FlyGlobeSpan and BA Cabin Crew
On the one hand the Scottish airline, FlyGlobeSpan, has gone bust and on the other we have BA’s cabin crew threatening a twelve day strike.
These are in effect two ends of the same problem. There are too many airlines chasing too little business and difficult choices have to be made. In BA’s case, they have to cut costs to survive and as I understand it, they are just reducing the conditions at the staff they employ at Heathrow to those at Gatwick and other bases.
Perhaps, the Scottish experience will knock some sense into the BA cabin crew. But it doesn’t look hopeful!
As Prudence bailed out the Scottish banks will he bail out this Scottish airline?
After all, there are a lot of Labour constituencies in Scotland!
Hot Air in Copenhagen
So today, the big climate change conference starts in Copenhagen. Yawn! Yawn!
I’m cynical anything of any substance will emerge.
Prudence bashes on about how he is at the forefront of reducing our energy use, but this article in the Telegraph says otherwise.
These are two paragraphs from the article.
His former chief scientist Professor Sir David King said he frequently urged Downing Street to spend money on energy saving measures in order to create jobs and cut carbon – but was repeatedly ignored.
And in a separate interview with the Daily Telegraph, the world’s top environmental watchdog Achim Steiner, the head of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), also said the Labour Government failed to “pick the low hanging fruit” of insulating homes and investing in renewable energy.
Typical Prudence, all waffle and bluster, and absolutely no substance. He doesn’t even have any style.
But I’m totally against this sort of junket. It should be done remotely by electronic means, with perhaps two or three important people from each country in Copenhagen to dot i’s and cross t’s.
Lowering the Drink Drive Limit
The government has asked a legal expert to examine whether the drink drive limit should be lowered.
I’m not bothered for myself, as I usually only drink a reasonable amount each night in the privacy of my own home. Strangely, over the past few months, when I have gone out for a drink, it’s usually been for a meal as well and the amount I’ve drunk has been usually in the order of a glass of wine. Or I’ve been on a bicycle or driven by one of my children, none of whom drink alcohol.
But I am bothered for the pubs I visit locally. Will they still survive if patrons don’t drink? I suspect that as we never see a policeman in this part of Suffolk, that no-one would get caught unless they crashed.
But the whole episode shows the stupidity of Prudence and his government. He would never get the law on the statute book before the next election, so he would surely lose enough votes in the run-up to make it absolutely sure that Labour was voted out by a landslide.
The other parties must be laughing their heads off.
But anyway it’s all right for our national politicians. They live a lot of the time in London with tubes, buses and taxis. Many of them too have chauffeurs.
If like me you live in deepest Suffolk, we have no buses and tubes, and taxis to get home will often cost more than a meal for one with wine.
Is Gordon Brown Buying Votes?
I received two of these e-mails yesterday.
OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER
TREASURY AND MINISTER FOR CIVIL SERVICE, LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM.Our ref: ATM/13470/IDR
Your ref:…Date: 26/11/2009IMMEDIATE PAYMENT NOTIFICATION
I am The Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP,Prime Minister British Government. This letter is to officially inform you that (ATM Card Number 048000101775550) has been accredited with your favor. Your Personal Identification Number is 477.The VISA Card Value is £2,000,000.00(Two Million, Great British Pounds Sterling).
This office will send to you an Visa/ATM CARD that you will use to withdraw your funds in any ATM MACHINE CENTER or Visa card outlet in the world with a maximum of £5000 GBP daily.Further more,You will be required to re-confirm the following information to enable;The Rt Hon David Miliband MP Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Office. begin in processing of your VISA CARD.
(1)Full names: (2)Address: (3)Country: (4)Nationality: (5)Phone #: (6)Age:
(7)Occupation: (8) Post CodesForward Reply To: hondavidmiliband@8.am
TAKE NOTICE: That you are warned to stop further communications with any other person(s) or office(s) different from the staff of the State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs to avoid hitches in receiving your payment.
Regards,
The Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP
Prime Minister
He must be getting desperate if he is resorting to these methdos to get votes. Even Prudence isn’t that desperate and I suspect if you fall for this scam you get everything you deserve!
How to Break the Law
One of the ridiculous laws brought in by Blair and Brown is the rules about entertainment licences.
Perhaps it was well-meaning, but it meant that loads of places could fall foul of the law for just a single impromptu performance.
Take the case of Faryl Smith, who got up and sang to promote her record at HMV in Kettering. It’s reported here on the BBC. HMV are now being prosecuted for not having a licence.
The trouble is if you create stupid laws like this, that are not properly thought through, you get even more stupid cases like this.
Surely, the test of laws like this, should be that if no-one is annoyed or disturbed, then you are not breaking the law. I suspect, in Faryl’s case, everybody was enchanted.
Laws like this cost businesses a lot of money and don’t serve any worthwhile purposes. I suggest that most are created by civil servants to make sure that there are lots of jobs that need to be done in the public sector.
Years ago in the UK, we used to have a dog licence. It went because it cost a lot more to collect, than was brought in. No-one mourns such a silly law and has there been any adverse affects. Some will say yes, but when you look at the dog laws in detail, other laws have been brought in to deal with the more extreme cases.
All laws need a cost benefit analysis. If they cost more to implement and keep than any benefits, then they should be broken on the anvil of progress.
That’s the way to really break the law!
Brown Uses the D-Word
As I drove back home today, I was listening to Prudence’s speech to businessmen.
He then used the D-word – dynamism. I can remember Peter Ryrie using that many times as he tried to dominate student politics in the 1960s at Liverpool University.
I laughed, as we all used to mock Peter for the word.
Sadly though, I’ve found that Peter died in 2007.
Gordon Brown
I won’t comment on the policies of the main parties, as they were debated in Parliament after the Queen’s Speech today. To me they are irrelevant, as we must get on with the task of sorting the mess out, rather than scoring points.
But I’ve never heard Prudence sound so tired and almost shot to pieces. He’s not a good or jaunty speaker, but he was as uninspiring as you can get. There didn’t seem to be any conviction in his words, no passion, just the repeating of tired phrases.
He should go! And in the manner suggested by The Moody Blues.
An Unprofessional Letter
Gordon Brown has difficult things to do and especially nothing is more difficult than dealing with death. I know from awful personal experience, how you can upset some people by making one simple mistake in a letter or an e-mail.
He has caused a lot of hurt and stored a hornet’s nest with his letter to the mother of Jamie Janes. But as a son of a Church of Scotland minister, he would have had no intention of causing any distress.
When I write an important note, I always use a computer and write and rewrite sections until I get everything exactly as I want it. I know it is tradition that notes of this nature are handwritten by Prime Ministers, but I know that I would not hand write such notes.
My handwriting is very poor! And so is Gordon Brown’s.
What I would do is write ninety percent on a computer and put a strong personal touch in by hand. That way, the letter would be exactly right.
Brown was just very unprofessional. Do we really need an unprofessional Prime Minister? I’m afraid not!
Scientifically-Correct
Some years ago, I had a letter published in The Times, criticising Greenpeace for measuring exhaust emissions in a very unscientific way. They were trying to make a point, but their methods were very wrong. I used the term scientifically-correct in the letter. A few months later I was phoned by the OED and asked where I’d got the phrase. I said that it’s use was obvious and I’d used it for years. So I don’t really claim any first usage on the term, although it may be the case. But I very much doubt it.
But it illustrates how I think. You must get your facts right, even if they end up with a set of thinking that is politically incorrect.
My reasons for being so strong on this, is that sometimes a researcher finds something that is totally against the general view and his peers stop publication and rubbish the research. There was a Horizon program some years ago about how the body works and how a Glasgow professor of veterinary science proved everybody wrong. But it took him years to get his research accepted.
So when Alan Johnson fired Professor David Nutt for speaking the truth, you can have no doubts as to who I think is right.
I also applaud his colleagues who are now saying they have resigned or will do so.
But this row means that what scientist, doctor, engineer or computer scientist would advise Prudence and his rabble, when they know that their good advice will be totally ignored.
William Garrow
My late wife was a barrister.
I’m watching the BBC drama about William Garrow, who is credited with laying down the principles of defending the accused in Court.
It is fascinating.
I never saw her in Court except for one fleeting moment in front of Judge Greenwood in Chelmsford, but Garrow’s principles are those that she fought with for all her professional career.
These principles are those that we are in danger of losing, as Prudence and his awful government, make it more and more difficult for a defendant to obtain a trial that my wife would have considered fair.
The Anonymous Widower 