Not Just an Obituary in The Times, but a Leader Too!
I wonder what a young Norman Wisdom would have said, if that many years later, when he died, he would not only have an obituary in The Times, but a leader inside the cover, praising his life and work. But then he was one of those small, tough men, who often come out on top despite what the world throws at them!
There have been so many memories on the TV and radio in the last day or so, about one of Britain’s most-loved comedians. I particularly liked the stories of such as Chris Hollins, who is far too young to have seen the films or the classic TV sketches of the 1950s and 1960s, but remembers him from the match when England played in Albania.
I think we always forget what a good actor he was. He won a Bafta for a start! But I do wonder what would have happened if the film he had written about Benny Lynch in the 1950s had ever been made. As someone who could box, Wisdom saw himself playing the great Scottish boxer, but then the film industry in those days of the 1950s, saw him as a comic and not a serious actor. Some years ago, I read about this part of his life in the sports pages of The Daily Telegraph. It was one of his regrets in life, that the film was never made. Perhaps it should be!
A Gamble Too Far
Jim Gamble’s resignation from CEOP is probably sad, but according to this report, his resignation is about power and being independent.
We need more protection for the vulnerable in society when they use the Internet, the telephone or even receive mail. Children, are just possibly the most important of several groups, who need protection from all sorts of low life.
When I had the boiler room crooks targeting me, I got no help from the police. On the other hand, I was strong enough to fight them and win, but many other widows and pensioners, would not have the knowledge or the fortitude to fight. But the crooks are still phoning according to my Truecall monitor, so they never give up. And that is why we need more protection!
So perhaps one of the benfits of merging CEOP into a proposed National Crime Agency would be that their systems could be broadened to protect the other vulnerable groups. I suspect that the determination behind the evil people plaguing me, is very little different to those targeting children.
Revolt of the Mothers
George Osbourne’s proposals for cutting child benefit to high earners does not appear to have gone down well with those who will be affected. But his other proposal to limit the amount of benefit to a particular family to £500 a week seems to have been well received by the same high earners.
They can’t have it both ways!
But you have to look at the statistics here! Women are now having their children later, often after or midway through a good career. So perhaps, Osbourne’s apparent child benefit robbery will have a classic Newtonian reaction and mothers will wait until they get the finances right before having their children. I know we didn’t do that in the 1970s, but then, child benefit in those days was very insignificant compared to what it is now!
As to the benefit limit of £500 per family, this will have some beneficial effects. Most of these high benefits are paid in the form of housing benefit in areas, where rental property is expensive. Landlords will not let their properties stand empty, so we might see rents fall in another classic Newtonian reaction.
George Osbourne Abolishes Child Benefits for High Earners
We had three chidren and when we were hard up, the small amount of child benefit we got helped C make ends meet. But as we could afford to send all of our children to private schools, I don’t think we’d have missed the child benefit, when I became a high earner.
So I think George Osbourne has got it absolutely right. If you have three children, the benefit works out at about £180 per month. In the grand scheme of things if you are earning over £44,000 and living well, it’s just a case of good wine a month or a meal down the pub for two, once a week!
What really gets me is the sight of young and sometimes not-so-young mothers, wheezing as they push the baby around, whilst smoking their ciggies. After all 20 a day is about £180 a month! So if you have three children, you can use your child benefit for the fags!
A Pointless Strike
The London Underground strike is totally pointless as it is trying to protect booking office staff, who because of the new ticketing systems, have little to do anyway.
Boris hohnson said this.
We need to take account of the fact that some ticket offices are now selling fewer than 10 tickets an hour. We need to liberate staff to get out on to the platforms and concourses where they can be of most use to the travelling public.
I’m afraid that this won’t be the last strike, where new technology is threatening to get rid of jobs or redeploy people.
How Can They Get it So Wrong?
This is another story, that would make my father turn in his grave. There is no excuse these days for publishing a book with so many mistakes, as HarperCollins has done for Jonathan Franzen.
The Stirling Prize
I like architecture and always try to watch the results of the Stirling Prize.
Last night we saw six commissions fight for the prize. I liked the Neues Museum best, but then what do I know about architecture!
The Dutch Lose a World Record to the Iraqis
I don’t think the Dutch will be too bothered, as it’s only the record for the longest time taken to form a government! The full report is here.
A Sensible Approach To Health and Safety
It is reported today that Lord Young is close to delivering his report on the health and excessive culture in the UK.
Some of the stories I’ve read lately are so silly it’s not true.
I should say that I grew up in my father’s print works, with lots of printing machines, guillotines, paper drillers and noxious substances like printing ink, solvents and of course lead-based type. My father gave me a lot of guidance, but I suspect many of the things I did, would never be allowed now!
Did I have any accidents at the time?
Yes!
I was using a wood-turning lathe at school and got a splinter in my eye, which meant I had to go to Highlands hospital to have it removed. I should have been wearing goggles, but there weren’t any! That was typical of schools at the time! Nowadays, I would never do something like that without protective goggles.
But it was only when I worked in industry that I got any training. At Enfield Rolling Mills it was minimal and was basically a walk round the factory, pointing out what was dangerous. It may seem silly to say that you learned on the job, but then they expected you to observe what you saw and take appropriate precautions to avoid trouble.
At ICI in 1969, I went on a safety course, but the most valuable lesson, I had was a walk round a BCF plant with the foreman, Charlie Akers. To illustrate the dangers of HF dust, he took a speck and placed it on my thumb. It burned, so after that I made sure that I didn’t touch any. I still climb industrial staircases without putting my hands on the top, as that is where all the noxious substances are!
In my view Health and Safety training should begin in schools, as what you need to instill is a simple threat recognition and avoidance culture into children, that they will carry with them all of their lives. How many children have broken arms at five or six in simple situations like getting off a slide or a swing? A researcher into accidents once told me, that he felt there was now a common child accident, where kids were trained to get into their house quickly for their protection and had all sorts of problems, when the car wasn’t parked outside the house, so they ran across the road to get to safety. I once drove up from Cornwall and was suprised to see so many overloaded 4x4s in accidents, because their idiot drivers had not properly understood the problems of excess speed and weight. A proper health and safety education and a bit more practical understanding of Newton’s Laws would have alerted them to the problem before they set out.
The report on Lord Young makes some interesting points.
Launching the review in December, Mr Cameron cited cases of children being told to wear goggles to play conkers, restaurants being banned from handing out toothpicks and trainee hairdressers being banned from using scissors as examples of silly practice.
The Young report says local authorities, in future, should explain their decisions to ban events on health and safety grounds in writing.
The public should be able to refer decisions to an ombudsman and, if deemed to be unfair, they should be overturned within two weeks.
The idea of an ombudsman seems very sensible, especially, as they would affectively lay down good practice.
Lord Young also says flaws in existing legislation have fuelled the number of personal injury lawsuits and pushed up the fees charged by lawyers.
The growth of claims management firms – which are paid referral fees by solicitors to assess whether there are grounds for a claim – has led to a glut of advertising, he says, and resulted in a market in fees where claimants are directed to firms which pay the most not those which are most suitable.
“Many adverts entice potential claimants with promises of an instant cheque as a non-refundable bonus once their claim is accepted – a high pressure inducement to bring a claim if ever there was one,” his report argues.
A culture has developed in which businesses, the public sector and voluntary organisations “fear litigation for the smallest of accidents and manage risk in accordance with this fear,” he adds.
When I was in Middlesborough, there were adverts everywhere for solicitors, who would make a claim for you. In my view where there’s a greedy and unscrupulous lawyer, there’s a claim. I’d ban all forms of advertising by lawyers. You always get the best lawyers by talking to a good friend or someone who really knows what to do, not by phoning a company which then have a vested interest in your claim.
He also is suggesting a Good Samaritan law.
His report also suggests that a “good samaritan” law may be necessary to make it clear that people will not be sued for voluntary actions – such as clearing snow from a driveway – which may inadvertently contribute to accidents.
This is another good idea! But in the driveway example, we should remember good common sense, when we do things like that. In a related example, if we see a loose paving-slab outside our house, which we feel could be dangerous to some people, then coucils must have a reporting system that gets it fixed.
Health and Safety is just one area, where we must rescue our country from the barmy, scientifically-incorrect excesses of Nulabor.
Since my strokes, it is not stretching things to say that my Health and Safety training has been one of the things that has helped me get around and get my life back on track.
Are Dictators Stupid?
It would appear that Robert Mugabe has fallen for a scam where a mystic claims he can get diesel out of rock. The story is here in The Times.
So he proves my title for a start.
This is one of my favourite books. The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy
The Anonymous Widower 