JP's Corner of The Blogosphere

Apparently a local Toy Library won’t accept voluntary reimbursement from parents who offer to pay for lost or damaged toys.  The reasoning for this is because “some people wouldn’t be able to afford to pay.” How ridiculous. Mind you, thinking of those who can’t afford to pay does potentially have advantages.  I’m thinking of not paying tax, rent, and other bills because I don’t want to discriminate against those who can’t afford them.  Don’t let it be said that I’m not the caring, sharing type.

I’m a big fan of Danny Wallace and have very much enjoyed reading his latest book, Awkward Situations for Men .  If you’re not familiar with it, it’s basically a collection of columns in which he’s written about funny and awkward moments in his life.  I’d highly recommend it, but it has got me wondering why my writing career hasn’t developed beyond the glory days of the Columnsphere in Bath Impact .  After all, I could be Danny Wallace.  I even sort of look like him (in that we both wear what he terms ‘Media Glasses’) and my life is full of awkward moments. I had one just recently, in fact, when I discovered the potential pitfalls of going somewhere with your brother’s girlfriend but without your brother. As I learned at DisneyLand when I was younger, “it’s a small world after all,” and Mavis* has moved nearby for the summer.  So we now attend the same church.  A couple of weeks ago, we rocked up together and sat in the same pew, behind some friends of...

Microsoft may now be forced to offer users a choice of web browser, but that doesn’t seem to have stopped them mucking around in an uncompetitive manner.  Internet Explorer came pre-installed on my computer and I have opted to keep the 64-bit version just because it is the only 64-bit browser I currently know of.  That doesn’t mean I use it very often ( Firefox 4 has won my heart) but each time I do, it has started to complain about my choice of search engine.   Apparently I originally chose Bing.  Obviously I didn’t, because no-one does, and I’d rather that Microsoft would leave me alone rather than kindly resetting IE to use its own product. Interestingly, the message also tells me that Bing can be found at www.google.com .  If Microsoft employees think that, it’s no wonder that they are proud of their search engine.

One of the costs faced by rail companies is that of cleaning graffiti from trains.  As part of my work, I had a visit to a rail depot last year, and I learned that such vandalism can be extremely costly.  It’s probably another reason why your last rail ticket cost you a lot of money. Anyway, some artist has had the cheek to proudly post his attempts at railway vandalism on his website .  If I was Prime Minister, I’d follow Obama’s example with BP and ensure that the artist was fleeced for every last penny of the clean-up operation.  Why should the average rail traveller foot the bill?  Unfortunately, I’m not Prime Minister, and I learned this morning that Mr Cameron has instead decided to promote said artist by donating some of his work to President Obama .  Good one, Dave.

Following on from yesterday’s post, I hear that Mr Cable has said that it’s "unlikely" that a ‘Graduate Tax’ would be paid throughout a graduate's working life. Hmmm. If that could be guaranteed then the system is slightly more appetising (in the same way that raw beef is slightly more appetising than raw chicken).  I’m not convinced, however, that the bureaucracy involved in deciding who pays what, and which Universities get what will lead to a simpler, cheaper and better system.

Predictably, the proposal of a Graduate Tax has caused some controversy.  The idea has some good points in theory (like Communism) but the FT outlines four flaws which might be a problem in practice. I certainly don’t like the idea that having a degree could see me paying extra tax for life.  Neither do I like the idea that this extra tax could be funding thousands of Media Studies students and their binge drinking habits.  Forgive the flippancy in that last sentence, but I think that the Labour target of 50% of people going to University is ridiculous, and attaches a stigma to those who don’t.  I might have been able to scrape my way through a Physics degree, but I can’t do anything practical to save my life.  We’re all different.  I’d much rather see investment in useful non-academic qualifications than University places for the sake of meeting targets which sound good. I understand that there is a need to review funding for the education system....

The new BBC News Page tells me this morning that BP faces an offshore drilling ban , thanks to new measures agreed by a US Congressional committee.  Although the measures do not mention BP by name, they seem to be well crafted to target it, and this has really annoyed me. Don’t get me wrong, I think that the Gulf oil spill is a disaster and that lessons need to be learned.  Do I doubt that BP made mistakes? No.  But neither do I doubt the fact that BP were under immense pressure to feed America’s insatiable appetite for oil, or the fact that many of the non-BP contractors also had their part to play. If Mr Obama was a real man, he’d be finding other ways of improving the safety of all offshore drilling – and not just focussing on BP.  He’d be considering the fact that the average US household has an annual carbon footprint of more than double the European equivalent, and wondering if such greedy demand for oil should continue to be encouraged. Thanks to Obama’s...

This picture comes from the BBC News coverage of the Raoul Moat incident . The caption given by the BBC is “After Moat’s death, police praised residents of Rothbury for their resilience in dealing with an armed police presence – and the threat of a gunman on the loose – in the town.” That’s all well and good, and it’s nice to know that the residents of Rothbury were credited for the way in which they dealt which what must have been a difficult and traumatic week. However, in my eyes, the picture above has a slightly comic edge – aiming a gun at two ladies on a jolly in their Nissan Almera seems like overkill to me.  Notwithstanding the fact that the events of the last week have obviously been very sad, I think there is an opportunity to have a bit of fun here and suggestions for alternative captions would be most welcome.

“I tell you what. The Lords is a place of class, no doubt about that”  [ Lord Prescott ] I think, what he meant to say was “The Lords was a place of class.” Shame that he’s gone and ruined it.

So, Jeffrey John is potentially going to become Bishop of Southwark .  The news saddens me - but before I am accused of being homophobic, let me say that Dr John’s sexuality is not the real reason I am upset.  In fact, I have three big concerns about this latest news. 1) Much is being made about David Cameron being in favour of Dr John’s appointment, with reports suggesting that “it will be good for the image of the Conservative Party.”  As far as I know, our Prime Minister is not a church-goer, but even if he was, it doesn’t seem right that he is able to choose a church leader for political gain.  Paul’s 1st letter to Timothy contains some good points about choosing a church leader, and someone who “improves the image of the Prime Minister” is not one of them. 2) Some time ago, I was privileged to be in a group invited by Dr John to drinks at his house in St Albans.  I’d been looking forward to meeting him, and was determined to try and put my prejudices a...

I have just looked at the photograph in the last post I published and realised that there is an apostrophe.  Thus, it is probably only one farmer who is fearful of Chinese lanterns.  But, as I have commented here before, the world is increasingly full of people who don’t use apostrophes appropriately.  Somehow many Tom’s, Dick’s and Harry’s still get a C or above for their English Language GCSE.  This sad fact of life means that I cannot be certain that the journalist was only referring to one farmer.  I’m not worried enough to buy a copy of the paper just to put my mind at rest though.  So there.

They say you learn something new every day, and I’m pleased to announce that after spending a very pleasant morning in Billingshurst I have learned almost enough for a whole week. 1) Black PVC insulation tape is much, much cheaper than you fear it might be.  If you were me, that is. 2) Billingshurst has a new Italian Delicatessen-cum-coffee shop. ‘La Dolce Salata,’ I believe it is called, and if you are ever opposite Budgens you should pop in.  I had a very pleasant chat with the owner whilst he let me sample a range of cheeses and made me a sandwich for my train journey. 3) Some farmers have some fears about Chinese lanterns.  I didn’t actually see the paper, and cannot comment further.