Check-In Chaos
It would appear that you can cut costs so far, but there is a limit to how far you can go. There was chaos at Stansted on Saturday, as Ryanair‘s agent Swissport did not provide enough people on the check-in desks.
Who is to blame is unclear, as neither Ryanair or Swissport have appeared to have commented.
It makes me even more certain that I’ll avoid cheap airlines unless I can carry everything on my back or in my jacket.
In fairness I should say that I’ve never been late with Ryanair, but then I’ve never put anything in the hold and always check-in on-line.
How Not To Deal With Complaints
There is this article in The Times today.
We all know what we would like to happen.
What’s strikes me about this case, is that Apple are reported as requiring a gagging order before settling the customer’s problems. Isn’t this a bit over the top? I’m sure my late wife would have very strident views on this.
Terry Pratchett on Assisted Suicide
Terry is on the BBC Breakfast program at the moment. A lot of sense about assisted suicide.
Bikini Record Goes Bust
An attempt at Southend yesterday to break the number of women wearing bikinis failed.
Appearently only 42 turned up, when they needed 1923 to break the record. Southend must be just too cold. I though Essex girls were up for anything.
There are some appropriate Essex girl jokes here. It is probably a good idea if you don’t go there, if you can be easily offended or are female and were born in Essex.
Zopa’s 300,000th Member
In their July Newsletter, Zopa has said this.
In the last week, we also recruited our 300,000th member – meaning that we’re now officially bigger than Belfast!
That’s a lot of members. It would be interesting to know how many have actually lent or borrowed.
But that figure does illustrate how many people now know about the concept.
Farewell Sir Bobby!
It has just been announced that Sir Bobby Robson has died.
He gave everyone a lot of pleasure and I don’t think he ever made an enemy.
How many people can you say that about?
Gary McKinnon and Aung San Suu Kyi
In Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi is being tried on a trumped up charge, that will probably put her out of the limelight and into a dark and brutal prison for ever.
Today, Gary McKinnon has been allowed to be extradited on a fast-track process to the USA, where if found guilty, he will probably be consigned into a dark and brutal prison for ever.
Nobody should be extradited from this country without a full hearing in the British Courts. And if the punishment that is likely to be imposed on conviction, is much higher than that in the UK, then the extradition should not be allowed.
But then Blair signed those rights away! And the United States have not kept their side of the bargain.
Assisted Suicide
Debbie Purdy has won a case in the House of Lords, which aims to get the law on assisted suicide clarified.
I’m all for complete freedom of personal action and I think that as it is our body, it is our decision what we do with it. And if someone helps us to commit suicide then so be it.
But what would actually happen now, if you helped your lifelong partner to commit suicide. The media is dominated by cases like that of Miss Purdy and others who have or want to go to Dignitas in Switzerland and none of these have resulted in any prosecution. But there are a few cases, although I can’t locate one at present, where the act has taken place in the UK and prosecution has occurred. My memory says that sentences have not been heavy.
I know quite a few judges, because my late wife was a barrister, and talk to them about cases like this and they will say that the reason there are so few prosecutions is that juries will not convict. There was a poll in The Times, which said that 74 % of people are in favour.
So to prosecute will just be a waste of public money, as well as not being the public interest.
But when my time is up, I will not be taking the early exit.
Why?
There is nothing there and even a very poor and painful life is better than no life at all.
The Mosquito
The Times today has the obituary of John Smith-Carington, who was a Mosquito pilot in the Second World War.
I think that unusually, The Times may have the account in the obituary about the raid on The Hague slightly wrong, as they mention releasing prisoners. Wikipedia, which again is not sometimes the best of sources says.
On 11 April 1944, after a request by Dutch resistance workers, six Mosquito FB VIs of No. 613 (City of Manchester) Squadron made a pinpoint daylight attack at rooftop height on the Kunstzaal Kleizkamp Art Gallery in The Hague, Netherlands, which was being used by the Gestapo to store the Dutch Central Population Registry. The first two aircraft dropped high explosive bombs, to “open up” the building, their bombs going in through the doors and windows. The other crews then dropped incendiary bombs, and the records were destroyed. Only persons in the building were killed – nearby civilians in a bread queue were unharmed.
This type of raid though was typical of the Mosquito.
One of my friends learned to fly on them just after the war and he said that getting them into the air was sometimes rather dangerous, but once they were at a safe height, they were a superb aeroplane. In the latter part of the war, they could strike with the precision of a surgeon’s scalpel.
The Mosquito was summed up by Goring.
The British, who can afford aluminium better than we can, knock together a beautiful wooden aircraft that every piano factory over there is building, and they give it a speed which they have now increased yet again. What do you make of that?
But the real tragedy of the Mosquito is that we never built enough of them. They were fast and could outrun every German fighter for most of the war and because of this, they could actually bomb Germany twice in one day. They also delivered over half the weight of bombs as a Liberator or Flying Fortess for just a crew of two, with a much higher safe return rate. Remember too, that the Allied Air Forces lost hundreds of thousands of aircrew bombing Europe with a rather dubious accuracy and a somewhat vengeful strategy.
Mosquitos could and should have very accurately bombed the places that really hurt the Nazis, day in and day out. But the powers that be, felt that you don’t go to war in an unarmed wooden bomber.
They were wrong!
At least it was realised after the way. Wikipedia again.
Despite an initially high loss rate, the Mosquito ended the war with the lowest losses of any aircraft in RAF Bomber Command service. Post war, the RAF found that when finally applied to bombing, in terms of useful damage done, the Mosquito had proved 4.95 times cheaper than the Lancaster; and they never specified a defensive gun on a bomber thereafter.
I have been to the de Havilland Museum just off the M25, where the prototype sits in splendour where it was built.
Go and see one of the finest aircraft ever built!
The Corby Scandal
The word scandal is rather mild for the issues surrounding the cleaning up of the steelworks in Corby.
With echoes of Thalidomide and the toxin problems in California exposed by Erin Brockovich, the Borough Council has fought every inch of the way and they have now lost a battle in the Court of Appeal. Incidentally, the News page on the Corby web site is blank. Could this be because they are still in denial over their role in the scandal.
I’ll now put my statistical hat on.
The geographic cluster of the birth defects would appear to be obvious. So why did the council try and find what the problem is, rather than bring up a whole battery of legal defences?
If I lived in the town, I’d make sure that all the councillors responsible would be voted out.
I’ve also worked on chemical works for a company, ICI, that cared a lot about health and safety. From what I’ve read, the precautions taken as the works was dismantled were not of the highest standard. Why? And have the workers suffered any ill effects?
I suspect that we will hear a lot more in all sorts of directions about this scandal.
The Anonymous Widower 