Abba Eban
I always like people who use English properly and thoughtfully. Abba Eban was one such person, although I may not always have agreed with everything he said and did.
The Times yesterday quoted him memorably in the second leader.
History teaches us, that men and nations, only behave wisely when they have exhausted all other alternatives.
Many of the world’s stupid leaders could improve their nations, by following the words of the man, The Times credits as the founding father of Israeli democracy
Boris Talks Sense
The unions are incensed that Boris Johnson has talked of introducing driverless trains on the London Underground.
But we’ve effectively had driverless trains on the Underground ever since 1967 on the Victoria Line. The so-called driver sits in the cab and when he’s satisfied that the doors on the train are shut, he effectively pushes a button and the train automation moves the train to the next station.
So as Boris said, everybody could drive an Underground train. Well not exactly, but any sane person, with a strong sense of responsibility and a degree of proper training could do it. I suspect that any bus driver could do it very well, especially as now, the average London bus, is probably almost as complicated as an Underground train. Remember, I’ve seen at first hand, what it takes to drive a train. But that was on a much more complicated line, at twice the speed and without the same degree of automation.
The unions are only delaying the inevitable day, when drivers on Underground trains, are only there for the rare times, when something goes seriously wrong. Even the announcements, when there is a problem could be done remotely from a control centre.
Nakd Bars
Good gluten-free snacks are hard to come by. But have the Welsh come up with something better than the ubiquitous banana?
Nakd Cocoa and Orange Bar
They certainly taste nice. My only worry is that they seem to be a bit addictive. They do say on the packet that the bars are “Gleefully made in Wales”
Is this another case of a food company being innovative to expand and get us out of the recession?
They are also following a trend of trying to make the packaging funny and very much worth reading. Humour is the greatest weapon in life and we don’t use it enough in marketing and business.
Perhaps the reason we got into the recession was have we ever had such a humourless bunch of politicians as Gordon Brown and NuLabor?
The Joy of Engineering
In many ways I am an engineer first, second and all the way to last.
In my troubles over the last couple of years, my reasoning and problem solving abilities have got me through it to a certain extent. I even cook like an engineer. And these skills I learned in my long training and experience as an engineer, from helping my father in his print works, through the vacation jobs at Enfield Rolling Mills, my degree at Liverpool University, the experience at ICI and then my years of programming, where I wrote planning and data management systems for a variety of industries.
So why are engineers different?
Many people like doctors have a theory and try to prove it, whereas engineers have a problem and try to solve it, whilst sticking to the best scientific and management principles. One of my principles is that you can’t ignore scientific correctness at any time. This is probably, why if you want to louse up a project, you just let politicians get their sticky fingers on it. Everywhere around you, you see good engineering ideas, that work, that probably had to overcome difficult obstacles from ignorant politicians to come to fruition.
There is a simple idea from close to me. Imagine the outcry if today, an electricity company said that they were going to lay 400 thousand volt cables underneath the towpaths of the Regent’s Canal and then cool them with water from the canal. After all water and electricity don’t mix! Do they? But that is what was done in the 1960s and as far as I can tell, there have been no problems. It would appear too, that the cooling system is being upgraded judging by signs beside the canal. So engineers are making a good idea even better.
Yesterday, the Head of the Electrical Engineering Department at Liverpool University invited me for a coffee and I spent an enjoyable hour with him discussing the problems of the world, that engineers could solve.
Few were controversial, but time and again engineering ignorance of the great and good came up as the reason a proven idea wasn’t implimented.
We must give everybody at least a basis of a scientific or engineering education, so that when someone says he’s going to do something, the idea can be properly discussed and the correct decisions taken. As an example, the public in this country is very much against waste incinerators, whereas in some countries like Austria, they have had serious discussions and use the best engineering designs to get rid of the waste that can’t be easily recycled, often by incineration in plants designed to advertise what they do.
So it is to be welcomed in the news today, that JCB have got involved in an academy to give young people a proper science, engineering and business education.
Let’s hope it’s not the only one.
I’ve enjoyed my time as an engineer so far and I’m not going to give up on it yet.
Is Privatisation Good for the Water Industry?
All of the English Water Companies are privately owned, but Northen Ireland Water is owned by the government. So according to the theories of the left, the water supply in the province should be better than that in England.
But it’s not, if these reports are to be believed.
Could this be because, if privatised industries fail to invest and do a bad job, as some have done in the past, they are an easy target and go bust, whereas government industries, like Northern Ireland Water have to fight for every small piece of investment against other things that the government needs to spend? So has Northern Ireland Water been starved of investment? You could argue too, that the South East of England has suffered one of the worst cold spells for over half a century and the water infrastructure has coped well.
So let’s solve Ulster’s ater problem by privatising water and sewage! A good company would surely do a better job than a bunch of politicians looking to win the next election.
I’ve just sent this e-mail to BBC Breakfast under the title of Northern Ireland’s Water Problems.
This surely lays the lie that privatisation is bad. The South East of England has suffered the worst cold spell in half a century and I’ve not heard of any problems with the privatised infrastructure.
Could it be that successive governments have starved NI Water of money? So let’s privatise it now! After all, everybody in the UK would benefit from the sale!
It won’t be read out.
We Don’t Want Pastor Jones in the UK
It is reported that the odious Pastor Jones of the Dove Outreach Center is going to come to the UK to speak at a rally of the English Defence League. The two of them deserve each other, but not in this country.
When I see people like Jones, I reach for the sick bucket, as people like him have no place in the tolerant world, where I want to live. After all I’m descended from two groups of immigrants; Jews and Huguenots, who found safety from intolerance and bigotry in the East End of London.
I hope Theresa May does the right thing and bans the visit.
The Train that Won’t Go Quietly!
There are very few engineering projects in the world, that last a long time, as the technology gets replaced. To me some of the best in the UK are :-
The New River – Built in 1613 to supply London with fresh water, It is still used in part for that purpose nearly four centuries later. Will there be a celebration in 2013?
The Thames Embankments and Bazalgette‘s Sewers in London – These transformed the city and also laid down the basic quality control standards for large construction projects. I seem to remember reading that only one person died in the construction of the sewers, which was a major achievement for the ninteenth century.
The Forth Bridge – Probably the best known bridge in the world. Opened in 1890, it still carries nearly 200 trains a day.
The Thames Tunnel – The first tunnel under a navigable river, that now carries the East London Line under the Thames.
St. Pancras Station – The head of SNCF described it as the finest station in the world. I’ll agree with him. It was originally opened in 1868 and a lot of the original design is still intact.
Welwyn Viaduct – An extraordinary structure in Hertfordshire, that still carries the East Coast Main Line over 150 years after it was built.
We may have structures that last for years but actual vehicles that last more than a four decades or so are rare indeed.
The Mersey Ferries have been around for centuries, but the current three boats are all over fifty years old. I remember them with affection from my days at Liverpool University in the mid-1960s.
The London Routemaster bus was launched in 1956 and although most were replaced by 2005, their are still two heritage routes in central London. I rode on one in September.
The Victoria Line in London has two distinctions. It is the oldest fully-automated railway in the world and it still has some trains dating from 1967. I have travelled on some quite recently and they are still in good condition. at 43 years old.
And then there is the Inter-City 125 or High Speed Train. It may not be as venerable as the other three examples, but then they don’t travel at 200 km/hr or 125 mph over routes that measure hundreds rather than tens of miles. It was also designed as a stop-gap design after the failure of British Railways to get the tilting APT to work.
Now over thirty five years since the trains were introduced, they are being refurbished, re-engined and are still in front-line service all over the country.
On my trip north from Edinburgh to Inverness in the cab of HST, 43313, talked about some of the problems with the trains and added to my knowledge.
The old rather smoky diesel engines have now been replaced in many power cars with modern units.
The rather draughty and noisy doors in the cab have now been replaced to make the working environment second-to-none.
But the slam doors of the Mark 3 coaches with their rather quaint traditional windows are a worry.
But that is now being addressed by sound engineering according to Modern Railways.
Who’s to say when we’ll see the last of the HSTs. I wouldn’t be surprised if some are still running in 2030 or even 2040, as they are classic Darwinian train, that evolves to beat every attempt to kill it off.
In the same magazine, it was also announced that one of the HSTs had run from Plymouth to Paddington non-stop in just two hours forty minutes. That is an average speed of 84.375 mph. London to Paris by Eurostar is 307 miles and takes two hours fifteen minutes at an average speed of 136.444 mph.
So Eurostar is quicker, but it runs on a line virtually without curves and it isn’t thirty five years old.
As Modern Railways said, the Plymouth to Paddington run wasn’t bad for a thirty-five year old, British Rail-era diesel train dismissed as obselete by Labour transport ministers almost a decade ago!
I could talk about pots and kettles, but in a way isn’t the HST a superb two-fingered salute to the bunch of NuLabor morons, who almost bankrupted this country, by their idiotic policies?
The Cost of the Cambridge Busway Climbs Again!
It now looks that the cost of the infamous Cambridge guided busway is climbing again according to this article. Possibly to as much as £181million. That looks like a 56% overspend, by my simple accounting methods, but I know politicians use other methods, that spin things in a better light.
Scotland and Daylight Saving Time
Professor Mayer Hillman at the University of Westminster is the first person to do a study of the effects of going to Central European Time for Scotland.
His report is on his web site here.
His major conclusiuons of moving the clocks forward are that it would :-
- Save lives on the road
- Increase opportunities for outdoor leisure and social activities in the evenings
- Improve the health and quality of life of the great majority of the population
- Widen opportunities for people fearful of being out after dark, especially the elderly, to go out in the evenings
- Enable parents to extend the hours they allow their children to be out of doors
- Boost the leisure and tourism industries through increased revenue and job generation
But then as Dr. Hillman is from the University of Westminster, his report will be rubbished, by those totally opposed to the change. And especially by the Scottish Nationalists who will probably oppose it on principle, as the idea comes from Westminster.
But please don’t just rubbish the report. Read what Dr. Hillman has to say, because his report has convinced me, that for the majority of Scots it will be a good thing to change.
After all, Scotland has its own parliament, so they could make their own policy on this one. It is not unknown for countries and even states like Tennessee to use two time zones. But if Scotland should prevent England going to Central European Time, it would be a strong case of the tail wagging the dog.
An Open Letter to my MP About Changing to Central European Time
I feel very strongly that we should be on the same time asmost of the rest of Europe. As the MPs are voting on it on Friday, I thought I’d send my MP a reminder to cast his vote and cast it in favour of the Daylight Saving Bill.
I’ve struggled these last few days in the snow, as I can’t drive due to my stroke and there is little or no public transport. If the evenings were lighter and the morning darker, I could stay in bed until it was fully light and it would give a much longer window, in the middle of the day, for my carer/driver to come and take me to the shops and doctors’ appointments. I have needed taxis at times, and they all seem to disappear when it gets dark.
Now I’m not disabled, but I suspect that those who are, have found these few days very trying.
I also caught a train to Ipswich from Stratford in the rush hour a few days ago. I didn’t have any trouble, but more light would have made the crowded platform a lot safer.
As a trained engineer, I’m also a big fan of metric units, as these make construction and many other things a lot simpler and safer. My middle son incidentally was born in the same hospital as baby Miliband. But there was one big difference. In 1970 my son was measured in kilos, but baby Miliband was given in pounds. So you can see what progress means in the Labour Party!
So please vote for the UK to join Central European Time.
I do suspect though, that we won’t do the sensible thing, as this change strikes too many as cowtowing to Europe.
The Anonymous Widower 