Fall out from the VAT Rise from 17.5% to 20%
One of the things about the current VAT rate of 17.5% is that there is a rule that an elephant would never forget to find out the VAT part of a bill. You take the total amount, multiply it by 7 and they divide it by 47.
You could argue that the 20% rate is just a divide by 6, but it’s not very memorable is it.
On the other hand, VAT rates of say 18, 19 or 21 percent would be beyond many people’s capabilities.
Rare Earth Prices May Hit Smart Phones
I’ve just been hearing on the BBC’s Wake up to Money, that rare earth prices are set to rise, as China imposes export restrictions. This may mean that defence equipment won’t be able to get everything it needs and prices of devices like smart phones may rise.
Am I bothered?
Not really, as I believe that the real developments in the future in defence, security and medicine will be mind-based like software and no-one has ever proved to me any decent reason to buy a smart phone. After all who needs something physical to be smart? Smartness comes from your own brain.
I can text, tweet and make phone calls from my trusty Nokia 6310i and it’s as smart as I need. If it were smarter it might start to rule my life! But, that’s my job!
My Fourth Christmas Alone
That sounds bad, but the previous three were very good. In the first I actually helped out with the pensioners’ Christmas Dinner in Bury St. Edmunds and I think, if I’d been here a month or so, I’d have done something similar this year. In the intervening two years, I’ve spent it with either friends or family and today I shall be having lunch with my son and his friends.
One thing C and I always used to dread over Christmas was waking up to some really bad news, like the invasion of Afghanistan by the Russians, Cyclone Tracy, Taeyokale Hotel fire in Seoul or the Indian Ocean tsunami. The last was Boxing Day, but you get my jist.
So today we wake up to the news that a suicide bomber has killed dozens in an aid queue in Pakistan. As he died, the bastard who did it, didn’t even get any satisfaction to know that he done what he intended. But if that is what religion is about, then, I’m on a better track in saying that outside of the humanity and downright goodness shown by most of the world’s great religions, the rest is all about bigotry and hate and is best avoided and certainly to be actively discouraged.
I think in part C and I’s apprehension about Christmas were caused by some of our own little disasters. I think we ran out of gas at least twice, as we forgot to order it and on one Christmas the electric AGA died. That won’t happen this year, as if my son’s cooker fails, he can put everything in a car and get here in ten minutes. He claims to know how my cooker works and I can muddle through, so dinner might be late but it will happen.
We did have a couple of frosty Christmases though concerning C’s mother, who at times could be a bit difficult. I think I appreciate her problems more now, that I’m widowed myself. One Christmas she was staying with us and the film on Christmas Eve was Five Easy Pieces. She didn’t speak to us for forty-eight hours after that! She was also with us when the AGA failed and that had a similar result.
The best Christmas in some ways we had with C’s mother was when she collapsed in our flat in the Barbican with heart trouble. We felt really guilty, as she was taken into Bart’s Hospital, where they did a great job in sorting her out and giving her perhaps another ten years more of life, than she would have got otherwise. She also enjoyed being in Hospital over Christmas, as they looked after her so well and she could tell everybody about all of the myriad medical problems she’d suffered with in her life.
He Counted Them All Out and He Counted Them All Back!
Brian Hanrahan is well-known for his memorable phrase from the Falklands War, but he was one of the last journalists of the old school, who wielded words with alacrity and finesse to describe scenes or make points.
This week has also seen the loss of Anthony Howard. The English language can’t afford too many weeks like this.
Should We Nominate Inept Suicide Bombers for Darwin Awards?
The Swedish suicide bomber, Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, seems to have been particularly inept, just as I hope most killers and would be terrorists are!
If like Taimour, they kill no-one else, then surely they have made themselves eligible for a Darwin Award, by removing themselves from the gene pool. Sadly, he did injure a couple of innocent people, so this probably means he’s ineligible for an award.
Shane Warne has Better Things to Do!
Shane Warne will not be trying to do the difficult job of helping out the Aussies in the next Test Match, as he seems to have found something better to do.
The Stockholm Bombings
I don’t know Sweden well, as I’ve only been once to Stockholm on business. and that was years ago!
I do hope that the Swedish police get to the bottom of this and it doesn’t end up like the enquiry into the murder of Olof Palme, which came to no satisfactory conclusion at all.
We Don’t Want Pastor Jones in the UK
It is reported that the odious Pastor Jones of the Dove Outreach Center is going to come to the UK to speak at a rally of the English Defence League. The two of them deserve each other, but not in this country.
When I see people like Jones, I reach for the sick bucket, as people like him have no place in the tolerant world, where I want to live. After all I’m descended from two groups of immigrants; Jews and Huguenots, who found safety from intolerance and bigotry in the East End of London.
I hope Theresa May does the right thing and bans the visit.
Prince Charles Street Cred Rises
The attack last night on Charles and Camilla is to be condemned. I do think though that it will increase his steeet cred with the general public.
Wikileaks Gets Nasty
I’m not sure about Wikileaks. I’m all for it, when it exposes injustice and cruel regimes around the world. On the other hand, if the founder has commited sex crimes in Sweden, then I would of course not condone that! But that has nothing to do with Wikileaks.
But now that their supporters are supposedly attacking the likes of Mastercard and PayPal, I’m not sure.
I’m also very much against people leaking information they have been given in confidence. Unless of course, that information exposes crime, injustice or incompetence. But a lot of the Wikileaks disclosures would appear to be diplomatic or political tittle-tattle, available in many autobiographies of the supposedly great and good. So have Wikileaks ruined the value of these memoires, which no one buys anyway?
The Anonymous Widower 