brennon

You know how you never take any notice of something until it actually affects you and then it seems to be everywhere; well I've had that experience at least twice in the last three years. 

The first ‘big' thing was when I was getting ready to leave the RAF after 38 years.  Knowing that few people seem to be keen to employ us old'uns (over 50s - 50 is not the new 40 when it comes to getting a job!), it seemed like becoming a driving instructor might be the answer, be your own boss, choose your hours, make good money, meet lots of different people, you've seen the adverts! 

Well, as soon as I started the training, every corner I turned whilst driving around Spalding, seemed to have a car with a driving school's name on it - how could a little place like Spalding have so many driving instructors in it? Where would my customers come from?  Of course, I hadn't allowed for the fact that Spalding was actually a test centre, so many of these cars were from places far and wide!  The point is, that until it affected me personally, I never gave all these driving school cars a second thought!

My most recent experience is to do with moving local services away from being local.  By coincidence, given my story above, local driving instructors are fighting the proposal to close the Spalding test centre.  Also, the local tax office is under threat of ‘rationalisation', ‘in order to provide a better service to the public'.  No doubt readers (are there any?) can think of two or three more local services that have disappeared over the years under the bull s..t excuse of improving services to the public.

Anyway, the piece of 'rationalisation' that has now effected me personally, is the location of specialist hospital treatment which, by yet another coincidence, was a story in Saturday's Telegraph.  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1939162/NHS-shake-up-to-axe-hospital-services.html

The story said, that plans ‘were in the pipeline' to close many local treatment centres and move them to centralised locations (it actually said regional centres, but I hate that word - ‘regional' that is, not centres!).  What pipeline? Its already happend!  I've been told that if I want my treatment (surgery for Prostate cancer) I will have to go to Lincoln, because the good old NHS decided, at some point in the past, to stop doing this surgery in Boston. 

My wife is disabled, but luckily is still able to drive.  However, her overall health makes a 90 mile round trip (everyday if she has her way, for up to 7 days) a daunting prospect.  I could of course go private and still have the operation in Boston at the Bostonian - same hospital, same surgeon, (possibly quicker?) just loads of money!  I knew I should have taken out that private medical insurance when I left the RAF!  So that's what they mean by patient choice - take it, leave it or go private! 

So, yet again, until it was me personally, the story in the Telegraph might not have registered - not very much anyway.  Just to prove the point, the same thing applied when I got my diagnosis (the day before the Easter break).  That night a crime drama on the television had a prisoner dying of - guess what?  The next day the newspaper had a story about some bloke who was appealing against a fine or penalty of some sorts based on the fact that he was suffering/dying from - guess what?  Bl..dy hell, its just like all those driving school cars!

Incidentally, if you're a man over the age of 50, go to your doctor and ask for a blood test to check your Prostate specific antigen - NOW!  That's all it takes and it could save your life (I hope it will mine!).

When is a pedestrian area not a pedestrian area?  When it's in Lincoln apparently.

If you've ever visited Brayford Wharf in Lincoln, you'll know that it is designed to encourage people to use the river side for leisure including a multi-screen cinema, several bars and a number of places to eat. 

The area is a great asset for Lincoln and I wasn't surprised to see how busy it was this bank holiday, with people using all the places on offer and just bimbling (sorry old military phrase from my days in the Falkland Islands, it means going for a ride or walk just for something to do - there's not a lot to do in the Falklands you know!)

Anyway enough war stories, with all these people walking about enjoying themselves, it's a really good idea to prevent cars etc driving around or parking on the wharf area.  Unfortunately, without anybody policing it, the wharf has a constant stream of cars moving around and parking up where they like despite the ‘not at any time' signs.  It's still the police's job to enforce parking laws by the way, just in case you were wondering.

Whilst sitting in one of the eateries I watched a driver have the bloody cheek to blast his horn at a young couple who had the never to be walking along the pedestrianised area in front of his car!  The couple scurried out of the way and the driver accelerated away as if to confirm his absolute right not to be delayed by these damned pedestrians!  If it had been me I wouldn't have done any scurrying, I would have given the bloke in question the reverse of the Churchill victory sign!

Stupid thing is, there is a hotel in the middle of the wharf area and the only access is along the pedestrian walking area, so these cars are allowed to be there, they just aren't allowed to park, which several were also doing, thereby restricting the areas that were safe for pedestrians to walk along.  Completely barmy piece of planning I say! Come on Lincoln City pedestrians before cars please!    

Take every paint pot you can find in your garage and I know there are at least a dozen different ones (there's 30 odd in mine!) pour them all in to a bucket and mix - what do you get? 

Well, that of course depends on the actual colours and the amounts used, but in most cases you'll get a muddy looking non-colour that is not much use for anything, you certainly wouldn't want to use it for any important jobs.  What is he on about now? I hear you cry!  Well, (starting a sentence with well again - it's that comprehensive education again!)  I'm using this rather poor analogy to represent what can happen when you take kids of wildly varying abilities (colours) throw them in to the same class (pot) and stir; which leads me on to the subject of my latest whinge. 

The renewed attack on grammar schools by 50+ labour MPs, as highlighted in an earlier entry, has disappeared from the front pages, but not from their agenda I'm sure.  The damage to the education of bright pupils, who have been denied access to the type of education that would be available via a selection system, is confirmed in a report in today's Daily Telegraph  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1547591/Bright-pupils-'dragged-down'.html

To date, I haven't had anybody come back to me to explain how the existance of grammar schools dis-advantage those being educated in secondary or comprehensive schools (you know I've never been able to figure out the difference - must be something to do with my sub-standard comprehensive school education).  However, this story seems to offer some evidence that the lack of access to a grammar school really does screw things up for some kids!   

No, not an advert for an insurance company, it's how I feel about this country's attitude to wind power.  'They're the best thing since sliced bread' ....'The companies only do it because the government gives massive subsidies'....'We must have them because of global warming'.............'They're completely useless because the wind doesn't blow all the time'...........'The Danes have stopped building them'...........'The Danes love them to death and are building even more'.  Get my point?

However, my confusion is not important, what is important is the attitude of those in power and who have influence.  I received a propaganda document from some of these people today and the inside cover was covered in all sorts of logos, many of them from energy companies.  the cover letter was badged by the TCPA and here's the rub, TCPA stands for Town and COUNTRY (my emphasis) Planning Association.

The document itself is called Community Energy: URBAN (my emphasis again) planning for a low carbon future.  Section 5.7 of the document is called Rural Hinterland and page 57 contains the extraordinary statement .."it is likely that the best onshore sites for wind turbines will be in the rural hinterland between towns and cities."  Just in case you're still wondering what my point is, delete rural hinterland from the above quote and enter South Holland, or just about any other part of Lincolnshire come to that!

So, an organisation with COUNTRY in its title is promoting a document about URBAN planning that promotes the targetting of rural areas for future wind farms.  If the case for wind turbines was made and unchallengeable, dumping all these turbines in the countryside would be bad enough, but given the mixed messages, spin and outright BS that still continues to be churned out of this subject, such outright support for this attitude to our rural areas is a disgrace!

The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) seem to think we are all idiots and that making positive comments about migrant workers will make the government like them more! 

Their latest statement that, according to the figures, the increase in migrant workers has not lead to an increase in crime is frankly ridiculous.  I'm no mathematician, but here's how I see it:

I start with a population of 1000 people and 100 of them commit crimes, then I have 10% of my population who are criminals.

Add 1000 migrant workers to my population and have 100 of them commit crimes, then I have another 10% of that population who are criminals.

We have lies, damned lies and statistics.  So the figures can be published in a way that shows no increase. 

10% of 1000 is 100 and 10% of 2000 is 200.  So if I tell you that only 10% of the population are criminals and this hasn't changed even though the population has doubled, I'm not ‘lying' about the percentage, but I am lying about the actual numbers of criminals that now exist in my population.

The fact that this refers to migrant workers is irrelevant.  However, it is a fact that our local newspapers carry stories every week about foreign workers being involved in drink related incidents.  Some of these involve fighting with each other , but other reports involve driving whilst drunk and/or driving without road tax or even worse, without insurance.

So please ACPO, don't insult my intelligence by telling me that adding tens of thousands of people to the existing population (whether they are from Poland or Pluto, Romania or Rigel 3, Latvia or Liechtenstein) doesn't result in an increase in actual crimes!