An Ideal Present For Your NuLabor Friends
I saw this lamp in John Lewis yesterday.
I wonder if Tony Blair did a deal over the naming rights!
How Do I Get Prisoners To Paint My House?
I have a cupboard in my bedroom that needs stripping and painting. Obviously, some might think I’m the sort of person who should benefit from some sort of scheme, as I’m a widower, who has had a stroke.
After all Jacqui Smith, the former NuLabor Home Secretary got two prisoners to do some painting at her house according to this report in the Guardian.
But then as I said, I’m a widower and I’ve had a stroke. I’m certainly not sick or mad enough to want to be a Member of Parliament.
The Snowdon Aviary
The Snowdon aviary is one of the Zoo’s historic buildings.
The Snowdon Aviary, London Zoo
When we used to live in St. John’s Wood and would walk up to the top of Primrose Hill, it dominated the view, just like some of the tall modern buildings do now.
The Snowdon Aviary is in my view, still one of London’s most impressive modern buildings. Interestingly, the structural engineer, who did the detailed design, Frank Newby, was a proposer of temporary buildings that could adapt with time. This web site says this about his work.
In the 1960s, Cedric Price had advocated buildings that could adapt and change according to circumstance; buildings that need not be permanent. It’s ironic, then, that one of the small number of his schemes that was realised should form part of the proud heritage of design and engineering dating back nearly two centuries that belongs to the Royal Zoological Society.
So the aviary was probably designed for a limited life. but then the Millennium Dome was to. The Dome has of course changed according to circumstance from a crap NuLabor vanity project into a world-class entertainment venue.
Both structures show that if you want to make something last, you take good design, add quality materials, build it well and then make sure it is looked after by an organisation that values it, like in the aviary’s case the Zoological Society of London does.
More Bad News For Bombardier
Bombardier may think that as they’ve built the new Victoria line trains for London Underground, that getting the orders for the Picadilly and Bakerloo lines will be very much a follow on.
That was until I saw this proposal from Siemens. The trains would offer a bigger capacity, have a through walkway, be quite a bit lighter and use 20 percent less energy. They might even be air-conditioned. Incidentally this looks very much like a proposal I saw on the London Underground web site about seven or eight years ago, proposed by their own engineers.
Incidentally , Bombardier’s new trains for the Victoria line are not cracked up to what they should be, and I know quite a few passengers on the line, who prefer the old trains built in 1967.
So perhaps they lost the Thameslink contract because their proposal wasn’t technically as good as that of Siemens.
You have to remember too that the Thameslink contract was under PFI rules laid down by NuLabor. As the rating agencies reckon that Siemens are a better financial risk than Bombardier, the finance part of the deal was more expensive for Bombardier, so their proposal would have been more expensive. In fact their consortium would have been paying an extra 1.5% a year for financing the deal compared to Bombardier.
Did John Major Dye His Hair?
I doubt it, especially as a few years ago I shared a lift with him in the Grande Bretagne hotel in Athens, as he was going down to his car to make speech at the British Council. His hair didn’t look dyed to me.
It must have been about 1994 or so, when I saw him speak to the Cambridge Chief Executives Club. He was rather embattled at the time and he gave a speech which predicted what would happen to Europe in the next few years. He got it substantially right especially about the Balkans. He also criticised the Germans for their reunification policy over the Deutschmark.
But he reserved his biggest bile for News International and especially The Times, which at the time had just discovered Tony Blair and NuLabor. He used the phrase, “The Times which used to call itself a newspaper” and said that it had accused him of dying his hair. He then joked that would anybody in their right mind dye it this colour.
It was a very good speech and it often makes me feel, that if he’d had a better set of cards, he might have made a very good Prime Minister.
I remembered it today, when Harriet Harman called for the power of News International to be reined in.
But of course, it was perfectly alright for them to exercise that power, when they were backing NuLabor. Pots and kettles come to mind.
Incidentally, I wonder if Ms. Harman has searched the Internet for sites about herself!
Dog Control Orders
I have heard of the controversial control orders before, but never ones related to dogs.
Dog Control Order in Newham
They don’t seem to be as oppressive as those beloved of NuLabor.
Should High Earners Be Allowed Subsidised Housing?
I have always felt that houses should be used to provide the maximum number of individual dwellings.
For instance, I don’t believe that people should own two houses, that they keep for their personal use. But if they want to, then they should not get any reliefs on the second house. In the past I’ve owned and lived in two houses and it doesn’t have too much to recommend for itself. Some may claim it’s nice to live in London in the week and go to their cottage at the weekend, but do they ever realise that that cottage probably causes someone to not have a house. If you live in two houses, then the second house should be taxed to provide subsidised houses in the area.
Buying to let is different, as you are providing a service of housing for someone else. And if you are successful, then you pay tax on it.
But what really gets me is those, who live in Local Authority or Housing Association properties and earn enough money to either rent privately or even buy their own house. The case of the ex-Labour Minister, Frank Dobson, reported in the papers today is scandalous. He should be booted out forthwith, so that someone else, who needs it, can have the property!
All of these abuses should be tightened up and hopefully the government is doing something about it. And while they are at it, they should be tougher on those, who illegally sublet their properties.
I should also say that sometimes, I feel guilty about having a reasonably large house all to myself.
To return though to the Dobson scandal! In my year at school, Animal Farm was the set book for GCE O Level. George Orwell was so right and it is fairly obvious, what his view of NuLabor would have been!
Those That Live By The Shredder Die By The Shredder
It is often said that everything comes to him who waits. The partial lifting of the so-called banker’s, Fred Goodwin‘s super-injunction, shows that no matter how tight you jam the lid on a can of beans, eventually the pressure builds and it blows up in your face.
There are some choice headlines.
- Daily Mail – Sir Fred, adultery and the public interest.
- Independent – Goodwin’s affair at bank exposed after peer breaks gagging order
- Daily Mirror – No good in these gags
- The Sun – Fred the Bed
There’s a lot more.
The tone is set by this from the Daily Mail.
While RBS was undergoing the biggest collapse in British corporate history, he was busy carrying out an extra-marital affair with a senior colleague involved in the strategic direction of the bank.
Truly, there can be no doubting the public interest in disclosing Sir Fred’s conduct. The collapse of RBS, under his control, led to a £45billion bailout by taxpayers.
Thousands upon thousands lost their jobs and businesses in the financial devastation which followed.
If Fred had had an affair with a Page 3 bimbo, that wouldn’t have mattered so much to the bank and in the end UK taxpayers. The tabloids might have made us laugh as they did years ago with Ron Halpern, a long forgotten businessman in the 1960s or 1970s, but because he had an affair with a senior executive, it meant that his crazy policies were able to get through board and other meetings. I had problems years ago with a company, where I served on a technical committee that had a husband and wife on it. We all had to convince two people who slept together of the correct course of action. It was not easy and the company suffered.
Two people having a relationship in an organisation is rarely a good idea!
Fred Goodwin was knighted in the 2004 Queen’s Birthday Honours List for his services to banking. So at least we can’t blame that one totally on Prudence, as he wasn’t Prime Minister until four years later. It will be interesting to see in twenty or so years time, when the details of Sir Fred’s knighthood are released, what dicussions took place on his suitability for such an award.
If ever there was a case for a knighthood to be taken away, then Sir Fred is at the top of the list.
Party Licences to be Scrapped
One of NuLabor’s most disastrous pieces of legislation was the need for a council licence where any music was played.
It is all described here in the Sunday Times. One classic ruling means that a carol concert in a church doesn’t need a licence, but one in the church hall next door does.
This is perhaps the best bit of the article.
In one notorious ruling, the Tate Britain gallery was told it had to obtain a licence for an exhibition by the Turner prize winner Susan Philipsz because it featured a recording of her singing a Scottish folk song.
Hopefully things will get better and create more and better music and other venues. Obviously, there is the noise and alcohol nuisance problem, but that should be handled with other unconnected legislation. You could argue that you get more of the latter, for a Cup Final shown live on a big screen in a pub, than say a folk concert in the same venue.
And Now Cashmere Prices Rise!
So if you can’t afford the oil to keep you warm, you can’t afford a new cashmere sweater as the price of that is rising too.
I notice that Prudence is keeping very quiet on the mess he and his NuLabor friends left us in.
The Anonymous Widower 