Archive for March, 2009

The Department of National Scaremongering…

25 March, 2009 at 7:17 am · Filed under Department of National Scaremongering, scaremongering, terrorism

…is at it again. Do they think we have forgotten the Eighties and the IRA bombing campaign in London. Is there truly an increased risk since last week, or is this Sir Mandarin Jobsworth doing what he does best – justifying not just his own existence but also his own large budget?

I cannot see the point of spreading the fear and ignorance like this. On the other hand, I suppose we can’t expect the government to retain events that didn’t happen within living memory, which in terms of the UK public, means about sisxty months.

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Health and Safety with a bit of common sense..

25 March, 2009 at 7:01 am · Filed under regulation ·Tagged

A bit of surfing recently steered me in the direction of the UK Health and Safety website. Far from existing in some remote ivory tower, the Health and Safety Executive actually has a sense of humour and maintains on its website a list of current Health and Safety myths. I was rather delighted to discover that the ‘Safety Elves’ do really aim to be simple and straightforward rather than just silly, which is the image the popular press tries to convey of them.

Cath Janes, writing in the Guardian has a good piece on the subject of Health and Safety, reminding us that it really is about simple common sense and forethought rather than compliance with arcane rules.

Here is another link, to a small safety company in Norfolk that appears to adopt a similar philsophy.

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Banks don’t know what toxic assets are worth

24 March, 2009 at 5:26 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

I was just listening to a report about the latest attempts by governments to relieve banks of their “toxic” assets.  The problem is, apparently, that banks are reluctant to sell because they are unable to value these assets.  Old new, perhaps, since that ignorance was part of the cause of the problem.  The trouble is now that the banks have a sneaking feeling that they may be selling too cheap and losing out.  These people just can’t get it right, can they?

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Let’s NOT do ’scrappage’

22 March, 2009 at 9:02 am · Filed under Uncategorized

I heard Caroline Lucas (Green Party MEP) speaking on Radio 4 the other day and was pleased to hear her speaking against car ’scrappage’ – a proposed deal whereby consumers are subsidised to scrap old, non-green cars. I don’t often agree with here – I consider her more a religious leader than a politician – but she doesn’t always get it wrong.

My own vested interest here is my large estate car, which would be anathema to the average green, but which I drive fully loaded surprisingly often. The idea that a vehicle with another 100,000 miles possible life in it being scrapped in favour of the creation of a vehicle that might be new and more economical is fine. Trouble is, if you think it through, you might conclude that the energy required to create this new car, even up to the point I start using it, is rather greater than that required to fuel the current one for the rest of its life.

Also, if we scrap the current one, we immediately introduce a further energy bill for the scrapping process, none of which contributes to getting me from A to B when required. When the current vehicle can no longer be economically repaired, then it will be time to scrap it, but for now, all the additional carbon cost associated with the vehicle goes to moving it.

The lesson here, children, is – be aware of the difference between capital costs and running costs. These apply to carbon usage as much as to financial accounting.

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Where does the talent go? Let’s hope it’s to ruin someone else’s economy!

22 March, 2009 at 8:11 am · Filed under bankers

So the former masters of the universe are beginning to hurt a tiny bit. The FInancial Times reported yesterday that yet again, Wall Street is worried that too much regulation will drive its talent abroad. What response can the rest of us offer other than ‘Bring it on!’? These are the people whose ‘talent’ created a giant bubble of illusory wealth which they then sold to the rest of the world.

So just who is going to offer them a job now? I wouldn’t trust any of them to sweep a road properly. There was a similar case of a new graduate looking for his first job and ‘threatening’ to go to Dubai if no one in London would recognize his amazing worth. There is a desperate need for a large and fierce injection of reality here, preferably with a blunt needle.

These people are little different from con-artists. They are really good at part of what they do, but it is going to take a generation before they are trusted again to the extent that we all let them get away with over the last twenty years. Still, we must remember that ‘within living memory’ these days is about five years, tops.

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