Musing about time

Was wondering today just how much of our lives we waste actually wasting time?

Given Facebook, Twitter and countless other apps that we now have to idle away time its a wonder many of uss actually accomplish much at all these days?

Was also thinking about experimenting with a period off-line, so to speak, well without the above said apps at least? I've often comtemplated a retreat weekend, wither spiritual or to focus specifically on a work project, but I was thinking some more about this after reading one of my friend Kristen's posts about how she found the snow days we all had in Blighty at the start of this year a positive experience:

http://kramblings.blogspot.com/2010/01/indeed-great-paradox-of-writers-life-is.html


Anyway I'm wasting time again, I should be on my way home, I've lots of books I want to read, and I'm famished and fancy being 'Jamie' in the kitchen tonight

Flushing Sound...

Is it me or is this country going down the toilet?

No I have not joined the ranks of Daily Tory-graph readers who blame the country's demise on the hordes of immigrants flocking to the UK to live a life of luxury on UK unemployment benefit.

No that's the least of the country's woes.

Increasingly I look around and cannot believe that this is the same country that once had a worldwide empire, a country that endured the might of the Luftwaffe's and the hardship of rations and wartime austerity.

From streets and countryside increasingly buried under discarded litter, to health and safety regulations that border on absurdity and a populace seemingly incapable of doing anything for itself unless regulated to do so by a nanny state that at times begins to look like Stalinism I now find myself calling the 1980s and the 1970s the 'good old days' in comparison!!!! (and how absurd is that?).

Today walking to my local Sainsbury supermarket at 7.30pm on the picturesque cobbled high street in the centre of Guildford I pass a drunk openly taking a piss on the steps leading up to the 200 year old Holy Trinity Church while two further drunks (middle aged and booze-hardened/weathered women) traded obscenities at each other. And this in a so-called ' no-drinking zone' where offenders face the prospect of a £500 on the spot-fine. LOL Naturally no police in sight (despite the omnipresent CCTV cameras) and naturally no-one said or did anything.




So decided to e-mail the council to complain... thought their response might make for an interesting and amusing example of all that is wrong in the country to my readers (if there are any of you).

Later...

The healthcare debate -- some stats

Some interesting stats on health care:

The UK in 2006 spent 8.2% GDP on health of which 80.9% was government spending (incidentally putting pay to the lie that a) there is no private healthcare in the UK and b) if there is that it cannot compete with a monopoly provider). Finally as a proportion of the total government spending (the budget) the UK government spent 16.3% on healthcare.

The US by contrast in 2006 spent 13.2% GDP on health of which 45.8 % was government spending. As a proportion of the total budget the US government spent 19.3% on healthcare!

Ergo the US which has does not have a public healthcare system spent more taxpayers dollars on health than the UK government where we do have a public free-for-all health service.

Make of those stats what you want given the current debate on health care in the US.

(Stats are from the latest World Health Organisation report which some people will claim is a communist organization funded by the UN which itself wants to repress the rights and freedoms of the American public -- especially the ones who carry assault rifles to healthcare debates).

Meetings

Why was I absolutely exhausted after 7 hours of inactivity in our annual Departmental away day today? I say 'away' when in actual fact we had it at the University on the 2nd floor of our building, as opposed to the 5th floor my Department occupies.

Am I the only one who finds such meetings as counter-productive as they are productive? Sure everyone gets the time to air their views and thoughts but little concrete invariably emerges from these things.

At one point today when I was beginning to lose the will to live I started wondering just how many millions of people were sat in meetings at that very moment all around the world? All those minutes and hours where productive workforces actually cease to be productive so they can, in most cases have discussions about how to be more productive!! I also began to think about all the coffee, tea, biscuits, finger food etc that such meetings and committees themselves generate.

Finally I began to wonder whether animals had meetings!! Dogs definitely not, monkeys? Possibly. Cats? for certain... plotting every night how they will take over the world come the Armageddon. But for the most part meetings are unlikely to be part of the animal kingdom's experience nor was primitive man in his cave worried about whether he needed to establish a criteria for selecting which animal he was going to kill for dinner tomorrow.


Clearly I spent too much time thinking about anything other than what I was supposed to be thinking about! Which is why when right-wing and left-wing nut jobs start spreading conspiracy theories about secret cabals meeting to plot the takeover of the world financial system/US government (insert as appropriate) they clearly have no experience of how they work. If there was a secret cabal plotting to bring about World Socialism they would still be on agenda item 1 -- minutes of the last meeting.

Burma and Tourism

Always been a tough call whether to travel to Burma, one of Southeast Asia's last unspoilt destinations or not given the detention of Suu Kyi and given the odious nature of the military Junta and its brutal suppression both of dissent and the country's ethnic minorities. On the one hand since much of the country's up-market tourist infrastructure is owned by the junta either directly or indirectly foreign currency would be going directly to the regime. On the other hand small-scale tourism puts the same resources into the hands of an impoverished people and provides vectors for the transmission of ideas and information.

For years Suu Kyi called for a tourism boycott on the country but in a week that has been full of political theatre Suu Kyi now appears to have softened her stance as I reported earlier. Quite who the 'close acquaintance' through who she has made this announcement is remains unknown, most likely her doctor, but it marks another move on the complex chess board that is Burmese politics.

For more detail see the story in The Telegraph below.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/asia/burma/6026879/Burma-opposition-leader-Suu-Kyi-Tourism-might-help.html

Progress on Burma?

A chink of light perhaps?

Senator Jim Webb today won the release of John Yettaw, the American whose intrusion on Aung San Suu Kyi led to her recent sentence, and an unexpected meeting with the detained Burmese opposition leader. This is a significant development. Only a few weeks ago the country's leader, Gen Than Shwe, refused to allow UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon a similar visit to Suu Kyi.


http://tiny.cc/yp1w4

Another reason why this may mark the beginnings of a new approach towards Burma is that Senator Webb, head of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs, has been a strong proponent of moving to a new policy of engagement with the generals.

This also comes a day after there were reports that Suu Kyi has softened her stance towards tourism to Burma. Whereas previosuly she had called on a complete boycott, unsubstantiated reports yesterday suggested she was now calling for people to visit the country but to avoid tourist companies and hotels that were owned by, or linked to the Junta.

To early to say where this goes next but this could mark the start of the new approach Hiliary Clinton hinted at several months ago when she made a speech in which she said that neither sanctions nor the ASEAN policy of constructive engagement had worked and that a new approach was needed.

More on Burma

Links to a couple of media interviews I did recently on Burma.

Background was that there was a conference/convention planned in Jakarta this week of Burmese exile groups including the so-called government in exile headed by Sein Win, the cousin of Aung San Suu Kyi. At the last moment it was cancelled by the Indonesian government following a complaint by the Burmese foreign ministry. The Indonesian government balked lest it look like they were sanctioning the government in exile. The only real significance of this meeting (which took place effetively in private anyway) was that previously the groups participating were deeply divided over strategy and vision, so the fact that came together to forge a common front is noteworthy since the last time there was a common position among the ethnic and pro-democracy groups was in 1947 on the verge of independence. However the Junta certainly and most of Burma's neighbours in ASEAN take such exile groups seriously as events today have visibly demonstrated.

Anyway two reports:

http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/connectasia/stories/200908/s2655929.htm

http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-08-13-voa57.cfm





P.S. Having problems posting hypertext links the app does not seem to be working? Anyone help?

What Next for Burma -- more?

Found this interesting blog comment from BBC Radio 4 presenter Robin Lustig.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/worldtonight/2009/07/what_next_in_burma.html

Very interesting and unpalatable as it may be to consider perhaps it does represent the only way we actually can move forward? After all what we have is an unstoppable force (Suu Kyi) encountering an immovable object (the Junta).

Interntational Politics are very unpleasant at times and another reminder of how odious this regime is in Burma came to day when news broke of the Burmese military gang raping a young girl in the Shan state.

http://tiny.cc/SLSpw

While the butchers that run Burma should in an ideal world face the International Criminal Court for the crimes they have committed, the stark reality is they won't, nor will there be a UN Security Council sanctioned Global Arms embargo. If we are to avoid another decade of suffering for Burma, and another decade of house arrest for Suu Kyi we need some fresh ideas

Burma -- what next?

Well no surprise the military found Aung San Suu Kyi guilty. However there were two things that subsequently followed that did surprise me:

1) 5 minutes after the verdict was read out Burma's Home minister entered the court room and commuted the 3 year sentence to 18 months and indicated that Suu Kyi would be able to serve this from her home in Rangoon. (In other words an effective return to the status quo that has persisted for the past 20 years).

2) The UK government condemned the decision within minutes of it being announced on the wire with a statement which was in all likelihood drawn up in anticipation of a stiffer sentence.

The fact that the Burmese government intervened so publicly (in front of the invited foreign press and diplomats) to commute the sentence clearly was a piece of political theatre, but an act nevertheless that at least perhaps demonstrates some inkling of a willingness to compromise.

Certainly the act was sufficient to divide international opinion. While the UK, EU and the US united to condemn the verdict, which will shut Suu Kyi out of the country's scheduled election next year, it was received far less unfavourably by Burma's Asian neighbours, most notably in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China and India. Indeed in Southeast Asia while there was 'disappointment' at the verdict there was praise for the decision to commute the sentence.

Yes the trial was a farce, and yes the verdict conveniently allows the Junta to remove Suu Kyi from participation in the 2010 elections. However in my humble opinion the West is missing a possible shift in the Junta's approach by dismissing the commutation of the sentence. To date the Junta has not balked from simply ignoring the international community, most visibly in the immediate aftermath of Cyclone Nargis last year, when it initially refused to allow Western aid agencies into the country. Clearly the Junta would have preferred to have imprisoned Suu Kyi for the maximum five years and to have dispatched her to a prison in the far North of the country away from her Rangoon support base and far from the eyes of the Western media. That is what we feared might have happened this morning. That they Junta did not do this IS significant.

So what next -- well there are already calls for further sanctions but herein lies a problem. While there is much more that Britain and the EU can do in particular, the fact remains that there is a 2600 mile hole in the already not particularly tight sanctions 'net' -- Burma's respective borders with China and Thailand. Without their participation in any sanctions regime the impact of Western punitive action is going to be militated against. And what is very clear is that neither China nor Thailand are going to join that regime. Similarly attempts to impose a global arms embargo or indict the Junta before the ICC will face the likely veto of either China or Russia on the UN Security Council.

So where next... well I don't profess to have the answers but clearly what is needed is first and foremost a concerted international approach and to achieve that will require some new thinking.

Lost in Virginia

Maybe I am running because I am bored? Hmmm well that or the jet-lag, either way another dawn run. The original plan was to run an 8 mile loop after yesterdays 4 mile loop. Well the best laid plans of mice and men and all that... I missed my turn-off and kept running until I passed a road that I had seen on Google Map earlier and knew was about 1 1/2 miles further along than the road I should've turned on. So I had to turn tail and retrace my steps. So my 8 mile run turned into a half-marathon by accident. And boy was it tough.

OK fitness wise I know I have this in me. 6 months of circuit training have given me the cardiovascular fitness I need, but my legs are not ready for this yet. After about 7 miles the knees began smarting, then the hamstrings and then the calf muscles. It didn't help that the route was very hilly -- "country roads take me home to the place I belong, west virginia, mountain moma" -- very apt.

At one point I did begin laughing hysterically for no apparent reason, at 10 miles I was singing Whitesnake - "Here I go again" at the top of my voice.. and at 11 I was praying for sight of Stevens Lane which meant I had 1 1/2 left to go. And people do this for fun!!

Still at least I have a mental idea of what a Marathon consists of, and I was able to eat a super-sized breakfast with no qualms... and Virginia is very pretty.

Roanoke, VA

In Troutville, Roanoke, VA with Melanie's Dad and his 2nd wife for a few days before Christmas. Flight was delayed 4 hours! Of course the airline lied, as they always do. First it was 10 minutes, then 30 minutes, then an hour. Why do they do that! Grrrrr... come the revolution!

Went for a run this morning, about 4 miles. First time I've ever ran before breakfast. Actually enjoyedd it though my legs felt like lead for some reason. Quite hilly around here so it was a bit tough! Nice view of the mountains and of some ludicrously large houses. Its an affluent neighbourhood Troutville. Mind you I do wonder how Americans can be so 'neighbourly' when their houses are so far apart!!!

Also plenty of totally over-the-top Christmas decorations... houses lit up like Blackpool illuminations! And ample proof yet again that having money does not mean you have any taste..

Marathon -- Progress So Far

Yup I am running a marathon -- the London Marathon in April next year to be precise.

By way of an update to all those who have sponsored me so far, and those thinking of doing so, I thought I'd give you a progress report.

It’s cold, it’s wet, it’s dark early -- welcome to England in the winter. Truly a miserable time to be doing any kind of outdoor exercise.

So for the most part I have been exercising indoors -- for those of you at Surrey you would have been able to catch me in circuit training 2-3 times per week.

Is it working -- well I've lost belly fat as none of my trousers fit me anymore! And I've dropped a few pounds too. That and my general stamina and fitness are definitely better.

I have also been venturing outdoors, freezing my ass off, but doing a regular 5K twice a week.

The plan is once I get back from Christmas state-side to begin a proper Marathon training programme but my running shoes will be in my hand luggage to the US and I will be keeping up a battle with the usual Christmas bulge.

For those of you who haven't sponsored me yet, please go here and give me some encouragement. I've a long way to go to meet my target of £1100.


http://www.bmycharity.com/V2/jasonsmarathonrun

For those who have -- thanks.

Jason

Desert Island Discs -- the iPod 5

I have always enjoyed listening to desert Island Discs on Radio 4, even if a lot of the time I think the celebs chosen deliberately doctor their choices to make themselves appear more 'pointy-headed' and serious than they probably really are. I mean I enjoy classical music a lot but if I had to choose 5 pieces of music would I really choose Mozart's Requiem? Also no-one ever has a 'guilty pleasure', the admission to actually loving Kylie or Boney M.

Well I doubt I will ever appear on the show but anyway thanks to the invention of the iPod I now know what my 5 songs would be since the genius little thing calculates your top 25 most played tracks. Well maybe my list has been skewed by the fact that its taken me 9 months to reach a 1000 songs stored but as of today it would appear that I will be stuck on a desert island with the following:

1. The Gambler -- Kenny Rogers (Yes I am as shocked as you)
2. Hell Yeah -- Neil Diamond
3. Help Me Make it Through the Night -- Sammi Smith
4. Galway Girl -- Steve Earle and Sharon Shannon
5. Teenage Kicks -- The Undertones

What worries me is that I seem to have a subconscious predilection for Country Music since also in my top 25 are 3 Johnny Cash numbers! Well I blame it on the genes -- my Dad after all was a Vic Reeves-style northern Club singer.

The McCain Strategy -- How it 'might' work -- but likely won't.

OK Firstly I think its highly unlikely that McCain can win.

Why?

There have been over 250+ polls since the last time McCain was ahead in any opinion poll and that was in September after the convention 'bounce'. Since then ALL 250+ polls have shown an Obama lead ranging from double digit to a single percentage point.

And then of course national polls DO NOT COUNT since this is a race run in 50 separate contests and in the states that count Obama has had the upper hand forcing McCain onto the defensive -- even making him defend his home state of Arizona!

So I think Obama will win and that he could win as many as 350 electoral college votes -- which wouldn't be a landslide but would be a whopping victory and a mandate for change.

HOWEVER there is a TINY chance McCain could pull off what would be the biggest upset in US history and here is how...

The 8-9% of undecided voters MUST break overwhelmingly for him, especially in states such as Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvannia. If they do we could get something like this.

Obama wins all the usual democratic states: California, New York, Mass etc
He also wins New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada and Missouri -- all of which were Bush states in 2004.

However he loses Ohio (Bush 2000 and 2004) and McCain manages to flip Pennsylvania (Democrat since 1992).

In addition McCain MUST see off the challenge in Ohio, Florida, North Carolina and Virginia.

Result: McCain 270 Obama 268 -- closer than the 2000 result where Bush won by 271 to 266

So the key battlegrounds to watch are Ohio, Penn, Missouri and Virginia if it is close (which I still feel it won't be) and Virgnia is the one of these to watch the most. Why?

Take the scenario above... if Obama loses Missouri but wins Virginia then McCain can do all of the above (flip Penn and win Florida, NC and Ohio) but still lose.

In that scenario it would be Obama with 270 and McCain with 268.

However IF record numbers of young people do vote, and if (as early polling shows) African-Americans turn out in record numbers then any last minute surge of support from undecided voters can be contained.

America and the world should know in about 36 hours which way the wind will blow.

Trailers and movie food Grrrrr

Quick Sunday night rant...

went to the pictures last night to watch the new Bond film "Quantum of Solace". Bought the tickets in advance as it was the movie's first weekend and turned up about a minute before the scheduled start time of 8.15.

THIRTY minutes later the bloody movie still hadn't started! Now once upon a time in my childhood most main features were preceded by a movie short, usually either some rather dull and amateurish documentary or a cartoon (depending on whether it was the matinee performance or evening). Between the two, usherettes used to come down the isle selling ice cream tubs (small bite-size potions in a little pot) sweets and drinks. Then the lights would dim for a second time and there would be about 5 minutes of adverts by the infamous Pearl and Dean (ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba)... and off we'd go.

The shorts went years ago... and with them the usherettes (sadly) however the cinema companies seem to have decided that they will still use the time once filled by their presence to not only show ads bought by their sponsors but also for some shameless self-promotion. Why cinemas need to advertise I don't know, in most towns there is only one cinema so there is no competition and when you decide to go the movies its to see a movie not because you decide it would be nice to visit the Odeon because they have nice seats or nachos....

Which reminds me... since when did going to see a movie become an excuse to eat a 3 course meal during the movie! It used to be some ice cream a a little bag of chocolate.. now! Well yesterday there was a couple who walked in just as the lights were dimming trying to precariously balance a hot dog each, drowned in mustard, a jumbo pop corn (each!) and two giant sized coca colas!! Firstly it stunk, secondly they had to both get up and go for a pee during a movie which was only 1 hr 45 minutes long (quelle surprise given that they must have drunk 2 pints of pop).

Anyway... more pining for the past... a one-screen cinema, with rock hard seats, a smoking section (really) and a special £1.00 entrance on a Monday :-)

US Election

The picture says it all really (it is genuine – taken post debate after John McCain left the stage the wrong way and had to double-back quickly).

Obviously the collapse of the economy has been a gift to the Obama camp shifting focus away from the one area where McCain and the Republicans were strong -- foreign policy.

Of course the polls are all over -- can Obama really be pulling ahead in places like West Virginia and North Dakota -- and the actual result is likely to be closer than the 10-14% the latest national polls are showing. But aside a major gaffe or a terrorist attack I really can't see McCain coming back.

Of course in many parts of the world with age comes great wisdom and deference. However in the debates and on the stump McCain just look so old compared to the youthful glow and charisma of Obama.

Throw into the equation a whole host of gaffes and well...

However the one thing that has stood out to me in the past couple of months is just how cool and calm Obama looks. He acts presidential... his presence reassures. If a crisis struck you can imagine him responding calmly, weighing the options before acting. as for old John McC and the Pit-bull, well do we want a hot-headed erratic in a time of global crisis?

Anyway if, to coin an old adage, a week is a long time in politics, then 19 days is an eternity.

Oh and back to the economy for a moment.... it seems all those bankers and traders around the world just aren't wishing hard enough... remember you have to believe in fairies for Tinkerbell to come back to life!!

Tinkerbell Economics?

Interesting Question from a friend of mine today in a Facebook group I manage as part of my teaching.

"I'm confused, sir, Mr Teacher, sir, if the British Government has injected £400bn into the banking system because it's in difficulty because the banks aren't lending to each other and they're not lending to businesses and aren't lending to individual people, but the British Government didn't have £400bn to do this, so has had to borrow the £400bn, my question is this - Who lent the British Government £400bn?"

I had my students try to answer this... the only clue I gave them was Tinkerbell. In the end they got it... confidence

In Peter Pan -- Tinkerbell is dying because people no longer believe in fairies... but she will survive if enough people believe in fairies. In the play (not the book) Peter asks all the children to shout "I believe in fairies," to bring her back from the dead.

And so to Tinkerbell Economics -- if we all start beleiving in the markets again then like Tinkerbell it will all work again.

To which one student said " So the worst thing we can do is stop spending?" Answer -- of course... keep spending and consumer confidence can be restored. Stop spending and the deflationary impact of the crisis on growth will be exacerbated and magnified.

Sound implausibly simple?

This was in Newsweek:

"It's all about confidence, stupid. Every financial system depends on trust. People have to believe that the institutions they deal with (their "counterparties") will perform as expected. We are in a full-blown crisis because investors and financial managers—the people who run banks, investment banks, hedge funds, insurance companies—have lost that trust. Banks recoil from lending to each other; investors retreat. The ultimate horror is a financial panic; everyone wants to sell and no one wants to buy. Paulson's plan—still lacking essential details—aims to avoid that calamity." (Tinkerbell Economics)

http://www.newsweek.com/id/160098

Enough doom and gloom

Every day seems to bring news of the biggest fall on the stock market since the Jurassic era. I wonder how much all this reporting of doom and gloom by the media is actually responsible for investors and savers panicking? The BBC for example precedes any story it has now on the 'credit crunch' by a backdrop of share prices in the red and a graph with the trend going south at an alarming rate.

So enough already -- time we all started to be more positive about life, the universe and everything... and to demonstrate the fallability of the media here are some clangers and wonderful mis-prints/typos:

“A rocket will never be able to leave the Earth’s atmosphere.” — New York Times, 1936

“Nuclear-powered vacuum cleaners will probably be a reality in 10 years.” -– Alex Lewyt, president of vacuum cleaner company Lewyt Corp., in the New York Times in 1955

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." -- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.

"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." -- Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

"With over 50 foreign cars already on sale here, the Japanese auto industry isn't likely to carve out a big slice of the U.S. market." -- Business Week, August 2, 1968

Misprints

People in Preston ward are invited to a meeting at 7.15pm tonight in St Mary's Church Hall, Brighton, to meet councillors and beat police officers. (Evening Argus)

The skeleton was believed to be that of a Saxon worrier. (Express and Echo)

The strike leaders had called a meeting that was to have been held in a bra near the factory, but it was too small to hold them all. (South London Press)

One man was admitted to hospital suffering from buns. (Bristol Gazette)

Police in Hawick yesterday called off a search for a 20-year-old man who is believed to have frowned after falling into the swollen River Teviot. (The Scotsman)

The first aid treatment for a broken rib is to apply a tight bandage after you have made your patient expire. (Manchester Evening News)

Pull Your Pants Up

Right another rant… this time against the almost ubiquitous male fashion trend of wearing your jeans/jogging pants so low that not only are the boxers on display but your arse is hanging out for all to see.

Guys – you don’t look cool and, unless I am corrected by female readers, it doesn't look hot either. There is a reason why we call them underpants – because they go under your pants!

In the words of the Denis Leary – “there’s 27 inches of underwear there, what the F**k is that all about, will someone please explain it to me”.

The ‘trend’ began in US gang culture but originated in the US prison system where belts are confiscated because they can be used to commit suicide or to strangle someone. Thus baggy jeans would fall down around the hips. Black and Hispanic gang culture mimicked this trend and eventually it became a global phenomenon. But I’m sorry when you are wandering around a shopping mall in conservative Malaysia as I was 2 weeks ago andyou spy scrawny Chinese kids with their jeans around their knees IT HAS GONE TO FAR!

So ‘Pull up Yur Pants’

And watch this… classic stand-up -- skip to 1 minute 14 when he starts his rant about coffee :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-fvEuu_90Q

Litter, Gum and Britain's Aesthetically Awful Streets

OK time for a rant I think.

Next time you take a walk on the streets of any sizeable UK town or city look down. Firstly you’ll see what an increasingly untidy place this once-sceptred isle has become. Seems people are quite happy to dump any and indeed all their miscellaneous crap in public. Since I started doing this I’ve noted not just the usual suspects: aluminium cans, plastic bottles and crisp packets but random pieces of clothing! A sock here, a T-shirt there! Extraordinarily inexplicable!

Once upon a time we had a very prominent anti-litter campaign – ‘Keep Britain Tidy’. If anyone knows what happened to this please shout. And its not just me. An American friend of mine who is studying for his doctorate here quipped that Bill Bryson’s famous travel book should be renamed ‘Notes from a Messy Country’. Personally I’d like to go around to the homes of the worst offenders and have the crap they’ve chucked dumped in their bedroom or garden – mind you they are probably a dump anyway. I’ve written repeatedly to my local councillors who basically do nothing except trumpet meaningless initiatives. I have specifically asked for details of how many fixed penalties have been issued in the last 12 months – surprisingly they never got back to me with that.

Anyway look again and look harder and you’ll see that almost every pavement is pock-marked by old chewing gum. Take a close look – its not the odd random piece but 1000s of pieces of the damned stuff. Again no excuse except bone-idleness and a f**k you attitude. First of all -- WAKE UP PEOPLE CHEWING GUM IS NOT BIODEGRADABLE YET.

Solution? Well we could go the way of Singapore and ban the stuff, although even I accept that this is somewhat excessive. Alternatively we can fine people heavily for just chucking the stuff/spitting it out (all those cameras have to be good for something) until research into biodegradable gum produces a viable alternative. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/pda/A172342?s_id=10

And finally – while you are looking at the pavement please note what a hotchpotch patchwork quilt of uneven concrete/tarmac it has now become. Since the privatisation and de-regulation of the utilities these companies have been free to dig up the roads whenever they choose to make repairs, change mains, lay new cable, lay broadband, phone lines etc etc. One road in Kent was dug up 37 times in 18 months – that’s every fortnight on average!! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2720345.stm

Sometimes councils spend £1000s putting in new surfaced pavements and roads only for the utility companies to dig them up straight away. In Huddersfield 2 weeks ago a water company dug up the newly surfaced road within 48 hours!

So no aesthetically pleasing pavements in the near future! Although I am told that councils have new powers now to regulate this, I don’t expect them to start enforcing it soon – but this is a democracy and since councillors do need to be elected (even if by fewer and fewer people) if it irritates you as much as me – e-mail them and give ‘em hell! http://www.writetothem.com/