The Long And Short Arms Of The Law
I suspect this picture shown in the Mirror and The Times, will make its way round the world.
The story is already in the Australian under the headline, “Big Police Guard Over Queen” and on this other Australian site with a picture.
I’m even a couple of centimetres or so taller than the shorter policeman. And I’m not that tall!
I suppose though the story is one of those classic page fillers with a good feel and an excellent picture, for which newspapers and web sites are always looking.
Sheffield Put The Don Valley Stadium Out Of Its Misery
The news yesterday that Sheffield City Council is to close the Don Valley Stadium Is something that should have happened years ago.
Although it is a fine stadium it is costly to run and out of scale with all of the other athletics venues in the UK, with the exception of the Olympic Stadium in London. Even Crystal Palace is smaller with a capacity of 16,000 as against the 25,000 of the Don Valley Stadium.
It is not just my view that this will be best for Sheffield and athletics, despite what some vested interests are saying. Respected BBC athletics commentator Mike Costello has said, that it the right decision as Sheffield has a superb indoor training centre in the English Institute of Sport and the council will be providing an alternative outdoor track. Probably, the whole of the UK needs more decent indoor 200 metre tracks and training centres, with some more well-maintained simple outdoor stadia, where everybody can get a taste for athletics on a proper track.
It was probably a massive mistake on the part of Sheffield to bid for the 1991 World Student Games. It doesn’t seem to have left the city with the sort of legacy that Manchester got from the 2002 Commonwealth Games, with a large stadium and a velodrome. The only legacy would appear to be the world-class Ponds Force pools.
Incidentally, does anybody have any memories of those World Student Games in 1991. I can certainly remember the Commonwealth Games in Manchester.
If Lloyds Can Do It Why Can’t RBS?
Lloyds Banking Group’s figures these days as reported by the BBC contrast strongly with those reported yesterday by the Royal Bank of UK Taxpayers.
How can Lloyds make a loss of only £570 million, whereas the state-owned dead parrot loses £5.2 billion?
It strikes me there are three reasons.
The first is the quality of the management in the two banks. I suspect, if you were one of the stars of RBS ten years ago, you have taken the money and ran. so all the bank is probably left with is dross and the world’s best collection of neck-enders.
Secondly, when did you ever here a financial commentator you trust, last recommend that you buy a financial product from RBS. Yesterday, the guy from MoneySaving Expert was recommending which credit card to use abroad. One of Lloyd’s products was mentioned, but RBS were only notable by their absence.
But I also think, that most of their customers, or at least the ones who can have moved their accounts elsewhere. After all, I’d never bank with a state-owned bank and I suspect many others wouldn’t either. You just can’t stop politicians from fiddling! It has been some time, since I’ve noticed anybody with an RBS bank account or credit card. I suspect, the only thing in their favour is that if you want to keep money in a bank deposit account, then RBS is as safe as any, as no government would let you lose your money. But you wouldn’t get paid much interest.
So all of today’s news just says that the sooner we liquidate the Royal Bank of UK Taxpayers, the better for all.
The Royal Bank Of UK Taxpayers Posts Another Big Loss
Gordon Brown’s folly of rescuing Scotland’s failed bank is now becoming more than a millstone around the neck of everybody in the UK.
So the loss of £5.2 billion, works out at nearly £67 each for every man, woman and child in the UK.
I think I’d have had more fun taking a few notes and setting fire to them in a branch of the Royal Bank of UK Taxpayers.
It would be a lovely way to get arrested!
Seriously though, the bank is the deadest of dead parrots and keeping it alive is a fraud on the UK Taxpayers and most of those that appear to work for the bank. If it had been a manufacturing company or a retailer, it would have been liquidated years ago!
Who’s Be A Politician’s Dog?
I just had to link to this set of pictures from the BBC. Look at the one of MP, Gregory Barker with Otto.
Yahoo’s CEO’s Stupid Work Ideas
Marrisa Mayer the new relatively new CEO of Yahoo, has decreed that employees can’t work from home any more. I think it is stupid, but just read this article on CNN.
I think that any dictatorial employment policy is bad.
It would be just as bad to say that everybody worked at home as to say that everybody had to work in the office.
Admittedly, I’ve worked at home since about 1970 and in that time, I like to think, I’ve done some world-class work, so perhaps I’m biased one way.
On the other hand a few years ago, I remember meeting a lady, who used to analyse failure reports from government agencies and companies from around the world. Each analysis run took days on the fastest computers available and she used three PC’s on a network at home. The work she did was truly world-class and very important. All of these unusual arrangements were with the total agreement of her boss and the company she worked for. Then the company was taken over and they said that all employees must work in the office. She resigned immediately and I have a feeling that the work is now no longer done with the same thoroughness.
Getting the arrangements right, is all a question of good management.
With some employees home is the right place and with others it is the office.
Increasingly though, it strikes me that more and more people are combining the best of both work places. How many people for instance, check their e-mails before they go to work, so they can deal immediately with anything that is urgent? Are Yahoo going to ban employees from answering e-mails outside of office hours? Now that would be really stupid! On a related point, are they going to stop employees making personal phone calls or e-mails, when they are in the office?
I suspect if you look at really successful people and companies, they will have working arrangements that are not cast in stone.
What A Surprise!
This story from the BBC web site doesn’t affect me, as I only drink the odd bottle of what is best described as a properly made gluten-free beer like Celia. Here’s the first couple of paragraphs.
Beer drinkers in the US have filed a $5m (£3.3m) lawsuit accusing Anheuser-Busch of watering down its beer.
The lawsuits, filed in Pennsylvania, California and other states, claim consumers have been cheated out of the alcohol content stated on beer labels.
The suit involves 10 Anheuser-Busch beers including Budweiser and Michelob.
It certainly reminds me of that joke about that terrible beer of the 1960s, Watney’s Red Barrel.
Why is drinking Watney’s Red Barrel, like having sex in a punt? They’re both f**king close to water.
Although, I suspect the joke has been updated several times since.
Otters Will Be Otters
This story from the Metro, shows how we should co-operate a bit more, where wildlife are concerned. Here’s the first few paragraphs.
When Brian Dodson set up a carp fishery from scratch he had no idea the business would be quickly ruined – by otters.
The 60-year-old discovered the carnivores had eaten his entire £250,000 stock after a river haven for the animals was built nearby.
He is now seeking £2.5million from the Environment Agency, which he claims failed to tell him about the scheme and prevented him building protective fencing.
Surely there should have been a middle way.
But then as the story says otters are carnivores and will get their food no matter what. There was a story a couple of years ago, where otters were taking koi carp out of a pond in a suburban garden in Birmingham. No-one knew that there were otters in the nearby canal.
I’m reminded of the tale I heard when I shared the driver’s cab in a High Speed Diesel Train from Edinburgh to Inverness.
The owner of an hotel close to the line, built a lake, which he stocked with fish for his guests. But just down the road was Loch Garten, where ospreys have made a home. And as ospreys are wont to do, they found the hotel lake and decided it was a good place for dinner.
The hotel owner cut back on his fishing, but apparently, he now promotes the lake as a place to watch ospreys feed.
Searching For The Missing Banksy
I went today to Wood Green to have a look at the place, where the infamous Banksy drawing went missing.
There is a report on the background to the affair on the Standard web site.
This looks like it will develop into a big spat, between everybody concerned with the drawing.
I actually quite liked it and I do feel that Banksy or whoever was the artist, is having a big laugh at the building’s owners, Harringey Council and the Arts establishment.
If you want to go and inspect the site, it’s just a few metres walk down Wood Green High Road towards Wood Green Tube station from Turnpike Lane Tube station.
A Benefit Of Fracking
To many there isn’t one benefit from using fracking to extract gas from the ground. but here’s one even the most total opponent of the technique might concede.
Modern Railways this month states the following.
The major rail operators in the US are all reporting reduced profits as coal volumes plummeted by up to 20% in the last year. Here, the shift in generation mix is being driven principally by the exploitation of shale gas now being produced on a massive scale as a by-product of crude oil exploitation. although a frighteningly high proportion of this gas is just flared, sufficient is being used in power-generation to undermine the need for coal, and for rail freight.
I would suspect the facts are correct. So fracking is cutting the need to burn coal, thus reducing global warming, as burning gas creates less CO2.
The Anonymous Widower 