Vinny Jones Shows He’s All Heart
Vinny Jones has got involved in publicity for the British Heart Foundation. The details and a video are here.
It should be remembered that his wife, Tanya, has had a heart transplant and I think he’s done work for the BHF before.
I actually think the whole concept of the video is rather good, as it’s very simply put together and you remember his message.
Is The Economy Getting Better?
I’m not sure, but there have been some good stories today.
On the BBC this morning there was a piece about how small exporters were doing well.
I know it’s a Japanese car company, but this article on the BBC about Nissan can’t be seen as anything but positive. It’s also in an area of high unemployment, where they need every job they can get.
John Lewis also reported a 6.2% like-for-like increase in sales during the Christmas period. As the company have branches in most parts of the UK, it can’t be anything other than a good thing. Next too is on target, but other retailers aren’t doing so well. But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as customers are picking up a few bargains. I bought a new pair of boots from Blacks at a very silly price.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been to several places on the trains, like Reading, Blackfriars, Cambridge and others, where the fruits of investment seem to be coming through. You can argue, that these were planned by the previous government, but it does seem that progress has speeded up in the last year or so. I will say that some of the developments in the London area, seem to have benefited from better engineering and project management, with the professionals being given targets by the politicians, who then have not interfered at the micro-management level. We could probably do even better with Network Rail, if they were controlled in the same way as Transport for London.
And lastly today, this piece about the pound has come in, showing it has risen against a failing euro. That may not be a totally good thing for exporters, but it shows that the world thinks our economy is on the mend.
It Appears There’s No Breast Implant Database
For every car my father owned, he kept a book in which he wrote all the service details and modifications he made. He was typical of many in the 1950s and 1960s, who looked after all details of their cars.
Nowadays we don’t do that, but if you buy a vehicle these days and have it serviced properly, everything is recorded on a computer database. And when you buy a second hand car, you can usually have access to this data to check, you’re not buying a ringer.
According to a letter in The Times today from the president of the Royal College of Surgeons, there is no such requirement for comprehensive details to be kept on breast implants and other cosmetic surgical procedures. However, the letter states that for joint replacements, there is a very successful National Joint Registry, that is analysed to detect problems before they become serious.
Why is there no registry for breast implants and cosmetic surgery? Obviously, such a registry would put up the cost of the surgery! If this discouraged the vane idiots, it might not be a bad idea, but I suspect it wouldn’t as they’d just go somewhere outside of the reach of the registry.
It would appear that many of us take better care of our cars than our bodies!
Farewell Ronald Searle
Ronald Searle was one of the greatest cartoonists this country has ever produced.
He is remembered most for St. Trinians. But I saw his wartime drawings from the Burma Railway in the sixties and they left a deep impression about the horrors of war and man’s inhumanity to man. All are part of a legacy of a great artist, who is mainly remembered for just one small part of his work.
He deserves to have a proper retrospective exhibition at a major gallery in the UK.
I noticed that Ronald Searle had the initials, RDI, after his name. The initials stand for Royal Designers for Industry. It is is a distinction established by the Royal Society of Arts in 1936, to encourage a high standard of industrial design and enhance the status of designers.
Stocktaking at the London Zoo
When I visited the London Zoo in the summer, we all watched entranced as a majestic sparrowhawk, who lives locally in the park, flew over the Zoo.
Will that bird be counted?
Is This Closure On The Stephen Lawrence Case?
The conviction yesterday of Gary Dobson and David Norris for the murder of Stephen Lawrence, only brings a closure to another chapter in the story of the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence.
I doubt though this will be the end of it, as too many with vested interests on all sides will not be able to let matters lie.
The Anonymous Widower 