I am surrounded by 10 people, all of whom are asleep. It’s 5.20pm.
And that says it all about commuting. Faced with a reality of loosing 2+ hours per day travelling, most people prefer to sleep for 2 hours less than is needed and “catch up” on the train. This cannot be healthy, and as since this whole business is new to me, it is surprising.

I can certainly think of better things to be doing with my time, but loosing sleep is not my idea of fun. There has to be a better way….

In the last 10 years, we have reduced the public sector debt, from 44% GDP to 37%.

Gordon Brown, 9.50am Sunday 21st September, BBC1 Andrew Marr Interview.

Taken from the Office for National Statistics. Isn’t it interesting that the only time that public sector debt has gone down in the last 10 years has been when Gordon Brown was following Conservative economic policy. From 2001 onwards, it has soared to beyond the starting point.

Gordon Brown, you are a liar, coward and fraudster.

I am listening to Brown talking about the financial crisis on the Andrew Marr Show this morning. Apparently, Brown was right all along but no one would listen. If only those pesky Americans had listened, he could have steered the world away from the current financial crisis. Apparently, it’s all America’s fault and it is a global problem. Oh, and it was much worse when the Tory last ran the country.

But isn’t it strange that this is the first time that he has mentioned the American’s not listening.

But more importantly, strange that he did not try to stem the levels of debt, both public and private, in the good years. Strange that he increased stealth taxes over his 10 years of tenure in no 11 by the equivalent of an increase in income tax of 10p in the pound. Strange that he was more than happy to ride on the “end of boom and bust” mantra, that it was “the longest period of expansion in the 20th century” or the longest period “on a quarterly basis” for 100 years, and then for “250 years” (even though that these claims are not true) . Strange that if the situation is so perilous, after all that increase in taxes and borrowing, he can commit us to a £1bn scheme to fund nursery places for all 2 year olds (when the current commitments for all 3 year olds cannot be met). All of these things, and more, he does and did have direct control over.

This current line of America not listening: what utter crap.

Brown you are a liar, a coward and a fraudster. You deserve everything you get.

Apparently, Brown will/has promised free universal nursery care for all 2 year olds. When my wife recently called the local nurseries to enquire about a place for our 3 year old - who already is supposed to have a free place according to the government - she was laughed off the phone. You see, to get a free place, you need to have been registered for at least 1 year. For the popular nurseries, that increases to 2. It seems that the waiting lists are at least three times the size of the number of places, indicating a dramatic and systemic shortage of spaces.

Such commitments then, for free nursery care for all 2 year olds, are false. Everyone who has a child, or knows someone who has a child, is fully aware that such commitments will never come to pass. If politicians, Brown and his party included, hope to renew the public’s faith in politicians, then they need to understand making headline-grabbing policy announcements is not how one should run a country if the existing policies cannot be delivered.

I am suspicious of Brown’s personal intervention - where clear rules on competition will be bent in order to gain some short-term political advantage. Indeed, Brown’s spin doctors were very keen to associate him with the “no loose” situation. But no one has asked how will a bank the size of Lloyds-TSB-HBOS will work in some more stable future. But I digress - the interesting thing here is the politics of the situation.

A bank with a large Scottish work force on the doorstep of Brown’s constituency, and more importantly, the constituency where there will be a by-election in a few weeks. It seems perfectly understandable for Brown to want to associate himself with a rescue of one of Scotland’s largest private sector employers, especially when large numbers of the employees live in the commutable town of Glenrothes, which is exactly where the by-election will be. It appears that there are plenty of assurances that jobs won’t go in Scotland - indeed a clause has been “inserted” to protect Scottish jobs:

The enlarged group will continue to use the Mound (its Edinburgh HQ) as its Scottish headquarters, will continue to hold its annual general meeting in Scotland and will continue to print Bank of Scotland bank notes. In addition the management focus is to keep jobs in Scotland.

Yet the merger would certainly result in redundancies. It does make sense - where is the saving if you employ the same number of people? The Halifax win of HBOS, of course. The Labour MP for the region, Mrs Riordan, is right on the ball - thousands, if not 10’s of thousands, of job losses in a town the size of Halifax will have a drastic effect indeed. However, I heard her today on the Radio 4 evening news ask for a similar commitment of no job losses. Hard luck dear - there is no by-election in the area and it is not in the Prime Minster’s or Chancellors doorstep.

So what are the long-term effects of this less-than-little deal that Brown and Darling have been so desperate to associate themselves with? Well for a start, there will be 10’s of thousands of job cuts, in Labour’s heartlands. Remember what happened last time a government pushed through such a level of redundancy in the industrial north? And we mustn’t ignore the anger that will appear in the backbenchers eyes when they wake up and realise Brown has shafted them to keep his own backyard in order.

Remember - it is no coincidence that Brown has associated himself with a deal that will temporarily boost the prospects of one of the major employers in a region where there will soon be a by-election, especially as he is from the neighbouring constituency. Short-term gain and long-term pain - as is usual with Brown. This time the pain will mostly be for Brown and Labour, although I do have a word of advice for Halifax staff: start searching for a job…

Stuck in traffic. Drove 20m in 20 mins. The last thing you want to see is people driving on the wrong side of the road in order to jump the queue…

Well Mr Vauxhall driver - caught on camera. And if you think you were trying to persuade everyone you were turning right instead of left, does anyone else see the same care in the photo below?

Back by popular request (well, 1 anyway), a new and updated TheUnstoppableBlair has been produced.

Enjoy.

A full sized version can be found here.

p.s if he gets stuck, give him a nudge, just like his MP’s….

I’ve just bought myself an iPhone, and this is the first post with it.

My physics colleagues have just informed me that the LHC at CERN have two new webcams installed. The physics geek in my could not resist a link to them.

With thanks.

My wife has a new blog. Enjoy.

3rd September: Filled out form online to get a TV license.

8th September: TV license arrived.

13th September: Letter from the Auntie Beeb, informing me that all manner of nasties would descend on my household if I didn’t get a license. Apparently, if I am not a stripy-T-shirt-wearing beat-up-your-granny-as-soon-as-look-at-her ragamuffin, and I don’t own a TV, I can contact them (at a cost of 50p per minute, no less) and book an appointment to be inspected. 

Well Mr TV license officer, I have a TV license so I shall be ignoring your letter, even though it has printed all over it in bold red letters “DO NOT IGNORE”. And if you choose to send around one of your “enforcement” officers, please bring with you a search warrant, as that is the only way you will enter my property. And it will be a wasted visit. Whilst you will find a perfectly functional TV plugged into a perfectly functional aerial, you will also find a perfectly in-date TV license.

It seems that having a few hours of server downtime is a consequence of having VirginMedia broadband. Apologies - should all be fixed now.

… vandalise cars, dig up runways or sever railway tracks? Is it right to invade India or China because they are becoming too powerful on the World’s economic stage? Well, apparently, breaking the law is now lawful, as long as it is done in the name of climate change.

I hope there is a retrial, but I doubt it would be successful. As a nation, we seem to be all mind-washed.

According to Channel 4 News, tomorrow the Government will announce their new policy on energy efficiency. Sorry for being stupid, but if they are announcing it tomorrow, why was it covered on the news today?

Perhaps my stupidity has something to do with not being in PR?

A rather abrasive title for a post, perhaps, but it comes from a conversation that I had with someone on the train this morning. An individual who works for a FE college in Essex (both shall remain anonymous) was telling me of some courses that he teaches in. Or rather, talking about the students who are studying for qualifications in the department in which he teaches - performing arts.

Apparently, most of the students are unable to perform and have little commitment to any eventual career in the performing arts. Only a few go on to study performing arts at university, fewer still at the well renowned ones. Those who do not go on to study to a higher level, yet stick with a career in performing arts, invariably end up in Butlins or on a cruise ship. A significant number of the students end up selling insurance, working in sales or admin, factories or agriculture - jobs where a qualification in the arts would at best offer no advantage, and at worse hinder the chances of employment. 

Many of the students arrive thinking they will be famous, most via shows such as X-Factor. The tutors, teachers and course managers know that the students are arriving with this false hope. They know that the vast majority of students will leave with a “vocational qualification” that will make them no more employable than one in strawberry picking. They know that the majority of the students are wasting their time. Yet the FE colleges are funded by the government to offer these courses. The college managers are perfectly happy to accept the country’s hard-earned cash in exchange for a qualification that offers very few tangible benefits. How the teaching staff keep motivated, given the person that I spoke to was so up-front about the shortcomings of the course, is beyond me.

But, after this conversation, I have some questions.

How many other courses are funded by the government, all in the name of keeping people off the official unemployment statistics? How much money is being wasted on training our teenagers in skills they will never use in their adult lives? How many schools are feeding teenagers with false hopes when they advise them to start these “vocational” courses? How much intrinsic bias is there in the education system, whereby education of any description is better than a job, regardless of the consequences? Would it not make more economical sense to have vocational qualifications that are taught ‘on the job’, perhaps by day release to FE colleges, rather than ones based solely at FE colleges?

As someone with the greatest respect for education, I believe in educating oneself for the sole purpose of personal development. But I have to question the effectiveness of the government’s policy on vocational education.

As a family, we are safely installed into deepest darkest Essex and we now have an internet connection again! More later on life in the UK - guests will arrive soon.