26th September 2013

The usual rhetorical question is usually: Is the Pope still Catholic?

Now a new rhetorical question has been posed. Is the Labour Party still Socialist?

The answer is less obvious, the question less rhetorical, but after Brighton it seems that Socialism which we thought His Holiness Pope Tony has abolished along with Clause 5, might just be alive and well.

I met Ed Milliband over a private dinner, hosted by Community Service Volunteers for CE's of Voluntary Organisations.

I have to say I liked what I saw, and still like what I see on the TV.

I changed my energy supplier from British Gas to Co-op Energy, the change has saved me a considerable amount of money each month, the service is efficient and I get extra Dividend when I read my own meter.

The theory behind privatisation was that competition, market forces, drive down prices.

In point of fact prices have continued to rise and the market has been opened to companies based in Europe so not only are we importing our energy but the profits are being exported.

I remember in the late 70's, with three young children in the midst of a three day week, sitting in a cold dark Vicarage with a car spotlight hooked up to an old battery providing light during another blackout.

Then it was the miners who were blamed, now the power suppliers, who have their hands on the switch, who will thrust us into darkness on a whim, because they can and so that as the miners brought down the Heath Government they can try to achieve the same result over the new Labour Government in 2015.

Of course we await the blether of the con part of the con-dems, as the Tories hold their Conference in Manchester.

Of course its pretty clear what will be said and in what language, but securing energy and building homes is clearly the political priority for the next Government, it's just that con-dem Tories are choosing to cross the greasy palms of banks, builder and estate agents with money which it seems even the new Governor of the Bank of England has cautioned against, because of the risk of simply fuelling house price inflation and creating an unsustainable bubble or subsidising the energy companies who say they cannot afford to invest in new power stations.

So either we continue to trust capitalism to deliver social goals or we get a grip and invite all sectors of society to work together for, what in the Churches, we call, 'The Common Good'.

Its all in the detail.

It always is.

Recently my Doctor made an appointment for me at the hospital.

For various reasons I decided not to attend the appointment and rang to cancel, I was asked for my booking reference and password.

Haven't got one I said, have an NHS Number, No I was told, that won't do, I was referred to the first three page letter I received before the second three page letter, and there it was, well, OK a booking reference makes sense, but I had been given a password, which I must apparently always use when I contact the NHS.

Why I asked? another rhetorical question when it dawned on me!

Of course! this is all part of the preparation for V Day, as in V for Virgin not victory, when Branson rules, NOT ok! If you haven't got your password you won't get in, or you'll have to pay up front like in America.

It won't be long before your Virgin Health Credit Card will be in your wallet along with your Virgin Travel Card and your Virgin Mates Card and your allocated password will cover all eventualities, as long as you can remember it.

So we have a bold new vision of a socialist future in which Health will be free at the point of delivery, energy will be affordable and houses will available to buy or rent, with as many rooms as you want, without a surcharge.

Or remain condemned to falling living standards, rising prices, whilst held in thrall to the Capitalist overlords of the Universe.

As my dad once observed, the reason you're six foot whilst your grandfather was five feet two is socialism, free milk and orange juice.

It's the spirit of '45 all over again.

19th September 2013

As Nick Clegg tries to convince us (himself?) that the Dem half of the con-dems is a natural party of Government, all three of them, they could fit into a 'phone box in Downing Street and let No 10 to bring in a bit of cash!

Watching the performance as he tries to lure Labour into a new movie Coalition: The Sequel, I was reminded of a story about George Bernard Shaw.

Apparently at a dinner party he asked one of the female guests if she would sleep with him for 2000 guineas, after a brief consideration of the proposition she agreed that she could.

He then asked whether she would sleep with him for 200 guineas.

What do you take me for? she asked.

That has been established he replied, we are now negotiating the price!

Like many folk now, I tax my motorcycle on line.

The DVLA web site is excellent and does the work for you as it interrogates the relevant sites to establish that you are insured and that the MoT is up to date.

The licence arrives promptly and saves queueing in the Post Office or local DVLA office.

But it is not always thus.

I suppose that you should always be careful what you wish for (note for Nick Clegg).

But like many folk we find the evidence of obvious abuse of Disabled Parking Badges extremely annoying, especially when the spaces are full or a passing Chancellor is sitting in one eating his burger.

But they have tightened up on the application process. When the renewal notice arrived it said that you could complete the form on-line.

After two abortive attempts when the web site crashed, I got as far as uploading the indoor critics photo, no! that was a step too far.

So I thought I know, I'll save what I've done so far and try again later, I wrote the tracking number down and when I went back duly typed in the number.

This number is not recognised I was informed. Ouch!

It was only when I turned to the paper version pen in hand that I read that even if I completed the form on-line, I still had to supply various pieces of evidence to prove that she was she and send them BY SNAIL MAIL and not to forget the cheque.

So, actually completing the form on-line was actually a waste of time, and also, because when I finished it was raining, a waste of a sunny morning.

To me this experience is a warning that for some folk who may not be able to readily steer their way round a keyboard shifting all our contact with national and local government on-line could render them even more disabled than the they might already be. (Note for Mr Duncan Smith)

Surely the message is, if you are going to require all contact to be on-line then make sure that the programme you employ is fit for purpose?

11th September 2013

Have you noticed it too, or is just me?

The con-dem front bench appears to be getting plumper?

Certainly George Osborne is becoming what my granny would call, fuller in the face and the photographs of David Cameron sporting in the surf in Cornwall speak for themselves.

Of course the usual response when someone appears both plumper and still well groomed is: You're doing well.

And of course they are.

In fact the Chancellor is especially pleased with himself, the economy has turned the corner he tells us triumphantly, Plan A has worked.

Well sorry to rain on his parade but not here it hasn't.

Now we have the headline from today's newspapers that a Brazilian envoy for the UN has visited Britain, taken soundings, talked with folk and decided that the bed room tax has affected their human rights.

Indeed, so now in a fascinating example of what the churches call reverse mission, the third world has decided that in the not so rich west, i.e. 'up North', the policies of the con-dem's has in fact reduced living standards and effectively made people worse, rather than better, off.

Interestingly Vince Cable appears on the news telling us that George Osborne is not entirely right, the economy has not actually turned a corner, at least not yet, it's just going in the right direction.

But neither appear prepared to admit that living standards are in fact going down as the cost of living increases and benefits, both those paid to working families and those paid to those who are not working, are reduced.

So on we march towards 2015 and a chance to cast our verdict along with our vote on the con-dem parade of reduced benefits, hard hearted policies, condemnation of those who through ill health or disability cannot work alongside the constant refrain of the drum beat of austerity.

But this austerity is not shared, equally or equitably, I still have the image in my mind, of George Osborne in his Land Rover, eating his Big Mac whilst parked in a disabled parking space, that could account for the plumpness of course, fast food and short walks, as Jamie Oliver might advise, slow food and long walks are much better for the figure.

But that is really beside the point, Mr Gove visits a food bank and is reported commenting that if people have to rely on handouts to eat then they need to manage their money better, this from an ex journalist, now a minister living in a two income household.

There was a time a year or two back when I came across and started to develop the idea of the fourth world, that is the world of the poor, subsisting in the heart of first world nations, on an income comparable with third world citizens.

Meanwhile reports emerge that attitudes are shifting, people have finally, if not yet forcefully, rejected the dismissive and contemptuous attitudes expressed by the con-dem's and the survey of social attitudes suggests that people are recognising that the divisions emerging in society, fuelled once again by a housing boom, apparently engineered by the government, cannot be sustained.

I hope that at the party conferences the Liberals, as Mr Cable has started to do, begin to distance themselves from their coalition partners.

I hope also that Milliband and Balls take the opportunity to review their commitment to operating within the fiscal settlement being implemented by the Chancellor. It is really not necessary to continue to pursue austerity, which has strangled growth, when in fact investment in social development, improved wages and a more just social settlement will in itself stimulate growth as spending increases and demand rises.

Interesting that we have become so used to plastic that we often leave the house with just plastic in our wallets and purses, stop for fuel pay with plastic, shop in the supermarket pay with plastic, buy on online pay with plastic.

Well soon it seems, apart from that last example that's what we shall be doing as our paper money is transformed into plastic.

The give away comment on the BBC News last evening, following the report of those executives who left the corporation, (not with paper bags stuffed with plastic money but with plastic carrier bags stuffed with licence payers money), was at least it will be easier to wipe the red wine stains off a plastic fiver.

But not easier than rolling it up as a spill to to light your cigar.

Aah, how the first world lives.

Good job we've got the beady eye of the third world looking out for our interests.

6th September 2013

You know how it is.

The 'phone rings. You answer it. A voice mispronounces your name and tells you that your computer needs fixing, or asks to speak to you without first advising who it is that is calling, or if they are using a random call programme, simply hangs up because someone has answered before you.

Infuriating.

Various people have found ways of dealing with this, from call preference to one ingenious person who made his number a toll number so that the companies had to pay him for the privilege of calling him.

My response varies from the angry, to the humorous, to keeping them talking, to simply hanging up.

Even as I am writing this the 'phone rang and someone asked to speak to Geoff ....., when I asked what she wanted to speak with him about she said she was from the debt advisory line, hmm, again, thank you but I have enough debt to be going on with, thank you for your call.

What makes no sense is that if I needed health cover, or new windows, or a new boiler, or a car, or a therapist, or a conservatory, or debt advice, then I would initiate the search using yellow pages, the internet or by going shopping (unless I was in debt!).

How many people receiving a cold call about their energy supplier, missold insurance or whatever, would immediately think, Gosh! I never thought of that, how kind of you to call, yes, absolutely, here are my credit card details, help yourself to whatever you need.

It is incredibly annoying.

But then I think, well, it's a job, it means that someone is being paid, and well, that's a good thing, probably these days on commission only, which is a bad thing,  and then I feel slightly guilty for hanging up on them, but only slightly.

And, if they're from India, I think hmm, at least they're making Rupee!

It's the same with the unsolicited mail that comes pouring through the door.

All sorts of people who have paid for my address from someone else's data base, writing to me in envelopes that sometimes have my name, sometimes refer to me as the addressee or the occupier offering me a wide variety of goods, services and opportunities.

Most of it goes straight into the recycling bin.

The postman once asked me to be sure to tear it up so that he couldn't be accused of not delivering it, I did point out that he could tear it up himself and put it straight into the recycling rather than making the dog bark so fiercely and frightening himself (he was afraid of dogs!) but he said he couldn't.

Then every other Friday, it used to be weekly, comes the other side of this story when at some unearthly hour in the a.m. the recycling lorry pulls into our street and takes all the offending paper and the torn envelopes away to be turned into yet more offending paper and tearable envelopes, proudly bearing the logo, made from recycled paper.

Brilliant.

It's an almost perfect job creation scheme.

Post Men, Bin Men, workers at the recycling plant all kept in employment through the printing, distribution and circulation of pieces of completely useless paper.

If only I could be paid to be the key actor in this recycling drama then it would be perfect, so the dog barks, I go to the door, look at the junk mail, tear it all in half and put it straight into the bin, takes a minute each day and I hope that the people whose jobs now rely on my contribution, appreciate it.

Perhaps instead of leaving a Christmas box for the bin men and the postie in recognition of my contribution to their continuing employment,they could give me a Christmas gift?