At Wilton Water, Wilton, nr Marlborough in support of Help for Heroes amongst other causes. Check their website here for details.
Author Archives: thatconsultantbloke
christian symbols offensive? leave colin atkinson alone
Those who read my ramblings on a regular basis will know that I do not believe in G-d, but I have no objections whatsoever to those who do drawing comfort from their religion and the traditions and pageantry that go with them.
In a land that once was proud of its tolerance I am appalled that a gentle man by the name of Colin Atkinson can find himself in trouble with hie employers for displaying a cross in his vehicle.
I appreciate that it is their vehicle, and that they have to draw the line somewhere about how employees customise their working environment, but to say that it might offend is, to me, wrong.
Some 37 years ago I found myself in an early management role having to deal with customers who wanted a maintenance person to call, “but not the *****” (insert own word for someone of a darker skin). We have come a long way since those days of prejudice that Warren Mitchell parodied so brilliantly, and I am as angry about the treatment of Mr Atkinson as I was about the events of 1974.
I hope that someone sees sense here and drops this whole issue. To allow it to continue is to shame us all.
Filed under serious stuff
thanks heavens for RingGo even if first great western don’t want to help cusomers
Having written here recently about FGW dropping the RingGo service from their car parks I was delighted this week to find RingGo available in Eastleigh in a council car park and at Portsmouth in an NCP. Excellent news on days when I had no change.
Nice to know that some folks are not as short sighted as First Great Western when it comes to making life easy for people.
Filed under random rants
when tv commercials were fun – weetabix robin hood
A bit of fun to start the week. With so many bland TV commercials around these days thank heaven for YouTube. Here’s the classic Weetabix take on the Robin Hood legend.
Filed under fun stuff
a final word on Yes2AV
So far in this debate I’ve not really seen much from the Yes lobby that tells me why theirs is a good idea; it has all been about the FPTP system being wrong and that AV is great, but why?
As any of you that have read my previous posts on this topic will know I am against it, but again, to be fair, why?
Well, in what will, hopefully, be my final blog on the subject, here’s why:
What is the point of your vote? It is to elect the person that you would like to have represent you. Now this has become slightly corrupted in that you probably really vote for the party that they represent rather that the person. There is a distinction, but let’s leave it at that for now.
You get the one choice, and why would you want a second choice? Now the AV lobby will have you believe that you might have a second, third, or more choice, but is it really true that someone will say “I’m voting for party A, but party D would be my second choice, and Party F my third choice”? I really doubt that.
What is far more likely is that they will say “I want party A to win and party B to lose”. Let’s face it, someone who votes Tory is going to want the Labour party to lose and vice versa, so what can they do?
Under AV they can either vote as they do now choosing their one favoured candidate, leaving the other candidates boxes on their form unticked,
or they can vote for more than one candidate and put the one they don’t want to win as far down the list as they can
or they could vote for their favourite, plus some of the others, but not the one that they don’t want.
If they take the first option then there is no difference from now. If they take either of the other options they are voting tactically.
Now we need to be honest here and acknowledge that, apart from some specific areas of the UK, there are two main parties; Conservative and Labour, then there are the LibDems, and then the rest. Can anyone really say that this is not the case? You only have to look at the numbers to see it, or just glance at history. Apart from the current coalition, or the war years, when did we have anyone other than the top two in power?
So if you are voting tactically and you want either Conservative or Labour to win and the other to lose, then you need to make your second choice one that is going to attract enough votes to push the unwanted candidate down, and the only realistic second choice for most is therefore LibDem.
In one of my other blogs on this subject someone has commented about how many LibDem voters complained last year that they had not voted LibDem to get a Tory government, but isn’t that what AV is about. I, too, remember that now and understand her point.
Persuade me I’m wrong if you can, but as I see it if someone is elected on a raft of second, and possibly third, choice votes, how is this better than what we have now? Unless you are one of those who have successfully voted tactically that is.
Filed under serious stuff
a seminal moment, 50 years on
The news that the Soviet Union had put a man into space, and then that they had got him back again, was somewhat awesome to me as a youngster. One of us, up there. It may have been at a troubled time for the world of the cold war era, and Yuri Gagarin might have been on the other side, but he became an instant hero to me.
Fifty years on I still hold his memory in high regard. Is space research a waste of time as some would have us believe? No to me; pushing boundaries is one of the things that life is all about, and to be the first to go where someone has not gone before is a special thing.
Still one of my heroes, Yuri Gagarin got there first, and he will not be forgotten.
Filed under serious stuff
shock, horror! monty python not funny?
On Facebook today I learned of others who did not find Monty Python funny, and realised that I was not alone, at least if you exclude the older generation of the time.
I had grown up on the extreme radio comedy of the Goons, and later such wonders as Cambridge Circus, I’m Sorry I’ll Read That Again, and then their morphing into TV with At Last The 1948 Show and similar, so Monty Python was much looked forward to.
For me, though, it largely bombed. I faithfully watched very week, despite (or maybe because of) parental disapproval, but it let me down every time. The only thing that I found mildly amusing was the Lumberjack Song sketch and that was my lot. As for the follow-up films, I did see a couple because the lady in my life at the time was a fan, but I thought them abysmal.
Maybe there is a touch of the Emperor’s New Clothes here; no-one wants to speak out, but now there is some hope. For years I have though that it must be me, because the programmes are so much-loved as a cult classic, so it is nice to know that, whilst I may be in a minority, I am not alone.
On that note, with apologies to Mr Cleese, I will make another confession. I don’t like Fawlty Towers either. Its only redeeming feature for me was Prunella Scales’ performance as Sybil, the rest of it I found embarrassingly awful.
john bowen? no, that one isn’t me
Hardly an original title, but since I started to get active on the blogging front I’ve come across all sorts of namesakes around the world and over time.
Just for the fun of it I’ve created a page here to list some of the other JBs with a link to more information about them, or to their web sites if they have one.
It will build over time as I come across ones I think that I’d like to include and, if you are a JB and would like me to mention you here, please let me know and I’ll gladly include you.
To see who’s there, click on the tab at the top of the page, or on this link.
more on the yes2av campaign – is there a scandal that we should know about?
I am all for a fair fight, good open debate and accepting the results at the end, whatever they may be. My own campaign against the yes2av lobby is, I hope, a good example of putting an alternative argument forward so that people can make up their own minds, albeit that I do hope that my arguments do influence people towards my way of thinking.
And so I am appalled the read via another blog quoting from The Spectator that the Electoral Reform Society, who would have much to gain financially from a Yes2av vote being successful, are sponsoring that campaign. Read the blog and reference to the article here and make up your own mind.
It is old news maybe, having been published in late Feb this year, but was news to me until this morning.
Filed under random rants, serious stuff
friday fun in the sun
Well it is a beautiful morning (no I’m not about to burst into a selection from Oklahoma!) and I am having a few moments in front of the laptop checking emails, blogging and passing the time until I have to capture a pair of moggies and take them off to the vets for the annual jabs.
All of a sudden here in Jottings I have got all political again. After GE2010 I promised myself that I would leave the soap box in the shed for a while, but the Yes2av campaign crept up on me and had got the juices flowing in opposition, so apologies to my regular readers who prefer my more whimsical offerings, but there will be a steady stream of no2av campagning for the next few weeks.
I will try to add more of my usual scibblings to water things down though, so please bear with me if you find the politics boring.
So, time to drink my tea and turn into Hunter John and track down the cats. This posting will be filed amongst Wildlife Encounters; they may me domestic animals, but somehow they know that a trip in the cage is coming and are already plotting against me. I shall return later to dress my own wounds and with a lighter wallet.
Filed under about me, fun stuff, wildlife encounters
The Voice of the Bloke at the Back 