(10 November 2021) I apologise to all my readers, a combination of technical issues and despair at the world have kept me away from the keyboard. However, there is so much to talk about my thoughts are near exploding.
So, today I pondered on MPs and other jobs.
Many MPs had a real life before being elected (I exclude the caterpillars whose entire working life is as advisor, lobbyist etc as they attempt to turn into butterflies on election).
Many MPs might not last very long so it is entirely reasonable if they want to keep in touch with their previous working life.
For example, a plumber might want to keep on a few long-term customers, a lawyer might have some ongoing cases and a medical person might want to keep up their skills (as well as doing something useful rather than sitting around). Their interest is known to the public and seems entirely reasonable.
However, Jacob Rees-Mogg for example, who was a highly paid director of a private equity firm (parasites for short), still continues to work for them but does not get paid. This is legal.
But one does wonder how it works.
At the end of the week when he pops his timesheet into the tray in HR do they simply put them in a drawer and wait until he ceases to be an MP?
Or does he not fill in a timesheet and simply work out of the goodness of his heart. I am sure this is the case.
The jobs that I fail to understand are those that they get just because they are MPs.
Companies are not stupid, given the sums they are paying one has to wonder (despite declarations of interest and all that) what they do discretely and behind the scenes to help their paymaster (“I deleted the old messages on my phone to free up space” though given the sums involved they could buy a new gold-plated phone every month).
Thus, I propose that MPs should not be allowed to take second jobs unless it relates to their profession. Rather than setting up a commission or body to do this any method would be open to criticism.
The simple method to make it fair would be as follows.
MPs fill out a form on the .gov website giving the reasons why they want to do the job, what they will earn and how it benefits their constituents and the population by doing it.
The public would then have a monthly vote on whether they should be allowed to take the job. Simple, transparent and reflecting the public’s view.
But they won’t listen.
One still has to hope so a picture reflecting this.
(31 July 2021) A couple of weeks of extreme weather and much gloom. I remain puzzled about the competence of our “Leaders”. They recently announced that they were selling more shares in RBS.
When the financial “crash” came the government, bought the shares in RBS at a fiver each (502 pence to be precise). This gave lots of people money (£45 billion) which was our money from taxes.
They have been slowly selling them off at a loss- the current price is about two pounds.
I fail to see how “the party of business” think this makes sense; selling an asset at a loss for short term expenditure. It puzzles me why this is not a major scandal.
Mr Branson and Bezos both went briefly into space recently. I thought it was pointless- they pollute the planet with various things, pump out a vast quantity of CO2 – for a 90-minute trip costing roughly £175,000.
It is not that I am a miserable curmudgeon about those who are super wealthy; it is the fact that they distort the allocation of resources away from much more needed things.
Finally, the Olympics is on. I like the Olympics especially the obscure sports. Sadly, the European Broadcasting union were outbid by Discovery+. So now much of this sport is behind a paywall; I will no longer have a chance to get genuinely gripped by something unexpected.
Furthermore I remain irritated when there are three races to decide the participants in a Final and they call them “semi-finals”. Surely they should be Tri-finals.
To cheer me up I am using one of my diminishing supply of kittens.
The world is a confusing place if you are small and vulnerable
(7th July 2021) The government have finally given up governing and are prepared for and aware of increasing the level of Covid infections (to get them out of the way before winter flu returns).
For those of a conspiratorial bent this PROVES either:
It was all made up anyway and they have given in to common sense, or
This man-made virus is not “culling” enough people so needs to be stepped up, or
“Big Pharma” (not to be confused with six-foot seven John a smallholder in Devon) have not made suitable profits from Covid vaccines and want to recoup from all required for hospital treatments, or
The National Undertakers Society have a sinister influence behind the scenes.
I don’t agree with these, I just think the government do not know what they are doing.
Personally, I shall continue to wear a mask on Public Transport.
Also, if I go into a shop they expect me to wear trousers. This is quite reasonable and I am sure they are within their rights to refuse my trouserless entry. So, they could still insist on masks to protect their staff.
(14 March 2021) A lot of fuss about the royals this week. I have no particular comments to make- many have been made by people cleverer than I (and probably even more by those who are not). All I can say is that have great respect and love for them (as much as they do for me).
As we blink slowly into the light of a post lockdown world the papers are full of articles about WFH being the new norm. This is fine for journalists who have always been flexible but is it actually going to make sense?
I delved into the statistics. The UK workforce is around 32.21 million. It is obvious that many jobs cannot be done at home. Obvious examples are agriculture, arts and recreation, construction, health and social care, manufacturing, retailing, transport, etc. My crude sums give me just under 21 million working in these industry sectors, or nearly 65% of the working population. Of all the rest I simply assumed that 25% of jobs in all other sectors could not be done as WFH. I therefore conclude that WFH could only work for around 8 million people or just over a quarter (26.7%) of the workforce.
Does this matter? I think it does. It has proved useful in lockdown for keeping people employed but as a lifestyle?
Some established workers could benefit from some more flexibility it is true.
However, the eagerness of large employers to embrace this as a model for the future is a concern as I am not sure whose interests it serves (I know that really it is for them, not you)
Thus:
You lose proper benefits of face-to-face contact, reading body language and chance conversations over the water machine of other communal places.
You lose some of those bonding elements such as birthday cakes and occasional socialising over lunch or after work
It is not so easy to test out casual “Lightbulb” moments or check a difficulty if colleagues are remote.
Monitoring is likely to become more intrusive
It is fine if you live in a place that is large enough for an “office”; but we have the smallest properties in Europe and continue to build to such standards. Living and working in a room in a shared property could become quite tedious.
I think that when an employer talks about a “flexible workforce” it is shorthand for “cruelly exploited”.
I think we will see a growth in shared workspaces where facilities are used by many different people but even so this is a slightly dystopian model of a near future world where a quarter of the population float around in cyberspace supported by all the people who have to make the physical world work.
(26 February 2021) Having struggled to get my January photos to post (503 error anyone?) I did at least get excited at the landing on Mars. Amazing technology and also a very good example of global co-operation. It cost roughly £2 billion to land a piece of machinery the size of a large car on the surface.
Which I think is fine as the cost of a “Bunker Buster”- very large American bombs the size of a large car devastating an area and making a big hole in the ground (GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) as they are known), is around $3 million. So, less than 40 of them would cover the costs of the Mars mission (the price of the bombs excludes the cost of the planes, fuel and all the other stuff).
Putting it into context, our (the UK’s) new aircraft carrier cost £3.1 billion- just to build and equip though one of these MOPS could take it out. I am sure that people much cleverer than me have worked this out.
As a further point it is estimated that the entire “Green Wall of Africa” project- to plant trees coast to coast across North Africa to help reduce the spread of the Sahara Desert and create productive areas for people to live sustainably, is estimated to cost $8 billion. I leave you to draw your own conclusions.
Space I then got to thinking about space-specifically planets, stars and suchlike rather than an overcrammed wardrobe. I read, watch and enjoy science fiction but wonder, if actually, it is no more a trope than vampire or zombie movies rather than a realistic imagining of the future.
Initially there is a problem with distance. Space is quite big. It takes 6 months (on a good alignment) to get to Mars. It took Voyager One 36 years to leave the solar system. To get to the nearest star system (where there might be habitable planets) would take at least 81,000 years. Which is rather a long time. Sci fi gets round this with
a “wormhole” a natural phenomenon, (perhaps), which the internet tells me sits near Saturn (no me neither, I fear it leads to an internet wormhole from which escape is difficult) or
a “portal” (usually left by a long vanished galactic alien race of immense technology and wisdom) or
the “Hyperdrive” has been invented (assuming the laws of physics have been abolished) and intergalactic travel is a bit like popping over to Spain.
These are not necessarily likely.
Further space is not very safe. Solar radiation is dangerous and even I can see the difficulties of a spaceship covered in lead (though I am told that water and sewage can be in the outer shell-insert crude joke here) to act as shielding.
Secondly the movies show us massive ships with empty corridors and high ceilings whereas the International Space Station (ISS) is claustrophobia inducing to see as they seem to be living in a series of large freezers stuck together. Returning to the cost, that of such a large spaceship would probably be prohibitive.
Finally, there is gravity. Without it our bones dissolve and we turn into jelly fish. Those from the ISS returning can’t walk and are wheeled away; this despite them all being fit and doing all sorts of exercises.
Sci invents either the “anti-gravity drive” or shows ships with spinning things that magically make gravity.
It matters because we are not doing enough to save the planet. Many people are still in the mindset of early “explorers” or “colonialists” who would exploit and trash a place and move on to uncharted areas. This is now not possible, as we should be aware. Space exploration and colonising is simply a diversion from the issues we face; it is an unrealistic future fantasy not a road map.Household tip. I have sometimes pondered on whether a battery charger draws power when it is not charging. It actually does; just a very small amount of 5 volts but it is still a waste of power so turn them off at the mains when they are not in use. (What If Charger Is Plugged to Supply But Not Connected To A Device? (scienceabc.com)
January 2021
Having failed to get my 31 chronological pictures of January to post here I have put them on another site should you be interested.
(12 February 2021). Thirteen million first doses of vaccination is positive. I also succeeded, for January, in taking at least one photo a day. However technical problems have prevented me putting them on the site; I shall pursue.
Two items in the news have twitched my thoughts.
Firstly Education. I am sure Mr Williamson is providing firm leadership and direction to the schools sector; it is my ignorance on the side-lines that hints at the opposite. I therefore have a helpful suggestion for him.
It is unclear what will happen about exams in the summer and how assessment will be done. Inevitably this will cause problems and is likely to have particularly negative effects on publics from less advantaged circumstances (however defined).
Therefore, I suggest that there should be no exams this summer and that in September, as we have emerged into the jab light, all school years are repeated- no one moves up a class and the oldest pupils have to stay.
Teachers could use the rest of this school year to help and assist their charges as they see fit
At the lower ages some expansion of nursery provision could be targeted. I also note that we do start school at an earlier age than many other countries and this would be a wonderful opportunity to reset the system.
At the other end- Further and Higher Education it is probable that there are plenty of people who would welcome the opportunity, particularly those who did not get such good results but will have matured.
Second Borrowing Shares. The recent flurry of news about Gamestop and hedge funds “shorting” shares shed light on a bizarre practice (legal). It works like this this.
I go to you and say “Can I borrow your shares in company X please? I’ll give you some cash and you can have then back in six weeks.
You say “OK”
I then sell the shares intending to drive down the price. My mates are doing this as well.
When the prices are low I buy back the shares, give them back to you and trouser the profit.
Your shares could be worth less than before but you’ve had a few quid from me.
This is legal, but does it benefit the economy in any way?
( 26 November 2020) The weather gets chillier, the new tiers cause tears and I continue, slowly, to build up food stocks; mitigating the shortages we will experience in January.
The government have fudged Xmas so that they cannot be accused of abolishing it (leading to all the train companies stopping their cheap tickets for the period). They will then blame us for hugging and snogging when the virus surges in January (though we won’t worry as we will all be in long queues outside the food shops brightly mumbling that “At least we’ve taken back control”
On a positive note I have discovered that you can recycle properly the annoying plastic holders they put around 4 packs of canned beer (and presumably other drinks as well). There is this nice company who will send you a label; you fill an envelope with the items and hand it in to a UPS agent (my local newsagent is one). Simple, only expense, if reusing a large envelope, is a bit of sticky tape. It also is better than mixed recycling because a firm who have a quantity of identical material can do something with it. Here is a link.
I see that Mr Trump is slowly realising that he has to go away-however I do fear that his constant denigration, of what appears to be a slightly strange democratic system anyway is seeding the ground for an authoritarian uprising/downtreading.
Fortunately, he has not bombed Iran. Yet.
Let’s not forget that in 830 AD the Persians had invented algebra and how to solve quadratic equations. We were in the Dark ages.
So when someone said “Ull you’re late” this was chastisement of a tardy peasant.
In Persia when this was requested the recipient would utter a loud, usually protracted, high-pitched, rhythmical sound especially as an expression of sorrow, joy, celebration, or reverence.
Here is an example
And there is always hope (this is a rare picture capturing the secret sun)
(13th November 2020). Somehow Mr Trump remains President of the USA. I do not understand their system. I imagine it also means he can still launch a nuclear war-on Friday 13th should I be worried?
At least Mr Biden seems an ordinary “proper” politician which is encouraging.
Today I, again, praise Microsoft. A week ago, an update caused all sorts of errors. I found much of my software was not working and was plagued with incomprehensible error messages. Then I discovered there is a nice option in settings “Reset this PC”. I set it off; it kept all my data and my bookmarks . I just had to spend a while reinstalling software, updating “drivers” (whatever they are) etc. But it worked; a handy tip (but backup all important documents just to be on the safe side).
So, thank you Microsoft. It is used by over 90% of all the computers in the world and only hated by a hard core of Apple users and the 5% of users who care about operating systems. The rest of us don’t, we just want to use our device.
Lockdown continues to imprison us; the government is trying to spin a way of not going down in history as the one that abolished Christmas and Brexit looms dangerously. Plus Cummings and goings in No 10. Though no expert I am not sure this is the way to govern a country.
I am steadily building up my stocks of non-perishable food for January’s Lockdown 3 along with a 90% decrease in imports.
(21 May 2020) The less polluted air at the moment is a blessing and has led to record solar power output though it does exacerbate the unusual heat. This week I should have been on holiday, my last one in Europe while we were still friends. Instead- today I fume at the papers (or rather their content).
My outrage commences at the government charging our key healthcare workers, who come from abroad (from October) £624 pa to use the NHS they prop up. They, also, do not pay them enough to be allowed to come here in the first place once we are cast adrift from Europe. This is just obviously wrong and is a manifestation of the severe cognitive dissonance exhibited by leading figures in the government (though I fear they do not suffer inner pain).
However today’s reflection is about warehousing.
We have all read about “The private firm contracted to run the government’s stockpile of personal protective equipment (PPE) was beset by “chaos” at its warehouse that may have resulted in delays in deploying vital supplies to healthcare workers…, The full story is here
What puzzles my simple mind is why a facility as vital as the nation’s (i.e. our) supply of vital equipment is looked after by a private company- a subsidiary of an American company.
The contact is reported to be worth £10.5 million a year. Assuming it is for five years that is a cost of £52.5 million. This was awarded to OM Moviantio, OM being Owens and Minor the American owner of the subsidiary.
OM’s annual report for 2019 stares that their gross margin on revenue is 12.25%
So, assuming nothing special they would expect to get a gross margin (basically profit) of nearly six and a half million pounds over the contract (£6,431,250 to be precise) and in a year would expect £1,286,250.
There is nothing necessarily wrong with profit, I had a nice ice cream yesterday and don’t mind if the maker gets a few pennies from me- I need not eat ice cream. However, if I am in hospital the people treating me have to wear PPE, I need them to wear it and do have an issue with the warehouse company (Logistics to use posh name) making money- even more so if it goes overseas rather than being spent in this country.
The story of the warehouse failure seemed to indicate not employing enough staff (who cost money) and not organising the warehouse correctly- which is not competent.
It is here that the perils of letting private interests run national facilities becomes apparent.
In essence the workers do the work and are managed by the managers. Even if they are paid the “going rate” they have to operate with less resources (as money is taken out for profit). So even if “public” sector was slightly less efficient, for some reason, I fail to see that it could be over 12% worse. “An Efficient business” in the private sector essentially means paying workers the minimum they can get away with.
The most telling quote in the story, from the company was
the company had “executed the agreed plan” to mobilise the stockpile without any delay and in accordance with its contractual obligations.
So, there is no suggestion that the company did anything wrong -demonstrating “The Rule for Private interests taking over Public Functions”
The best and most talented people who work for them are the sales team who are very good at their jobs.
The other team of talents are the contract lawyers and contact managers who tie up the public sector in knots when anything out of the ordinary occurs.
The workers are the ones paid as little as the company can get away with.
Logistics is not quantum computing; it is complex and needs structures and processes; however, there are plenty of people who can do it and there is a whole wealth of a profession behind it.
My actual point is that there must be plenty of trained and capable people in the UK who could run this service as part of the public sector without filching a million or so a year for shareholders to spend on guns and burgers.
I also note that this facility of ours is being sold to a private French company EHDH where they will doubtless spend the million (paid from our taxes) or so on organic free-range snails and fine wines.
I assume the company is run by a very nice man- you can read an interview with him here,
My sad conclusion is total despair that our rulers are so ideologically biased against so many things that are public sector that they put their trust in global companies rather than the British people- I am not even suggesting corruption (which at least would make sense) it is just dogged ideology.
To cheer me up here is a picture at an early attempt at weaponising kittens-note the early death ray on its back.
(14 May 2020) Today, Nick Cave was meant to see me at the O2 tonight so he is probably feeling a little sad at the concert’s postponement.
The lockdown (sort of) continues, I think, though I remain reassured by the clear and decisive leadership shown by this government.
Undertaking social distancing while dog walking, the cold wind ruffling my unruly hair, I started thinking about haircuts. I would have had one around the start of lockdown and possibly am due another. (In half a mind to avoid the barber and grow a pony tail but I do not have a battered denim waistcoat.)
So, the missing haircut is “Lost Output” from the Gross National Product (GNP but it is not that important and leaves no lasting effect. Thus, what is the longer effect on the economy?
Roughly 250,000 people work in the industry in the UK so they will be suffering- particularly as around 54% are self-employed and have to apply for universal credit.
Further all the missing haircuts will not be replaced and it is possible that (some) people have learnt to do their own (properly).
Many Barbers and hairdressers are very small businesses. Over half of them in the industry turn over less than £99,000 a year – which is not a lot given the cost of premises, business rates and razor blades etc. Two thirds of the businesses employ less than five people and with 94% having less than ten employees, the loss of work, at least a third of the year, is likely to be significant for many in the industry. Finally, around half of the people who work in the industry are aged between 16-34.
I thought I would try to quantify this loss. My own experience cannot be extrapolated as I only pay a tenner when I go to my basement barbers- where the Lebanese gentlemen genuflect slightly and say “The usual boss?” I feel it is impolite to refuse.
I thus searched for some better figures. The industry turns over £8 billion a year (coincidentally the same figure as Apple borrowed from the US government to buy back their own shares which makes sense but is too dull to explain and does put this country in its global place.)
I assumed 45 million people pay for haircuts (excluding small children, the genetically bald and headshavers as well as those I see who appear to cut their own, outside on a dark and windy night with kitchen scissors)
This works out to a delightfully precise figure on of £178.78 per head.
I am not sure how many of my readers will want to spend this once we get the “New Normal”; I predict, sadly, the end of many small hairdressers (businesses not individuals of limited height) and jobs for younger people and a “business opportunity” for supermarkets and others who have prospered; leading to the reality of that schoolyard sneer
“Where did you get that haircut?” (pause for dramatic effect”)
“At Tesco’s? (cue cruel laughter from the onlookers).
