Own Goal

I subscribe to Virgin Media (Formerly Telewest) and as of midnight tonight I will no longer be able to watch Sky One due to Sky's predictable corporate greed.

They wanted Virgin to pay twice what it already was for the package Sky One was in whilst halving the amount they paid for Flextech channels (Living, UK Gold etc.) at the same time.

This is all part of the Sky masterplan to get all cable customers to switch to Sky Digital. They've already denied cable Sky Sports subscribers their interactive content (Which includes additional matches for Champions League Football and NFL) and won't put any of their HD channels through cable. I'm surprised they haven't switched the feed to black and white.

What Sky have obviously ignored though is that over 1 million households are no longer capable of viewing their prime-time shows, so their advertising revenue is going to take an enormous hit. If they're expecting them all to switch over for the sake of 'Lost' then they're sorely mistaken. Some might but most people that choose cable do so because:

They don't want a dish outside their property
They aren't allowed a dish outside their property
They don't want to feed the Murdoch empire any more than they have to.
They prefer cable.

The only Sky One show that is currently watched in my household is 'Battlestar Gallactica' so we'll either do without, wait for the whole series to come out on DVD or find an alternative supplier over the internet.

As a seperate example of Sky's greed, apparently they're withdrawing their freeview channels to offer new pay-as-you-watch channels instead. The only thing is they're going to broadcast them in MP4 so existing freeviewers will have to cough up for a new box as the existing ones aren't compatable.

On behalf of all non-Sky Digital viewers I'd like to say:

Fuck you Rupert!

Wanker

Yet again Sebb Blatter proves how anti-England he/FIFA is by changing the long held system of rotation.

For as long as the competition has existed the rule has been that if Europe hosts a World Cup they cannot host it again until at least one tournament has been held elsewhere. However it would seem that when the path is clear for England to host the World Cup the 'rules' are changed.

South Africa are hosting it in 2010 and a South American country will host it in 2014 so a European side should be permitted to hosting it by 2018. However Twatter wants it held in either North America or Asia. It's bad enough that Europe is barred for two world cups in a row but three would be ridiculous.

The reason Europe holds so many World Cups is because Football is bigger in Europe. Most of the revenue generated by the World Cup comes from Europe so to expect us to go without hosting one for at least 16 years is taking the piss. That's a whole generation of football players that will never get to play a World Cup in their own continent. Whatsmore when you consider the volume of fans that European nations bring to local tournaments, it will mean that the carnival atmosphere generated last summer will be consigned to the archives.

England has the biggest football league in the world FACT. England has a higher concentration of 30,000+ capacity stadiums than anywhere else in the world FACT. Every other major European nation has held the World Cup in the last 24 years FACT. England invented the fucking sport in the first place FACT.

Blatter is as crooked as they come but as long as he keeps pooring money towards his associates (and pissing off England) he can do what he likes it would seem.

1966 England
1970 Brazil
1974 West Germany
1978 Argentina
1982 Spain
1986 Mexico
1990 Italy
1994 USA
1998 France
2002 Japan
2006 Germany (Again)
2010 South Africa
2014 TBA (Probably Brazil - again)
2018 Anywhere but England
2022 Anywhere but England
2026 Anywhere but England...

Soap Box Part III

In my last Soap Box rant I referred to 'wishy-washy liberals' that think criminals are not responsible for their own actions and that it's down to society.

David Cameron has put himself firmly into this category and will therefore not be getting my vote. He probably wouldn't have anyway but now it's definite.

Dave, lots of people have lousy upbringings and don't turn into criminals. Likewise lots of people are brought up properly and do. The victim that created this bandwagon in the first place had two loving parents who provided a secure environment and a stable income. However he was involved in a gang. Could this be because he made a choice?

Personally I'm sick of this modern political culture we have where the government and opposition offer to run our entire lives for us.

I'll run my own life thanks, you get on with running the country.

Can't we have a political party that tries to win us over with good ideas (aka policies) rather than promising to 'make it all better' for us?

Here's a few more ideas I would implement:

Put all road maintenance under the control of the Highways Agency.

It's stupid that some roads are maintained by councils and others by the Highways Agency. Have one agency that is responsible for all road maintenance and supplies the public with a structured timetable of maintenance.
They could have a sliding scale of re-surfacing depending on the road (e.g. Motorways every 3 years, A roads every 6 years, B roads every 15 years and all other roads every 25 years)
Roads would be re-classified according to the volume of traffic usage so for example the M50 would most likely be reduced to an A road whereas the A303 would probably become a motorway. That way a busy road would get more regular maintenance.
By taking the control away from the local authority you would be undertaking roadworks on the grounds of needs rather than satisfying/staying within a budget.
By having a specialised department you could throw more resource at it so roadworks would be more frequent but quicker. There is plant machinery available where you dig up a road with one machine and resurface it with another that follows (I saw it used in the USA in 'Extreme Machines'). Likewise roads would be worked on 24/7 rather than the approximate current equivalent of 6.5/4.5.
You could even introduce a pot-holes department so that road users could alert them to any dangerous potholes that could be repaired to prevent accidents.

Stop giving child benefits to growing families.

I've mentioned this one before but I figured I'd include it again. People on low incomes see child support as something of a cash cow and will have more children to get more money. If you want to have more children that's fine but I don't see why everyone else should have to foot the bill. When you already have two children, you should only receive child support for the next birth. That way if you have twins/triplets etc. then you won't get stung for going 'over the limit' but you can take steps (snips) to prevent yourself from having further children if you don't want to carry the financial burden.

Separate rural and urban transport policies.

The two environments are completely incompatible so I'd stop trying to apply a 'one size fits all' solution to them both. Regional railway is a waste of money if there aren't passenger numbers to back it up and cars shouldn't even be allowed in areas such as central London (but you don't make any money out of banning them)

Stop invading sovereign countries for political goodwill.

It would seem we went to war with Iraq purely because Tony Blair made a promise to George Bush and he didn't want to go back on it. Preserving human life is slightly more important than keeping a promise.

Give our armed forces the tools they need.

Not only does the government keep using the military, they keep scaling them back too. Doesn't this seem more than just a little stupid?

Give England its share of the devolution pie.

Again I've said it before but if you're going to let Scotland have its own parliament, you have to follow suit by giving one to England (That bit of the UK where 80% of the electorate lives). Scotland and Wales are ludicrously over-represented at the moment and something has to give.

That'll do me for now.

I thought I'd finish by congratulating the South West for having seven of the top ten hot spots for bankruptcy. It's hardly surprising as the houses are worth far more than the wages can afford. Plymouth is approximately 70% ex-council / forces housing so most people bought their homes for half their value and then watched the value treble. That's a 600% increase in equity which they then take a loan on to buy material goods and then wonder why they can't afford the repayments.
I'm hoping that some time in the future Joe Public will eventually realise that the only people that make money out of house price rises are lenders and emigraters. The value your house increases by is relative to the rest of the market.

Petitions Update

My regular reader(s) will know that I've been a strong advocate of signing up to the e-petition against road pricing.

I've noticed that it's now become part of a bullshit chain email:

If you are a driver, this will interest you.
Sarah Kennedy was on about this
proposed car tax scheme on the radio,
apparently there is only one month
left
to register your objection to the
'Pay as you go' road tax.
The
petition
is on the 10 Downing St website but they didn't tell
anybody
about it.
Therefore at the time of Sarah's comments only 250,000
people had
signed it
so far and 750,000 signatures are required to stop
them
introducing
it.
This is legit... from the 10 Downing Street's
website.
Once you've
given your details (you don't have to give your full
address,
just house
number and postcode will do), they will send you an
email with a
link in it.
Once you click on that link, you'll have signed
the petition.
Democracy in
action?
The government's proposal to
introduce road pricing will mean you
having to
purchase a tracking device
for your car and paying a monthly bill
to use it.
The tracking device
will cost about £200 and in a recent study by
the BBC,
the lowest monthly
bill was £28 for a rural florist and £194 for a
delivery
driver. A non
working mother who used the car to take the kids to
school
paid £86 in
one month.
On top of this massive increase in tax, you
will be tracked.
Somebody will
know where you are at all times. They will
also know how
fast you have been
going, so even if you accidentally creep
over a speed
limit in time you can
probably expect a Notice of Intended
Prosecution
with your monthly
bill.
If you care about our freedom and
stopping the
constant bashing of the car
driver, please sign the petition on
No 10's
new website (link below) and
pass this on to as many people as
possible.
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/traveltax/

I don't know where this magic number of 750,000 has come from but it's utter bollocks. All the e-petition does is replace existing paper petitions and raise awareness of issues.

What we really need is an e-voting system where we can vote on the issues that matter and essentially reduce the decision making power of government.

It would be nice if the government did take notice of this enormous response though. Otherwise disgraceful incidents like this will no doubt occur more often. Especially as all three main political parties seem to be hideously out of touch with the public on this particular matter. If anyone from them happens to be reading this:

JUST TAX FUEL!

Everyone has to pay (rather than just those with trackers fitted - when the tracking system works properly)

Less beurocracy is required

The less you polute, the less you pay.

Soap Box Part II

Having just watched the Panorama that P.C. Bloggs has been hyping up for the last few days I have to say that I'm shocked at the scale of the divide between government policy and those who impliment it/suffer it.

I knew McNulty was a pillock but I can't believe he actually defended the decision to send that man to prison for defending his family from three abusive teenagers.

Teenage kids are a law unto themselves and they're getting worse (because they're pushing the boundaries and no-one is stopping them).

If I ruled the country here is how I would try to sort out law and order:

Prison

I would set a benchmark of 9-11% overflow capacity for prisons. It gives you a bit of time if you have an increase in the prisoner population and more importantly it gives you a disaster recovery option.

Too often people referred to as wishy-washy-liberals* say that we should be doing more to rehabilitate prisoners. I would agree. But you've got to punish them first. Each prison sentance should have a structure of punishment, rehabilitation and external adjustment.

For punishment we could get them to do monotonous tasks like catagorising recyclable waste or stripping used tyres into raw materials for recycling or similar. During the punishment period they don't get Playstations, they don't get TV, newspapers etc.
They still get visitors, how else can they appreciate how truly shitty they have it? The money made from the hard labour they do can help pay towards the running of the prisons.

Once the punishment period has been satisfactorily completed they begin their rehabilitation. This is where they are given a series of tests to identify their strengths and provided with a vocational use for them. The better they behave, the more perks they are given.

Then when they are in a position where they are close to full release, they are given supervised day release to gain work experience for their new vocation. Then they are finally released.

They only get the rehabilitation and adjustment for a first offense. If they re-offend they just get the punishment for the whole sentance - what I like to call an incentive.

Prisoners already get rehabilitation and day release but I don't see them getting hard punishment for the crimes they have commited against society.

Youth Crime

I'm not an advocate on the 'change the law' culture that modern Britain endures. I think that enforcing the law is the issue, not changing it. However one thing I would do is remove the ridiculous distinction in the criminal justice system between an adult and a youth. Quite simply if you can do the crime, you can do the time. As I said at the top of this post, kids today are fearless so it's time to put the fear back into them.

Zero Tolerance

Yes it's expensive to send people to prison but if you make the experience shit enough and do it often enough it'll keep many more in line. A zero tolerance policy like they have in New York might be costly in the short term but in the long term it will work.

Listen

Having read a great deal of police blogs, the overriding message I get is that they know what to do but can't do it thanks to constant Home Office interferance. More needs to be done to make their jobs easier (reductions in beaurocracy not changes to the law) and they need to be given more freedom to go out and do it. Politicians seem to be more interested in how the Police are perceived by the public than how the police are perceived by themselves. I see an awful lot of cracks in the Civil Service so I can only imagine all the problems that Police officers see but can't fix.

If I was put in charge of any organisation I would always take a looking-upwards approach to bring in reform. Chiefs (whether constables or executives) will see far less problems in their position than those on the front line.

So to sum it up I'd make prison unpleasant, punish people that break the law and enable those that enforce the law to do their job. Is it really that hard?

* As I keep saying, I am a liberal. Your right to liberty is eroded when you infringe someone else's liberty (i.e. break the law). Wanting to see criminals punished doesn't make you a facist and if you think criminals aren't responsible for their own actions/choices then you clearly aren't a liberal - you're a twat!

Two Weeks

I was off work for the best part of the last two weeks with some weird balance problem and a chest infection. I think I'm still having the occasional recurrance but it's definately in regression.

Quite a bit has happened in the last two weeks:

Marathon - As walking in a straight line was a struggle, running was definately off the agenda. This cheered me up no end as every day I go without a run I lose aerobic fitness and get a day nearer to the half marathon (late May). So effectively I've got to make up for 28 days of lost training and recovery time.

On the plus side I bought myself a nice new pulse-watch and some running clothes to replace the cotton stuff. I had no idea synthetics could be so good.

I went for my first post-illness run today. It was also my first non-treadmill run in about 10 years. I warmed up on my brand new (at this point unused) cross-trainer which was probably my first mistake. Just getting back into the habit of breaking a sweat gave me an enormous adrenaline rush so I set off on a run rather than a jog. My lungs were burning after half a mile and although I managed another quarter of a mile after a rest, I was shot. Still, I did it. Hopefully I can run again after a rest day.

Diet - As I wasn't able to do any kind of exercise whilst I was ill I therefore came to the logical conclusion that there was no point dieting either. I've definately put some weight back on but to be honest it cheered me up when I was feeling low so it was worth it. My new dry-fit tops are probably less flattering than they would have been without the junk food though.

Music - I gave my oldest nephew my electric guitar (an Epiphone LP100) as a Christmas present. I thought nothing of it at the time as I'd had it for 10 years and barely used it. I did manage to get it playing in tune for the first time in that 10 years when I gave it to him, having figured out how to adjust the bridge properly. Nevermind, it wasn't like I was going to use it.

However when I was off work I watched a load of recorded TV and one programme was about Oasis and their rise to fame ("There we were, now here we are... The Oasis Story"). It reminded me about why exactly I'd bought the guitar in the first place and I felt the need play it so not having it suddenly became a problem. Luckily a friend has loaned me an Epiphone Sheraton II for a couple of weeks and I should have a replacement guitar by the time I need to give it back.

I'm now getting quite productive with my songwriting but as I'm unable to kick my wife off of her Mac, I can't record any of it. I might have to invest in a blank cassette to record it all on my dictaphone before I lose the rush and forget what I've come up with so far. Tapes... they're just so 80's!

Work - I got so bored at home that I actually went back to work before I'd recovered fully. Albeit for one day. I think just getting into the mindset of being back at worked helped me to recover. I was also given a very warm welcome back and it was nice to feel like I was missed which wouldn't have been the case in my last job.

Birthdays - It was the wife's birthday yesterday so I had the day off work. Unfortunately she didn't. I went to Exeter with her for the morning and found myself actually liking it. I don't think I'd ever been around the town centre in the day time before. Finding an enormous guitar shop stocked with every guitar you can imagine helped... in retrospect it was a good job we didn't drive home via the Ferrari dealership.

Bond - FINALLY saw Casino Royale yesterday. The new bond is brilliant, a bit unfair to give all the plaudits to Daniel Craig as they've finally written the part right too. I'm sure Timothy Dalton or Pierce Brosnan could have played it almost as well if they were given the same script. The film was good but not sure how well it will stand up to the others in the future. Once you know all the twists there's bound to be less to it.

Big Brother - It occured to my whilst I was off work that I couldn't survive in the Big Brother house. Even with a TV, computer, guitar(s), music, magazines etc I still drove myself nuts and was praying for my health so that I could get back to work. Imagine being stuck in a house filled with wannabe-tossers (tossers that are wannabes not people that want to be tossers) away from my wife, friends and family and all the creature comforts I just mentioned. I'd go stark raving mad within two weeks, one if Jade Goody was in with me.

Cricket - The nets have started and I'm looking forward to getting in them two stone lighter. I expect to be twatting the ball every-which-way (when I'm batting). Glad to see England managed to beat Australia, if we manage to beat New Zealand and get into the final it would be somewhat amusing if we went on to win it.

Villa - Three new signings, two impressive debuts and one near sell-out crowd. Things are looking up. Might just have to go to a game over Easter (if I can get a ticket).

So to conclude this very long ramble over thoughts and observations of the last two weeks, I'd like to think I've re-motivated myself for this half marathon (and to push on for a full one next year as originally planned) and that I need to set myself some targets for my music production else I'll never fulfill my ambitions. I'm thinking a demo-album by September is a good (and achievable target) not least because I'll have full access to the Mac from July onwards. It might lack drums though...