No clear picture of who will form the next Government as we stand at just after 6am. No change here in Rushcliffe - Tory big beast Ken Clarke back with a nigh-on 16,000 majority.
Jacqui Smith: gone. The Greens have their first Westminster MP.
Time for a cup of coffee.
Friday, 7 May 2010
Thursday, 6 May 2010
A worrying thought
Mrs QO and I have had our go with the stubby pencils - good to see a queue at the polling station, though a little tedious to find another queue at the bar as soon as we'd got into the pub having done the democracy thing. Clearly democracy means the same to many of our neighbours as it does to us. Can't fault 'em, of course.
I was idly reviewing my blog posts and events of the last couple of days and a thought occurred to me. I mentioned the Greek financial crisis, and the next day three people were killed in the riots in Athens. Yesterday I made a passing reference to Nigel Farage, and today his plane crashed.
I do hope there isn't a 'Curse of the Quizzical Observer' at work. That would be terrible... I'd have to be so careful who I mentioned.
Anyway, I just wanted to have a word about Simon Cowell...
I was idly reviewing my blog posts and events of the last couple of days and a thought occurred to me. I mentioned the Greek financial crisis, and the next day three people were killed in the riots in Athens. Yesterday I made a passing reference to Nigel Farage, and today his plane crashed.
I do hope there isn't a 'Curse of the Quizzical Observer' at work. That would be terrible... I'd have to be so careful who I mentioned.
Anyway, I just wanted to have a word about Simon Cowell...
Wednesday, 5 May 2010
So... here we go
Election day tomorrow. I sort of intended to ignore the campaign as far as the blog went, but I couldn't help myself - I've got seriously interested. And my feeling is that the country has got more seriously interested this time too; there's a definite buzz in the air. That's a good thing for our country, whatever the result. It's like the old days when I were a nipper and everyone who wasn't a complete boring old numpty tuned into the Morecambe and Wise Show, then talked about it the next day. Only the jokes aren't quite so good, and I haven't seen Andre Previn on the stump, but you can't have everything.
Another good thing - and probably the root cause of the first - is that it seems as if real political shifts are taking place. Again, whatever the result, I think this is a healthy thing, and I may be able to park my plan to engage the electorate by paying celebrities to air political issues:
Britney Spears: "Oh, well, like, you know, I just adore i-Dave, he's like sooo on top of reducing the State and devolving power to local communities. And kinda cute, y'know?" *giggle*
Jedward: "Yup, Nick Clegg's our elder brother. He loves our music almost as much as he loves breaking the old two-party paradigm and offering a real political alternative. Vote for him and us!"
Coleen Rooney: "Eh, 'annit been a great season, laik, chuck? All we need now is for Gordon to get back into power and not threaten the economic recovery with hasty cuts in public spending. Gorraluvim!"
Lord Webber: "Nigel, you could be Dorothy."
Yeah, I know, that would be funnier if the Tories hadn't beaten me to it with Michael Caine. Oh well. Wha'eva.
Incidentally, make what you will of the order in which I placed the parties there, and the fact that some of them weren't included. You don't need a licence to receive Channel Observer, I don't have to give equal airtime to everyone, so suck it up. No overt statement from me, nor any endorsement of any candidate in any constituency should be inferred. OK, given that you'll know by now that I'm obsessing about cuts in public spending, you may have your suspicions. But that will - as far as the blog is concerned - remain a matter between my conscience and the ballot-box.
I will, though, make a heartfelt plea to anyone who reads this and is contemplating not voting to go out there and do so. Things are really, really serious out there, partly because too few of us have kept ourselves informed and made our voice heard to our representatives. Do what Mrs QO and I plan to do - go out around 6pm, exercise your mandate (big hairy thing, needs a lot of exercise), then bugger off to the pub.
Tomorrow, I shall stop being so pompous and pontificatory. I promise. Unless I found out you didn't vote, in which case... out you go, you're barred.
Another good thing - and probably the root cause of the first - is that it seems as if real political shifts are taking place. Again, whatever the result, I think this is a healthy thing, and I may be able to park my plan to engage the electorate by paying celebrities to air political issues:
Britney Spears: "Oh, well, like, you know, I just adore i-Dave, he's like sooo on top of reducing the State and devolving power to local communities. And kinda cute, y'know?" *giggle*
Jedward: "Yup, Nick Clegg's our elder brother. He loves our music almost as much as he loves breaking the old two-party paradigm and offering a real political alternative. Vote for him and us!"
Coleen Rooney: "Eh, 'annit been a great season, laik, chuck? All we need now is for Gordon to get back into power and not threaten the economic recovery with hasty cuts in public spending. Gorraluvim!"
Lord Webber: "Nigel, you could be Dorothy."
Yeah, I know, that would be funnier if the Tories hadn't beaten me to it with Michael Caine. Oh well. Wha'eva.
Incidentally, make what you will of the order in which I placed the parties there, and the fact that some of them weren't included. You don't need a licence to receive Channel Observer, I don't have to give equal airtime to everyone, so suck it up. No overt statement from me, nor any endorsement of any candidate in any constituency should be inferred. OK, given that you'll know by now that I'm obsessing about cuts in public spending, you may have your suspicions. But that will - as far as the blog is concerned - remain a matter between my conscience and the ballot-box.
I will, though, make a heartfelt plea to anyone who reads this and is contemplating not voting to go out there and do so. Things are really, really serious out there, partly because too few of us have kept ourselves informed and made our voice heard to our representatives. Do what Mrs QO and I plan to do - go out around 6pm, exercise your mandate (big hairy thing, needs a lot of exercise), then bugger off to the pub.
Tomorrow, I shall stop being so pompous and pontificatory. I promise. Unless I found out you didn't vote, in which case... out you go, you're barred.
Further to yesterday
I posted about the economic crisis in Greece yesterday and went on to discuss our own. I was at points rather facetious, but today's news makes me wish I hadn't been.
Three killed as protestors set fire to a bank.
And the EU warn today that our budget deficit is likely to surpass that of Greece.
I'll leave it there.
Three killed as protestors set fire to a bank.
And the EU warn today that our budget deficit is likely to surpass that of Greece.
I'll leave it there.
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
Dang, I forgot the date
That's what comes of getting distracted with all this political stuff. Still, I'm just in time... Happy Star Wars Day.
No, really. This isn't just a gratuitous excuse to post a picture of Carrie Fisher in her metal bikini. Trust me.
Home truths
Last night I touched on the subject of Greece's financial state and thought I'd expand on that a little.
Doubtless their current crisis hasn't been helped by the international trading market having a bit of a punt, but fundamentally it seems to me they've dug themselves into it with great enthusiasm.
Reported by Malcolm Brabant, BBC News Athens:
You mean Greek foresters have to work outdoors? Dear me, I can see why they'd need a bonus.
OK, having got the undoubted pleasure of smirking at foreigners out of the way, let's have a look closer to home.
EU estimated figures reported by the BBC here put the Greek budget deficit at 13.6% of GDP. That's appalling, and the Eurozone economies are supposed to observe a limit of 3%.
Ours is 11.5%. What saves us from being exactly in the same boat as Greece, with nothing in the coffers and a credit-rating of sod all, is the total debt. For Greece, it's 115% of GDP, while ours is a little under 70%, and a lot of ours isn't repayable right now but a fair way off. Those from whom our Government would seek to borrow money are - so far - taking the view that we have sufficient time to sort things out such that we can afford to make the necessary repayments when due. We therefore still have a good credit-rating and, accordingly, don't have to pay too much interest on the loans. But that can change quite quickly.
The size of our national debt is a huge, urgent concern - or should be - as it's now of a size where just servicing the debt consumes a terrifying amount. I've seen a figure for 2009 of £35 billion, about the same as the defence budget. We get nothing for that £35 billion, that's just to stand still without defaulting.
All the time we run a budget deficit, the total increases and the amount that has to be dedicated just to paying the interest increases.
This is not rocket science. It's exactly the same principle at work as if you keep on using your credit card and repaying less each month than you've put on it. We all know how that goes. OK, for a while you can roll it over by getting a new card and new credit to pay off the old debt, but eventually the merry-go-round grinds to a halt and you become more intimately acquainted with your local soup kitchens than you really intended. At a national scale, you have emergency measures which often fall hardest on the most vulnerable, riots in the streets and lots of foreign correspondents wandering around trying not to laugh. Oh, and if you're a public sector worker, or on a public sector pension... sorry, we can't pay this month. Not sure about next month, depends on the IMF chaps, so don't spend too much, eh?
The politicians competing for your vote on Thursday know this full well. *Pause* OK, I bet some of them don't, but they really should. Most voters don't - one recent poll suggested that 50% of voters think no spending cuts are required at all.
We're spending beyond our means as fast as the Greeks were, and it will end up the same way unless drastic action is taken. Taxes can only go up so far, the 'recovery' growth in our economy might or might not happen, so serious, painful cuts in public expenditure cannot be avoided. We can do this in a planned way that seeks to mitigate the effects as much as possible for those who really need public help (and only those - means testing will be a way of life soon), or we can have it thrust upon us chaotically by the IMF a few years down the line. You choose.
Still, one bright spot is I suppose we can be thankful that unlike the Greeks we haven't got a huge financial clusterf**k of an Olympics to pay for.
Oh, wait... bugger...
Doubtless their current crisis hasn't been helped by the international trading market having a bit of a punt, but fundamentally it seems to me they've dug themselves into it with great enthusiasm.
Reported by Malcolm Brabant, BBC News Athens:
"On Planet Greece, some civil servants get a bonus for turning up to work on time. Foresters get a bonus for working outdoors. At least they show up.
There are civil servants called ghost workers because they never go into the office, head to a second job and still claim a state salary. They can't get sacked, because a civil service post is for life. Unless the incumbent decides to retire in his or her forties, with a pension.
And the government can continue paying for the afterlife. Unmarried and divorced daughters of civil servants are entitled to collect their dead parents pensions. Another lucrative sinecure is to belong to a state committee. The government has no idea how many there are. It has been estimated that they have 10,000 employees and cost nearly £200m a year, and that includes the committee to manage a lake that dried up 80 years ago."
You mean Greek foresters have to work outdoors? Dear me, I can see why they'd need a bonus.
OK, having got the undoubted pleasure of smirking at foreigners out of the way, let's have a look closer to home.
EU estimated figures reported by the BBC here put the Greek budget deficit at 13.6% of GDP. That's appalling, and the Eurozone economies are supposed to observe a limit of 3%.
Ours is 11.5%. What saves us from being exactly in the same boat as Greece, with nothing in the coffers and a credit-rating of sod all, is the total debt. For Greece, it's 115% of GDP, while ours is a little under 70%, and a lot of ours isn't repayable right now but a fair way off. Those from whom our Government would seek to borrow money are - so far - taking the view that we have sufficient time to sort things out such that we can afford to make the necessary repayments when due. We therefore still have a good credit-rating and, accordingly, don't have to pay too much interest on the loans. But that can change quite quickly.
The size of our national debt is a huge, urgent concern - or should be - as it's now of a size where just servicing the debt consumes a terrifying amount. I've seen a figure for 2009 of £35 billion, about the same as the defence budget. We get nothing for that £35 billion, that's just to stand still without defaulting.
All the time we run a budget deficit, the total increases and the amount that has to be dedicated just to paying the interest increases.
This is not rocket science. It's exactly the same principle at work as if you keep on using your credit card and repaying less each month than you've put on it. We all know how that goes. OK, for a while you can roll it over by getting a new card and new credit to pay off the old debt, but eventually the merry-go-round grinds to a halt and you become more intimately acquainted with your local soup kitchens than you really intended. At a national scale, you have emergency measures which often fall hardest on the most vulnerable, riots in the streets and lots of foreign correspondents wandering around trying not to laugh. Oh, and if you're a public sector worker, or on a public sector pension... sorry, we can't pay this month. Not sure about next month, depends on the IMF chaps, so don't spend too much, eh?
The politicians competing for your vote on Thursday know this full well. *Pause* OK, I bet some of them don't, but they really should. Most voters don't - one recent poll suggested that 50% of voters think no spending cuts are required at all.
We're spending beyond our means as fast as the Greeks were, and it will end up the same way unless drastic action is taken. Taxes can only go up so far, the 'recovery' growth in our economy might or might not happen, so serious, painful cuts in public expenditure cannot be avoided. We can do this in a planned way that seeks to mitigate the effects as much as possible for those who really need public help (and only those - means testing will be a way of life soon), or we can have it thrust upon us chaotically by the IMF a few years down the line. You choose.Still, one bright spot is I suppose we can be thankful that unlike the Greeks we haven't got a huge financial clusterf**k of an Olympics to pay for.
Oh, wait... bugger...
Monday, 3 May 2010
Old habits die hard
There's been much talk about the appalling mess in public finances (some of it by me), how the incoming government will have to roll back public sector spend, how we face the age of austerity yada yada blah. Despite the example of Greece now available to us, however, I don't think the penny has dropped yet - or at least, not where it needs to drop. Very likely, nothing substantive will be done until we, like Greece, need a bail-out from the IMF or the EU, such bail-out coming with strings attached which force us to start taking a serious slash-and-burn approach to public expenditure. In a sense, you can't really blame politicians, whether national or local, for carrying on as usual all the time we - the people (bless us and save us) authorise their activity by returning them to power.
All that said, sometimes people do take the piss. Look at some of the jobs available now, from the Guardian:
Contact Centre & Business Support Manager
"Leading the Contact Centre and Business Support Service for Environmental Services, you’ll look to reposition service delivery in a proactive, customer focussed way. This will see you reviewing business processes, streamlining working practices and developing a consistent approach to service delivery. This will be contained within an overall Contact Centre and Business Support Strategy that meets business objectives and enhances links with Nottingham’s communities."
Nottingham City Council, up to £36,313.
WTF does all that mean? Experience tells us that even if it were written in English it would be bollocks. Hands up any Nottingham City Council taxpayer who would vote for this job existing?
No?
Anyone?
Assistant Director Partnerships and Performance
"Your priority in this role will be to transform the way we work and engage with and empower our partners in shaping how we deliver services.You will take the lead on corporate performance and external inspection like CAA and support to Warrington Borough Partnership to deliver Total Place. You will manage a diverse range of other functions including research, consultation, health and safety, land charges and emergency planning. You will be a key member of the Directorate Management Team and a regular advisor to the Strategic Management Board and the Executive Board."
Warrington Borough Council, up to £77,000.
Again we say: WTF? And if the humble 'Assistant Director' gets £77K, what on earth does his or her boss get?
Parking Processing Manager
"We are looking for a talented parking professional to manage our parking processing and concessionary travel services. This role has overall responsibility for representations and appeals, notice processing, debt recovery, and concessionary travel (Blue badges, Freedom Passes and Taxi cards). The role will also have responsibility for the financial management of the service."
London Borough of Haringey, £48,501-£51,414
Comment from me would be superfluous, so I shall content myself with banging my head on the desk at the concept of a 'parking professional'.
Business development officer
"The focus of this role is to drive continuous service improvement and transformation across all our services by:
* Building strong relationships with external partners to harness their potential in delivering excellent outcomes for residents
* Working in collaboration with partners and colleagues to implement service improvement initiatives across all areas of the business
* Developing and implementing innovative service initiatives
* Developing effective organisational plans in response to customer insight data and to meet best practice"
Tower Hamlets, £38-40K
"Customer insight data" is what we used to call complaints. But I must admit it does sound much nicer that way.
Enough, point made, I'm sounding disturbingly like Richard Littlejohn, and such a terrible thought is not one I propose to entertain on my birthday. I'm going to eat some of Mrs QO's beautiful sourdough bread, open a bottle of Rioja, and be happy.
All that said, sometimes people do take the piss. Look at some of the jobs available now, from the Guardian:
Contact Centre & Business Support Manager
"Leading the Contact Centre and Business Support Service for Environmental Services, you’ll look to reposition service delivery in a proactive, customer focussed way. This will see you reviewing business processes, streamlining working practices and developing a consistent approach to service delivery. This will be contained within an overall Contact Centre and Business Support Strategy that meets business objectives and enhances links with Nottingham’s communities."
Nottingham City Council, up to £36,313.
WTF does all that mean? Experience tells us that even if it were written in English it would be bollocks. Hands up any Nottingham City Council taxpayer who would vote for this job existing?
No?
Anyone?
Assistant Director Partnerships and Performance
"Your priority in this role will be to transform the way we work and engage with and empower our partners in shaping how we deliver services.You will take the lead on corporate performance and external inspection like CAA and support to Warrington Borough Partnership to deliver Total Place. You will manage a diverse range of other functions including research, consultation, health and safety, land charges and emergency planning. You will be a key member of the Directorate Management Team and a regular advisor to the Strategic Management Board and the Executive Board."
Warrington Borough Council, up to £77,000.
Again we say: WTF? And if the humble 'Assistant Director' gets £77K, what on earth does his or her boss get?
Parking Processing Manager
"We are looking for a talented parking professional to manage our parking processing and concessionary travel services. This role has overall responsibility for representations and appeals, notice processing, debt recovery, and concessionary travel (Blue badges, Freedom Passes and Taxi cards). The role will also have responsibility for the financial management of the service."
London Borough of Haringey, £48,501-£51,414
Comment from me would be superfluous, so I shall content myself with banging my head on the desk at the concept of a 'parking professional'.
Business development officer
"The focus of this role is to drive continuous service improvement and transformation across all our services by:
* Building strong relationships with external partners to harness their potential in delivering excellent outcomes for residents
* Working in collaboration with partners and colleagues to implement service improvement initiatives across all areas of the business
* Developing and implementing innovative service initiatives
* Developing effective organisational plans in response to customer insight data and to meet best practice"
Tower Hamlets, £38-40K
"Customer insight data" is what we used to call complaints. But I must admit it does sound much nicer that way.
Enough, point made, I'm sounding disturbingly like Richard Littlejohn, and such a terrible thought is not one I propose to entertain on my birthday. I'm going to eat some of Mrs QO's beautiful sourdough bread, open a bottle of Rioja, and be happy.
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