The Government Has Second Thoughts On Central European Time
The MP, Rebecca Harris is to introduce a Private Members Bill, that will bring in Central European Time on a trial basis. It’s reported here on the BBC.
It might make my life better, as I’m a very early riser, but would that be beneficial to me or not.
It would mean that I’d wake at six rather than five, just as the various breakfast news programs are starting.
But it won’t get to law, as some backwoodsman will say no! And Ulster always says no!
Interestingly, last time, it was debated, a lot of Scottish institutions backed the change, although some MPs didn’t.
Having looked after horses for a lot of the last forty years, the arguments about farming are spurious in my view. I’ve never found an animal that can tell the time, but all of them manage their lives by the light levels.
Will The Scottish Independence Referendum Settle Anything?
I’m from the Don’t Care Tendency on the Scottish Independence Referendum.
But after listening to the debate about who owns the oil in the North Sea, I worry about the result of the referendum!
I can’t believe that if the vote is No, that the Scottish Nationalists will accept it quietly for ever, judging by the passionate arguments they put forward this morning.
And if the answer is Yes, will those against prolong the argument as long as they can?
Either way, it doesn’t bode well for people like me, whose taxes go to finance all of the whims of politicians.
If there is a way, then there should be a gradual disintegration of the United Kingdom. Scotland, Wales and London have shown that it is not a bad idea to devolve powers to locally elected bodies.
But then it was suggested that the North East might like an Assembly and that was rejected.
Abraham Lincoln is supposed to have said.
You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.
Even with fool replaced by please, it’s probably pretty true and sums up why devolution is so difficult to get right.
Prospects For Scottish Banks
I have a trawl for the Royal Bank of Scotland in Goggle and two stories this morning make interesting reading.
Scotland Will Never Be Free as Long as It Has RBS is from Bloomberg and Analysis: Scottish banks plan quietly as independence debate gets louder is from the Chicago Tribune.
They should be read.
I don’t care which way Scotland votes, as it is their affair, but I won’t be following David Cameron’s advice to phone my Scottish friends and implore them to stay, Mainly because all of them seem to be in the Better Together camp.
One feeling I do have, is that the Scottish independence debate is the tail, that is wagging the donkey of the Royal Bank of Scotland. No bank is too big to fail, but because of the referendum in September, no English politician dare put the Royal Bank of Scotland and its employees out of its misery.
I can’t believe that if Barclays had got into the sort of trouble RBS did, then it wouldn’t have been liquidated.
Not Pure Genius
I needed a snack this afternoon and thought some Genius toast with some strawberry jam would do nicely!
Not Pure Genius
These were the first two slices I got from the packet! So they were discarded.
On the subject of holes, I’m always reminded of a story about a former MP, who died some months ago.
A friend of a close friend of my late wife’s was at a party when she was chatted up by the MP. He thought he had struck lucky and escorted the lady up to a bedroom.
Everything went fine, until he took off his shirt to reveal a grey vest with large holes in it.
Carney’s Sense On An Independent Scotland And The Pound
Mark Carney has pronounced on how an independent Scotland would use the pound. It’s reported here and this is the first few paragraphs.
The Bank of England governor has said an independent Scotland would need to give up some power to make a currency union with the rest of the UK work.
Mark Carney said such a move, proposed by the Scottish government, “requires some ceding of national sovereignty”.
He also said the risks of not having a strong agreement had been demonstrated by problems in the Eurozone.
I think it is more complicated than he says, as would a government of what is left of the UK, want to let Scotland share a currency? There are plenty of politicians, who would want to settle old scores
And would Scotland be allowed to use the pound by the European Union?
I don’t care one way or the other, so long as I don’t have to foot the bill for extra taxes to pay for the mess politicians leave us in! Which of course, they always do!
Would a Labour Government Target Smokers?
There are a couple of reports in cyberspace, that Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary wants to bring in more anti-smoking legislation.
I suspect, that many non-smokers and virulent anti-smokers like myself would welcome this, but would the idiots, who still smoke?
According to the Sunday Times, Labour peers are going to try to introduce a ban on smoking in cars containing children this week. I suppose if it passed, judging by the stupidity of the average smoker the coaltion and not Labour, would get the blame.
I actually, think we should go further and ban smoking in any moving vehicle. Partly, this is based on my experience as a child of my father filling and lighting his pipe on the move. On one ocassion he set his trousers on fire!
Are Things Getting Better?
There has been a lot of discussion about whether things are getting better, with the government that things are on the up and Milliband saying they’re not. This article gives both views, with David Cameron being quoted in this way.
Most British workers have seen their take-home pay rise in real terms in the past year, the government claims.
It has produced figures showing all except the richest 10% saw their take-home wages rise by at least 2.5% once tax cuts were taken into account.
The article says this about Ed Milliband.
Labour leader Ed Miliband said the figures were “dodgy” and ministers were out of touch with people’s lives.
I’m not going to take sides, but as I travel around the country, I see many things.
If I look at my situation, I think it has got marginally better compared to what it was twelve months ago.
I’m getting a slightly higher rate on my savings in Zopa, my energy is slightly cheaper since I moved my energy supplier to Ovo and running my household seems to be cheaper, as I’ve organised myself better. The latter is not down to the economy, but partly due to individuals and companies, launching new products and services.
One thing that hasn’t hit me, is the cost of motoring! Because I don’t!
I’ve just had February’s edition of Modern Railways and as in the last few months, there are quite a few articles about new stations and lines. There’s also been a few examples of new and refurbished trains being built or modified in the UK. But go to places like Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester and the transport infrastructure is much better than it was three or four years ago. Other places like Blackburn have got new stations. And there are quite a few new British-built buses too.
If the experience of the introduction into North London of the Overground, is anything to go by, where people have told me it has allowed them to get to new or better jobs, this new transport infrastructure can only be a good thing.
But if I go to places outside of London, it all seems much better. Surprisingly, there are quite a few bright, new shopping centres.
But then some politicians don’t want to be positive!
Farewell To Christopher Chataway
Sir Christopher Chataway was one of my heroes and he has been mentioned regularly in this blog.
But now he has died and I suspect the world will be a duller place.
I can still see the pictures of him in white defeating Vladimir Kuts at the White City. This is the BBC’s description of the feat.
His career in international athletics lasted only five years with the pinnacle being in 1954 when he set a new 5,000m world record of 13 minutes 51.6 seconds in a televised race at White City.
Chataway beat Russia’s Vladimir Kuts by 0.1 secs – the man who he had finished second behind in the 5,000m European Championships final two weeks earlier.
He might not have been a great athlete, but he was one of those rarer beings; a great all round talent.
How To Muck Up A Country
When I was a child in the 1950s and 1960s, Argentina was reckoned to be one of those countries that would be an economic powerhouse in the future. I can remember positive stories about how it was developing a strong motor, aviation and other industries. It was also thought that dictators like the Perons were firmly in the past.
But now we only get stories like this one from the BBC, which talks about restricting on-line shopping and foreign currency transactions to limit the damage on reserves. Here’s the first bit.
Argentina has introduced new restrictions on online shopping as part of efforts to stop foreign currency reserves from falling any further.
Anyone buying items through international websites will now need to sign a declaration and produce it at a customs office, where the packages have to be collected.
The procedure will need to be repeated for every new purchase.
It just shows how politicians can so easuly drag a country into the mire.
The Unseemly Row About Lord Rennard
Whether or not Lord Rennard did anything wrong, has not been decided in a Court of Law, but it does seem to me, that the two sides in the argument are immoveable and won’t reach a solution acceptable to everyone.
It seems to me, that anybody at the centre of a row like this, should do the honourable thing and probably give up this job and do something else!
Isn’t that what John Profumo did all those years ago and he died a respected man?
Certainly, the Lib Dems are proving that many in the party, still haven’t learnt how to run a whelk stall!
The Anonymous Widower 