Day Jar View

Turned out my short nap in the afternoon yesterday gave me enough in the tank to make it through to 2.30am this morning. Although, even without that kip, I’m pretty sure I could have made it anyway, as it was pretty compelling stuff.

I don’t know what it says about a person that they can stay awake for 4.5 hours of pundits punditing, graphics spinning, and newsreel repeating, but can’t stay awake to watch the first episode of Dexter Season 4, but no matter: it was great stuff.

This morning, instead of rolling back into bed when the kids were in nursery, I put the TV on and it’s got even more interesting. Brown appears to be getting sandbagged by the other two. Clegg has said it is up to the Tories to form a stable government as the largest party, but Labour have said it is up to them.

If Clegg won’t talk to Brown, can he stay? Cameron is making a statement at 2.30pm, so we’ll know then what he’s got planned.

First off, let me say that I am no supporter of the BNP. This isn’t about their politics, or even their personnel; it is about democracy and being treated like children.

For all its posturing, and the proclamations of their being the upholders of freedom of speech, the BBC bottled it last night. They gave Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, a national platform on the flagship political debate show Question Time, and then reduced the whole thing to a version of the Jeremy Kyle show, albeit with posher accents.

As I understand it, the point of Question Time, or any other debate show, is to debate the issues of the day. Instead, last night they debated the following: immigration (hardly news), the holocaust (er, news to be sure, but it didn’t happen this week), homosexuality and, erm, that’s it.

It may be that the panel don’t know which questions are going to come up, but I would bet my house that the producers of the show picked questions from the audience that they knew would expose the BNP’s views, rather than simply allowing debate on the issues of the day. And it seemed that the other panel members had been briefed to attack these at any opportunity, however slight.

I think this says more about the so-called tolerance of the British public, and the awful smugness of our liberal media elite: they pretend that they have done the decent thing, and then allow a massacre in the full glare of the studio lights.

Whatever you think of his politics, last night no-one came out of it looking good, and it may just have made people feel something new about the BNP – pity.

Bit of excitement around these parts last night. Or at least I heard there was, as we slept through the whole thing.

Turns out a deadbeat student from around the corner decided to kick the wing mirror of our car last night at about 12ish. Luckily for us, but spectacularly unfortunate and bad for him, our neighbour Helen spotted him doing it and steamed out.

A melee of sorts ensued, with 3 (yes, 3) police cars showing up, and carting her around the side roads in search of the chap in the white t-shirt. Anyway, she spotted him, and he spent the night in clink.

Can’t fault the service: we had 3 calls from various police officers and victim support bods. I said that it been my BMW Touring rather than the crappy Zafira that had got the boot, I might have needed some victim support, but otherwise I was fine.

Thing is, the chances of my getting the cost of a new wing mirror out of him (if needed, not sure if I can repair it yet), are about as likely as the police turning up when you need them. Err, hang on….

The Justice Secretary, Jack Straw, has rejected a recommendation by the parole board to release Ronnie Biggs, the Great Train Robber, at the age of 79.

Usually, I would say that when governments delegate authority to a 3rd party body, they should then follow any directives that issue forth from it. I have to say, though, that in the case of Ronnie Biggs it’s a bit less black and white.

First off, I think the fact that the romanticism surrounding the Great Train Robbery; the most expensive robbery at the time,  with the subsequent fleeing of Biggs abroad, evading capture for 40 years, has meant that those involved have been seen almost as heroes – on the run against those still trying to put old men behind bars.

The thing is, they not only got away with a large sum of money, they also assaulted someone that night. So whilst one might forgive the disappearance of all that money into the mists of time, it is harder to accept that Biggs should be let out simply because he is old and frail.

He’s done his time alright – sunning himself in Brazil, whilst the driver, Jack Mills, was never able to work again and died 7 years later. Perhaps now, Biggs should do some real time.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/norfolk/8129146.stm

The news that BMW is cutting 850 jobs at its Cowley plant doesn’t come as much of a shock to anyone I wouldn’t have thought. Apart, it seems, to union leaders.

Despite the fact that the past quarter showed a fall of around a third in new car sales, it seems the union dinosaurs can’t help themselves when it comes to slagging off the government, the manufacturer, and anyone else who perhaps ever bought, drove or looked at a Mini.

In most businesses, if people stop buying your product, you have to cut costs. BMW will make less cars, cutting the working week from 7 to 5 days, and therefore need less people to make them. As a business with shareholders, they have a responsibility to them first and foremost; paying workers to sit around idle to avoid the wrath of union leaders is not only a catastrophic business decision, but it is also just plain daft.

The workers that are getting the chop are mainly agency workers I understand, and the unions have branded the decision a “disgrace”, as they accuse BMW of picking them as they are easier to sack as they have no rights, despite the fact that some of them have been employed as agency workers for 5 years or more.

I think it works both ways. They had jobs, often at a higher rate of pay than if they had been officially employed by the company, for around 5 years in a very competitive industry. If they had been promised anything by the unions then that is wrong, but I can’t believe that they expected special treatment at a time when the parking lots at Cowley must be a sea of steel.

I hope they get all the support they need, but to expect to walk into another manufacturing job is not realistic, so they must be prepared to re-skill where necessary. And in future, like the rest of us, be prepared for the worst at the start of each day.

Today it has emerged that Michael Phelps was snapped by a “friend” indulging in a little extra-curricular substance abuse.

Given the recent fuss over the likes of Marion Jones and Dwain Chambers using performance-enhancing drugs, I thought it was a bit odd that they considered the use of cannabis in the same way as EPO, or steroids, given that on the occasions I’ve indulged I would have struggled to get changed into my trunks, let alone swim a length or two.

Maybe being an uber-athlete it affected him differently, but I would have paid good money to see him in action.

I’m no political scholar, particularly on the US, but I met the news that President Obama had retaken the oath of office last night with a wry grin.

I say President Obama but, according to the reports, the White House Counsel team recommended that he retake the oath because both he and the Chief Justice said one word out of order when he took the oath for the first time on Tuesday, and that this might give conspiracy theorists and pundits an excuse to claim that he wasn’t ever officially President.

When I watched the swearing in, I had spotted that the word had been misplaced (and what a word to misplace), and had thought that someone or other might make a fuss, which they duly did.

Good on him though for putting it to bed straight away, rather than giving the fuel to the kind of ridiculous theories that have dogged previous events such as 9/11.

Congratulations Mr President. Again.

The ridiculous EU has decided, in all their ill-conceived wisdom, that tungsten filament bulbs are to be phased out. The 100W one was killed off last week, and by 2012 even the lowly 40W will be consigned to the dustbin.

Their replacements are those ghastly, expensive, “eco” bulbs, which apparently last for years and use a quarter of the power of Edison’s equivalent. This is all very well and good, but what they don’t tell you on the box is that when you turn them on, you feel like you are in an operating theatre.

Gone will be the cosy nights by the fire, reading by the horrendously inefficient light of the bulb that has served us perfectly well for the past 100-odd years.

Ok, they may give off only 5% of the energy they use as light, and the rest as heat – but is that so bad? Surely that means you can turn the boiler down a bit.

Stockpiling has already started, apparently, and thinking about it I will probably be joining them as the date draws nearer; particularly as my missus has previously not allowed the eco bulbs in the house.

As Edison spins in his grave, start your hoarding now – and show the EU that when it comes to how we light our homes, they really should keep their well-fed snouts out.

I have to admit to a more-than-passing interest in the US Elections each time they roll around.

I don’t get too heavily involved in the policy detail, and I don’t donate any money to the candidate promising to save Americans a few cents on their $4 a gallon (I wish!) gasoline.

But as a piece of pure theatre, there really is no equal. Our own party conferences, viewed alongside their US equivalents, have a whiff of the church hall meeting about them. Half the time, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a bake sale being conducted at the back during the breaks.

This time around, of course, the interest and the stakes are high in the US. They have the opportunity to elect the first black (actually mixed-race) man, or the first Female Vice-President (a gun-toting, global-warming-denier from Alaska). The good news is that at least one of them will make their way to the White House next January. But had Sarah Palin not joined the McCain ticket, I’m not sure that Americans would have been ready to elect either of them if the alternative had been two Conservative, middle-aged, white males.

Whataver, the inclusion of Palin makes this race all the more exciting: it will be touted as a race between a Black man and a Woman, naturally, but the choice isn’t that stark. Bush’s legacy has ensured that McCain had a fight on his hands from the start, and the emergence of Obama as a charismatic, eloquent smoothie from a mixed-race background would have been a black and white choice, literally. 

Now American voters have to decide whether they want an elitist Black man as President, or a pensioner who can’t remember how many homes he has (7 apparently) with a woman seemingly brought in to shore up the vote amongst bitter Clinton supporters who might be tempted to switch.

From this side of the pond, America’s image is in need of some serious TLC after the Iraq debacle, and its general foreign policy ham-fistedness. The best thing it could show to the world is that it has the presence of mind to show it can change, and elect Barack Obama in November. Sorry Sarah – your turn next time perhaps?

My route to and from work takes me past most of the Estate Agents in town, being located as they are pretty much all on one main road that runs through the town.

Over the past year or so that I’ve been walking that route, I’ve noticed on a number of occasions various members of staff playing games on the pc, surfing the net, chatting, and generally not doing much Estate Agenting.

Today when I looked in the window, two of the offices of one particular branch are empty – phones siting on the desk with the cable wrapped forlornly around. I can’t say I’ve ever felt huge sympathy for Estate Agents at the best of times, and I reckon that the current housing situation is in some part their fault, what with over-valuing over the past 10 years amongst other crimes.

However, there are people behind those shiny suits and company 1-series BMWs , and it seems that there a few of them now twiddling their thumbs at home, wondering where the next cheque is coming from. Not a nice situation for anyone.