Although it was 80 years ago I can remember is as if it were yesterday, despite being almost 13 years old at the time.
I lived on the SE coast at the time and we awoke to the sound of aircraft engines and on looking out there were aircraft from horizon to horizon, formation upon formation, all heading out to the sea. It was clear that something very big was going on long before the announcement on the radio. What was amazing was that this stream of aeroplanes continued throughout the day until dusk, it seemed impossible that we could have so many aeroplanes.
Being so young I was unaware of the full impact of what was going on and that while I wondered at what I was seeing, only a few miles away men were being killed in their thousands, it takes time to come to a full understanding.
Robin Bird @adler
Cowley
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Posted in: Anything !
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Posted in: Anything !
Received an Email today purporting to come from PayPal advising that a new app had registered with my account and asking for me to confirm it to be genuine and change the password. If you follow the links and use a mobile phone you could be tempted to accept it, I use a landline security for which there is no entry on the security window so I know this was a scam. -
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Just got my new bill and saw that the GLA charge has gone up, yet again, by 8.99%. Checking back I found the following facts:- In the period 2011/12-2014/5 my Council Tax remained static while the GLA Charge reduced by 4.78%. During the period 2015/6-2024/5, under the stewardship of Sadik Khan, the Council Tax has increased by 25.1%, while the GLA Charge has risen by 59.8%, so which you can add the ULEZ costs. So who is screwing Londoners?. God help us when/if Starmer gets into NO 10. -
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An investor has been following the steadily falling price of Oil and when he believes it has reached rock bottom he buys 10,000 barrels at 70p a barrel. Sadly for him the price continues to fall and reaches 50p a barrel, so what is his smart move:- 1) Sell ASAP and cut his losses. 2) Hang on and hope/wait for the price to recover. 3) Any other,--specify. -
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A press item on Labours plan to impose VAT @ 20% on Independent/Private schools and made me reach for my calculator. A little research soon supplied some numbers to crunch and although they vary slightly depending on the source, the order of magnitude remains similar. The facts are very interesting as the following shows. In the UK there are2600 independent schools and they charge an average of £16,000pa per pupil and they educate 615,000 children which creates a market of £9.84billion. If VAT@ 20% is impose this will raise £1.968billion in revenue for HMRC. This is fine provided there are no repercussions from this action, which is improbable, since it is bound to force some parents to forego the private sector and revert to State funded education thus reducing the VAT while increasing the cost to the State. Additionally the existing school infrastructure would have to find new places for these pupils as well as teachers to teach them. Let us now speculate upon the possible effects of this action. According to gov.uk figures (2021/2) the State spends £1,485’s per capita pa.so if we hypothesize that 10% of private pupils are forced from private to state education, then the loss of VAT would be£1.968million and the additional places required would 61,500. Further, if the exodus were to rise to 20% then the reduction in VAT become £393.6million and the required places to 122,000. We have members with teaching experience whose comments on the feasibility of this possible result would be welcome. The Shadow Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, say that independent schools will not need to raise their fees as they could absorb the VAT by cutting costs, so let us examine the feasibility of her ideas. For simplicity let us treat the market as if it were one big school whose fees are £9.0billion, which at 20% would raise £1.8billion of VAT. Now if fees are not to be raised then the invoice value has to be reduced to £7.5billion. Now if the POR is say 30% ( reasonable) then the operating cost, including net profit must be £4.5billion or a reduction of 25%. Seriously is this woman so stupid as to believe that any industry could survive with an inbuilt wastage factor of 25%? However the industry could make some cuts quite easily by withdrawing the £1.2billion that it gives in assisted fees and its involvement in partnerships with State Schools. Surely anyone with half a brain would question the wisdom of such a cockamamie proposal but instead the electorate is allowing itself to be led around, by politicians, like sheep to the slaughter because they are failing to ask the question “what if” and do a few simple calculations to evaluate what they are being asked to vote for. WE GET WHAT WE DESERVE, BY OUR INDOLENCE. -
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IS MONEY ON THE MOVE? The title question is posed as those that study the financial gurus will have observed that they are indicating resurgence in the bond market which has been unattractive for some time. Two weeks ago I had a meeting with my financial adviser which resulted in the revision of our portfolio requirement from –maximise income with capital growth to match inflation, to a more capital growth configuration, which meant discarding funds that produced 72% of annual investment income in favour of better growth oriented investments. This decision is based on the assumption that Labour will win the next election, judging by the by-election results (not known at the time) seems even more likely, therefore with Labour historical ability to always screw up the economy, protective action is necessary. It would appear that Stammer’s current approach of promising people what they want rather than what they can afford, is already causing the markets to close ranks and when, rather than if, they do then his promises will be even more hollow. Without the markets’ support he can’t govern, Liz Truss proved that. One has to recognize that in taking investment action of this kind there are risks, however on balance it is fairly certain that if it is wrong the losses will only be an odd thousand or two whereas if it is right it will almost certainly stop 10’s of £1000’s being wiped off our savings. Finally, this post is not intended to be considered as financial advice, but it might prove helpful in provoking some thought, and is backed up by the fact that I have put our money where my mouth is. -
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Here are some facts culled from Andrew Neil’s piece in last Saturdays (7/10/23) Daily Mail. While one may not subscribe to his views, experience has shown that he has a very good and reliable research team. Most members are familiar with my pessimistic views on the future of Planet Earth, but even I was appalled at these facts. FACT 1 Paul Johnson of the IFS, despite previous denials, now admits that the cost to the UK of going “green” will be £’s trillions, most of which will fall upon the poorest in our society. FACT 2 France has ruled out the banning of gas boilers and will not commit to a date for ceasing to use fossil fuels. FACT 3 Germany is recommissioning several coal fired generating plants and already has 7 out of 10 of the most polluting coal generating stations in the EU. FACT 4 The UK is responsible for ONLY 1% of global Co2 emissions, a fact well known but worth repeating. FACT 5 China, the world’s biggest polluter, and responsible for 32% of global Co2 emissions is giving planning permission for two new coal fired generating plants EVERY WEEK, and in 2022 approved a further 106GW of coal fired power capacity. China now has 243GWs of coal fired power capacity (1 GW = 1 power plant) planned or under construction. FACT 6 India, the second largest polluter, is also building more coal fired power plants. FACT 7 America, which has the third largest coal-fired generating capacity, if it were to close it all down now that capacity would soon be entirely replaced by China. FACT 8 Also building new coal fired generating plants are, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Pakistan, Philippines, S. Korea, and Vietnam. FACT 9 The Asia- Pacific now accounts 80% of global coal demand. QUESTION. Can any member please explain to me how it makes any sense for the costs of the present policy, that are being passed on to the hard pressed tax payer, for a global reduction of Co2 that is insignificant. Consider that were the banning of gas boilers to be in place now, and that your present boiler needed replacement it would cost you about £2,000 for a similar appliance but £20,000 for a heat pump. Surely it is time to put the present policy on hold until better financial conditions apply. -
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In last Saturday’s Daily Mail there appeared two very interesting articles. Putting aside the political bias of this paper and concentrating purely on the facts we are faced with a very interesting choice as follows:- HEADS 1) The government has agree to grant India owned Tata Steel £500million of taxpayers money to convert their Port Talbot coal furnaces from coal to green arc furnaces, thus preventing the closure of the plant. Tata will add £750million bringing the total to £1.25billion. 2) Tata Steel employs 8,000 workers and supports a supply chain of 12,500 jobs but the conversion will create 3000 redundancies but will save the remaining 5,000, together with those in the supply chain. 3) It is estimated that the conversion will reduce the UK’s CO2 emissions by1.5% i.e. 4.71Mt which equates to 0.013% (my calculation) of Global Emissions. TAILS. 1) The steel industry is vital to the UK’s defence industry, also the car industry, and with war in Europe even more so. 2) The UK steel industry has already declined from 300,000 jobs in 1970 to 39,800 jobs at present. 3) Tata is a major investor, Jaguar/Rover, in the UK and will invest £15billion, over 5 years, in the conversion of the car industry to green production, including £4billion for a new car battery plant. Further it is one of the few inward investors that are strongly backing the UK. 4) Tata’s primary investments in the UK are a main contributor to the UK’s growth that has seen us become the world’s 8th largest manufacturing hub overtaking France. 5) A further benefit could be that by supporting Tata, the Government will be improving relation with India while we are negotiating a tariff breaking new trade deal. MY COMMENT. The anti-green lobby will say that this is not a cost effective way, in times of economic stress, of reducing CO2 emissions which is clearly true. The Trade Unions in their usual dog in the manger approach say it is a shift to green at the expense of the workers while ignoring the saving of some 17,500 jobs that will otherwise be lost. Progress is usually less labour intensive. In this group there are those who, while never having had to make a significant decision in their lives, and who, with the clarity of hindsight, always know what is the right action. For them here is an opportunity to come out of their foxholes and express an opinion BEFORE the outcome is known. MY OPINION. To spend £500million to achieve a 0.013% reduction in Global CO2 emissions while losing 3,000 jobs would be stupidity of the highest order, however, taking into account all the other considerations then it is surely right to make this investment and regard the CO2 gain as a fortunate spin off, not a reason. I will await comment with interest, NB. The figure for CO2 emissions vary depending on the source but the ones that I used are of the right order, and I hope I got 0’s right. -
Posted in: Carers and Caring
For the last 18 months, since I have had to take on a full time caring role needing full time watching over I have lost 21 lbs in weight which is a big bonus as being no longer able to indulge in playing golf increasing weight has become a problem. With a heart condition of my own this is a real asset as I might be around for a little longer than I thought. -
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This is an emotional hot potato but:- Now that the media outrage and hype surrounding this heinous and horrendous crime is abating and that our emotion and horror are becoming less acute, now might be the time to stand back, take stock, and calmly allow our heads to take over from our hearts. Sadly we cannot undo what has occurred but surely it is our duty, to both the victims and their families, to learn all we can from this awful crime in an endeavour to try to prevent a recurrence. While, despite copious reporting on this crime there has been little said, and what has been said is all negative, about what is surely the most important question of all namely, “Why did she do it?” . If we fail to resolve that question then we are missing the opportunity to derive anything positive from this horrible business. We are going to lock up this monster for the next 50/60 years, at great expense, so it makes sense to use every means at our disposal, including drugs if necessary, to determine the answer to that all important question, so that others might be saved. Secondly, there is the question of the verdicts in this trial since if one analyses the results I believe, there arises an interesting question to be explored, relating to our jury system. Consider, if you will, that of the 22 indictments which for murder there were 7 convictions 1 unanimous and 6 majority verdicts, while for attempted murder there were 7 convictions 2 unanimous and 5 majority verdicts. Of the remaining indictments 6 were hung juries and finally 2 were not guilty. This result means that, of the 22 indictments, on 85% of them the entire jury could not agree as to guilt, and only on 15% was there total accord. Now the jurors were ordinary people, might have been any one of us, chosen at random to serve, yet despite what appears to be overwhelming evidence of guilt, there were some who were not convinced. I would suggest that the doubters were probably the most level headed and dispassionate of the twelve. My question is, that in view of the severity of the tariff due for these crimes, should we not be trying to determine what gave rise to those doubts?. It must have taken a great deal of courage to register those doubts rather than being swept along with the herd, so surely it is important for us to understand and to know why they chose to do so. In this case the minimum of 10 to 2 would have been required. -
Posted in: Carers and Caring
I found this procedure by accident. To ensure the correct dosage it became necessary for me to dispense my wife's medication so I decided to do this as the first task of the day, immediately on waking up. One morning I awoke early so got up, pulled the curtains and dispensed the medication and as I was ahead of schedule I sat up in bed and relaxed for 10 minutes or so, and I noticed that when I got up to start the day that I was functioning much more efficiently, so I tried it again with the same result. Now I rise earlier so that I can dispense the medication, with 10 minutes to spare to sit in bed, relax and plan the days activity, I find this very helpful, perhaps you might find it so too.
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