The Old Gaffer

I would like you to read this opening paragraph because it’s approximately what I wrote in February 08, and I am now of the opinion that the situation is far worse, and I propose to demonstrate this fact, because I believe that the Charities Commission should be monitoring this. I will enlarge on this, further on.

Sophie and I have subscribed to some charities over many years long term and also one off. Now we are on a mailing list which is passed from charity to charity, and we are receiving junk mail and presents that we have no need of, but overall costing a fortune to purchase in the sort of quantities that would make it worthwhile, and wrap and post. Therefore, this process has long ago used up almost immediately, the small sum that we sent. I make this statement again because I am convinced that the maintenance of charities is now a marketing industry, supporting not only the charity’s staff but a number of marketing specialists. The nightly advertising on television, and the vast quantity of paper that comes through the letter-box, justifies this statement. What amounts to blackmail of the conscience should be outlawed, especially as it must, by its very nature, waste charity funds, and cause generous hearted people, often poor themselves, to part with money that may never reach the assumed destination, either through waste or through diversification at the other end.

We could not have avoided seeing the terrible photographs of children with deformed faces in I think, Africa. The voiceover said only a small amount of money for child was required to complete the operation, and make these children happy. I am of the opinion that the photography, script writing, travel and advertising rates on TV, if added to the cost of the office work and the operation, the overall number of children who would be treated might be a lot smaller than appears from the advertisement. There is no doubt that the picture of the children was heartrending and you have to be tough to decide that your money would be wasted if you subscribed. Today I had an interesting sideline on obtaining money for charities. A young friend of mine, going to a very forward-looking school, ran a sort of a short marathon for a particular charity and her friends and relatives coughed up, and she sent off quite a good amount. Almost immediately she was deluged with different approaches of collecting money, by the firm that she had sent the money to. This went on for a long period, and then she received a letter suggesting that she should make a sort of codicil in her will for the benefit of the charity. She was 12 years old.

Someone the other day was saying that they had a charity, I’m assuming they meant that they were contributing to a charity, as I can’t see the Charity Commission having to deal with hundreds of people setting up their own charities. This person had collected a four figure sum from friends and relatives as part of the cost for going out to this place where the charity was operating, presumably, to check up on how it is functioning and any problems. The total sum of the trip would be about four times what they had collected. In my experience a lot of these oversee charities seem to be the burden of a local senior religious figurehead. I would have thought that in the initial stages some member or members of the committee would have settled the way the charity was run in the foreign country, with triggers that would demonstrate if things were not right. I find that I hear regularly of people going abroad to check things out. However, to me, it would seem better that a system, run by a government agency, such as the Charities Commission, would have roving representatives, checking up on all charities. They would be more aware of any problems and how to solve them, and the costs to any individual charity would not run into four figures each time.

I was thinking about the last election, and my own take, which I posted, and how there was no real standard requirement that the politician had to pass through to determine his or her experience and ability for the job. In the very old days it was a sort of gentlemen’s club where people of the same ilk were virtually brought up together. Today people go to university to get a degree in political science, but how much experience they have other than the theoretical is something the committee of a constituency needs to know if they wish to adopt a particular person. Over these last few years we have seen some incredible mistakes being made, improper decisions, and self-aggrandizement at any cost. So I went right back to childhood as the basis of discovering experience and the way that this has changed over generations.

I have been fortunate enough, through marrying early, to have had the pleasure of seeing three generations growing up, and it is interesting that each generation has shown different responses to stimuli, than the others. Some time ago I wrote that the relative sophistication of generation upon generation was probably due to information being carried down collectively, through the genes. Thinking upon the statement further, and realizing that in my generation, married couples had their children early, and each subsequent generation, possibly through increased opportunities of leisure and pleasure, have had their children at a later age, I realized that the amount of information and the quality of it, passed on to the next generation, has increased generation by generation. I can only speak about those children that I have had considerable contact with, and I find that each generation has appeared to be more self-reliant at a very early age, and in general so interested in what they’re doing, that they are not bored enough to make nuisances of themselves.

Today, there is a demand by employers for people to have some sort of diploma. A diploma is only a certificate to say that a certain level of education has been reached, not necessarily at a very high level, and has no reference to experience. Whereas experience in his or her particular field, which is the vital element in an individual’s use to an employer, seems to be totally ignored except in the case of professional qualifications related to institutions, and were once also jealously guard by the trades, but now with people learning trades in colleges, rather than on the workbench, standards have fallen. So how does a constituency determine whether an individual is competent to carry out the complex work of the House of Commons? Today so many jobs require some form of diploma or degree, and yet people in the House, who are handling extremely vital, complex and in some cases shatteringly expensive decisions as mandatory, have no similar yardstick. From reading the handbills of the little band that I was offered in this constituency in the last election, there was obviously only one contender, and if that one had not been available, I shudder to think what we would’ve been getting.

I’ve been too long out of touch to comment on working hours of most of the trades, in my day it was eight o’clock in the morning to six at night, for the trades, nine to five for civil servants, posh offices like solicitors, accountants, and the rest had their own rules. Shops varied considerably, from a corner shop that opened at seven to sell newspapers to the men going to the yards, to 11 o’clock at night to catch the men leaving the pubs and wanting to buy cigarette. I often used to have to work nine to five, only the other way around, nine o’clock at night to five in the morning, when the roads were empty, and we could open up manholes, repair pipelines, and other work when the traffic was virtually nonexistent.

I expect you wonder what started this latest tirade, I’ll tell you. I visit Sophie in the Care Home at the same time on all days but Thursdays and Sundays. On Thursdays she has music and dancing, which she finds tiring, and Sundays others like to visit her. So that she knows when to expect me, I arrive every day before two o’clock, and leave about three fifteen. The roads are empty and I have an easy run in both directions. Today however I didn’t leave until three thirty, and the roads of the dual carriageway, in both directions, were head to tail as far as I could see. When I worked as a civil servant, just before I took retirement, the government introduced flexible working, which was intended that within certain bounds a man or a woman could adjust their working hours so they fulfilled their statutory hours, but in a different pattern. The limit in the evening was that you could not leave before four o’clock. I just wonder where all these cars came from, none that I saw contained children, so it wasn’t the mummy-run. I find it fascinating. At a time when we are in such financial difficulties I would’ve expected people to have their noses to the grindstone well after five o’clock.

I am at that stage in life, where I seem to have less interest in learning, than I do in being amused, but when you live alone, with all your contemporaries no longer here, being amused, becomes almost a matter of will power, that is to say deriving one’s own amusement, however banal. Believe it or not, thinking up television games with more intellectual content than just a quiz show, among other things, can be quite interesting and distracting. But unfortunately at the end of the day one tends to revert to the wide screen, and watch films. This will have naturally forced me into Criticism Mode, especially with the pap currently on offer from Skye.. I was never a devotee of Woody Allen and his obsession with New York. I now find that somebody in the chain of command, has bought up vast quantities of Woody Allen’s films from way back, I remember them even from my teens. Coupled with that they’re also dragging out British made films even before the 40s and a lot not long after. Some of them are very good, but many of them nowhere as good as whoever it is, says it’s is, when commenting on them in the Radio Times. Time and again I have saved on Plus a film highly recommended, only to find it was verbose and not to my taste.

One thing I do discover is that in these old films, the diction is much clearer, that the actors actually used their lips, whereas in the modern films, especially the American ones, one has to try to follow the script which is being mouthed with almost tight lips, and a quasi-Afro-American accent that is mostly unintelligible. Going back to the days of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, even the Westerns had actors talking in language that we could understand in Britain. When you watch an American film today, devoted to criminals and roughnecks, I don’t know whether you would agree with me, but it seems that they adopt this deep Southern accent as another dimension of colour, which is very difficult to decipher, especially as nowadays the musical directors seem to have more influence than the actual director?

If you go to the back pages of each day in the Radio Times, you’ll discover that day, after day, after day the same old films of being offered not always from the same source, but on the same pages, and if you read the blurb you might not mind because there appears to be so much on offer, but repetition rapidly reduces choice.

Last night I was watching something or other on television and dropped off to sleep. Now I live alone, I tend to do this because the conversation is so dull. When I awoke I found that Newsnight was having a go at poor old Charlie, for having commented to a friend that he didn’t appreciate the architecture his friends was proposing. I will not go into the details because they are on the Internet. The architect in question, and presumably others, are proposing to sue Charlie for using undue influence in an area where he had no technical qualification, or something along those lines. These people anyway, were after his piggybank.

I have always liked and respected Charles, he has a tough life with people picking on him at every turn, and all he is doing mostly is voicing what most of us thinks. As you probably know I was a civil engineer, and the sort of work that we do doesn’t exactly lend itself to flights of fancy, it is reasonably impossible to try make a sewage Works look other than what it is. Architects on the other hand, like interior designers, if they are any good, obtain their work through word of mouth, which means that they are in competition with one another, which in turn means that they’re designs too must be original and eye-catching if they’re going to be successful. This in turn leaves the whole system open to people trying to out-do others of the same ilk. It’s not surprising that Charles has complained often, I have myself, but nobody will sue me because I have no influence.

So what is influence? Influence is only likely to be successful if there are financial considerations involved, for which the person doing the influencing stands to gain, or that what he says is seen to be reasonable and fair. From my reading of this case, the furore is concerned with itself losing money, and trying to blame it on Charles. I cannot see any reason why Charles cannot write to a friend giving his own views on what his friend is doing. It’s beyond belief that Charles has any financial interest in stopping the project, merely that he likes common consideration, not competition, to dictate planning policies in the interests of Great Britain. On the contrary he is well known for his concern about many things in this country, and voices them at regular intervals, to the approval of his many admirers. I tell you this, I would sooner have my backside rubbed with a brick than be a Royal!

I am of a generation who looked upon sport as a pleasure, for those on the touchline and for those playing, not something that was so important that it had grown men crying in public. When I was younger I played in amateur games, went to matches as a spectator, and watched sports on television like any normal person. Now, I rarely look at contact sport because firstly it is all too serious, secondly the level of dirty play has become unacceptable and vicious.

I was watching the Italian match yesterday and two things came out of it, the first was that the Slavs were highly trained, controlled and very fit. By contrast the Italians seemed to have no serious game plan, and also to operate on the basis that anything goes if you can get away with it. This is not the only match that I have watched, but I have come to the conclusion that the level of refereeing on such an important occasion as the World Cup, is blatantly abysmally low.

I therefore, stupidly, because no one will agree with me, offer a solution. The number of people involved in refereeing would need to be increased. Firstly there would need to be a panel of three experienced professional footballers high in the stands, watching the game, and portrayed on television, and reporting any adverse occurrences. Secondly there would need to be about two extra people on the two touchlines, in communication with the three in the stand, and with the referee, who, among them all, could then perhaps bring order to the conduct on the pitch.

There will always be people who don’t play by the rules, but sport is not that important that people’s health, and in some cases, their lives, need to be put in danger by some vicious, hot headed hooligan. Both systems of rugby are a prime example.

I believe the biggest mistake they made with the budget was to increase the VAT. Psychologically it was wrong, and I question whether the value of 3% of VAT spread among the other sources of income for the government, would have been too difficult to manage, or are they trying to make a point?

I know nothing about George Osborn, his background, his experience, but it probably doesn’t matter because he won’t have been the only person responsible for the Budget. What struck me about it was that the knock on effect had been totally disregarded. Let me give you an example, in the 50s, I bought my first house, four bedrooms, and cost about £7000. A few years later I bought another house, five bedrooms, a quarter of an acre of land, for £12,000. In 2003 I sold it and bought a chalet bungalow with only two-bedrooms and a box-room for £300,000, which is now only worth £270,000. The knock on effect of those 50 years is the variation in the economy with time, totally unpredictable, and in such vast swings. In this example the change in the first five years was at a thousand a year, in the next 40 years it was at an average rate of 6,500 year, and the fall has been at 4.000 a year. In circumstances like this people become cautious, especially when the levels of taxation, such as VAT, are varied, the unpredictability causes them to think twice, and we have the situation we have today with the sale of houses stagnating. The knock on effect of that is that people often refurnish when they move house. The current climate is not suitable to encourage house buying. Currently large furniture shops are having tremendous sales, and the small ones are going to the wall.

One could easily predict that as with Maggie Thatcher, there could be an up rise of union disfavour if the lower ranks are having a two-year wage freeze. The health service, Local Authority workers, and civil servants on the lower ranks generally, will find it unacceptable that they are working under pressure, because of the cutbacks, while their counterparts, self-employed or in industry are probably being reimbursed in accordance with the cost of living. The psychological effect of a rise in VAT is much greater than 3%. People actually went out and bought alcohol before the rise became legal. The money they were saving was negligible, it was the fact that hit home. I may be a Job’s comforter, but I believe 3% on VAT is going to have a greater effect on the economy than was intended. In my experience VAT looms larger in people’s minds than most other taxation, and until it becomes routine and forgotten about, sales will go down, especially in haberdashery and furniture. Osborn underlined the fact that the elderly will be cared for, but immediately they have lost 3% of some of their income. I fancy that the sales of vehicles will drop over the next six months, in an industry which is still fighting to stay afloat. When you see the level of advertising in the press, on the Internet, and on TV, one realizes that the credit crunch is hitting hard.

In doing my accounts, I have discovered that not only I, but everybody else is dilatory in cashing cheques, for a number of reasons. We obtain our loose change from a hole in the wall, and consequently rarely go the bank. The amounts that the cheques carry are often small, money presents to small children, discounts, and a small payments in moieties. In my case the bank is over 5 miles away, in a part of town I rarely visit. I have also discovered that even large companies are not prepared to accept a credit card payment without a service charge, and therefore the tendency is going towards using a debit card, presupposing your account is not in the red. Clearly this change in policy is a by-product of the credit crunch, and the practice of so many people not to honour their debts. If you receive a cheque and for some reason cannot, or wont take it to the bank, one is then forced to write a covering letter and affix a stamp and take it to the post, all of which is another waste of time. As I have said repeatedly, the majority are penalized by the misdemeanours of the minority.

If my analysis is correct, in another year or so, whether we like it or not, we shall be forced to carry out all our financial dealings on the Internet, and those without a computer will be forced to go to one of these computing centres, or more likely the facility will be provided by local government in their offices and libraries. For someone like myself who has lived through so many changes, we find that life is no longer simple, as soon as you are competent in any particular field, the rules and operations of the field are changed again and again, often for very little purpose.

I looked at some of the World Cup opening ceremony, and it reminded me very much of the Africa that I knew in the late 20s. It had that innocence, instead of the technocratic approach in so many of the other opening sequences. On the other hand, I watched the first match and it saddened me to see the empty seating with all those crowds outside the stadium. It caused me to evaluate in my own mind how these large events were staged, what went into the staging, and who was responsible for the staging and footting the bill.

I can understand the virtue of sport in the round, to the individual, to the country, and the welfare of the people in it. We have all seen the upsurge of interest in sport when there are large worldwide and domestic competitions being promulgated by all the media. What I’m objecting to personally is the mindless approach to the problems of hosting any one of these large events. In highly developed countries such as ours, building new stadia and training facilities, is affordable and essential for the welfare and fitness of the coming generation, and inducing an urge to take part, if not necessarily to compete. In a country like Africa, life standards could not be lower, it is eminently farcical to build stadia to accommodate thousands, when the average figures for people on the terraces in the country is bound to be small by comparison. I feel that the lifespan of these stands and pitches will be short and they will crumble into dust. It must have been the responsibility of the international Board, to have overseen this possibility when Africa was submitting their proposals. As for leaving the stands empty, with people outside wanting but not affording to get in, has a lot to do precedent.

It is well known by my readers that I’m against hosting things like the Olympics because the people who are contributing to finance the games are the ones most unlikely to ever see an Olympic games themselves. It would therefore seem logical that the games should be held in several suitable countries, based on population, accommodation and ease of travel. This doesn’t stop the individual countries from having Olympic sized facilities for their nationals to train on and enjoy. To say that the value of the Olympic Games is that it influences countries to build facilities that they would otherwise not have, is clearly specious, in this day and age, public opinion would override this if the need and demand was there.

Strange Meerkats
I have written before about the fact that people are prepared to trust the information given by the picture of a disgruntled dog with adenoids, called Churchill. The other day, I was informed by someone in the advertising business, that the advertisements using meerkats are an incredible success. It’s all very well to say the British are mad about animals, but it does seem a step too far to set aside common sense to that extent. There is no shadow of doubt that not only the quality but also the quantity of advertising has increased incredibly since the credit crunch. The advertising executives seem to have discovered that entertainment in any form, is preferable to giving the facts straight from the shoulder, and much of the entertainment seems to err on the side of razzmatazz, and the facts and figures that one would have thought were essential, are more than a little sparse. Just out of interest, instead of skipping over the advertisements on TV, once in a while take a look at them, they certainly are entertaining in many cases, but whether they are as informative as one would like is a matter of opinion. I must say I find it highly amusing to imagine how some of these highly paid doyennes of the entertainment business, who were themselves preaching on the value of various products, must be feeling now they have been usurped by what the Africans probably considered as vermin.

The diversification of interest
No one could say I was sport mad, I will watch the odd football match, or international rugby but I don’t think that I would willingly support these championships that are springing up all over the country, and the Olympics. However, I am of the opinion that I am doing so through the back door. Long before the credit crunch, I had a number of shares in banks and building societies which formed my savings. When the credit crunch arrived at lease three of these concerns were taken over by bigger companies that later were to have been found to be making irrational decisions. The result of this has been my income from these investments, which was supposed to be stable, was in fact reducing at an alarming rate. I now discover to my horror, through watching sports on television, that these actual companies are currently supporting sport in its various forms, which itself entails supplying kit to the players, travel expenses and probably footing the expenses of the various events in the stadia around the country. I vaguely remember having seen that some of them were also funding tours. When you consider that the government has bolstered these people out or our taxes, and to this must be added loss of income to the pensioners who have been saving for their old age. I find it remarkable that the government is happy for this procedure; the perpetrators will tell you that it is wise spending as it generates business through advertising. They’d have a hell of a job trying to prove that to me, when I see how many seats at the matches are empty.

An estimate on waste
Local authorities, by the amount of paper they use to cajole us to save the world, should be estimating the overall level of waste of the world’s resources which is induced by large food shopping centres importing products from abroad by air, to satisfy the rising demand for unusual and exotic products, as well as those products home produced. We might get a surprise. There has been a great rise in the amount of notice which is taken of sell by dates both by the traders and by the purchasers. I am of the opinion that there is a considerable safety factor built into these dates that reduces their life. For one who was brought up with no such things as refrigerators and freezers, where you built up an immune system to such an extent the tummy troubles were not a problem, I believe that one of the severest wastes of resources and man power is our throwaway society. Someone will tell me that it is our obligation to support commerce in the underdeveloped world. I feel that there is a better way than transporting food halfway around the world to satisfy a very small, out-of-season need, and the inevitable waste.