Category Archives: Crazy World

Complementary Principles!

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I walked past a restaurant the other day (something that a large number of our obese population should try doing!) and noticed that it had a function room for hire, complete with its own bar, at competitive rates. What really grabbed my attention though was the final sentence of the advertisement which stated that the deal would include a “Complimentary DJ”. That’s nice, I thought, not only do you get a good deal on the room but you have the bonus of a polite and charming DJ!

Clearly, the person who drafted the advert meant nothing of the kind and was simply stating that the services of a DJ would be provided free of charge, as in complementary with an “e”. It’s a common enough mistake I suppose and typical of the poor levels of grammar and literacy we have come to expect in modern life.
There has been plenty of debate recently over government proposals to alter our education system in an attempt to improve standards in state schools. One suggestion was for the reintroduction of rote learning whereby children are taught (as my generation were) to learn tables and various formulas to assist in that learning. Some critics have scorned this idea but I think they are wrong.
To illustrate my point, I’ll provide a couple of examples. Firstly, the words “principal” and “principle”. The former is a person and the latter is a thing, as my old English master taught me during my first year at grammar school over 45 years ago! He taught me that the best way to remember the meanings of these particular words is the phrase “My pal is a principal” (princey – pal). It stuck with me and if I’m ever undecided I can summon it up instantly.
The second example is “stationary” and “stationery”. One means still or motionless and the other is paper or writing material, though the use of these words  often seems to cause confusion. Once more, a simple formula will solve the problem. If in doubt think of a stationary car and stationery paper, “ar” for c-ar and station-ar-y and “er” for pap-er and station-er-y.
These aids to memory are tried and tested and certainly, in my case, have withstood the passage of time. What harm can come of teaching these and similar to today’s school children? We should give it a go, as a matter of principle!

Alert to Danger?

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According to a recent survey by  the London transport authority, Transport for London, most teenagers regularly cross the road whilst using mobile phones or listening to music. In an attempt to reduce the number of casualties on the capital’s roads Transport for London have launched  a hard-hitting, graphic advertising campaign called “Stop. Think. Live”. One advertising poster shows a boy lying dead in the road with headphones still in place with the slogan “My friend heard the track. He didn’t hear the van”. It’s not just youngsters though, is it?

How often have you seen people, well past their teenage years,  talking on their phones or listening to music on their mp3 players as they walk down the street, cross the road, jog along the pavement or ride a bicycle all the while seeming oblivious to the traffic whizzing by them? As children, we were all warned of the dangers of traffic and told to take care whilst crossing the road. Children need to be told, but adults?
No matter how old you are, if your head is filled with music how can you possibly hear the sound of traffic or the warning shout of another person as danger approaches? How can you react to danger if you are not aware of its presence?
Maybe London’s road safety campaign should become national because it seems to me that many of us are just accidents waiting to happen. In a democracy we should always be free to choose how we lead our lives and free to choose the risks we wish to take. However, from time to time perhaps we need to be reminded of the dangers around us if only for our own good. Quite often in life “common” sense is anything but that.

Vanity Rules

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Bill Gates, one of the world’s wealthiest men and also one of its greatest philanthropists, recently said that capitalism is “flawed” since more money is spent on research into minor ailments than on diseases and conditions that kill millions each year.

He used the example of male baldness and said that more money is spent researching the prevention of hair loss than on finding a cure for malaria, which kills more people worldwide than any other disease on the planet. I had to stop and read that line again and maybe you did too.
According to the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery, some £1.3 billion was spent last year on research into male baldness. Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation says that just over a quarter of that (£361 million) was spent on malaria research.
Each year, malaria is responsible for the deaths of millions of men, women and children mainly in the poverty-stricken and undeveloped parts of the world. By contrast, as far as I am aware, nobody has ever died from hair loss or baldness.
That tells me two things, one that we in the West are more concerned with matters that directly affect us than things that do not, no matter how trivial. Secondly that we place personal vanity above death and suffering in the third world. Whichever way you look at it, it is a pretty sad indictment on modern society. 

Smart Phones Again

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Further to my blog on the lost art of conversation (February 1st, 2013) I thought I would share a nice illustration of my point about the worldwide obsession with mobile phones. Still on my US travels, I was in a restaurant the other day, well in fairness it was more like a cafe, when I could not but help observe the behaviour of a couple sat at a nearby table. They were  young to middle aged and both, as soon as they sat down, took out their smart phones and began pressing away as though their lives depended on it.

The attentions of the waiter seemed almost an intrusion as they quickly glanced at the menu and made their order whilst avoiding all eye contact, so focused were they on their screens. Their starter arrived and I detected a little mumbled conversation in between their hurried mouthfuls, though not for one moment did either one of them release the grip on their gateways to cyberspace.
Eventually, they were joined by three teenagers, presumably their children, who promptly (yes, you’ve guessed it!) took out their smart phones and began tapping away at that infuriating speed  that us older folk can only look upon with wonder and envy.
It was all building up to a glorious finale and when the father of the family suddenly took out another smart phone and simultaneously began operating one smart phone in each hand I felt like rising to my feet in loud applause cheering Bravo! I wish I could have taken a photograph but unfortunately, I’d left my own smart phone back at the hotel! What a dinosaur I am!

Proof of the Pudding

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I’ve often wondered why public service organisations feel the need to spend money on advertisements telling us what they do or rather what they are supposed to do when it’s pretty obvious to anybody with at least half a brain. I’m currently working in the USA where police cars display slogans describing the fantastic service they provide to the populace.

Yes, in the USA  vehicles have phrases  like “Professionalism with respect”, “Courtesy with efficiency”, “Caring for you with pride” and other such sound bites pasted on their sides just to keep everybody bang up to date. It’s all complete nonsense, of course, since all that matters at the end of the day is how well they do the job that they are paid to do. The job of the police the world over is to protect and to serve the public. Quite simple really so why waste money on adverts?
It happens in the UK too. Whether it be a recorded voice on the telephone or an advertising slogan on the side of a van we are forever being told of the efficiency of both public and private organisations, including our own police. We are told that they offer us quality and a professional service and that customer satisfaction is their number one concern when the reality is that, in many cases, nothing could be further from the truth.
Talk is cheap and whilst marketing and advertising in skilled hands can be a very impressive and potent tool it all goes to waste if the product itself fails to come up to scratch. The proof of the pudding is in the eating and no matter how eloquently the cook describes his wonderful dish it all goes to waste if it leaves a lousy taste in your mouth.

Morally Bankrupt

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Last week I read that the Royal Bank of Scotland, in spite of making further losses of £5.2 billion, still paid its clearly useless “top” executives annual bonuses amounting to £607 million.

In the same newspaper I also read that a 92 year old World War II hero, Wing Commander  Bransome Burbridge, who shot down 21 enemy aircraft in the defence of his country, is to sell his war medals to cover the cost of his care home fees. 
What is wrong with us?

What Price Medical Care?

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Earlier this week the Shadow Health Secretary, Andy Burnham, warned that 12,000 nurses will be lost to the NHS over the next two years if redundancies and lay-offs continue at the current rate. It could well be political speak of course, and politicians regularly distort the facts to suit their argument, but what if his warning is based on truth? Can our overstretched and overburdened health service cope with these losses to its front line staff?

We all know what a clumsy and ungainly beast the NHS is and how inefficiently it is run but my personal  experiences have convinced me at least that we still have doctors and nurses of the highest standard. I really don’t believe that many countries can boast a better quality of medical care than the UK but I cannot say the same for the management of the NHS.
Recent scandals involving NHS Trusts have clearly demonstrated that many hospitals are badly run with far too many inefficient and incompetent bureaucrats clogging up the system. It is surely upon those people that the Government’s axe of austerity needs to fall and not the poor nurses who seem to me to be performing heroically under the most intense pressure. We cannot afford to lose any more of them.
One last thought. It has often been reported that some top professional footballers earn as much as £200,000 per week together with endorsements. The average nurse earns around £20,000 per year. That means that some footballers earn as much in a year (£10.4 million) as 520 nurses combined. That probably tells you all you need to know about our society and its values.

More European Madness

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The workings, if you can call it that, of the European Union continue to astound. No sooner has the EU decided to abandon the immoral practice of fishing quotas, whereby millions of tons of fish are discarded each year because they are the wrong type of fish, than they commit themselves and therefore all of us taxpayers to another piece of lunacy.

It is, of course, the official policy of the EU, and all its member states including the UK, to discourage smoking and to ban it wherever possible. Indeed, the Union has spent millions of euros on advertising campaigns all over the continent describing to us in great detail the damage we cause to ourselves and those around us by smoking tobacco. That’s fine in itself and surely, only a fool would argue that smoking is good for your health.
However, it now transpires that the European Parliament Agricultural Committee (see the latest Open Europe bulletin) recently voted in favour of directly subsidising tobacco farmers, in effect encouraging them to grow tobacco! It really is almost beyond belief and  I say almost because nobody can be surprised any longer by EU policy making. At best, these policy makers are grossly  incompetent and at worst corrupt. with most probably falling somewhere between the two.
Politicians speak of reforming the EU but I suspect it’s going to take a lot of effort to reform and transform this asylum and remove the lunatics who control it. Maybe it’s too late and it’s beyond repair. If so, a referendum on our continued membership cannot come soon enough. 

The Cupboard is Bare

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Last week the Prime Minister announced that the Government plans to restrict the handing out of welfare benefits to migrants (particularly those with no connection to the UK) and to make sure that this country is no longer seen as a “soft touch”. About time too you may say, haven’t we been demanding this for years?

Of course, there will be those who feel that this is discriminatory and that the UK should extend a warm welcome, free housing, free education, free medical treatment and cash to all comers. Fortunately, these dreamers now appear to be in the minority and even the most politically correct and altruistic realise that this country is deep in the mire and that, after all, there isn’t quite enough to go round.

For nearly five years this country (along with most of the world) has been in the grip of a recession, depression more like, that is showing no sign of abating. Austerity is the buzz word these days and newspapers are full of announcements of further cuts being made to public services, whether to the NHS, education, transport or law and order.

Of course, in an ideal world, it would be nice to extend a charitable welcome to all, but this is not an ideal world. Charity begins at home and the cupboard is bare. We cannot give what we haven’t got. Our resources are stretched to breaking point and the sooner that message is delivered to the rest of the world the better for all of us. That is not discriminatory and nor is it reactionary or racist. It is the truth.

Peanuts for Monkeys

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So, the horse for beef scandal continues to grow apace as more and more questions are asked about how and where our food is sourced. Our national supermarkets, in their continuing quest for ever greater profits, have done everything they can to ensure that they dominate the market. Their avaricious buyers have long screwed suppliers into the ground and decent, hard-working farmers up and down the country have been driven to the wall because they cannot sell at the prices demanded by the supermarket giants.

Those buyers have searched home and abroad for even cheaper sources and in their eagerness and greed appear to have either ignored or failed to take into account the quality of the foods they have been buying. The news that supermarkets have been dealing with sellers even more unscrupulous than themselves and have been buying horse (and goodness knows what else) instead of beef should come as a surprise to no one.

However, they say it’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good and the dreadful publicity for the big chains has evidently resulted in a huge upturn in business for local high street butchers. Good, how satisfying it is to see the underdog prosper for a change.

Turning now to the consumer, can anybody purchasing a ready-made Lasagne meal for two for £1.50 really be surprised that the meat is dodgy? What did they expect, fillet steak? You get what you pay for and, to quote another wise saying, if you pay peanuts you get monkeys…………. Oh dear, I hope I haven’t just written the next news headline. Chimp and ale pie anybody?

In all seriousness though, I have a feeling that there are quite a few more nasty surprises in store before this sorry tale dies a death.