Did The Mind Of Buyers Cause The UK’s Surprise Manufacturing Rebound?
This article on the BBC is entitled Pound jumps as UK manufacturing activity rebounds.
This is the opening paragraphs.
The value of the pound has jumped after a survey indicated the UK’s manufacturing sector rebounded sharply in August.
The Markit/CIPS purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for the sector rose to 53.3 in August from July’s figure of 48.3. A figure above 50 indicates expansion.
The weakening of the pound following the Brexit vote boosted exports, the survey found.
I also think another factor comes into it – The buyers who are purchasing the goods.
My father’s business was ruined by a bent buyer, who was taking bribes all over the place. When this was discovered, all the suppliers were changed and three-quarters of my father’s orders for his specialist printing disappeared to the only other company locally, who could do it.
My father was not amused and he told me so, in no uncertain terms.
There is also the story of the UK department store chain, that cut the foreign travel budget for their buyers, who were sourcing goods to sell. One unexpected consequence was that they increased the proportion of UK-made goods.
I’ve heard so many tales of bent buyers, and suitcases filled of high-value notes, that I can afford to keep some back for later.
Now though, the UK could have a rather strange advantage because of Brexit.
Say you’re a German buyer of components for your company, that are made in the UK.
Could Brexit on the horizon mean that you’re worried that in a couple of years, doing business with the UK will be a lot harder?
So perhaps now is time to have a last business trip to the UK before it gets too difficult.
If the price is right, it’s also a lot easier to go to Birmingham than Shanghai!
Never underestimate buyers, who are always looking out for themselves.
You are probably a straight buyer, but your family will probably enjoy the UK more than China.
What Game Were Corbyn And Milne Playing?
To sabotage the Labour party’s support for Remain, as I detailed in For The Female Of The Species Is More Deadly Than The Male, seems to me a very strange thing for Seamus Milne and Jeremy Corbyn to do.
Most commentators felt that by voting Leave, it would put the country into a recession. Other commentators have stated that the EU needs the UK as a balance to Germany.
My father old me about the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between Hitler and Stalin , which he felt was two equally bad regimes supping together. To him, there was no difference between the extreme left and the extreme right and let’s face it Stalin’s Russia was as bad at killing people as Hitler’s Germany.
So in some ways to me, this seems like two of the hard left , have deliberately aided those to the right to remove the UK from the EU.
Perhaps, they are hoping that this will cause the EU to collapse!
And who would benefit from that?
Vladimir Putin.
I hope I’m wrong.
Certainly the pair of them have destroyed any credibility the Labour Party had left!
Thoughts On My Vitamin D Deficiency
I’m now convinced that the cause of my bad springs and substantial absences from school as a child, and periods of bad health since, is due to a periodic vitamin D deficiency.
I suffer from several of the same symptoms as my father, who was most likely the parent from whom I inherited coeliac disease.
As a child, I didn’t go out in the son much, as I think I found it a bit painful and I burned. My father was the same in those days and was very much a man for his garage or shed. He only ventured out to smoke his pipe.
The problems dropped, when I went to Liverpool University and met my future wife. But then she would drag me out into the sun for a walk, with great regularity.
When I was diagnosed as a coeliac, I thought this would be the end of it all. And it did get a bit better, with the bonus that I could now sunbathe without burning. I also stopped being bitten by mossies.
Since the death of my wife, my stroke and moving to London, the bad springs and a lot of the other symptoms have returned.
But no-one could say the weather in London and it seems much of North and Central Europe has been very sunny over the last few years.
I even took a holiday in Croatia for some sun, but in My Home Run From Dubrobnik, I saw probably a day and a half of sun at most!
I’m now on vitamin D3 tablets and they appear to help.
But I think, what I need is a good scientific book on vitamin D, how it is absorbed by the body and what it actually does.
So much of what I get told seems to only have vague science behind it!
If I could find a top class University, where they were doing serious research into vitamin D, I’d go halfway round the world to talk to them.
Vitamin D Deficiency And Atrial Fibrillation
I’ve just found a paper in the International Journal of Cardiology with this title.
As according to two cardiologists in Cambridge, the reason I had my stroke was atrial fibrillation, I should discuss this with a cardiologist.
I think my story goes something like this.
- For some reason, I didn’t like the sun and kept out of it.
- When I was diagnosed as a coeliac, I went gluten-free and didn’t get added Vitamin D in my food.
- But C dragged me off to the sunnier climes, where now I can stay in the sun without problem.
- When she died, I retreated into myself and didn’t go to the sun.
- So did I get low vitamin D?
- My GP thought so and I decided to drive around in my Lotus with the top down.
- I eventually, had the stroke, I’d probably been just missing since C died.
- Atrial fibrillation was diagnosed and it was said to have caused the stroke.
- Warfarin has been prescribed to protect me!
I’ve added sun and vitamin D for good measure.
Until I can prove otherwise, my father who gave me coeliac disease, wasn’t so lucky and died of a stroke.
Did he have atrial fibrillation and low vitamin D?
An Excursion To Lokrum
As I’d missed all of the full day trips, I took the boat to Lokrum and had a walk round for three hours or so.
Before I was diagnosed as a coeliac and went gluten-free, I couldn’t have done a walk like this.
It was almost, as if my blood couldn’t move the heat away fast enough from my skin and it all overheated. But once, gluten-free and with blood full of B12, the heat transfer was better.
I used to burn badly some years ago, but I don’t now. After Lokrum my face was just a healthy colour.
Intriguingly, my father, who was probably an undiagnosed coeliac, rarely went in the sun and was very much a man for wasting time in his garage or shed.
My son who died, appeared to me to be the most likely to be coeliac and he was always hidden away working on his music.
My Father Has Been Proved Right!
My father described himself as a left-wing Tory. Today, he would probably have approved of the views of the likes of Michael Hesseltine or Kenneth Clarke.
I’m not sure what he actually did in politics, but I do know that he once worked at the League of Nations in Geneva before the Second World War. During the war, he was for some time a Civil Servant, but apart from one or two clues, I don’t know much. I should have a look at Kew and the web site.
I also know that I never heard him say anything racist and when someone questioned why he actually printed letterheads and wedding stationery for the local black community in Wood Green, he rebuked them by saying that as long as their money had the Queen’s head on it, he’d do business with everyone.
I also know that he was firmly anti-fascist and was at the Battle of Cable Street, where as he said, all the East End stopped Mosley and his Blackshirt thugs, marching through.
Recently, I took a taxi, where the driver had had talks with his Jewish grandfather, who had also been at Cable Street. His grandfather, like my father was adamant that it was not just the communists who stopped Mosley, but a wide alliance of right-thinking people in the East End.
I use the term London Mongrel to describe myself and my father used it himself, in my presence a couple of times, which is where I picked it up. You have to remember that the Nazis referred to people who were part-Jewish as mischling, which roughly means mongrel or half-breed. My father wasn’t Jewish but his great-great-grandfather, who I refer to as the Tailor of Bexley, was probably a Prussian Jew, who had run away from Napoleon.
As the term dates from the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, it would very much have been a term of the time my father was on the fringe of politics, so it is no surprise that he used it.
Incidentally, I’m probably more of a mongrel than my father, as my mother’s father was a Huguenot engraver and her mother was a posh lady born in Dalston Junction from Devonian yeoman stock with the surname of Upcott. Cullompton Museum told me that the family were very much involved in the development of worsted serge and made a fortune from it. This section in the Cullumpton Wikipedia entry, says more about the cloth trade and the Upcotts.
I once asked my father, if he’d ever wanted to stand as an MP and he replied that he’d been asked to put his name forward as a candidate for a by-election, but a young Duncan Sandys was chosen instead, which my father thought was probably the right choice.
Searching Wikipedia says that this was the Norwood By-election of 1935. Wikipedia says this.
The by-election was held due to the resignation of the incumbent Conservative MP, Walter Greaves-Lord. It was won by the Conservative candidate Duncan Sandys.
An Independent Conservative candidate was fielded at the by-election by Randolph Churchill, who sponsored Richard Findlay, a member of the British Union of Fascists to stand. This got no support from the press or from any Members of Parliament, despite Randolph being the son of Winston Churchill. Ironically, in September that year, Duncan Sandys became son-in-law of Winston and brother-in-law of Randolph by marrying Diana, the former’s daughter.
Knowing my father’s strong anti-fascist views, it fits with his version of the tale. The other thing that fits, is that although my father had met and liked Winston Churchill, he had no time for his son, Randolph.
Indirectly, I think I benefited from my father’s political contacts, as after the war, when he rebuilt his printing business in Wood Green, his largest customer was Enfield Rolling Mills, whose Managing Director was John Grimston, the Earl of Veralem, who was eight years younger than my father and had been MP for St. Albans a couple of times.
When in the early sixties I needed a summer job to earn money and I couldn’t have my usual one in his print works, as my father’s business was bad, my father phoned the Earl and asked if he had something that would suit.
The Earl of Veralem said yes and I had a very good job in the Electronics Laboratory for two summers, where I learned an amazing amount about life and making things.
I have no idea of the Earl’s politics except that he was a Conservative MP and very much thought to be a good boss of the company, by those with whom I worked.
One view of my father’s though, was that as he hated the likes of Hitler and Stalin equally, he said several times to me, that the extreme left are no different to the extreme right.
Reading this article on the BBC entitled Livingstone Stands By Hitler Comments, I can only conclude that the Labour Party has proved my father to be right.
Islamic Scumbags
I watched Andrew Neil’s carefully-crafted monologue on the BBC last night, in which he referred to Islamic State as Islamic Scumbags.
It was a brave and very right thing to do and I hope there are no repercussions.
But his monologue was in the great tradition of the BBC, that started in the 1960s, with That Was The Week That Was or TW3.
It was on late and as I needed to get up early to deliver newspapers, I usually went to bed and my father would wake me and call me down to watch the program.
Perhaps the most moving program was the one they did after the assassination of President Kennedy, which contained none of the usual copious amounts of satire.
We should treat the so-called Islamic State with the contempt they deserve and strong words and biting humour are the weapons we should use!
Up Yours, Putin!
I tend to think that the reports of doping by Russia’s athletes, like this report in the Guardian entitled How Russian athletics’ rotten system built a wall to conceal doping and deceit, could be more significant politically. than anybody thinks. After all it follows a very similar pattern to their dealings with Ukraine and other former Soviet possessions, where Russia thinks itself to be able to ignore the standards of the rest of the World.
They should be banned from the Olympics in Rio!
I also suspect that the bombing of the airliner in Egypt was not deliberately targeted at a Russian plane. If that is the case, as some experts have said, it was Putin’s bad luck and our good!
The sooner Putin is removed from power, the better it will be for everyone. Except perhaps for a few Russian oligarchs!
My father, who was a very strong anti-dictator and anti-fascist would rate Putin alongside Hitler and Stalin.
He would have laughed like a drain at Peter Brookes cartoon in The Times, where Putin is shown laying a wreath sfter the air crash, with a speech bubble of “What sort of a rat blows hundreds of innocent civilians out of the sky?” As he turns to walk away, you can see his rodent’s tail.
Is liking cartoons in my genes?
Crossrail 2 October 2015 – New Southgate Station
This post looks at the works around New Southgate station.
I’ve known this area for over sixty years, as when my father used to take me to his printing works in Wood Green, he would drive past New Southgate and Alexandra Palace stations. Some parts have hardly changed in that time.
In my mind Alexandra Palace station will always be Wood Green station, whereas the Piccadilly Line one will always be Wood Green Tube station.
This Google Map show the area.
Crossrail 2 In New Southgate
New Southgate station is in the top left (North East) and Alexandra Park is at the bottom.
Note the following.
- The Hertford Loop Line branches off North of Alexandra Palace station to the North East.
- The station on this line is Bowes Park.
- To the right (East) of this junction is Bounds Green Depot, where the long distance expresses to the North are stabled and serviced.Bounds Green Depot is due to be upgraded for the new Hitachi trains that will run the services in the next few years.
- There is a tunnel between New Southgate and Alexandra Palace stations
In this document on the TfL website entitled New Southgate Station, details are given of how Crossrail 2 will be fitted into the area and connected to the East Coast Main Line. This Google Map shows the area North and South of New Southgate station.
Crossrail 2 Sites At New Southgate
There are three main areas of work-sites, all of which are to the East of the railway. Because of the amount of concrete and industrial roofs, they show up white on the map.
- The top site alongside Oakleigh Road South (A109) is shown on old maps as being railway sidings, is a proposed site for the train depot and stabling, Crossrail 2 and tnnelling support.
- The second site squeezed between the railway and North of the A406, will be the station site, where new Crossrail 2 platforms will be built.
- The third site to the South of the A406, which is now part of the Bounds Green Industrial Estate, will be the actual tunnel portal.
One by-product of all this work could be that the North Circular Road (A406) at this point could be opened out. This Google Map shows the area, where the Crossrail 2 station will go, the bridge over the A406 and the area around the proposed Crossrail 2 tunnel portal.
Crossrail 2 Over The A406
Note the following.
- The map shows most of the two southern work sites for Crossrail 2.
- Looking at this it would appear that the Crossrail 2 tunnel portals will be on that green space alongside the portals of the existing tunnels.
- The white almost boot-shaped building will be replaced with Crossrail 2 platforms.
- The bridge appears to extend far enough to take the extra Crossrail 2 tracks over the A406. It looks like it is used for truck parking at the moment.
- Could the condition and size of the bridge, mean that there would be little disruption to traffic durin construction?
- There doesn’t appear to be an demolition of residential property.
I just wonder if a top class architect could give New Southgate a spectacular station above the A406.
I’ve driven under that bridge so many times and can see some form of sculptured steel, brick and glass building with a giant Crossrail roundel advertising its presence.
These pictures were taken as I walked down past New Southgate station and crossed the A406.
The Builder Depot is the boot-shaped building and it looks as if it was built on an old railway embankment.
The North Circular Road was certainly very busy.
Is A Mobile Phone A Dog And Bone With Legs?
My father, who was not really a real Cockney, as you couldn’t quite hear Bow Bells from where he was born, was a regular user of rhyming slang.
I was writing a message to someone and suggested we text each other.
I then realised that I’d never heard rhyming slang for mobile phone, which led me to the title of this post.
This page supports the use of Obi Wan Kenobi.
The Anonymous Widower 