Appropriate Technologies

BG (ta) pointed this out to me http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7519966.stm and at first sight I am impressed by it, although I have my concerns as how it might work in the more rural parts of Africa.

A few years ago one of the prosthetists who treats me went on a UK Government sponsored sabbatical to Cambodia helping victims of landmines and one of the immediate questions I had was "why not send out old, but perfectly serviceable, limbs from the UK?"

His aswer was simple: "because the technology is wrong". He meant that if a high tech Western limb (such as the one I wear - Otto Bock) went wrong then that would be it - there would be no facilities to fix it; whereas there was a wonderful cottage industry making functional, working but repairable limbs locally which relied upon locally available skills and materials.

He was used in training local people in how to measure and fit these limbs.

As always it is not necessarily alternative technologies but appropriate ones.

Salt Marsh Lamb

Has arrived from Edwards of Conwy.
Not cheap but ....

Labour is doomed

And now not just Brown. If the Times is correct and Harman and Miliband are actively drawing up plans to challenge Brown (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article4423052.ece) then Labour is doomed. The only difference is in the timing. Now we all know that we are not a presidential system and that the electorate do not elect Prime Ministers but the screams for an election if Brown is deposed would be long and very very loud and would probably be impossible to ignore. The authority of a new PM would be virtually non-existant from the start. I cannot see that a change in PM (contrary to what Janet Daly wrote in the Telegraph the other day) would significantly improve Labours chances - especially if the Conservatives start getting their policies out en-masse.

Which is greener?

We have the despised two week rota for rubbish - one week green (some plastics, paper, metal etc) and the next general household waste (black since that is the colour of the wheelie bin).

Now our council will not accept any black rubbish that is not in the wheelie bin (they will green) and so if you have extra stuff then it is a trip to the tip. It is obvious that we are not alone in that since last Saturday the queue to get into the tip banked itself nicely up on the main road outside.

Not everybody (including myself -we had some old bits of computer which could be recycled ) was dumping "black" rubbish but a lot of people were so I was left wondering how many extra carbon miles are done by people taking stuff up to the tip in the backs of their cars which would have been collected by the single council lorry a few years ago.

Heaven sent

Well the heavens have just opened with an absolute torrent of water bringing to an end that period of very hot, sticky weather. Now warm - even hot - weather I like but not sticky since it makes my stump become raw and on really bad occaisons bleed; so I am not particually sorry to see it end.

It was Charles II who was reputed to have said that "English weather is three fine days and a thunderstorm"

Make that six ...

Comment of the day

"Des Browne is the only minister of whom it can be asserted without fear of contradiction that he is even worse at his job than Gordon Brown is at his."

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/bruce-anderson/bruce-anderson-it-is-almost-impossible-for-mr-brown-to-cling-on-and-it-is-almost-impossible-to-replace-him-878707.html


(Hat tip Robert Winter)

The real world

Nice to see that David Cameron actually shops at Tescos and will then still be in touch with the real world of galloping food inflation.

Unlike someone else ....

(& please don't mention security issues... I would expect that a leader of the opposition who is more than potentially going to be our next PM would have fairly hefty security associated with him)

Lawnmowers

Having spent the last week on and off fixing our mechanical sheep (gunk in the carb - disassembled and cleaned with lashings of WD-40) I have a great deal of sympathy with Keith Walendowski who apparently got so cross with his lawnmower not starting that he took a shotgun to it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7526628.stm

just too hot

and duty calls outside in the garden.

All fun & games watching the vultures begin to circle around Brown though ...

Sysadmin Day

Time to give ourselves a pat on the back ....

http://www.sysadminday.com/


Could all users please read http://www.sysadminday.com/time.html for urgent advice?

A complete disaster

Bye-elections are traditional times for giving unpopular governments a good kicking but the results from Crewe and now Glasgow East are something different. I am a Unionist and so I really don't like a SNP victory but at the moment I like Labour even less.

For Labour to lose a seat that has been Labour since Pontius Pilate's time is a complete disaster. Backbench MPs will be looking over their shoulder's at their majorities because there - even accepting that bye-elections can have odd swings - probably isn't a safe labour seat in the coutry at the moment.

I am in two minds about what to do: The Conservative in me wants Brown to continue in No. 10 because frankly they are unelectable if he remains in power - and could possibly destroy Labour's chances for years to come but at what cost to the country (although I suspect that Labour are probably doomed anyway)?

Additionally, although we do not have a presidential system, changing prime ministers twice between elections in unheard of in the last 100 years (Iain Dale had a discussion on this back in May which seems to have disappeared from his site) so realistically if Brown goes there MUST be a General Election.

Thought for the day

I wonder what Zimbabwean taxi meters look like .

Patient confidentiality and data protection

This is a very worrying development. According to the Wirral Globe, the local PCT is about to ship details of personal records off-shore to a US based company.

The issues arising are huge:

Firstly: people are opted-in by default. Now I suspect that the Information Commisioner would have something to say about that. Recently, the IC stated over the Phorm affair that the default position MUST be opt-out in order to comply with the law. (See http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/09/ico_phorm_tougher/)

I would strongly suspect if a good burgher of the Wirral contacted the IC they might well get a similar result!

Secondly, the guff that the PCT has spouted: "the initial health data it wants to share with Health Dialog would be “unidentifiable” and “cannot be linked directly back to you”. "

Eh? What's the bloody point then of off-shoring it!? I cannot make head or tail of that statement to be honest.

The idea is to use an US company to act as a health advice line and to do that they are shipping the patient's record oversea. But "initially" (that worries me a lot) the data would be unidentifiable. So what "initially" would be the point of having it if it can't be used to help individuals who call in?

http://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/3226424.U_S_FIRM_TO_HAVE_ALL_YOUR_HEALTH_DETAILS/

Max Mosely

I think Colin Myler is being disingenuous when he said that "Taking part in depraved and brutal S&M orgies on a regular basis does not, in our opinion, constitute the fit and proper behaviour to be expected of someone in his hugely influential position." (BBC)

It might be a silly question but who decides that someone is in a "hugely influential position"? Is his deputy (if he has one - I know nothing about the workings of the FIA) in the same position? And so on ad absurbam ...

As far as I am concerned, what is done in private amongst consenting adults is that private.

Some bail ....

From: http://www.herald.co.zw:80/inside.aspx?sectid=998&cat=1

"THREE security guards on Tuesday appeared before a Harare magistrate on charges of breaking into a warehouse and stealing $19,6 quadrillion worth of stationery. The trio — Charles Makanga (26), Innocent Madziwa (27) and Panganai Bhiza (25) — appeared before magistrate Ms Chiwoniso Mutongi, who remanded them to August 5 2008 on $3 trillion bail each."

I didn't know that our courts were so corrupt ...

According to the BBC's report on Anne Darwin (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tees/7520803.stm)

"She was convicted of six fraud charges and nine of money laundering at Teesside Crown Court."

Selly Oak and Basic Human rights

A couple of days ago the Sunday Times had an interview with former Para Lt Colonel Stuart Tootal who has left the army in protest an the Government's treatment of the armed forces and the army in particular. Amongst various horror stories (including the farcical, dreadful behaviour of the Department for International Development over a washing machine) was a description of the conditions of the wards in Selly Oak that wounded soldiers were being treated in:

"One para sergeant major had been shot through the arm leaving it shattered in 14 places. When Tootal asked how he was, he replied: “Pretty shit, sir.”
“He motioned to a civilian patient next to him who couldn’t control his bowels, he was urinating and defecating, no one was clearing it up,” said Tootal. “It got so bad my warrant officer would get out of bed and clean it up with his hands.” A para with a damaged back had been waiting days for a CT scan, and nobody had told him that the machine was broken. Another soldier whose lower leg had been amputated was left, unattended, in agony. "

One thought came to me: no one should be treated in conditions like that, let alone members of the military. This isn't a call for dedicated military hospitals or wards which is a different argument, but rather for the NHS to re-introduce procedures that provide decent, civilised and above all, humane conditions for all.


(Full interview here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article4364115.ece)

Cast Adrift

There is a thoroughly depressing article over on the Guardian here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/jul/22/welfare.tax?gusrc=rss&feed=politics

(Hat Tip BG)

Zimbabwe

I really hope that the MDC remember that "when you sup with the devil, use a long spoon"

Salt Marsh Lamb

We managed to get a leg of salt marsh lambsie whilst in Snowdonia and it was the best lamb I have ever had - succulent, lean and full of flavour. Absolutely lovely ...

Da boch chi

Before I went to North Wales, I decided to learn a few basic phrases in Welsh - you know the sort of thing: "Hello","Goodbye", "Thank you very much", "Can you explain Kantian philosophy in the post-modernistic world?", if only because I think it is at the very least courtious to at least make the attempt - even though you might well have to drop back to English after a few phrases and, yes, I believe that it was appreciated ...

Anyway with some help from colleagues from Cardiff & Bridgend I learnt that "Goodbye" was "Da Boch Chi" (I also knew that a less formal way was "Hwyl fawr") so I decided to say that in a Welsh language book shop in Caernarfon.

"Don't know that round here ...." came the instant reply (in English) ...

A couple of days later I repeated the exercise but, this time was able to discuss it.

Apparently "Da Boch Chi" (pronounced "Dar Bock Key") is taught in Welsh language courses - especially in South Wales - as the formal way of saying Goodbye but no one actually uses it!

Additionally it seems that it is, in any case, restricted to S. Wales Welsh which I am assured is very different to the language (both written and spoken) that is to be found in N. Wales.

Even nicer the commonest way of saying goodbye in N Wales in "Tarra "....

Anyway, firstly,if someone could correct me on this I would be very grateful and secondly: my apologies to all those Welsh speakers to whom I spoke for mangling their language ...

Blogging will be light

Well actually probably non-existant for the next few days whilst I "enjoy" a family holiday in Wales

Encouraging voters ...

Every time I see proposals to encourage people to vote the cynic in me rises to the front. Now voting is a privilege that many people in the world do not have (or is abused - Mugabe) and, of course, people should vote. But I always feel that Labour introduces these initiatives not for the greater good of the country but rather for their own benefit, especially since turnout in Labour seats tends to be lower (in both absolute and percentage terms http://www.yougov.com/extranets/yguk/content/kellnerMain.asp?jID=3&aId=1733 ) than Conservative ones.

I recall the postal voting fiasco which was encouraged by "I am an anorexic" Prescott that descended into criminal farce in Birmingham and elsewhere.

ID cards

Dizzy has posted here http://dizzythinks.net/2008/07/using-kids-to-push-id-cards.html about the Government attempting to push ID cards on to young people. I had a quick look round that site and found an on-line poll http://www.mylifemyid.org/node/204. What really pisses me off is the bundling of "Don't know" and "Never". It is bloody obvious that the two are not the same.

Palace Coup

I always like the old tradition of coups happening when rulers are out of the country; according to Guido (and the Sun) that might well be happening again!

http://www.order-order.com/2008/07/sun-says-harriet-definitely-plotting.html

Wonder if Gordon will bottle out of facing that one down .....

Rape

Rape is a vile crime and I am pleased to see that there has been a call for each police force to have a rape squad. The current conviction rate of about 6% is far far too low and a lot of sexual attackers are escaping.

However, any change in the policy must be fair - genuine, serious cases such as http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7496600.stm must be investigated properly and the offender, in my view jailed, but there must be fairness to men as well.

There are, in my view, enormous difficulties in defining "consensual sex". The, possibly cliched but probably true, issue of the involvement of alcohol for instance. The problem of his word against hers etc etc. These are all well-worn paths but both justice and fairness must be seen to be done.

Groundhog Year

Last year seemed to be the summer without sun; I have a horrible feeling that this year is going to be similar.

Especially as I am away in Wales next week ....

THAT menu

Apart from the fact that I wouldn't go near most of the item's on the G8 menu, I cannot help wondering about Gordon's abysmal timing as well as the insensitivity of the Japanese who planned it knowing full well what was on the G8 agenda.

Who won the battle?

Who won the battle for the main TV?

Grand Prix or Wimbledon?

Unsympathetic bullshit from the Government

One of the issues with being a single limb amputee (the OA is a more recent issue in the other leg) is that you tend to fall between two stools as far as Government help is concerned.

I need a car with an automatic gearbox - that is by far the simplest solution since it requires no modifications at all to a standard car - and in fact my license s only for automatics.

Along came the new rules for Vehicle Excise Duty. Now Dizzy blogged the issue back in March http://dizzythinks.net/2008/03/how-green-budget-punishes-disabled.html whch summed up the position well. Basically would be completely shafted for about £250 more than the equivalent manual.

I wrote to my MP (Labour) and he made a perfectly sensible suggestion that a way round this is that if there are medical grounds for having to drive an automatic then VED should be charged at the equivilent manual car. Now that I have absolutely no objection to: I can choose anything about the car except the gearbox.

He passed the details on to the Treasury for their comment and yesterday the post delivered Angela Eagle's (Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury ) reply to him which he forwarded to me.
I sometimes wonder which planet these people actually live on; whether the understand the day to day practical details that disabled people face.

Most of the reply is a rehash of the Government's strategy of using VED and taxation to reduce carbon emissions but at the end is the “practical” suggestions for me:

“It is not always the case that a car equipped with an automatic transmission will carry a CO2 emissions penalty. To give an example, the Toyata Prius has a CO2 emissions figure of 109g/km which puts it into the VED band B at £35 for 2008-09 and £20 for the following two years. This car is equipped with an automatic continuously variable transmission (CVT), as is the equivalent product from Honda - the Civic Hybrid, also with a CO2 emissions figure of 109g/km
Furthermore, those that experience difficulty operating a clutch on a manual transmission car are not necessarily restricted to automatic transmission cars. It is possible to adapt the vehicle with a semi-automatic clutch, which removes the need to operate the clutch pedal but retains the manual transmissions - and therefore the performance and economy associated with these cars. The Specialised Vehicle Fund is operated by Motability on behalf of the Government to help disabled people with the cost of vehicle adaptations, and this is one of the adaptations available on vehicles purchased through this scheme. "

Now the arrogance of the response is breathtaking:

• Why the hell should I have to go out and spend MY money to buy a car which is totally unsuitable for my needs? I have specific needs including lugging two teenagers built like prop forwards around!

• The Motability point is a canard: I am not disabled enough to get any help from the Government. I pointed this out in my original email to my MP

It is complete bullshit I am afraid.

MP's Expenses

So Gordon Brown was "not happy with what happened. I am very disappointed about the vote."
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7489208.stm). If that is the case why didn't he vote against it?

Codeine

Hate it ... but it works

Biology in history

Today being US Independence Day, it brought to mind the role of biology in history. Now I am not talking about human controlled biology (Condoms and Mr & Mrs Hitler etc) but the more subtle effects of genetic illnesses. Now whether or not George III had porphyria is debatable (and probably cannot be proved) but if he did then a simple point mutation in one of the 8 enzymes that are involved in haem production (exactly which one I suspect will never be demostrated) probably was involved and caused his illnesses which, of course, included mental problems and possibly clouded his judgement, even during those parts of his life between acute attacks of his illness.

Certainly George III went against his minister's - especially Lord North's - advice concerning the treatment of the colonists and possibly prolonged the war.

Aircraft Carriers

So the contracts for the two new aircraft carriers will be signed today - these ships, which will be the biggest that the RN has ever had (and that includes all the dreadnoughts, superdreadnoughts - Hood, Vanguard etc) and at 65k tonnes not far off the super-carrier category of the US Navy. (For those who want to have more details of the UK ships look here: http://navy-matters.beedall.com/cvf1-01.htm )

I must admit that the cynic in me won't actually believe in them until I actually see them floating down the Solent ...

I am in two minds about these ships to be honest. Unless we rely upon the US for airpower we need to take our own since modern warfare is expeditionary in nature, especially since we are looking at counter-insurgency, asymmetric warfare, and we cannot always rely upon a friendly power providing us with basing facilities and anyway our current carriers are pretty ancient and do not have the capacity required - so we probably need these carriers

But at what cost? The Army is too stretched at the moment; we urgently need to replace the snatch Land Rover; and we desperately need to provide the troops in Afghanistan with more heavy-lift helicopters. The Chinook HC3 fiasco shows up the MoDs procurement practises at their very worst. Moreover, the Navy is fast losing escorts. The original order for 12 Type 45 destroyers announced with much fanfare by the Government was first quietly cut to 8 and has now been further cut back to just 6. Furthermore, the Type 42 destroyers, the 45s are intended to replace, are being withdrawn and not replaced; the same is true of the Navy’s frigates. All of this will leave precious few ships and likely too few to provide a proper escort for the carriers. What it will mean is that once again we will be obliged to rely on anti-air warfare assets provided by other nations.


Brown has never had any interest in the Armed Forces. The mere fact that we don't have a full-time Secretary of Defence just serves to confirm that, apart of course from spin and stunts like the pre-phoney-election one he tried to pull in Basra last autumn.

We need more funding - and better balanced funding (stories of the MoD spending £750m on taxis, hotels etc doesn't help a jot - see the Arrsers reaction here: http://www.arrse.co.uk/cpgn2/Forums/viewtopic/t=100141.html) between the armed forces which reflects the modern style of warfare.

I would recommend anyone that has an interest in modern warfare to read Gen Rupert Smith's "Utility of Force - The Art of War in the Modern World" (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Utility-Force-Art-Modern-World/dp/0713998369)

Heartless

Have been pointed to this blog by the Jobbing Doctor http://thejobbingdoctor.blogspot.com/2008/07/grrrr.html

(ta BG)

Keith Vaz

I think that any chance that Keith Vaz has of being rewarded for supporting the 42 day detention vote has now just disappeared out of the window...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/2234527/Gordon-Brown-under-pressure-over-%27reward%27-for-Keith-Vaz-over-terror-bill.html

Update: a friend of mine has wondered whether the timing of this is more than a coincidence: did the Telegraph brief Cameron about this just before PMQs? This is only on their website and not in the print edition.

(Hat tip: Robert Winter)

Choice in the NHS

I found out the reality of hospital choice in the NHS yesterday. Talking to my GP I suggested that I would like my hip replacement done at another hospital rather than my local one. Not that my local one is bad - it isn't - but that the ones I had in mind were specialist orthopaedic hospitals. However there is lovely Catch-22 involved here: I should have made the choice at the time of referral. But I didn't know what was wrong with me at that time so I went to the local hospital. Hence I cannot change hospitals. Great choice ....

The Ghosts are still here

It is a glorious day here - it promises to be one of the hottest days of the year, Wimbledon is in full swing ("Well Done Andy") and the kids schools are winding down for the summer - trips away - now that the exam season is now over. But July 1st for my Grandfather meant reminders of a day of unimaginable horror - the First Day on the Somme. There are no survivors left now - Harry Patch ("The Last Fighting Tommy") served at 3rd Ypres in 1917 - from either side and so the Somme has passed from living memory and all that are left are grainy black and white photographs, sound recordings from later years and literary records.

It was the first time in action for Kitchener's army, that product of the extraordinary rush to enlist that occured in the late summer and autumn of 1914, something that is alien to us now in a vastly more cynical - or realistic - age. The Pals Battalions, that poignant reminder of civic pride where whole communities joined en-masse ("The Liverpool Pals, "The Tyneside Commercials" and, famously, "The Accrington Pals") and served together and who were to die together and bring heart-ache to the close communities from which they came.

The plans was simple:a week long bombardment to attempt to break the dense thickets of wire between the two sides and to bury the Germans in their dugouts, followed by a simple occupation of the German defences by the infantry. The tactics were simple too: the British staff considered that it would be too difficult to teach the New Army "fire and movement" and so they dictated that the troops would attack in lines - each soldier being about 3 yards apart.

The bombardment failed - the shrapnel shells failed to cut the wire and the bigger, high-explosive shells were too few in number and too inadequate to destroy the Germans deep in their bunkers.

Its the innocence that hits one now: the playing of a football accross the lines by Captain Nevill of the East Surreys (he died) as did a North Country player from the Newcastle Commercials, the officers dressing up, making them conspicuous - few officers wore the Tommy serge as they would later - carrying sticks with which to direct their troops, the cheering of the troops as they looked at the apparent destruction opposite.

And what then? It was literally a race for life. The Germans had to get up from the dugouts and set up their machine guns or they would die before British troops occupied their trenches. For the British, they had to get past the obstacles in no-man's-land or they too would die.

The wire was uncut in many places: the Germans set up their machine guns and poured flanking fire (much more effective that firing directly into a body of troops) and the massacre began. Some of the attacking battalions were destroyed - the 9th Royal Irish Fusiliers - part of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) which represented Protestant ascendancy in Northern Ireland in 1914 and which had joined up together to form the 36th Ulster Divison - lost over 500 officers and men, the Tyneside Scottish Brigade lost all 4 of its battalion commanders.

Nearly 60,000 casualties were suffered on that day, including almost 20,000 killed. It was the worst single day in the history of the British Army.

It was the day that the innocent Edwardian time died and the modern cynical era began.