I am pro-Euro. I think it would be a good thing for the UK to use the single currency and that’s why I applaud the “blonde babes and cross-dressing comedians” who today protested in The Gap about the differences in pricing between European Countries. Let’s see UK prices more in-line with those of our neighbours across the channel. Go Eddie! [Yahoo]
2003: Britain’s Net Pioneers
This morning, I get up and watch F1. This at least relaxes me and, although I am not a Michael Schumacher fan, I do enjoy the fact he’s made history today. Then I go for the first of my training runs. My body (in particular my legs – from the knees down) decide that exercise is evil and I hobble back to the house after the required time.
At this point in the day I am in pain but nonetheless head off to Wimbledon for a picnic and then to see Elkie Brooks in (open-air) concert. She walked on stage and looking bored, giving a lacklustre performance of Fool If You Think It’s Over. But then she warmed up and was fantastic; I never knew she sang the Blues. So, despite my sore legs and the cramped seating, a great night was head by all (even the picnic food was great 😉
2002: Try the M11
Apparently we need £40 million to cope with our rising fridge problem. £40 million! It amazes me how much we need to spend to recycle. Wow. And I can’t get the council to deliver my recycling bags. [recycling link]
2004: The Madness Of Business Travel
2002: How far is 10K in Miles?
After last night’s little rant on the state of the London Underground system, I heard about this morning’s nonsense from the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) to start charging commuters more to sit on over-crowded, dirty, late-running trains. I guess the plan reasons that charging higher fares means fewer people will travel by train. Surely, this proves that an integrated transport policy for London’s workers remains a non-existent dream. Ken Livingston wants to charge people for driving into central London. The SRA wants to charge more for travelling on trains. How are people expected to get into work? The answer is they will still drive and take the train and it will cost them more – status quo remains. It seems to me that nobody is prepared to do what it takes to sort transport in the South East out. And that still stinks.
So then, I got to thinking about John Prescott’s [John Prescott as Boss of Bosses?] little plan to build more affordable housing in the South East of England (to ease the chronic housing shortage, apparently). Affordable housing implies that this is aimed at people on a lower wage (am I taking a big leap here?). How, exactly, are these people going to get to work in London if train prices rise and roads get tolls? Again, it appears inconsistent and badly thought out. Why not take some of these £4 billion and encourage businesses to move out of the South East to areas where there are too many houses or where there is less congestion. If we’re not careful, the UK will topple over as the South East of Britain sinks into The Channel under the weight of all the people migrating from other parts of the country.
No other posts on this day.
The great struggle to and from work in London is over as another strike by London Underground staff finishes and the tube returns to its normal, over-crowded, hot, sticky self. I don’t think there can be a person in this City who does not believe that the Underground is under funded and appears, at times, not too far from breaking point. Summer brings its own special brand of problems for London’s sub-terrain commuters: hot, sweaty and stuck in tunnels on the way to the office does not make for a contented work force. When will Tony Blair, Ken Livingston and Bob Crow stop using the Underground as a great big political football and start doing something to ease the plight of those who try and use London’s public transport on a regular basis? I, along with most people who have chosen to live, work or visit London, am fed up with the self-serving posturing of the politicians and union leaders. I can’t say if I think the strike was wrong or not but I do know that the very fact that non of the parties involved are currently at a negotiating table resolving all issues and developing long-term strategies for coping with increasing commuter volumes stinks worse than the armpits of that harassed member of the public I will be squashed against tomorrow morning. Please somebody, for the sake of those of us who voted for you and pay for you, sort out the mess. [current tube status]
2005: Fans Vote On Qualifying Rules
2003: 40 Days and 40 Nights
2003: Consumers Around Your Product
2003: No More Netscape
2002: 50 things
2002: I say “medieval” – You say “medireview”
Overyourhead is London-based blogger bloke. He has this list [official site] from Birmingham’s Thinktank. Thinktank is the city’s new museum of science and technology and looks fantastic. I will certainly pay it a visit on my next voyage to Birmingham. The list of 50 things that have most affected our lives in the last 50 years is one of those fascinating lists that I will read and re-read for a long time to come. I can’t decide which affected me most but there was a woman on the radio last night citing 1955 – the invention of the non-stick saucepan – as being fairly important to modern life. As I have never found a non-stick pan that is exactly that, then I would have to disagree.
2005: Fans Vote On Qualifying Rules
2003: 40 Days and 40 Nights
2003: Consumers Around Your Product
2003: No More Netscape
2002: London Life Underground
2002: I say “medieval” – You say “medireview”
Finally Gordon Brown is spending some money on public services in the UK. Today the Government announced £511 billion worth of spending. They are focussing on education with some of that but also targeting poor performing public services whose managers may be removed and replaced if they do not meet performance goals. Why do I think we will have more overseers and less doers in the future? I hope not. It’s about time this government fulfilled some of its promises that many people believed were made back in 1997 when they first came to power. I want to the government build a better society and, at the heart of that, better public service provision is required. [Yahoo]
2006: Changing The Face of Pop
2005: Trafalgar Square Vigil
2003: A 4 Minute Warning
I have been reading .Net magazine since Issue 1. They are now 100 issues old. Happy Birthday .Net! Anyway, this month they have published 100 Sites That Changed The Web. Included in that list, was HotWired – which I haven’t looked at for ages. So, off I went and came across the story of Karin Spitzer, a young fashion entrepreneur who shows it’s still possible to have a great idea and make money on the web [She Built a Business in ‘No Time’ ]. Of her product line, this one is my favourite.
HotWired also points me to the BBC News web site and this delightful gem of corporate embarrassment for Fox: Homer Simpson, cartoon character and a role model for millions, has been caught telling consumers to hack their DVD players [BBC].
497 Billionaires in the World’s Billionnaires list 13 are from the UK. And I am not there! Still it doesn’t contain the same UK people that The Times Rich List 2002 does. I wonder how they compile these lists?
Well, I decided to try and find a list of the biggest selling singles of all time. That led me to EveryHit.com which must be the site I have been searching for all my life!
Finally, I’ve found the Top 30 Music Millionaires list [here] which is probably the most interesting list.
I wish I’d been at the Formula One Grand Prix on Sunday. The year I went, the atmosphere at Silverstone was fantastic (it’s all smell and noise) and, if Bernie Ecclestone gets his way we might not have too many more of them ;-( Thank goodness for Jackie Stewart’s sensible comments. I’m going to try and get there next year, assuming any of the teams are still around. Even worse, I have to do it before 2050 because, according to The Observer, that’s when the world will expire.