How Few Use Oyster!
On the London Underground this morning, I was surprised how many people seemed to be holding old-fashioned card tickets.
Is Transport for London doing enough to tempt passengers to use the cheaper alternative of an Oystercard.
Sainsburys in High Holborn
I ventured into the Sainsburys Local at High Holborn today to get a paper. I left empty-handed as I couldn’t find them, as the shop had a maze-like quality and the staff seemed incapable of giving me clear directions.
I think it’s the last time I visit a shop without a full recci first!
Should We All Pay Bank Charges?
The UK is one of few countries in the world, Australia and India are others, where if you keep your account in credit, you effectively get free banking. There is an article in the Telegraph, describing how Andrew Bailey of the Bank of England feels this banking model should end, as it encourages things like mis-selling to get the money in other ways.
I always remember my friend, David, who rose to be Buisiness Banking Director of a major clearing bank, said that they made a third of their profits, by lending money overnight.
Now I want with a bank that doesn’t apply charges for direct debits and transfers, keeping most of my money in Zopa. In other words, I own the overnight money at a better rate than my bank will give me.
The banks are going to hell, and I’ll make sure, that I’m not in their handcart
The NHS Gets Gluten-Free Food Spectacularly Wrong
According to a report to be broadcast on Newsnight tonight, the NHS pays things like £17 a go for a gluten-free pizza base. If I remember correctly, that buys more than one gluten-free pizza with a topping from somewhere like Sainsburys. i don’t as I like to buy my pizzas made in a proper oven, by someone who knows what he is doing. The last time I ate a pizza was in Naples.
Apparently, the NHS spent £27 million on gluten-free prescriptions last year and say it helps people stick to their gluten free diet.
I don’t get anything on prescription. I used to until I went through the boring list available with a pharmacist and I decided that as I liked food with taste, I’d pass. For instance on the NHS approved list there are no chocolate biscuits. A couple occasionally would liven things up.
I’ve just returned from the shops and for my lunch today and tomorrow, I’ve bought some gluten-free rolls, some smoked salmon, an egg and potato salad and some melon. I could have bought the salad and fruit unprepared, but with my gammy hand, I’d prefer to let someone else do it.
It is much easier to buy it in the local supermarket, in this case Waitrose, than get the bread delivered by post.
At the moment, I’m not cooking, as my cooker has gone and the new one is not delivered until Monday, so a couple of days a week, I live on gluten-free ready meals from somewhere like M & S. But when I get cooking again, there are so many simple things to cook that are naturally gluten-free, like fish, meat, vegetables and fruit.
So in some ways the solution to the NHS’s £27million bill for gluten-free food, is to get everybody to eat healthily. We already have a pasty tax, so why not have a super-tax on burgers, unhealthy sandwiches and other foods, that cause obesity. I would be pleased, as every day, someone has dumped the old fast food packaging on my front patio, sometimes with the burger remains in it.
If people need help to cope with the expense of a gluten-free diet, then they should get the help directly, not with food parcels, where the administration is the major cost.
There also might be a virtuous circle here, in that if the NHS stopped prescribing gluten-free food, the supermarkets would feel it was a market worth developing.
One interesting development over the last couple of years, is the Marks & Spencer’s widower’s range of ready meals. They call it Fuller Longer and the range contains very few allergens, with perhaps a third of the dishes being gluten-free. Probably the most common allergen is fish! I can live with that!
With food like that who needs the hassle of collecting a prescription of a load of cardboard-flavoured rubbish.
The only problem is probably bread, but then all supermarkets and many other stores, these days have a selection of gluten-free bread and rolls.
Perhaps the £27 million would be better spent on education. Let’s face it, the most expensive gluten-free products are things like biscuits and cakes. I wasn’t a coeliac, when I lived with my mother, but some of the biscuits and cakes she used to make in those days, are well within the skills of the average eight-year-old. There is always the old staple of a chocolate rice crisp, made from Rice Krispies or a gluten-free equivalence. Kelloggs also have an interesting alternative here. Just search Google for chocolate rice crisp.
Let’s assume that in the UK, one in a hundred are coeliacs, which means every coeliac costs the country £43.50 a year for gluten-free food.
Sportsmanship Still Exists
According to this story in the Telegraph, McLaren have offered to loan equipment to Williams, to help them recover from the fire at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Perhaps sportsmanship isn’t totally dead yet!
The Mounties on Guard
Yesterday, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police provided the mounted guard on Whitehall.
I doubt, I’ll ever see this again in my lifetime. There is a photo gallery here from the Toronto Star.
I wonder how many of the tourists snapping away didn’t realise that it was Canadians on guard. Surely MP on the saddle-cloth was a giveaway, something was different.
Surorisingly, the event doesn’t seem to have been reported in the television news. I found out from yesterday’s copy of The Times.
It’s Only a Phone Box
I took this picture on Whitehall yesterday.
Two tourists were photographing themselves in and outside the box.
It’s Only a Phone Box
I can’t remember the last time I used a public phone, let alone one in a box. Possibly twelve years or so ago. Last time I needed to, when I couldn’t get a signal on my mobile and my car had broken down, a local resident let me use his land-line.
The Anonymous Widower 