…whatever you do - and do persevere with the use of other co-operatives, mutuals and non profit making organisations and continue to support mutuality for the services that you need. This is especially important at a time when a partisan government and other self-interested groups and individuals are throwing as much mud as they can find at anything that’s not motivated by private profit.
Yes, bad things have come to light, particularly at the top of the Co-op, and with disgraceful behaviour by an individual and management forgetting the principles that should be deeply embedded in mutuality. In some respects they showed a degree of recklessness and incompetence that many thought was the preserve of the commercial banks and the private sector organisations that have been awarded massive bailouts from the public purse and government contracts to deliver (or not) at whatever price and quality, services formerly provided by the public sector.
So where might this disappointing and uncharacteristic behaviour (in the Co-op bank particularly) have come from? Could it just possibly be copycat conduct or an infection caught from the casino bankers and their like in the profit making sector?
I refer to those who pay their chief executives scandalous amounts of money, those who have sought to drive small businesses to the wall to increase their own profits, those who have fiddled measures like the formerly internationally respected Libor rate and those who have ‘mis-sold’ ‘insurance’ to name but a few. This is where the real scandals lie and will continue to do so in one form or another.
The persistence of faith in these outfits by the London-based financial correspondents amazes me. Statements I’ve read recently included phrases such as ‘I’m shocked that XYZ bank seems to have learnt nothing…’ and ‘It beggars belief that XYZ bank has…’ Well, it doesn’t beggar belief any more than the discovery that the leopard’s spots are not superficial. Who could seriously have expected these morality-free characters to learn? If you are looking for world-class bad behaviour this is where to find it.
This rank dishonesty and anti-social conduct will carry on as long as cheats continue to be allowed to prosper and bankroll their favourite party in government.
Amongst many other things, what is needed is a return of respect for ordinary people, a sense of fairness and equity and more self confidence in ‘the mutual way’. There would be a real social dividend here – which brings me back to the co-op from which I have just returned with the shopping. Hope to see you there!
Thursday 28 November 2013
Thursday 21 November 2013
Hinterland
Possibly the title of a forthcoming post-apocalyptic film? No, but certainly getting there in terms of austerity, inequality, and a thoroughly disdainful backdrop. Rather, the hinterland I have in mind refers to the centrally neglected, indeed despised, greater part of England outside of London and the South East.
As far as governments are concerned, the majority of England is merely a remainder - the capital’s hinterland – an attitude that the ‘national’ press adopts too. Yet this hinterland is the land in which we live and which for centuries was the basis of the nation’s wealth until its assets were sold off, squandered and jobs and livelihoods discarded by corporate nest-featherers and the politicians that they finance. Still, we do have the London banks.
I use the word ‘despised’ not simply to describe the malevolent attitude of the overwhelmingly right wing press in London, appallingly lazy and ignorant though that is, but also to the attitude exemplified by a typical Westminster type with a ‘nimby’ opposition to the high speed rail project who recently said ‘Who wants to go to Birmingham anyway?’
In fact I can think of few better destinations but many better, quicker and more productive ways than HS2 to invest £40 – 80 billion of national resources and get some proper connectedness too. But if the HS2 project doesn’t go ahead you can be sure of one thing - there will be little or nothing invested in transportation infrastructure outside of the southeast. And it wouldn’t matter how angry you got about the misallocation of national resources.
Ours is just about the most over-centralised country among western democracies with local government diminished and downgraded and, despite a highly productive municipal history, held in a ruthless vice and treated with the same contempt as the cities, towns and areas that they represent.
And quite soon London, not content to be part of the .uk internet domain will be getting its own .London domain. There are times when I think that London should be separated out from the rest of the United Kingdom or even leave it altogether and allow the rest of us to focus our own resources and energies on the development, culture and common good of our own regions. Make it Mercia mark two – not to mention Northumberland!
Unrealistic no doubt, but this release of identity has happened elsewhere. Consider the ‘velvet divorce’ of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. And in terms of an over-blown metropolis, the city-state of Singapore used to be part of Malaysia until it went its own way. And Hong Kong remains at least a semi-detached part of China and of course there are many classical and medieval examples of city-states. Perhaps its time to revisit these structures and put behind us the humiliations of the hinterland.
As far as governments are concerned, the majority of England is merely a remainder - the capital’s hinterland – an attitude that the ‘national’ press adopts too. Yet this hinterland is the land in which we live and which for centuries was the basis of the nation’s wealth until its assets were sold off, squandered and jobs and livelihoods discarded by corporate nest-featherers and the politicians that they finance. Still, we do have the London banks.
I use the word ‘despised’ not simply to describe the malevolent attitude of the overwhelmingly right wing press in London, appallingly lazy and ignorant though that is, but also to the attitude exemplified by a typical Westminster type with a ‘nimby’ opposition to the high speed rail project who recently said ‘Who wants to go to Birmingham anyway?’
In fact I can think of few better destinations but many better, quicker and more productive ways than HS2 to invest £40 – 80 billion of national resources and get some proper connectedness too. But if the HS2 project doesn’t go ahead you can be sure of one thing - there will be little or nothing invested in transportation infrastructure outside of the southeast. And it wouldn’t matter how angry you got about the misallocation of national resources.
Ours is just about the most over-centralised country among western democracies with local government diminished and downgraded and, despite a highly productive municipal history, held in a ruthless vice and treated with the same contempt as the cities, towns and areas that they represent.
And quite soon London, not content to be part of the .uk internet domain will be getting its own .London domain. There are times when I think that London should be separated out from the rest of the United Kingdom or even leave it altogether and allow the rest of us to focus our own resources and energies on the development, culture and common good of our own regions. Make it Mercia mark two – not to mention Northumberland!
Unrealistic no doubt, but this release of identity has happened elsewhere. Consider the ‘velvet divorce’ of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. And in terms of an over-blown metropolis, the city-state of Singapore used to be part of Malaysia until it went its own way. And Hong Kong remains at least a semi-detached part of China and of course there are many classical and medieval examples of city-states. Perhaps its time to revisit these structures and put behind us the humiliations of the hinterland.
Saturday 16 November 2013
Kleptonomics
It’s high time that we expanded our economic and managerial vocabulary to describe the way that big business and grossly overpaid executives profit in unlimited and immoral ways at the expense of ordinary citizens. Perhaps the following suggestions have already been put forward, but I think that we should definitely add the terms Kleptonomics, Kleptonomy and Kleptopoly to describe the way that capitalism operates in this country today.
And time to retire Adam Smith too – well past his use-by date. We’ve heard more than enough about what wonderful and faultless things markets and self-interest are. The only ‘invisible hand’ that most people are aware of is the malign one from our beloved privatised utilities, banks and the likes lightening our purses and wallets year in and year out. And, no surprise here, the beneficiary of self interest is a few wealthy selves with a few crumbs dropping off the table to pay those whose labour is used to produce the gain.
We read about economics syllabi slowly being reformed to recognise that markets are not perfect and expectations are not rational. The purveyors of theories that have preached Kleptonomy and pushed globalisation have almost as much explaining to do as the fat cats that have profited from it.
The refrain ‘Got to pick a pocket or two’ should no longer be attached to the reluctant and impoverished urchins of Bill Sykes but to the rapacious executives, hedge funds and major shareholders of the robber baron corporations who now dominate our lives.
They fulfil the definition of kleptomania – they cannot or will not control their desire to take things from other people. Money of course – we see that on a vast scale in so many services that used to be run fairly and in many lesser things such as reduced sizes, reduced quality, no spare wheel on cars etc. And also of course jobs, destroyed or exported under the globalisation frenzy with the pretext that ‘they’re all doing it’.
And so they are, as the copycat wheeze towards gargantuan profits spreads like a virulent disease through the corporate system with the chill being felt by the powerless majority. As does the taking from societies in which they operate through contriving to pay practically nothing in tax while benefiting from a workforce educated at public expense, a road system, the NHS (though the corporate execs will dodge the queue and go private), defence and everything else that is publicly funded including intellectual property legislation.
Having seemingly captured most of the political elite in this country mainly due to unreformed funding of political parties, these corporations, many having been passed over into foreign ownership, are pretty much free to extract as much lucre from the general population as they like with government leaders merely expressing ‘disappointment’.
Then these outfits such as energy suppliers have the brass neck to ‘explain’ the price hikes and profiteering to shivering consumers. Still, the government tells us we can keep on switching amongst the Kleptopolists as if they were different from each other. But I fear the switch that will be used most this winter is the ‘off’ switch for heating in low-income households.
The very same governments refuse to reform political funding and leave tax loopholes unplugged, deliberately I would argue to attract more tax-dodging companies, while merely getting in the odd ‘disappointed’ sound-bite and hoping that the fuss will blow over yet again. Well it won’t, not this time.
And time to retire Adam Smith too – well past his use-by date. We’ve heard more than enough about what wonderful and faultless things markets and self-interest are. The only ‘invisible hand’ that most people are aware of is the malign one from our beloved privatised utilities, banks and the likes lightening our purses and wallets year in and year out. And, no surprise here, the beneficiary of self interest is a few wealthy selves with a few crumbs dropping off the table to pay those whose labour is used to produce the gain.
We read about economics syllabi slowly being reformed to recognise that markets are not perfect and expectations are not rational. The purveyors of theories that have preached Kleptonomy and pushed globalisation have almost as much explaining to do as the fat cats that have profited from it.
The refrain ‘Got to pick a pocket or two’ should no longer be attached to the reluctant and impoverished urchins of Bill Sykes but to the rapacious executives, hedge funds and major shareholders of the robber baron corporations who now dominate our lives.
They fulfil the definition of kleptomania – they cannot or will not control their desire to take things from other people. Money of course – we see that on a vast scale in so many services that used to be run fairly and in many lesser things such as reduced sizes, reduced quality, no spare wheel on cars etc. And also of course jobs, destroyed or exported under the globalisation frenzy with the pretext that ‘they’re all doing it’.
And so they are, as the copycat wheeze towards gargantuan profits spreads like a virulent disease through the corporate system with the chill being felt by the powerless majority. As does the taking from societies in which they operate through contriving to pay practically nothing in tax while benefiting from a workforce educated at public expense, a road system, the NHS (though the corporate execs will dodge the queue and go private), defence and everything else that is publicly funded including intellectual property legislation.
Having seemingly captured most of the political elite in this country mainly due to unreformed funding of political parties, these corporations, many having been passed over into foreign ownership, are pretty much free to extract as much lucre from the general population as they like with government leaders merely expressing ‘disappointment’.
Then these outfits such as energy suppliers have the brass neck to ‘explain’ the price hikes and profiteering to shivering consumers. Still, the government tells us we can keep on switching amongst the Kleptopolists as if they were different from each other. But I fear the switch that will be used most this winter is the ‘off’ switch for heating in low-income households.
The very same governments refuse to reform political funding and leave tax loopholes unplugged, deliberately I would argue to attract more tax-dodging companies, while merely getting in the odd ‘disappointed’ sound-bite and hoping that the fuss will blow over yet again. Well it won’t, not this time.
Sunday 10 November 2013
The Lunar Men
The performance took as its theme the post-dinner deliberations of members of the Lunar Society in 1780 meeting in Matthew Boulton’s house in Birmingham when this great city was at the forefront of the industrial revolution.
All the characters were in period costume and there were extensive props on stage (including a working Van de Graaff generator - perhaps this was a very early prototype!).
Most of the performance consisted of considerable speeches by Erasmus Darwin, Joseph Priestley, Josiah Wedgwood, James Watt and Matthew Boulton explaining with great enthusiasm their work and ideas.
There was a well-produced and informative parallel Keynote presentation alongside the performance with text, images and animations to add to what was said by the main characters. The group may reprise the playlet for a wider audience (including historical societies) and our present Lunar Society in the New Year. Well worth attending if you get the chance.
Wednesday 6 November 2013
Keeping Warm in a Cold Climate
I’m not just referring to the weather here. Some years ago when I was very active in the local community I produced and distributed to those who might need it a leaflet about keeping warm in winter. I stopped doing this a decade ago as there no longer seemed to be the same level of concern and it could be seen as patronising - although I’d put up with being charged with this if even a few vulnerable people were helped.
How times have changed! Here we are again - and almost certainly worse - with austerity imposed on those who can least afford it, rapacious privatised fuel and energy companies and a robber baron corporate culture.
These cold-hearted graspers will make people suffer if they know they can get away with it and it leads to yet more profit for themselves. This added to the couldn’t care less government indifference and cuts such as in winter fuel payments. So much for the common good.
So if you know of an elderly or disadvantaged person who is struggling because of all this, there may be one or two tips here from the last century that might still make a bit of a difference.
Help to keep the rooms that you use warm by ensuring that doors, windows and letterboxes are closed.
Drawing the curtains earlier cuts down the warmth escaping through windows.
Well-lined curtains and draught excluders can be effective.
Hang a thick curtain over the front door. This keeps the hall warmer.
Draw the upstairs curtains too – and close the doors there as well to stop draughts from coming down the stairs.
Wear woollens as much as you can – and you can keep them on in bed if you need to! And if you can afford it, thermal underwear is very warming too.
To save heat and keep it circulating, don’t let curtains cover radiators or have furniture in front of radiators.
If your bathroom is cold, wash quickly, keeping warm is more important.
Several layers of light clothing are better than one heavy layer. They keep you warmer and are better for circulation. Make sure the top layer is waterproof if you’re going out.
If you do get wet, change to dry clothes as soon as you get home.
When it’s windy, the cold is more penetrating – so wrap up extra well.
If you can afford it, warm the bedroom for at least an hour before you go to bed.
Spare blankets will help keep you warm when you’re sleeping.
An electric blanket helps if you have one. An over-blanket that can be kept on all night is not as expensive to run.
Use hot water bottles in a cover. Make sure they’re not perished and for safety don’t use a hot water bottle as well as an electric blanket.
Have a dressing gown ready to put on as soon as you get out of bed.
Wear a woolly hat in bed. A lot of heat is lost through the top of your head. Bed socks can help too.
Your bed is a warm place that you could use in the day if you need to.
Put your bed or chair on an inside wall in your room - rather than near to a window or outside wall.
Eat as well as you can afford to. Your body is a good heater if you eat what you need. Eat more often in winter even if you have a bit less each meal.
If you don’t feel like eating, why not have a warm milk drink instead?
Have at least one hot meal a day. If you fancy a snack, consider hot soup as well if you can afford it. Baked potatoes are warming, nourishing and good value.
Stock up with soup just in case the weather turns nasty. Eggs, milk drinks, hot cereal - or the good old traditional fry-up. All these are all good for energy and warmth.
If a power cut seems possible, you could keep a flask of hot soup or Bovril ready - but don’t forget to drink it anyway – on the same day.
Don’t drink alcohol when you are cold. It might feel warming, but it makes your skin even colder.
Keep active. This can be just walking around the room, rubbing your hands together or stamping your feet. This will keep you warmer and also helps with your circulation.
Always keep one room warm. If it’s very cold, you could use that room in the day and sleep there at night.
Don’t leave heating on too long in a room you aren’t using. The cost reduction could help you to keep other rooms warmer.
If you’ve an eiderdown, put it next to the top sheet then the blanket on top to keep the warmth next to you. Fleecy under-blankets are good too.
For safety’s sake, don’t have fires or heaters close to the bed and, if you still smoke, for safety’s sake don’t do so in bed.
A screen round the back of chairs can help to keep the warmth in.
Small shelves just above radiators will deflect warm air into the room.
Kitchen foil fitted just above radiators on outside walls helps to keep the heat in. Have the shiny side facing into the room.
A foil lining on the back of any cupboards on outside walls can help too. Your loft insulation should be four inches thick.
Switch off your TV before you go to bed. Leaving the set on ‘standby’ wastes electricity.
Halls are less draughty if you fit a letterbox flap or even a keyhole cover!
Only boil as much water as you need. Now could be a good time for a nice cup of tea!
Remember the warmth that friendship brings. Keep in touch with your neighbours, friends and relatives. See someone regularly.
Don’t forget that your doctor is there to help you and don’t be afraid to use 999 if you need help quickly.
How times have changed! Here we are again - and almost certainly worse - with austerity imposed on those who can least afford it, rapacious privatised fuel and energy companies and a robber baron corporate culture.
These cold-hearted graspers will make people suffer if they know they can get away with it and it leads to yet more profit for themselves. This added to the couldn’t care less government indifference and cuts such as in winter fuel payments. So much for the common good.
So if you know of an elderly or disadvantaged person who is struggling because of all this, there may be one or two tips here from the last century that might still make a bit of a difference.
Help to keep the rooms that you use warm by ensuring that doors, windows and letterboxes are closed.
Drawing the curtains earlier cuts down the warmth escaping through windows.
Well-lined curtains and draught excluders can be effective.
Hang a thick curtain over the front door. This keeps the hall warmer.
Draw the upstairs curtains too – and close the doors there as well to stop draughts from coming down the stairs.
Wear woollens as much as you can – and you can keep them on in bed if you need to! And if you can afford it, thermal underwear is very warming too.
To save heat and keep it circulating, don’t let curtains cover radiators or have furniture in front of radiators.
If your bathroom is cold, wash quickly, keeping warm is more important.
Several layers of light clothing are better than one heavy layer. They keep you warmer and are better for circulation. Make sure the top layer is waterproof if you’re going out.
If you do get wet, change to dry clothes as soon as you get home.
When it’s windy, the cold is more penetrating – so wrap up extra well.
If you can afford it, warm the bedroom for at least an hour before you go to bed.
Spare blankets will help keep you warm when you’re sleeping.
An electric blanket helps if you have one. An over-blanket that can be kept on all night is not as expensive to run.
Use hot water bottles in a cover. Make sure they’re not perished and for safety don’t use a hot water bottle as well as an electric blanket.
Have a dressing gown ready to put on as soon as you get out of bed.
Wear a woolly hat in bed. A lot of heat is lost through the top of your head. Bed socks can help too.
Your bed is a warm place that you could use in the day if you need to.
Put your bed or chair on an inside wall in your room - rather than near to a window or outside wall.
Eat as well as you can afford to. Your body is a good heater if you eat what you need. Eat more often in winter even if you have a bit less each meal.
If you don’t feel like eating, why not have a warm milk drink instead?
Have at least one hot meal a day. If you fancy a snack, consider hot soup as well if you can afford it. Baked potatoes are warming, nourishing and good value.
Stock up with soup just in case the weather turns nasty. Eggs, milk drinks, hot cereal - or the good old traditional fry-up. All these are all good for energy and warmth.
If a power cut seems possible, you could keep a flask of hot soup or Bovril ready - but don’t forget to drink it anyway – on the same day.
Don’t drink alcohol when you are cold. It might feel warming, but it makes your skin even colder.
Keep active. This can be just walking around the room, rubbing your hands together or stamping your feet. This will keep you warmer and also helps with your circulation.
Always keep one room warm. If it’s very cold, you could use that room in the day and sleep there at night.
Don’t leave heating on too long in a room you aren’t using. The cost reduction could help you to keep other rooms warmer.
If you’ve an eiderdown, put it next to the top sheet then the blanket on top to keep the warmth next to you. Fleecy under-blankets are good too.
For safety’s sake, don’t have fires or heaters close to the bed and, if you still smoke, for safety’s sake don’t do so in bed.
A screen round the back of chairs can help to keep the warmth in.
Small shelves just above radiators will deflect warm air into the room.
Kitchen foil fitted just above radiators on outside walls helps to keep the heat in. Have the shiny side facing into the room.
A foil lining on the back of any cupboards on outside walls can help too. Your loft insulation should be four inches thick.
Switch off your TV before you go to bed. Leaving the set on ‘standby’ wastes electricity.
Halls are less draughty if you fit a letterbox flap or even a keyhole cover!
Only boil as much water as you need. Now could be a good time for a nice cup of tea!
Remember the warmth that friendship brings. Keep in touch with your neighbours, friends and relatives. See someone regularly.
Don’t forget that your doctor is there to help you and don’t be afraid to use 999 if you need help quickly.
Saturday 2 November 2013
Return of the Dark Side
In the title of this posting I’m not referring to the government’s views on social policy, surveillance or how to manage the economy nor the coming of Darth Vader (although I sense a connection here). No, this is my annual rant – or rather considered argument - on the question of British Summer Time (BST) ending and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) beginning.
The clocks have been put back and each year the end of October marks the transition to the ‘dark nights’. This is always somewhat depressing and is a change that is unwanted by 70% of the population who have long been opposed to being plunged into dark evenings. Nationwide, there’s a large majority for the retention of BST for the whole year.
In my personal opinion we should go further and have the clocks set two hours rather than one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time in the summer and one hour ahead of GMT in the winter months. Furthermore, the changes should be made on the first Sunday in November and the first Sunday in March so shaving a month off the then not quite so dark nights.
It is an established fact that simply keeping BST all year would save lives in traffic accidents – estimated as 80 lives currently lost due to the darker evenings. Gloomier mornings are not so bad as drivers are fresh. Lighter evenings would also be better for sport and outdoor activities in general.
Retaining summer time would also reduce the prevalence of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) as people, on the whole, would experience significantly more daylight. And, as is also well known, it would save energy too. Anything we can do to stop as much money as possible going to the fuel and power cartel must have serious merit.
So why isn’t the apparently good idea of keeping BST throughout the year brought in? It is reported that some people in very high places don’t like getting up in the dark, but I find it hard to take this seriously. Our farmers may grumble - and indeed they’ve much to complain about as undervalued contributors to the productive part of our economy - but I imagine that livestock go by other perceptions of time rather than how we choose to set the nominal dials on our timepieces.
In England there is even stronger support (three out of four people) for keeping British Summer Time for the whole year, a fact confirmed by surveys year after year. But I understand that Scotland wants to keep the present system of reverting to GMT in the winter months so that is apparently that. In my view Scotland should be allowed to determine its own clock settings, going their own way in this regard as in other matters, and we can have EST.
All in all we do need more illumination in our daily lives - not to mention in our national affairs - and I suspect few people would disagree with that! But there’s little chance that the Government will see the light anytime soon – at least you can’t fault them for consistency. So, unlike the clocks, no change there then!
The clocks have been put back and each year the end of October marks the transition to the ‘dark nights’. This is always somewhat depressing and is a change that is unwanted by 70% of the population who have long been opposed to being plunged into dark evenings. Nationwide, there’s a large majority for the retention of BST for the whole year.
In my personal opinion we should go further and have the clocks set two hours rather than one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time in the summer and one hour ahead of GMT in the winter months. Furthermore, the changes should be made on the first Sunday in November and the first Sunday in March so shaving a month off the then not quite so dark nights.
It is an established fact that simply keeping BST all year would save lives in traffic accidents – estimated as 80 lives currently lost due to the darker evenings. Gloomier mornings are not so bad as drivers are fresh. Lighter evenings would also be better for sport and outdoor activities in general.
Retaining summer time would also reduce the prevalence of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) as people, on the whole, would experience significantly more daylight. And, as is also well known, it would save energy too. Anything we can do to stop as much money as possible going to the fuel and power cartel must have serious merit.
So why isn’t the apparently good idea of keeping BST throughout the year brought in? It is reported that some people in very high places don’t like getting up in the dark, but I find it hard to take this seriously. Our farmers may grumble - and indeed they’ve much to complain about as undervalued contributors to the productive part of our economy - but I imagine that livestock go by other perceptions of time rather than how we choose to set the nominal dials on our timepieces.
In England there is even stronger support (three out of four people) for keeping British Summer Time for the whole year, a fact confirmed by surveys year after year. But I understand that Scotland wants to keep the present system of reverting to GMT in the winter months so that is apparently that. In my view Scotland should be allowed to determine its own clock settings, going their own way in this regard as in other matters, and we can have EST.
All in all we do need more illumination in our daily lives - not to mention in our national affairs - and I suspect few people would disagree with that! But there’s little chance that the Government will see the light anytime soon – at least you can’t fault them for consistency. So, unlike the clocks, no change there then!
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