Brexit. Really…this again!!

Well, I said I wouldn’t comment on it, but here I go for a second time. How did anybody think that Brexit would end well? Has anyone tried contacting their mobile phone service provider to ask if they could end their contract early. Most people’s answer would be, “are you kidding me!”. Life’s far too short, plus we all knew what we were in for when we signed up.

The thing that worries me, is that this isn’t like cancelling your gym contract, where once you’ve left, you never have to set foot in the place again. Whether we like it or not, the UK is part of Europe. Geographically anyway. It’s not like we can strap a huge outboard motor onto Kent and chug our way across the Atlantic to the US. Who said, out of the frying pan…..  And for anybody that says that we aren’t connected to Europe, what’s the Channel Tunnel then? A rainbow bridge made out of fairy dust and unicorn hair. Precisely. We’re joined whether we like it or not.

It’s for this reason that I think the population of the UK should be involved with the final decision. I hear the argument that we have already had a vote and now it’s down to the politicians, but that’s not how democracy works. We don’t vote for a government and then stick with it ad infinitum. We change at regular intervals, because things change. People and situations change and we need to adapt accordingly. I strongly believe that if most people knew then what they know now, they would advocate a second vote. Plus, it would give us the power and responsibility over our own future and take away the option of blaming it all on the politicians. This isn’t a question of hindsight, it’s about doing the sensible thing.

As my old Nan used to say, don’t ever wish for something, just in case you get it.

 

 

Mortgage, Student Debt. Don’t Do It!

What have most of us been told since childhood. Do well at school, go to university, get a good job and buy a house. The school bit I get, a decent education is absolutely paramount, but the rest. I’ve never bought into the myth about home ownership, I could never see the point. That was of course, until I got married and had kids. A family needs roots, a stable platform to build from. I still wasn’t convinced that buying a house was the answer though.

To me, getting people to buy their own homes was just an act of subjugation. What better way to keep people working for most of their lives than to tie them down with twenty-five years of mortgage repayments. When asked what they do for a living, how many people follow up their answer with the statement, “still, it pays the mortgage”.

There is one inherent flaw in this plan to enslave people into a life of toil and drudgery though. House ownership, especially when it takes so long to achieve this goal, is a matter of diminishing returns. We live on a relatively small island here in the UK and there is only so many houses. Sooner and later, there’s not going to be enough to go round. What then? How are you going to enslave future generations?

Student loans of course! Genius!! After all, it’s still part of that mantra that is drummed into us since we were kids. University, good job, buy house. Apparently, if statistics are to believed (who said that about damned lies!), it is predicted that the average age of moving out of the family home is around thirty-four. Thirty-four, are you kidding me!! But it doesn’t matter that this generation of university graduates can’t afford a mortgage. Of course they can’t. They’ve got massive student loans to pay off!

Now, if you’ve read any of my previous diatribes, you will know that I always like to offer some kind of answer. My answer this time. Stop paying! Stop paying all of it. Mortgages, student loans, the lot. What are the banks going to do if we all decided to stop paying our mortgages. Take us all to court? Of course not. Society would be forced to come up with a new way of doing things. I still believe that we should pay rent, nothing in life is for free. Just without the burden of knowing that you are going to be in debt for your whole working life. Who knows. Maybe people will start doing jobs that they enjoy, rather than jobs that they have to do. Maybe we will see a rise in the numbers of nurses, policeman, teachers. You know, the jobs that matter and make a difference. Pie in the sky? Maybe, if we do nothing. Imagine if we all acted on this. Imagine what the outcome would be.

You could end up living a life that you actually enjoy. Fancy that!!!

 

 

You’re Being Lied To….part 3

Lie #3 – Electric/hybrid cars are the future!

I was admonished a while back for driving a petrol guzzling monstrosity that was the sole cause for the death of our planet. I smiled in anticipation of some witty punch line, but none came. Instead, my accuser stood there glaring at me, all the while nodding his head with righteous indignation. “Go on.”, he asked, and my heart sank. “Ask me what I drive.”

I shrugged, desperately thinking of a way to extricate myself from the situation. I considered feigning a heart attack, but thought better of it. “Electric!”, came the emphatic response, followed by, “I’m doing my bit for the planet.” Before I could reply, a finger jabbed at my chest and I was asked yet another question. “Have you not thought of going electric?”

I was going to point out, that as a carbon based life-form, I would probably stick to oxygen. Instead, I managed to confound the poor fellow with one simple question. “You do know how electricity is made, right?” The smug look instantly evaporated from his face and was replaced instead with one of utter confusion.

I pointed out that you burn fossil fuels, and in fact, almost half of the UK’s electricity was generated from the burning of gas. Gas that was either sucked out of the sea-bed or bought from the Russians. Either way, it was no more environmentally “friendly” than my pollution belching mode of transport. I could see that I had him on the ropes. His eyes were wide and staring and he was flitting his gaze from left to right as though his answer was written somewhere just to one side of me.

I could have left it there and walked away, but I wanted to deliver the killer blow. See him go down and watch until the count reached ten. “And I bet you were one of the morons that bought the lie about diesel cars. Just before you converted to electric.” His eyes glazed over and for a moment, I  thought he was going to cry. I had him. His only reply was a series of , “But…but…but….”, making him sound like a small outboard boat engine. “But diesel is better than petrol.” I could have pointed out that the next time he was walking along the road and a bus or lorry happened to go past, he should take a nice deep lungful of that clean fresh air. But didn’t.

That happened to me a couple of years ago and we now know that diesel isn’t the “cleaner” alternative to petrol that we were told it was. Anyone that remembers their chemistry from school will know that diesel is cheaper to produce than petrol, as the refining process is simpler. In turn, this means more profits for the oil companies. Don’t get me wrong, diesel is much cleaner than it used to be, but cleaner than petrol? I don’t think so.

No. We bought the lie for years while the big gas and oil companies made millions from us and now they are doing the same with electricity. Rather than distributing their product to many companies, they can now deliver it to a small number of power stations, once again keeping their overheads low. More and more homes will have cars parked outside, attached to the house via an umbilical cord-like charging cable. Inside, the electricity metres will be whizzing round like extractor fans and people will just accept higher and higher fuel bills. After all, look at all the money we will save on petrol!

It’s all a lie. Whether it’s diesel, petrol or electric, the cost will work out the same. There or thereabouts. And not just the cost to our pockets, but the cost to the environment as well. Sure, we will all feel quite smug about “doing our bit”, as long as we don’t look too deeply into it.

So what’s the answer, you ask accusingly. Is there an answer. Of course there is. Nuclear fusion. Not nuclear fission, like we currently use, but nuclear fusion, just like the sun. If you get a moment, look it up, it makes for very interesting reading. We’re close to making it cost effective to produce and it’s a green, sustainable power source. The resultant power from nuclear fusion is so vast, it would be virtually free to supply.

The only downside? The oil and gas companies won’t be able to make any money out of it.

 

 

The True Cost of Policing

Now, if you’re after reading a typical rant about the state of policing in the UK, then you’ve come to the wrong place. I have a lot of respect for the police and I believe that they do a great job. On the whole. The restricted conditions that they have to work under have made their task all but impossible. With reduced funding, increased bureaucracy and dwindling support from the public, it’s no wonder that we are seeing a degradation of our police force.

I was shocked to read a recent statistic that only half of incidents reported now are actually investigated. Imagine having your house broken in to, or your car stolen and the only response you receive is to have some details taken over the phone. When you ask, “will the person be caught”, or “will I get my stuff back”, the realistic answer now is, “no”!

So what should we do. Investigate the crimes ourselves. Start up a vigilante force to patrol our streets, or perhaps, pay higher taxes to fund a better police force. Many people are already doing the first two, although, this isn’t an option for everyone. The extra money thing is a nice idea in theory, but how many people can actually afford to pay higher taxes. In this age of austerity (here’s a shocker, it’s not over!!), people are having to decide which of the bills to pay and a reduced pay packet is not an option. Also, there’s always an argument that any extra money raised via taxation will only get soaked up by the political and bureaucratic machine.

Okay smart-arse, I hear you cry, what’s the answer. Privatisation. That’s right, turn the police force over to those who benefit from its existence. Corporations and businesses can have part of their taxes paid directly into a “pot” that is used solely for policing. Affluent areas can pay slightly higher council tax, the extra revenue again going into this pot. The people, that’s us, can decide, via local councils and committees, just how and where this money is going to be spent. People can volunteer for local policing schemes and incentives, to help bolster the national police force. And not just neighbourhood watch schemes that stand behind net curtains telling tales on their neighbours, but a useful feet-on-the-ground volunteer force. After all, shouldn’t we take care of our own safety and not leave it in the hands of the politicians.

Not practical? Of course it’s not, but what else are we supposed to do. Just sit back and blame it on the very people that are trying to help us. Surely it’s time that we step up and take on some of the responsibility ourselves. Those that can pay should, and those that can’t should at least help out in other ways. It’s only by coming together as communities and pooling our time and resources that we are going to see a change.

Or, we can just sit around moaning about it, blaming everyone else in the process.

 

Stop The World, I Want To Get Off!!!

The world changes, of course it does, things evolve and develop and everything moves on. We keep what works, discard what doesn’t doesn’t and this is how improvements are made. But at what point do we stop. At what point is something at it’s optimal point of development. It can’t be improved any further.

The first steam engine was invented at the end of the 17th century and it took another two hundred years before we saw the birth of the internal combustion engine. Thomas Savery’s first incarnation in 1698 was fettled and tinkered with, improved and developed until it saw the birth of the industrial revolution in the 18th century. Fast forward two-hundred and fifty years, and we are developing our technology at a frighteningly exponential rate. In a generation, we have seen whole technologies come and go. The invention of things like compact cassette and VCR’s wowed us with their ingenuity, only to disappear into obscurity a few short years later. We were amazed at the addition of a fourth and then a fifth television channel, yet now we can choose from hundreds and watch them wherever we happen to be. Computers use to be gigantic whirring machines that were kept behind securely locked doors, used only by those who were expertly versed in binary and machine code. Now, we all carry a super-computer around with us in our pockets.

But surely this is a good thing, I hear you cry! Never have we been so connected to the world around us. We have a wealth of information constantly at our fingertips and we can contact our love ones at the click of button. No matter where in the world they may be. Those programs that we used to wait all week for, (before we were able to record them onto magnetic tape of course!), we can now download and watch whenever we like. You don’t even have to wait for the next episode, you can download the whole series and “binge-watch” at your leisure.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a technophobe, I’ve sold technology for over twenty years now and I’ve seen it from the inside out. But, I believe that we have gone too far. The very devices that were supposed to connect us and make our world smaller, only serve to isolate and enslave us. We are now glued to screens, almost oblivious to the world around us. We eagerly await notifications from our social media sites and constantly seek to enlarge and improve our digital world. We are slaves to the very things that were supposed to set us free. The faintest of chirps or chimes have us grasping for our phones, eager to see what new delights it brings. Additional followers, likes for our posts, or perhaps that vlog has gone viral. All the while, we are being separated from the real world. Corralled away from the herd, divided from what is really going on around us.

But that’s just a conspiracy theory. You’re in control. It’s all good. Right?

Of course it is.

That reminds me. I really fancy watching The Matrix again!

 

You’re Being Lied To…..part 2

Lie #2 – “5 pence for a carrier bag. It’s to save the environment.”

Bullcrap! The only place I ever see that money go, is into the retailers till. But surely, you want to save the turtles don’t you, I hear you cry. Of course I do, but how does paying for plastic carrier bags help save the ocean’s wildlife. Are the retailers obliged to pass this money onto the government or donate it to a relevant charitable organisation? Of course not. It goes straight out of your pocket and into their bank accounts.

When you consider, that to make a plastic carrier bag costs a fraction of a penny, this must make it the most profitable item, in terms of percentage, that supermarkets sell. I’m sure if they could, they would ditch all their other products and only sell carrier bags! Well, maybe I’m being a little ridiculous, but it does seem that way.

For us, the general public, having to pay for carrier bags, is just another example of us having to sort out the problems that general industry and large corporations are causing. The companies that make these things are still churning them out in their millions and the chemical companies are still making huge profits by selling on the raw ingredients. Surely, it is these companies that should be paying for the ocean’s clean up. An environmental tax perhaps, based on the quantity of material that they produce or sell. Larger retailers that are responsible for selling huge quantities of carrier bags could also be taxed, and that would also go towards environmental issues.

Would this work? In theory, yes. In practice no. Why not? Because these companies would just pass on these costs and one way or another, we would be left to pick up the bill.

Don’t get me wrong, I have no issue in paying for carrier bags. I just want to see the money go to the right people. Next time you are in a supermarket and you need to buy a carrier bag, when they say, “that will be 5 pence, is that okay?”, just reply, “of course, where’s the charity tin for me to put the money in?”

It’s about time that the people that are screwing up this beautiful planet of ours, start sorting it out. Or, at least start to pay for it!

 

You’re Being Lied To…..part 1

This is not a strange concept and most of us realise this on some level. What worries me is the frequency with which it happens now. We get bombarded with these lies and untruths on such a regular basis, we are becoming anaesthetised to it. So much so, we are in danger of accepting some of them as being the truth.

I have many examples that I would like to convey and I am sure that you are aware of many of the same issues. At the very least, I hope you share my opinion and in some cases, I hope you might look at some of these issues in a new light. As I have so many of these examples, I’ve decided to break them down into small bite-size chunks.

Lie #1 – “This call may be recorded for training purposes……….”

Yeah, yeah, blah, blah! I was on hold to one of the many service providers that I have the displeasure to call on a regular basis and this same message was droning on in my ear. We’ve all had to listen to it. And then it dawned on me. If these companies use these calls for “training purposes”, then why are most of the people that I speak to so incompetent. It appears that the only training they might have received is on how to use the phone system and how to read from the scripts in front of them. If your query is even slightly off from the list of things on their cheat-sheet, you might as well be talking to a trained parrot. Hell, at least the parrot would be entertaining!

If these calls were used for training, then these companies would see how ineffectual their call teams were. Such is the frustration at dealing with these individuals, normal, polite, self-effacing people are reduced to snarling, foul-mouthed animals, spewing expletives and profanities.

No, don’t be fooled. These calls aren’t used for training, for that would imply that they actually care about you, their customer. No, these calls are used to defend themselves should an issue arise that could be escalated. They can dredge up every word that you have uttered and use them against you. Prove that you are some unreasonable, quarrelsome time-waster who uses language that would embarrass even a fishwife.

Of course, this is only my opinion. If you are someone that manages to keep your cool in the face of overwhelming incompetence and obstinate ignorance, then I applaud you. If you are a company that does actually use this information for the betterment and training of your employees, then you are to be commended, a gold star for you.

Personally, my experience tells me otherwise. You’ve only got to trawl through the many corporate websites for these service providers to see the truth. What can you never find? A telephone number, that’s what! No, I don’t believe they use your call to train their staff, because they don’t want to talk to you in the first place!

 

Brexit……..give me strength!!

I did say that I wouldn’t comment on the subject of the UK leaving the EU, as enough has been said already. Everyone has an opinion on it and to be honest, I’m fed up hearing about it. As someone once said, opinions are like ass-holes, we all have one, it’s everyone else’s that stink!

The whole issue of Brexit has been like a badly planned car journey. You think that you know where you are going and that you’ve planned the route down to the last detail. You checked your petrol and tyre pressures and you’ve even packed some snacks and a drink, just in case you get peckish. You set off, happy that you know where you’re going and you’re grinning at the thought of exploring pastures new.

However, after a short distance into your journey, you start to hear a small niggling voice in the back of your head. You try to ignore it, but the further you go, the louder it gets and you know that you won’t be able to ignore it for much longer. But you carry on, reassuring yourself that you’ve covered every option and there’s nothing that can possibly go wrong.

Onward you go, but all the while that voice carries on nagging at you. Louder and louder it grows until you can bear it no longer.

“Hey dimwit!! You’re going the wrong way!!!!!”

Every fibre of your body knows that the voice is right, but onward you plough, determined to carry on with your planned route. As the road becomes more and more unfamiliar, that feeling of dread becomes almost unbearable, but on you go. After all, you researched the journey, so this must be right. Right?

WRONG!

At least stop and check where you’re going. The very worst thing you can do is to carry on, blindly heading down the wrong road until you end up god knows where. Check the map, ask for directions, turn round and go back. Do anything but carry on!

But no. We’re Brexit bound. After all it has to be right, it was carefully thought out. Wasn’t it!!!

Give me strength!!!

 

 

 

Once Jesters Now Kings

I’m sure that everyone has noticed the slight kafuffle in the news concerning the salaries of a number of BBC employees. Whilst I agree with what seems to be the overwhelming opinion that these salaries seem to be completely out of step compared to the average wage of your general BBC viewer, especially when it is said viewers that are funding these pay packets, my concern comes from a slightly different direction.

Let’s step back a few years to an age when entertainment came in a slightly more basic format. Back to a time when what was considered to be entertainment was watching someone dressed in bright coloured clothing, perhaps juggling or walking on their hands.  Jesters in favour were rewarded with scraps of food, a place to sleep and maybe the odd coin or two if their antics and stories were funny enough. Jesters, or fools as they were commonly called, were considered to be no more than servants and were treated accordingly.

Fast forward a few hundred years and entertainment and more importantly, entertainers, are now viewed in a completely different light. Some are now the earning elite and command vastly inflated salaries for what appears to be the most perfunctory of roles. Whilst you could argue that newsreaders and the like perform a vital role bringing us the latest news and current affairs, does this really justify six and seven figure salaries. Especially when you consider that the average annual salary in the UK is approximately £26K. Basically, the lowest paid are helping to pay the wages of the top 1% of earners – that sounds fair! To look at it another way, if you were to relieve the top BBC earner of their salary, you would be able to give 440 nurses a £5K per annum pay rise.

And then it dawned on me. There is a solution to this problem. Are these people going to relinquish their salaries and take a huge pay cut? Of course not. Instead, what we should do, is re-categorise everyone’s job based on its usefulness and contribution to the rest of society. For example, jobs such as nurses, police officers, firefighters, teachers etc., would be seen as vital as their contribution is immense. As a result, these jobs would score relatively low. On the other hand, jobs such as actors, film stars, pop musicians, footballers (other sports are currently available) would be scored highly as their contribution to society would be seen to be comparatively low. Should the scoring system not be the other way around, I hear you cry! No, no, no. The reason being, the lower score a job carries, the lower tax that that person has to pay. Conversely, the higher the score, the higher the tax. Imagine an actor earning several millions for making a single movie paying 70 or 80% income tax, or a football player earning £500K per week paying a similar amount. All of a sudden, we would be in a position to lower the tax for everyone employed in one of these more “vital” roles, maybe even to the point that certain roles would actually be tax exempt. Writing off the income tax bill for a nurse is almost the equivalent of awarding them a 25% par rise.

I understand that there would be a huge resistance to such a scheme, but only from those top earners that are in that top 1% category. It would be down to the rest of us to ensure that the scheme was adhered to and people were accountable for what they owed. Incentive schemes could be set up, whereby discounts were applied for people that willingly “gave up” a percentage of their earnings. So, the footballer earning £500K per week could be liable for a £350K income tax bill, or alternatively they could “surrender” £250K of their salary into a government pot that then went to help fund health care, education, the police force etc.

On the other side of the coin, perhaps it would help encourage more people into jobs that were once seen as vocational rather than a career path to higher earnings. Am I being idealistic as well as unrealistic. Probably, but something has to be done to try and address the balance. And when all is said and done, if I were that footballer whose £500K per week was slashed to a mere £250K, could I survive. Possibly. It would be a struggle, but I’d give it a go!!

Rage Against The Machine……Or, At Least The Software Update.

Imagine this scenario. You’ve bought a house, moved all your goods and chattels in and have even managed a bit of DIY and decorating. It is finally starting to feel like home and you have that comfortable feeling of security and stability. Then one day, you come home from work to find that someone has painted your front door bright fuchsia and have replaced your perfectly manicured lawn for grey, hard concrete. On entering your house, you find that the hallway, kitchen and living-room have been re-decorated and someone has chosen a jungle theme with leopard print and zebra stripe everywhere!

After investigating, you find out that the company who originally built the house have come in and “updated” your home, as apparently, whilst you own the bricks and mortar, they still have rights over the decor and features. On further investigation, you find that this all part of the small print of your title deeds and they have the right to “improve” your home as when they feel is necessary or appropriate. You would be livid! Or at least I hope you would be livid. But replace the words house for computer and title deeds for license agreement and this is exactly what happens to all of us who own a computer, tablet, smart phone, or indeed, any device that requires software in order to for it to operate. In the good-old-days, you would buy your hardware, which would come with the necessary software preloaded, primarily the operating system and it would remain in this state until such time as the software company came up with a new version. But, at some point, in order to steal a march on would be competitors, they would release new versions ahead of all the bugs being fixed. The rationale being that they could release a “fix” in the form of a software patch at a later date as the bugs were fairly minor and would only affect a small number of people. This was back in the days of 56k dial-up when it would take longer to download a movie than it would to actually make and shoot the damn thing. With the advent of broadband, this all changed, suddenly patches could be downloaded in less than an hour in most cases and believe me, that was quick in those days.

The internet age has led us into a whole new era of half-arsed software releases and most people have their devices updated without even realising. Hardly a day goes by without being asked to update a tablet or smart-phone. I can receive notifications to update up to two dozen applications and a couple of days later I have to update another two dozen. This in itself wouldn’t be so bad, but how many times have we applied an update only to the detriment to the operating of the device itself. My daughter recently had an automatic update to her laptop’s operating system which led to her having no internet connection at all. My daughter was told by the retailer that it was due to a faulty wireless adapter, but I knew this wasn’t the case. After I fixed the bug and re-installed the operating system, the aforementioned laptop was back up and working. I recently updated the operating system on my phone only to find that I had lost almost 2,000 contacts, most of which were work related. These are just two examples of many and they are not just isolated incidences as any Google search (other internet search engines are available) will reveal a raft of people all experiencing the same problem.

My answer? I don’t really have one as the software developers have us by the short and curlies. Most of us rely on our devices to one degree or another and the last thing that we want is to ignore these updates, only to find that they don’t work a few months down the line because the software is too old and out of date. Most of us have a working knowledge of the IT that we use, but in the case of fixing bugs, this generally doesn’t stretch beyond the good old reboot, or “have you tried turning it off and then back on again!!” Aaaaarghhhhhh!!! But there is more we can do than you would think. Get on the forums that said software companies operate and start demanding better software, or at the very least working updates. Most people would be prepared to wait a little longer for an update if they were confident that it would actually work. Perhaps we should all threaten to start charging “rent” for housing their software on our devices – not quite sure how that would pan out, but it would be interesting if there were enough people to implement it.

So……rage against the machine? Most definitely! Or at the very least, rage against the software update!