Soft Target

Recently we decided to visit the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth. Looked up train times on the Network Rail web site and agreed that because its impossible to find a parking space at either Horsham or Christ's Hospital station, after 9.30am, to drive to Billingshurst station - should be easier to park. Wrong - no spaces there either. So after a mad chase round we eventually found some parking in the driveway of a friend.

The train arrived on time but such are the engineering works on the line we expected to change at Bognor - well that's what Network Rail web site said. Wrong. The guard told us to change at Barnham. At Barnham the connection was thirty minutes late - so late than when we arrived at Fratton Station Portsmouth the train was terminated, because it was so late. "Station staff will advise passengers about connecting services" wrong, they had no idea at all.

Eventually we arrived at Portsmouth Harbour station one hour and fifteen minutes late - but what the heck, its a day out. Decided to have a meal at Strada before going up the Tower. After the meal we went to book tickets to the Tower but were told the the lifts were not working. However the ticket prices were being reduced to three pounds per adult to compensate. Great.

We eventually arrived back home about 7.30pm and it occurred to us that the meal was possibly the best part of the day and the flower baskets on all the stations. Perhaps we should have stayed at home and gone to the the Strada in Horsham.

Some twenty to thirty "travellers" families arrived in Horsham a few weeks ago. They broke into Warnham Nature Reserve and a farm field, causing damage. After court action and police involvement they all left a few weeks later leaving behind, in the field, their waste as shown above. Now if I had broken into a field and created an unauthorised access on to a busy main road or for that matter dropped some litter in the Carfax I could imagine the Local Authority and or Police coming down on me like a tonne of bricks.

There was subsequently a similar situation with travellers in Broadbridge Heath. Given the trespass and damage caused by these people surely there should be a more "locality friendly" means to deal with their abuses and disregard for the site on which they camp.

Given that it takes time through the legal process for either the Police or LA to put themselves in a position to evict could there not be some form of intervening measure that enables the authorities to impound some of the travellers vehicles as a form of "bail bond" to cover the reinstatement costs of land etc. When the eviction notice is served and enforced either an amount is paid by the travellers to cover reinstatement or the vehicles are sold to cover the costs. Currently the travellers arrive every year and just stick two fingers up.

Alternatively, perhaps we must accept that the law is aimed to control the soft targets of society, like those of us who pay our rates and taxes, and who also try to observe the laws, leaving those who don't give a stuff to go their way unchallenged.

White Trailer Trash

Visited the local petrol station this morning to pick up a paper. Parked the car at the back, got out, and there in front of me, by the refuse bins, somebody had left a divan and two mattresses. See photo.

OK fly tipping goes on, but this garage, which is at the south end of the Horsham by-pass, is only one hundred yards from the amenity tip entrance. Can only imagine that the person/s responsible is/are not of this world, is/are white trailer trash and on benefit and possibly - well more likely -obese. Par for the course.

Gordon Brown, has according to the papers today, given us hope of a bright new tomorrow intent upon " building a lasting prosperity by releasing untapped potential" Unable to think when my potential was last tapped. Also the UK "will emerge from the global slowdown stronger and better, both as a country and a government"

Yeah, great Gordon, but will the people emerge stronger and better? What is this guy smoking?

Still Waiting for the Good News

Horsham Post Office still limps from bad to worse and the impression that nobody actually cares gets stronger and stronger. Yesterday, twenty three people were hanging about hoping to be served by one of four counter staff. If that was not bad enough the large post box at the entrance to the office was full to the brim. I did not mention this to any of the staff, as previous, when I had, I was told that the staff were aware of it One hour later the post box was even fuller. I presume that the Post Office do have a duty of care as regards the safety of mail but perhaps that's been overlooked. Frankly, why buy a first class stamp for a second class service.

Yet another smile passed across my face when I read in the County Times of the latest Financial Recovery Plan (FRP) being promoted by Surrey and Sussex Hospital. And how many plans is that? Must be at least five FRPs that have failed - all have come with the usually high and unrealised expectations from Board and management.

So whats new this time? Well, this FRP is bound of course to be better (not my words) - meet the care challenges, improve services, better financial footing - repaid in three years yeah yeah yeah. But the reality is this. The DoH has given the trust a loan of £54m. However to ensure that this loan is paid back in three years the NHS has given the trust £34m. So, if I have understood this correctly, one part of the NHS borrows money from another part of the organisation to repay the part of the organisation that funds both of them. NHS - "Fit for Purpose" doubt it - join the Home Office. More smoke and mirrors

The start of any political decline comes with what I term the "Pinocchio Moment" Gordon Brown has reached that moment. A moment when more and more lies leads to a longer and longer nose. "I will listen, I will learn I will focus I understand your difficulties" bit late for that Gordon.

The Fundamentals .....

The fundamentals are right. Well that's good then.

According to Gordon Brown low interest rates and strong employment plus sustained growth puts us in a position to deal with the problems of the global credit crunch and other issues. Excellent. I presume that food and fuel inflation is something that we have to take on the chin and is something to be thankful for. Surprisingly bread is not included in the inflation calculations. Meanwhile GB strides on to the world stage and gifts £100m to provide mosquito nets. Not having heard anything of his previous world impacting project - dealing with food shortages in Africa - I assume that it did not go that well - certainly not well enough to boast about.

Just fancy, the price of bread not being in the inflation calculations - could this be a day to bury bad news.

Unfortunately, nobody in Government seems to appreciate that there is a need to tackle the real day to day fundamentals. For example. Thanks to Quango bureauprats, a mother, needing a kidney transplant, was refused the kidney of her recently deceased daughter. even though the daughter was, before her death, willing to help her mother. Yet upon her death her wishes counted for nothing. Well done the Human Tissue Authority. Sounds like a Quango acts like a Quango and makes stupid decisions, therefore it must be a Quango.

There is more. Whilst the Royal Navy does not enjoy the resources of previous years and Queens Regulations may well have to be amended to cover iPods it now transpires that pirates are people to be nurtured. It seems that a directive has been issued by the Foreign Office to all warships that pirates - they hijack vessels, then either ransom or murder the crew -should not be detained. There are two reasons for this (a)detained pirates could claim asylum in the UK and (b)their human rights might be breached in the event that they were, say, sent back to an Islamic state where they would face Islamic law. Beheading, that sort of thing. Seems fair to me.

And now, to the laugh of the weekend. It appears that a Mr.Leventhal, wanting to impress his new girlfriend, it was her birthday, thought that it might be novel to celebrate the event at the champagne bar at St. Pancras station. Fine so far. Given that St Pancras had been promoted as the ideal meeting place for lovers he had the idea of a birthday cake, a small fairy cake, with a single candle. This request was e-mailed to the catering people at the station whereupon a total overload of officialdom broke out. Mr.Leventhal was informed that a full risk assessment needed to be undertaken, but, horror of horrors, a decision could not be undertaken until the Risk Assessment Manger had returned from holiday - which turned out a bit too late as far as the birthday surprise was concerned. Well done St.Pancras. At the height of the steam age there would have been small fires everywhere in and around the station and nobody would have been concerned. How times change.

Sometimes it makes you feel that the fundamentals of Westminster are not the same as for the 60m people living in this country. Brown is shortly off to the United States - leadership what leadership - I fancy lots of us would like to escape as well.

Education education education

It seems from the papers yesterday that the Government is about to rationalise some of its funded vocational diploma courses - BTEC , NVQs, City and Guilds, that sort of thing. Believe it or not there are over 6500 courses of which 65% are attended by less than one hundred people a year. Sounds like a shed load of wasted money.

These courses include such, employment enhancing learning opportunities as "Cash and valuables transit" "Cake decoration" - how on earth could my mother have learnt her skills without such a course - and "Parking Control" I presume the latter leads to a Masters in "Wheel Clamping" and ultimately a doctorate in "Management of Fixed Multi Priced Penalty Parking in the UK"

As usual with Government ideas, the essential review/implementation will not be speedy and is unlikely to take place before 2013. This rationalisation of courses will go hand in hand, with the establishment of a new organisation which will carry the name, the Joint Advisory Committee on Qualification Awards. Supposedly this organisation will do the same job as NICE does for medicine. Very comforting.

If the above reorganisation were not enough, the weekend papers highlighted the actions of a school in Cornwall ,which was promoting an activity week (in term time) and included such educationally mind stretching and child developing subjects as - no lie - shopping, snooker and video games. To be fair, and for £250, there was also a school camp for those that could afford it.

If education is so important why does it seem that it actually does not count. Why are the basics overlooked for the easy bling options. Why is it that some inconsequential certificate, in say nail painting, can be regarded as the equivalent of three GCEs or whatever they are called now.

My last experience of skill based education was about five years ago when I undertook a plumbing NVQ. Of the forty people on the course twenty four were between 16 and 20. This group formed their own class but it was found that 80% of them had to undertake additional study in English and Maths to reach a level to enable them to continue the plumbing course and understand the required theory work. Most of this 80% were straight from school. Having left school in August they were not thought to be up to the required standard come September.

With a third of children supposedly spending over three hours a day playing computer games, and many others dealing with obesity, allied in London, to others causing a major threat to safety - quote Sir Ian Blair- it is not difficult to presume that not many children are actually receiving an education at all. Ok I accept that perhaps its not that bad but when one includes the tactics of the NUT it is a wonder that children receive any form of education at all, particularly if as it seems, some parents dont give a toss.

Three pests have returned to the garden. The deer - mentioned previously, squirrels and magpies. The squirrels have destroyed a bird feeder and the remaining tulips are not looking too bright either.

Have just sown a five rows of potatoes so I must remember to ring Tescos when the crop is ready to harvest.

Is it me?

So, having made our wills about ten years ago, and given the various legislative changes since, my wife and I decided that it was time for the family solicitors to undertake a review.

Two interesting things have come to light - both rather laughable. First, that much heralded NuLab IHT change - where personal allowances can be transferred- has yet to be enacted. Still. Strange, that when the Government seeks to enhance its income its done overnight - like fags and booze -yet when some benefit is set to accrues to the ordinary voter implementation is delayed. What about the proposed new legislation to improve protection for savers deposits.

Why am I not surprised - dismayed but not surprised.

Secondly - and this prompts a mixture from me of tears and laughter - on speaking with our solicitors to fix an appointment to talk about our wills I was told by Debbie the secretary that we must (not should) bring with us our passports as means of identification. Me "But you have known us for twenty years" Debbie "Sorry but that's the law now" I thought that was it but no. Debbie then went to to say "and one other thing would you please bring with you a utility bill to establish your address"

Whilst I recognise that some rules need to be in place to establish identities, surely there must be some allowance for common sense to be exercised otherwise we will march further and further into " PC la la land". Frankly it appears that laws are made and enforced on the soft targets of society, yet other issues, like losing data, pre-releasing prisoners, no control on our borders, eaningless initiatives and pointless reviews, go by mainly unchallenged.

To more important things, like whats been going on in Horsham. Well, my weekly survey of the performance of the main post office has thrown up the following - with twenty seven people waiting there were three counters open (Monday) later in the week there were twenty one people waiting with two people serving. Not actually getting any better. This week the Post Office Pension Fund Trustees are to meet to discuss a pension shortfall of £3.2b - against projected future out turns (profits) of say £50m - good luck. My solution - get rid of the rubbish stock, provide a better service aimed at the customer and perhaps maybe, performance and profitability would improve.

It also seems that HDC have ideas about the future of the Town Hall. Yes its likely to be a restaurant - lets hope its not yet another pizza parlour.

In and around the garden our robin is still trying to become a blue tit but has yet to achieve a wing flap rate that enables him to hold his position on the bird feeder. The deer have once more nibbled the tulips -well gulped them actually -but at least the cherry blossom is starting to appear.

Wish I could get these photos the right way up.

Horizon Scaning and others.....

God help us.

It seems that "Horizon Scanning" is the newest political buzz word of NuLabour. Its a sort of "make the public think we might be doing something, even if we are not, but we would not know what to do anyway, and whats more, we don't have any money." Yes, there are risks out there, whether political, economic, social, but frankly, I don't have the feeling that Government would/could protect me from them anyway. Moreover, its the Government that have set these risks running in the first place.

So with the birth of Horizon Scanning what other great and profound rhetoric has failed in the past. Well there was "Blue Sky Thinking" Has anybody recorded any NuLab BST that has achieved anything. What about "Partnership" and "Dialogue" and the all time classic "Consultation" All the former represent political failings - words can never take the place of action - but perhaps the greatest bureaucratic failing, although politically supported, is that all embracing cop out "multi agency working" The only thing multi agency working achieves is to provide the participants with no responsibility, time out of the office and lots of mileage claims. "Not me Guv" and "I was on holiday" spring to mind.

Anyway back to today. So, according to Gordon and Darling the fundamentals are fine, the economy is fine, inflation is fine, Iraq is fine, schools are fine, the NHS is fine, parliamentary expenses are fine et al. its all fine in Westminster. Its the rest of the country that's got it wrong. Fuel prices up, food prices up, HDC council taxes up.

Time for a little rant. So the MoD is getting hot under the collar about Coroners Reports into the death of UK soldiers - minded to gag publication of evidence, gagging the Coroners verdict. Seems that the truth can be suppressed but what about the Blair WMD document - OK you can report lies but not the truth. And another thing. With seven children by five partners do you (a)obtain financial support from your partners or (b)claim off the state. Answers in no more than ten words. Presume "Horizon Scanning" will be picking up all these potential abuses of the public purse and righting wrongs. I can only hold my breath for thirty seconds.

So what is Francis Maude up to -perhaps silence would be good. Is it time to take the peerage Francis? Conservatism should be for smaller government, efficiency in public services, no government ego trips - like the Dome, Iraq and the Olympics, less waste, greater openness, and then, ultimately tax cuts. Conservative MPs should be hounding NuLab given its ineptness and not leave it to the daily papers. Francis has had a good run but seems to have forgotten that the basics of conservatisum is about smaller government, reducing taxes and giving people the choice how to spend their money. Could it be time Francis to spend more time with the family?

So whose idea was it to have Easter in March. There are 60million people in the UK and we all deserve better than allow some old cleric or rule to dictate when Easter is. OK its an important religious festival but its also a holiday. Should we leave it to a few elders of the CoE to decide or some 1928 enactment. Is this the 21st Century or what.

On a more important note the daffs have been good this year but the snow drops have been unsurpassed