A few photos from a few weeks ago … difficult to process so I’ve been lazy in keeping them back until now …
A Sign In The Sky
Darkening Island
Sandy Southsea
Walking The Beach
Nothing To Say
Almost the very first thing that gets mention in the media when snow descends on the UK is the travel chaos preventing people from getting into work. Employers are worried that their employees are skiving; employees are worried that they won’t get paid because they can’t travel into work.
First of all, skiving is relatively rare not simply because people don’t want to let their employers down, but also because they know that those who do manage to get in will have to work harder because of the lack of people. They don’t want to let their colleagues down.
Of course this is one time when as many people as possible should be working from home. Again skiving isn’t very likely; as someone who has had occasion to work from home myself, you tend to work harder from home than you do from work. There is perhaps less clock-watching and more goal orientated work. This doesn’t work for all kinds of work, but sometimes employers are just a little too reluctant to allow this.
In addition working from home needs practice – you need to make appropriate arrangements so that people can do their work from home, and test those arrangements. As an example, there are places that have arrangements to allow working from home which rely on systems sized for normal levels of working from home – these will often get overloaded during adverse weather. Plus people need to be confident that they can do their work from home, and find out what works and what does not – for that they need practice.
One thing that gets left out from the usual discussion is what about the people who do make it into work ? We hear that most employers do not penalise those who cannot make it in, which is fair enough. But what reward do those who do struggle in get for going the extra mile ? Don’t we deserve a little reward for making it in ?
Lastly there is an interesting assumption that if you have to travel any distance by car or train, you may need to leave early to travel home safely. That is undoubtedly the case when you are talking about fresh snow falls. But what gets overlooked is that walking to and from work becomes far more dangerous after pavements have had the snow trampled down into sheet ice. In some cases it should be those who live locally encouraged to leave early to travel home safely!
As there are reports of large accumulations of snow, it is worth bringing up a point I have made before – winter tyres.
There are drivers out there who under the mistaken belief that their local council is responsible for gritting and salting the roads and mysteriously making them safe to drive on.
Well it doesn’t quite work like that.
Gritting and salting roads actually doesn’t accomplish much by itself – if it’s too cold it is not effective, and even when it isn’t, it requires the action of tyres grinding it onto the road to produce any effect. Of course the first few cars and trucks are not going to see any effect from the grit and salt – they’re going to get as much grip on the road as they would if it wasn’t gritted.
In most countries where conditions in the winter are conducive to snow and ice on the roads, special winter tyres with far deeper treads than normal tyres are commonly used. Indeed in many places it is illegal to drive without. Drivers are expected to take some of the responsibility for remaining safe on the roads themselves.
Yet in the UK, whenever we have traffic chaos on the roads the councils are blamed for not gritting enough – even when the conditions are too extreme for grit to be effective.
If you want to be safe on the roads this winter, get winter tyres – they will help!
The UK plug (for connecting to electrical outlets) is kind of big and awkward. Dating back to 1947, it may well be one of the safest standards for electrical outlets out there, but is beginning to look a little dated. With the increased use of electrical devices, it would be nice to see some improvement to the plug to make it a little more slimline. Indeed with portable electrical devices (such as laptops) the large size of the plug has become inconvenient – when I pack my backpack for work a little fuller than normal, I sometimes find myself leaving the plug outside (peaking out of the top!).
Of course with any new plug design, there is the problem of what to do with the existing sockets in the wall – rewiring a house for a new style of plug is a little unrealistic!
As it happens, someone has come up with a new design that looks pretty good. It is a foldable plug – itself not a new concept, but this one allows operation in either folded mode, or unfolded. So it can be used in a conventional outlet, or folded up and plugged into an adapter.
Unfortunately this product isn’t available as yet, but the rumour is that it should appear towards the end of 2010 … which we’re rapidly approaching! Keep an eye on the company’s website:- MadeInMind
Today we had a long announcement about the spending cuts the Tories are eagerly making to government services. Nobody is doubting that some spending cuts were necessary but some of the Tories greeted the announcements with a tasteless lack of compassion for those effected.
The age at which the pension age is paid increases from 65 to 66.
And the Tories cheered.
They announced time limits on “incapacity benefit” in the belief that problems stopping people from working will magically go away after a year. Yes there are undoubtedly some on incapacity benefit who could well work, but there are many more who cannot and who are now worried that their income will be cut.
And the Tories cheered.
Overall there was a massive cut in welfare support for the poorest in our society. What a surprise – the Tories want to punish the poor.
And the Tories cheered.
It is estimated that the cuts will lead to something like 490,000 job cuts … perhaps up to 8% of the total jobs in the public sector. There are a lot of people working in the public sector worried about whether they will have a job in a year’s time.
And the Tories cheered.
On top of a public sector pay freeze lasting for four years, today it was announced that pension contributions would increase. Perhaps both are necessary, but it also means that the public sector workers who still have a job will be looking at getting poorer.
And the Tories cheered.
I have only touched on a small amount of what the cuts will effect – partially because the full details are not known yet. But the details do not matter. We all knew that cuts were coming, but what was not expected was the callous attitude of the Tory MPs to those who will suffer because of these cuts. Cheering when the government was announcing cuts that will cause hardship for millions of people is tasteless in the extreme.
Anyone would think the Tories enjoy causing pain to those who are not lucky enough to enjoy a well paid job, and to those who work in the public sector making society a better place rather than working to make fat cats richer.
When it comes to the next election, remember that the Tories cheered when they announced the measures that caused misery for millions.