Scotland and Daylight Saving Time
Professor Mayer Hillman at the University of Westminster is the first person to do a study of the effects of going to Central European Time for Scotland.
His report is on his web site here.
His major conclusiuons of moving the clocks forward are that it would :-
- Save lives on the road
- Increase opportunities for outdoor leisure and social activities in the evenings
- Improve the health and quality of life of the great majority of the population
- Widen opportunities for people fearful of being out after dark, especially the elderly, to go out in the evenings
- Enable parents to extend the hours they allow their children to be out of doors
- Boost the leisure and tourism industries through increased revenue and job generation
But then as Dr. Hillman is from the University of Westminster, his report will be rubbished, by those totally opposed to the change. And especially by the Scottish Nationalists who will probably oppose it on principle, as the idea comes from Westminster.
But please don’t just rubbish the report. Read what Dr. Hillman has to say, because his report has convinced me, that for the majority of Scots it will be a good thing to change.
After all, Scotland has its own parliament, so they could make their own policy on this one. It is not unknown for countries and even states like Tennessee to use two time zones. But if Scotland should prevent England going to Central European Time, it would be a strong case of the tail wagging the dog.
After Payday Loans, We Now Have Payday Sales!
I buy my Sloggi knickers from Figleaves, as it is so much easier to buy them there than in a real store, as most never have my style or anything smaller than medium. And as they are just a few miles down the road in Haverhill, they usually arrive in the post the next morning!
Today, I received an e-mail from them with a new twist. The title was “20% off at figleaves.com – Payday treat!”
I like that and it is very much the acceptable face of the Internet, as opposed to some of the payday loan companies.
My First Second-Hand Loan on Zopa
I said a few weeks ago, that Zopa had introduced a get out method called Rapid Return.
Today I acquired my first second-hand loan. So it was only £30, but I did lend it at a rate half-a-percent higher than my minimum rate.
So it would appear that for other borrowers it might be a good thing, as you get a chance to pick up safe loans at a good rate.
Mel Brooks Must be Laughing Himself Silly
It would appear that the new Spiderman Musical in New York is suffering from being as rediculous as Springtime for Hitler.
According to this article from the BBC, the New York Post has branded it an epic flop.
So obviously, the producers must be making a fortune, if they have followed Max Bialystock‘s advice.
An Open Letter to my MP About Changing to Central European Time
I feel very strongly that we should be on the same time asmost of the rest of Europe. As the MPs are voting on it on Friday, I thought I’d send my MP a reminder to cast his vote and cast it in favour of the Daylight Saving Bill.
I’ve struggled these last few days in the snow, as I can’t drive due to my stroke and there is little or no public transport. If the evenings were lighter and the morning darker, I could stay in bed until it was fully light and it would give a much longer window, in the middle of the day, for my carer/driver to come and take me to the shops and doctors’ appointments. I have needed taxis at times, and they all seem to disappear when it gets dark.
Now I’m not disabled, but I suspect that those who are, have found these few days very trying.
I also caught a train to Ipswich from Stratford in the rush hour a few days ago. I didn’t have any trouble, but more light would have made the crowded platform a lot safer.
As a trained engineer, I’m also a big fan of metric units, as these make construction and many other things a lot simpler and safer. My middle son incidentally was born in the same hospital as baby Miliband. But there was one big difference. In 1970 my son was measured in kilos, but baby Miliband was given in pounds. So you can see what progress means in the Labour Party!
So please vote for the UK to join Central European Time.
I do suspect though, that we won’t do the sensible thing, as this change strikes too many as cowtowing to Europe.
The Student Fee Debate
If I look at my course at Liverpool University in the 1960s, there were some of us, who did very well, others who did reasonably and possibly quite a few who never did any serious engineering at all. Now they are trying to force more and more people to go to University and this happens when they have a funding crisis, caused by the appalling financial management of the infamous Nulabor government.
In some ways we may well be having the wrong debate.
We have a problem to pay for it all, but are Universities the right place to educate people for careers.
My father was a printer, who owned his own business and if there was one thing in his business he was proud off, it was the success of the apprentices he’d trained. He once told me, that of the dozen or so he’d had, only perhaps one had not been a success. In some ways they were bigger successes than they thought, as he always chose the rougher kids, who didn’t mind getting their hands dirty in one of the dirtiest businesses of the 1960s. I remember him complaining that schools used to send him kids, whose English was good, but if they wouldn’t get their hands dirty they were out. He always said that teaching the English was the easy bit, provided they could read, but learning to get a feel for the lead tyoe used in letterpress was not so easy.
So the first thing we should do is create proper apprenticeships in all sorts of businesses and make the whole system worthwhile for both those businesses and the young people. I’ve owned the stud for twenty years and in that time, we’ve never had any help with training some of the local kids. So what do the big studs do? Import people on short term contracts from places like Pakistan. I may be wrong, but there is something serious missing here!
To give the government credit, they are saying that they are going to create more apprenticeships. We need lots more and obviously they need to be very flexible and backed up by training leading towards qualifications.
It used to be that most nurses and others in the caring professions, were in a large part taught on the job in what was almost an appreticeship with lots of teaching. Now many of these professions need a university degree before you actually see anybody who needs some help or comfort. I’m sure that many are now barred from these professions, as they are not very academic and wouldn’t be able to get on a course. As an example, one of my friends, who has few qualifications, now works as an orderly at Addenbrooke’s and thoroughly enjoys it. She is being given on the job training, to suplement everything she learned as a mother of two. Surely, there could be a route to get this type of person into the caring professions, rather than importing them from the Phillipines and India.
All this proves to me, that on-the-job training is probably the best way to train people to do the important second level jobs, that don’t need a specialist degree. We’ve all met people, who run large companies, organisations or departments, who’ve fought their way to the top without any academc training.
We also have two other routes to getting a university degree; part-time study or the Open University. A schoool-friend used to be the Admissions Tutor at a well-known university and he was very adept at creating courses to fit round applicants jobs and family. He also had very strident views on universities, which are at completely at variance with all government thinking, but are based on many years experience in the field. The Open University always seems to be forgotten in education debates, but surely it is one of the finest successes of our education system in the last few decades.
So if the route for many to a good job and perhaps a degree is based on training and low personal cost, then perhaps we can reduce those numbers who take a traditional degree.
One also has to question whether this is necessary. In the forty years since I left university, I only worked for one year, where I needed any of the specialist knowledge that I learned at Liverpool. But the university degree got me the good job in the first place!
So is that the main reason for universities? They set you up on the ladder of life!
So to me the problem is we’re trying to send too many people to university, when there are better alternatives.
If we cut the numbers, we could probably fund everything in a better and more equitable way!
That is not to say the government’s proposal of no upfront fees, loans and paying it all back when you earn over £20,000 a year is wrong, but students need a choice that gives them value for money and one that they can afford, by getting an academic degree that pays well in the future.
Throwing a Life Away
In today’s world, there is not the point of keeping anything like there used to be. I’ve just spent an hour shredding bank and credit card statements, as if I need them they are on-line anyway.
Whole boxes of memories end up being compressed into a box a third the size of what you started with. Things that you hoped you would trawl through with your wife in front of your grandchildren, just go straight in the skip. Is it sad! Perhaps! But if I don’t do it now, my son will have to do it in a few or hopefully twenty years time. Even my travels of the previous few months, has ended up in a rather small box. But I will make a collage of the train and football tickets in memory of an adventure.
Ocassionally, you find the odd gem, but most of it is just rubbish. The real memories are in my mind or as photographs on disc or in more boxes.
But hey, I’m only 63 and may have a few years yet, so perhaps this is only throwing half the first half of a life away. In a way I’m going back to where C and I started in that area to the north of the City of London, bordered at the top by the North London Line.
Why Saving Marham is a Lost Cause
There is a big campaign in Norfolk to keep the Tornado base at Marham open.
Itb won’t work, as there is an election in Scotland and the Lib Dems will make sure Lossiemouth is saved.
The Anonymous Widower 