Japanese Do Things Differently
This report from the BBC shows that the Japanese do things differently.
A prominent Japanese politician has described as “necessary” the system by which women were forced to become prostitutes for World War II troops.
Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto said the “comfort women” gave soldiers putting their lives at risk a chance “to rest”.
He also said last year, that Japan needed a dictatorship.
I would hope that any British, American or European politician, who made statements like this, would be promptly booted out of office.
Richard Feynman
I’d never heard of Richard Feynman, before tonight, when BBC2 had a program about his work on the Enquiry into the Challenger Disaster and a profile of his life. Wikipedia says this about the report on Challenger.
He warned in his appendix to the commission’s report (which was included only after he threatened not to sign the report), “For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.”
It’s a wonderful quote and all politicians should have it tattooed on their bottom.
She Who Must Be Obeyed
Lord Young is the only person, who works at Number 10, other than the Prime Minister, who has his own office, according to an article in The Times today. I like the last paragraph. Asked if he will retire, as he is 81, this is his reply.
Never, until She herself calls me from upstairs. I am convinced it must be a woman upstairs as women are doing everything. You must remember that I have been married 57 years to the same wife. I’ve worked for Margaret Thatcher. I know who my bosses are.
I agree with him, although I’ve never worked for a female boss, but I was married for forty years.
Co-op Bank Debt Is Rated Junk
This report, says that the Co-op Bank‘s debt isn’t very highly rated.
I wouldn’t know whether it is going bust or not, but because of its political leanings and links to the Labour Party, I bet that management of the bank, wish that George Osborne wasn’t Chancellor.
What I find strange about the bank, is that why some of my left-leaning friends, who support Labour, bank with other banks, like Lloyds, Barclays or HSBC.
Are Politicians Stupid?
I’ve just been reading the legislation proposed in the Queen’s Speech today as reported on the BBC web site.
i can’t be against migrants to this country, as go back a couple of hundred years and half my ancestors were living in fear of their lives in Europe. But it was the sentence in the report that said that in future illegal migrants will not get driving licences, that shocked me.
How can they get them now and has it not been made illegal by Parliament? Obviously, not!
Does UKIP Allow People To Express Their Prejudices?
We all have prejudices. This philosophy was first expressed to me by a postman in Ipswich, who happened to be black. He told quite a few tales how racial prejudice and the fact that he was a postman, got some strange reactions, which on balance were positive. This was all thirty years ago and he said if you scored all your prejudices and added them up and the sum was negative, you are a sad bastard.
I have three major prejudices; Imperial weights and measures, smoking and any supposed science, that is accepted or rejected without scientifically-correct review.
With Imperial weights and measures, I grew up with feet, inches and pounds, but as I was trained as an engineer, it wasn’t long before I realised what a stupid system they are. When I worked for ICI, I was told by someone, who knew the truth, that one of the partial causes of the Flixborough disaster was that it was a plant that was copied from a European one, by converting it to Imperial units. And someone got a calculation wrong. It is interesting to note, that ICI went totallyto SI units in the mid-1950s. The worldwide use of SI units is described like this in Wikipedia.
The system has been nearly globally adopted. Only Burma, Liberia and the United States have not adopted SI units as their official system of weights and measures. In the United States metric units are not commonly used outside of science, medicine and the government; however, United States customary units are officially defined in terms of SI units. The United Kingdom has officially adopted a partial metrication policy, with no intention of replacing imperial units entirely. Canada has adopted it for most purposes, but imperial units are still legally permitted and remain in common use throughout a few sectors of Canadian society, particularly in the buildings, trades and railways sectors.
It’s about time we changed fully. My son, who is in his forties, doesn’t understand Imperial units.
Incidentally, I won’t allow a rule with Imperial units into my house.
My Everyday Rule
The picture shows my everyday measure. It is metric only and I bought it in France.
My prejudice against smoking is obvious and is shared by many. My father was a heavy smoker and was it one of the causes of my childhood ill-health, that haunts me to this day.
As a scientist and engineer, I’m always wary of something that doesn’t stand up to close scrutiny, like homeopathy, faith healing,non vaccination of children for MMR, capital punishment, creationism and religion.
But a lot of prejudices we have are not rational and some are quite frankly sexist, racist, anti-immigrant or homophobic and rightly against the law.
So do people with these type of prejudices and other ideas, that have been proscribed by Parliament, vote for UKIP, as they think the party might do things, like lift the smoking ban in pubs, bring back capital punishment, allow people to keep hand guns?
After all the party seems to have changed its policity on HS2 to get votes in Buckinghamshire, depending on what web site you read.
I would love to have definitive UKIP answers to the following questions.
- Would they cancel HS2?
- Would they allow smoking in pubs, clubs and restaurants?
- Would they allow full use of Imperial measures?
- Would they bring back capital punishment?
- Would they bring in heavier prison sentences?
Simon Barnes On The Environment
On the way up to Burnley yesterday, I read my copy of The Times. Saturday’s edition is always graced by the nature notes of Simon Barnes, who is one of my favourite journalists and firmly in the tradition of great reporters.
Yesterday, he talked about the banning of the pesticides, that may be harming bees and finishes his piece with this.
Politics is based on short-termism — what politician ever thinks beyond four or five years?
But such thinking is hopelessly inadequate for the big questions that involve the fabric of the world we live in.
Well said, as ever! But politicians only want power, not legacies.
The Cost Of A UKIP Government
According to the Times today, there is a big black hole in UKIP’s plans based on their 2010 manifesto. They postulate a figure of £120 billion, which probably has a margin of error.
It shows that those out of power can promise the earth, even if they won’t ever be able to deliver.
But I hadn’t realised until now, that Farage and UKIP want to bring back smoking in pubs. I think now, that would probably be a big vote loser, as we’ve all got used to cleaner air in bars and restaurants.
Ed Balls and Twitter
You can read what you like into this story about Ed Balls handling of Twitter.
I would just ask one question. Would you like to see this politician in charge of the economy?
Ed Miliband Says He’ll Switch The Lights Off
Well not directly, but he has just said on BBC Breakfast, that he will break the link between power generation and distribution and bring in a tough new regulator to force prices down, when wholesale prices come down.
It’s all motherhood and apple pie, and might appeal to voters, but it would have the effect of stopping major power companies investing in the generating capacity we need.
So the lights will inevitably go out!
The only way to avoid building generating capacity is to find ways to insulate our poor housing stock and force consumers to actually do it!
But then the British public is addicted to using as much energy as possible.
The Anonymous Widower 