What a load of hot air!

Well, Copenhagen turned out to be exactly what was expected from it. A complete waste of time. Don’t believe the hype and realise that like Kyoto, the only people who won were the airline companies ferrying the delegates to and from the conference (in the greenhouse gas emitting aeroplanes).

So, what next? Well, if you’re in Bangladesh, the Maldives or the Pacific Islands, you have to realise that you’re just not that important. We in the West will continue to drive our cars to the newsagents. We’re just too lazy to walk. So, you guys will sink.

To those guys living in SubSaharan Africa, already an area filled with incompetence, don’t worry. Added to the chiefs who hold sway over your lives with AK-47’s, China will keep burning coal to keep its economy running. So you get the twin prods of mineral extraction and unreliable rainfall. If climate models are anything to go with, then this area is going to get really shafted. Unless you are the one holding the gun?

And what about us guys, here in the ‘developed world’? Well, everything will continue as normal. Denial, sorry, ‘more scientific proof’ will reign supreme, and life will seem pretty comfortable. After all, the Earth is fat and any rise in sea level will fall over the sides! All that education, and we’re no better than savages!

‘Life’

I am a space geek. It is quite clear to anyone who has read this blog in the past that I am a big Sci-Fi buff. I also love the thought of exploring, I am a great traveller if I may say so myself. Of course, this love of Sci-Fi and travel leads to only one conclusion. The ability to explore space and to nail and alien chick!

Seriously though, I really do believe in humanity’s reach for the stars. It is not something that will happen in my lifetime, but there will be a time in the future when traveling beyond the confines of our Solar System to live , work and play on far flung planets will be as easy as it is for us today traveling around this globe. Of course it will take a huge leap in technology if we are ever to achieve this goal. We also need a destination. So far, most of the extrasolar planets discovered have been huge fiery balls of gas, completely unsuitable for human habitation. But there is one that has very recently been found, a Super Earth, that could possibly have water on its surface. No one claims that there are little green men (or hot alien chicks) living on this world, but scientists are getting closer to discovering a possible twin for us minute Earthlings…

The new whipping boys…

Bankers are the new public enemy number one. Like politicians and journalists, bankers are the new kids on the block when it comes to pointing the finger. The public need a scapegoat and so, there they are, ready to bend over ad take the whipping like the public schoolboys they grew up as. Well, we are paying their wages, and as government employees/receivers of government subsidies/loans they are subject to our scrutiny.

But one wanker is standing up to this. He has had enough. He wants his precious throne back, and will do anything to get it. So he is after the teacher of his son who called all bankers sleazeballs.

It seems that getting state handouts to ensure his luxury lifestyle is not enough. He is now after the people who pay his wages – the honest taxpayer (rather than the tax ‘avoider’/offshore wealth merchant). You see ego is a fragile thing. Obviously, the man must have a really small dick to go after someone on a fraction of the wage that he leeches off the voting public. And unlike ‘Skip Mcgee’, the teacher in question works for a private school, and so he is not on the receiving end of government handouts or soft loans. So while our investment banker labels our private sector teacher as a leftist, he is quite happy to manipulate his government’s policy to ensure that his industry gets as much state aid as possible. Whether it is favourable tax policies, government bail outs or the distortion of our own (rapidly depreciating) cash in order to maintain the status quo…

Comrade, don’t you just love capitalism?

And so it’s good bye from the ‘Noughties’ (1)

We have under a month left until the end of the decade, and so how was it for you? Was it hell? Certainly if you look at world events we had major terrorist attacks in NY, Madrid, London, Mumbai and Bali littered amongst the multitude of events worldwide. We had massive natural disasters. The Tsunami and the 2005 hurricane season were the big natural disasters of the decade but let us also recall Cyclone Nargis, the Kashmir Earthquake. Bam in Iran and Sichaun in China also suffered from massive earthquakes. As a tail end note, Mozambique suffered from massive flooding at the beginning of the 2000’s .

Oh, and if you are in the west than look no further than the economic meltdown of the past two years. Plus we in the west elected some of the worst tyrants in recent history, who instigated more wars and suffering amongst the most destitute people on the globe. At least we are not in North Korea.

In the UK we seem to be quite happy to give over our hard won freedoms to governments and law advisors more interested in controlling the population instead of listening to it. So now we have CCTV up your backside (the cameras in my job can see me pick my nose), a new expensive compulsory ID Card system and a populace too scared to live because of the no-win no-fee parasites that bombard your cable television channels with cheap adverts, promising you the world (the money had to come from somewhere).

On a personal level we have also given up much of our individual freedom. Shackled by debt, the average UK resident is no better than the bonded labourers of the 19th century. Now striking has become a byword for treason despite the fact that is was here in the UK that led the industrial strike movement and the establishment of basic workers rights (we need more men like him).

And so, that’s it. The Noughties, the 2000’s, the beginning of the new Millennium and the 21st Century. Tomorrow, a more personal view…

Is this the world’s sh**tiest article?

I do not often criticise what I read/watch/listen/taste. I write too and I am attempting to become a film maker, so I am sensitive to the criticism that I dole out, as there is enough negativity in this world. But this is truly awful:

‘My Girlfriend’s Unusual Birthday Present‘

I don’t know what is more depressing, the fact that this guy is getting paid to write this drivel, the fact that I have just written off forty precious seconds of my life by reading this or that it was actually on the front page of this newspaper’s website when I clicked on it.

The only good thing is that this was free, but if newspapers want to know why we readers don’t buy them anymore, this is a good place to start looking.

The comments are far more interesting and informative than the article itself.

Even the London Lite was more inspirational than this.

But you know what the really s**t thing is. I can’t stop reading this article, it is truly that awful. It’s like some awful car crash, I can’t stop looking.

The rich get richer…

Money is good. There, I have said it. Just in case many of you think I am some mini-socialist on a computer, I am not I am a damn capitalist pig. I like capitalism, I like the way it, over other forms of monetary policy, gives the most freedom to the individual and reduces government dictates into your life. But I hate government managed capitalism. In the sense that during the good times, government keeps out and during the bad times, they prop up the system.

The whole point of getting capitalism to work is that the bad companies, the individuals who are incompetent are made to go bankrupt and loose their ability to con and swindle the public (I may like capitalism, but I am under no illusions to what its purpose is), while the good companies can continue to screw the public for what they are prepared to pay.

Good governments save up the tax receipts in the good times, so that in periods of slumps, they can manage the fall out, keep essential services running and keep the tax rate stable so that companies that are surviving, do not have the horrible shock of rising taxes during a recovery.

California has completely failed in this. Look closely, as what is happening over there, will be happening in the UK after May next year. At the moment, there is a lot of posturing due to the upcoming election. Once that is over, all hell will break loose and this ‘phoney recession’ that we are living through will suddenly bottom out.

If our politicians had any guts, they would have let those banks hit the wall. But there would have been a regulatory process in place to ensure that governments could have taken over the running of the essential services such as transfer of wage payments, withdrawals & deposits and debt repayments. Instead, the ‘light touch’ economy of the UK is hopelessly inadequate at doing anything much other than skimming taxes from business and enjoying long lunches in The City with the boys in suits.

And so these banks continue to survive, with the same people who f**ked about with our money, now screwing about with our taxes. Those long lunches are still going on, and the rich, well, they are getting richer.

The average house price in London is £260,000 (about $420,000). The average London wage per year is £26,000. Sensible lending gives a guide of three to four times the annual wage for the handing out of a mortgage to ensure affordability and guaranteed repayments. For an average worker he must take out a mortgage TEN times his salary in order to buy the average house in London.

I hate to be blunt, but house prices will not be coming down anytime soon. And let us be honest, if I wanted to live an ‘average life’, I would have to slave in a fantastically paid job to be able to afford just an average dwelling. I am very happy to see the fruits of success, but something tells me, there is still a huge lopsidedness in the economy of the UK. After all, why are house prices so high in London? Did we find oil, is there a gold rush, was some new technology invented that made Tower Hamlets the new Silicon Valley?

No. House prices went up because, firstly, there are a lot more singletons in London (either marrying later or divorces), thereby driving up demand. Secondly, people are living longer, which means there are more elderly people who remain in their house. Thirdly, the population has gone up, both through births and migration (internally, EU and beyond the EU). Fourthly, the Green Belt, a hackneyed 70 year old piece of planning means that London cannot expand naturally to cope with its population. All of this has lead house prices to be higher. But TEN times higher than the average wage? Surely, the income of people would have kept a check on demand?

Oh yes, those banks. How else can people get a mortgage? Well, they go to their bank. Fill out a few forms. Chat, discuss over coffee/wine and then get the keys to their new abode. The renovate it according to the latest TV programme’s style and wait to sell at a higher price. Except…well, there is only a finite amount of money in the bank.

At the moment, I am one of the ‘lucky’ ones. I did not rush to buy a house, and so I am debt free (although, not exactly living ‘well’, I am living within my means). However, there are a lot of people who are struggling right now to live. And that is with interest rates at a record low. They will increase in the future, no currency can continue to take a battering like Sterling has in recent months. And then what?

There will be a lot of repossessions. A lot of people made homeless. Yet, somewhere, somehow, those crooked banks that have supplied the mortgages in the first place will get their cash back. They are the ones who helped to inflate house prices to ten times the average wage, since, after all, without a mortgage, you cannot afford to buy that property. And so, while there will be the destitute and the homeless, barely covered by the state, someone will be in that winebar on Friday night, sipping champagne with friends and thinking how smart they are.

It’s nice when you have a government subsidy backing you up, isn’t it?

Royal Mail, RIP?

For those in the UK, the big news is that the workers of Royal Mail are planning a nationwide strike this week. This has actually been quite a nasty little dispute with plenty of drama unfolding over the Autumn.

Now, I am in two minds over this strike. Already, because of the local wildcat strikes, a lot of my letters have not got to their final destination, forcing me to register and redeliver them. Annoying, and expensive. I do not mind them getting to the destination late, I just think it sucks that they do not turn up at all.

However, the postal workers represent one of the last truly national industries left in the UK. The Royal Mail is one of the few symbols left of British pride. And it is managed by a bunch of muppets.

I have worked for the Royal Mail as a Christmas casual. Yeah, the permanent staff will eye them with suspicion, believing that you are there to undermine their position. But the bulk of casuals are there to scrape some cash for Christmas, and only a few actually ‘graduate’ to the coveted position of a real postman. I was one of those casuals, and I remember being so broke at one point that I had to walk home in the snow, as it was a few days before I was paid. Cold memories!

But yeah, the management are idiots. I remember standing in line for an hour so they could sign me onto their list. Although I was getting paid to stand there, as I had turned up on time, because they had to verify that I turned up, I was effectively doing nothing. There is also a lot of harassment of the casual staff, with permission needed to go to the toilets and other really petty issues. I do not know what it is like with the permanent staff, but there was always a union rep on the floor. A bit of 1970’s lunnacy methinks.

So do I have an opinion on this strike. Well yeah. In a way. Royal Mail does need modernising, it is a simple fact that they are carrying less letters. At the same time, with the huge explosion in parcel delivery due to online shopping, Royal Mail has really cocked that up. Come on, you essentially have a monopoly on the UK’s postal system, HOW can you be loosing money?

But also the workers do have to fight for their rights. We are quite happy to give billions away to bankers who are now turning a handsome profit, but as a nation we seem loathe to support the ordinary man on the street if they dare to rise above the parapet and shout ‘enough is enough’.

We have seen it happen before in the UK during the 1980’s, how an industry is fiddled by government and its public service remit then utterly destroyed until it is there to serve shareholders, leaving the customer with crap. Water companies, bus services and airports are great examples of utilities that have been privatised and utterly beaten into the ground, providing surly service for a high cost. Living in London, I have to put up with Thames Water’s overcharging for stuff that falls from the sky (in bucketloads), grumpy bus drivers who are worked into the ground (doing what a generation ago was the job of two people – conductor and driver) and the lunacy that is Heathrow (or the awful, falling to pieces Gatwick).

(Conversely phone companies and airlines have actually worked quite well from a consumer point of view as competition has been easily introduced).

The only place I see the government taking Royal Mail is to the knackers yard to be broken up and sold off to their buddies in The City for a tidy profit. In that way I do support the staff of Royal Mail, as if they do not fight for their jobs, then no one else will. Unfortunately, there is only one was that this is going to end. Badly, for all concerned.

Royal Mail: Born 1660. Died 2009. Killed by a bankrupt and utterly corrupted government. R.I.P.

Those green shoots…

Recovery.

Hope.

Stability.

Cutbacks.

Don’t believe the hype, wait until after the next election. Then, the real fun begins…

A little bit of world madness today…

Don’t choke into your cereal bowls, but it has bee a while since I have got so political on this blog. Of course there is no surprise that Suu Kiyi is back under arrest. The junta is hoping that she will die under house arrest. Burma, has the potential to be a rich country, but, well, we all know the state of affairs there at the moment. Swinging round the proverbial corner, the Nepali government has decided to launch a shame whereby potential brides can be sold off. State sponsored traficking or a way to deal with a demographic crisis. Considering both next door China and India have an overpopulation of men, this is probably not the best system the Nepali government could have come up with.

Talking about China, at least one country has realised that it is not a province of the People’s Republic. And closer to home, this is not the views of a small minority.

The Lost Generation…

Let’s cut the bullshit. There is no fast economic recovery, we are well and truly in a depression. There cannot be this many unemployed in a recovery, so let me go back to my original claim and stick by it – this is a full blown depression.

I do not know if we are going into soup kitchen mode, but definitely, people are loosing jobs and work is hard to come by. I am one of the lucky ones, I still have a job. It may not be great, but at the moment I know that I have an income coming in. I have no debts and to be honest, my spending has actually increased since the depression began, as I have been taking advantage of the price reductions. Things I could not afford during the boom years (expensive electronics, cool holidays) have suddenly become accessible to someone on my income again.

So yeah, we, as a generation. Anyone from 20-40, but particularly those born between 1975-85 are fucked. This is a time when we came in too late to take any real advantage of the boom years and if we latched onto the system at that time (such as bought property), we are now getting shafted by the depression. But then, one thing, we actually chose to go into this system. And there in, lies the rub.

We only suffer as a generation, as we are not brave enough to change our own lives. We have all chosen to follow a system that is quite clearly broke and more seriously, will not provide us with any happiness. Look around you on the tube on your commute, you know that no one is happy with their lives. I am certainly far from happy, but I know that happiness will not come from a politician’s lies, nor will it come from following the crowd. However, it will take real courage for all of us to change our lives. Otherwise, the best years of our existence on this planet are to be lost chasing a life that is no longer there…