If you use more than one computer or are thinking of swapping internet browser then Xmarks is for you.

Install Xmarks on each computer you use, and it seamlessly integrates with your web browser and keeps your bookmarks safely backed up and in sync. Xmarks will sync across browsers too. Currently Xmarks supports Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari (Mac OS).

Hat Tip: Owen Abroad.

For those who made the conscious decision to spend more on free range or organic eggs, it was worth paying a premium to know the hens that laid them had been kept in ethical conditions.

But those people who ended up paying over the odds for Keith Owen’s eggs may feel a little less warm inside after it emerged the 44-year-old egg wholesaler had scammed all the major supermarkets and numerous small shops by passing off about 100m battery farmed eggs as free range or organic.

Owen, a married father-of-two from Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, was jailed for three years today and forced to surrender the £3m profit he had made by “dishonestly and systematically” mis-describing eggs over a two-year period. The fraud abused “well-intentioned public trust” by scamming innocent customers who had paid extra to ensure better animal welfare, Worcester crown court heard.

Defra, which brought the prosecution, said it was the biggest case of its kind it had ever investigated.

Owen ran Heart of England Eggs Unlimited, an egg-packing business that supplied bigger packing companies, which, in turn, provided the vast majority of eggs to the well-known supermarkets, including Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Tesco, as well as smaller retailers.

Last week he pleaded guilty to three charges of fraudulent accounting which involved him altering records to disguise the fact he was buying eggs laid by caged hens and selling them for a vast profit after “mis-describing” them in paperwork.

His barrister, John Kelsey-Fry QC, suggested his client was not alone in creating what he described as “mischief” in the egg industry.

“It’s not the case that all those to whom Mr Owen supplied eggs were concerned to ensure the provenance of the eggs was as described,” said Kelsey-Fry, adding it would be “inappropriate” to elaborate. Helen Pidd, The Guardian.

Why is it inappropriate for a barrister to provide evidence of widespread fraud – but then as we all know the law is an ass.

The simple answer is to buy your eggs from the farm gate – driving around the country side you’ll see many signs for free range eggs – here you can visit the chickens for yourself and see the conditions they live in – it’s the only way to be assured your eggs are cruelty free – not only that your eggs will be cheaper.

Up until now Google’s street view has been limited to a few major cities now it’s been extended to cover 95% of the UK so now you can have a look at where you live, work or whatever takes your fancy.

Hat Tip: Trusted Reviews.

European users of Internet Explorer are being given the choice of 12 browsers as part of Microsoft’s deal with the European Competition Commission – I wasn’t aware of over half of them – there’s the three obvious ones, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox then there’s Safari Apple’s browser and Opera the browser on Nintendo’s Wii and also on many mobile phones.

This still leaves seven more these are Avant, FlashPeak SlimBrowser, Flock, GreenBrowser, K-Meleon, Maxthon and Sleipnir.

So I’ve decided to give all 12 of them a week’s trial starting with Avant.

Whilst Cameron might talk the talk as far as the Tories commitment to the Health Service and the environment he’s not walking the walk.

Tory parliamentary candidates have undergone training by a rightwing group whose leadership has described the NHS as “the biggest waste of money in the UK”, claimed global warming is “a scam” and suggested that the waterboarding of prisoners can be justified.

At least 11 prospective Tory candidates, an estimated seven of whom have a reasonable chance of winning their seats, have been delegates or speakers at training conferences run by the Young Britons’ Foundation, which claims to have trained 2,500 Conservative party activists.

The YBF chief executive, Donal Blaney, who runs the courses on media training and policy, has called for environmental protesters who trespass to be “shot down” by the police and that Britain should have a US-style liberal firearms policy. In an article on his own website, entitled Scrap the NHS, not just targets, he wrote: “Would it not now be better to say that the NHS – in its current incarnation – is finished?”

Blaney has described the YBF as “a Conservative madrasa” that radicalises young Tories. Programmes have included trips to meet neo-conservative groups in the US and to a shooting range in Virginia to fire submachine guns and assault rifles.

The group’s close ties to the Tories were cemented this week when the Conservative party chairman, Eric Pickles, and the shadow defence secretary, Liam Fox, spoke at the annual YBF parliamentary rally at the House of Commons, which was chaired by Blaney. Robert Booth, The Guardian.

Don’t make the mistake of electing the Tories.

Fresh concerns about Lord Ashcroft emerged tonight when he was accused of “systematic tax avoidance” by exploiting his offshore status to avoid paying VAT on opinion polls he commissioned for the Conservatives.

Ashcroft privately ordered what he boasted was the biggest political polling exercise ever conducted in Britain in 2005, in order to aid the Tories as they targeted marginal seats. The cost of the polls, commissioned from YouGov and Populus, is believed to have approached at least £250,000.

But sources familiar with the transactions told the Guardian that the bills were paid by one his companies in Belize, meaning he did not pay VAT. David Leigh, Rob Evans, Polly Curtis and Nicholas Watt, The Guardian.

So much for Cameron’s promise to fix our broken politics.

The Electoral Commission has cleared as legal £5.1m of donations to the Conservatives from a firm belonging to Lord Ashcroft.

The commission has ruled that the donations by Bearwood Corporate Services were “legal and permissible”, after a 14 month investigation.

Firms must be “carrying on business in the UK” to be allowed to donate money to British political parties. BBC.

So what is the evidence that has allowed the Electoral Commission to deem the donations legal? Because what The Guardian has uncovered looks anything but legal.

The ultimate source of the Ashcroft millions that have helped bankroll the Tories in the past appears to be Belize, the Caribbean tax haven that the billionaire has claimed in the past to be his home.

But the route that the money follows on its 5,200-mile journey from the impoverished country to Conservative HQ – and then out to Britain’s marginal constituencies – is highly complex.

In recent years, the tycoon’s donations to the party have been made by Bearwood Corporate Services (BCS), a company registered in the UK and with a registered office at the offices of its auditors, BDO Stoy Hayward, in Southampton.

During the year ending March 2006, BCS received £4.79m in cash for shares that were bought by its holding company, Bearwood Corporate Holdings.

Bearwood Holdings had received that money by selling shares in itself to another company, Astraporta UK, for £5.54m.

Astraporta, in turn, appears to have received its funds, around £6m, by selling shares to a company registered in Belize called Stargate Holdings. Where Stargate receives its funds is unclear. It is registered offshore – at a registry controlled by an Ashcroft company. When the Guardian visited the registry’s offices in Belize City to inquire about Stargate, a registry official said: “You will never know who owns Stargate.”

Astraporta and Bearwood Holdings were put into liquidation last year and were formally dissolved on Monday, just as Ashcroft was making his announcement that he was a “non-dom”. Rajeev Syal, Ian Cobain, Jamie Doward and Polly Curtis, The Guardian.

It appears theses donations have been deemed legal not because the rules haven’t been broken – but because Ashcroft has made it impossible for the Electoral Commission to identify what’s going on – surely that alone should mean the donations have broken the rules – if they hadn’t then surely Ashcroft wouldn’t have to employ so much smoke and mirrors.

TVCatchup is a web-site that allows you to watch around 40 free to air channels live on your computer – and your iPhone – makes a handy alternative to purchasing a Freeview box – the only downside is you can’t record – but we are talking free – but don’t despair David Gilson of CNET asked Is it true that TVCatchup’s PVR service is returning? The answer

“Yes, this is the most requested item we have on our Web site — we get hundreds and hundreds of emails saying ‘when can I record again?’ because this takes us back to the roots of the Web site in 2006, when it was possible to record. We’ve worked very hard, both on the technology and on the [legal] clearance side of things. We now have a solution that works both ways. It will allow users to have a record button within the Web player itself, with the recordings being made to the computer or device they’re using at that time.”

“You will be able to pause, fast-forward, rewind — as long as you’ve got a bit of a buffer in there — and also record. If you have sufficient bandwidth, you’ll be able to record and switch to another channel. Then with regards to scheduling stuff in advance, you’ll be able to do it on the EPG that’s on the Web site. Also, if you’re out and about and your computer is on, you’ll be able to schedule a recording via our iPhone application as well.” Adam Smith, TVCatchup.

So hook your laptop up to your TV for a Freeview experience.

Back at the beginning of February Cameron gave a speech about Rebuilding Trust in Politics vowing to fix broken politics.

We’re just weeks away from an election. This should be the highest point in our democratic life – but never has the reputation of politics sunk so low. We’ve got to fix our broken politics and we’ve got to start fixing it now. The question is: who’s going to do it, and how are they going to do it? David Cameron.

Who’s going to do it? Not Cameron whose Director of Communications & Planning, Andy Coulson was editor of the News of the World when the paper employed private investigators to intercept peoples mobile phone voicemails. A report by The House of Commons
select committee for Culture, Media and Sport says:

“The newspaper’s inquiries were far from ‘full’ or ‘rigorous’ as we . . . have been assured”, it says. “Throughout our inquiry, too, we have been struck by the collective amnesia afflicting witnesses from the [paper].”

In its summary of the affair, the report says: “Throughout, we have repeatedly encountered an unwillingness [by present and former executives of News International owners of the paper] to provide the detailed information that we sought, claims of ignorance or lack of recall and deliberate obfuscation.

“We strongly condemn this behaviour, which reinforces the widely held impression that the press generally regard themselves as unaccountable and that News International in particular has sought to conceal the truth about what really occurred”. Ben Fenton, FT.

And what about Coulson’s managerial style:

In 2008 an employment tribunal upheld a claim of bullying by Coulson whilst he was at the News of The World. A Stratford employment tribunal upheld a claim of unfair dismissal claimed by senior sports writer Matt Driscoll and stated “We find the behaviour to have been a consistent pattern of bullying behaviour”. The judgment singled out Coulson for making “bullying” remarks in an email to Driscoll. The paper was told to pay Driscoll £800,000. Wikipedia.

Why employee such a low life if you wish to fix broken politics.

Then there’s Cameron’s major source of funds – tax dodger Lord Ashcroft – does Cameron have any morals who wouldn’t Cameron accept money from? And how long has Cameron known of Ashcroft’s status?

David Cameron not a man to fix… anything.

The BBC is to close two radio stations and scale back its web presence to make £600m in savings, according to a report in the Times newspaper.

BBC Asian Network and 6 Music will be closed under the proposals, it says.

The Times claims the measures are part of a plan, due to be made public next month, to reduce the BBC’s services and focus on quality over quantity.

A statement from the BBC called press speculation “premature” but acknowledged the existence of a review.

The National Union of Journalists, however, said it had “received a detailed briefing” from the BBC this morning “confirming media reports as largely correct”. BBC.

The end of 6 Music has been threatened for some time now and the NUJ seem to confirm my worst fears – I mean what else have I got a DAB radio for – 6 Music is for those of us who want to find something new to listen to but don’t want to be bombarded with the chart fodder that clogs up the likes of radio 1 and aren’t ready for the pipes and slippers of Radio 2 – there’s no other station like 6 Music in the words of David Bowie

6 Music keeps the spirit of broadcasters like John Peel alive and for new artists to lose this station would be a great shame. David Bowie.

If you feel like me then take the actions recommended by love6Music and yes you can join a Facebook group? and I don’t do Tw*tter.