Author Archive
Cigarette advertising
Comments (3)Travel is great for contrasts. In many respects Germany, for example, is a highly regulated country. It is very difficult to do some things that normally I take for granted in the UK. Online mobile phone top-ups are a case in point; likewise trying to get mail sent to an address that one is not officially registered at. It is very frustrating.
With that in mind, I still find it very strange that the Germans still allow cigarette advertising. This one for Pall Mall can be found on all railway stations in Munich and maybe elsewhere. It depicts a group of beautiful young people in the Alps (presumably skiing) killing themselves with cigarettes.
Car parking
This is a new thread. Since getting a van, I am conscious about headroom, particularly in multi-storey garages (park houses). It really is a problem. My van is 1.9 metres.
Gatwick Airport south terminal short stay. Two things to say here. Headroom is 1.95 metres. The van fits okay. Recently, the entry has been modified to make the 90 degree turns easier. Well done Gatwick.
Hull St. Stephens. Enquiries tell me that it is 2.5m
Hull Premier Inn – now visited. The undercover car park has a 2m restriction, but there is an un-covered car park with no restrictions.
I can recommend the Kingstown hotel, about 2 miles further east down Hedon Road. Comfortable with free wi-fi and no headroom restrictions.
Any contributions welcome. To be continued…
Co-operatives
Readers of this blog know that I live in a housing co-operative where all members input into the management of the enterprise. Like all forms of organisation, it is imperfect. The structures that facilitate equitable governance can seem bureaucratic. But once established all members have resort to them and unless everyone agrees that they should be changed, they guide the collective towards prudent and non-exploitative management.
Not surprisingly in these recessionary times, co-operatives are very much in the news. Not just in housing, however. Co-operative businesses are much discussed even by this wretched government as a bulwark against forms of capitalism. One can always hear about the John Lewis model without actually understanding what that means. (John Lewis, arguably is a very special example of a co-operatively-owned business.) The capitalists resist co-operative principles because they cannot extract the profit as a dividend. In the days of de-mutualisation of building societies, these people resorted to ‘carpet bagging’ and rewarded us with Northern Rock. None of the demutualised buidling societies now survive. All have been absorbed into failed or failing banks. Halifax became HBOS, Abbey National had to be ‘rescued’ by Santander (Alliance and Leicester and Bradford and Bingley, too).
Peter Day’s current series of ‘In Business’ on the BBC has been exploring co-operative ownship of firms. Here is a link to the latest programme on co-operatives: http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/worldbiz
A New Royal Yacht
A tear was in Her Majesty’s eye when the Britannia was decomissioned back in 1997. Prince Charles clearly likes the idea of a new Royal Yacht for himself his mother. And being apolitical as he is, he’s been lobying the government for it. Thank goodness for Michael Gove and David Willets supported by the Daily Mail to put this vital issue on the agenda. The Diamond Jubilee – only the second one in world history – should be remembered more than the Olympic Games in 2012. A new royal yacht is clearly the best way to do this.
Today, 22 January 2012, the Observer is running the story about how this bid for a new yacht was orchestrated. No co-incidence, it seems, that this was raised at this time. There are many issues. Even if there are no tax receipts used to fund this ship, the list of backers suggests that we should have a little concern. The focus on the educational value, is a case in point. Primarily, goes the argument, the ship will be a training vessel for underprivileged young people to learn a seafaring and develop teamworking skills. That is why, no doubt, Pearson Education, owners of Edexcel, the skilled company that sets impossible exam questions for 16 year old students and briefs teachers on exam content, is a big supporter. (Why have public qualifications been privatised?) The Queen’s representative in Hampshire [does she need a representative in Hampshire?] Rear Admiral David Bawtree, also a director of Visor Consultants, a private security firm, is the man behind the project called FSB21. Not forgetting also that Tony Blair, the man who decommissioned Britannia, now regrets the decision. He’s got a bob or two, these days.
Notwithstanding all of that, fine, if they want another Royal Yacht, go ahead. Amongst that lot, there is enough money for sure. But why not just be honest, it is a floating hotel for the elite. The spin is nauseating. And please make sure that you have enough to maintain it. So often, taxpayers are left with the bill.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jan/21/royal-yacht-britannia-stage-managed
Cameron and Europe
David Cameron made an appearance on the Today programme on 6 January 2012 and once again defended his veto at the EU. Clearly his position has not changed, but Evan Davis did stress once again his own perplexity when it comes to what was actually achieved. The recording can be found here.
Mike Weatherley MP – not representing Hove and Portslade
Weatherley celebrating criminalisation
My Conservative MP, Mike Weatherley (pictured), is quite a self-publicist. He ‘sends’ me his monthly newsletter in his quest to inform and influence. Increasingly this newletter is used to express his uninformed prejudices which I am increasingly offended by. I am sure that I am not the only one he offends in his constituency. I want to use my blog to make clear to him and others that he rarely represents my interests and I do not want to be associated with his intolerence.
For example from his recent newsletter:
Victoria Gardens campsite
Having recently been successful with my campaign to criminalise squatting, I have also taken the campers on Victoria Gardens in Brighton to task. Long-term camping in public spaces as a form of protest is unacceptable. The point of the protest was made long ago and it’s now just about a group of lazy campers hanging around for a fun time in front of our Royal Pavilion. This is not something that the public should have to pay for or put up with. Hard working taxpayers have had enough of these freeloaders. After publicly condemning the camp, I popped down to put my concerns to them in person. They claim to represent “the 99%”, so I informed them of the views of the REAL 99% – and told them to tidy up and go home.
Readers of this blog will know that I have posted on the subject of squatting before. Mr Weatherley is quite clearly a fan of the housing Minister, Grant Shapps, who ineptly equates squatting and murder. Mr Weatherley, some of us owe our homes and wellbeing to squatters. The country as a whole owes much to the squatting ‘movement’ such that it is. Moreover, there are not too many bulwarks against the property owning class that Mr Weatherley’s elitist party celebrates. Squatting is one of them in its demonstration of the inequity associated with housing that is a malaise in our society. And I suspect that Mr Weatherley, like the housing minister, Grant Shapps, thinks that he is protecting people who find their houses squatted after they have been away on holiday or business. I do not condone this, but this is rare. Most squatting is targeted at criminally empty properties that can and should be brought into habitation, preferably under some collective ownership and/or management. I would have thought that was a better use of his time, criminalising empty property. Mr Weatherley seeks to criminalise expressions of liberty and freedom in the name of protecting it.
There is more to say about Mr Weatherley.
Gongs
It is that season again, the New Year’s Honours List. What is it really all about? Okay it is about honouring people who have achieved distinction in the arts, learning, science and public service. I know. But even then, golf: Rory McIlroy MBE aged 22 and Darren Clarke. Come on! Sport more generally. Then call me a cynic, we honour Gerald Ronson, former felon turned good guy (for subsequent charity work). Then there is Peter Bazalgette for bringing Big Brother to our screens – is notoriety on the list of qualifications? Hedge fund manager and Tory donor Paul Ruddock. Well done!
26 to 1 – auf wiedersehen Grossbritannien!
Notwithstanding my own thoughts about Cameron’s folly, the view of Europe’s media is very interesting indeed. Today I have scanned the German media and found, without exception, that the
UK is isolated, will continue to be so, and is the butt of many jokes. ZDF is never shy of inserting amusing graphics into its reports. Last night the map of Europe had the UK sprouting sails and heading west. The broadcaster was also keen to utilise those very useful statues by Anthony Gormley (right) that are gradually submerged by the oncoming tide to make some obscure point! Images of 
Victoria and allusions to empire also accompany harsh commentary.
Incredulity, is perhaps, the word that sums up much of the thinking in Germany. The Suedeutsche Zeitung broadsheet newspaper this morning dedicated a whole page to Cameron. He was thoroughly caricatured and that British sense of ‘fog cuts off the continent’ mentality was again exploited.
How interesting, moreover, that it is that a few weeks and months ago we were discussing which country will 
be leaving the Eurozone. Now the talk is about the ‘inevitable’ exit of the UK from the EU. What an image, also, of Cameron travelling back to Chequers, his country retreat, and inviting 30 or so fellow sceptics for dinner and a toast to a crazy and inept decision and negotiating position. Would it not have been better to have invited 30 ‘wise’ people to discuss how to move forward, how to retrieve the situation? This is not a time for backslapping, surely?
Then on the Today programme, this morning, George Osborne defended Cameron and the decision. John Humphrys expressed that European incredulity. And Osborne failed to explain how the decision was in the UK’s interest. Does it protect the City? Not according to the Editor of the Financial Times, Lionel Barber, also interviewed by Humphrys immediately prior to Osborne’s interview. Again, I have recorded these two interviews and uploaded here. The financial institutions will trade where it is in their best interests. Suddenly Frankfurt looks attractive.
What about the Coalition? The German media say little about it; it is incidental. In the UK, what should we expect? One would think that Clegg would call time and force a General Election. He surely senses, though, that that would be the end of his party. They would no longer be in coalition. The ‘power’ and privilege will have gone. For the German TV, Miliband is also a marginal figure. It is all about Cameron.
Osborne seems to think that the UK is going to be able to stop the 26 from using the institutions of the EU to establish a political and fiscal union. The UK is going to tell the other members that they cannot have their discussions over the Eurozone in EU buildings – I think not!
It is clear from the reporting in Germany that the UK is on its way out of the Union. I sense not only is it that the UK is on the way out, but it is also a case of good-riddance!
I was anxious going across the border last night. The border guard scrutinised my passport closer than normal. I suspect, when I depart tomorrow evening, they will not even look at it. Good riddance, Englander.
Michael Heseltine was also on Today – his interview is worth listening to (0810); he does his best not to criticise, but clearly he was not at the Chequers dinner last night.
Giving Northern Rock away
The sale of Northern Rock to Virgin at a loss to the taxpayer of £450m demonstrates something. First, nothing has been learned from recent experience. All this nonsense about bringing competition to the high street is meaningless in the world of financial services. One would have thought that if the government had wanted to develop competition then a second option might have been better.
That second option might have been remutualisation. Was it not the demutualisation of Northern Rock that got it into bother in the first place? And what happened to the government’s proclaimed love affair with co-operative ownership? I would have thought that mutual ownership was a viable and desirable option. The high street would have benefitted, businesses short of capital might have benefitted? But oh no. The taxpayer subsidises the transfer of a valuable asset – tens of thousands of viable mortgages – to an already very wealthy man. However, Jill Treanor writing in the Guardian on 2 December sees that large sums of money will also be transferred to existing senior managers:
The annual report for 2010 states that:
“The company will operate a long-term incentive plan for senior employees that will deliver financial rewards if the company achieves certain targets over a three year performance period. As the company did not make Ltip [long-term incentive plan] awards in 2010 it is the company’s intention to make awards in 2011 covering 2010 and 2011. The 2010 award will vest in March 2013 and the 2011 in March 2014 or upon successful exit from temporary public ownership if earlier” (emphasis added).
How convenient that the transfer occurs before the close of the year saving all of that unnecessary waiting around until 2014.
Now I understand.
Grant Shapps
Grant Shapps, the Tories’ Housing minister is demonstrating consistent imbecility. For example, on the Radio 4 programme earlier this week on squatting (From Frestonia to Belgravia: The History of Squatting: Frestonia_R4_1111), he equated the ‘crime’ of squatting with that of murder to Robert Elms. Today, on the Today programme, he demonstrates that he cannot organise his diary or coordinate announcements with the release of contradictory statistics. I feel compelled to record these for readers. He is truly egregious and dangerous. The Today recording can be heard here: Shapps_251111
Be informed 