Workers

Musings

Workers should go to work and come home.

They shouldn’t die on the job.

The number of workers killed at work on the World Cup and associated builds is impossible to state. What is clear is that the data isn’t accurate, or consistent.

And that dying of heat exposure isn’t considered to be an issue like falling from height.

If the number from the ILO is taken as a baseline, then a working population of 1.5m had 50 fatal accidents in 2020. The U.K. has about 120 fatal accidents per year.

Qatar has lots of money. There’s no excuse.

World Cup

Musings

How many is too many? How many people is it acceptable to kill building facilities for a major sporting event?

One? Ten? A hundred? A thousand?

6500… probably more… employed on an exploitative basis…

When watching the World Cup, remember the cost…

Back Again

Musings

It’s been a while…

Things have changed. As ever. Moved from the Midlands to the North East… of Scotland. Which is a Big Move.

And then Elon broke Twitter… so, although the presence is maintained, there’s not much use anymore…

Mastodon is the ‘new place’. Like the old place used to be, back before 2016 and all of the bile and hate that was released… No algorithm to drive ‘controversial’ views to you… just people you choose to interact with.

It’s more like Bake Off than Question Time. Which is a Good Thing.

So the Blog is back. I’ll try to keep it regular.

One year ago, we moved North. Seems time for a new beginning. So this is it.

Brexit again

Musings

I’ve not posted for a while. Well over a year in fact. That’s a long time. Derby have a new manager (Frank Lampard) after appointing and losing Gary Rowett (shame. Almost.).

and still Brexit isn’t done.

Again, we have discussions and debates about which type of Brexit we should have. What then people wanted and voted for. How much better no deal is than a bad deal.

And yet, truth be told, a bad deal is a disaster for the country. If you don’t believe me, read the government assessments.

It’s taken over two years, plus two prime ministers and two Brexit secretaries to get to this point of a negotiated divorce agreement.  And we have a few pages on a future relationship that will be worse than membership of the EU. These things are self evident, supported by Government assessments.

Yet we persist.

And at the same time the UN inspector says that the UK has 1.5m people living in destitution. That’s all on the heads of the UK government.

Leaving the EU won’t solve this major stain on our country.  It needs a change of hearts, minds and bodies in government.  And it always has done, despite what people may have told you…

Israel

Musings

Let me be honest. It’s never a place I’ve wanted to visit.

Now I’m here after a complicated trip…

Flight to Zurich, then to Tel Aviv… then the fun starts… long lines at immigration… bagagge picked up OK… internet expensive and difficult so I need a GPS… car rental takes for ever to sort…  then the GPS takes me around in circles before I finally get on the road and head north.

Four hours after landing I arrive at the hotel.  Tired and exhausted.

I’ve seen a shepherd – and biblical shepherds couldn’t have been more disreputable.  Lots of flowers and lots of cacti…

A few Israeli flags but some massive Palestinian ones…

Driving is tricky… signs in Hebrew, with place names in Arabic and English so you never quite know what’s required…

still, safe and sound so now for bed…

 

 

Reflections on Brexit

Musings, Political Ranting

So it’s been a while. Sorry. Actually, I’m not. I’ve been fuming, in a loudish way, about Brexit for about a year and that’s hardly conducive to sensible blogs.

But this week ‘negotiations’ have started. A couple of weeks. And we had a General Election.

We’ve had terror attacks and a major tower block fire.   So there is stuff to discuss…

I’ll start with Brexit, because it’s the Big Thing.  It seems to me that things have taken time to change.  Cameron resigning threw the cat amongst the pigeons and that wasted time.  May appeared as Leader and unelected PM after a futile contest of back-stabbing and bitterness.  ‘Brexit Means Brexit’ she thundered – although no one quite new what that meant.  Labour struggled with Corbyn as Leader with factions and fanatics creating a welcome diversion for the Tories and their divisions.

The polls gave May a 20 point lead and Corbyn no chance.  Remainers had a march but didn’t really get organised and it seemed Brexit meant the worst kind of leaving…

Then May, after a series of mistakes, blunders and U turns, decided that – against her word – she’d call a snap election…

And that’s when the world changed…

Corbyn is at his best talking to real people about issues. He’s rubbish when trapped around dropping bombs (a good thing I’d say; we’ve had too many war mongers) but get him talking about real people and he’s red hot.

May is rubbish around people. She’s rubbish around Stage managed people.  She has the leadership skills of a cow shed and the charisma of a sheep dip.  Repeating ‘strong and stable’ when ducking debates isn’t strong. Blaming things you’ve been in charge of for the past six years for failing to keep people safe from terrorists isn’t stable…

Corbyn lost the election but I suspect he’s won the next one…  May won the election but lost all power…

Now Brexit negotiations have begun and we are still no clearer about what we want to achieve than some vague notions of taking back control of things we control, and wanting some relationship with the EU that isn’t what we have now…

so it’s all nonsense. And Diddy David Davies went to Brussels without any prepared papers and had to concede on all the points being discussed…

We are a long way from leaving the EU. The economy isn’t great. May has no credibility and the lies of the leave campaign are exposed more clearly each week.

The sooner people change their minds the better we will all be…

Ties

Musings

I’m off to a breakfast meeting this morning. I’m on the train which is good. It’s going to be a hot one so I’ve sensibly gone for the linen option – it worked in Seoul so Brum and Notts should be fine.

However, there is a challenge…

At lunchtime I’m off to an Old Boys’ Lunch, which is a first… not being an Old Boy of course. I’m old and I was once a boy. No, this is a first in the sense that I’ve not done one of these.

Its at a Golf Club in a salubrious neighbourhood. I asked about dress code… 99% wear lounge suits or blazers…

I haven’t worn a suit since 2012… and its hotter than a hot tub today, so the blazer is out…

The dress code does, though, require a tie…

Its hotter than a boiler room on a tramp steamer in Macau and I have to wear a TIE!  (The emphasis is all their’s)…

So I shall…  I shall also be mature about it… my readers would expect nothing less…

New Nukes

Musings

So it looks like May is going to agree to an expensive deal after all. So we will get a design notorious for over running, backed by money from China and all at a massive price premium.

The decisions to privatise the CEGB in a piecemeal fashion continue to hurt the country. Instead of having a design that we sell to the world, we pay over the odds for a French one…