Category: General

The lottery of the voting system. The theory is fine, and it is probably as good as we’ll get, but when push comes to shove, have you noticed that the wheels come off? I’m not writing about the shambles of the Scottish election, I leave that to all the real commentators, but the fact that Brown won’t allow the Labour MPs a free vote on the EU Treaty, something vital to us, as nationally it is a worry and disenfranchises us, When we vote, we have, mathematically, if not in theory, about a 1 in 3 chance that the bloke we want will get in, The problem though, is when he gets in, (it’s about 5 to 1 he’s a he),  he will have to do as he is told, even if you and a whole crowd of your mates have written to tell him to vote against the Government motion. They are supposed to be our representatives, using their judgement as to what we would collectively wish, not jumping through the Whip’s three strand hoop. We in Bangor in Northern Ireland, have a Lady MP, yes, she’s titled. Unfortunately for her, she is the single MP representing what used to be the largest party here, the Unionists, so she is leader and whip, has a free vote, and represents us very well. The trouble is Labour has an unassailable majority.

Statements on population growth. If you are in anyway despondent, easily depressed, or of a very serious and critical disposition, I suggest you read no more.

There seems to be a certain illogicality in official statements, giving the appearance of fact, when they are merely extrapolations, and everyone knows extrapolation leads to infinity. I’m really talking about the future, but criticising the statement that our population will expand until we are 70 million by 2030. Yesterday, I said, ‘don’t believe all they tell you’. The dichotomy is that only a couple of days ago we, who are over weight, were told we will all die early as a result. Another aspect not accounted for is, if our economy collapses, as it might, with this exceptional personal debt, all the immigrants and their expectant wives etc, will hoof it off to where the grass is greener, they are only here for the prosperity. My generation amd I are in our 80s because we were born into scarcity, lived with rationing and exercised per force almost continually for the first 30 years of our lives. I believe the numbers of the retirees will drop at an ever increasing rate, (exponentially), from here on, because each successive generation has had it softer, exponentially, until, 50 years on, we have, generally, little exercise, a totally different diet, and a totally different environment. In the 1900s, up until about 1980, no extrapolation would have predicted a life as most have it today.

The most worrying aspect, in my mind, not immediately, but a lot sooner than people think, is the vast changes in the world. I believe change, which if you consider geology, biology, and intelligence, which are clearly exponential progressions of some sort, will not only be moving forward at an annually increasing rate, but the effects of the rape of the natural world are also increasing annually at an alarming rate. Our wild life, in my lifetime, has diminished incredibly. Strange viruses, and illnesses, some through man’s intervention, have not only affected man, but the natural world. My own amateur, perhaps stupid theory, is that in any naturally growing thing, it contains elements with memory that pass experience from ‘parent’ to ‘offspring’ and this is the way the natural world has evolved cumulatively. Camouflage is one case, as is the level of science and the advance in man. Dinosaurs existed for far longer than later species which have also become virtually extinct. But man, in the changes he has wrought, has outstripped the ability of the rest of nature to adjust itself to his meteoric development and greed. We should not be worrying about population inflation, but about the environment, about the greed so prevalent, the disparity between the disgustingly rich (hundreds of millions that they haven’t a hope of spending), and the very poor indigenous population, not the beggars from Eastern Europe and the strictures of the EU. I repeat something I have written previously, I knew, factually, of a husband and wife begging team, in the 30s, who owned a terrace of 6 houses.

Don’t believe all they or I tell you in any form until you have checked it
out!

When one reads a headline, ‘Britain is sickest nation in Europe,’ in one of the few broadsheets left in the country, with one of the largest circulations, you could be forgiven for considering it more than hyperbole. At the height of the Troubles in Ulster, friends of my aunt tried to stop her visiting me in case she was shot. I was in the RUC and hadn’t been shot at, I am not aware that there was more than one case of a visitor being actually injured in the 30 years of the bombing and shooting. I have always been convinced that the hooliganism of the football fans abroad is the work of a few dedicated trouble makers, egged on by the indigenous hard men, and promoted on film and in the press sensationally.

From what I read, and see on TV, I suspect a large part of the knifing, brutality, and theft is gang warfare between rival packs of children of Afro-Caribbean ancestry, located in inner-city areas, but not as one could assume from the press, as being general. In reporting, ‘man bites dog’ is newsworthy, and not the reverse. In Ulster, daily we are presented with crisis and injury, from a kitchen fire to road accidents or occasionally a shooting left over from our past. In the 65 years I have lived here, I have found little to cause me to consider much outside the norm, if one excludes the effects of people wanting a United Ireland, the hard way. I believe this is true of most of Britain.

Some of the statements in the article are vague, but on the face of it sensational. For example, they state that the number of women dying of alcohol related deaths has doubled, but not from what figure to what figure. If it was one last year, and two this then the rise would be 100%, They say England is the only European country to have a rising alcohol consumption, and quote that Europeans drink 10,95 litres per person, while we drink 11.37, a matter of 3.6%. I don’t believe a national survey can be accurate within 5% let alone that much. I wonder if the drinking habits of the Eastern European immigrants affected the result. The article raises the matter of our obesity level, that doesn’t make us out to be sick, in the way the title implies, merely a bit silly where diet is concerned, and we are going to fix that aren’t we? – Or are we?

I write because I find so many aspects of life so very different to what I was brought up to, so many statements I disagree with, but I try not to write for the sake of writing, that would soon be sussed out by my readership. My Grandmother had a saying, ‘If you haven’t something worth saying, say nothing’ Jimmy, my father -in-law went even further when it came to Ulster politics he used to say, ‘Whatever you say, say nothing,’ Journalist are paid to write, and they will only be read if the product is sensational, amusing, or instructive. .It is easiest to be sensational. My mother-in-law told Soph ‘don’t believe all they tell you, dear!’, that is good advice in all circumstances.

I think we believe too much of what we read and are told without being sceptical and looking deeper. We are not sick, odd, definitely, but not as odd as the continentals, who else could be? I shall sleep tonight in the knowledge that the Irish, the English, the Welsh, and the Scots are a great bunch, and not as some would portray us all.

Tackling the wrong target seems prevalent. I wrote yesterday that the Scottish scheme of diet change by free school meals was unlikely to succeed. I read that drug offences have risen by 14% after the policy of down-grading Cannabis by reducing it from class B to class C. Young mothers are complaining that motherhood is destroying their social lives. Youngsters are killing, stabbing and warring.

Writing purely from personal experience and common sense, a large part of the problem rests with the parents. I know what it is like to be part of a single parent family, a latchkey child and not to have the same standards as other children, but I was part of an extended family, with strong bonds, strict discipline, and concern. Today, it appears that there is not the same training in behaviour at home, less responsibility taken for the child’s actions, and the extended family is so geographically extended it has reached a point where they only meet rarely, instead of supporting one another in a crisis. A lot of the problems are exacerbated by the fact that to enjoy the living standard the parents seek, they have to cram too much into the day, and some things suffer, like discipline, diet, exercise, and child care. When parents regret having had children, because their social lives have become a problem, and the husbands are not pulling their weight, the system collapses and mayhem is the natural result.

The corollary must be that parents are targeted, made to take and understand the need for responsibility. The child must take responsibility for misdemeanours, as well as the parent in extreme cases. The parents should be targeted concerning their child’s obesity, child’s drug habit, and general behaviour in school and out of it. I think the corporal punishment restrictions are too widely applied, and it is no wonder many teachers are finding maintaining discipline to be more than stressful in the face of 30 to 40 hard nuts. If you have read my blog, you will know that I was caned more than most for less than needed, but I only suffered discomfort for a short while. In those days we took corporal punishment in our stride, no worse than getting soaked on the way to school, it was part of our lives and accepted.

It is a Catch 22 situation. Take a possible scenario, a single parent with two children, one of whom has stabbed a ten year old classmate, is charged with irresponsibility, and the stabber is taken into care; either the parent gets a slap on the wrist, as she has no assets to cover a fine, and she is needed at home to look after the other child, or she is locked up, and the second child taken into care as well, and will therefore be punished for the wrong of the sibling.

A switch like this basic theory would be difficult, even impossible, to apply, would be resisted and words like Nanny State would appear in the press. More professional brains than mine would be needed to lay out the parameters, set the legal limits, the social implementation, and the publicity, but if we are not to be faced with ever increasing incidents in crime, drugs, and general lawlessness, something has got to change, and I believe that to be the attitude of the parents.

If you are a Plump Lump you are in the spotlight! I wrote about obesity the other day and now it has taken over from Global Warming as the Flavour-of-the-Week, and is throwing up the most amazing reactions on TV and in the Press. Scotland’s attempt by giving free meals to school children for six months to make them eat sensibly, has Christmas in between, for a start, which will be a stumbling block to the calculations in the records. While I would like to see it succeed, I believe it is destined for the same result as Jamie Oliver’s school meal project, they are both aiming at the wrong target, the kids emulate their plump parents, and eat the same stodge at home.

If you hadn’t read it in the press, you would be unlikely to relate obesity with Firemen, but in fact, getting heavy weight people out of buildings is setting them the same problem as with nursing, and they are being called out in emergencies having nothing to do with fires, and are suffering physically. As a designer of structures I had a figure per square metre to cover pedestrian loading, on floors, stairs, foot bridges, in lifts, etc. Play equipment, maybe lifts, and other areas could now be all under designed, if 30% of the population are obese.

We Are Losing Out Indigenous Birds.. The numbers have hit an all time low. Turtle Doves, Skylarks, Yellow Hammers, Linnets, Wagtails, are all about 60% down, while Grey Partridges are down by 87%. Intensive farming, autumn sowing of cereals, including the use of agrochemicals, the loss of field margins and hedgerows are the main culprits.. I think I heard recently there was a move afoot to get rid of Set-aside as a subsidised policy, This would further cut the bird population. Like the wild life of the world, soon we will only see our birds in zoos, those who approve of zoos. People in suburbia are no longer having bird tables in the numbers they did, they haven’t time to clean up the droppings or bird-watch.

Aggravation comes in so many forms, is often self induced, and always counter productive, while in some, downright dangerous. The one area most afflicted is driving a car where one forgets the basic law of checks and balances. The old saying concerning a cold in the head, ‘it will take a fortnight to cure, otherwise fourteen days’., has a parallel in driving, ‘no matter how you drive, any journey will always take the same time within a minute or two.’ We have all proved this, but, short of time, we still race and brake, people hoot you unnecessarily and sometimes we hoot, all to no effect, except a rise in blood pressure. There is also Road Rage. Is a minute saved all that important? I was just hooted at, that caused this outburst.

Short cut through a cottage. While we are on about motoring, lorry driver’s satellite navigational aids are making life difficult in some areas. Apparently some aids suggest a narrow lane in Greater Manchester as a short cut, and a number of properties have been damaged as a result, Progress?

Cats kidnapped as punishment. Cat owners received letters that their cats would be relocated because they were killing birds, using gardens as a toilet and digging up lawns. A total of seven cats have been taken, and the owners received letters saying the cats were imprisoned 25 miles away as a punishment.

Gordon Bennet was an expression of surprise and horror I have heard and used, and must admit often wondered where it came from, there seemed no logic. The Daily Telegraph has put me out of my misery at last. It is among 53 other words updated in the Oxford English Dictionary(OED), and is a euphemism for Gorblimey, from a novel, ‘You’re in the racket too,’ by John Curtis in 1937. Now I can sleep at night!.

Decisions can be as simple as ‘when to go to bed’ right up to ‘Should we go to war?’ A little way up the list we have to account for our decisions, like ‘was it wise to have thumped the scrum half when the Ref was looking?’. I read that Michael Martin, the Speaker of the House of Commons, was alleged to have decided to spend over £21,000 of public money, on personal, legal battles with the press. It concerned printed libellous statements, which he wanted redressed. I was under the impression that if one was libelled and went to court, your assertion was either upheld or was thrown out. If it was upheld you were given damages, unless the matter was specious. In this case I would have thought that long before a sum of £21,000 had been reached, somebody in charge of the public purse would have asked questions. The prime one being, ‘Why was it a public instead of a private action.’ If damages had been received, to whom would they have been paid?

The man in the street is worried about much wider ramifications, where decisions have been made in the public arena, that to seem unnecessary. A prime example was the introduction of managers to the Health Service, when Matrons had been the backbone of the hospital system, and successful.. Old duffers, .who have worked in large organisations, carrying high responsibility and handling large sums, think in any technical situation, the professionals are the people to make professional decisions, The outcomes of almost all problems in a technical environment inevitably have a high technical bias, not merely bookkeeping, so technical decisions take precedence.

It is my experience that promotion from outside an organisation, rather than selection from those in house who have had on-the-job training, is counter productive. It is then, that promotion from outside and the employment of consultants must become the rule’ because the pool of experienced technicians has dwindled with time. The Civil Service is a case in point.

In industry serious mistakes are not tolerated, but It seems that in government circles, public employ, and government management, anything goes there is little or no accountability, until the press gets hold of it. It is demonstrated by the current cases, concerning, the managers responsible for hospitals that had a high number of terminal cases from some alphabet diseases. Initially the managers were to be paid golden handshakes when they were forced to offer their resignation, and it was only rescinded after public acrimony. This is only one instance of many, where mismanagement, inefficiency and bad decision making, including repeated U-turns of policy, have gone without more than a smack on the wrist from the Accounts Committee.

Who is given the powers to make such idiotic decisions? The electorate is probably facing years of rising taxation, falling equity and, financial instability, which to some extent is as a result of, and the general outcome of, the questionable decisions to open two fronts of battle, against professional advice. Where is the accountability? I don’t think Britain, for many years, has been anywhere in the International good-guy league, and the bombers only needed an excuse to change our whole way of travel, and in some cases life expectancy.

We, as individuals, whether we think it or not, are usually accountable for our own decision, registered by the outcome, in both material and social ways. Why, on the larger stage, where people think in billions of our money, is this not required?

Christmas has been with us, this year, since mid September, Marks and Sparks, restaurant fliers through the door advertising Christmas lunches and dinners at reasonable rates, and this week in Ballymena, in Northern Ireland, the shops are full of declarations, and the Council has erected a rather shaggy tree in the middle of a square, what it will look like on Christmas Eve I shudder to think. Christmas has become degraded, just a commercial circus. I think people forget that Christmas is really for the little children. mainly, and the family as a whole in an atmosphere of love and joy.

The essence of Christmas is surprise, and for little ones wonderment and make-believe. Dragging it out over three months destroys all that. Many years ago Christmas was heralded in the classroom with the children making paper chains, drawing pictures of Santa and looking forward to the end of term party. At home Christmas didn’t really start until mid-December, didn’t reach its full enriched colour and excitement until a week or so before Christmas, by which time the house was decorated, lists of presents were made and secrets exchanged. It must be remembered that small children would be taken shopping at about four o’clock, on or near the last Saturday before Christmas. It was relatively dark until one reached the shops on the High Street, then Christmas descended on you in a blaze of colour and light, with, for the little ones, an exciting visit to Santa’s grotto. The adults thought the present was rubbish, and inevitably not worth the money, but to the innocent child it had a significance that was more than worth the money.

The ritual of going into the bustle of the Christmas shopping, looking for presents, trooping from shop to shop, breathing on the windows, watching demonstrations of new toys, and trains going through tunnels, under bridges stopping and starting, was what Christmas was about, along with carols, the Manger, and Christmas Day with all that involved. When shopping, there was an unspoken understanding between adult and child of what was possible and what was beyond the budget for all of them. So the trip generally started at Woolworths and worked up, For the very young children Christmas was an encapsulation; it was a bubble in which everything was coloured by the coming event and all the preparations that went before, culminating at some absurd hour in the morning when the child crawled to the end of the bed and lifted its stocking in the dark, and tried to envisage what each lump inside the stocking held. He or she knew that the big lump wrapped in Christmas paper was a piece of coal, I believed that strangely if that had been missing the child would have been disappointed because that was an extra parcel from Santa, which made it special, and unwrapping was as much part of the fun as the receipt of the gift from Santa. A lot of the contents of the stocking were predictable, but there were always surprises. To maintain the fiction the adults hung their stockings across the kitchen fireplace, and they received things that would give the children amusement on Christmas morning, when the recipient feigned horror.

Are there still shops with trains running in and out of tunnels? Do they still have students demonstrating new toys, and shelves loaded with everything from small toy soldiers to toy stoves, dolls and the like? Or must we only resort to Internet shopping and the Argos catalogue. If this is so Christmas is dreary enough, without boringly dragging it all out for months and taking what little sheen there would be off the finally event. Today of course, the presents are two big and too expensive to put in a stocking in most houses. In some a stocking is a commercial item. Perhaps I’m just a scrooge giving the past a shine it never had. You might think that, I have already commented!

This suggestion comes under the heading of logical ideas which are never likely to go any further. About a year ago, I wrote a piece on obesity and longevity, where I equated longevity with a healthy, energetic and sparse upbringing. I expect you will have heard of the billions to be spent in the short term amounting to something like £50Bn by 2050, on eradicating obesity, and the fact that they are already designing beds like fork-lift trucks because the nurses can’t cope with patients of the weights they are tending to become today. I know from personal experience and experimentation, and also from observation, that once the weight is on one, it is an uphill task to get it off, and Christmas doesn’t help. The speed of life is a strong contender for being the main cause, with lack of time to be selective of food that is fresh, to cook it, and to clear up after, it is so much easier from a packet, and to hell with the additives, another contributory factor. All this hurry and having to work harder for the new lifestyle induce stress which in turn creates comfort eating, another cause.

Very expensive TV Health campaigns are being proposed by government, which, in other cases, don’t seem to have had much effect anyway. Driving in the rush-hour causes frustration and therefore stress, so, instead of spending money on exhortation, why not put more money into public transport, get rid of the school run, and make public transport so attractive in every way it will not be economical to use the car on a daily basis?

The Pros and Cons. The cost will be excessive, but it is needed anyway to reduce the carbon footprint and to ease congestion, so why not now? I hate walking for purely health reasons, I like a purpose, so walking to and from public transport will give incentive and on sunny days, maybe make me walk even further – I did it as a child. The installation will disrupt traffic, but only for a short while. I don’t want to be carrying huge quantities of shopping from supermarkets, so I will have to change my shopping habits, and even encourage the smaller shops to return in our district, like in the past – however, there will be real negative pressure from the bigger out-of-town outlets. People will want to use their cars in bad weather, but if this proposal makes any sense, the two car family will be a thing of the past, so shopping logistics will change and the major times could well be in the evenings, nearing the weekend. Money now being squandered on ever larger roads, parking, and traffic law enforcement could be diverted to a better rail network, with subsidised fare charges. One reason our transport system is so poor is because it is inadequate, expensive, and poorly run. If everyone used the system as they did pre 1950, and pre Beecham, it might justify subsidising from national taxes because all would benefit. There is no way that would be fair today, as we are taxed heavily on our personal transport. The switch will be inevitable, but controversial.

What type of transport? It is a case of horses for courses, depending on the time of day, the length of the route, the passenger numbers and the location. In inner cities I envisage robot, regular, small car units at quick intervals, centrally controlled, with a single-price-token fare, on interlocking routes, so all parts of the city are accessible from anywhere, merely by changing ‘cars’. Wuppertal, in Germany had a version of this system pre WW2. In large towns, it would probably need a variety of buses, large and small depending on requirements. This, would increase the manpower required, but with less traffic on the roads, schedules would be easier to keep, and quick turn-rounds possible. Rural services would improve out of all recognition.

I use public transport when I can, it is relaxing. On longer journeys one can read if actually seated, but to get more bums per carriage, the gap between seats is now so narrow it is only comfortable for small ladies and children. Comfort will have to be a priority if the system is to be accepted. Will it happen? It must for so many reasons, but will it be properly integrated? That is the real question. The car industry will suffer, but we no longer manufacture so only the traders and fixers will suffer. Government will lose taxes in billions, but will be able to justify recouping for a worthy cause. We will be healthier and feel virtuous at the same time – only if it happens.

The Non Election Panic. Shock and fear induce panic. What happened when Gordon Brown changed his mind says more about our current politicians, in all parties, which was enough to worry any sane person, because they were not worried about the state of the country, about the seriousness of our financial situation, they were worried about their jobs, or the fact that they might just get into Parliament. There was nothing like the hurry in which everything was done, our current situation proves that. But what it did demonstrate was that these people were not coolheaded in an emergency, and that their priorities are not our priorities.

When the Gang Of Four appeared on the scene, they were the politicians who inaugurated the Liberal Democrats, they were experienced, intelligent and articulate,. I have had a lot of time for the LidDems. I liked their approach, their politics, they were middle-of-the-road and sound, the problem that they had to fight to be accepted politically, was basically because of our mainly two-party politics, rather like Northern Ireland, people were afraid of splitting the vote.

Sir Ming, a week or so earlier had the whole party in the palm of his hand, not only because of his character, his reputation and his rhetoric, but because he was the most experienced politician currently available. He was backed by the old guard, and between them they were putting up a fair show on the understated understanding that there would be quite some time before the next election, and also their entry into power.. One of the reasons for his departure was given in the press as his age. Sir Winston Churchill only resigned when he was 81. I am an average guy, certainly no whiz-kid, but when I was Sir Ming’s age I was a joint winner of the British Design Award. That ageism rubbish does the LibDems no favours, nor the country. I have repeatedly said that it is almost impossible for those of us who are not political animals to keep up with all the new faces on the front benches. I believe a lot of these faces have insufficient experience of political wrangling to be able to hold their own when the heat is on. In Random Thoughts 37, I criticised Sir Ming for his presidential bearing , but in the context of what I have written here, it may have been the only way of achieving decisions. During the panic no one seemed to be too clear where they were going.

With the speed of living that we have today in every environment, it would seem logical that there is not time to hone politicians in the way they were in the past, when Prime Ministers were much older when they were promoted, and therefore served many years in the ranks, and in different governmental departments. It seems that today one is promoted at an early age, makes a pile, and then departs, not necessarily leaving things in a better state than when one arrived. Perhaps the time has come for professional politicians, in a way that we have professional managers in many other organisations.. After all, the amount of money being handled by the government is greatly in excess of those organisations which are paying huge salaries and large golden handshakes.

If we have to pay our top politicians top wages to get quality and managerial experience coupled with Political nous, in general, not just the odd person, then so be it, it is a small drop in a huge bucket. Professionals in many spheres have studied their subjects in depth, including, in many cases, the underlying rudiments and sources. Why not politicians, they carry incredible responsibilities, they seem to have no watchdogs, other than the public and the Press, and there is no comeback if things go wrong, unlike in other walks of life.

Fashion and global warming

I was fascinated to discover that the fashion moguls in America are now consulting the scientists concerning the weather forecasts, as global warming and the changes in climate have serious effects on their business. Apparently, and I quote from the Daily Telegraph, someone called Beppe Modenese, the founder of the Milan fashion week, has predicted ‘that the whole fashion system will have to change,’ and accept there ‘is no strong difference between summer and winter any more ; you can just imagine the confusion that this will have with all the big fashion houses sending out spies to find when the competition is going to have their shows, what they are showing and why. They won’t be able to have their bashes at the start of the four seasons, or whenever it is that they do so, it’s going to throw the whole industry into chaos. We have been dancing to their tune for a long time, it looks as though they are going to have to dance to ours.

Government Thoughtlessness

There seems to be a certain imbalance in who is required to take responsibility for what. Take just one example of hundreds; if a government Minister makes an appalling error of judgment, costing billions in money and I don’t know how many lives, there seems to be no comeback .If through computer error, carelessness or incompetence, a government department hands out over £5 million pounds in error, because the recipients either don’t choose to or are unable to check that they are overpaid, the government wants to claw back the error from people who can ill afford to refund it. To poor people, living on a shoestring, when they get a windfall, the psychological effect is to spend it, probably on replacements and essentials, but irrespective, they are not likely to sit down with a pen and paper and go back over years to see why this has been given, and I would suspect that more than half of them couldn’t do it anyway. Need I say more?

HRT Misinformation

More than once I have written about journalists, finding a report of some research in a field that has considerable public interest, themselves then writing and publishing articles which gives the impression that this research is well founded and of a high-quality. it is strange how often months or years later the same research is questioned as being flawed. This apparently is the case where a million women in the UK abandoned hormone replacement therapy, because in 2002 – 03 it was reported that it could cause heart attacks, strokes and breast cancer. It would also appear that some doctors accepted this research and acted on it. This is the price that we have to pay, unfortunately, for the current rate of communication, which was much slower, and in consequence possibly more reasoned in the past. These interpretations of researchers, along with the rescinding of them, are more often in the sphere of health than elsewhere, and I believe that those advising us should be cautious, and examine the research closely, before acting on it.

Art Appreciation And Interpretation

I have previously told the story of my photograph of a bunch of flowers waiting to be arranged, with the scissors ready, submitted for criticism, and was told by the specialist photographer that he couldn’t look at it, because he couldn’t pick the scissors up as they were the wrong way round. Having exhibited photography in an international exhibition, and had both an oil painting and sculptures accepted by the Royal Ulster Academy, I have discovered not that art appreciation is subjective, we all know that, but that people who are alleged to be the leaders of taste, have some strange interpretations. Years ago there was a piece with bricks laid out in a rectangle on the floor of the Royal Academy, and praised would you believe, I see them regularly as I pass our builders yard, and nobody seems to take any notice of them. And now we have a crack constructed on the floor of the Tate Modern, entitled Shibboleth by the Colombian Artist, Doris Salcedo. It is 169 metres long and starts as a hair crack and becomes a void into which a visitor fell. As a construction engineer I’ve peered into a number of openings in roads that looked like this, but I never at any time found them to provided the intricate thought patterns that this crack in the floor seems to have done. I recommend that you view the various entries concerning this piece of art on Google, it gives a whole new highlight on the intricacies of the artistic mind.

End Of An Era, New Policy. I have been threatening this for some time, and now it is about to come to pass. I shall no longer be posting bits and pieces of my history, nor posting on a daily basis, merely when I have something that I feel that you might like, or should know, will I break into print.

Firstly I would like to thank my grandson Stephen Jones, musician and web-site designer, ( see S*T*U*F*F Reloaded) for giving me and maintaining this blog as a present to do with as I wished. It has been an amazing year and a bit, I have discovered things about myself and my readers. The latter, not from their comments, but the numbers hitting and the pages read. I would like to thank you all, for reading my bits and pieces, it has given me great pleasure.

I want to thank Word Press for their patience with me, because I’m not very computer literate, my eyesight isn’t what it was, as a result I have to use a magnifying glass to read the death messages I receive when I make mistakes. It is they, WP, who have chosen the selection of my work which is available on the blog, over and above the 15 pieces I am allowed at any one time. This in itself has been very encouraging.

As a lot of you will know, I am well on my way to my ninth decade, and so am tending to slow down. I have one or two sentinels in the family who read my stuff, so when I get to the point of talking absolute rubbish, rather than my usual quaint opinions, they’ll tell me to stop. So today will be the start of the new order, with no rules, no targets thank God, and just occasional samples of my lateral thinking.

Thank you for your patience, John