Britain's greenest town?

According to the Indie, the good people of Todmordan have committed to making the town self-sufficient. The way they've gone about it sounds good to me because a) it's bottom-up - they deliberately didn't look for grants because they didn't want any constraints on how they were going to work; b) they say they aimed at what they saw as the lowest-common-denominator - food (what's next? housing?) and talked to people about it; c) their technique is both simple and challenging - for example sowing food plants on waste ground.

Indie report here. The good people along the A419 should be looking at this :)

Fartlek

Which on this occasion took the form of 3 sets of four strides down the touchlines of the football pitches behind New College, wih a jog along the goal-line as recovery- 10 mins out and 10 back, half an hour altogether. No footy today because of recent heavy rain, but the skies were blue, ground a bit plashy but firm enough, the air crisp but not really taters-cold. Pretty good.

Was meant to be a gentle reminder to my body about what middle-distance running is supposed feel like.

Why I am Co-Op - #1 Co-Ops work

Today's Startups Newsletter tells me:

More than half of all social enterprises have seen turnover increase during the past year, the Social Enterprise Coalition has said.

Released in conjunction with today’s Social Enterprise Day, the ‘State of Social Enterprise’ survey found that social enterprises were outperforming the wider economy.

Only 20% of social enterprises had seen a dip in revenue compared to 43% of small businesses as a whole.

And also - and perhaps not unconnectedly:

The research also suggested social enterprises are breaking down the so-called ‘glass ceiling’. At 26%, twice as many social enterprises are women-led compared to all small businesses. In addition, more than 40% of board members on social firms are women compared to just 5% of AIM listed companies.

Why I am Labour #3 - Against the Odds

Against the Odds is a short video shown by the Labour Party as a party Political Broadcast. It's special because:

1. I don't believe any other party could produce such a video. In particular, what would the Conservatives have to show of their history?

2. Labour history is very important to many Labour people - it overrides personalities, policy compromises and electoral defeats, keeps the core motivated and brings in new blood: it gives a constant sense of direction. Again, I don't believe other parties have that to the same extent.

3. It became a PPB not on the say-so of Downing St or the Party hierarchy but by the efforts of an initially small group of party members - initially one I suspect - who saw it at a conference and thought it was great. Again, I don't see ordinary members of other parties having such a nationally visible impact. Good for them and good for Labour for listening.

And I like the video :)

And the odds are all against us - again.

Swindon gets free internet access

Guardian report (above) says the A419 (Swindon bit) is to get free internet access. Sounds like it will be delivered over phone lines - so residents only, no free rides - it's financed part by the local council and part by a private company who hope to make money by getting people to pay for faster connections. Access will be limited in some way - but still ...

Why I am Labour #2 - The Open University

Should you not know about the UK's largest University and its creation by Jenny Lee under Harold Wilson's Labour Government - read all about it here.

Labour's manifesto for the 1966 general election contained a commitment to establish the University of the Air. In that election, Mr Wilson was returned with an increased majority and in September 1967 came the crucial Cabinet decision to set up a Planning Committee 'to work out a comprehensive plan for an open university'.

Jennie Lee gave her name to the University's first Library beside Walton Hall. In 2004 a new University Library, housing her political archive, has opened. It is the centre of a massive digitisation project enabling millions of users to enjoy University Library facilities wherever they are.

The OU does world-class research, for instance in planetary science and space research:

PSSRI's position as one of the world's leading centres for planetary
science and space research has been reaffirmed by the 2008 UK RAE results.
PSSRI were part of the cross-disciplinary submission made by CEPSAR that saw 70% of its research activity fall into the highest categories (4* and 3*) of world leading and international research excellence.

But the OU has always been about teaching and last year ranked second (the top University) in the HE Student Satisfaction ratings - and still produces stories like this: Shelagh gets her degree at the ripe old age of 81

Magic! What Labour and the OU are all about - giving people chances they would otherwise not have to show what they can do.

Craig Murray to libel lawyers ...

The British Libel Laws are grossly unfair, biased in favour of the rich and a source of punitive punishment for those the courts find against and significant income for those they find in favour of.

All the more courageous therefore for Craig Murray to respond to a letter from a libel lawyer claiming his client has been traduced by saying of the client:

Anyone who one year supports Islamic terrorism, and the next year supports the invasion of Iraq and the occupation of Afghanistan, cannot be fairly described as stable. Indeed the one thing both viewpoints have in common is a support for killing people for political ends.

And, in the spirit of inclusivity Mr Murray comments:

I am very sorry that you wish to waste more taxpayers’ money in trying to defend Quilliam’s non-existent good name. Of course you will profit personally: why should you not get on the taxpayer funded gravy train too?

All the dirt - including lawyers' letters on Craig M's blog ...

Remembrance Day

My contribution.

Charles Sorley was a pupil at Marlborough College, 5 or 6 miles from the Southern end of the A419. He walked, ran and reflected on the Downs as many Swindonians still do today.
He was killed by a sniper at Loos at the age of 20, and this was one of several poems found amongst his belongings - When You See Millions

When you see millions of the mouthless dead
Across your dreams in pale battalions go,
Say not soft things as other men have said,
That you'll remember. For you need not so.
Give them not praise. For, deaf, how should they know
It is not curses heaped on each gashed head?
Nor tears. Their blind eyes see not your tears flow.
Nor honour. It is easy to be dead.
Say only this, 'They are dead.' Then add thereto,
'Yet many a better one has died before.'
Then, scanning all the o'ercrowded mass, should you
Perceive one face that you loved heretofore,
It is a spook. None wears the face you knew.
Great death has made all his for evermore.

Decorating and Indecent Exposure

Spent the weekend decorating youngest's bedroom.

Ran out of Matt Mushroom Sunday pm. Drove to local Homebase and on getting out of the car, felt large volume of fresh air where fresh air should not be. Discrete inspection by son confirmed jeans had split along the whole side of the back pocket and about as far again further South. Homebase shuts in 20 mins. Persuade son to remove jacket so I can tie arms round my waist with body hanging behind me covering left buttock which otherwise would receive longest exposure to sunlight for some time. Edge carefully along paint shelves to discover last of Matt the Mushroom is the one back at home, empty. Engage manager in dialogue about desirability of keeping adequate stock levels and expected delivery dates (Monday), all the while conscious that any further slippage on the part of son's jacket will trigger screams, guffaws and, very likely, store lockdown, attendance of armed police and a life on The Register. Withdraw with dignity more-or-less intact and return home to find we've no white gloss either.

Sigh.

Why I am Labour #1 in a series

We are in a recession, Labour has changed the rules on Housing and Council Tax Benefits to give some of the poorest families up to £20.00 a week more. So I'd guess more than twice that many kids will be a little better off.

More than 200,000 working families will gain about £1000 a year, thanks to new rules around Housing and Council Tax Benefits, making them an average of £20 a week better off.

Good say's I - and I don't believe the Tories would have done that. In fact we pretty much know they wouldn't - they will cut government spending on the day they take office (heavens forfend).

Comment here full details (with pros and some cons) here

Marathons

Meb Keflezighi has just won the 2009 NY Marathon in 2:09:15. From the FAQs on his website, we learn he has been a professional runner for 10 years.

When did you decide you wanted to become a professional runner?

a. 1997, after doubling in the 5k and 10k in the NCAA outdoor championships.

Ron Hill was the first person to get under 2:10. He did it 39 years ago winning the Commonwealth Games title in Edinburgh. He had a full time job and was working on building up a shoe and clothing importing business at the time. (Part of his training was running to and from work and his firm thought it was outrageous of him to ask to put in a shower at work at his own expense.)

Which is not to take anything away from Meb like - just saying ...

Albatross chicks killed by plastic

From Chris Jordan. Not pretty and this is his intro to the photos:

These photographs of albatross chicks were made just a few weeks ago on Midway Atoll, a tiny stretch of sand and coral near the middle of the North Pacific. The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking.

To document this phenomenon as faithfully as possible, not a single piece of plastic in any of these photographs was moved, placed, manipulated, arranged, or altered in any way. These images depict the actual stomach contents of baby birds in one of the world's most remote marine sanctuaries, more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent.

Some commentary here, but the above - and the photos - say it all, really.

Open University's iSpot website identifies moth never seen before in UK

Anyone can post pictures of wildlife or plants they've seen on the OU's iSpot website. If you don't know what you've found you can ask an expert. In this case, somebody did just that on behalf of their 6 year old and the answer was - a moth that had never been seen in this country before.

The site is funded from the National Lottery BTW.

Cameron - says one thing, did another ...

From DC's speach to his Party's Conference:

To the young mum working part time, trying to earn something extra for her family “from every extra pound you earn we’ll take back 96 pence.”

Yes, 96 pence.

Let me say that again, slowly.

In Gordon Brown’s Britain if you’re a single mother with two kids earning £150 a week the withdrawal of benefits and the additional taxes mean that for every extra pound you earn, you keep just 4 pence.

Full text here

Response?

... in 1998 (a year after the Tories were removed from power) there were 130,000 families facing marginal deduction rates (the technical definition) of over 90 per cent.

That has fallen to 60,000 thanks to the minimum wage, tax credits and lower income tax.

In fact, in 1998 there were 5,000 families facing 100 per cent deduction rates. Every £1 they earned was then taken in tax. The number is now more or less zero. (See page 90 of the Red Book for full details).

via The Financial Times, here

What God thinks about money

The Archbishop of Canterbury ("The ABC" to we Anglicans), speaking again about bankers - their lack of remorse for what they have so recently done, their greed, failure to recognise their failings - and their rapid return to top-level remuneration whilst poorer working folk pay for their unprecedented incompetences speaks of:

the... diffused resentment, that people are somehow getting away with a culture in which the connection between the worth of what you do and the reward you get becomes more obscure.

Or, as my gran used to say:

You can tell what God thinks about money when you loook at the kind of people he gives it to.

The Audenshaw Two are freed ...

After the verdicts, Mr Carus was scathing about the prosecution case and said the teenagers should have just been given "a slap on the wrists".

"I think this was an unnecessary, heavy-handed prosecution against two young lads who could have been dealt with in a more sensitive way.

"As the jury's verdict demonstrates, this was a waste of public money, hundreds of thousands of pounds.

"Bearing in mind their ages it's farcical to think that this was ever a serious design."

And the kids have spent 6 months in prison. And two police officers had to fly to Colorado to interview the lead detective on the Columbine Massacre case.

No explosives or firearms were discovered following the arrest of the teenagers in March, which came after Ross McKnight made a drunken phone call to a female friend boasting about carrying out Project Rainbow.

Hmmmm.

Local MP Anne Snelgrove reports

13 organisations have taken part in the bid through the Council including the Salvation Army, Lawn Community Centre, Wiltshire Wildlife Trust and Swindon 105.5 Community Radio.

In total, 92 jobs will be created with £598,000 of funding from the Government.

Which is good - good that 92 new jobs have been created and good in that the SallyArmy, Wiltshire Wildlife Trust and the Community Centre round the corner are going to get things done that they wouldn't otherwise.

If you can think of any jobs that are needed and want to help out locally, try the Future Jobs Fund - takes about 10mins to read the bumf.

Killer tits

Reports of Great Tits killing pipistrelle bats in a cave in Hungary over a period of ten years - suggesting that this is learned behaviour (over how many generations?) perhaps following an opportunistic killing by a single individual?

Darren Naish, in this article, identifies reports of similar behaviour going back to the 19th Century.

Audenshaw High - my alma mater

According to the BBC a couple of pupils (from my home town, as well) said they wanted to blow it up. Not much changes then.

Obviously this is just day one of the case and more may well (better had) come to light. But so far we have a couple of teenagers feeling nobody loves or understands them; deciding they want to be famous like Tim McVeigh; saying really bad things about school like "I'd like to blow the place up" and one of their mates tells the police, and the police find out one of them has searched the Web using phrases like "how to blow up school" and they'd picked a date and everything ... Surely there's got to be more to it than that - sacks of fertiliser in the potting shed, that sort of thing.

Then again, had they been Asian, I guess they'd already be inside.

Back in my day there was a mock-hanging where the one being hung kicked over the desk, dropped, pulled down the light fittings which shorted through the metal runners of the desks before blowing the fuse. Police turned up, spoke with the Head and departed. No more said. (Head got a bit cross I think.)

Mind you, in those days it was a Grammar school - that's the difference, see?

All The News That's Free To Read

They want us to pay for news:

"Rupert Murdoch said earlier this year his News Corp. media empire would begin charging for online content on its portfolio of titles including The Wall Street Journal, the London Times and the New York Post" - see CNN.

Publishing news via dead trees was losing both sales and advertising long before the recession. IMHO we are seeing the end of a once successful business model - and maybe desperate attempts to try to change reality to fit a re-hash of the same model. People pay to buy a newspaper; they read news from the same news-gathering organisation that sells newspapers on the streets for free online so maybe that's why they're buying fewer papers. And that's hurting business so we make them pay to read online in the same way we make them pay to read on paper. Yes? No?

I'd say "No". One obvious problem is that unless all news outlets switch to "pay for content" at the same time those that don't will get more clicks, therefore get more advertising revenue. Conversely those switching will inevitably loose visitors - so loosing advertising revenue and becoming more dependent on income from charging - and into a rising charge spiral. One very big competitor that is very unlikely to charge is the BBC. Hence, (or am I being cynical?) the attack on said organ by Murdoch fils in Edinburgh - and the subsequent free and frank exchange of views with Robert Peston

But I reckon I'm a pretty average news punter. I click on sites from different countries to get a quick feel for what today's agenda is there (US, germany, Canada ...); if there's a topic of the moment, I have a quick look for it on left, right, and foreign news sites. But that's what it is - a quick: click, yeah, yeah, la-di-da, different angle, that's not what the last one said - and off. 5-10 seconds each I'd guess. Am I going to pay for that? No way.

But Murdoch misses a big point. The fewer news outlets are free, the more I'll use the BBC - but not just because it's free, more because I trust it in a way I do not trust News Corp or any other commercial news site that is almost forced to pick and slant its news with one eye on a powerful "Big Man" and the other on what the advertisers expect. Free news on the Web lets me compare. If I can't compare I'll look for impartiality. But there's more.

Even the very idea of "news" and news gathering is changing - has changed. What grips me more: News Corp passing on the official line on the Iraq war? Embedded reporters saying what they're allowed to say about what they're allowed to see? Or click on Where Is Raed? I can read The Baghdad Blogger's latest post telling me where the missiles hit, what people in Baghdad are saying, how daily life is changing - and then send him a question by mail and get a reply. What can News Corp (or the BBC) offer to compete with that? Where do you think I went first for news of the Iraq war? What engaged me most and made me think most? Who do you think I believed?

Microsoft's Polish Photoshop Disaster

Thanks to Bob Piper for pointing to one of the best PSDs ever. It says so much about so many things and it's so funny: the Apple Mac (in a MS ad?), the unconnected screen, the hand - the hand! the hand! look at the hand! ...

Is it true everything's so much lighter in Poland?

ROFLMAO

Lord Mandelson goes with the flow - BBC reports

Lord Mandelson, who is also the First Secretary of State, underwent surgery at St Mary's Hospital, west London, on Friday and remained there overnight.

He said he was "very proud to be an NHS patient" and thanked staff as he left...

As he left hospital, Lord Mandelson said: "I have been treated really well... everything is now flowing extremely well. Actually I have had a jolly time."

(My emphasis) sans comment.

Holiday time? - visit Jersey before it shuts ...

The Channel Islands are coming under pressure from HMRC for abusing a VAT concession and doing us out of over £100m of tax income. The main target seems to be Guernsey in this case (see the Guardian) but Jersey is feeling the heat as an identified secrecy jurisdiction - basically allowing itself to be used for hiding money from other governments

Richard Murphy has been on to this for a long time and also predicted the current budget crisis the island is facing:

Tow final thoughts: first they can find only £6 million of cuts in response to this – about 1% of spending. And apparently this includes such things as cutting baby milk in their maternity unit! I think this a significant indicator of what will happen in the UK – talk of 15% cuts is ludicrous – they just aren’t there to be had. Second, they are saying the obvious response is new taxes and charges. Sorry to brag again, but I told them that in face to face discussion with Senator Le Sueur – their first minister – way back in 2005.

More here

Jersey has also been in the news because of a number of child abuse cases there. Senator Stuart Syvret has been blogging furiously for a long time, consistently claiming that abuse of various kinds was - and is - prevalent on the island and is being covered up by the authorities. Indeed, that a number of politicians and officials are directly involved in the abuse. He has been accused by the same First Minister Le Sueur that Richard Murphy spoke with of bullying Jersey officials and threatened with some kind of disciplinary action. Richard Murphy is an accountant, Senator Syvret is not - and uses more direct language in his response to the First Minister:

You - Senator Le Sueur - are simply t oo weak, unprincipled and spineless to exhibit the necessary leadership required to safeguard the public good, and deal with these people.

The actions of you, the rest of the Council of Ministers and certain civil servants being a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, and misconduct in a public office.

The letter you have sent to me - in which you are seeking to engineer my silence, so that criminal acts continue to be concealed, is another example of that criminal conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

... I hereby give notice that I am going to initiate civil legal proceedings against the Council of Ministers, certain senior civil servants, and others - for a variety of wrongs committed against me - and will be seeking substantial personal damages.

Naturally, you will not wish to accept culpability, so the matter will go to a full civil trial. And so broad will be the issues at contention - that a great deal of 'discovery' will be necessary. Incidentally, the parameters of discovery are far wider in civil actions than in criminal actions.

The civil trial will also present a huge, over-arching public advantage - in that very many of the survivors will have their day in court - and a great deal of the truth will emerge. Indeed, perhaps even one or two witnesses who recall very clearly being savagely beaten with a rod by a certain former teacher at De La Salle.

Now, for all I know, Senator Syvret is deluded, bears a grudge, is lying through his teeth - whatever. But he doesn't come across that way to me. Please read his blog here and make up your own mind. If nothing else, you could be in at the start of something that could be quite big.

And if much of this is true, try a holiday in Jersey as soon as you can - before it shuts.

Bones To The Stones

I've been to a couple of the local breakdance competitions - this one was Bones To The Stones in beautiful downtown Swindon. With dancers and supporters coming from along the M4 and down the old A419 from Cheltenham (they have some good dancers there).

It was a good scene. Firstly I've never seen a friendlier competitive event - with competitors genuinely supporting and applauding each other's efforts.

The specatators were interesting too ...



Breakdancing attracts young (teens/early 20s) males and their partners, mates mates' partners from all backgrounds. I don't remember seeing such a racial mix around Swindon in such a small group. Like I said - marvellous atmosphere. Not a harsh word: lots of laughs, cheers, applause not a negative in sight.

Thing is as well - it's all organised by the breakers themselves - they know each other, have contacts with other groups in other towns, they're there because they want to be. All they need is to be given a bit of space (little-used bit of shopping mal floor by the Big Screen in this case. They do their own organising.


Good dancing too (scares the wotsit out of me mind).

Prophetic or what

Just the post before last I was writing about people having heart-related problems whilst running (well - death, really) and achilles tendon problems and how I never had them. Blow me if I don't start with sore tendons the day after and then the French Pres goes and has a funny turn whilst out running. Uncanny. Could've been worse though - might have been the other way round.
I reckon my tendon problems are dow to lawn mowing. Have to pack that in I think.

Grammar Schools

Chris Dillow has a posting on Stumbling and Mumbling about Grammar Schools. There's some good links and I guess the general theme is that there are rsearch findings for and against but few or none finding dramatic differences.

I went to a Grammar School in Manchester in the 1950s. A couple of years back I met up with someone I'd known since I was 5. We were at his house and he brought out the old School Photo Album from our primary school days. We showed the kids us in short pants, reminisced a bit and followed our younger selves through 6 years.

The first photo was a reception class - huge, the picture filled with toothy kids faces. Three or four months later the reception class split into 4 streams. Ours was the 'top' stream. The smallest. He asked if I noticed anything significant about the kids in our class. I'd looked at the same photos lots of times and yes - two things seemed to mark us out. One - we were better dressed. Now you have to remember, this was Manchester - and not the posh end - but we were, by and large better dressed. My socks were darned, but I didn't have many visible patches on my clothes. Kids who ended up in the lower grades generally did have patched clothes, obvious hand-me-downs and so on. The second difference I noticed was that we were taller as a group and the difference was especially noticeable between top and bottom classes. So those were two things I'd noticed - and reflected on from time to time.

My old mate though had gone on to become an academic. He listened to me, nodded, and then pointed out the obvious thing. So obvious I'd never even given it a thought - the same group of kids stayed together almost intact all the way through the school. None joined the class: one, two, three maybe, left for a 'lower' class. One did so and came back the next year (my mate). Next we went through the final-year photo and worked out where we'd all ended up. Grammar school - almost every one of us. One or two we couldn't be sure about. None we could say definitely went to the local Secondary Modern.

Chris Dillow says of one of his sources:

Atkinson, Gregg and McConnell estimate that 11-year-olds of high ability who are so poor that they are eligible for free school meals are only half as likely to get into grammar schools as those who aren’t eligible for them.

Know what I think? They had no chance from the day they walked into their primary school. Those like me who 'passed the eleven plus' were picked out, put in small classes and coached to pass. The others weren't. If my experience is at all typical - and I'd bet it is - then I reckon selection for Grammar School happens not at 11+, but at 5. And it's done by the primary school teachers.

Could be some worthwhile research out there around that sort of thing I guess.

Runners - dead and very much alive

The excuse for the BBC article (link above) is that it's 25 years since Jim Fixx died whilst out running. He came to running late and was apparently motivated to run by the fact that his father died early. According to the article, he would have been better off having a cholestorol test. However, he did outlive his father by a number of years and wrote the book (The Complete Runner) that's credited with starting the jogging boom, originally in the States, later over here.

I knew the guy who translated The Complete Runner from American into English. He was given a proof copy to write his comments on. One short comment accompanied Fixx's assertion that if you have achilles tendon problems you should stop running on soft surfaces. The comment was "Bollocks!!" On being told he and the publisher would be going through the book personally with Fixx, he changed it to "Interestingly, this is exactly the opposite to the advice most British runners would give."

Dr Ron, meanwhile is now 70 and currently running out in Greece, having flogged another of his businesses off. I remember his first business venture - selling shoes from a trestle table after road races. Ron designed shoes for Reebok (he initiated the reflective tab idea IIRC) and was the first person to import shoes into the UK from a small US manufacturer - Nike.

RandsInRepose

Just stumbled across this guy (click on the title) whilst looking for something completely different - as one does. His latest post hits a number of quite different buttons for me, and passes the supreme test of "would I take the trouble to stand next to this person in a pub and be keen enough to engage him in conversation that I would buy him a pint?"

... teamwork — teams of people actually working together — is kind’a magical.

Listen, it takes all I can muster to get along with my brother who I’ve known my entire life, so the fact that a group of people sitting in close proximity to each other can build a product without killing each other is a fucking miracle.

It’s not actually a miracle. It’s years of practice, starting in elementary school where you learned the basics: raise your hand when you want to speak, say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’, and don’t eat the glue.

He's American of course, but then so many people are.

Garbage, tax, Economics ... oooh ... sex-ey.

Are the plates shifting? Might there, just possibly, be one of those "ideas who's time has come" moments close by? I only ask because just today 2 or 3 interesting little bleeps started maybe floating towards the same destination on the old radar.

Tim Bray points us at a suggestion from David Eaves, a political activist in his home city of Vancouver about garbage (rubbish!) and freeing local govt information up - with a number of credible benefits to local citizens and the City. David Eaves may not be well known outside his bit of Vancouver, but Tim Bray certainly is, and is taking an interest, and he has the skills and contacts to make the garbage information ideas work (they don't sound as though they need super-powers anyway). So, nice but maybe a bit parochial - but then again, sometimes, "once you start thinking like that ...". Hmmm...

And (but) then, from a completely different direction we have Richard Murphy - who's blog is very influencial in it's own right - but he's also a TV pundit, writes for, and more significantly advises, newspapers and TV on tax matters. He's also a key member of Tax Justice Network and his (and their) ideas and agenda, having been classified as "worthy - but no hope" by many people is moving significantly mainstream. Now he wants to invent a new Economics .

Garbage, Economics, tax ... oooh ... sex-ey.

Is Gordon B deluded? a liar? or good at maths?

Chris Dillow's blog (Stumbling and Mumbling see links) is always excellent.

Today, he gives a plausible explanation for Gordon B's apparently unfounded optimism (or 'lies' as followers of Wisteria Willy from Wantage would have us say ...) about government lending and his apparent belief that Labour will not (ok - may not) have to make Big Cuts.

The Big Idea is that the Public Sector Borrowing Requirement (about which we hear so much) is, by definition, equal and opposite to the Private Sector Lending Requirement (about which we hear so little). The PSLR is the net of private savings minus private borrowing. Currently that's well positive - because the Credit Crunch has ... well - crunched credit. So borrowing, mainly by business to fund growth and investment is way down and saving (largely by individuals? paying off credit cards rather than holidaying etc because they're scared?) is up. So private sector saving has grown rapidly over the past couple of years - and this has to mean equally rapidly growing public sector borrowing - which is exactly what is happening. See where this leading?

Dillow says:

Now, here’s the reason for optimism. As the credit crunch recedes, the private sector’s financial surplus will shrink as firms become freer to borrow. And the counterpart to this is that the public sector’s deficit will come down - possibly more quickly than the Red Book forecasts, and sufficiently quickly to avoid the need for big spending cuts.

Have to say Gordon does look surprisingly relaxed lately ... all things considered.

New shoes

Saucony Progrid Guide 2 - how impressive is that?
Third pair I've had. The name gets longer every time and I think I'm getting superstitious about them. Having been out for about 20 years because I couldn't run without pulling leg muscles or triggering plantar fasciitis: having seen my doctor, the hospital and a podiatrist all of whom said I pronated badly and needed support shoes I finally went to the nice man at my local running shop who put me in these - and who gets a plug

I've been running with little trouble for 18 months now. Currently up to 3 times a week, 40-odd minutes today. Not fast - but still.