27/04/2008 by admin.

25-04-08p1270972grebebeak-1.jpgLots of people send me photgographs but usually of holidays, children and so on. These are very welcome but if I kept them all on my hard disk they might use up my picture capacity very soon.

So imagine my delight when Jane Bain sent me this picture of a Great Crested Grebe (in my ignorance I might have called it a large duck), She and Hugh , I know, photograph every day and keep a daily record and are keen observers of  riparian life along their stretch of the Thames. The GCG has just caught a large fish which, apparently, it managed to swallow then paused to digest; hope it didn’t have too much of a tummyache. Photo by Jane above. Click on the link to see the full size photo.

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23/04/2008 by admin.

Figures on food price inflation publshed today demonstrate forcibly how real inflation is far ahead of ‘official’ inflation. Rather than base RPI on patterns of average expenditure wouldn’t it be better to publish changes in individual households’ monthly expenditure. Households used in this exercise would be chosen at random from bands of household income and properly-structured qualitative interviews would be most revealing in showing how people react to ‘their’ inflation versus average inflation. I know this is a mixed-up idea at present but there is a germ of possibility here and it would be a bit more representative than ‘vox pop’ interviews by the media of the type we get around Budget time. The same raw data would, I think, provide the sampling frame.

It might provide information to Cabinet ministers, MPs and other fat cats on how the other half lives.

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19/04/2008 by admin.

In the last few days - admittedly one of these was my birthday - my intake of alcohol has been atypically well over the daily limit. So this weekend I will abstain as much as I can. Whether this is necessary, or does any good, I have no idea but it makes me feel a bit better. Fresh orange juice can taste rather good and so can tap water,

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15/04/2008 by admin.

Some economists, mostly on rising salaries maybe, have seriously suggested that allowing inflation may be a way out of our present economic difficulties. There are signs that real inflation is increasing much more rapidly than RPI increases or other measures of standard inflation might suggest. Those who will suffer most if it continues to increase are, of course, the most vulnerable in society, namely the elderly and those on low incomes. If Mr Brown doesn’t understand this and show some empathy he will prove he is, in words used long ago of some one else, a ‘dessicated calculating machine’. It seems inevitable that the May local elections will show great losses for Labour and there is at least a chance of Labour losing the London mayoralty. Then pressure on Brown from within the Party will  increase - not a stable or even a desirable state of affairs because who could take his place?Such political instability will further increase the turmoil in financial markets and the real economy will decline still more. Not a very happy state of affairs but a time for Mr Brown’s highly-paid advisers to help him communicate with people rather better than he did in his pathetic performance yesterday.

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12/04/2008 by admin.

The world has come full circle; there was a time we admired Mugabe as a fighter for freedom and a potential leader of his people to prosperity and social justice. How wrong we were. His palaces, his stored wealth, the wealth of his family and cronies all demonstrate how absolute power corrupts absolutely. Why will such people never give in though they may be assured - quite unjustly- of a safe passage to oblivion. Let your people go Mugabe! Click the thumbnail to see a picture of Mugabe’s palace and contrast it with the hovels that many of his people still inhabit.

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11/04/2008 by admin.

Just back from my sixth visit to Portugal where the friendliness and willingness to help of the Portuguese people never fail to impress me. Also to make me ashamed that I haven’t made more of an effort to learn the language. Hot sun for four days in the Algarve, which is why we went, but showery the rest of the time. Still the rain means that all the golf courses and their fine, if not in some cases showy, surroundings look lovely and green. We stayed in a beautiful house where the pool was surrounded with these gorgeous umbrella pines. Returning to my own cold garden I was pleased that some daffodils, and emerging tulips, are still in evidence but it is cold and I miss the warmth of the sun on my skin.

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