Oct 08
Danpa's Web Page - Oct 08
It's Official! Dumfries is DULL!
That's the sort of misleading headline that makes you wonder whether it's the place or the people who live there who are dull. Fortunately, it's neither. In a review of the August weather for the entire UK, Dumfries was found to have been the dullest place in the UK having had only 34% of its normal sunshine hours for that month!
And, boy, has it ever felt like it! It's been a dreadful summer, wet . . Wet . . . WET!
In the middle of September, I got a phone call from my local bank. A pleasant young lady explained that they like to have a meeting with each of their account holders at least once per year and that it was our turn.
I asked her what the purpose of the meeting was and she replied that there was nothing to worry about but they would like to perhaps advise us on the best use of our funds. I burst out laughing! "You've GOT to be kidding!" I said, "Bankers are about the last people on earth that I'd take financial advice from!" We never had the meeting.
The South Sea Bubble, the Great Dutch Tulip scandal, the 1929 Bust on Wall Street and Black Wednesday. We never learn! In the end, greed always overcomes prudence. There is no limit to man's greed. Millionaires are cutting each others throats to earn more millions. And we reward ineptitude! The CEO of HBOS is being retired with a £2M Golden Handshake! Having driven one of the greatest, and oldest, banks of the UK almost into bankruptcy, he gets a bonus (and doubtless another plum job in the city)
Dear, Oh Dear, where did it all go so very wrong? Again?
And now we're expected to bail them out. Indeed, we have no option BUT to bail them out for, if we don't, the whole financial house of cards will come tumbling down on us. In America, the government has bought up all the outstanding housing debts. A figure of the nature of $700 BILLION. Here, our government bought out Northern Rock on the same basis.
SO, not only have we been led to near destruction by these bankers but, when the stupidity of it all was revealed, they turn to us holding out their begging bowl and expecting us to fill it! And we will! It's a funny old world, ain't it!
Oh! And while I'm in this mode, how do you feel about your energy bills going up somewhere between 20% and 40% in one year? And how justifiable is it?
In France e.g. The energy companies are restricted to a maximum increase of 5% in any one year and yet, somehow, they survive and make profits! Why can't ours? Whose profiteering then? And gas prices! Do you know that the only reason that gas prices went up was because, historically, the gas price is linked to the electricity price? So, for no reason other than they were allowed to put up the electricity prices, gas prices AUTOMATICALLY went up with them! Does this make sense to you? It certainly doesn't to me!
That's the sort of misleading headline that makes you wonder whether it's the place or the people who live there who are dull. Fortunately, it's neither. In a review of the August weather for the entire UK, Dumfries was found to have been the dullest place in the UK having had only 34% of its normal sunshine hours for that month!
And, boy, has it ever felt like it! It's been a dreadful summer, wet . . Wet . . . WET!
In the middle of September, I got a phone call from my local bank. A pleasant young lady explained that they like to have a meeting with each of their account holders at least once per year and that it was our turn.
I asked her what the purpose of the meeting was and she replied that there was nothing to worry about but they would like to perhaps advise us on the best use of our funds. I burst out laughing! "You've GOT to be kidding!" I said, "Bankers are about the last people on earth that I'd take financial advice from!" We never had the meeting.
The South Sea Bubble, the Great Dutch Tulip scandal, the 1929 Bust on Wall Street and Black Wednesday. We never learn! In the end, greed always overcomes prudence. There is no limit to man's greed. Millionaires are cutting each others throats to earn more millions. And we reward ineptitude! The CEO of HBOS is being retired with a £2M Golden Handshake! Having driven one of the greatest, and oldest, banks of the UK almost into bankruptcy, he gets a bonus (and doubtless another plum job in the city)
Dear, Oh Dear, where did it all go so very wrong? Again?
And now we're expected to bail them out. Indeed, we have no option BUT to bail them out for, if we don't, the whole financial house of cards will come tumbling down on us. In America, the government has bought up all the outstanding housing debts. A figure of the nature of $700 BILLION. Here, our government bought out Northern Rock on the same basis.
SO, not only have we been led to near destruction by these bankers but, when the stupidity of it all was revealed, they turn to us holding out their begging bowl and expecting us to fill it! And we will! It's a funny old world, ain't it!
Oh! And while I'm in this mode, how do you feel about your energy bills going up somewhere between 20% and 40% in one year? And how justifiable is it?
In France e.g. The energy companies are restricted to a maximum increase of 5% in any one year and yet, somehow, they survive and make profits! Why can't ours? Whose profiteering then? And gas prices! Do you know that the only reason that gas prices went up was because, historically, the gas price is linked to the electricity price? So, for no reason other than they were allowed to put up the electricity prices, gas prices AUTOMATICALLY went up with them! Does this make sense to you? It certainly doesn't to me!
Electricity
From rubbing an amber rod with a cat skin to create sparks, right up to nuclear power stations, we've been fascinated by electricity ever since we recognised it for what it was.
From the earliest days it was seen as a magical element - hence the Frankenstein's monster story, brought alive by a bolt of lightening. Quacks sold it as a miracle cure for everything from dandruff to sexual dysfunction.
When the first nuclear power station was envisaged it was said that it would produce electricity so cheaply it would be pointless to meter it!
Wrong! Nobody gave a thought to the massive decommissioning costs that would need to be faced later.
So, there we are. We always think that we're, "Oh, so clever", but it never quite works out that way.
Now we're being, "Oh, so clever", with the large Hadron collider at Cern. Now, there's a worry!
From the earliest days it was seen as a magical element - hence the Frankenstein's monster story, brought alive by a bolt of lightening. Quacks sold it as a miracle cure for everything from dandruff to sexual dysfunction.
When the first nuclear power station was envisaged it was said that it would produce electricity so cheaply it would be pointless to meter it!
Wrong! Nobody gave a thought to the massive decommissioning costs that would need to be faced later.
So, there we are. We always think that we're, "Oh, so clever", but it never quite works out that way.
Now we're being, "Oh, so clever", with the large Hadron collider at Cern. Now, there's a worry!