A difficult journey requires a good guide.
Imagine you are on tour holiday. You don't really know what is going on, where to go or even the best places to go so you hire a tour guide. At the end of the week you are ready to move on to your next destination. You know it will be a difficult journey over rough roads with many mountainous roads with sheer drops just feet away and much of it uncharted with many unknown challenges. The tour guide you hired for the last week is saying he is up to the job but you remember the time he led you into dangerous situations, he has clearly not been maintaining his transport and owes a lot of money to unsavoury characters. Would you hire him for this difficult journey?
So is Gordo the right man to steer the country through difficult economic times as he
suggests? Personally when he says again I wonder what difficult times he is thinking of as the first time. The Great Pocket Money depression of the 1960s perhaps?
Luckily in the first case you can just fire him. In the second case we are not so lucky.
Avoid Epson printers.
Almost a year ago I bought a Epsom Stylus DX5000 and a very good specification it had too. Everything I needed and at a good price. I usually buy HP printers as my main one is still a HP LaserJet 4 and it's going fine. Must be nearly 15 years now.
Today I just went to get some new cartridges and have found that I can't get replacement cartridges only Epsom branded ones. The price is about average for branded but few people hold them. It seems that the cartridges are specially made to be non functional if an attempt is made to refill them. The refill shop owner says that this model is one of a few that the manufacturers are doing this too lately. He told me a story about one brand that when the ink runs out it burns the heads so it can never be refilled.
When I'm looking for a replacement printer again I'll be checking and avoiding any super dooper printers that can't be refilled. I've never had a problem with refilled ink, it's cheaper and lasts longer. I think the filled cartridges are only three quarters filled anyway. By volume petrol is cheaper than ink and probably costs less to create.
So, when the ink runs out again I'm going to buy a new printer instead. Anyone know where I can find out which models can be refilled or not? I'm thinking it is just better to visit a refilling web site or shop and choose one of those that refills are available for. Why go for a latest technology printer that you only use basic printing and scanning from the functions available anyway?
Rip off companies. I hope their market share falls. Epsom was such a good supplier when I first started. Obviously they see this as their way to bigger profits. I hope it backfires on them.
Sometimes things are too funny for words.
Remember how Madame Tussauds had decided not to automatically make a wax model of Gordo in their exhibition because he was not elected. They obviously know the way the wind is blowing. They put up a poll to see what the public though and it seems the vote is in. No place for Gordo at Madame Tussauds. Read
here about how 84% of the public voted against Gordo.
Sometimes things are just too funny for words.
Word verification
I've just turned off the word verification. Last week I got a word that was unbelievable, it went something like this ljikmmnljp. All the letters were stuck together and , of course, I failed it and the following two as well. I've also make it so anyone can comment as well. Let's see how it goes.
Nothing for this year then?
It seems Gordo has spoken about plans for next year. Read
here.
He must be trying to make the point that he will be here next year. The only way that is happening is he isn't going for an election and he still needs to be keeping his guys down and in front of him so he doesn't get a Julius performed on him. Pity.
Why can't we have some good news this year. Gordo committing suicide, being assassinated or something. hell, I would even settle for him resigning although that would be a bit of a let down.
Desperate measures.
The Government has turned to desperate measures now. The Crewe and Nantwich by election must be really important for them. Barely a few months since the budget and a few weeks after the disastrous local elections they have announced a
bribecompensation package for all basic rate tax payers. Read
here.
Of course having no money means that they have had to borrow money to make they payment but the payments will be after the by election so it won't hurt anyone during that critical time.
The only question is will it be enough? Will be British electorate, in Crewe and Nantwich anyway, be so stupid as to fall for it? One thing to be considered is that Crewe and Nantwich is a Labour stronghold and that this
bribecompensation package will have been targeted at getting to most of the people there. Will that fact coupled with their natural tendency to vote Labour anyway make the difference?
I certainly hope not. Fingers crossed.
I wonder what plan Boris has for this?
It seems that yet another
person has been murdered in London. Bearing in mind that the first thing Boris did was
ban booze on public transport I would envisage that he will probably continue on the tried, and failed, banning things path. It just seems to be the fate of the UK to be managed by people who make great PR but crap policies.
Obviously this is a foretaste of what will happen if Cameron comes to power. Hopefully Gordo will hold out long enough for the Libertarian Party to build up enough support that they will make a difference. Sadly I just don't see the British public being ready for being able to look after themselves so they will still mainly vote for the three same nanny state parties and therefore it will be a while before our society will change.
In the meantime we should buy shares in metal detector and CCTV manufacturers and installers. Looks like those and private security are going to be the only things making money in this mickey mouse country.
What is going on here?
First of all it's Brown is getting
advice from Blair. Then it's Blair is
scared of Brown. Now it appears that Brown is not '
prickly' despite the last eleven years we have of watching the guy in action. What is going on? Labour must be desperate and is trying to make him look tougher than he is in real life. A real go getter and his own boss.
His new
image required him talking about his kids on prime time TV and from the sounds of it it was not what was agreed so it wasn't a conscious decision to give Gordo a heart.
Despite the latest
rebellion in the ranks it seems that Gordo is determined to hang on to the power as long as possible and actually intends to go for a new term.
I wouldn't mind some of the stuff he is obviously on. I don't know about you but I get the opposite view from all this media coverage. It shows Gordo for the tyrant he is and whoever is organising it should get their money back. Labour need it for their finances.
With friends like this.
Who needs enemies? It seems that Blair is giving Gordo some advice. Read
here. Personally I doubt it. Just because the Blair Witch says so does not make it so but you never know. Gordo screws up enough on his own so I doubt he needs someone else to help by undermining him. Surely by the law of averages he would get something right if Blair was helping. But advising Labour on how to win the next election. Surely the cure for cancer will be here before that.
One sure way to tell though. Check (sic) Gordo's, sorry our, cheque book. Blair doesn't do anything unless some pennies flow his way from it.
Prepare for a new class of unemployed.
If this
database takes off there will soon be another class of people who will never be able to get a job in the UK. If everyone uses it, and who wouldn't or they would think they would end up with all the bad uns because they won't be able to get a job elsewhere. Will these people get special treatment on the unemployment register and not be expected to even try for a job?
It's an Orwellian nightmare. To never be able to get a job and, let's face it, there will be many people falsely accused. Who will not know they are on this database and continually be turned down for no apparent reason. Even if you have been working for someone for a while I can see them checking up on their employees and taking preemptive action to reduce risk.
On the more +ve side, I don't see this taking off as I can't see many employers putting names onto this database. There is nothing more likely to get them sued than putting unproven allegations out into the marketplace. At the moment some employers will not even provide references in case they are sued and most will not provide a reference that is not from HR using a template pre approved by a lawyer which gives basic minimal information.
What is it that every man and his dog and it's fleas seems to have a hard on for an obtrusive database at the moment?
