What Politicians do so well

You know, politicians are extremely clever. Not necessarily erudite, logical, or balanced. But they are clever.

Just watching the BC Question time tonight, there were more object lessons in missing the point. The one that got me was to do with immigration.

There is so much conflation of ideas and stances that the simple, basic issues are lost in the attempt to be absolutely, clearly and incontrovertibly non-racist. Now being non-racist is absolutely, clearly and incontrovertibly the only way to be. It is the only logical and reasonable and defensible position to take.

However, in there attempt to be politicians, the real issue was actually brought up by a member of the audience. Mr Killroy Silk lost it entirely by trying to suggest that he did not mind immigration, but that he was never consulted as to how it happened. Sadly, that is how our democracy works : we vote, we get politicians, and our influence on decisions is lost for another four years or so. ( barring the odd Joanna Lumley moment of course, but then they happen quite rarely ).

Simply put,  the UK is an island, with limited resources, housing, space, roadways, cycle paths and everything else that is required to make the UK a not bad place to live.

Most other countries have taken the view that a points system to  become a national of country is a sensible and manageable way to ensure that their resources are not overrun. I just can’t see why we don’t do that !

In case we get the wrong idea – this does not apply to refugees or asylum seekers : they need all the help that humanity can give them.

So back to the point : politicians are so good at ignoring any facts that get in their way. Oh D*mn. I just remembered the debacle over the advice on cannabis, and the truly reprehensible process of ignoring the scientific evidence in attempt to ’send a message to young people’   that ecstasy and cannabis are dangerous.

Probably needs another post on why we should ban alcohol and cigarettes.

We are all in this together

Oh dear. George Osborne. You have upset my Karma.

OK – no problem with the idea of paying debts, and not giving people pay rises by right when inflation is low, ans several other things you said. We need this and more.

But fire your speech writer.

Multiple use of ‘We’re all in this together’ as your rallying cry  is as cringe worthy as anything I have ever heard. It grates on one’s nerves and de-focuses your message.

It borders on puerile,  insincere and a really naff nod at popular culture.

Stop it.

2/10 for effective catch phrase usage.

Now can I get on and do some work in peace ?

Politicians – and why they get it wrong

So the Conservatives here are as bad as the Labour Party in that they have no idea how to sell ideas.

Increasing the retirement age may help the balancing of debt and public finance. It may help use provide a better financed pension system.

But the real benefit of moving the pension age from 65 to 70 ( even ) is that we are living longer, we are more productive for longer, and for those additional years we will continue to pay tax and add to the economy. We will  want to work longer, purely and simply.

If the life expectancy for the majority is increasing every year, I for one do not want to spend another 30 years in retirement, not having enough money, not having a jolly good reason for getting out of bed, and not having the excitement of doing something adds to the world.

I want to work as long as I am able, and I’m sure many people will agree with that sentiment.

Meanwhile, we need to change employment law that outlaws ageism : and it is out there. A thirty-something manager who considers that they are &deity’s gift to business does not have the nouse or experience to work with a sixty-something experienced person.

The more I see, the more I hear from colleagues, the more I fear that the old ageism thing is alive and well and run by those who have not yet reached halfway through their lifespans. With 50% of those born in the UK now expected to live to 100, “somethin’ better change”

Ah – The Stranglers. Now there is a band from my past

Bosavi – a jewel

So the BBC has been showing a programme of an expedition to papua New Guinea – specifically Mount Bosavi.

Brilliant.

The first two programmes were a bit regular science, but they did have  the benefit of seemingly good funding. The third was a gem.

Not for the Giant Wooly Rat that they found, or even the new sub species of Cuscus that was just so cute.

Side thought – the Cuscus shows something that I have never really understood or explained. It had never seen a human before and was thus not at all frightened. But h do all furry mammals seem to positively enjoy being stroked by people ? OK, so it is similar to preening that they may normally get, but why do they all seem to enjoy people stroking them ?

Yeah, yeah, when I was being taught biology / zoology in the distant past, we were warned off anthrpomorphising things, but let’s be honest, the more we see, the more we begin to understand that a lot of mammalian behaviour is similar across species : and cuddling might just be one of those things.

Back to the main point.

When Professor George McGavin set up his white sheet to sample the insect life, I could have cried. Never have I seen such a fantastic  of insects in one place. Stunning. Absolutely stunning. If anyone needs a reason to stop destroying habitat like we are, they should watch those few minutes of film.

George is now one of my heroes

Meanwhile, I wonder how the Elephant Hawk Moth caterpillar that we have been carefully tending in our meadow is doing. Not seen it for a couple of days, so I hope it’s dropped to the ground to pupate.

David Cameron – Population concern role model. Not.

This is a bit of an open letter to David Cameron ( You know, the bloke that leads the Conservative party in the UK and will almost certainly be the next UK Prime Minister after the next election when the current incumbent realises he is not cut out for that particular job ).

I hope he gets to see it.

This is going to be blunt.

Please, Mr Cameron, I fully understand that losing your son had a huge effect on you and your family, and I absolutely sympathise. But you have children now. You have two. You have a replacement set for both you and Samantha. You do not need any more. In fact you should be saying to the public that having more than two is wrong.

With the population of the world growing inexorably, and expected to cause food shortages, increase the need for energy and materials, we should all be looking very closely at how we can work together to alleviate the problems of the future.

Remember it’s our children – your children – that will have to cope with with we do now.

Poverty

I was standing in Waterloo Station today, and on the large TV screen above the concourse, an exultation to end poverty flashed up.

I thought a little about the statement.

So yes – we could end poverty. But let’s think deeper.

It’s a sine curve out there. Most things are. There will always be left hand side that is below average. Doesn’t matter how steep the slope is but of course it’s worse if the slope is really shallow.

The way to reduce poverty is to move the curve up to the right. How you do that is to enable those on the left to move towards the middle of the sine curve. So how does a global economy do that ?

OK – so if I knew that, I’d go and do it, but I’m not conviced that a bunch of very well off rock stars have any real impact on how people from the middle to right hand side of the curve see their role in all of this.

Fairtrade looks a pretty good deal. It means that more money is passed directly to the producer. There was a programme on the BBC the other day about the Indonesian prawn farmers.  I was trying to work out how it works so that the farmers gets a miniscule percentage of the final price. How many middle layers are there of people making a profit from pushing prawns around the world ? Is this a good way of alleviating poverty in Indonesia ( just to use this as an example ) ?

Seems that what we shoudl be doing is helping them build business locally , and developing a local economy that is not dependant. I know, I know, this then suggests that they don’t focus on exporting luxury stuff to the West, and everyone thinks this is the way to do it.

But think more. They aren’t getting anywhere near enough money from this process, and, even worse, when the developed world find out that food miles, uncontrolled farming practices and extremely poor working conditions in the developing world  are a problem, we’ll all be looking to buy local and grow our own ( It’s already happening in the UK with many more people growing their own green beans rather than importing from Africa, where water is scarce )

Again, people in Kenya make money from Europeans buying green beans, but surely we can help them build their own local market for their own indiginous crops ?

Which reminds me.

Isn’t fashion and money a horrible combination.

Why, when South America has the fantastic potato as a source of carboydrate, do they import rice ? Fashion and status ?

And why does India now insist on having meat as a major part of their diet ? Just because they have more money so they can ?

Both of these actions are pretty bad for the planet, truth be known.

And yes, I know that everyone wants what the other guy has – I just think that clean water, sanitary conditions and a local economy is probably more of the right way to stable and suitable future.

We’ll see

Blogs should inform and entertain

So, that is perhaps why I don’t often update this one … but just today … well here I am looking at how Android is doing in the market … working out what might be hot in the world of open source … and sitting listening to Peaches new album : I feel Cream.

She hasn’t lost anything over the years – in fact she seems to have developed into a broader set of styles. Could be the producers has has this time, but her new work is tighter than ever, more solid than before, and thoroughly involving. It’s brilliant.

But, btw, if you don’t care for those little black and white labels on the front of CDs, I would try not to listen too hard for the lyrics. She fortunately hasn’t grown up as she enters another decade of being Merrill Beth Nisker.

Greta stuff.

How green is my recession

So – I know this is probably obvious, but it has to be said. All that hard work done in the past few years, convincing consumers to buy green. All that effort in pointing out that the planet will be here long after we aren’t.

And then some greedy b*st*rds in the banking system who think that gambling other people’s money on the price of green vegetable die in March 2010 come along and ensure that all the green drops out of the equation.

Why ?

Because the average consumer is only green in the good times.

Illogical yes, as being green will save you money in good and bad times, but there has always been a premium on green, and therefore, when money is tight, the first against the wall is the planet.

May not be quite that bad, as people naturally buy less, travel less, and generally consume less, but this is just a side effect. The real drive is to save money, and to date, greenness is not sold sufficiently on saving money. Yes I know I but things that are green because it’s my choice. I live in a ‘green’ house, but I am rather the exception.

As life loses a bit of its gloss for the next 12-24 months, I will wonder what could have been done if a small portion of the billions of dollars spent on paying bank bonuses had been spent on saving the planet.

Capitalism is generally a good thing : but extreme capitalism is only a benefit to the few, and really is not much use to the many.

Oh – and I’m not looking to explain why people have loans they can’t afford, That is another subject completely.

First part of another trip to the land of the Election

Hmm. Long time no comment on the world, but something about New York City make me want to.

So another trip to work with our business partners, and another , expensive, protracted and often tedious experience.

Tedium is managed by the survival mode : Oh no – the plane’s delayed another hour, just listen to some more music, and read the news on your phone. Try and make the most of the extra time you’ve got.

Protracted in that time stops when you’re on a trans-Atlantic or trans-USA flight. The six hours that you spend couped up with the other, frequently farting passengers seem to bear little resemblance to the six hours that you might spend working in an office. Maybe that is the survival technique working too.

Expensive. You bet. over 400 USD a night for a hotel that has seen better days, to be told after you’ve been charged 8 dollars ( yes, eight dollars ) for a single pot of yoghurt that they need your table – now, so please leave.the restaurant.I think for that price we should be allowed to have more time at our chosen table,

Moral, do not stay in the Paramount Hotel in NYC, as it is grubby, expensive, no longer shi shi, and definitely geared to any kind of customer service.

But, as befits Larry and I travelling together on business, things are more exciting when we decide to take the Limoliner from NYC to Boston. Thought this might be fun to try, and it was pointed out by a colleague from Boston. Thanks Pete. Thanks very much ….

We thought it would be a civilised European style bus, with good seats, food, drink and decent suspension.

So there are goodish things : the coffee, the food, and the seats are not too bad, with laptop power etc, Bond Movie on the video. But as the motorised technology. Is the US still in the Ice Age ?

Bounce, bump, rattle, vibrate. No good trying to do sensible work with your trusty ThinkPad like you might on a train. Nope. wobbly screens don’t aid concentration. So Limoliner is off the menu next time too : though I have to say that the attendant, as well as being a very attractive lady, is also very attentive. Thanks for that.

But sort out the suspension, please !

More of travel later, and if I can be ar*d to hire a bike in Las Vegas and manage to pedal in the 36 degree, 21 % humidity desert, I’ll be sure to add more comment son how Vegas is an immoral hole that uses more energy than is absolutely necessary, but is still a magic place.

Devizes to Westminster Canoe / Kayak race 2008

So, one of the problems with having a committed teenager in the house, is that when he does things, he does them with an undiluted passion that often surprises, but always pleases.

Over the Easter weekend he did the DW race for the second time. This year he paddled with his coach. They paddled their hearts out, won, and took around an hour and a half off the record for their class. Before I go on http://www.dwrace.org.uk/ is where you can find more details and the results. Because of his age, he can’t go through in one go yet, so it is a race over 4 days.

I made a promise last year that if he did it again, I would cycle as much as possible along the towpath and riverside paths. I did. Old man that I am, and unfit as I am, I managed to support them from the riverside, making sure they were OK on portages, feeding them on the way ( well, squirting power gels in their mouths ! ) and generally racing them.

The river was high, the weather was atrocious. We had sunshine, rain, snow, hail and horizontal winds. Awful conditions, but the flow on the river helped them all most of the time.

One section I will always remember though. At Henley ( where the regatta is held when the sun shines in the summer ) there was a headwind strong enough to deflect me on my bike, and white, cresting waves on the Thames. Paul and Sarah just kept going. They were doing 7 miles an hour into the wind. I have no idea how deep they dug, but it was just great to be beside them through it. I wouldn’t have missed that for anything.

What a great way to spend a long weekend.