Bad News and Good News

A recent study has shown that parents dropping their children of at school by car increases the level of fine particulates in the area by three times. Some of this even gets into the classrooms nearest the road. Fine particulates are the ones that can do most damage as they can be inhaled deep into the lung.

When schools are open again perhaps it is time to start making the kids walk or cycle to school (or if it's too far, go by bus). I know they don't like it but it will help save their health and the planet.

The coronavirus pandemic has led to a huge drop in demand for petrol and clothes. This has caused prices to drop - obviously bad news if you are a producer but great news for customers as the rate of inflation has now dropped to 1.5%.

Austria and Sweden have each unplugged their last coal-fired power station from the grid. Belgium has already done so, and at least a dozen other European countries plan to do so by the end of the decade (the good news) ........ but scientists say it is already too late to prevent the rapid loss of sea ice in the arctic during the summer months (the bad news). The loss of large amounts of ice-cover, and therefore reflectivity, mean that the arctic will warm up even faster than before (the even worse news). However, it does mean that more ships from northern Europe can use the route along the north coast of Russia to reach the Far East, which is 40 per cent shorter than the normal route via the Suez canal. (a bit more good news).

Today is Earth Day

Earth Day (April 22^nd) was initiated in 1970 after a huge oil spill in California prompted 20 million Americans (10% of the population at the time) to take to the streets in a mass protest demanding more environmental awareness. It has been held on April 22 ever since, which makes this year its 50^th anniversary. With climate change now getting rapidly out of control it has never been more relevant.

We started Lent studying the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book, “Saying Yes to Life”. If you stopped reading it when our meetings were curtailed due to Covid19, I urge you to finish reading it now and look up some of the many internet references it provides, particularly those relating to A Rocha.

Also look up www.earthday.org and learn more about Earth Day.

The good news coming from the Covid 19 pandemic is that pollution has been greatly reduced. Almost all flights have been grounded, offices closed and cars taken off the roads. Estimates put the potential drop in CO2 emissions (over 2019 figures) at 5.5% globally (7.5% in the US.).  In Delhi, Bangkok and São Paulo residents have expressed disbelief at the unusually clean air in cities usually choked with pollution. But this reduction in emissions is still way off what we’d need to prevent 1.5 degrees Celsius of global heating. To hit this, global emissions would need to fall by 7.6 per cent every year this decade.

See:  www.wired.co.uk/article/coronavirus-climate-change for more details.

The coronavirus outbreak gives us a chance to refocus our priorities in a concerted effort to reach net zero by 2050.

Golf Logic

I went to a wedding yesterday. The reception wasa at the "Three Rivers Golf and Country Club". During a lull in the proceedings I took a stroll to the first tee where I found a large sign-board with the rules of the club painted up for all to see. They must have been devised by a professor of logic because, apart from all the expected ones about not using buggies in wet conditions or in certain areas, there was this interesting request. "Maintain your position on the course by keeping your place directly behind the game in front of you, NOT directly in front of the game behind you." Unless you happen to be the last game of the day, I can't see how you can do one without the other being an automatic corollary. Maths much have changed since I did it at school! - or perhaps I've just never understood the rules of golf (which must obviously supercede the normal rules of logic for those concerned).

Negative Management

I have never been much of a follower of management jargon. To me, good management is a matter of common sense but with the increasing rarity of that commodity I have turned to thinking about the theory of management - Journeyman style!

I have come to the conclusion that there are three basic types of management:
(1) Positive management - actions taken by managers which improve the situation.
(2) "Laissez Faire" - basically "do nothing and let the workers sort themselves out". Depending on the calibre of the workers, this may actually result in better results than (1).
(3) Negative management - actions taken by managers to interfere with the normal working of the organisation which results in worse results than if they had done nothing.

Sadly, I have to report that Follyville, which has so far generally exercised option 2 with reasonable success has now descended to Option 3 - Negative Management. I don't suppose it is intentional but it comes from not considering the outcomes or consulting the workers before decisions are made. The management and burghers of Follyville have always had a very blinkered "one issue" approach and the latest developments follow in this trend. The issue at the moment is saving money. It's the same everywhere in Local Government - Follyville is no different. But instead of asking the question "how can we sensibly save money", the word "sensibly" is left out. Result - negative management. Let me illustrate with a recent example.

Two officers of Follyville had been booked on a course in London. It was assumed that admin. would order them train tickets (as pre-ordering results in a saving on the full price). However, the day before they were due to go they were informed by management that there was no money in the training budget. There was, however, money in the mileage budget. Rather than going by train Officer 1 should therefore drive to Officer 2's house and then drive the two of them to Newbury Park underground station. From there they could get the underground train to their course.

Let's analyse this scenario:

Cost under normal arrangements -
2 x Train fare (including Travelcard) @ £50.20 = £100.40 (N.B. this would have been cheaper if tickets ordered in advance).

Cost under Negative Management arrangements -
97 miles mileage reimbursement @ £0.40 £38.80
Car Parking at Newbury Park £ 4.50
2 x Tube fare to Holborn £20.00
2 x 1.5 hours extra journey time @ £17.76 £53.28
______
Total cost £116.58

So a misguided attempt to save Follyville some money actually resulted in spending £16 extra plus considerable increased aggravation for the officers concerned in having to drive back in the rush hour, in the dark, in the pouring rain with all the hazards of road water and spray. Not a nice journey at all.

Americans are mad too!

Just to demonstrate that it is not just the British that are quite mad and that Americans too seem to have abdicated all responsibility for common sense, I attach the following snippet, gleaned from an E-newsletter.

A mother of two in Sacramento, California has filed a class action lawsuit against McDonalds because they use toys to unfairly market their Happy Meals to under 8's. It is stated that "Children eight years old and younger do not have the cognitive skills and the developmental maturity to understand the persuasive intent of marketing and advertising."

Quite so - but unless things are significantly different on the other side of the pond, how often is a child of eight or less going to be going into McDonald's on their own and ordering a Happy Meal? It doesn't happen here. If a child that young is in Mcdonald's they will be with an adult or older sibling who will understand the point of marketing and advertising and should have the necessary willpower to say "No" if they don't consider the Happy Meal to be appropriate.

Clearly American women either have no willpower at all or are negligent in allowing their young children to go roaming unaccompanied. To blame McDonalds for this scenario is quite ridiculous. It would be like someone here taking legal action against a car manufacturer for advertising the fact that their car goes from 0 - 90 in 10 seconds, knowing full well that you are not allowed to drive more than 70 mph. The individual is expected to excercise a bit of common sense and responsibility.

Unfortunately - being America - there is a reasonable prospect that she will win her case. I look forward to the result with bated breath. If I hear the result I will report back in this blog. If she wins, that will probably be my last entry before I go off and slit my wrists!

More Government Madness

"Heathrow faces fines for chaos" was the headline in the Sunday Times 26.12.10. Apparently the government is to bring in new legislation that will allow airports to be fined tens of millions of pounds for disrupting passengers' travel.

Has the government gone completely off it's trolley? Does it think that the airport operators have any control whatsoever on the amount of snow dumped on their runways or the weight of ice forming on their planes? Of course they don't. And you can bet your life that none of these "fines" will find their way back to the passengers who have been disrupted. The government has just come up with one more creative wheeze to get more money for nothing and increase costs for everybody else. If the airports are fined large amounts they will obviously have to pass on the costs to the travelling public, thus reducing the numbers who can afford to fly and increasing the dissatisfaction of those who are trying to fly but cannot because of the snow.

The government is supposed to represent the people - and I can't see many of the thinking public supporting this idea. But if they are daft enough to bring in this legislation, it is only fair (in line with their "equality" agenda) to bring in similar legislation granting tax rebates to everyone who has their travel disrupted by their failure to keep the roads clear. Or is it a cardinal sin if you can't swan off on holiday abroad but not if you can't manage to get to the shops to buy food? This government has a very weird sense of priorities!

Creative Accountancy

Many years ago I met my friend for the first time after leaving school. I had gone to university and he had gone straight out to find a job. I asked him what he was doing now and he replied "Creative Accountancy". An ordinary accountant, it seemed, did the more mundane monetary tasks, while a Creative Accountant was ....... well ...... more creative. It seemed to me just like a new or more polite term for "fiddling the figures".

Well those currently in office at the Treasury must be well qualified in Creative Accountancy. They have invented a new term to make a large reduction in grant sound like a reduction of less than half the real amount! The trouble is, as no one has heard of this term before, they have to explain it, and once they have done that it becomes obvious to all what a devious brood they all are.

The executives of Follyville have just been told what their government grant will be next year. It would appear that the grant for 2011-12 has been reduced by 6% (as a percentage of "Revenue Spending Power"). On enquiry, this new term is explained as "the government grant + the amount of Council Tax they are expected to collect". You don't need to be very qualified in maths to realise that they are "fiddling the figures" on a massive scale to try and hide the fact that the real reduction in grant is actually 15.5%. No wonder politicians get a bad name!