Came across this story on the BBC it regards a woman who received an ASBO for having Sex too loud, The story first came to my attention last year when the lady, Caroline Cartwright was convicted of breaching her ASBO.
Obviously this case has gained attention due to the seemingly comical nature of their activity at the time of the offence; I do think however that further investigation of the case shows a much less amusing picture of our society. The act that was causing the act is really not important to the case (and in fact the offences also include playing music too loud, but this doesn’t make as good a headline.) but the noise must have been quite extreme as complaints were not just received from neighbours but also a Postman and a passer by taking her daughter to school, so clearly there must have been some volume to it.
However this is when the case becomes truly farcical, Due to the complaints she was issued with a Noise Abetment Notice, this notice basically states that if you do not cease your actions you are liable to prosecution; this however did not have any effect on the couple as there were 5 breaches of this notice which resulted in her receiving an ASBO, basically stating that if she continues in her actions she will face prison. This however was again ineffectual, as in January this year she received an 8 week suspended sentence, meaning that if she commits this offence again within 12 months she will be imprisoned for 8 weeks. However she has just been back in court for the same offence, and instead of serving the sentence she has already been handed down, she has again been given a 12 week sentence again suspended for 12 months.
This is all a mockery of a justice system, for someone who I can only assume must enjoy the publicity, in fact one of her previous ASBO breaches was the evening after she received her ASBO. The words of the court recorder, Jeremy Freedman, made me laugh “This Court is giving you one last chance.” Only slightly at odds then of the words of Judge Beatrice Bolton when sentencing last January who warned her that if she “committed further offences of the same nature, she would be sent to prison.”
And we wonder why we can’t stop people committing crimes, it is because the legal system has turned itself into a whimpering pussy cat where there are no consequences for your actions.
Wednesday 30 June 2010
Unemployment Rises make (Bob) Crow's Day
A leaked presentation seen by the Guardian has announced that there may be a 1.5 Million rise in unemployment from the Public Sector. Now to deal with that first even the Guardian have admitted that the (Independent) Office for Budget Responsibility have said that the Private sector should create 2.5 Million jobs in the same period. These seems like typical Best Case/Worst Case politics, I would imagine therefore that we have to look somewhere in the middle to find the truth, supposing that without the Public Sector millstone round the nations neck the public sector should be able to create 2 million jobs, but there will probably be an increase of around 1/2 a million unemployed from the cut backs. However the main question here is how many people would have been made redundant had George Osbourne not decided to cut quick and fast? I have always believed that if the public debt got to 1.5 Trillion that it would have necessitated the near collapse of our public economy with a near total paralysation of our Private economy - surely a much higher level of unemployment would have followed.
So despite the fact that the case for these figures is in no way proved RMT Leader Bob Crow has called for a summer of wide spread strikes, he has called for all unions to join together with community groups to have full disruption to society. Now Bob Crow is considered one of the more extreme Union leaders (which could explain why the Train Drivers are constantly on strike - £30,000+ for sitting down holding a handle?) but I think this shows the typical arrogance and selfishness of the Union movement.
"WAKE UP, THE COUNTRY IS ON THE BRINK OF COLLAPSE"
This is not the time to try and destroy the economy, this is the time to pull together and work to try and undo the damage of 13 years of the worst financial management
So despite the fact that the case for these figures is in no way proved RMT Leader Bob Crow has called for a summer of wide spread strikes, he has called for all unions to join together with community groups to have full disruption to society. Now Bob Crow is considered one of the more extreme Union leaders (which could explain why the Train Drivers are constantly on strike - £30,000+ for sitting down holding a handle?) but I think this shows the typical arrogance and selfishness of the Union movement.
"WAKE UP, THE COUNTRY IS ON THE BRINK OF COLLAPSE"
This is not the time to try and destroy the economy, this is the time to pull together and work to try and undo the damage of 13 years of the worst financial management
Tuesday 29 June 2010
VAT Calculator
Found a decent little VAT calculator at Small Business Pro.
Also discovered that to find out the Net cost of a Gross value you divide the Gross price by 1.175 (Obviously to be 1.2 from next year.) - My days are so much fun when that is the highlight.
Councillor Prosecuted for Racist Comments
I saw an article over on the BBC.co.uk’s magazine section regarding the rules of Speech Crime (When you can be prosecuted for what you say.) like many issues I can see both sides of the story on this one as I deplore racism and feel that anyone who uses racial (or other prejudice) language and insults against someone deserves punishment. On the other hand however I believe fully in freedom of the individual, I believe the answer to racism is not to silence the debate but to bring it into the open and therefore beat it with education and logic.
The article was written after the case of Cllr Shirley Brown (Lib Dem) on Bristol Council, apparently she called an Asian Councillor a “Coconut”, now I have to admit when I read that I was shocked and thought it was more PC nonsense, however on reading deeper it appears that Ms Brown called fellow councillor, Jay Jethwa (Conservative) a coconut as it is a well known insult for someone who is brown on the outside but white in the middle. (First I have heard it.) Ms Brown goes on to say "I must admit, I was angry because I thought it was an absolute insult, because she is of Asian background. I was thinking how could you cut funding that is going to impact so many people. So the first thing that came to mind, instead of saying 'you idiot', I said 'you coconut'." When I read this I found this incredible, so basically what she is saying is that if you are Asian, Black etc.. you have to vote (and I assume) think a certain way? Surely to believe that someone has to have certain opinions due to their skin colour is the worse form of Racism! And to say that someone is “white” because they disagree with you is insulting to the victim of the attack and every white person in this country, and I am sure there are many white people who would have been on her side.
Personally I think it is a shame that clearly racist individuals like Ms brown are allowed to hold political office, however as I said earlier this may be the price of freedom, I just hope that her constituents take the next opportunity to relieve her of spending time with people she clearly feels uncomfortable with.
The article was written after the case of Cllr Shirley Brown (Lib Dem) on Bristol Council, apparently she called an Asian Councillor a “Coconut”, now I have to admit when I read that I was shocked and thought it was more PC nonsense, however on reading deeper it appears that Ms Brown called fellow councillor, Jay Jethwa (Conservative) a coconut as it is a well known insult for someone who is brown on the outside but white in the middle. (First I have heard it.) Ms Brown goes on to say "I must admit, I was angry because I thought it was an absolute insult, because she is of Asian background. I was thinking how could you cut funding that is going to impact so many people. So the first thing that came to mind, instead of saying 'you idiot', I said 'you coconut'." When I read this I found this incredible, so basically what she is saying is that if you are Asian, Black etc.. you have to vote (and I assume) think a certain way? Surely to believe that someone has to have certain opinions due to their skin colour is the worse form of Racism! And to say that someone is “white” because they disagree with you is insulting to the victim of the attack and every white person in this country, and I am sure there are many white people who would have been on her side.
Personally I think it is a shame that clearly racist individuals like Ms brown are allowed to hold political office, however as I said earlier this may be the price of freedom, I just hope that her constituents take the next opportunity to relieve her of spending time with people she clearly feels uncomfortable with.
Is it time to stop making excuses for things that are simply not acceptable?
I am by no means a bastion of good grammar or even good spelling for that matter, but luckily I am more than able to press F7 (Shortcut for Spell check in MS Office) however the news that BT recently had to reject ¼ of applications for an apprenticeship due to the applicants being practically illiterate send shivers down my spine for the future of this country.
Listening to James Whale’s Drive on LBC last night the consensus seemed to be that the fault is shared between the Teachers and Technology, the Teachers argument I can understand as after all they are paid to educate so a limited education must result in some blame being apportioned there. On this subject the only thing I would say is that before we get some burning torches to chase after the teachers for a good old fashioned witch hunt, there is no way that they alone can be responsible and until they are allowed to restore discipline and even more important are backed up by the Parents at home then there will be little they can do other than try and get the children through the day.
I may blog some more on this in a bit but for now I want to focus on the technology part, the argument goes something like this: Young People spend more time sending text messages, e-mails and tweets (Follow me @adamgbrown), these communication streams have limited size (Although I refute this with regards to e-mail.), therefore it is causing children to use txt spk (text speak) in formal communications. I find this theory preposterous, basically when I was growing up, and to this very day I have always used the greeting “Hi” I say Hi to my friends, I write Hi in my e-mails and text messages, and when I write a formal (or even semi formal) message I start it with “Good Morning/Afternoon” or perhaps “Dear Sir or Madam”. In all the years I have been writing and talking I have never, to my knowledge, had an issue with when to use formal language and when to use informal. Surely this is all part of our social interactions, something which we have been doing for millions of years.
Exactly why sending a few texts should excuse people of this basic building block of what is known as common sense is beyond me, however it is systematic of a larger scale problem facing the country, why are we so quick to provide excuses for what is simply not acceptable? The LTA (Lawn Tennis Association) spends as much money on supporting failed tennis stars as we do on supporting the ones who have a good chance of making it, in fact our two big Tennis hopes at the moment are Andy Murrey who left the UK to head to Spain to train and Laura Robinson who trained in Australia. So there is review after review as to why we can not have a British Wimbledon champion, and yet at no time is anyone willing to turn around and say “Sorry, you’re just not good enough.” We create a society where turning up and competing is good enough and then complain when our sportsmen do not show enough passion.
Now when this “Well at least you tried” attitude was simply affecting our sportspeople (I love sport as much as the next man, but it is unlikely to have too much of a negative effect on our country.) it was just a bit of an embarrassment, but now that it is effecting the next generations ability to function within our society surely this has to be the wake up call.
Listening to James Whale’s Drive on LBC last night the consensus seemed to be that the fault is shared between the Teachers and Technology, the Teachers argument I can understand as after all they are paid to educate so a limited education must result in some blame being apportioned there. On this subject the only thing I would say is that before we get some burning torches to chase after the teachers for a good old fashioned witch hunt, there is no way that they alone can be responsible and until they are allowed to restore discipline and even more important are backed up by the Parents at home then there will be little they can do other than try and get the children through the day.
I may blog some more on this in a bit but for now I want to focus on the technology part, the argument goes something like this: Young People spend more time sending text messages, e-mails and tweets (Follow me @adamgbrown), these communication streams have limited size (Although I refute this with regards to e-mail.), therefore it is causing children to use txt spk (text speak) in formal communications. I find this theory preposterous, basically when I was growing up, and to this very day I have always used the greeting “Hi” I say Hi to my friends, I write Hi in my e-mails and text messages, and when I write a formal (or even semi formal) message I start it with “Good Morning/Afternoon” or perhaps “Dear Sir or Madam”. In all the years I have been writing and talking I have never, to my knowledge, had an issue with when to use formal language and when to use informal. Surely this is all part of our social interactions, something which we have been doing for millions of years.
Exactly why sending a few texts should excuse people of this basic building block of what is known as common sense is beyond me, however it is systematic of a larger scale problem facing the country, why are we so quick to provide excuses for what is simply not acceptable? The LTA (Lawn Tennis Association) spends as much money on supporting failed tennis stars as we do on supporting the ones who have a good chance of making it, in fact our two big Tennis hopes at the moment are Andy Murrey who left the UK to head to Spain to train and Laura Robinson who trained in Australia. So there is review after review as to why we can not have a British Wimbledon champion, and yet at no time is anyone willing to turn around and say “Sorry, you’re just not good enough.” We create a society where turning up and competing is good enough and then complain when our sportsmen do not show enough passion.
Now when this “Well at least you tried” attitude was simply affecting our sportspeople (I love sport as much as the next man, but it is unlikely to have too much of a negative effect on our country.) it was just a bit of an embarrassment, but now that it is effecting the next generations ability to function within our society surely this has to be the wake up call.
Monday 28 June 2010
Hands off Harry
An interesting question was put to me earlier, ever since the match finished yesterday the press and commentators have been pushing for the FA to hire Harry Redknapp. Obviously as a Spurs fan currently experiencing the best time I have known since taking an interest in football, this is a suggestion I find less than exciting.
So the question that was put to me is: What would I prefer England to win the world cup, or Tottenham to win the Premier League? Now as the years pore by and my cynicism increases I am starting to doubt I will see either, but given the choice I would take the league.
As much as I love the World Cup to come home and despite my better judgement continue to get over excited at each competition I have taken too much abuse, too many false dawns and been the butt of too many jokes to turn down the chance of spurs winning the league.
So keep your world Cup and look elsewhere for your manager, were keeping Harry.
(Before anyone feels the need to point it out I know that neither things are likely to happen, with or without Mr. Redknapp)
Sunday 27 June 2010
They're coming home, they're coming England coming home
Well 9 minutes left to play and we are on our way out, tomorrow the headline writers will come out with the usual lazy accusation stories, blaming how much the players earn, or how many foreign players are in the premiership. However for my,money I will be,placing the blame firmly at the door of Fabio Capello. Whilst I often defend the managers who often take an unfair portion of the blame, throughout this tournament Capello has been unimaginative and cowardly with his selections and tactics.
When faced match after match with a sub-standard Rooney, and a frankly dismal Gerrard, instead of making the brave call and benching these "superstars" he instead withdraws Defoe to being in Hapless Heskey and sticking to 4-4-2 like it was the only possibility.
Had I been in charge (obviously I am saying this with the certainty that I will never be put to the test) I would have played a 4-5-1 Upsom would be out so I would play with James in goal, Johnson, Dawson, Terry and Cole in defence. Lennon, Lampard, Gerrard, Millner and Wright-Philips with Defoe up front on his own.
I think what the most interesting fact to remember is that Capello signed an extended contract before the tournament, so if we want to fire him it will cost millions.
Baby Expo Brighton
We went to the south east baby Expo this morning at the Brighton Race course.
We have been to the baby show at Excel and the NEC unlike these this one was free entry so I was not expecting too much.(I think we paid £15 each for the others.) However whilst this show was a lot smaller the range of stands was not that much less.
What was noticeable however was how badly organized this was in comparison, bare in mind that this was a baby show, the day started with a 45 minute queue outside in very hot sun, then when we made it inside the stands were so close together that it was virtually un-navigable with a push chair, they also had areas set aside for talks and demonstrations which were both not set up to fit buggies and spilled out into the walkway. In the end we decided to skip the 3rd hall as it was just too stressful.
All that said however I do think I would definitely go again, it would just be nice if they remembered their target audience.
Saturday 26 June 2010
Daddy - Daughter Day
Had a very quiet day today as my wife has gone to see a show. But it did mean that I could spend some time with my daughter. Obviously at 9 months we were limited in what we could do but it was a good day.
Although I have to admit that the singers in queens square did take a bit off our shopping trip, it wasn't that they were bad, they are a local singing act who I have seen at a few functions, but they are more of an after dinner act than a town center main event.
Anyway, my daughter is in bed and the USA - Ghana match is kicking off, so all is good.
Friday 25 June 2010
New "Adult" Internet Domain
Icann the governing body which oversees web domains have given approval for the creation of a new “Adult” internet domain for Adult Material. The new .xxx domain names should be available by early 2011. Personally I support this move, I know that when a lot of people hear this idea they would prefer them not to get any websites at all but surely it is better that the sites are easily identifiable. This will enable parents to block this entire domain and therefore stop their children from accessing unsuitable material. It will also prevent people from accessing inappropriate material accidentally. A few years ago I was looking for a picture of a movie poster, I happily typed “Bad Boys” into google – What came back was a bit more of an education than I wanted. Having the .xxx domain would have instantly warned you that you had made a mistake and it was not the kind of image you require.
Longest Match at Wimbledon
Taking a break from Football and the world cup for a second there was an Epic (In fact Epic does not seem to cover it.) Match at
For Mahut there is at least the knowledge that although he has lost he will go down in
Italy follow the French
With one day of the Group Stages left, another of the 7 former winners of the competition have gone out, this time the Champions Italy, like France earlier in the week, Finished bottom of their group. So at least there are two "Major" football nations where there are bigger ramifications than our team should face if they are to return this weekend.
Busy Day
I had a very hectic day yesterday, First was an all day Stress and Resilience training session at work. All I learnt is that I may be stressed as I have all the systems of stress, however there is a very good chance that this may be in some way related to my 9 month old daughter.
Anyway after several hours of finding out how to spot stress I then had to rush back to the office to try and get a full days work done in two hours (Not at all stressful) next was a rush home to get ready in time to head out to the Broadfield Community Centre for an extraordinary General Council Meeting. It was an interesting meeting as we have received a Fire Enforcement Notice and so have 3 months to correct our violations. There was good news for me however as the Fire Enforcement Notice leaves all voting members of the General Council liable, and since losing the election in May I have been a co-opted non voting member.
In all seriousness though I doubt that the issues raised will be to serious to put right as it is pretty much what we should have been doing anyway.
Anyway after several hours of finding out how to spot stress I then had to rush back to the office to try and get a full days work done in two hours (Not at all stressful) next was a rush home to get ready in time to head out to the Broadfield Community Centre for an extraordinary General Council Meeting. It was an interesting meeting as we have received a Fire Enforcement Notice and so have 3 months to correct our violations. There was good news for me however as the Fire Enforcement Notice leaves all voting members of the General Council liable, and since losing the election in May I have been a co-opted non voting member.
In all seriousness though I doubt that the issues raised will be to serious to put right as it is pretty much what we should have been doing anyway.
Wednesday 23 June 2010
Into the last 16
Well we are into the last 16, a slight tarnish in that we could only manage to finish second to the USA. Although I think they are a better team than most people give them credit for.
All we need now is to wait until tonight to find out our opponents for next Sunday. Come on Australia
Whaling Peace Deal Fails
Sad news has come in that the proposed "Whaling Peace Deal" has fallen through, This is a real shame for both Whales and international cooperation.
As usual all sides are blaming each other for the breakdown but I think that there is unlikely to be any end to whaling until, unfortunately, there are simply no whales left to kill.
Currently three countries; Japan, Iceland and Norway hunt around 2000 whales a year and the deal was to reduce this in return for a smaller permitted amount. This deal however pleased no one, as the Japanese and Norwegian Whalers did not want a reduced amount of whaling and the environmentalists were scared that it would start to legalise Whale hunting again.
So I guess we will simply have to continue to see scenes of Green Peace blocking Whaling ships for a few more years yet.
As usual all sides are blaming each other for the breakdown but I think that there is unlikely to be any end to whaling until, unfortunately, there are simply no whales left to kill.
Currently three countries; Japan, Iceland and Norway hunt around 2000 whales a year and the deal was to reduce this in return for a smaller permitted amount. This deal however pleased no one, as the Japanese and Norwegian Whalers did not want a reduced amount of whaling and the environmentalists were scared that it would start to legalise Whale hunting again.
So I guess we will simply have to continue to see scenes of Green Peace blocking Whaling ships for a few more years yet.
Tuesday 22 June 2010
The Emergency Budget Has Landed
Well the budget is out and the usual childish debating has started in Parliament, there were few shocks in the budget with the possible exception of the fact that many commentators believed that the recent warnings from the Chancellor and other key figures were softening us up for a budget which would then look tame in comparison. However I think that this Budget really is the first step towards the pain we will all have to bear in the coming years, however if Mr. Osbourne is to be believed (And I have no reason not too.) then in just five years we will be looking at a balanced budget, this is much quicker than Labour suggested and considerably quicker than even many Tory supporters thought were possible, before you get excited though, obviously this is simply the point at which the government can start to work on clearing the massive debt that it will owe, but luckily that should be less than the 1.5 Trillion that labour wanted us left with. (£1,500,000,000,000 – I feel it is good to see it written in numbers in case we forget what a really large number it is.)
Like everyone else I do not want to take the pain that is coming up, and with only one income coming in and a young baby at home it will be a real struggle, but if it means that within 5 years we can start attacking the debt and dare I suggest that within two parliaments (As long as Labour don’t get back in.) we could be approaching a debt free country. We may even be able to start investing in things again.
Anyway the headline figures of today’s report are:
Increase VAT 20%
Widely expected, and a good tax to bring in extra revenue as unlike income and capital gains it is very hard to avoid, I also think it is a fair tax as it works on what you spend, therefore if you have a lot more money you will most likely spend more and as VAT is a percentage of price you will pay more. I know that Labour are saying that it is an unfair tax on the poor (As they spend a higher percentage of their money) but at the end of the day the Rich have already had a 10% increase of higher tax rate.
Two year pay freeze for Public Servants paid over £21,000
This may bring out the strikers this summer but I think it is fair, my Company have struggled with cash flow recently and a pay freeze has been mentioned, again it is not nice but it may have the effect of reducing inflation as we try and get out of recession. I have to admit that I thought £21,000 was a low threshold as after all if you only have one income this is hardly a great wage, but I guess that is what is meant by sharing the pain.
Housing Benefit a Maximum of £400 per week
I am slightly shocked that Housing Benefit was being paid out at a rate over £1800 a month anyway. I guess this will make it hard for the Express and Mail reporters in coming months as “Immigrant living in luxury gets £X a month in housing benefit” has been a regular shock feature over the last few years. Personally I have often advocated that social housing should not come in larger than 3 Bedroom houses. (I know this will anger a few people.) But surely 1 room for Adults and 1 each for Boys and Girls is all you really need?
Parents back to work when youngest child starts school
I do believe that getting parents back into the workforce quicker is a key element to financial stability, Personally to achieve this I would like to see universal free child care, but I guess instead they will simply look to force parents back into the workforce when their youngest is 5, I have a cynical feeling this may lead to an increase in 4 year age gaps between siblings. (As the current system has increased the amount of siblings born over 16 years apart.) Well as long as there is a marked increase in jobs available where the hours are between 10am and 2pm I guess this will work.
Extra £2bn a year tax on the banks
I guess this was inevitable as the Banks are the villains of the 21st Century, I think the amount mentioned will be easily absorbed by the banks (rather than being passed on to us.) As a general rule I do not like a tax that picks on a particular industry as they always seem like petty vengeance for alleged wrong doings, after all I would argue that the “credit crunch” would never have happened if people were not so greedy that they took money they could not afford. However blaming the Banks stops people having to reflect on themselves.
There were also a few small bits of good news
Raise Personal Allowance
The Personal Allowance is going to be increased, This is a incremental step on the way to the Lib Dem election pledge to raise the threshold of Income Tax to £10,000, this will obviously help all tax payers but obviously will mean the most to the lower rate tax payers so should be some help to the less well off.
2 Year Council tax Freeze
This will help all council tax payers, and along with the Public Sector pay freeze (Without which it would probably not be possible) and no increase on Fuel duty should have an effect to keep inflation under 3%. However when you look at the percentage of tax that is actually council tax, it is really just a token gesture.
Like everyone else I do not want to take the pain that is coming up, and with only one income coming in and a young baby at home it will be a real struggle, but if it means that within 5 years we can start attacking the debt and dare I suggest that within two parliaments (As long as Labour don’t get back in.) we could be approaching a debt free country. We may even be able to start investing in things again.
Anyway the headline figures of today’s report are:
Increase VAT 20%
Widely expected, and a good tax to bring in extra revenue as unlike income and capital gains it is very hard to avoid, I also think it is a fair tax as it works on what you spend, therefore if you have a lot more money you will most likely spend more and as VAT is a percentage of price you will pay more. I know that Labour are saying that it is an unfair tax on the poor (As they spend a higher percentage of their money) but at the end of the day the Rich have already had a 10% increase of higher tax rate.
Two year pay freeze for Public Servants paid over £21,000
This may bring out the strikers this summer but I think it is fair, my Company have struggled with cash flow recently and a pay freeze has been mentioned, again it is not nice but it may have the effect of reducing inflation as we try and get out of recession. I have to admit that I thought £21,000 was a low threshold as after all if you only have one income this is hardly a great wage, but I guess that is what is meant by sharing the pain.
Housing Benefit a Maximum of £400 per week
I am slightly shocked that Housing Benefit was being paid out at a rate over £1800 a month anyway. I guess this will make it hard for the Express and Mail reporters in coming months as “Immigrant living in luxury gets £X a month in housing benefit” has been a regular shock feature over the last few years. Personally I have often advocated that social housing should not come in larger than 3 Bedroom houses. (I know this will anger a few people.) But surely 1 room for Adults and 1 each for Boys and Girls is all you really need?
Parents back to work when youngest child starts school
I do believe that getting parents back into the workforce quicker is a key element to financial stability, Personally to achieve this I would like to see universal free child care, but I guess instead they will simply look to force parents back into the workforce when their youngest is 5, I have a cynical feeling this may lead to an increase in 4 year age gaps between siblings. (As the current system has increased the amount of siblings born over 16 years apart.) Well as long as there is a marked increase in jobs available where the hours are between 10am and 2pm I guess this will work.
Extra £2bn a year tax on the banks
I guess this was inevitable as the Banks are the villains of the 21st Century, I think the amount mentioned will be easily absorbed by the banks (rather than being passed on to us.) As a general rule I do not like a tax that picks on a particular industry as they always seem like petty vengeance for alleged wrong doings, after all I would argue that the “credit crunch” would never have happened if people were not so greedy that they took money they could not afford. However blaming the Banks stops people having to reflect on themselves.
There were also a few small bits of good news
Raise Personal Allowance
The Personal Allowance is going to be increased, This is a incremental step on the way to the Lib Dem election pledge to raise the threshold of Income Tax to £10,000, this will obviously help all tax payers but obviously will mean the most to the lower rate tax payers so should be some help to the less well off.
2 Year Council tax Freeze
This will help all council tax payers, and along with the Public Sector pay freeze (Without which it would probably not be possible) and no increase on Fuel duty should have an effect to keep inflation under 3%. However when you look at the percentage of tax that is actually council tax, it is really just a token gesture.
I am not sure if anyone else has noticed but there seems to be an extraordinarily large amount of reports coming out of everyone’s least favourite Quango; the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (N.I.C.E.) Last week they were suggesting Sex Education for 5 Year olds and today they have published a report stating that if everyone eats food that is lower in Fat and Salt they would be healthier. I assume that next week we will get the shock announcement that Walking is good for you, or that putting your head in the oven is not a good idea.
I am afraid that this looks to me like a Quango trying desperately to justify their own existence ahead of today’s budget.
I am afraid that this looks to me like a Quango trying desperately to justify their own existence ahead of today’s budget.
Pease Pottage Website
Just came across this website which lists the latest news for Pease Pottage. It really helps you to notice that whilst Crawley may often seem like a little part of London, we are really in the middle of the countryside. The latest news section of the Pease Pottage Info page lists the following events.
1837 - Queen Victoria passes through the village on the way to Brighton
2008 - The Grapes public house closes down
2010 - It Snows
1837 - Queen Victoria passes through the village on the way to Brighton
2008 - The Grapes public house closes down
2010 - It Snows
Monday 21 June 2010
Are we being out foxed?
News reports have come in of a small child who has been attacked in a school in Brighton. Obviously coming as it does just a few weeks after two 9 month old twins were attacked in Hackney it has led to even more debate with regards to control of foxes in our urban landscapes.
Possibly the wildest theory that has been proposed to me however is that this is all a conservative plot to overturn the hunt ban. I think this is particularily funny as the Tories have already promised a free vote on hunting, but also as I highly doubt that a hunt would ever be effective against the increase in urban fox population.
For what my opinion is worth, I am anti-hunting, I do understand the reasons for it, but it is not for me. I simply can't stand the thought of getting enjoyment from the pain of another living creature. But left unchecked the urban fox population will become a real issue, but what is the answer?
If you know, pass it on.
Council Tax Freeze
With 24 Hours before what is probably the most anticipated and important budget that I can remember speculation is rife as to what it can include.
One widely expected measure that it is believed will be included is that Council tax will be frozen, this is an interesting initiative, however I would need to see the Brass Tacks before I decide if it is a good idea, the Conservative Manifesto included the scope for awarding councils who kept increases to 2%, an award of the same amount basically cancelling out any increase.
If this was a Labour initiative I would have expected it to be simply an exercise in trying to further squeeze the councils but as it is the Coalition I will give them the benefit of the doubt and wait to see if Councils get a fair deal or not.
One widely expected measure that it is believed will be included is that Council tax will be frozen, this is an interesting initiative, however I would need to see the Brass Tacks before I decide if it is a good idea, the Conservative Manifesto included the scope for awarding councils who kept increases to 2%, an award of the same amount basically cancelling out any increase.
If this was a Labour initiative I would have expected it to be simply an exercise in trying to further squeeze the councils but as it is the Coalition I will give them the benefit of the doubt and wait to see if Councils get a fair deal or not.
Sunday 20 June 2010
Father's Day From Winchester
I Spent my first father's day in Winchester, it has to be said mostly due to its proximity to last nights hotel, but I have recently been reading Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Chronicles, which being set at the time of Alfred the Great features Winchester prominently.
Anyway, the city itself is quite a sweet little place, with many tea shops mixing shoulders with the usual high street brands. The Cathedral was very impressive but obviously being a Sunday was otherwise engaged.
The jewel in the Winchester crown however is King Arthur's round table, obviously not his actual table more a 12th century replica. It is quite an impressive sight and is in the old hall, which was part of the old royal palace.
Another site of note is the city museum which is three stories and features lots of activities and interesting exhibits, and like the Great hall is free entry, although donations are welcome.
The Swan Hotel, Alresford
Tonight we are staying at the Swan Hotel to celebrate my nan's 80th birthday, the town was chosen due to being reasonably central for most and as it is a quiet nice Hampshire town. We were shocked therefore to discover it was the day of the Alresford music festival.
As for the hotel itself, I would dearly love to say that it is a great hotel and that the fact I have just had the worst nights sleep since my daughter was born was simply due to a few inconsiderate guests, however I am afraid that the issue is actually that the Hotel is so creaky and the walls so thin you can here a tortoise sneeze three rooms over.
It is a real shame as despite the fact that the entire staff seems to consist of one young lady, and a few people who sit behind the counter ignoring you, the Hotel and Restaurant were both of good quality.
The trouble started at 12:05 when four very self involved women stopped outside our room for a midnight shout, this woke up our baby, she was just about settled when the people in the room above came back, it took around 2 hours to get our daughter resettled with all the noises. (No Idea why they felt the need to just walk backwards and forwards accross the room for two hours, but apparently they did.)
In summary it is a great place to have a lunch, but would recommend it to heavy sleepers only. Of cause maybe I should simply stick to more moden hotels with stuff such as double glazing and non creaking floorboards.
Saturday 19 June 2010
Another fine mess.
Here we go again, one thing you can always be sure with England, is that it will not be easy. The draw with USA was one thing as I think that the United States are a good team, but we really should have beaten Algeria.
That said I have to agree with Rooney that this is a time we need to support the team, I have never understood booing your own team as it rarely makes them play with more confidence.
Anyway, to the future and it is simple, win Wednesday and we are through, simples
Friday 18 June 2010
Killer Movie?
My second cinema visit this week was to watch Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl in The Killers. The trailers looked like by the numbers romantic/farse comedy but I have always thought that Heigl handles comedy very well. And I have to admit that I was not surprised as that was exactly what we got.
Basically Kutcher is a (Probably CIA) Hitman who gives it all up when he meets Heigl by chance whilst on a job in Nice, They start a relationship and I doubt it will ruin the film too much to give away that his past catches up with him. What ensues is a by the numbers Action Comedy with only the two main leads lifting this film above the standard (But not by much, although Tom Selleck and Catherine O'Hara as the In Laws give a good perfromance.) Like I say it is an alright film, however if you can only hire one film in this Genre I would instead recommend Mr & Mrs Smith, in fact this year even Date Night is a better, similar film.
But it is definitly in the top two films I have seen at the Cineworld Cinema Crawley This Week, and most likely the best one I have seen in Screen 2 at an 18:30 Start!!
IPCC clear G20 Sergeant
Sergeant Smellie found out yesterday that he is not to face any further investigation into alleged assault of a protester at last years G20 protests, Sgt Smellie was accused of common assault after a hand swipe and baton hit on Nicola Fisher last April. Earlier in the year he was cleared by Westminster magistrates of any legal wrong doing and the IPCC have followed that ruling.
Now as I have said earlier I do come from a Police family with several relatives and friends who are serving/former officers so I will declare that my natural sympathies are probably skewed towards the Police’s side. However I was listening to the Radio this morning (Nick Ferrari on LBC 97.3) and he was having a phone in on the topic which I found to be very interesting, The first speaker I unfortunately can not remember her name but she was talking around the issue of whether or not Sgt Smellie did the right thing, and should he have struck out with his baton or tried to disarm her, she was of the opinion that because the aggressor was a woman she should not have been struck but instead should have been disarmed.
This is a mad suggestion, when you are part of what is extensible a shield wall, the last thing that you should do is break the formation, any attempt by Sgt Smellie to move forward into the crowd to disarm/arrest the aggressor would most likely have ended with the Sergeant being off his feet inside a hostile environment, the only possible cause of action therefore for the officers around him would have been to push the crowd back until he was again in a secure position, Obviously it is just conjecture but I would suggest that this would result in many more baton strikes than the 1 it took Sgt Smellie to control the situation.
After several more phone calls which all supported the position the Officer took, there was another caller who accused all the callers who supported him of being in favour of domestic violence, I have to admit this annoyed me somewhat as I support the actions he took but can not see how you can compare the two. Firstly the lady in question Nicola Fisher was the aggressor in the situation, I would say that whilst I believe that all violence should be avoided at all costs, if you are under attack you should always have the ability to fight back, regardless of the sex etc... of your attacker. Secondly Ms Fisher put herself into a combat situation; if you enter a situation that is likely to cause a physical altercation you must surely forfeit your right to plead femininity. This gets to the heart of equality; if women are to serve, for example, in combat situations then they have to expect to be shot at. Surely if we are to have equality then if a female starts a fight they must be held equally at fault for the consequences. Now before I start getting accused of supporting domestic violence, which is entirely different. For me if my wife attacked me with a weapon, I would defend myself, but I would not class it as domestic violence as I would do the bear minimum I needed to get myself out of the house, and I would not go back. To try and join the fate of someone who provokes a policeman into issuing a baton strike and a woman who is routinely beaten, often due to imagined slights by an abusive partner (Of cause not to forget that it also happens the other way round.) quite ridiculous.
Anyway, that digression aside, I do support Sgt Smellie and hope that he can get his career back on track, over the last few years we have seen a constant removal of police powers and an increase of mob rule where the police have been too scared to engage in situations in case they are accused of police brutality, However as a law abiding citizen, I would rather have a Police Force to keep me safe, than a Police Service to make me feel like part of the community. And to be honest the way things were going, I was starting to doubt the Polices ability to protect me and my family; I just hope that the coalition can undo this part of Labour’s legacy as well.
Now as I have said earlier I do come from a Police family with several relatives and friends who are serving/former officers so I will declare that my natural sympathies are probably skewed towards the Police’s side. However I was listening to the Radio this morning (Nick Ferrari on LBC 97.3) and he was having a phone in on the topic which I found to be very interesting, The first speaker I unfortunately can not remember her name but she was talking around the issue of whether or not Sgt Smellie did the right thing, and should he have struck out with his baton or tried to disarm her, she was of the opinion that because the aggressor was a woman she should not have been struck but instead should have been disarmed.
This is a mad suggestion, when you are part of what is extensible a shield wall, the last thing that you should do is break the formation, any attempt by Sgt Smellie to move forward into the crowd to disarm/arrest the aggressor would most likely have ended with the Sergeant being off his feet inside a hostile environment, the only possible cause of action therefore for the officers around him would have been to push the crowd back until he was again in a secure position, Obviously it is just conjecture but I would suggest that this would result in many more baton strikes than the 1 it took Sgt Smellie to control the situation.
After several more phone calls which all supported the position the Officer took, there was another caller who accused all the callers who supported him of being in favour of domestic violence, I have to admit this annoyed me somewhat as I support the actions he took but can not see how you can compare the two. Firstly the lady in question Nicola Fisher was the aggressor in the situation, I would say that whilst I believe that all violence should be avoided at all costs, if you are under attack you should always have the ability to fight back, regardless of the sex etc... of your attacker. Secondly Ms Fisher put herself into a combat situation; if you enter a situation that is likely to cause a physical altercation you must surely forfeit your right to plead femininity. This gets to the heart of equality; if women are to serve, for example, in combat situations then they have to expect to be shot at. Surely if we are to have equality then if a female starts a fight they must be held equally at fault for the consequences. Now before I start getting accused of supporting domestic violence, which is entirely different. For me if my wife attacked me with a weapon, I would defend myself, but I would not class it as domestic violence as I would do the bear minimum I needed to get myself out of the house, and I would not go back. To try and join the fate of someone who provokes a policeman into issuing a baton strike and a woman who is routinely beaten, often due to imagined slights by an abusive partner (Of cause not to forget that it also happens the other way round.) quite ridiculous.
Anyway, that digression aside, I do support Sgt Smellie and hope that he can get his career back on track, over the last few years we have seen a constant removal of police powers and an increase of mob rule where the police have been too scared to engage in situations in case they are accused of police brutality, However as a law abiding citizen, I would rather have a Police Force to keep me safe, than a Police Service to make me feel like part of the community. And to be honest the way things were going, I was starting to doubt the Polices ability to protect me and my family; I just hope that the coalition can undo this part of Labour’s legacy as well.
Thursday 17 June 2010
Poll Results out
The Results of my Poll "How Long Will the Coalition last." are in
And it is 100% in favour of a full term, I just wish that it was more than 7 people who cast their votes! oh well, if I manage to build up more followers maybe I will ask the question again.
And it is 100% in favour of a full term, I just wish that it was more than 7 people who cast their votes! oh well, if I manage to build up more followers maybe I will ask the question again.
the Axeman Comes
Well here it comes, The Cuts are starting to be announced. Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander has announced £2bn of cuts. This is not a massive surprise as I think I half blind turtle could see that the Labour Government had given out money that it did not have and could not afford in a shameless effort to purchase votes. (I thought this had ended in the 19th Century)
Mr. Alexander said "As a result of the poor decisions made by the previous government, I have taken the decision to cancel certain projects that do not represent good value for money, and suspend others pending full consideration in the Spending Review. "
Which sounds fair to me and I think is something that would be hard to argue against, However true to his delusions Liam "the Joker" Byrne has tried to reply saying that the statement "smashed the coalitions claim that Labour spent unwisely." - Now I assume that like his previous comments that he had spent all the money, this is also supposed to be a joke. How can finding £2bn of projects that the last government agreed too without the necessary funds to complete be anything other than proof positive that Labour's financial mismanagement is worse than we thought.
Although in "Joker Byrne's" fantasy world they have done nothing wrong whatsoever, I have a terrible feeling that Joker and his mates simply believed the view that seems to be shared by Labour Treasury ministers and No win, No fee lawyers, that governments simply have their own money, they don't, the money does actually have to come from somewhere.
Back to the actual topic, among the projects cancelled was the Stonehenge visitor centre, which is a shame as Stonehenge is one of our main tourist attractions and the facilities are really lacking for a site of it's worldwide prestige, however I understand that it has to be delayed as that is what happens when you have no money. Also cancelled is Outukumpu - £13m if anyone can tell me what this is I would appreciate it.
The full list of projects cancelled:
Stonehenge Visitor Centre: £25m
Local Authority Leader Boards: £16m
Sheffield Forgemasters International Limited: £80m
Rollout of the Future Jobs Fund: £290m
Six month offer recruitment subsidies: £30m
Extension of Young Person's Guarantee to 2011/12: £450m
Two year Jobseeker's Guarantee: £515m
Active Challenge Routes - Walk England: £2m
County Sports Partnerships : £6m
North Tees and Hartlepool hospital: £450m
Local Authority Business Growth Initiative: £50m
Outukumpu: £13m
Mr. Alexander said "As a result of the poor decisions made by the previous government, I have taken the decision to cancel certain projects that do not represent good value for money, and suspend others pending full consideration in the Spending Review. "
Which sounds fair to me and I think is something that would be hard to argue against, However true to his delusions Liam "the Joker" Byrne has tried to reply saying that the statement "smashed the coalitions claim that Labour spent unwisely." - Now I assume that like his previous comments that he had spent all the money, this is also supposed to be a joke. How can finding £2bn of projects that the last government agreed too without the necessary funds to complete be anything other than proof positive that Labour's financial mismanagement is worse than we thought.
Although in "Joker Byrne's" fantasy world they have done nothing wrong whatsoever, I have a terrible feeling that Joker and his mates simply believed the view that seems to be shared by Labour Treasury ministers and No win, No fee lawyers, that governments simply have their own money, they don't, the money does actually have to come from somewhere.
Back to the actual topic, among the projects cancelled was the Stonehenge visitor centre, which is a shame as Stonehenge is one of our main tourist attractions and the facilities are really lacking for a site of it's worldwide prestige, however I understand that it has to be delayed as that is what happens when you have no money. Also cancelled is Outukumpu - £13m if anyone can tell me what this is I would appreciate it.
The full list of projects cancelled:
Stonehenge Visitor Centre: £25m
Local Authority Leader Boards: £16m
Sheffield Forgemasters International Limited: £80m
Rollout of the Future Jobs Fund: £290m
Six month offer recruitment subsidies: £30m
Extension of Young Person's Guarantee to 2011/12: £450m
Two year Jobseeker's Guarantee: £515m
Active Challenge Routes - Walk England: £2m
County Sports Partnerships : £6m
North Tees and Hartlepool hospital: £450m
Local Authority Business Growth Initiative: £50m
Outukumpu: £13m
Wednesday 16 June 2010
World Cup Fans
One of the best things about the world cup are the efforts the fans will go to to support their team, here are just a few from the first round of games.
This is Dracula coming out to support Slovakia
Three highly co-ordinated German Fans
Probably the Best Costume Combo seen so far
And probably the most extreme, I am assuming they were not found shortly afterwards passed out.
And this one is... South African I guess but I draw a blank after that.The A Team are The Losers
Returned to cinema last night for the first time in what seemed like a long time but was probably only two weeks. I saw The Losers, now if I didn't know that A) The A-Team was American and B) The A-Team movie was due for release soon, I would have assumed that they had decided to make an American version of the A-Team so I was not particularly interested in going and seeing it as I would have preferred to wait for the real thing next month.
It is based on the Comic series of the same name, which I have ta admit I have never read as when it comes to Comics I have a Transformers Speciality, but this is obviously part of the trend of Comic - Screen adaptations that has been such a feature of cinema in recent years.
All in all however it was a good film, and a lot more enjoyable than I had imagined, the similarities with the A-Team were unavoidable, With the Comedy Character, The Tough Black Guy, The Attractive Player and the Older commander, not to mention the fact that they were framed for a crime they didn't commit and were trying to clear their name. This was however a slightly gritter version of the A-Team although there was the common theme that the Good Guys could hit fully armoured soldiers to take them out from 200 yards whilst running, but the bad guys could not hit one of them standing ten foot away with a target painted on their chests. (An exaggeration I grant you but I am sure you get my drift.)
Anyway, I would recommend this film as a good bit of shoot 'em up fun, the action is fast paced enough that you don't have to worry about anything as complicated as thinking, and therefore you don't always see the twists coming (there aren't many) as you haven't had time to think. The camera shots and quick/slow motion cutting can get you quite disorientated but that is the main draw back.
And it does give a new reality to the phrase Women and Children first.
Tuesday 15 June 2010
No music
I made a major mistake today, well maybe not major, but it was a pain. I moved the memory card from one phone to my other. Now this would not normally be an issue but unfortunately one phone stores its music on the phone's memory, the other on the memory card.
This combination of things led to me having to listen to the pre-installed music instead, normally a collection of unsigned talentless acts you haven't heard of. This lot was no exception, the only saving grace was the flight of the conchords - most beautiful girl in the room, which whilst not a great song is at least funny.
So for my ride tomorrow I need to make sure I have my full complement of music, all I need to do is locate my memory card (the main problem I have with micro SD cards.)
Monday 14 June 2010
Thanks to inconsiderate motorists for the Legionaires
This story from the BBC caught my eye at lunch time, it was not necessarily the fact that windscreen water could increase the risk of legionnaires per se that interested me although I was quite interested in how this spread so much infection when after all most washer fluid is sprayed on the window as cars are driving so I do not really see how it would cause such an infection.
When I thought about it a bit later I realised that if this really is an issue then it in fact may not be the driver of the car who is most at risk, in the summer riding around on my bike I am often sprayed in the face by drivers who for some unknown reason have washer bottles which spray a high arc above the car and onto the windscreen of the car behind, or as is sometimes the case, into the face of the biker behind who has opened his visor to clear the steam. Now it has always made me feel reasonably bad to think that on the average ride to work I was being sprayed with Antifreeze two or three times, now apparently I have to add legionnaires to the list.
Now I am torn between two thoughts, on the one hand I don’t really like the taste of anti-freeze and it stings my eyes when I get a face full, but on the other at least the Anti-Freeze kills the legionnaire’s disease. In an ideal world of cause I wouldn’t get sprayed at all, but I don’t expect that to happen anytime soon.
When I thought about it a bit later I realised that if this really is an issue then it in fact may not be the driver of the car who is most at risk, in the summer riding around on my bike I am often sprayed in the face by drivers who for some unknown reason have washer bottles which spray a high arc above the car and onto the windscreen of the car behind, or as is sometimes the case, into the face of the biker behind who has opened his visor to clear the steam. Now it has always made me feel reasonably bad to think that on the average ride to work I was being sprayed with Antifreeze two or three times, now apparently I have to add legionnaires to the list.
Now I am torn between two thoughts, on the one hand I don’t really like the taste of anti-freeze and it stings my eyes when I get a face full, but on the other at least the Anti-Freeze kills the legionnaire’s disease. In an ideal world of cause I wouldn’t get sprayed at all, but I don’t expect that to happen anytime soon.
Ledley out Injured?
Well it appears that Ledley may have played his first and last game in South Africa; He injured his knee and has therefore had to retire from the tournament. Now as a major Spurs fan I want nothing but the best for King but have to say a quick “Told you so” after what I predicted came true, my only hope is that it is nothing that will carry across to next season as if Tottenham are going to mix it with the Champions League teams we will need our captain firing on all cylinders.
From a Spurs point of view the good news, if there is any, is that the chances of Michael Dawson earning his first full England cap have just got much better, I just pray that nothing happens to Dawson, otherwise it could be a very short Champions League campaign for the Spurs.
From a Spurs point of view the good news, if there is any, is that the chances of Michael Dawson earning his first full England cap have just got much better, I just pray that nothing happens to Dawson, otherwise it could be a very short Champions League campaign for the Spurs.
Sunday 13 June 2010
Lembit Opik Update
I had intended to write this a while ago but never got round to it.
I was actually able to get a recording of Lembit Opik's debut stand up gig, and I have to say that regardless as my views on him during his time as an MP the gig was not actually that bad.
I would say that it was much more like watching a guy give an after dinner speech than it was actual cutting edge comedy, and I think that as most of the jokes were self effacing that it stopped the crowd from giving him to much of a hard time (or perhaps the audience had been selected - although I doubt this.) he mainly spoke about what it was like going from being an MP to rejoining the public, I could therefore relate to a certain extent, but obviously my day to day life has remained, so I have to say it has improved my view of him (Maybe we should start a rejected politician club)
I doubt if anyone who saw him would seek him out but at least he has one tour in him.
I was actually able to get a recording of Lembit Opik's debut stand up gig, and I have to say that regardless as my views on him during his time as an MP the gig was not actually that bad.
I would say that it was much more like watching a guy give an after dinner speech than it was actual cutting edge comedy, and I think that as most of the jokes were self effacing that it stopped the crowd from giving him to much of a hard time (or perhaps the audience had been selected - although I doubt this.) he mainly spoke about what it was like going from being an MP to rejoining the public, I could therefore relate to a certain extent, but obviously my day to day life has remained, so I have to say it has improved my view of him (Maybe we should start a rejected politician club)
I doubt if anyone who saw him would seek him out but at least he has one tour in him.
Well Disappointment it is
Well having watched our first game, a rather disappointing Draw vs the USA (Although I have always said that the USA had a good team, so do not find it as embarrassing as some.) I can say a few things,
1) it shows how we struggled up front that our best striker was Emile Heskey.
2) Aaron Lennon I believe can make or break our campaign, if he does not lose the fear of failure that he was playing with last night our attack will be blunt throughout.
3) We really should have taken Paul Robinson to the world cup, Robbo is this countries best keeper who suffered a loss of form and seemed to just get forgotten about, now that Green has had a worse error and Calamity James' errors are all widely known, it shows what an implosive move it was to ostracise Robinson.
The final thing I learnt is that even for a football match night clubs like to have the sound up so loud you can not talk to the person sat next to you, which was probably good as then the people I was with could not hear some of the expletives that snuck out of my mouth.
1) it shows how we struggled up front that our best striker was Emile Heskey.
2) Aaron Lennon I believe can make or break our campaign, if he does not lose the fear of failure that he was playing with last night our attack will be blunt throughout.
3) We really should have taken Paul Robinson to the world cup, Robbo is this countries best keeper who suffered a loss of form and seemed to just get forgotten about, now that Green has had a worse error and Calamity James' errors are all widely known, it shows what an implosive move it was to ostracise Robinson.
The final thing I learnt is that even for a football match night clubs like to have the sound up so loud you can not talk to the person sat next to you, which was probably good as then the people I was with could not hear some of the expletives that snuck out of my mouth.
Saturday 12 June 2010
Here we go
Well as I write I am on my way to watch the first match of the world cup. Somehow I have ended up agreeing to watch the game at liquid envy with a few of my former colleagues from the council. This will be the first time I have been into this club, and I have to admit that I had always been quite proud of that fact.
Anyway this is the 4th world cup I have really taken an interest in (as I only vaguely remember Italia 90 and we failed to qualify for 94) and I have to admit this is one of my favourite bits, all anticipation and anything can happen, unfortunately normally before reality plays a part as well, later on I will either be happy or sad, only at this very point am I simply full of dreams.
Come on England
South of England show
We went to the south of England show today, we had never been before so thought we should give it a go. It was a good day, we had been worried that as it is an agricultural event, there may not have been enough for us townies, but it was good. I especially enjoyed the Eco-village which had everything from solar panels to bio-degradable coffins, However as my company also offer these services I was mostly just there to compare, My wife mostly enjoyed the craft stalls, and we both enjoyed a good hog roast!
Tickets were £15 but it kept us all busy for 5 hours so that is not too bad. If i had to give people a couple of tips, first would be, when you go either buy the programme or don't worry about missing things, the show is so large it is inevitable without planning you will miss something, and secondly, remember where you parked, it gets a little frustrating when you walk into the forth field and still can't find your car (to give you an idea of the scale, We were parked in section 68 of one of the three car parks.)
The most interesting thing I saw was a singing and dancing robot called Titan. He was quite an attraction, I had never heard of him but according to my wife he has been around a long time. My daughter on the other hand was really not at all sure what to make of him.
Friday 11 June 2010
World Cup Kicking Off
Unfortunatley the World Cup opening Match (South Africa Vs. Mexico) is not a classic match but should still have a good atmosphere. It is a shame that Nelson Mandella will not be attending afterthe tragic loss of his Great Granddaughter last night, but if anything this event may spur on South Africa who look very certain to be heading to their first world cup defeat against Mexico.
Obviously for us the real world cup starts tomorrow and I will be watching the game with the only American I know so it should be fun.
Obviously for us the real world cup starts tomorrow and I will be watching the game with the only American I know so it should be fun.
Town Wide Fundraising
Had what will hopefully be the first meeting of the Town wide fundraising focus group last night. It was a good meeting although it became clear that my ideas may be looking for too much of a step change for some of our association. We did however come up with some good ideas and there was broad support for what I am trying to achieve, even if there was some reluctance over the actual details. Anyway we did agree a few things in principle.
1 - we will look to hold 12 events this year,
Four of which will be town wide "larger events" with 8 branch events in between.
2 - with the main associations permission we will look to create a separate website for fundraising events, along with a central diary of events.
3 - we will look to have two summer events along with a large event in late summer.
So now all I have to do is pull off the impossible and we are laughing.
Thursday 10 June 2010
Congratulations to Cllr Lee Glory Community Youth Champion
Just heard that my former colleague from Broadfield Cllr Lee Glory has won the community champion award at the Crawley Youth Awards.
This is a really good call as Lee is a great ward councillor and really committed to the town and youth issues. In fact in the last two years it has mostly been Lee's drive and enthusiasm that has pushed me through a lot of projects.
So congratulations to Lee and well done to whoever picks the winners.
Sarah Payne’s Killer Sentence is Reduced
Roy Whiting who was convicted a decade ago of murdering 8 year old Sarah Payne was appealing against his 50 year prison sentence yesterday.
The Minimum sentence had been handed down to Whiting by David Blunkett when he was home secretary and would have meant that Whiting would have been ineligible for parole until at least 2051 (At the age of 92). However due to a ruling from the Law Lords (Based on a European Court of Human Rights Case) it is now not legal for a Home Secretary to impose a minimum sentence, Whiting was therefore free to ask for the case to be reconsidered. It was and the Judge, Mr Justice Simon, agreed that the sentence was possibly to high and instead has imposed a minimum sentence of 40 years. Now I feel it is worth pointing out that this is the earliest date he can apply for parole, not his release date. (Although as an 81 year old I imagine there would have to be real concerns around his mental state and remorse to keep him in prison.
This is quite a sensitive issue around Crawley as Roy Whiting was born in Horsham and grew up in Crawley; in fact this case was breaking when I first started visiting Crawley and was obviously a very big deal for the local community, especially as Whiting already had a conviction for abusing a young girl in the Langley Green neighbourhood of Crawley.
The question I wanted to raise was not as to if it is right to set a sentence of 40 years (As I think this could have been much worse, imagine the outcry had the judge set a minimum 20 years sentence) but as to the actual fact that it is illegal for politicians to set minimum sentences, I am torn on this subject as surely the rulings of the courts should be accountable to the people, but then the people are not always correct. I am a believer that we should always have an unelected check on the elected officials as the will of the many is not always right. However I do believe that at the top of anything as important to a society as law and order should have someone accountable at the top, for this reason I would like to see directly elected commissioners/sheriffs to run the police forces (No taxation without representation.)
Now for the final word on this I will leave it to Sara Payne OBE, Sarah’s mother and now a civil safety campaigner, and I have to say a shining example of someone who has turned a personal tragedy into a positive for society and someone who deserves our admiration as well as sympathy. (Quotes lifted from BBC News)
"We expected [the minimum sentence] to be cut and to be honest it could have been a lot worse," she accepted.
Ever since her daughter was so cruelly taken away from her, she has demanded that British justice do more for victims rather than merely focusing on criminals.
And even in her disappointment at the court's ruling - the family were "reeling", she said - her message remained the same.
"The family don't get a parole date. There's no end to this," said Ms Payne, alluding to the family's grief.
"I will continue the campaign for a safer Britain for children. As long as sex offenders walk the streets I will always be there."
The Minimum sentence had been handed down to Whiting by David Blunkett when he was home secretary and would have meant that Whiting would have been ineligible for parole until at least 2051 (At the age of 92). However due to a ruling from the Law Lords (Based on a European Court of Human Rights Case) it is now not legal for a Home Secretary to impose a minimum sentence, Whiting was therefore free to ask for the case to be reconsidered. It was and the Judge, Mr Justice Simon, agreed that the sentence was possibly to high and instead has imposed a minimum sentence of 40 years. Now I feel it is worth pointing out that this is the earliest date he can apply for parole, not his release date. (Although as an 81 year old I imagine there would have to be real concerns around his mental state and remorse to keep him in prison.
This is quite a sensitive issue around Crawley as Roy Whiting was born in Horsham and grew up in Crawley; in fact this case was breaking when I first started visiting Crawley and was obviously a very big deal for the local community, especially as Whiting already had a conviction for abusing a young girl in the Langley Green neighbourhood of Crawley.
The question I wanted to raise was not as to if it is right to set a sentence of 40 years (As I think this could have been much worse, imagine the outcry had the judge set a minimum 20 years sentence) but as to the actual fact that it is illegal for politicians to set minimum sentences, I am torn on this subject as surely the rulings of the courts should be accountable to the people, but then the people are not always correct. I am a believer that we should always have an unelected check on the elected officials as the will of the many is not always right. However I do believe that at the top of anything as important to a society as law and order should have someone accountable at the top, for this reason I would like to see directly elected commissioners/sheriffs to run the police forces (No taxation without representation.)
Now for the final word on this I will leave it to Sara Payne OBE, Sarah’s mother and now a civil safety campaigner, and I have to say a shining example of someone who has turned a personal tragedy into a positive for society and someone who deserves our admiration as well as sympathy. (Quotes lifted from BBC News)
"We expected [the minimum sentence] to be cut and to be honest it could have been a lot worse," she accepted.
Ever since her daughter was so cruelly taken away from her, she has demanded that British justice do more for victims rather than merely focusing on criminals.
And even in her disappointment at the court's ruling - the family were "reeling", she said - her message remained the same.
"The family don't get a parole date. There's no end to this," said Ms Payne, alluding to the family's grief.
"I will continue the campaign for a safer Britain for children. As long as sex offenders walk the streets I will always be there."
Wednesday 9 June 2010
Corden Vs. Stewart (Unfortunatley for James not in a Pie Eating Contest)
Just read a story about James Corden and Sir Patrick Stewart getting into a row on Tuesday at the Glamour Awards, Apparently Picard - Sorry Sir Patrick - criticised Corden for showing his Belly, to which James Corden started that he could see Stewart Dying, before ending the spat saying "Can We order a Taxi quickly, we have an old man who needs to get home."Now I have to admit my respect for Sir Patrick took a denting when he came out to Crawley to support Chris Oxlade in the last election campaign, as I think it is unfair for people who can easily afford another term of Labour Government to try and inforce it on the vast majority of us who can't. All of this aside however he is without doubt one of this countries best stage actors and along with Sir Ian McKellen have managed to stay true to their stage roots whilst building a succesful Movie/TV career the other side of the water. I am sure that Sir Patrick will not take it too hard, as I doubt he cares too much what Mr. Corden thinks of him, but I felt that Corden went too far, if the only thing that the rotund "comedian" could pick on is Stewart's age, then that is testiment to the success he has had.
One final point, is that I would suggest to Mr. Corden that if he wants to live to see Patrick Stewart dying then he may want to start thinking about losing some weight.
Good News
John McDonnell has announced he will not be standing in the Labour Leadership race, this is no great surprise as he was not actually able to gain enough support with only Gordon Brown as an opponent. He has given his support to Diane Abbott, although it still remains to be seen if his 16 supporters will follow suit, by my calculations though this will leave Ms Abbott on 27 so still 6 short of getting past today's deadline.
D. Midland had said he will give his vote to anyone who is a vote short, which looks like it could be a toss-up between Ms Abbott and self styling class warrior Andy Burnham
Well at least we will know who is standing today. I am predicting that they will both scrape through at the end.
Tuesday 8 June 2010
Terry Leahy to stand down (Should he be new labour leader)
Tesco Chairman Sir Terry Leahy has announced he will resign next March, Sir Terry is probably one of this countries best business men and what he has achieved at Tesco really can not be overstated. The facts however are these:
Since 1997 Turnover has risen by 310%, Profit has risen by 341% and the value of the company has risen by over 230%.
In the same time New Labour took the UK economy from a Budget Surplus of 1.9Bn to a Deficit of 176Bn or a drop of 9778% in economic performance. Perhaps it would have been better for us all had Tesco been given control of the budget instead of letting Labour control it.
One last thing, a request for some information from my readers who know more about 20th century politics than myself, As I was looking up the budget difference between 1997 and 2010 I came across this comment “Under Tony Blair, Britain’s trading performance has been worse than under any of his Labour Predecessors. Worse than under Clement Attlee and Harold Wilson, both of whom had to devalue the pound when trade figures turned nasty, and worse than under James Callaghan, who was forced to seek help from the International Monetary Fund.” (Guardian – Feb 2007)
It has led me to ask the question, have we ever had a Labour majority administration that did not wreck our economy?
Since 1997 Turnover has risen by 310%, Profit has risen by 341% and the value of the company has risen by over 230%.
In the same time New Labour took the UK economy from a Budget Surplus of 1.9Bn to a Deficit of 176Bn or a drop of 9778% in economic performance. Perhaps it would have been better for us all had Tesco been given control of the budget instead of letting Labour control it.
One last thing, a request for some information from my readers who know more about 20th century politics than myself, As I was looking up the budget difference between 1997 and 2010 I came across this comment “Under Tony Blair, Britain’s trading performance has been worse than under any of his Labour Predecessors. Worse than under Clement Attlee and Harold Wilson, both of whom had to devalue the pound when trade figures turned nasty, and worse than under James Callaghan, who was forced to seek help from the International Monetary Fund.” (Guardian – Feb 2007)
It has led me to ask the question, have we ever had a Labour majority administration that did not wreck our economy?
John McDonnell shows what a credit he is to Parliament ... Again
Labour Leadership candidate John McDonnell has been forced to apologise after making a “joke” that if he could go back to the 80’s he would assassinate Margaret Thatcher. Obviously as I was born in 1979 I do not really have many strong feelings on Lady Thatcher but from what I have read although she may have ruled with a fist of Iron, she at least ruled, in a time that the country needed a strong government to undo the financial mismanagement of the previous labour administration. (It is strange how history repeats itself – or maybe it isn’t)
However, regardless of your political views, I believe that most (if not All) politicians, get into politics because they want to improve their society, the parties exist only because we have different ways that we think that can be best achieved. It saddens me therefore when you hear an elected member of our parliament saying that an 84 year old woman should have been assassinated for her views, makes me wonder what kind of country Mr. McDonnell would like us to live in. Now he has said that it was a joke – So we can strike sense of humour of his list of attributes as well – and that the audience (The GMC) thought it was funny and even applauded the suggestion – Hope they are also feeling proud – as if your audience finding a joke funny makes it ok. I am quite sure that there are places in the world where I can get a laugh from all types of distasteful comment, but that does not make it right.
I have to admit however I am not surprised to be honest as this is not the first time that McDonnell has opened his mouth to let the rubbish that must float around his head out, Just last year McDonnell was suspended for five days when mid debate he picked up the ceremonial mace and placed it down on an empty bench as he didn’t like the way the debate was going.
In May 2003, he praised the IRA, saying, "It's about time we started honoring those people involved in the armed struggle. It was the bombs and bullets and sacrifice made by the likes of Bobby Sands that brought Britain to the negotiating table.” What a lovely comment to make, especially at a time which just after 9/11 must have been quite hard on the moral of terrorists, luckily this endorsement from an MP must have really made them think that anything was possible (Don’t forget this was only two years before 7/7)
As if his infantile actions and one of the most stupid mouths, backed up with limited intellect as it is, were not bad enough this is the man who in his first general election campaigns had to pay out £70,000 to his opponent for lies and libel that he spread in his literature and even before that when Ken Livingstone’s deputy on the Greater London Council he is accused of deliberately misleading his own colleagues in a funding dispute with central government that even caused Ken to mention it in his book If Voting Changed Anything, They'd Abolish It, in which he outlines his belief that McDonnell presented exaggerated figures in order to support his proposal.
Well I imagine that the voters of Hayes and Harlington who see fit to inflict this man on the politics of our country must just love a good drama.
However, regardless of your political views, I believe that most (if not All) politicians, get into politics because they want to improve their society, the parties exist only because we have different ways that we think that can be best achieved. It saddens me therefore when you hear an elected member of our parliament saying that an 84 year old woman should have been assassinated for her views, makes me wonder what kind of country Mr. McDonnell would like us to live in. Now he has said that it was a joke – So we can strike sense of humour of his list of attributes as well – and that the audience (The GMC) thought it was funny and even applauded the suggestion – Hope they are also feeling proud – as if your audience finding a joke funny makes it ok. I am quite sure that there are places in the world where I can get a laugh from all types of distasteful comment, but that does not make it right.
I have to admit however I am not surprised to be honest as this is not the first time that McDonnell has opened his mouth to let the rubbish that must float around his head out, Just last year McDonnell was suspended for five days when mid debate he picked up the ceremonial mace and placed it down on an empty bench as he didn’t like the way the debate was going.
In May 2003, he praised the IRA, saying, "It's about time we started honoring those people involved in the armed struggle. It was the bombs and bullets and sacrifice made by the likes of Bobby Sands that brought Britain to the negotiating table.” What a lovely comment to make, especially at a time which just after 9/11 must have been quite hard on the moral of terrorists, luckily this endorsement from an MP must have really made them think that anything was possible (Don’t forget this was only two years before 7/7)
As if his infantile actions and one of the most stupid mouths, backed up with limited intellect as it is, were not bad enough this is the man who in his first general election campaigns had to pay out £70,000 to his opponent for lies and libel that he spread in his literature and even before that when Ken Livingstone’s deputy on the Greater London Council he is accused of deliberately misleading his own colleagues in a funding dispute with central government that even caused Ken to mention it in his book If Voting Changed Anything, They'd Abolish It, in which he outlines his belief that McDonnell presented exaggerated figures in order to support his proposal.
Well I imagine that the voters of Hayes and Harlington who see fit to inflict this man on the politics of our country must just love a good drama.
Monday 7 June 2010
Cameron Comes out Truthful on Hard Times Ahead
Cameron spoke today about the cuts facing the country, he has stated that there is no one in the country who will be unaffected by cuts or tax rises, they include cuts of 6.2bn this year. Unsurprisingly he blamed the former administration ( I Say unsurprisingly as it is the way of politics to blame your opposition – Oh and also it is their fault.)
It turns out that the last government tried to hide the fact that in five years time we would be paying more than £70Bn a year just in servicing our debts. More than is paid on Schools/Traffic and climate change. Obviously there was the usual outcry from the Unions; Hugh Lanning (Public and Commercial Services Union) said the Prime Minister was “Trying to paint the public sector as a problem.”
Now whilst I agree that the Public Sector should not be made scapegoats, the problem is that almost 1 in 4 people work in the public sector, in fact I was reading a fact book last night which stated that last year people employed in the private sector would each have paid more into the pension of a public sector employee than into their own. Whilst I do not blame the civil servants (I blame New Labour and their “Job Sweetners” in exchange for votes.) clearly it is unsustainable.
Dave Prentis (Unison) said the speech was a “Chilling Attack on the public sector.” Saying “There was nothing in the speech that told the rich, the banking and financial sector or the city speculators that their privileged way of life will change.” Obviously a Union representative trying to make this a class issue is of no great surprise, and I am sure Mr. Prentis thinks that it really is as simple as taking all the profit from the banks and using to provide extra public sector posts, unfortunately that shows a complete lack of understanding how the world works. If you hit the banks too heavily they will leave the UK, the only ones who will stay will be the ones who have to (Basically just the High Street chains – and just the High Street Business the investment banks will leave as well.) and guess what 1) the High Street Banks do not make any money, 2) The Government are the biggest shareholders in the banking sector. So basically Mr. Prentis’ great idea to bring down net debt is to remove our highest earning sector from the economy and lumber the government with even more publicly funded loss paying businesses.
After all the blame is not entirely shouldered by the bankers, after all each loan deal has people on both sides, the people accepting credit they could not afford are just as guilty as those doing the lending, unfortunately in the nanny state we expected someone else to tell us if something was ok and we forgot to look at it ourselves. If anyone should feel hard done by it is someone like me who has:
a) Never defaulted on a payment
b) Only taken credit I could afford
c) NEVER VOTED FOR NEW LABOUR
Personally however I think it is time to stop trying to blame people and start looking at some facts.
FACT – The Civil Service Must be cut
FACT – Taxes must go up
FACT – it is going to be a very unpleasant time
FACT – if we stay focused we will get through it.
I will however let the last comment on this post go to the former administration.
According to the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasurery – Gaff Prone Liam Byrne,
"The coalition has inherited an economy that is growing, borrowing which is falling, and unemployment lower than in America or Europe,"
To me this seems a quite remarkable “rose tinted” outlook on the economy, which seems quite at odds with the note he left after leaving his office last month. ‘Dear Chief Secretary, I’m afraid there is no money. Kind regards – and good luck! Liam’
It turns out that the last government tried to hide the fact that in five years time we would be paying more than £70Bn a year just in servicing our debts. More than is paid on Schools/Traffic and climate change. Obviously there was the usual outcry from the Unions; Hugh Lanning (Public and Commercial Services Union) said the Prime Minister was “Trying to paint the public sector as a problem.”
Now whilst I agree that the Public Sector should not be made scapegoats, the problem is that almost 1 in 4 people work in the public sector, in fact I was reading a fact book last night which stated that last year people employed in the private sector would each have paid more into the pension of a public sector employee than into their own. Whilst I do not blame the civil servants (I blame New Labour and their “Job Sweetners” in exchange for votes.) clearly it is unsustainable.
Dave Prentis (Unison) said the speech was a “Chilling Attack on the public sector.” Saying “There was nothing in the speech that told the rich, the banking and financial sector or the city speculators that their privileged way of life will change.” Obviously a Union representative trying to make this a class issue is of no great surprise, and I am sure Mr. Prentis thinks that it really is as simple as taking all the profit from the banks and using to provide extra public sector posts, unfortunately that shows a complete lack of understanding how the world works. If you hit the banks too heavily they will leave the UK, the only ones who will stay will be the ones who have to (Basically just the High Street chains – and just the High Street Business the investment banks will leave as well.) and guess what 1) the High Street Banks do not make any money, 2) The Government are the biggest shareholders in the banking sector. So basically Mr. Prentis’ great idea to bring down net debt is to remove our highest earning sector from the economy and lumber the government with even more publicly funded loss paying businesses.
After all the blame is not entirely shouldered by the bankers, after all each loan deal has people on both sides, the people accepting credit they could not afford are just as guilty as those doing the lending, unfortunately in the nanny state we expected someone else to tell us if something was ok and we forgot to look at it ourselves. If anyone should feel hard done by it is someone like me who has:
a) Never defaulted on a payment
b) Only taken credit I could afford
c) NEVER VOTED FOR NEW LABOUR
Personally however I think it is time to stop trying to blame people and start looking at some facts.
FACT – The Civil Service Must be cut
FACT – Taxes must go up
FACT – it is going to be a very unpleasant time
FACT – if we stay focused we will get through it.
I will however let the last comment on this post go to the former administration.
According to the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasurery – Gaff Prone Liam Byrne,
"The coalition has inherited an economy that is growing, borrowing which is falling, and unemployment lower than in America or Europe,"
To me this seems a quite remarkable “rose tinted” outlook on the economy, which seems quite at odds with the note he left after leaving his office last month. ‘Dear Chief Secretary, I’m afraid there is no money. Kind regards – and good luck! Liam’
Sex and the city 2
You may have noticed that I have not yet blogged about last weeks movie. The reason for this is twofold, firstly due to time constraints there was not a good time to go before last night, and secondly as it was Sex and the City 2, and because she loves me, my wife didn't make me go.
All I can say about it therefore is that as I was sat at home. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.
Sunday 6 June 2010
Nerd Humour and Cross Tab Issue
First a little Nerd joke.
"There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary, and those who don't."
Anyway,
Have had a slight issue this morning trying to load a crosstab query into a recordset to append to an excel sheet - When does this not bother me at 6am on a Sunday!!
Anyway the issue is in trying to transfer the information to a spreadsheet with the column heads, obviously it is quite easy to transfer the data but the column heads are trickier as with a cross tab query they could be different each time. anyway I managed to sort out a code snip which will populate the column headings.
Private Sub TransferCrossTab()
Dim myQdef As QueryDef
Dim rsReport As Recordset
Dim appXl As Excel.Application
Dim appxlWB As Excel.Workbook
Dim appXlWS As Excel.Worksheet
Dim lngColNbr As Long
Dim xlc As Object
Set myQdef = CurrentDb.QueryDefs("qry_monthlyquery_agb") 'open crosstab query
Set appXl = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
Set appxlWB = appXl.Workbooks.Open(strfilepath, , False)
'open spreadsheet "Here Stored as global variable"
Set appXlWS = appxlWB.Sheets("Source_Data")
Set xlStart = appXlWS.Range("B1")
appXlWS.Range("B1:AY453").ClearContents 'Clear Contents from Spreadsheet
For lngcolNbr = 0 To rsReport.Fields.Count - 1
xlStart.Offset(0, lngcolnbr).Value = rsReport.Fields(lngcolnbr).Name 'For Each Field in Recordset provide column heading
Next lngcolnbr
Set xlc = xlc.Offset(1, 0)
appXlWS.Range("B2").CopyFromRecordset rsReport 'Add Recordset Data
End Sub
Hope this makes sense, Haven't really got time to go over it at present but if this sounds like it may help you feel free to get in touch.
"There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary, and those who don't."
Anyway,
Have had a slight issue this morning trying to load a crosstab query into a recordset to append to an excel sheet - When does this not bother me at 6am on a Sunday!!
Anyway the issue is in trying to transfer the information to a spreadsheet with the column heads, obviously it is quite easy to transfer the data but the column heads are trickier as with a cross tab query they could be different each time. anyway I managed to sort out a code snip which will populate the column headings.
Private Sub TransferCrossTab()
Dim myQdef As QueryDef
Dim rsReport As Recordset
Dim appXl As Excel.Application
Dim appxlWB As Excel.Workbook
Dim appXlWS As Excel.Worksheet
Dim lngColNbr As Long
Dim xlc As Object
Set myQdef = CurrentDb.QueryDefs("qry_monthlyquery_agb") 'open crosstab query
Set appXl = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
Set appxlWB = appXl.Workbooks.Open(strfilepath, , False)
'open spreadsheet "Here Stored as global variable"
Set appXlWS = appxlWB.Sheets("Source_Data")
Set xlStart = appXlWS.Range("B1")
appXlWS.Range("B1:AY453").ClearContents 'Clear Contents from Spreadsheet
For lngcolNbr = 0 To rsReport.Fields.Count - 1
xlStart.Offset(0, lngcolnbr).Value = rsReport.Fields(lngcolnbr).Name 'For Each Field in Recordset provide column heading
Next lngcolnbr
Set xlc = xlc.Offset(1, 0)
appXlWS.Range("B2").CopyFromRecordset rsReport 'Add Recordset Data
End Sub
Hope this makes sense, Haven't really got time to go over it at present but if this sounds like it may help you feel free to get in touch.
All you can eat Chinese
Went out for all you can eat Chinese for lunch to celebrate our first year in our house, we went to China House in Reigate (7 Holmesdale Road) which we have always enjoyed as unlike most A.Y.C.E restaurants it is not a buffet, instead you order from the menu and they bring you small portions. Anyway the real event wasn't the fact that they have, in my opinion, the best salt and pepper squid, or that they have really good Singapore fried rice noodles. But that our daughter had her first Chinese food. Obviously all she had was a small amount of steamed dumping and some of the vegetables, as she is only 8.5 months old, but she loved it and it was adorable.
And as usual we got lots of comments on how friendly and well behaved she is, at least they can't see how naughty she is becoming at home. Her latest trick is to drop her cup on the floor whenever your not looking.
Anyway, if you are in Reigate I heartedly recommend China House, one of the few restaurants where we have never had a bad meal.
Saturday 5 June 2010
Null values in Select function - VBA Access
I have been asked about how you can trigger an event in a SELECT CASE when there is a null value. (As you can not have null as a case)
The answer is actually incredibly easy, you use the nz() function, NZ returns a variable you can set when there is a null value, it needs to arguments.
1. the field to be evaluated
2. What to replace the Null value with
nz([Field to be Evaluated],[Value to Return if Null])
in this quick example I want to return a message box if the field is null.
SELECT CASE nz(me.nullfield,0) 'This will replace a null value with a 0
CASE 0
msgbox "Error, value Needed"
CASE "Value 1"
msgbox "Value 1 Selected"
CASE "Value 2"
msgbox "Value 2 Selected"
END SELECT
obviously if "0" is one of your CASE values you can replace it with a string i.e. "None"
The answer is actually incredibly easy, you use the nz() function, NZ returns a variable you can set when there is a null value, it needs to arguments.
1. the field to be evaluated
2. What to replace the Null value with
nz([Field to be Evaluated],[Value to Return if Null])
in this quick example I want to return a message box if the field is null.
SELECT CASE nz(me.nullfield,0) 'This will replace a null value with a 0
CASE 0
msgbox "Error, value Needed"
CASE "Value 1"
msgbox "Value 1 Selected"
CASE "Value 2"
msgbox "Value 2 Selected"
END SELECT
obviously if "0" is one of your CASE values you can replace it with a string i.e. "None"
Apple Store opening
They have just opened an Apple store in Crawley, it isn't an actual apple store, just an "Apple specialist" store. Whatever that means, I happened to be in town so I snapped these pictures.
I have never made a secret of my distaste for Apple, (Due to them being overpriced and often inferior) but today I did get to learn a new word, Sheeple, these people were all queuing just to be the first people to enter a shop which sold overpriced products for a lot more than they are available on-line.
Friday 4 June 2010
Dawson off to South Africa
When the England team was announced I said I would prefer Dawson to Ferdinand, it looks now as though I will get my wish. Obviously this must be gutting for Rio, but I think Dawson deserves his shot and gives England a steelier defense, and to be honest he has simply played better this year. It will be interesting to see who will be captain now - I say give it back to Terry.
One final point, I make the team totals Tottenham 5 players in the squad, Arsenal 0
Hopefully some good news for the environment (and BP)
BP, or British Petroleum as Mr. Obama likes to call them, today announced that they had succeeded in capping off the leak in the gulf of Mexico. This will hopefully be a great bit of news for what is a very important eco-system and for the UK's premier company. it will take a couple of days to know if it has worked but hopefully we are on the way to a solution. It appears that as the leak is around a mile deep (deeper than any human can operate.) they had to use small remote control robots to do the work, which leads to the question, was this inevitable? we have increased our demand to such a high extent and exhausted all easily retrievable supplies that we are forcing these countries to operate at the very limits of scientific possibility, maybe in fact it the consumers fault.
I have to admit however that I feel Barak Obama and other Americans have been very unfair to BP on this one, obviously this is an issue that needs prompt, swift and decisive action but I have not seen anything from Tony Haywood (CEO of BP) that suggests that they haven't provided exactly this. Mr. Haywood and his team have relocated to the US to ensure that they are on hand to deal with this disaster and BP have attempted a great deal of solutions for this problem, which seems to be at odds with the impressions the Americans want for this "greedy oil" company. I am sure this is in no way lead by America's own "caring, sharing" oil companies who donate so much each year to various politicians.
Anyway, there is a question to if this will destroy BP, personally my uninformed view is that they should be ok, It is predicted to have cost the firm £1bn so far, when you consider they had profits last year of £13bn and gave £10bn in dividends to share holders, they should be alright. A bigger risk could be from a take over bid, most likely run by the aforementioned American Oil Companies.
I have to admit however that I feel Barak Obama and other Americans have been very unfair to BP on this one, obviously this is an issue that needs prompt, swift and decisive action but I have not seen anything from Tony Haywood (CEO of BP) that suggests that they haven't provided exactly this. Mr. Haywood and his team have relocated to the US to ensure that they are on hand to deal with this disaster and BP have attempted a great deal of solutions for this problem, which seems to be at odds with the impressions the Americans want for this "greedy oil" company. I am sure this is in no way lead by America's own "caring, sharing" oil companies who donate so much each year to various politicians.
Anyway, there is a question to if this will destroy BP, personally my uninformed view is that they should be ok, It is predicted to have cost the firm £1bn so far, when you consider they had profits last year of £13bn and gave £10bn in dividends to share holders, they should be alright. A bigger risk could be from a take over bid, most likely run by the aforementioned American Oil Companies.
Thursday 3 June 2010
Digital Vs. Print
I read a blog entry on the blog of Deputy Council Leader Duncan Crow's Blog, His blog was about feeling old at Crawley carnival. Now this in itself did not surprise me, after all I feel to old to go to the carnival and Duncan has almost 10 years on me. (he will probably be really upset and tell me it is 5 years, but he is older than me.) What interested me was a comment he made on press coverage that he has recieved in the past.
"I take zero notice of newspapers, particularly ones that I suspect may have a professional jealousy of this blog."
I have to admit that I found this quite interesting, Blogging is a medium by which in essence we can all become reporters, but unlike the press which have to sell their product and attract advertisers we can blog about whatever we like, and more importantly don't have to cover what doesn't interest us. You will never see a blogger standing on a bridge in the rain waiting to report on a fun run going past unless he has an interest on it.
Does this make the life of a blogger preferable to the life of a reporter (Aside from the fact we don't get paid.) The fact that it only costs you your time surely means that the New Media is the most open form of discussion today, however it is also this which limits its appeal, when you pick up the New York Times or the FT you expect to recieve a certain level of reporting, a blog can be anything.
I doubt that the Crawley News are actually jelous of a blog, even though Cllr Crow's blog has a readership which extends around the globe from the US to China, can the Crawley News say the same? but I think there is areal chance that with the correct organisation Blogging could easily start to replace more traditional media. it just remains to be seen if this is a good thing.
Here is an idea, How about a newspaper of blog posts? each day you can search the previous days blog posts and then provide a compendium of blogs in print format, with a crossword and Suduku puzzle.
"I take zero notice of newspapers, particularly ones that I suspect may have a professional jealousy of this blog."
I have to admit that I found this quite interesting, Blogging is a medium by which in essence we can all become reporters, but unlike the press which have to sell their product and attract advertisers we can blog about whatever we like, and more importantly don't have to cover what doesn't interest us. You will never see a blogger standing on a bridge in the rain waiting to report on a fun run going past unless he has an interest on it.
Does this make the life of a blogger preferable to the life of a reporter (Aside from the fact we don't get paid.) The fact that it only costs you your time surely means that the New Media is the most open form of discussion today, however it is also this which limits its appeal, when you pick up the New York Times or the FT you expect to recieve a certain level of reporting, a blog can be anything.
I doubt that the Crawley News are actually jelous of a blog, even though Cllr Crow's blog has a readership which extends around the globe from the US to China, can the Crawley News say the same? but I think there is areal chance that with the correct organisation Blogging could easily start to replace more traditional media. it just remains to be seen if this is a good thing.
Here is an idea, How about a newspaper of blog posts? each day you can search the previous days blog posts and then provide a compendium of blogs in print format, with a crossword and Suduku puzzle.
Wednesday 2 June 2010
iPhone Chief Steve Jobs Proves he has Common Touch
I blogged a little earlier about the appalling story revolving around one of Apple’s iPhone factories having 10 suicides. Steve Jobs (Apple CEO) has defended his firms record at the site (Which comes after another worker has taken their own life at another Foxconn factory) Mr Jobs stated at the “All things Digital” conference that he felt that the factory is a “Pretty nice” place. And I am sure that for him it is after all with the average worker earning £90 a month and the iPhone unit retailing for up to £769.99 (Source http://www.applenew.com/) each worker only needs to make 2 a year for it to be a very nice place for Mr. Jobs. Maybe it is time he joined us in the real world, Where a Human Life means more than a quick buck.
Lembit Opik to Start Stand Up Tour
I’m not sure how I missed this when the Express broke it last month but it appears that “politician” and claimed psychic Lembit Opik is to start a 30 date tour of stand up. Now I obviously have no idea how this will go and so can not carry judgement of it until I do, however I am not imagining it will go well. This is not like Parliament where you can just stand up and say a whole load of ridiculous drivel in the hopes of bagging a cheeky girl. To do stand up you have to actually be funny, and worse than that you need to be smart, not book smart but actually quick witted.
Lembit’s opening show it is reported will be broadcast by the BBC on their One Show programme so I will have to look out for that so I can make a more informed judgement. He is performing at the Backstage club in Leicester square, a club I know well and have seen some good, and some not so good events there. Of cause I am surprised that with Mr. Opik’s reputation for arrogance and attention seeking he was not trying to have his first gig at the O2.
Opik says ”I have done more than 800 after-dinner speeches in 20 years, which is a form of stand-up.” There is a small part of me which hates to see people in over their head who hopes for his sake that the crowd are friendly, because when the crowd turn against a comedian it could not be further from the after dinner crowd.
Tuesday 1 June 2010
England Squad, Slimmed and ready to go.
The final 23 man squad is about to be announced for South Africa and the main shock is that after twice failing to impress in the warm up games Arsenal’s Theo Walcott is to be left home, I obviously feel very sorry for the lad who must be gutted but if you only have space on the plane for one nippy Right Winger you would have to think that Lennon is a better bet, slightly faster but with a much better final ball.
There were a lot of mixed messages with regards to Ledley King, as I said earlier from a purely selfish Spurs viewpoint I would have liked him to be excluded as he is so crucial to our team. But in the end he DID do enough in the warm ups to get a place.
Tom (The Tank) Huddlestone is also flying home as is Michael Dawson both of which are mistakes in my book as they offer something different, I honestly believe that Dawson should have got the nod ahead of Ferdinand but with Rio as Captain it never looked likely. The Tank for me gives England steel to midfield and a thunderous foot that could be a real game winner when we are up against it. However even as a Spurs fan I still can not be too unhappy at his exclusion against the likes of Gerrard and Lampard
Obviously the other Spurs players where automatic names on the team sheet so the mighty spurs will be represented by, not including King, Crouch, Defoe and Lennon.
The other players to be dropped were Parker, Baines, Bent and Adam Johnson. I don’t feel that any of these would constitute a surprise, whilst they may not be who I would have picked they are all peripheral players rather than England Regulars.
Adam Johnson, Theo Walcott and Tom Huddlestone shouldn’t be too disappointed as they have some world cups left in them; Bent, Baines and Dawson as well will only be 30 when they meet in Brazil so should have another chance. On the other hand Parker will probably not get another chance so this must be gutting. I have always rated Parker as a skilful player but much like Michael Carrick, who is included, he never seems to be able to fulfil his potential for England.
There were a lot of mixed messages with regards to Ledley King, as I said earlier from a purely selfish Spurs viewpoint I would have liked him to be excluded as he is so crucial to our team. But in the end he DID do enough in the warm ups to get a place.
Tom (The Tank) Huddlestone is also flying home as is Michael Dawson both of which are mistakes in my book as they offer something different, I honestly believe that Dawson should have got the nod ahead of Ferdinand but with Rio as Captain it never looked likely. The Tank for me gives England steel to midfield and a thunderous foot that could be a real game winner when we are up against it. However even as a Spurs fan I still can not be too unhappy at his exclusion against the likes of Gerrard and Lampard
Obviously the other Spurs players where automatic names on the team sheet so the mighty spurs will be represented by, not including King, Crouch, Defoe and Lennon.
The other players to be dropped were Parker, Baines, Bent and Adam Johnson. I don’t feel that any of these would constitute a surprise, whilst they may not be who I would have picked they are all peripheral players rather than England Regulars.
Adam Johnson, Theo Walcott and Tom Huddlestone shouldn’t be too disappointed as they have some world cups left in them; Bent, Baines and Dawson as well will only be 30 when they meet in Brazil so should have another chance. On the other hand Parker will probably not get another chance so this must be gutting. I have always rated Parker as a skilful player but much like Michael Carrick, who is included, he never seems to be able to fulfil his potential for England.
Israel takes another step too far
I have no massively strong feelings for either side in the ongoing Israeli – Palestinian dispute, whilst I accept that the Palestinians feel that Israel are occupying their homeland I also see that with historical evidence it would appear that the Israelis were in deed their first.
Having no strong ties to either side I look at each thing that happens through a very pragmatic eye, therefore when Israel gets shelled and returns fire I would not condemn Israel after all the primary task of every government around the world should be the protection of its citizens.
However where Israel does get it wrong is when they start to feel that they are above international law, or can act in the same way as their opponents, unfortunately when you are a state you can not act the same way. This would be like had America in 2002 flown a fleet of planes over every Muslim country in the world and destroyed every large building, indiscriminate of military or terrorist targets. Clearly this would have eroded any sympathy that the US experienced.
For me Israel are heading the same way, first they assassinated a Hamas commander, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, on foreign soil using forged foreign passports and now they have boarded a ship in international waters. From these acts I have to say that Israel have gone too far. Had they arrested the Hamas commander and placed him to stand trial and as a result executed him, it would not have bothered me. (Although I am against capital punishment, if that is the law where the crimes are committed it should be the punishment.) And had they boarded this ship in Israeli waters, again not a problem and every states right to protect their borders, but if Israel continue to sink to the terrorists levels they will soon find themselves very unpopular in the international community. I think although they will excuse a lot even the US – Israel special relationship has limits.
Having no strong ties to either side I look at each thing that happens through a very pragmatic eye, therefore when Israel gets shelled and returns fire I would not condemn Israel after all the primary task of every government around the world should be the protection of its citizens.
However where Israel does get it wrong is when they start to feel that they are above international law, or can act in the same way as their opponents, unfortunately when you are a state you can not act the same way. This would be like had America in 2002 flown a fleet of planes over every Muslim country in the world and destroyed every large building, indiscriminate of military or terrorist targets. Clearly this would have eroded any sympathy that the US experienced.
For me Israel are heading the same way, first they assassinated a Hamas commander, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, on foreign soil using forged foreign passports and now they have boarded a ship in international waters. From these acts I have to say that Israel have gone too far. Had they arrested the Hamas commander and placed him to stand trial and as a result executed him, it would not have bothered me. (Although I am against capital punishment, if that is the law where the crimes are committed it should be the punishment.) And had they boarded this ship in Israeli waters, again not a problem and every states right to protect their borders, but if Israel continue to sink to the terrorists levels they will soon find themselves very unpopular in the international community. I think although they will excuse a lot even the US – Israel special relationship has limits.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)