Beasley's Place

My ISP – Broadband Speed Monthly Figures

2012-01-04T10:36:00.003Z

A bit behind again, but here are my BT Infinity broadband performance figures for Oct., Nov., and Dec. Seems that there were a few glitches along the way, but all seems to have settled down again. Today the figure is 29MB download and 8.5 MB upload.

Technorati Tags: BT-ISP,Infinity,Broadband Speed,Internet

Wokingham Changes it’s Recycling Policy

2012-01-03T19:14:00.001Z

I wrote about this back in June 2011 and since then Wokingham Council have updated their information about the changes which will come in to effect on the 1st April 2012.

Here are the main changes which of course means that we will get less for the same amount of money we pay through Council Tax.

Here are some FAQ’s (Frequently Asked Questions) that hopefully will cover all of the other points that may arise.

Technorati Tags: Recycling,Green Space,Environment

2011-12-12T00:24:00.001Z

Looks like the UK Morris Dancing community is not one to cross. It seems that they will not be part of next years Olympics Opening Ceremonies.

According to the Daily Mail we could well see ‘Flash-Mobs’ of Morris dancers invading many of the Olympic venues. I wonder how security will cope with that. Are we all going to be asked to declare what were wearing under our outer clothes?

I am still waiting to be told that we can’t take our own Camera’s or Mobiles into the venues due to the license rights being ‘sold’ to yet another over wealthy sponsor!!

I’ve liked one or two of the films that Danny Boyle has made, so as the ‘Artistic Director’ of the opening and closing show and with an extra £40 million he’s now been given on top of the original £40 million, it had better be one hell of an event. No Train Spotting I hope!

Technorati Tags: Olympics,2012,Opening Ceremony

Driving Test in English? Perhaps not!

2011-10-24T06:37:00.001+01:00

I came across an interesting article in last Saturdays Telegraph, apparently approx. 90,000 people a year have taken their UK driving test in a foreign language!
Amazing to think that all those that passed, could be driving on our roads unable to read any of the UK English Language signs!! I find that truly amazing and it may account for the drop in the standards of driving over recent years.

Technorati Tags: UK,Driving,Test

My ISP – Broadband Speed Monthly Figures

2011-10-18T17:50:00.001+01:00

It seems that I forgot to post some of my recent ISP broadband performance figures.

Probably because it seems to have really settled down to a constant figure and the fact that I was away for some holidays.

Figures are for BT Infinity, top of left hand scale is 35 MB’s.

So here are the figures for July, August & September.

Technorati Tags: BT-ISP,Infinity,Broadband Speed,Internet

Politicians are such fools!

2011-10-18T17:09:00.001+01:00

Well it seems that Liam Fox did break the Ministerial code. Now there is a surprise!

Honestly, why did it take yet another report to state the obvious – that Liam Fox had lost all grip on reality. I remember asking my boss once if could take my ‘Best’ man on a business trip with me to Australia, surprisingly he said no!

The expenses scandal, Jobs for the Boys, privately (USA) funded advisors and now a whitewash of a report without us really finding out who knew what and when etc. etc.

We must not of course forget Oliver Letwin’s disposal of documents in a rather novel way, what was he thinking? However, I suppose we must thank him for not littering the park with his correspondence!

Politicians are such fools!

Technorati Tags: Politicians,Government,Coverups

University challenged over Sibley Hall plans

2011-09-02T10:11:00.000+01:00

It looks like the battle to replace Sibley Hall with a 99 house development is moving to the next stage as Reading University announces it intends to appeal despite Wokingham Borough Council not making any decision within the statuary period.

Full story here.

The England Riots

2011-08-12T14:36:00.000+01:00

It will be a long time before we can truly say what caused the main riots in London and other parts of England. I watched yesterdays debate in the House of Commons and was quite surprised by how many of the MP's still seemed to not quite understand that they have created some of the causes.

Yes I am sure it has something to do with EMA being cut, yes I am sure that Social Deprivation has something to do with it, yes I am sure that lack of jobs has something to do with it.Why is it that politicians ways seem to think that the fault lies somewhere else.

It will be interesting to see what any enquiry picks up on and determines any root causes for the disturbances. Has the country moved on from the riots of 25 years ago, in some cases it would seem not.

Trouble in our own back yard?

2011-08-09T16:10:00.001+01:00

Thames Valley Police has confirmed that there were small outbreaks of disorder in parts of Reading and Oxford overnight (Monday 8th August).

Following a meeting between the police, council and other agencies, precautionary advice has been issued to businesses in the area.

The key message is to carry on as normal and not to cause widespread public concern. There has been no intelligence received to indicate any specific threat.

Contact Reading UK CIC (www.livingreading.co.uk) at Davidson House, Forbury Square, Reading. RG1 3EU on Tel - 0118 900 1624 if you have any concerns.

Technorati Tags: London,Riots,Poilce,Security

UK Riots – My letter to my MP, John Redwood

2011-08-09T12:16:00.001+01:00

I wrote to you last night about my total shock at the events unfolding on some of our UK streets.

They say that 'we reap what we sow' and clearly there are many issues to be addressed around Jobs (or lack of them), Social deprivation, Policing policies etc. But, however disenfranchise people feel about 'their lot', there just does not seem to be any real justification for these sort of actions & appalling sights on our streets.

People here are not dying of hunger as in East Africa, people here are not being killed by authoritarian regimes as in Libya or Syria, people here are not being blown up as in Afghanistan/ Iraq.

I know that many people these days seem to demand 'Respect', but how much 'respect' did any of these mindless thugs show for other peoples properties?

I don't have a single answer to all the issues, but one major thing that struck me while watching the images over the last three days was how the police seemed so unprepared to deal with this. The time for Plastic Shields and Truncheons seems to have passed and more force was clearly called for to at least initially to clear the streets. Of course, the Police are damned if they do and damned in they don't. But these events seem to me at least, to be exceptional circumstances.

I don't blame the police for any of this, sadly they can only do what they can do with the tools that they have and the management that they have ended up with. But as David Green a Director of Civitas said in a Telegraph article yesterday...

"The present generation of police leaders gained promotion by mastering the art of talking about “issues around” racism or bearing down on hate crime “going forward”. Learning the management buzz words of the last few years has not produced leaders able to command men in a riot. The injuries sustained by officers show that we have plenty of men and women prepared to be brave when needed, but they are lions led by donkeys who listened a bit too intently to the sociology lectures about “hate crime” at Bramshill police college."

It's right and proper that Parliament has been recalled and I would ask you as my MP to demand urgent immediate action to address these shocking events as well as a serious review of the underlying issues that may have contributed to them. You should also carry over my disgust at the lack of leadership shown by all at the top level in this current government. They have failed in my eyes to show any kind of feeling of understanding about how to deal with this and have left the UK looking an embarrassed mess.

Technorati Tags: London,Riots,Social History,Police

eBook Readers – A Buyer’s Guide Update

2011-07-18T14:27:00.001+01:00

Know When to Buy an eReader and When to Wait – I cam across this good review of eBook Readers or eReaders as I tend to call them and as quite few people I know are looking to upgrade from last years Kindle presents, I thought I would post this.

The Prices are in US dollars, but the technical aspects and links for other reviews of the reviews is still valid.

Technorati Tags: eBooks,eReaders,Kindle,Publishing

Is my memory transferring to the cloud?

2011-07-18T14:18:00.001+01:00

Are we transforming our memory recall of events & information to the Cloud? This interesting BBC article about a research project at Columbia University seems to be indicating this.

We appear to be better able to remember where we bookmarked/tagged/ stored that important information nugget rather try and remember the information itself. Perhaps it’s another symptom of the information overload that live under in the ‘modern’ world!

Now where did I put that note I just wrote out!

Technorati Tags: Information,Tagging,Memory,Cloud

What a weekend of news – takes your breath away!

2011-07-18T14:03:00.001+01:00

Some interesting articles over the weekend about the resultant News of the World phone hacking scandal.

Phone hacking: A scandal that has diminished Britain – I wonder what the rest of the world thinks about this. I’ve asked some overseas friend to send some comments will post when I have them.

The threat to our press – what the Guardian has to say about the current events!

News of the World phone hacking scandal: live – Live feed of events as covered by the Telegraph. Keep this one open in your Internet browser for news as it happens, John Yates next to resign?

Newsagents hit by News of the World closure – a tangential effect of the scandal.

If Miliband is such a hero, why won't he tackle the REAL threat to our way of life - the BBC? - Melanie Phillips as usual odd view on Ed Miliband and the BBC aspects of the scandal.

Technorati Tags: notw,hacking,metpolice,newsint,politics

Royal Visit to Visit Bletchley Park

2011-07-15T09:04:00.001+01:00

The country is at last to recognise the important work that the Bletchley Park coder breakers did during WW II and their successful cracking of the secret Nazi Enigma codes.

Although kept secret for over 30 years after the end of the war, it’s good that some of the original staff will still be on hand to see a special Memorial unveiled by the Queen.

What a great shame that so much expertise and technology remained hidden for so long as I am sure if we had had just a little more imagination and planning perhaps the early computing technology used by Bletchley Park may have provided the UK with a better post war recovery path.

Technorati Tags: enigma,colossus,bletchley park WWII

Changes to Beasley’s Place Template

2011-07-10T17:41:00.001+01:00

I’m working through some Blogger Template changes at the moment, as have just realised that Google have updated the Template GUI and some other stuff, so there will be some style/format ‘funnies’ appearing on the blog for a short while.

To coin a phrase, “Bear with, bear with!”

Technorati Tags: Blogger,Template,Changes

On the Buses - A National Treasure

2011-07-10T11:02:00.001+01:00

Read a great piece in last Saturdays Telegraph weekend travel section by Andrew Gilligan about using the UK’s bus network for some very inexpensive touring trips of the South West of England.

There is something so English about this.

Technorati Tags: Buses,Travel,Budget,Sightseeing

David Cameron ‘is’ not out of the sewer yet!

2011-07-10T01:09:00.001+01:00

So says another in-depth scathing commentary article by the Telegraphs Peter Oborne.

David Cameron has truly dug a very deep hole through his connections to Murdoch’s New International cobweb that will take him and many others in the Conservative party a long time to get out of.

It now appears, according to this latest article that it was George Osborne who first suggested to Cameron that he should take on Coulson as his press communications head, thereby entrenching a Murdoch insider deep into the then Government opposition and subsequently the current UK government.

It also appears that Tony Blair seems to have also had a very very close relationship with News International over his years in power. Ed Miliband albeit for this recent phone hacking saga, may well have ended up treading the same path, I bet he will now be counting his lucky stars.

Someone as least seems to have have seen the light and is now prepared to stand up to Murdoch’s grip on our political system. I hope the debate that Ed Miliband has called for happens and we can get control of the situation.

Will Cameron really see the issues in front of his own eyes? Only time will tell.

Technorati Tags: Phone Hacking,Murdoch,News International,UK Politics,Corruption

My ISP – Broadband Speed Monthly Figures

2011-07-09T18:50:00.001+01:00

As the newly released OFCOM UK interactive research map shows, there is still a massive disparagey between the Broadband Speed have’s and have not’s in the UK.

Ofcom hopes that the map will help the UK government see where investment is needed to being the UK up to speed of other countries and hopefully put the UK out in front of many others.

The map in fully interactive and provides a wide variety of information based on the various regions in the UK. It’s worth a look and a play with to see what the speeds & Broadband take up is in your own area.

From my own point of view, I continue to receive good broadband speeds through my BT Infinity line, although I can see a slight tail off in the download speed, but at an average of 30MB, I cannot complain at all. It may just be that that more users are being added to my fibre spur and the bandwidth is being taken up with TV/Movie viewing, gaming etc.

In the end, is this not what high-speed broadband is about and the fact that I can still receive these types of speed over a twisted copper pair of wires is amazing!

Technorati Tags: BT-ISP,Infinity,Broadband Speed,Internet,OFCOM

FM radio switchover offers rural broadband hope!

2011-07-09T17:57:00.001+01:00

The Daily Telegraph published this story yesterday, again stirring up the controversy about FM Radio frequencies being turned off in favour of DAB Radio.

I’ve posted a number of times about this and I am still convinced that this would be a serious backwards step in the delivery of quality of broadcast radio in the UK.

It shows again how a supposed industry regulator (OFCOM) is completely out of touch with the ordinary public and seems to be indulging in an over enthusiastic pandering exercise with big business.

If this change is goes ahead, every radio in the UK will have to be replaced, including car radios, at the same time opening the floodgates to massive imports of non-UK produced DAB radios!

Why does officialdom want to interfere with our lives some much? OFCOM has yet to officially divulge a date for the switch off, which may be a late as 2020.

However, unless there is a concerted protest effort by the public it looks like we will end up with a rubbish quality radio broadcast system at sometime in the near future. Write to your MP about it here.

Technorati Tags: FM Switchover,DAB,Broadcasting,OFCOM

How politicians lose their way!

2011-07-09T15:52:00.001+01:00

Read a great article in the Thursday Telegraph by Peter Oborne about the fallibility of David Cameron and his obviously bad judgements in hiring Andy Coulson & his cosying up too close the Murdoch ‘clan’!

Oborne also points out that these issues have also happened to past political leaders, which makes Cameron's errors of judgment even more surprising; clearly he did not major in political history during his education!

If he is not careful, the effects of the NOTW debacle will engulf him (and probably Clegg) and we’ll end up with see yet another hamstrung UK government, just when the country needs more decisive actions to rectify the current economic situation.

Technorati Tags: Chipping Norton Set,NOTW,Hacking,Politics,News International

Beko Fridge-Freezer Update

2011-07-09T14:46:00.001+01:00

It appears that Beko fridge-freezer fires began four years ago!

As I mentioned in my previous post on this issue, it seems incredible to me that we are only now learning about this issue.

What happened to Consumer Protection? What happened to Trading Standards? What happened to the government looking after it’s population?

It seems to me that so many organisations appear to be completely disconnected from the real world that we have live in. Somewhere, someone knew about this & I expect that they either could not be bothered to tell the public or perhaps they were prevented from doing so by business rules!

Technorati Tags: Beko,Fauilts,Product Recalls,Trading Standards

MySociety.org – Website Listing

2011-07-05T16:06:00.001+01:00

After publishing the previous post I decided to create another listing all of the MySociety websites in a clearer format.

Write To Them - Enter a postcode and it'll tell you who all your local representatives are, and a bit about who you should contact for which reasons.
They Work For You - tells you everything you could want to know about what your Member of Parliament gets up to in Westminster. Uncover their voting record, read or watch their speeches on video, subscribe to email alerts when they speak.
What Do They Know - This definitive Freedom of Information site will help you make Freedom of Information requests and read all about what other people have been asking, and what replies they've been getting.
Fix My Street - Enter your postcode, stick a pin in the map, type in your problem and zoom!… off it goes to the council. It’s so simple that over 100,000 problems have been reported through it so far.
Petition Your Council - helps you find out whether your local council has an online petitions site.

There are plenty more useful website to visit, check out there Project Pages and have a good look around. You’ll find it very informative.

Technorati Tags: mysociety,community,politics,society,government,uk

MySociety.org Updates

2011-07-05T15:45:00.001+01:00

I’ve been displaying one of their website access ‘widgets’ on this blog for some time which allows you to find out who are and write to your local MP/Councillors.

MySociety.org, the creator of this ‘widget’ has produced some more websites that allow people to find out if there are any ‘Local Petitions’ being run by their local council or to create one.

MySociety.org have also made some updates to ‘Fix My Street’ and a created new site for ‘Fix My Transport’ – soon to launched.

These are really useful tools if you are interested in making your points of view known, I have used some of them a number of times and they really do work.

You can see all of the work that MySociety.org does at their main web site here.

Technorati Tags: Public Access,UK Government,Local Government,Accountability

Thames Link – Bombardier Contract

2011-07-05T09:45:00.001+01:00

Something smells funny about this story. For a political Party that bangs on about not wanting to be controlled by European rules and regulations, it seems funny that the current Conservative led coalition are now saying that we must be controlled by them when we are awarding major UK investment contracts to non-UK companies!

The head of the Train division in Derby made an interesting comment this morning stating that since the DTI (Department of Trade & Industry) has taken over responsibility for procurement of these types of contracts, Bombardier have not won any of the last three contracts, with one being cancelled and the other two going overseas.

Is there someone in the DTI sabotaging the process in favour of non-UK firms?

Although Siemens, the German based company that won the contract says that some 2,000 peripheral jobs will be created in the UK, the actual building of the trains will happen in Germany.

What does this say about UK successive governments and their inabilities to protect and retain manufacturing jobs here in the UK. It appears that they cannot be bothered to ensure that such major contracts stay in this country. Surely at this time of recession, every job is important to the UK.

I cannot imagine for one moment that Germany or France would let similar internal contracts go outside of their own countries.

This is a terrible mistake.

Technorati Tags: Trains,Government Cuts,Contracts,Fishy

Beko – Fridge Freezer Fires

2011-07-05T09:20:00.001+01:00

After a report on the BBC Breakfast Show today about a series of domestic house fires in London, links have now been made to faulty defrost controls in a number of Beko Fridge-Freezer products.

What amazes me is that that the London Fire Brigade bosses alerted Beko to the danger in June 2010 and the company apparently had issued a recall notices to all of its customers. As a Beko customer I have not had one. Have you?

The BBC Breakfast Programme issued a telephone number (0800 009 4837) this morning, which of course has been inundated with calls. They also directed readers of the news story on the BBC website to the Beko website, which crashed almost immediately.

Perhaps as part of the BBC’s commitment to UK Public Services Broadcasting they could also have pointed concerned users to this page of the Trading Standards Institute website where full details have been for sometime about the Beko Product Recall.

Maybe the BBC Watch Dog website might like to have this link on their page, after all are they not supposed to be champions of the consumer?

Technorati Tags: Consummers,Beko,Fires,London,White Good,Safety

Wokingham Council To Revise Recycling Services

2011-06-30T08:07:00.001+01:00

Whilst looking on the Wokingham Borough Councils website today to see if the Public Sector strikes were going to affect rubbish collection in my area, I came across some information about changes to local rubbish collections/ recycling that will be introduced from April 2012. I don't remember seeing any leaflets about this or reports in local newspapers, but there are some interesting changes.

Basically these will be:-

Items for recycling (using existing black boxes) will now be collected on a weekly basis.
Other household rubbish will continue to be collected weekly, but each householder will now be issued with 80 free rubbish bags/sacks. These will be specifically marked; use any other bags/containers and they will not be collected. Wheelie bin are not to introduced.
Free collection of Green Waste (Green Bags) will now end as of the end of March 2012. However, if you still want a home collection of Green Waste, you will now have to to pay for this service. You will then be given a brown wheelie bin at an annual charge of £60 per annum or you can buy a number of 75 litre compostable sacks for a price commensurate with the annual charge. Both the wheelie bin/ compostable sacks will be collected every fortnight. However, we are all being encouraged to now take our own Green Waste to local recycling sites.

It’s good to see that Wokingham is not going the way of other councils and cutting back on frequency of collections, but I suspect that the cutting of free Green Waste will cause some issues for many residents plus some might feel that the extra charge is on top of what we already pay in local council taxes.

More information about the changes and a list of questions & answers (FAQ’s) is available from the Wokingham Borough Council website.

Happy recycling.

Technorati Tags: Recycling,Rubbish,Waste,Collections. Council Services,Wokingham

Justice gone wrong?

2011-06-27T07:32:00.001+01:00

With the furore about the terrible treatment of the Dowler family during the recent trial of Levi Bellfield still in the headlines. I wonder why the UK still seems to be having such an problem in delivering fair justice to victims, the ‘system’ seems to be on its head at the moment and favours the criminals.

Leaving alone the Dowler case alone, here are two more recent examples of justice favouring the criminal...

Don't Film the Yobs, you'll be breaching 'their' privacy! - Yes that is what a community campaigner was told when she wanted to film yobs who were causing issues on her estate. However, it appears that the yobs have higher rights than the ordinary citizen! More back ground here.

Shopkeeper takes teenage thief home to parent and now faces prosecution for 'false imprisonment'! – It seems that a good intention of taking a thief home to face their parents after stealing some grapes turned into a nightmare for the shopkeeper who was later arrested by the police for holding the thief against their will. Perhaps the shopkeeper should have called the police, but then the thief (a 15 year old) might not have got off so lightly.

More background here.

I am sure that there are many more cases like this, I’ll have to keep an eye out and post some more.

Technorati Tags: Justice,In-justice,Victims,Legal System

My ISP – Broadband Speed Monthly Figures

2011-06-23T08:39:00.001+01:00

Still getting some good figures on the BT Infinity broadband line.

Did have a few blips on the upload but overall consistent download speed continues.

BT still offering some good deals for upgrading (no I don’t work for BT) that would be worth looking at.

Watching internet content such as BBC iPlayer is so much better.

Technorati Tags: BT-ISP,Infinity,Broadband Speed,Internet

The Radio Ballads: Ballad of the Miners' Strike

2011-06-22T23:37:00.001+01:00

Sometimes things happen in the past and they just get forgotten. However sometimes, events happen that change a nation and a way of live and should never be forgotten for the impact that after 25 years, is still very much felt today.

As part of today's BBC Radio 2 ‘2Day’ special programming, the BBC repeated (albeit at 5 past midnight – was that an conscious decision?) the Ballad of the Miners Strike.

It had been originally broadcast sometime ago, but was referred to a number of time on today's Jeremy Vine/Dermot O’leary ‘Top of the Docs’ program about radio documentaries as being available to listen to again on the BBC iPlayer.

As I had not been able to stay up till 1am t0 listen to the whole program (am I now getting too old for ‘all-nighters’?) I also wanted to listen to it again. Imagine my annoyance when I found that the program was blanked out from being accessed on the BBC iPlayer website – interesting that it was the only program not available!

Anyway, after five tweets (two to the live chat of the ‘2Day’ program), two emails and four phone calls around the BBC Phone Labyrinth, the BBC ‘unblocked’ the link to the program and it is now available for listening again.

The Ballad of the Miners' Strike is a musical exploration of how lives were forever changed by the year-long miners' strike. With specially commissioned songs and interviews with people involved in the strike both then and reflectively now. However, a friend intimately involved in the strike at the time, says that the BBC did not collect as many views for the original documentary as they perhaps could have.

It’s a powerful piece of Radio broadcasting and another demonstration that despite the ever increasing ‘Digital’ world that we live in, Radio still remains an amazing medium for conveying passion and the importance of verbal recollection.

Listen to it, understand what happened and reflect to some degree on a slice of UK life that has forever disappeared.

The Radio Ballads: Ballad of the Miners' Strike

Technorati Tags: Miners Strike,Social History,BBC,UK Government

Sibly Hall Development update

2011-06-07T14:00:00.001+01:00

Just received this letter from Wokingham Planning office, they have refused permission for the erection of the proposed new Communications Mast and associated equipment.

I am sure that is not the end of the matter as there will probably be an appeal.

Also I have not seen anything about the planning permission for the actual development itself as yet. That must be coming up in a later planning meeting

More to follow I am sure.

Technorati Tags: Reading Universit,Sibly Hall,Redevelopment Communications Mast.

Wokingham Council to Outsource its Libraries

2011-05-23T16:58:00.001+01:00

The running of Wokingham controlled libraries being put out to tender for private management and could be in line for a massive review if plans to outsource their management to a private company are approve

Comments and further discussions can be found here.

Technorati Tags: Government Cuts. Local Services,Save Libraries

Who has the fastest connected city?

2011-05-19T08:54:00.001+01:00

We all know that the UK is behind many other places in the world when it comes to Broadband connection speed. However in a new new index created by Ericsson, London has come in at forth after Seoul, Stockholm and Singapore.

The index is not just about raw speed of Internet access, but about how a City uses technology to connect the many diverse areas, services and its citizens to each other.

This article also looks at a number of other cities around the globe and how they are fairing. The graph also shows where the various cities are in the Index.

Technorati Tags: Internet,Access,Broadband Speed

European Health Insurance Card Renewal (EHIC)

2011-05-12T08:18:00.000+01:00

It appears that there is a scam being carried out when ‘you’ need to renew your EHIC. Some companies are claiming that they need to charge a £9.00 processing fee during renewal. This is not true as the card can be renewed Free of Charge.

When you need to renew your EHIC make sure that you only use the following website www.nhs.uk/heathcareabroad/. When you arrive at this website, use the telephone number 0845 606 2030 to renew your EHIC. Do not visit any other website.

Technorati Tags: NHS,EHIC

My ISP – Broadband Speed

2011-05-12T08:09:00.000+01:00

More figures from my Broadband speed. All seems to be steady in the world of BT Infinity.

We are certainly watching more content over the internet due to the higher speeds that BT Infinity provides.

If you get a chance to upgrade I would certainly recommend doing so. But you have to look at the small print to find the right deal that suits your own requirements.

Technorati Tags: BT-ISP,Infinity,Broadband Speed,Internet

America is a land of plenty and perhaps one less cut!

2011-05-12T07:30:00.000+01:00

Well it could be if new legislation is passed.

I am always amazed at some of the stories that come out of America, here’s one that seems to have raised a number of serious arguments about male circumcision. If passed could San Francisco be the first place to ban the practice on under 18 yr old males?

At first it seems a strange argument and is certainly upsetting a number of religious groups, but with the main aim of the legislation aimed at reducing the generally accepted practice of male genital mutilation.

It will be interesting to see if indeed the legislation does gets enacted and if other areas then bring in their own versions.

Technorati Tags: Medical,Health,Cuts

My ISP – Broadband Speed, more BT Infinity updates

2011-04-05T08:55:00.001+01:00

Got a bit behind on posting these as I was away for a holiday in March and forgot to post February’s figs.

The speed now seems to have settled around the 30MB level. Excellent for all the emerging Internet TV and online catch up services.

Technorati Tags: BT-ISP,Infinity,Broadband Speed,Internet

Sibly Hall – Planning Application Public Comments

2011-04-04T16:14:00.001+01:00

Last date for public comments about this development is the 9th March 2011, so get writing if you want your voice to be heard.

The Planning Application number is: O/2010/2776

Make your comments at Wokingham District Council planning offices, the online link is here.

Technorati Tags: Planning Applications,Reading University,Sibly Hall,Radio Masts,Radstock.

Crude Oil Prices down!

2011-02-13T18:12:00.001Z

I see that crude oil prices have dropped over the past few days to a low of around USD $85.00 per barrel and whilst Brent Crude is still above USD $100.00 per barrel, I wonder if we might see a cut in petrol prices.

I suppose the next excuse that oil companies will be the Egyptian factor hitting prices!

Technorati Tags: Oil Price,Petrol Prices,Inflation,Cost of Living

MY ISP – Broadband Speed, more Infinity updates

2011-02-13T17:44:00.001Z

After a month and half of using BT’s new Infinity broadband connection the download speed continues to increase to near the maximum.

The BT engineer had to come out on the 21st Jan. as the whole connection had shut down!

Turned out to be a defective ADSL Modem which is separate from the Router in an Infinity configuration.

Although this was a big issue for me at the time as I was in the middle of a project that required a lot of emailing and the modem breaking after only a month (bad QA I expect), I did learn something from the BT engineer about BT Infinity connections. They are quite sensitive to the the age of the driver that is being used by the network card in your PC.

My PC is about five years old with an original Dell onboard network connection socket (and driver), but it appears that the driver was holding back the ability for the connection to go above 16/18MB download.

Anyway to cut a long story short, I went out and bought a new PCI network card, installed the latest driver and hey presto!! We now have a connection up around the 32MB mark. excellent news and great for watching BBC iPlayer programmes.

Technorati Tags: BT-ISP,Infinity,Broadband Speed,Internet

Sibly Hall Housing Development Planning Application

2011-02-08T18:17:00.001Z

I found out yesterday that the Outline Planning Application for the Houses to be erected on Reading Universities Sibly Hall site have been submitted.

“Outline application with some matters reserved for the erection of 99 dwellings and refurbishment of 100 & 102 Redhatch Drive plus access, parking and private and public open space (means of access to be considered). Demolition of Sibly Hall Building at Redhatch Drive, Earley (2/3/11) Hillside”

The main application and associated plans can be found at the Wokingham Borough Council planning application website. You will then need to enter the planning application number O/2010/2776 into the form.

When you then hit the search button, this will take you to another page and if you then scroll down, you can click on “See the Plans and Documents” and this will take you to another page where the associated documents, all 63 of them are listed.

There all in PDF format so you should be able to see them directly in your browser.

Next important dates appear to be Consultation Start Date: 02/02/2011 and Deadline for Comments: 02/03/2011.

There is a lot to read!

Technorati Tags: Reading University,Sibly Hall,Redhatch Copse

Sibly Hall – Power to the people.

2011-01-12T11:40:00.001Z

The recently held Earley Town Council planning meeting has opposed the planning application for the 30 metre telecoms mast (proposed to be built in Redhatch Copse) submitted as part of the Reading University redevelopment plans for Sibly Hall.

The meeting, covered both in the Reading Post and the Reading Chronicle (cannot find that online!) attracted over 90 people.

The next step is to lodge any formal objections with Wokingham Council by the 19th January to effect a public meeting and discussion.

This can be done via email (see here for info) or online using a form.

You will need the Planning Application Number which is F/2010/2777.

Some info about commenting on an application.

You can make comments on (see here for full list):

Design, appearance and layout
Conservation of buildings, trees, plants, animals and open land
Impact on the appearance of the area
Effect on the level of daylight and privacy of existing property
The need for the development
Planning history of the site

Lets hope that as many people as possible comment on this and can turn up for any public meeting that is held.

Technorati Tags: Sibly Hall,Reading University,Planning Applications,Wokingham

Further info on UK Library closures

2011-01-11T10:31:00.001Z

Saw this interesting article in the Guardian about UK Library closures.

Technorati Tags: UK Libraries,Budget cuts,Coalition Government

How will Budget Cuts affect our UK Libraries

2011-01-10T21:37:00.001Z

I was discussing with some colleagues last week about what effect the impending local government cuts will have on our UK Public Libraries and came across this interesting Google Map (Mash up) of some of the potential effects of these cuts.

View Public Library Closures in the UK in a larger map

Legend

Red pointer = library closures announced by Council
Blue pointer = Individual library at risk
Red triangle = library closed
Gents sign = staff lost
Pins - other cuts

It will be interesting to see what happens during 2011 and how many Libraries the UK is left with.

Technorati Tags: Budget cuts,Libraries,Education

More on Sibly Hall redevelopment issues

2011-01-03T18:10:00.001Z

The Sibley Hall Action Group has issued a new newsletter with further information about the Planning Application for the Radio Communication that could be placed in the Ancient Woodland adjacent to the current Sibly Hall if passed.

The two links in this letter are:

- Potential impact images of the proposed mast.

- Potential health risks of radio comms. masts.

More info on the the recent Planning Application information can be found here and on the whole Sibly Hall development plan in a previous post, here.

Let’s see what happens at the Planning Meeting, 7:30 pm Earley Town Council offices, Radstock Lane, Tuesday 4th Jan. 2011 – tomorrow!

Technorati Tags: Sibly Hall,Planning Applications,Radio Masts

My ISP – Broadband Speed using BT Infinity

2011-01-03T17:37:00.001Z

I have been now been running on the newly installed BT Infinity Broadband connection since early December.

As can be seen from the graph I have seen a steady climb up towards 18MB download whilst the upload has been pretty constant since around the 5th December.

I have not noticed a great deal of fall off in the evening when more people are online.

Two things I have noticed (which is an obvious result of the upgrade) is a better ‘picture’ when watching anything on BBC iPlayer on our (network connected) HDTV and the ability to run more data over the ‘link’. It arrived at the right time as I have had to move some quite large image data files around and the faster upload speed certainly helped.

The router (which now has a separate external modem) has reset it self a few times, I assume for updates? However it is not affected the speed.

It will be interesting to see if the speed climbs any higher in January 2011 or as BT add more users to the fibre loop, if it stays the same.

Technorati Tags: BT,ISP,Broadband Speed,Infinity,Fibre

Sibly Hall – The Next Step, Planning Meeting

2010-12-29T17:04:00.001Z

Events are moving onto another stage in ongoing saga of the redevelopment of Sibly Hall.

Earley Town Council have issued a letter (dated 24th December 2010 – received 29th December 2010) for all residents around Sibly Hall about their next Planning Meeting (4th January 2011) where they will consider the planning application for the proposed 30 Metre Telecoms mast that will be erected to replace the current aerials that are on the roof of Sibly Hall is demolished.

The Earley Town Council letter refers readers to the Wokingham Borough Council Planning department where the original Planning Application Forms were lodged back in early November 2010.

I must admit I forgot to add links in one of my previous posts about the planning applications forms when they became available on the Wokingham.

I did have a look for them after receiving this letter and after three attempts I found them. Lots of them!

The Sibly Hall Action Group have issued a Letter To Residents South of Sibley Hall which they asked me to post here that offers guidance as to what residents can do next along with a link to the Wokingham Planning Offices web site which will allow residents to view the various planning forms. Please double-click on image on the left to see full size letter.

I have also added a list at the end of this blog that provides links to all of the the various forms that were submitted by the University, Developer and other parties to the Wokingham Planning Office.

There is a lot of reading here, (make a cup of tea before you sit down to read them) including comments submitted as being statements made by residents at the open-air meeting & the road-side protest about their feelings towards the development.

I suspect that the meeting at Earley Town Council offices will be a well-attended meeting.

Sibly Hall – Radio Comms. Mast Planning Application Forms(Copyright is acknowledged where relevant)

1-Application Form

2a-Covering Letter

2b-Planning Application Telecommunications Mast Application-14156

3-Head Of Terms For Relocation Of Mast

5-Location Plan Map

6-Visual Impact Assessment Proposed Telecom Mast

7-Mast Panoramic Photos-Included In_Item6

8-Mast Photos Reverse Location-Included In_Item6

9-ARBORICULTURAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT

10-CONSULTATION PLAN

11-DESIGN & ACCESS STATEMENT

12-Ecological Report

13-Existing Tree Survey

14a-2G_Signal Coverage Analysis Map

14b-3G_Signal Coverage Analysis Map

14c-Signal Coverage Analysis Maps-1

14d-GSM Association_Mobiles Comms & Health Info

15-SITE_ELEVATIONS_PLANS

16-Statement of Community Engagement

17-Site Specific Supplementary Information

Technorati Tags: Sibly Hall,Reading University,Planning,Mast

The end of the road for ID Cards? – Yes!

2010-12-29T17:03:00.001Z

With Royal Assent being given, repealing the Identity Cards Act 2006. We say a farewell to what was set to be the biggest intrusion into our lives for many years, as well as being a shocking waste of public money.

Check out the statement on the Identity & Passport Office for more details and what you have to do if you already have one of the New ID Cards.

However, we should still not feel that this one ‘gain’ offsets the rest of the states ‘Big-Brother’ apparatus that continues to monitor our daily movements.

The UK is still the biggest user of CCTV in public places that are used to track us for manner of things from dropping cigarettes/litter (a good thing perhaps) to checking that we have the right to park in a particular place.

However, there are other positive uses. For example, some of the ‘32’ CCTV cameras on the Clifton Suspension Bridge may help in the capture of the killer of Joanna Yeates. I hope it does

For me, it’s not so much about the number of CCTV cameras, it is about who uses them and how ‘we’ control the data collected on them and how the ‘watchers’ are made to answer in public about their use of our CCTV images.

Perhaps this could be one of the new Public Petitions recently discussed by the Coalition?

Technorati Tags: ID-Cards,CCTV,Big-Brother,UK Law,Government

My ISP – Broadband Speed

2010-12-06T22:13:00.001Z

Time for another report on the Broadband Speed! Had a good month with an average 6.7MB download and .95MB Upload. So all stable for November.

But what more news! Had some phone calls from BT offering a move the recently rolled out BT Infinity! Various discussions about prices, but ended up with a good deal that won't cost me any more than I pay now and that’s a good deal!

Anyway, it was installed/upgraded today and initial speeds have jumped to 13.6 MB download and 7.72MB Upload. Apparently this takes a while to stabilise, but the lines tests indicate a possibility of around 22MB download!

Technorati Tags: ISP,Broadband Speed

Sibly Hall – Issues rumble on for Reading University

2010-11-11T21:20:00.001Z

Reading University has been accused of hiding behind secrecy over the impending redevelopment of the Sibly Hall, saying that disclosure of information under Freedom of Information requests would prevent it fetching the best price for the land.

See the full story here.

Technorati Tags: Housing,Redevelopment,Environment,Impact

IKEA’s Reading store causing concerns.

2010-11-11T21:02:00.001Z

As IKEA prepares plans for a store at Pincents Hill Retail Park – see previous post, councillors warn of potential impact on local traffic. See more here.

Technorati Tags: Road Congestion,Planning,Reading,Ikea

My ISP – Broadband Speed

2010-11-11T20:52:00.001Z

Moving on with my BT upgrade for my Broadband speed. Since the ‘’free upgrade to their ‘up to 10MB’ option, my speed is finally stabilizing at an average speed of 6.9Mb Download and .95Mb Upload. Here are the graphs for the month of September and October.

Will upload the November graph in December, which is showing a slow rise back up to 7.0MB!

Technorati Tags: ISP,Broadband Speed,Speed

IKEA comes to Reading!

2010-10-03T22:16:00.001+01:00

Great news for all us IKEA’Phobes!! Not so great for the proposed location! One thing that has always amazed me about local planners is their sheer misunderstanding of how real life works.

You only have to look around Reading (see bottom of post for other examples) to see how congested they have made various shopping areas around Reading and now it looks like they’re going to do it again with the IKEA development in Pincents Lane, Tilehurst.

With one roundabout controlling traffic towards, Sainsbury’s, DunElm, Porsche, McDonalds and a number of other places, we’re now going to see thousand of us try to get past the same roundabout as we struggle to leave with our Billy Book Cases and POÄNG chairs (very comfortable by the way).

Surely a development of this magnitude whilst long overdue on this of London deserves a better location with better access. Or, perhaps its just a way the planners have of limiting our access to these ‘new’ facilities!

Some other self generated Reading bottle necks include:

The recently installed Shinfield Traffic Lights – Now to be ‘adjusted’
The entrance to the Reading Gate Retail Park – Only one in/out roundabout
The entrance to the Brunel Retail Park – Only one in/out roundabout

Will the same thing happen for the proposed Reading University Science park just over the M4 with a new roundabout proposed to go between the Black Boy pub and the M4? How will they fit that in!

It seems to me that ‘Planners’ do not answer to anyone of authority and they continue to be able to introduce more and more congestion into our already overcrowded roads without any consequence to their actions.

Technorati Tags: Road Congestion,Planning,Reading,Ikea,Blunders

Home from Home?

2010-10-02T21:41:00.001+01:00

It seems that we might just have found a refuge for Human Kind.

Astronomers have discovered an Earth ‘like’ planet that show signs that it could support Human Life – just the right distance from its Sun, atmosphere that is potentially breathable by Humans etc. etc.

Only one issue, its 20 light years away!!! Oh well I suppose its safe from our oblivious desire to destroy what left of this planet!!

Technorati Tags: Space,Astronomy,Universe

Sibly Hall Roadside Meeting

2010-09-12T21:52:00.001+01:00

There was a good turnout of local residents this afternoon at the Redhatch Drive entrance to the Reading University Sibly Hall – Halls of Residence.

Local people are concerned about the onsite security company having locked out residents from accessing the grounds at Redhatch Copse, a designated Ancient Woodland.

A petition has been signed and collected to see what can done about getting full access opened up again. If Reading University was hoping for ‘understanding’ by local residents about the proposed re-development of the Sibly Hall site, then I am sure that they have shot themselves right in their own foot by this overt action.

Could it be that they have done this so that they can proceed with the felling of a number of trees that back on to the Sibley Park residential area? We will post some more information when it becomes available. In the meantime lets us know what you know or find out.

Technorati Tags: Reading University,Sibly Hall,Housing,Development,Green Space,Woodland

My ISP – Broadband Speed

2010-09-11T23:13:00.001+01:00

Note the use of the singular! Finally I am rid of Talk Talk! Never in my whole life have I come across such an incompetent and totally slothful company as Talk Talk.

If Charles Dunstone – the founder of Carphone Warehouse – is still connected with them, he must be totally embarrassed at the being the head of such a woefully bad company. I could write reams and reams about my experience with Talk Talk, but I’ll put in in another post. Suffice to say that I an rid of them and now back to BT for both my phone lines.

My 2nd BT line, upgraded in June to their “Up to 20Mb” (don't get me started on that marketing con!) service continues to increase in speed (never, never, ever turn your router off!) and now gives a consistent speedier connection for the same price as I was paying for their ‘Up to 8MB’ service. Anyway to the figures for July/August.

Technorati Tags: ISP,Broadband Speed

Problems with Sibly Hall Development

2010-09-11T21:50:00.001+01:00

It appears that problems are arising even before the main redevelopment of Reading University’s – Halls of Residence - Sibly Hall have begun. See my previous post.

Although still at the planning discussion stage, the sites agent’s have closed off access to the general public in what appears to an attempt to claim that there is no right of way over the land. This is despite that the Sibly Hall ‘enclosure’ includes the designated Ancient Woodland of Redhatch Copse which has been used by the public since the 1800’s!

Local residents are incensed, particularly those in Sibley Park Road (which backs on to the proposed development area) who have also been told that they face to loss of long established trees that will shield them from the new development.

Residents have organised a public meeting for 3pm on Sunday 12th September outside the now locked Sibly Hall gates in Redhatch Drive (http://bit.ly/9Pvc73) to voice their concerns. It is understood that local Press, TV & Radio will also be in attendance.

Join in the public meeting and show your support to find out why we are suddenly denied access to land that has been used by locals long before there was a Sibly Hall! Want to Tweet about this? Use the Hash Tag #siblyhall

See you tomorrow.

Some local commentary:

Technorati Tags: Reading University,Sibly Hall,Development,Redhatch Copse

Changes afoot for Sibly Hall!

2010-07-03T17:39:00.001+01:00

As Reading University nears the consolidation of its ‘on campus’ students accommodation, changes are planned for the existing Sibly Hall student accommodation.

It is (providing planning permission is given) to be demolished to be replaced by a housing development of some 100 new homes!

Reading University organised an recent exhibition to explain to local residents the sort of impact that the redevelopment might have on them.

On a warm day this was transferred to the lawn outside of Sibly Hall due to the numbers in attendance and the heat inside the meeting room.

It was interesting to talk with the University representatives who also included, Landscaping, Tree & Environmental experts who seemed to be well prepared and really & willing to answer as many questions as were asked. I spent about 90 minutes at the exhibition and found it very informative.

There were also some interesting presentation boards at the exhibition.

View Full Album

Listening to the ‘buzz’ during my visit, I picked up on some interesting topics of conversation, my impression of their importance seemed to be:

Security for existing houses when the development was completed – this seemed to be of more concern to the residents of the houses to the south of Sibly Hall and those to the north of Redhatch Copse.
Schooling seemed to be high on peoples list of concerns and how the new residents in the development would impact on school places for existing resident looking to place their children at Radstock Primary and Maiden Erlegh schools.
The impact on local roads of the increased traffic. The University is saying that they have allowed for 1.5 cars for each of the 100 proposed homes when planning the layout of the redeveloped site. I and other at the exhibition thought that was a big underestimating and many people voiced their opinion about it. More like 2.5 per new house would be a better estimate. That’s a lot of traffic feeding into Redhatch drive!
I raised the question about what would happen to the communications aerials currently on the roof of Sibly Hall. These will be transferred to a new 30 meter mast to be built and located just inside the boundary of Redhatch Copse – which will retain its classification as Ancient Woodland. Apparently a test has been carried out to see what a 30 meter mast will look like. I have been told that a video of that test will be made available on the University Local Community pages soon.

My understanding is that the initial planning application is to be lodged with Wokingham Borough Council in September following the feedback that the University receives from the public exhibition.

It will be interesting to see what are the main concerns from the day when it is published on the Reading University Local Communities website pages at the end of July.

More to follow and watching this with interest.

Might this be the end of this view as we know it?

Reference Points:

Technorati Tags: Housing,Redevelopment,Environment,Impact

My ISP’s – Broadband Speed

2010-07-01T15:12:00.001+01:00

Great news, I was upgraded by BT during June to their ‘Up to 20Mb’ service, although not expecting to get anywhere near to the offered 20Mb, I have seen a good increase in the speed, including an upload speed increase from 385 kbs to nearly 900 kbs.

BT Support have said that after a few weeks and with now using the new BT Home Hub 2.0 I should see a steady increase towards 10Mb.

Sadly the same can not be said for my Talk Talk connect (I’ve explained why I have two connections in an earlier post). I am still waiting for a ‘Bar’ to be lifted from the line that has been their since early May! I have given up waiting so have today cancelled it, but of course we are now arguing about termination fees etc. Will update the outcome in another post.

TalkTalk is really the worst company I have ever come across.

Technorati Tags: ISP,Broadband Speed,Service

My ISP’s – Broadband Speed

2010-06-22T08:20:00.001+01:00

Here’s the graph for my May ISP figures. Major issue at the moment is the TalkTalk has reduced its ‘Free’ broadband to 768Kbs and it will not connect past a single ‘contact us’ error page.

Despite many many telephone calls to their Customer Services, Sales and Customer option teams, nothing is resolved as of the writing of this post. This all stems from a cock-up with the direct debit payment Talk Talk being taken twice in one month and when reset, it did not take in the following month (May 2010) and Talk Talk then put a bar on the Broadband service.

Although I rectified this two days later – when I found out about the Bar, it remains in place and now I’m in that ‘limbo place’ of being passed from one office to another with no one taking responsibility to remove the Bar and fix it. I could write pages about this, but why waste more time on the issue. so I have told Talk Talk to cancel my contract under non-delivery of their service.

Thank goodness I could not cancel my BT broadband on my second line, it had five month left on the contract – which I use for business when I got the ‘Free’ Talk Talk broad offer on my main line.

It’s a mess and I wish I had never heard of Talk Talk!

Technorati Tags: ISP's Broadband,Services

56 years and counting!

2010-05-26T22:27:00.001+01:00

I’ve been away for a while and was in fact was also away last week working at a large Printing Exhibition (IPEX) at the NEC so did not get to see any of this years State Opening of Parliament.

So when I got back yesterday and saw some of the reports about the Queens journey to the opening I was staggered to hear that she was doing this for the 56th time!

How time fly's by and you really don’t notice until something like this is mentioned and then you realise the years are passing along. Someone at the NEC asked me which IPEX I had first came to, typically it is held every four years and when I had worked that it had been 1980, it dawned on me that this was 30 years ago!

I suppose these ‘regular’ events do provide some degree of stability over the years as they occur, especially with the Queens annual appearance at the State Opening and her other ceremonial events. Though I do have to say, they do seem to come around far to often!

Technorati Tags: Annual,Events,Royalty

My ISP’s – Broadband Speed

2010-05-07T22:31:00.001+01:00

I got a bit behind in posting these reports on my Broadband speed. I now have two Broadband connections into my house – how decadent!

The second one is curtsey of moving my domestic (I have always had two - one for business - lines into the house) line rental from BT to TalkTalk and as well as saving me over £6.50 per month over the BT costs, they also included ‘free’ broadband. The fact that it took over three months to have it activated is another story!

I have six more months to run on my BT contract and if the TalkTalk ISP runs okay without any issues I may cancel BT and rely on TalkTalk as the ISP provider – time will tell. Anyway it now gives me a chance to make a valid comparison text between the two lines and companies.

So here the March and April figures.

Technorati Tags: BT,TT,ISP's,Broadband Speed

Hung’ing around

2010-05-07T20:47:00.001+01:00

While the politicians work out their deals, the good old British system of First Past the Post (FPP) has thrown up yet another abomination of a result. After all the debates, poster campaigns and door knocking ( I actually did get a knock from John Redwood this time), we are still no closer to having a definitive new government.

For me two big issues, 1) again the Liberals are denied a fair result for the number of votes cast and 2) the sight of hundreds of people denied the right vote.

Surely this skewed election result finally proves FPP does not deliver a true representation of what people want and that a Proportional Representation system must be adapted for all future General Elections.

With regards to the queues of disenfranchised voters who could not cast their vote, yes the Electoral Commission have said that they will launch a full enquiry. But last time I looked, we were supposed to be the mother of parliaments as well being a country that sends Election monitors over the world to check on other Countries elections. So how come we couldn’t seem to run what everyone knew would be a very important UK election. I hope that the report from the Electoral Commission does find out what went wrong and we never see these sorts of sites on the streets of the UK at election time again.

With regards to the way the vote went and what how many votes got what; I created this table. It shows very well what is wrong with the FPP system.

Party	Votes Cast (Millions)	Seats Gained	Percentage (%) of Vote	Votes cast per seat
Conservative	10.7	306	36	34,967
Labour	8.6	258	29	33,333
Liberal	6.8	57	23	119,298
Others (Well done the Green party)	3.5	28	12	125,000
Totals:	29.6	649	100	45,538
National Turnout	65%

Interestingly if the turnout was 65%, that means 35% of eligible voters did not cast their vote, which in actual ‘person’ terms means that 15,900,000 people did not or could not cast their vote.

Also, if the Liberals only got 3% less number of votes cast than Labour, then how come they got 201 less seats! That means that 1.8 million votes cast (the difference between Liberal & Labour brought in 201 more seats for Labour!

Further, as can be seen from the votes cast, it seems that Conservative seats come cheap at only 34,967 votes per seat, whereas to gain any of the 57 Liberal seat over 119,000 votes were needed for each seat!

FPP seems a very wrong system to me and the sooner it is changed to give a better representation of truer voting in the UK, then the better democracy will be for it.

I’m going to look in more depth at the figures, the Guardian newspaper has been collecting a lot of interesting information about this election, which I think I will delve into later.

Technorati Tags: Politics,General Election,Voting

Five Daughters – TV Drama at its best.

2010-04-28T22:50:00.001+01:00

I caught up with some TV tonight by watching the final episodes of the BBC’s Five Daughters TV Drama. Stephen Butchard had a tough task on his hands to to take this sensitive subject interjected with actual TV coverage of the real live incidents and make a watchable TV drama. What a really good job he did.

This was without doubt one of the best home produced TV dramas that I have seen in a number of years. It brought together the circular world of drug addiction and how users raise money to pay for their habit - in this case by prostitution and the risks (fatal in some cases) that the girls take when going out at night.

It really is tough viewing and contains many upsetting scenes as well as contributions from a number of the families involved in this very sad tale.

However, I was glad to see that although these events ripped apart five families, this tragedy has resulted in a number of local projects involving many agencies that between them claim to have almost eradicated drug related prostitution off the streets of Ipswich.

Well done the BBC for tackling a really tough subject and making such a milestone piece of TV drama.

A number of reviews have been written here and here and in case you still want to watch it on the BBC-iPlayer click here.

Technorati Tags: BBC,Drama,Drug Addition

Rhodesia & Republic of South Africa (RSA)

2010-04-11T09:06:00.001+01:00

I saw the old name of Rhodesia appear this weekend with news that Bishop Abel Muzorewa had passed away. I am not sure why, but his name has always remained in my brain along with that of Ndabaningi Sithole who died in 2000.

Maybe it’s been the loose connection of visiting RSA a number of times in my youth courtesy of the Royal Navy when the dreaded Pass Laws were still in effect in the 60’s and participating in the UN backed Naval blockade of oil from getting to the port of Beira – the Beira Patrol.

I am sure before he death that Abel Muzorewa would have been very sad about the way the situation has ended up in what is now Zimbabwe and that it was one of his early compatriots, Robert Mugabe who has driven that country in to the ground.

It now seems that a replica of what happened in Zimbabwe may be appearing on the horizon for the RSA with a rise in the power of a certain Julius Malema and his ANC Youth League – linked to the recent murder of Eugene Terreblanche.

Rian Malan, a controversial figure himself (for his AIDS denial statements) cites an growing power struggle with the ANC where Julius Malema seems to suggest following Mugabe's ‘economic’ program of wealth distribution.

Yes there is still massive inequality in many parts of Africa including the RSA (and in fact around the world), but there has to be a better way to sort this out than the example that Mugabe unleashed on a once vibrant and prosperous country.

The inequality has still not been removed, it’s simply transferred from one ruling elite to another!

Technorati Tags: Zimbabewe,RSA,Corruption,Power,ANC

OFCOM plans to cut cost of calls to mobiles

2010-03-28T21:46:00.001+01:00

Maybe they will and maybe the won’t, how long it will take could be down to who wins the election? But an interesting article in the Guardian.

Anything that helps to lower the cost of these calls would be a good thing.

Technorati Tags: Mobile Phones,OFCOM,Government,WatchDogs

Thank you for your service. Sorry about your vote!

2010-03-28T14:06:00.001+01:00

For a number of years when I was in the Royal Navy and was old enough to vote, the services always ensured that where ever you were (or going to be) there was always a possibility to cast your vote in any General Election.

Clearly times have changed and it now seems that many current service personnel will miss out on the chance to vote in what for everyone will be an important election.

According to this article from the Times (will I have to pay for this link after June 2010?) the issue on the surface seems to be about the changes in the military postal service and a number of ‘changeovers’ of units.

Could there be some ‘deeper’ reasons that many of our Forces will be denied the right to vote? According to this Independent article, it is about the logistics of getting voting paper out and back in the allocated time. Last time I looked, the military have some of the fastest methods for moving ‘stuff’ around, surely with a bit of planning it should be a ‘no brainer’ to sort this out within the time frame allowed.

However, might it be that if many of the forces personnel were to vote Conservative this time (as Andy McNab says in the Times article above) and as many of them come from some of Labour potential marginal seats, their votes could add to the impending ‘hung’ parliament that everyone is predicting and deny Labour of an outright win.

Would this government stoop to such a low tactic to ensure victory?

Having to deal with what your enemy is trying to do to you is one thing. But worrying about what your government is doing to your rights behind your back is another. Lets hope that this gets sorted out as soon as possible.

Technorati Tags: UK government,Voting,Military

A deep appreciation from all of us.

2010-03-26T08:45:00.001Z

Anyone who watched last nights Cutting Edge C4 program must have sat transfixed as the stories unfolded in front of us, I know I was. It was so sad to see how damaged these lads were, both mentally and physically.

Certainly this program more than any other report I have seen, brought home another hidden truth about what is going on in Afghanistan and well done to C4 for getting this out in the open.

Another aspect that was evident was the tremendous care and attention that the medical crew gave to their patients on the long trip back from the ‘front-line’.

We can all only have a deep appreciation of the service and sacrifice that these lads have given to protect us. I know I do.

Latest info from the MOD on the Casualty figures.

Technorati Tags: Afghanistan,Army,Sacriface

BT hits super-fast broadband milestone

2010-03-23T21:41:00.001Z

Following on from my previous post I’ve just come across this nugget of information in that BT Wholesale has connected its one millionth user to its 24Mbps service.

I’d like to know how to get hold of this, even the BT Broadband sales web site does not mention it. I suppose I’ll have to live with 5MB for the time being!!

Technorati Tags: Digital Britain,Broadband Speed,ISP

At last a sensible Broadband definition.

2010-03-23T21:24:00.001Z

After some deliberation, it seems that OFCOM, you know the people that continue to let ISP’s miss sell broadband speeds, have finally decide that in the UK’s new Digital Britain that anything above 24Mbs download (yes please) will be classified as Superfast Broadband.

If that is the case, then I think the majority of us will be waiting a very long time to join that ‘Superfast’ club, possibly even past 2017 as set out by Gordon – the Digital Guru – Brown recently.

More info on this from…

And if you missed what Gordon Brown said and the plan, it’s here.

The Tories plan is here.

For me this is really late news, we should already have a 10Mbs infrastructure in place. If we are already operating in a ‘Knowledge Economy’, other countries will soon leap ahead of the UK before we ever start to implement the 24Mb lines.

Technorati Tags: Digital Britain,Broadband Speed,ISP's,Government

Government names influential 'pro-Islamic' bloggers

2010-03-23T20:51:00.001Z

So the government has spent money on compiling a list of ‘pro-Islamic’ bloggers. even though the data was compiled nearly two years ago in April 2008!

The background is here and the report is available (in PDF) for download from the Home Office web site here.

I partially understand why this might have been created, but where is the list of right wing extremists bloggers, don't we need to keep track of them as well?

Technorati Tags: Government,Big-Brother,monitoring,CCTV

More Openness at Inquests – Some background info

2010-03-23T20:39:00.001Z

Found this backgrounder to the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 in an email forwarded to me from what looked like a list server.

But after cautiously opening it, found some interesting links and info about yet more interference by this government of trying to cover up information that should really be made public.

The relatives of those who die on the government's watch - whether in Brixton or Basra - are entitled to know why they died. - Liberty

An interesting read.

Technorati Tags: Politics,Big-Brother,Government

Politics ‘is’ a dirty business.

2010-03-22T22:50:00.001Z

What the hell is going on with UK politics?

Labour suspends three ex-ministers over lobbying claims – the debacle continues.

MPs' foreign visit rules breached – Junkets obviously pay. Whose in the frame for this one, it seems it’s a very cross party collection of names. See the list of name at the bottom of the BBC page, or see this first story and what “David Amess MP: Foreign trips and rule breaches” did.

What do politicians of this country want us to think about them? Not a lot it would seem.

Technorati Tags: Politics,Government,Parliament.

What is really behind the BA strike?

2010-03-21T19:24:00.001Z

Been following the BA strike news as it has come out, but still don’t know what the real reason is for the strike. Is it really about BA wanting to reduce their long-haul cabin staff by one person? Or is it about something bigger?

Here's a clip from one of the BA staff that is going to go into work.

An here’s a report from one of the strikers. Why do neither of them want to show their faces. Do they not believe what they stand for?

Technorati Tags: British Airways,Strikes,Unions,Unite

New York in Miniature

2010-03-21T17:31:00.001Z

For those of us with an interest in photograph this a fantastic example of the Tilt & Shift technique.

You will need to have a reasonably good PC to view it in HD.

I first saw this about three months ago and since then have seen a number of examples being incorporated into mainstream TV programmes.

The Sandpit from Sam O'Hare on Vimeo.

Also when I first saw it, I was reminded of Michael Bentines’ Potty Time and his miniature sand models populated by ‘supposed’ ants/fleas! Of course it seemed good at the time.

Technorati Tags: Photography,Miniature

The end of FM?

2010-03-17T16:32:00.001Z

The Digital Economy also covers the Analogue Switch off of FM in 2015. Did you know that?

I have yet to find a logical or reasoned explanation as to why this needs to happen. FM works very well with excellent quality - this is why it was developed! The cost of the switch off/over and the replacement radios needed will far out way any saving. Any cheap radios available will bound to be imported, so not even UK Manufacturing and the economy will benefit from this change over.

Just don't understand the logic in this. Again it hidden vested interests that are calling the shots and we the ordinary citizen that gets to foot the bill, again! To use that hackneyed phrase, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Technorati Tags: politcs,radio,parliament,big-brother

Digital Economy Bill

2010-03-17T15:42:00.001Z

The time is running out to make your voice heard against the current Digital Economy Bill. Rushed through Parliament by a dying administration with legislation looking to make criminals of many of us for no reason at all, we must voice our opposition to this ill thought out bill. More info on the bill from Rory Cellan-Jones – BBC Digital Election reporter can be found here.

Clearly there been little sensible thought to the impact this bill will have. Billy Braggs comment on BBC’s Panorama programme, Monday night was absolutely spot on. “It’s like confiscating everyone record player and then complaining that no one is buying any music!”

Yes music and film copying (after all it is about big business isn't it) need to be dealt with. But this needs some better thought out processes. One wonders who really is behind all of this, certainly Peter Mandelson seems to have a big say, I wonder what vested interests are hanging onto his shirt tails?

However, in the end it will be as usual, the ordinary consumer and citizen that suffers.

Please write to your MP about it and urge them to vote it against it. Do this by going to Write to your MP and letting your MP know how you feel.

Technorati Tags: Big-Brother,Surveillance,Parliament,Politics,Digital Britain

Axis Of Authoritarianism – Is this the Government we really want?

2010-03-17T13:46:00.001Z

A disturbing look at New Labour and why our freedoms may be fast disappearing.

Technorati Tags: Surveillance,Big-Brother,CCTV,FOI,NO2ID

Who is EU's Catherine Ashton?

2010-03-07T15:16:00.001Z

Appointed without any open election to the position Catherine Ashton has assumed the EU’s role as Foreign Minister.

Who is this person that speaks on our behalf?

Here’s a few background links about her:

Technorati Tags: Politics,EU,Representation

Four Presidents and still no real European direction!

2010-03-07T14:32:00.001Z

With four presidents now in ‘charge’ of Europe, one wonders where Europe if going? As was seen recently with Nigel Ferage outburst towards Herman Van Rompuy, there is still a lot that needs to be done to make EU appear to be heading in one cohesive direction.

Why, when Europe is considered to be so democratic , do we have a situation where the ordinary citizen has absolutely no influence of who gets these top jobs considering that they seem so intent on telling us what we should be doing.

The Four Presidents of Europe

José Manuel Barroso
Position: President of the European Commission
Powers: Head of the E.U.'s executive branch

Jerzy Buzek
Position: President of the European Parliament
Powers: Chairs parliamentary debate and represents Europe's legislature

Herman Van Rompuy
Position: President of the European Council
Powers: Administrative or Executive?

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
Position: PM of Spain, holder of rotating presidency
Powers: Short term head of the EU.

I came across this article in last weeks Time Magazine that really does question what direction Europe is taking and what participation Europe will have in the coming years on World affairs.

With the USA and China seemingly the current strongest world players, Europe needs to get its act together and set out what it really wants from its current & expanding position in the world.

Technorati Tags: EU,USA,China,Politics,Voting,Representation

My ISP – Broadband Speed

2010-03-04T21:45:00.001Z

Here are my ISP figures for Jan. & Feb. 2o10. All seems to be stable apart from a slight glitch at the end of Feb.

Looking at the early figures for March, now seems to have settled down again.

Interesting add on to these figures. I finally received my ‘free’ broadband from Talk Talk after accepting their offer last October 2009 – five month!!!

This was part of a deal that Talk Talk ran last year for moving my line rental from BT to them – I had already been ‘calls’ only customer for some four years. Anyway, thank goodness that I did not cancel my BT Broadband. Yes I am paying £6.50 a month less than with BT, but five months wait!!!

Anyway, why do I now have two broadband suppliers? I had my second BT line put in over 15 years ago (paid for by the company I then worked for) so that I had a separate dial-up connection without interrupting my ‘domestic’ line and of course it was converted to early broadband when that can along and gradually it has built up to what it is today.

I still use that BT connection today for my own business (working in Publishing IT and sometimes have to shift some fairly large files around) and it has remained pretty reliable. If it took Talk Talk five months to deliver my broadband I wonder what the service and connection quality will be like?

So I will add that line to my testing for March and see what I get as results and make decision about retaining the BT line in a couple of months time.

Technorati Tags: BT-ISP,Broadband Speed,Digital Britain

A hung parliament.

2010-02-23T15:02:00.001Z

It seems that the pundits are still predicting a hung parliament as the result of the forthcoming UK election. Will this be what we really want going forward?

See these results from the Guardian report.

I’d be interested to see what you say, complete the Poll on the right of this post and we’ll see what more of the public say.

Technorati Tags: Politics,Polls,Elections

Embedded Video Test Post

2010-02-21T20:44:00.001Z

This is test post to test embedding of a You Tube video. Following my reading of Damian Kulash Jr’s of the band OK Go, letter in the New York Times.

When you press the play button you can see what Damian really means! You now can only play the video in full by going to the main You Tube web site. Talk about EMI shooting itself in the foot.

I agree with the bands complaints in the way they have been treated by EMI.

Technorati Tags: YouTube,Video.

Sand Art, but not as you’ve ever seen it before!

2010-02-16T12:26:00.001Z

I was sent a link today about the winner of the 2009 Ukraine’s Got Talent contest.

We’ve all seen sand sculptures on the beach in the summer, but this is unbelievable.

Technorati Tags: Art,Sand,Performing,Ukraine

DVD’s are playing again.

2010-02-15T08:59:00.001Z

My DVD packed up a short while ago, it was one of those low cost supermarket deals from a few years ago, but it did the job very well.

However, being out of warranty and costing more to repair than buying another replacement, I looked online to see about running DVD’s on a recently purchased Wii, surprisingly it does not do this out of the box!

After a couple of false starts I finally managed to get this sorted using a free download, this tutorial and a £5.50 4GB SDHC memory card. I should point out that this ‘update’ refers to a Wii that is running version 4.2 of their ‘operating system’ if your Wii is ‘older’ then you will have to follow links in the instructions for earlier versions.

This adds another feature to the Wii and with the BBCi Player installed I can see this box becoming a vital part of any future entertainment centre and if rumours are true and the next version of the Wii will include a Blue Ray compatible DVD player, even more so.

A word of caution, there are a number of warnings on the Internet against carrying out ‘updates’ to the Wii box, which I suppose you have to take some view on. However, I checked quite a bit and in the end after reading quite a deal went ahead and for me it worked out okay. Don’t take this post as any kind of recommendation either way, at the end of the day, its your Wii and your choice.

Technorati Tags: Wii,DVD's,Software,BBCiPlayer

How old are your ‘New’ car tyres?

2010-02-13T22:21:00.001Z

I came across this USA ABC video report tonight whilst looking for some other ‘stuff’. It shows that in the USA some tyres sold as new are in fact 5, 6, and in some cases, 12 years old!!!

During the video report it mentions that a UK trade association – the British Rubber Manufacturers Association - has recommended that there should be an expiry date on all new tyres sold in the UK, so that no tyre ‘new’ tyre that remains on the shelf for longer than six year can not be sold as ‘new’.

If you want to check the age of your own ‘new’ tyres, you can check using this information (click on 4 for date info), it’s for Michelin tyres, but I have also included information for other tyre manufactures.

Pirelli info
Continental info – TBC
Dunlop info - TBC
Bridgestone info - TBC

I’ve studied codes these before but only for find out if they were suitable for size/rain/all weather/motorway driven. I never realised that there was any chance that they could be very old ‘new’ tyres.

Check your tyres tomorrow.

Technorati Tags: Motoring,Saftey,Tyres

Get ready for the Election

2010-02-07T16:43:00.001Z

How did your MP vote on various issues over the last few years? How did any MP vote on various issues? Check on the Public Whip web site for the latest info.

What do MP’s do? Find out a bit more at the They Work For You web site.

Finally if you need to write to your MP (or local Councillor), then use this Web Form on the Write to Them web site. You will get a reply.

Technorati Tags: MP's,Government,Politics

Get ready to Vote

2010-02-07T10:56:00.001Z

With news reports this morning that there might be an April Election, its important that everyone is ready to vote.

Here’s a link to the About My Vote web site from the Electoral Commission, it tells you everything you need to know about voting.

Worth a look and be pre-pared.

Technorati Tags: Election,Politics,Government

Fast broadband – Is it an election issue?

2010-02-04T21:30:00.001Z

As the Conservatives fire the next round in the vote for me and I’ll get you faster Broadband, it looks like it set to become an important Election issue, just as getting the Banks better regulated, determining what is spent on Defence and what we do with our dwindling energy resources are. It's all about better national infrastructure planning and no government has really done that properly since WW II.

It's very clear to me that 'The Market' (okay it can't help that much with defence) cannot do this by itself, look at the mess we face with meeting our energy needs - no commercial company will build the national infrastructure needed for the next generation and successive governments have abdicated their responsibly of doing it for short term populist gains.

The same is true for Broad Band. We have known for a number of years that more of everyday life is moving 'online' and with a current government promoting more and more of this through its many 'citizen' portals – Direct.gov is but one example - giving full and speedy access to all these platforms 'is' the governments responsibility.

An earlier post showed a good example of the lack of joined up thinking by this government. If you create legislation for farming that requires daily data to be uploaded from farms, then you have to build the infrastructure to support that across the whole of the UK not just urban and city -scapes, unless of course you move all the farms into the cities to give them a good connection!

No individual commercial company is going to 'wire' the UK for free and why should they. More importantly, why do they need to when we already have a national infrastructure practically covering the whole of the UK and particularly rural areas - yes the BT network.

Over the years BT has I think done a good job of building a better network and delivering good broadband speed (no I don't work for them), but without (as far as I know) any large government funding/assistance specifically aimed at Broadband infrastructure. As a commercial company, yes they have had to be forced to open up their network to competing providers, but that is not a bad thing as it has helped drive down the overall costs to the end user - I know it has done that in my case and yes we now have more choice. But of course if government doesn't 'encourage' BT with direct funding, even they will not upgrade all the UK exchanges to deliver the so called minimum 2MB target talked about by Labour.

Perhaps the BT national network infrastructure needs to be hived off and run as a separate concern providing a fully government funded/assisted 'standard' platform for all UK Broadband ISP's. Nationalised? PPP? Something in between? Not sure. What I do know is that something needs to be done (not just talked about) quickly or the UK will slip further down the various league tables and any advantage that we think we have, will be further eradicated.

Again, yes it is an important election issue, but so are the UK power resources, you can have the best super fast broadband in the world, but if you cannot power your router up, what's the point.

Some Broadband speed info results from friends around the UK. Reading: BT-5.5 MB (Me), Richmond: Virgin-10.5MB, Montgomery: BT-4.3MB, Manchester: Talk Talk-2.3MB

Technorati Tags: Broadband Speed,Digital Britain

BBC European News – Where is it?

2010-01-25T10:14:00.001Z

I received my Time Europe newsletter today and one of the main stories that it covers is the the recent Belgium Beer crisis. The basis of the crisis is about job losses vs.. corporate debt.

Having visit Belgium many times and still having connections with it, I wondered why the BBC had not featured this story more prominently on its news website or on the BBC news broadcasts? I know I can’t watch everything but I thought I would have heard more about this than a fleeting news article (can’t remember the channel) some days ago.

It still amazes me how much European news seems to be left aside by the mainstream news media such as the BBC and Sky, except of course when the ‘bashing’ seems to start.

Here’s screen snaps of today's BBC Europe News page.

Despite the BBC having a special page dedicated to Northern Ireland (NI), the lead article is about NI, yes NI is part of the UK and we are part of Europe, but is this just laziness to repeat a story for the sake of it.

When you look at the rest of the page, there are at least 8 other stories relating to the UK, why when there is a already a special UK page where most of the stories are already shown.

I checked other online sites, Sky, Euro News and ITV – what a waste that was, but again not any real focus on European news, especially the Belgium Beer crisis.

However, the UK daily newspapers do seem to have covered this story reasonably well. The Times with a story about Brewery Managers being held hostage!, The Telegraph went with Belgium Beers shortages. While the ‘Gruniad’ shows nothing at all in its search results. Even Channel Four news site had nothing.

It always surprises me that despite the fact that we live only 22 miles from one of the biggest land masses in the world, how uninterested the BBC and other news organisations seems in everyday stories about Europe. I am sure if a minor celebrity had fallen over at the recent USA awards show, it would have been front page news on the BBC and Sky!

Come on BBC – and other mainstream TV news , wake up and get your European reporting sorted out.

Technorati Tags: News,Media,Reporting,Europe,BBC,Sky

An interrupted Sunday!

2010-01-25T00:18:00.001Z

We had our car's passenger side window popped during the night by some mindless idiot!! One of at least three cars that it happened to in our road last night!!!

What a mess to clear up, glass all over the inside of the car!! I suppose we now become another entry on the Crime Statistics for Berkshire. Just waiting for those friendly AutoGlass people to arrive to fit a replacement.

One interesting comment from the Police when I rang for the Crime Number for the Insurance company. They asked if anything was in the car that might be able to be used to get fingerprints off. I said that there was an aerosol can of windscreen ice defroster that had been moved by the 'perp', so they asked that it be lifted out carefully and placed in a 'paper' bag. They said that it had to be a paper bag and not a plastic bag as this can sometimes contaminate the 'evidence' with chemicals etc.

So it seems that all that you see on the various TV cops shows and even CIS (in its many variations) don't always keep to proper methods of collecting evidence. Anyway found an empty cereal box for the can.

Spoilt the day though.

Technorati Tags: Crime,Police,Annoying

Some great new programmes from the BBC

2010-01-24T23:44:00.001Z

Seems we are being deluged with many new and tremendously good documentary programmes from the BBC.

I spent the weekend catching up with a few that I have recorded on my PC while I sorted out various piles of paperwork in my office. Did not get a great deal of paperwork sorted – I was interrupted by another task – other post, but saw some great programmes.

Ones to watch:

Technorati Tags: BBC,Entertainment,Documentaries,TV

My ISP – Broadband Speed

2010-01-24T23:14:00.001Z

Seems I forgot to post my past four months Broadband speed graphs.

Don’t think I have anything to complain abut here, though its still not at the 8MB’s that BT always seemed to want to tell us that we could get.

In fact, I am now told by BT that I should now be able to get up to 20MB!!! That will be interesting to see. I have carried out one test that indicates that I could get 9MB, but I think I will have to replace my Net Gear ADSL router to achieve this.

Anyway it’s way better than Talk Talk seem unable to deliver as part of their so far failed multiple attempts to provide ‘free’ broadband as part of my domestic line rental move to them. What a bunch of hopeless idiots their support services are.

If anyone else is thinking of moving to Talk Talk – DONT!

Thank goodness I have kept my business line with BT!

Technorati Tags: BT-ISP,Broadband Speed,Digital Britain

PMQ’s – My Questions

2010-01-20T14:54:00.001Z

I watched today's PMQ’s and the PM’s statement afterwards and have two questions.

During PMQ’s the PM said that there had been a reduction in the number of people unemployed. No other information was given. Am I to understand that an equivalent number of new jobs have been created? If so where?

In his statement about new anti-terrorist security steps being put in place. Am I to understand that we are just now introducing a no-fly list?

It seems a bit late to me that our supposed rulers have only just thought of this! I wonder how much else they have forgotten to implement on our behalf.

Technorati Tags: Unemployment,Jobs,Government

Snow sill on major roads!

2010-01-11T09:46:00.001Z

Just took my wife to work, managed to get out of our local side road as many of the residents worked to clear snow away over the weekend. Car had not moved for over a week but started first time!

Went into Reading along the Shinfield Road and could see that there was a great deal of snow there as well, but some has obviously been cleared away.

But came back via Pepper Lane and could not believe how much snow was still on the road as well as packed ice!! Does Reading Council not see this road as a major traffic route?

I had heard that buses from Lower Earley were not using Pepper Lane during the deep snow fall, that I can understand. But over the weekend how come that the council snow ploughs have not been out at night when there was no traffic on the roads to get it sorted.

I expect it has something to do with the current stupid interpretation of Health & Safety rules where the council won’t insure their workers at night and I expect the local council unions have something to do with this not wanting their members to suffer too much in the cold!!!!

I seems to me that this country is loosing it ability to look after itself and everyone is always looking for an easy way out of any situation. I am sure if I can clear my part of my local road, Reading Council should be able to clear all major commuter roads!

Surely this is one very good reason that we pay our local taxes for!

Technorati Tags: Snow,Winter,Government

Are we stupid?

2010-01-08T23:10:00.001Z

I think that the current government thinks we are! Yes it is great that we have a plan (announced today) to provide more greener energy as an alternative to fossil fuel based energy generation.

But hang on a bit! If we now have all this new energy, how do we get it to the users? Well, it seems as per the article referenced above, that the government in their wisdom have failed to understand that all the new energy generated by the wind farms needs a better infrastructure than currently exists to deliver this new found green energy to the final consumer.

Estimates for the new super grid run at around £10 billion with no firm plans as to how this will be financed. Very clever joined up thinking; not!

It’s a bit like, lets build two new aircraft carriers, yet we don’t have any planes as yet to put on them, why? Well we haven’t ordered them as yet!

Yes, the government may think that we don’t know, or are not interested in these minute details. But I have a thought, I think we are interested, very interested in making sure that the short-sightedness of politicians and their supposed vote grabbing is seen for what it really is; vote grabbing with a huge cost to the public purse.

We must make any future government fully accountable to us for any further public spending and they must realise that we want real value for money, not just lip service for a tick on the ballot paper.

Technorati Tags: Politics,Government,Deficit,Public Spending.

A winter wonderland, again!

2010-01-06T09:43:00.001Z

More snow feel last night with more predicted to fall later today and at the weekend. Thank goodness for broadband and working from home. I was supposed to go into London today, glad I moved that appointment to next week!!

The view of my back garden does look nice though!

Technorati Tags: Winter,Snow

Le Touquet for the New Year

2010-01-05T23:24:00.001Z

So a new year has arrived. Had a good break over the holiday culminating in a nice three day break with friends in northern France and very nice New Years day walk along the beech at Le Touquet.

Technorati Tags: France,Winter,Panoramic

Electricity Running Costs Calculator

2009-12-28T16:46:00.001Z

Following on from the previous post and looking at my potential next domestic fuel bill in light of the recent cold snap, I had some time to look into some online Electricity Running Costs Calculators. Are they accurate, do they really tell you what’s going on?

About three years ago I purchased a wireless Electricity consumption indicator – you basically wrap the sensor around your incoming power lines and the meter picks up the signal and displays it in pence per hour or Kilowatts.

It’s the last thing I look at before I go up to bed and really does make you focus on what might be running that should not be. When I get up in the morning, with the Fridge, Freezer, House Alarm, two bedside clocks running overnight and the morning start-up of the central heating pump it averages about 2.5 pence per hour overnight.

Of course there is that heart stopping moment you get when Sunday lunch is on the go, it’s been raining for a few days and the tumble dryer just has to go on and a few other appliances are running when the reading peaks at over £1.00 per hour!!! But on average it does make me think more about the energy running cost of the house.

But what about if you want to calculate what a single electrical appliance uses, here’s a few online calculators that I found that seem to work quite well.

Happy energy saving.

Technorati Tags: Energy Costs,Electricity,Gas

Petrol is still too expensive!

2009-12-28T16:03:00.001Z

Back in July this year my car, a 12½ year old Vauxhall Omega Estate (169,570 miles travelled, many over the whole of Europe, original engine, original clutch, original gearbox with one careful owner!!) finally gave up the ghost through having both exhaust manifold gaskets blowing up and requiring a costly engineering job to fix.

After some thought and as I was not really driving many miles any more and as the repair would have cost more than the car was worth, I decided to give up having a car and although I miss it (strange, but true!) we are managing very well with one car.

Although now not owning a car, one thing that does not seem to have changed is the still high cost of petrol and diesel! I was out today for a walk and noticed that my local garage prices were still up at the £1.04/litre for Unleaded and £1.06/litre for Diesel!

I thought as the cost of Oil was still down why are we still paying through the nose for fuel. Somewhere, someone is making money at our expense.

I came across this widget from Oil-Price.net and have added it to my Blog in the left column – you may have to scroll down a bit to see it.

As you can see from the graph Oil, although going up a little bit in recent weeks, remains massively down on the previous high of 24 months ago. So why has the price of petrol become again an expense purchase?

Yes, we do have to conserve fuel resources, yes we have to cut back on emissions and yes we have to save the planet. But we still have to get around and go places.

I could understand if Oil was over $100.00/barrel, but while it remains at $78 ish and an average UK litre of unleaded costing £1.07 and diesel costing £1.09, I can’t help thinking that someone is making a killing. By the way, don’t forget that VAT goes back up in the New Year so there's another 1.5 pence on a litre to think about. Here’s a recent report from the AA on the cost of fuel and comparisons with other European countries.

I think our high prices are here to stay.

Technorati Tags: Fuel,Petrol,Emmisions,CO2,Prices.