Monday Melange
It's warmer this morning. I have been sat here for quite a while and my fingers are still warm. To maintain the situation I've found my mitts. They aren't exactly things of beauty, being knitted from oddments of four different but toning sock yarns, but they are cosy, which is always good at this time of year.
So the Cambridges have released photos of young Prince George. Doesn't he look like his Dad did, though a tad rounder in the face? Should you be too young to remember, Dear Reader, he does. Actually Prince William looked very like S at the same age, though everyone said S looked like the Prince! I can see there being a run on that guardsman tank top the little prince is wearing too, and, possibly, black knee socks. Apparently the Duchess is listening to a lot of Classical music with George these days. Perhaps it soothes the too often savage breast of an eighteen-month-old toddler? Or maybe it soothes the frazzled Mum so that she can continue to cope. Bet they had a Nanny for those awful all-night shifts very young babies seem to pull though!
It seems that the Transport Secretary is up for Questions as to how air traffic control for the whole of the South of England went down last week. I'll tell you how, Dear Reader. Various 'authorities' insisted on cuts and amalgamations, that's what happened. Thus what had been covered by several air traffic control groups were cut and amalgamated into one large one. Consequently when computer failure hit it knocked out the whole of the south of England. Had the several group controls been left then perhaps only one would have gone down and the others could have worked things around it. What was that about not putting all your eggs into one basket, Dear Reader? Duh!
And that's the problem faced by so many Service Providers these days. The Government is demanding cuts in spending, these result in cuts in services and cuts in personnel. So the actual work done suffers. Then the Government gets all up tight about how (eg:) would-be immigrants aren't given proper background checks and the occasional known criminal gets in. But will they allow more funding for the Borders Agency? What do you think, Dear Reader? Ok, so there is still, probably, some slack in some places which can be taken up and no harm done but . . . The thing is, all these 'Services' require money and money is just what they aren't going to get. No government is going to raise taxation in the run up to an election and no other party is going to promise to improve Service provision by raising taxation - which is about the only way they're going to be able to afford such things. Thatcherism has a lot to answer for, if nothing else it promoted Greed. Since then we've become accustomed to think of 'me first' rather than (to paraphrase John Kennedy) 'what we can do for our country'!
And Finally - did you hear about the Climate Talks agreement in Lima, Dear Reader? 194 different countries attended, talked, discussed, etc, etc - more global warming due to hot air generated! They've come to an agreement - to have another summit in 2015 at which they hope they'll come up with something useful. So we all knew, more or less, that if they came up with any real pledges they would be the lowest common denominator and, probably, watered down on that but . . . It's not as if we have another planet to escape to when this one goes toes up on us. Aaaarrrggh!
Should you wish to do something constructive, Dear Reader, how about changing to a Green energy provider. I'm currently trying to persuade H to change. He says that electricity comes 'from the same pipe' regardless of whether it's been produced by coal/gas burning power stations, nuclear power stations or Green sources. I say I know this but reckon that Green energy production should be supported on principle. Get onto it before the end of next January and Ecotricity will give up to £60 to Tearfund per new customer, and you'll get sent some Fair Trade chocolate. Sounds good to me, even without the incentives, but there we are. As I've written before, we only have the one planet!
Of course, if we also want to save Energy, and money, we can just put on another sweater, some mitts, woolly socks and move about a bit more vigorously. You could knit your own, or buy your own - local charity shops often have a good selection for very reasonable prices. Y'all have a good, and warm, day now!
So the Cambridges have released photos of young Prince George. Doesn't he look like his Dad did, though a tad rounder in the face? Should you be too young to remember, Dear Reader, he does. Actually Prince William looked very like S at the same age, though everyone said S looked like the Prince! I can see there being a run on that guardsman tank top the little prince is wearing too, and, possibly, black knee socks. Apparently the Duchess is listening to a lot of Classical music with George these days. Perhaps it soothes the too often savage breast of an eighteen-month-old toddler? Or maybe it soothes the frazzled Mum so that she can continue to cope. Bet they had a Nanny for those awful all-night shifts very young babies seem to pull though!
It seems that the Transport Secretary is up for Questions as to how air traffic control for the whole of the South of England went down last week. I'll tell you how, Dear Reader. Various 'authorities' insisted on cuts and amalgamations, that's what happened. Thus what had been covered by several air traffic control groups were cut and amalgamated into one large one. Consequently when computer failure hit it knocked out the whole of the south of England. Had the several group controls been left then perhaps only one would have gone down and the others could have worked things around it. What was that about not putting all your eggs into one basket, Dear Reader? Duh!
And that's the problem faced by so many Service Providers these days. The Government is demanding cuts in spending, these result in cuts in services and cuts in personnel. So the actual work done suffers. Then the Government gets all up tight about how (eg:) would-be immigrants aren't given proper background checks and the occasional known criminal gets in. But will they allow more funding for the Borders Agency? What do you think, Dear Reader? Ok, so there is still, probably, some slack in some places which can be taken up and no harm done but . . . The thing is, all these 'Services' require money and money is just what they aren't going to get. No government is going to raise taxation in the run up to an election and no other party is going to promise to improve Service provision by raising taxation - which is about the only way they're going to be able to afford such things. Thatcherism has a lot to answer for, if nothing else it promoted Greed. Since then we've become accustomed to think of 'me first' rather than (to paraphrase John Kennedy) 'what we can do for our country'!
And Finally - did you hear about the Climate Talks agreement in Lima, Dear Reader? 194 different countries attended, talked, discussed, etc, etc - more global warming due to hot air generated! They've come to an agreement - to have another summit in 2015 at which they hope they'll come up with something useful. So we all knew, more or less, that if they came up with any real pledges they would be the lowest common denominator and, probably, watered down on that but . . . It's not as if we have another planet to escape to when this one goes toes up on us. Aaaarrrggh!
Should you wish to do something constructive, Dear Reader, how about changing to a Green energy provider. I'm currently trying to persuade H to change. He says that electricity comes 'from the same pipe' regardless of whether it's been produced by coal/gas burning power stations, nuclear power stations or Green sources. I say I know this but reckon that Green energy production should be supported on principle. Get onto it before the end of next January and Ecotricity will give up to £60 to Tearfund per new customer, and you'll get sent some Fair Trade chocolate. Sounds good to me, even without the incentives, but there we are. As I've written before, we only have the one planet!
Of course, if we also want to save Energy, and money, we can just put on another sweater, some mitts, woolly socks and move about a bit more vigorously. You could knit your own, or buy your own - local charity shops often have a good selection for very reasonable prices. Y'all have a good, and warm, day now!