current affairs, freedom of speech, history, medical, pleasures, science, thoughts

Save GMT Campaign

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For years – and I mean like 40+ years, since I was at school – there have been campaigns and continual sniping to keep the UK’s clocks one hour ahead of GMT around the year. I don’t just not get it, I fundamentally disagree with it. It was tried in the 1960s, when I was at school, and was a complete failure, So we had lighter afternoons in winter coming out of school, but we also had darker mornings and days when it didn’t get properly daylight until 10AM. As someone who suffers (albeit marginally) from SAD I need that early morning light to get me going and reset my body clock.

Jilly over at jillysheep has suggested in a post today that we should preserve GMT all year round. And I have to say I agree. I don’t see the point of continually changing the clocks with the seasons. Every time we move the clocks an hour (in whichever direction) it throws everyone’s body clocks; it isn’t just me who notices it; I hear many people commenting that their body clock is out of kilter with the our artificial time.

Now I can understand why the government thought it a good idea to put the clocks forward in summer during times of war (which if I recall correctly was a significant part of the rationale for its use; tho’ not the original reason for the idea). But I do not see the least necessity for it today. What does summer time give us? Longer and lighter evenings; nothing more. And while I love long summer evenings as much as anyone, in these days of flexible working we could achieve the same effect just as easily by adjusting our working hours if we need to. (Already some of us frequently have to start early or finish late because we are dealing with colleagues or clients on the continent or in the Americas.)

I wonder if anyone has ever worked out the (notional) cost of changing the clocks twice a year on business? I would think it is rather large. And certainly not something worth paying to get longer light evenings when there are other cost-free options available.

There’s the usual good article about Daylight Saving Time over on Wikipedia. What is interesting, that I didn’t know, is that a large swathe of the world has used summer time and has now abandoned it. Basically it is only the “western industrialised nations” (and some of South America) which use summer time. Large chunks of the globe have either given it up or never used DST in the first place.

Anyway … we really should keep GMT alive. It is, after all, a cornerstone of our heritage. Universal time was “discovered” in England, yes at Greenwich, which is why the Meridian is there! Universal time has been a great thing: the world equivalent of “railway time”. But let each country keep its own time zone. And let us keep and celebrate the heritage which is ours and is GMT!

Now who feels like starting a campaign to preserve GMT? Hands off our time zone! 🙂

current affairs, environment, pleasures

Heathrow Luggage Mountain

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Absolutely unbelievable!

According to this BBC News item there are now at least 15,000 (and maybe 20,000) pieces of luggage now stranded at Heathrow Airport’s brand spanking new Terminal 5.

And for a third day BA have cancelled around 20% of their flights out of Heathrow with many more apparently leaving without any luggage loaded.

What an unbelievable shambles.

When BA and BAA file for bankruptcy I wonder if the government will have the gall to pay off their shareholders? They’d just better not even think about it!

medical, memes, personal, photography, science, thoughts

Pondering (Thirteen Things) in the Rain


Pondering in the Rain, originally uploaded by kcm76.

This week’s self-portrait: 52 Weeks 5/52, 2008 week 13.

As I took this standing outside the doctor’s this morning I thought we might have 13 medical things to go with it (mainly for the Flickr “Thirteen Things” group …

  1. I’ve never yet broken a bone in my body.
  2. I’ve had all the usual childhood illnesses except mumps.
  3. I’m short sighted and have worn glasses since my mid-teens.
  4. I have type 2 diabetes.
  5. I had my appendix out when I was 28.
  6. I had glandular fever when I was 32, and had 3 months of a nice hot summer off work.
  7. I suffer from hayfever; and with me the allergy really is to some species of grass pollen.
  8. I have obstructive sleep apnoea; this means I have to wear a mask at night with gentle air pressure pumped into it to keep my airway from collapsing.
  9. I was born with a deformed nail on my right index finger; everyone who noticed it assumed that I had damaged it in an accident. I finally had the nail permanently removed after I did rip it off by accident.
  10. When I was a kid of 6 or 7 I would have a week off school every term with a high fever (nothing else, just the fever). No-one knew why, but our old family doctor eventually suggested my parents take me off sugar; so no sweets for years, but no fever either. I still don’t know why it worked or what the underlying cause was.
  11. I’ve lost count of the number of crowns I have; it’s at least six. But none caused by an accident; all due to teeth falling apart.
  12. I’ve had a cartilage operation on both knees (at different times) and my knees still give me pain. But then apparently I also have the beginnings of arthritis in my knees; not surprising as my father had severely arthritic knees.
  13. I suffer from depression; Churchill’s “black dog”. It’s worse in winter as I am slightly afflicted with SAD as well.
current affairs, environment, freedom of speech, pleasures

Yo, Ho, Ho and a Bottle of Duty Free

So after less than one day Heathrow’s sparkling new Terminal 5 has ground to a halt, despite all the much trumpeted testing which was done on the systems using thousands of volunteer members of the public. BAA and the staff appear to be blaming a crap luggage conveyor system. BA are blaming problems with “staff familiarisation”. That’s right; let’s blame the staff when our shiny new technology doesn’t work. Talk about appalling management; I was always taught that the first thing you do is defend your staff publicly (whatever you may have to do behind closed doors) – but that clearly isn’t good enough for BA.

Oh and all this after BAA has been forced to suspend it’s plan to fingerprint every passenger using T5 because the Office of the Information Commissioner says it’s illegal. And why were they going to thus abuse our civil liberties? Because they have been stupid enough to build T5 such that international and domestic passengers (aka. terrorists) can mingle after security checks and could swap boarding passes!

I wonder why I won’t be flying BA any more?

Full BBC News report.

current affairs

Constitutional Renewal Bill

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Simon Carr in today’s Independent isn’t impressed. “Bilge” and “fudge” are about the politest things he has to say about Jack Straw’s proposed Constitutional Renewal Bill. See the full article: The Sketch: The PM’s constitutional renewal Bill is just PR and weep.

current affairs, thoughts

Regulation of (Financial) Markets

Stability in financial markets is unattainable; anyone who believes they can make it otherwise is pissing into the wind. Sadly many governments, banks and indeed market makers are included in this afflicted group. There’s a good article with the title “More regulation will not prevent next crisis” by John Kay in Financial Times of 25/03/2008. The key passage is:

… in financial services, the demand today is for more regulation. That call should be resisted. The state cannot ensure the stability of the financial system and a serious attempt to do so would involve intervention on an unacceptable scale. But to acknowledge responsibility for financial stability is to assume a costly liability for failure to achieve it. That is what has happened.

Since financial stability is unattainable, the more important objective is to insulate the real economy from the consequences of financial instability. Government should … ensure that the payment system for households and businesses continues to function. There should be the same powers to take control of essential services in the event of corporate failure that exist for other public utilities …

We cannot prevent booms and busts in credit markets, but today’s regulation of risk and capital – which is more reflective of what has occurred than of what may occur – does more to aggravate these cycles than to prevent them. Regulation in a market economy is targeted at specific market failures and should not be a charter for the general scrutiny of business strategies of private business. Banking should be
no exception.

How true. Not that politicians have a hope of understanding this. And not that bankers would want them to understand it.

[Hat tip to Wat Tyler at Burning Our Money.]

natural history, pleasures

Heron …

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Heron … bastard … just been at my pond … thrown one large goldfish on the lawn … fish still alive and replaced in pond … might survive … rest OK as far as I can see … heron returned after 15 minutes … seen off by locals crows … I like crows … I also like herons and fish … but not together!

arts, books, personal

Books Do Furnish a Room

I’ve just come across Terence Jagger’s weblog Books Do Furnish a Room about books, trees and gardens, wildlife, ideas. As those of your who know me at well will know Books Do Furnish a Room is the title of volume 10 of Anthony Powell’s 12-volume sequence A Dance to the Music of Time. And indeed Jagger does occasionally make reference to Powell, so his weblog is a “must read” for me. The first Powell-related items I spotted are Borage, Writer with the X Factor and Uncommon Readers. This weblog is well worth a look for those interested in books.

beliefs, medical, photography, pleasures, ramblings, science, thoughts

It's Easter

It’s Easter Day. And I’ve spent almost the whole day doing literary society work – well it is the end of our financial year coming up and membership renewal time, so lots of mailing to do.

Just as well I have plenty to do as I don’t like Easter; I think I never have; I always enjoy Christmas but not Easter. And no, it’s not because of my atheism and general lack of belief in anything – I enjoy a long bank holiday weekend as much as anyone. It’s just that I always feel Easter is a dismal time; I don’t know why. Which is weird as I am (marginally at least) affected by SAD and about now start to look forward to and appreciate the lengthening days. Maybe this year feels worse than most as Easter is so early, and it’s grey, wet, cold, and snowing on and off. I’m ready for a 3 month holiday in the sun: sun, sea, sand, warmth, wine, good food. I wish!

Now where did I put that lottery ticket?