to get by. Prices on everything were going up, but credit was easy to come by what with all that bullsh** money to throw around. And then the good days ended, for the poor sh**head in the middle class anyway.
While you a**holes on Wall Street were lining up for your first round at the government trough, the poor f**kers that had been using credit cards to maintain their standard of living from the 1990s were beginning to lose everything. Their houses, cars, health care, and even their jobs were disappearing. F**kers at Merrill-Lynch, A.I.G., Citi Group, Bank of America, and on, and on, and f**king on were taking huge bonuses or executive compensation packages. They were "retiring" to third world countries where their fortunes would set them up like kings.
And listen up motherf**kers, because we f**king paid for it. Us. The f**king taxpaying public. The dudes you have been grinding beneath your heels since you first read Ayn Rand and sociopathed your way through econ 101. We're your paymasters now, f**kers. And yeah, your tools in the government and in the press are between you and us for now, but we've got one trick up our sleeve. One and only recourse while you're raping us for our last f**king dollars.We can get ****ed. We can let the hate take over and form a f**king mob. When you take home bonuses from our money, when you get our bailouts and have your lobster luncheons or your strippers and coke parties at the Mirage, we'll be there with our torches and our f**king pitchforks.
And just because you got your little crybaby letter in the New York Times, just because "the media narrative" is turning back in your favor, doesn't mean we have forgotten. We're ****ed and we know what you did.Jake DeSantis, you f**king narcissist, don't give me that bullsh** self-pitying resignation letter. Don't tell me you weren't the dick that has been f**king this country, just the hand on its throat. Don't make me laugh with your charity donation lesson in life.
Let me give you a life lesson.
We'll go through the Red Cross and the March of Dimes to get to you. We'll leave Jerry's Kids mewling and thrashing in the gutters and overturn the Salvation Army Kettle to get our f**king money back.You're all scum. Villains. And before this is through blood will be shed. Human blood that doesn't come out of a gigantic f**king vagina like yours, DeSantis. It's not a threat, it's a promise you're making to us."Come get us," you're sneering."I hope you like to eat turds from a human butt," we're sneering right back.Your offices will be lit from within by the fires of a thousand burning evil motherf**kers and their evil personal assistants. There will be chaos. Triple chaos. Saigon all over again. They'll be pushing G5s off the deck of an aircraft carrier to make room for the next private jet escaping New York. We'll string the filth of the NYSE from lamp posts and Rick Santelli's empty sockets will look out on the streets, choked with useless paper and cars torched for insurance money.The orgy of our outrage will be legendary. We'll cut off hands and feet and gouge out tender parts. We'll feed chopped up guts to dogs and rotting carcasses can fertilize urban gardens.
Remember that tree they put Conan on? No, that's not for you, that's for your wives! You should be so lucky!The last of you, the scarred remnants of your horrible tribe, can read this to a congressional hearing, your voices quivering with indignation while pale fists hammer on the glass and cry to see your blood spill out in a red gush across the steps of the Capitol.You motherf**kers had better be afraid. You haven't learned your lesson yet, but we have. DEATH TO WALL STREET!
Sincerely and with warmest
regards,
***********
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