Trees grow as tall as they can…

I have thought much about whether I should comment on the Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross fiasco that has featured in many of the tabloids this week, but I didn’t listen to the Russell Brand Show, so it isn’t something I feel qualified to comment on, except perhaps that I was somewhat surprised at the use of the phrase ‘lapse of taste’ in connection with Russell Brand’s antics; it never ceased to amaze me that he remained ‘on air’ after seeing his, for me, unacceptably lewd behaviour week after week referring to Russell’s ballbags, or Russell’s scrotum, when he presented Big Brother’s Big Mouth.

However on reading of his background some time ago I had some sympathy for him, in particular I always remember an article in which he said  ”I don’t want to die as That Mad Bloke From Big Brother, I didn’t want to die as That Mad Bloke From MTV. I want to do something that has value, worth, poetry momentum… I’d just like to do everything I can. Trees grow as tall as they can, don’t they – not half as tall.’

No doubt his talents will take him far and I hope that he will “do something that has value, worth, poetry and momentum” rather than fall back on the lewd behaviour that he is more famously associated with.  Perhaps his recent flight to Hollywood will make that possible, maybe those casting Johnny Depp might spot a certain resemblance?

Praise for Gordon Brown from Nobel Prize winner

On Monday it was announced that Paul Krugman has won the Nobel Prize in Economic Science for his work on trade patterns and the geography of economic activity.

Paul Krugman is also a columnist for the New York Times, and in his Monday column he endorsed Gordon Brown’s £500 billion rescue plan for the British banking industry, contrasting it favourably with the American Government’s scheme.

He wrote “Mr Brown and Alistair Darling, the chancellor of the Exchequer … have defined the character of the worldwide rescue effort, with other wealthy nations playing catch-up.” He praised the British Government for having acted with “stunning speed” to address the financial crisis, again contrasting Mr Brown’s efforts with those of the US Treasury.

“This combination of clarity and decisiveness hasn’t been matched by any other Western government, least of all our own,” he wrote.
“Luckily for the world economy …. Gordon Brown and his officials are making sense …. And they may have shown us the way through this crisis.”

Since Monday the USA has followed the British example of injecting money directly into the banks as fresh capital and several other European countries have announced similar plans.

It is of course too early to know how effective these measures will be in solving the current global economic crisis, but Gordon Browne has clearly demonstrated that other world leaders are willing to follow his example.

Now that recognised economic expert Paul Krugman has highlighted that Gordon Brown acted swiftly and decisively are we likely to see apologies from those less able politicians and media hacks for their remarks in recent months about Gordon being a ditherer? Probably not, that would take courage*, doubtful if we will ever see articles about the courage of armchair political writers in the right wing British press!

Link to Paul Krugman’s New York Times article

* Link to article “digby-jones-thanks-gordon-brown-for-showing-courage” 3 Oct 2008

* Link to article “EU-treaty-Leaders-praise-Gordon-Brown’s-courage” 19 June 2008

Virgin Views

During recent TV News bulletins we have predictably seen one so called ‘expert’ after another being wheeled in front of the cameras to make their pronouncements on the global financial crisis. Surely one of the most bizarre this week has been Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson being asked his views of the rescue package announced on Wednesday in London.

As an admirer of some* aspects of his life I think it was an event he may live to regret; did he ask to appear or was he invited I wonder? Either way, why would they expect his views to be any more valid than if they had dragged the next passing taxi driver off the street into the studio. Sure, Sir Richard is a colourful character and has a billion or three, at least on paper, but as a risk taker of some extreme, his views on getting a stable economy are hardly likely to be taken seriously. Aside from his failed round the world balloon attempts, several of his businesses have failed or just bump along inefficiently; Virgin Vodka anyone? Virgin Cola? His “bring back the Concorde campaign” while patriotic was hardly a great business proposition either.

Gordon Browne remarked last week, this is not a time for novices to be in charge, I’d add it’s not a time for virgin views on the economy either.

*Here’s an aspect that isn’t so great though, Virgin offered a measly $25 to take the virgin fuels .org domain name off of a 55 year old female American blogger – http://gaiacapitalist.squarespace.com/virgin-notes/ Obviously some Virgin executives would rather waste hours of their very highly paid time threatening legal action against a well meaning and enterprising individual, instead of simply making a sensible commercial offer of a few thousand dollars. As Sir Richard should have learnt by now, some things come back to haunt you.

Percentage Points

“Interest rates cut by 0.5%” say the scrolling headlines on BBC News bulletins today – really?

I’m sure that many people listening to the News in the last 24 hours will be sick of hearing the phrase that governments around the globe have reduced the interest rate by “half a percentage point”, but how many people realise what this means?

A percentage point is the arithmetic difference of two percentages, so for example in the UK the base interest rate has dropped from 5% to 4.5%, i.e. a decrease of “half a percentage point”. This means that the UK base rate has actually dropped 10% (since 0.5% is 10% of 5%, still with me?) not O.5%, since percentages indicate ratios, not differences!

Now can anyone explain what the announcer meant that said rates had dropped by “half of one percent”?

Beijing Paralympics Medals

Back from a break – so let’s kick off with more great news from Beijing!

Rank	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	China	45	47	33	125
2	Great Britain	37	21	19	77
3	United States	24	18	21	63
4	Ukraine	16	12	21	49
5	Australia	15	19	21	55
6	Russia	15	16	14	45

The table speaks for itself! Well done Team GB! Pity that when I searched on Google for Beijing Paralympics BBC it came up with the 2004 Paralympics page! Come on BBC pull your socks up – give it the coverage it deserves on the main News page and not just hidden away on the Sports pages.

These disabled athletes are an inspiration for everyone, unlike whinging Labour MPs who seem to think leaking news to BBC journalists about how unhappy they are with their leader is somehow professional; do they think it is going to win them, or their party, votes or promotion?! Well done to whoever sacked the Assistant whip Siobhain McDonagh, if she did the same while working for a company she would have deserved the same for jeopardising the shareholders investment.

Gordon, you might want to consider the future of Janet Anderson, Karen Buck, Patricia Hewitt, George Howarth, Eric Joyce, Sally Keeble, Stephen Ladyman, Martin Linton, Shona McIsaac, Margaret Moran, Tom Levitt, and Paddy Tipping, over their article for New Labour magazine Progress stating, as the BBC are quick to extract, that Labour has “no explanation yet” as to how it will “steer the economy through the troubled waters ahead”. Frankly, if these MPs think the public wants a meaningless strategy dressed up in Blairite spin from you, then they are truly out of touch; but more importantly, just like Siobhain McDonagh, they are truly naive if they can’t foresee that certain journalist, like those at the BBC, looking for an anti-Labour story will take their statements out of context and use it to damage your reputation. I for one trust a man that is honest enough to say that there are no quick fixes, keep on in there Gordon.

A Quarter of Nostalgia…

Some months ago I came across the A quarter of website, they sell sweets that you thought had disappeared; Black Jacks, Refreshers, Sugar Peanuts, Lemon Sherbets and about 700 more! The days of four Black Jacks for a penny are long gone but still a great site if you want a little treat!

I had a hankering for some liquorice and included in my tenners worth some Bassetti, now maybe it was stale, a bad batch or maybe my jaws are getting weak, but I can’t recall ever having liquorice sticks that damned hard before! Anyone else out there tried this stuff?

I gave up on buying Bassetts’ Liquorice Allsorts some time ago when I bought a bag one Christmas from Sainburys, again maybe it was a duff batch but I was extremely dissapointed at the small amount of actual liquorice in the bag, just tons of sugary stuff, very little plain liquorice and little if any of those bobbly aniseed jelly ones!

Have they economised on the ingredients over the years or was I just unlucky? The picture on the American Candy Blog seems to show a far different mix than I had. Do they have different mixes for different countries I wonder?

Strike “Down the Tube”

A 72-hour strike on London Undergound was called off last night by the RMT Union after an improved pay offer was made. It was due to start at midday on Wednesday 20th August.

1,000 track, signal and train maintenance staff working for Tube Lines were due to walk out. Tube Lines is responsible for running the Piccadilly, Northern and Jubilee lines.

Drat, there goes that “working from home” stint to watch the Olympics on TV…

Olympics Day Seven

Good start to the day… the British men’s cycling team have set a new world record in the team sprint qualifying round at the Velodrome, and Ben Ainslie looks set to get at least a Silver medal tomorrow in the sailing.

Must get some work done… but keeping an eye on it here – BBC Sport Olympics

Olympic Breakfast

How great to see our Olympic cyclist Nicole Cooke win a Gold at the week-end, and not a mask in sight. Brits 1, USA 0

Not usually a swimming fan, but to see Rebecca Adlington winning a Gold and Joanne Jackson a Bronze in the women’s 400m free-style was pretty cool. Well done! First women’s swimming gold for Britain in 48 years apparently, but who cares about such statistics? Pour moi, seeing two Union Jacks, albeit alongside the Stars and Stripes, waving there on the Olympic flag poles was a great start to the day!

ba, ba, ba

ba, ba, ba (or 08/08/08 if you prefer)

Worked from home yesterday to see the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony; of course most Londoners were working hard as usual in the office, including the London Olympics 2012 office staff…

With 8 being a much prized number in China, the Opening ceremony on the 8th August 2008 appears not only very fortunate for the Chinese but it will make remembering when it happened a darn site easier for all of us.

Which brings me to ask, am I the only Londoner that gets totally wound up every time I hear a BBC commentator referring glibly to ‘the events of 9/11′, as if I am supposed to remember that ‘of course’ it means 11th September 2001, and not as ’silly old English me’ would think refers to 9th November? Since when has the UK used the American month, date, year date format?

In the West the number 7 is often considered lucky, perhaps the ‘events of 7/7′ might change some people’s views on that…