Clarke Says Prison is a Waste of Money
On Saturday this was the lead story on the front page of The Times. It was also in the Guardian.
He is so right!
I first met a prison governor at University in the 1960s and he said the same thing.
So why if this has been generally known for many years, do we still lock up so many people for long periods of time?
Is it just that politicians are so frightened of the tabloids and the vengeance tendency who read them?
Perhaps we should have a referendum on capital punishment, corporal punishment and a three-crimes-and-its-life law? All those who voted in favour would have a 90% rate of Income Tax to pay for the policies.
Food Use-By Dates
There are reports that food use-by dates are to be changed to cut food waste.
I am a coeliac and am possibly lactose intolerant. For this reason I’ve changed to goat’s milk.
One of the benefits compared to cow’s milk, is that a one litre bottle, lasts a full three weeks and never goes off, which is a great help, as I live by myself. I’ve a little bit left in the current bottle, but the use by date is April 12th.
So I’m healthier and save money!
M1 Closed on Busiest Sporting Weekend
The M1 is closed on the busiest sporting weekend of the year, with two FA Cup semi-finals and the London Marathon.
But it probably won’t be as bad as it could be, as Manchester United fans won’t have much trouble getting up to Wembley from Surrey.
It does though illustrate the folly of not allowing an extra rail route into London from Manchester via the East Midlands.
Liverpool Takes on Its Biggest Challenge
The reports today about Liverpool University’s leadership of a large trial of a pancreatic cancer vaccine is very much to be welcomed.
If there was a motto that sums up the city, it is “Think Big”. Just think.
- Architecturally, it is the Second City of the UK.
- St. George’s Hall is one of the most magnificent neo-classical buildings anywhere.
- Liverpool City Centre is a World Heritage Site.
- It has two cathedrals, one of which is one of the largest in the world in many ways.
- The Beatles transformed the world of music more than anybody else.
So you can never say the city is full of shrinking violets.
So when Liverpool established itself as a world-class cancer centre, it didn’t take on the easiest of targets. It concentrated on one of the biggest and morst deadly;pancreatic cancer, which has one of the lowest survival rates.
Now are we starting to see a small step on the road to a successful fight against this awful disease, which killed my son at the early age of just 37?
You will see a link to their research on this blog. Click it and donate!
Mobile Phone Hacking
Quite a few years ago, one of C’s clients told her that she thought her violent husband was listening to the messages on her mobile phone. I did a bit of research and found that C’s mobile phone pin number was still set to the factory default and that meant I could read her messages, when I found out what that was. And of course once you’ve read them they disappear from your new messages list. A hacker could also delete the message if they wanted. She was astonished, when I showed her how I’d done it and asked me how it could be stopped. I just changed the pin number, gsve her a few simple lessons and she was now secure.
She got better later in her life, but ten years ago, C was very technically non-savvy and if she’d been a celebrity, she’d have been easy prey to a phone hacker. Looking at those who claim they have been hacked, I see a lot of people there, who could best be described as a couple of bricks short of a full load. Especially, when it comes to technology.
So perhaps, they got hacked because they didn’t take the sort of precautions, that an eight-year-old would take.
A Greedy Mobile Phone Company
There has been an outcry over phone company Everything Everywhere has been taking cuts of charity money donated by text messages. Others like O2, Vodafone and Virgin don’t take anything.
Even if as has been reported, they have now stopped the cut, it does seem to me, that this company might be one that isn’t one you’d want to use to get a good deal.
After all they’ll have to raise that charity cut from somewhere else.
A Glimmer of Hope in Palestine
The Times yesterday had an article and a leader about how things are getting better in Palestine.
Let’s hope so!
They give the credit to Salam Fayyad, who has been concentrating on economic development of the country.
They sum it all up with this last paragraph.
Mr Fayyad’s efforts are embattled and small-scale, but they are far from futile. They exemplify the principle that statecraft is better practised by improving people’s lives than by promoting sweeping revolutionary schemes. They are a good deed in a weary region.
I wish Mr. Fayyad well.
But perhaps he may turn out to be the right person in the right place at the right time! Palestine and the world for that matter needs a great statesman to move things forward.
Celebrity Sex Secrets
The Times today, has the headline “Call girl must keep celebrity sex secret”.
It says how a celebrity has got an injunction ostensibly to keep his indiscretions from his wife.
He’ll be lucky if he gets away with this!
C did lots of divorces where all sorts of hanky-panky was going on, but partners always worked out the truth for themselves. So in the end, no injunction will stop everything for all time.
So whoever it is that has obtained the injunction in The Times, he ought to make a clean breast of t now, as it’ll all end in tears. The tabloids just have too much to gain from printing the truth. And somebody will accept their wads of notes to give them the story.
I was once told a story in the 1980s by the manager for BT in East Anglia. He said that when they got complaints about high phone bills and checked, they found that someone was calling a particular number continually. From the pattern, they would often deduce, that someone was having an affair. In those days, divorce details were often reported in the local paper and they often found a divorce followed the phone bill complaint.
We can all speculate about who it is in The Times article, but give a couple of months and it’ll all be in the open.
Icelanders Give the UK and The Netherlands Two Fingers
Th Icedlanders did what was expected and rejected the deal to repay the UK and The Netherlands in a referendum. After all it wasn’t the fault of the good people of Iceland, that their banks went bust.
The trouble is there is a hell of lot more than one born every minute. A few ended up running the Icelandic banks and many more individuals and councils from the UK and The Netherlands invested in banks that were paying a rate that was too good to be true.
If you put any money in something that is outside of both the banking regulations and the UK, you’re asking for trouble. I know people who put all their savings in such as Icesave. They’d have got a better return in Corals, backing horse number 7 in each race.
But the individuals were all compensated by Gordon Brown, using our hard-earned taxes. After all if he hadn’t, the election result might have been different!
Councils, like these in Scotland are still waiting.
Commentators and politicians say the dispute will end up in court. So the lawyers will love that one!
The Anonymous Widower 