WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Tardis]

Skipton was quiet and there were quite a few empty shops

[Stanley]

Tiz, I listened to the interview on Today of the spokesman for the BA and the minister in charge. The BA man clarified the situation and if you listened, pinpointed the real problem. The minister simply blustered and obfuscated. The BA man said that most of the discarded letters were not appeals but requests from rejected applicants for their cases to be looked at again. Problem was that the only procedure open to them was to make an official appeal. Unfortunately, the system did not have any instructions about pointing this out to the letter writers and so they were simply ignored and stored. They are getting up to 700 such letters a week still. He promised that 'this would be looked at'. 'Looking at a problem doesn't solve it, as Churchill used to say during the war "Action this day". No mention of any fee for the appeal but I'll bet there is one.... Like many of these matters, the root goes back to the cull of admin staff when computers promised to simplify the processes. Problem was that the cull came first, the programmes didn't produce the miracle and the service deteriorated. As the Inspector said, the system isn't fit for purpose.
Another thing about the BA that puzzles me is that no record is kept of people leaving the country. I would have thought that such data would be essential!

[Tizer]

The admin problems in the Border Agency sound a bit like those affecting the NHS. I've just had a heated discussion on the phone with the specialist cancer nurse responsible for my Dad's follow up radiotherapy treatment after removal of the swollen lymph gland from under his arm. He left hospital in December, had an appointment on 11th Jan for the consultant to check his arm, was told radiotherapy was likely but he would have a consultation with an oncologist to make the decision. We were told that would be in the next two weeks and we would receive a letter. Two weeks later we still haven't had the letter to set an appointment so I rang the nurse today but she said "it always takes a lot longer than two weeks" and would likely be end of February. And that's only to discuss the radiotherapy - he'll probably have to wait more weeks before it's actually done. That pressed my hot button and I told her in detail how it was delays like these that meant my Dad ended up with 5 weeks in a distant hospital instead of a day or two in a local one - the gland had swollen dramatically in the waiting period. Now the consultant has told us the radiotherapy is needed to make sure all the cancer cells are gone and it couldn't spread any further - if there may still be cancer cells which could spread then why are they making my Dad wait months for the therapy, surely it should be very urgent? Shortage of resources was the answer given, of course. I pointed out that much as we would like the NHS to have more money they aren't going to get more resources in the present situation, and anyway no politician is willing to raise taxes to provide more money. What's needed is (as we've said on here ad infinitum) is better control, coordination, communication etc in the present system. They are wasting funds and resources by allowing patients to get much worse and therefore needing more complicated treatment and a longer stay in hospital. My Dad's Exeter experience is a good example of that. There's a lot of scope for improvement.

[Tardis]

GDP first guesstimate -0.3%

[Stanley]

Tiz, so much common sense in that post. The thing that caught my attention in the BA problem was the administrative block which had no set procedure for sending a form letter to people trying to get re-assessment of an existing claim which under the BA rules was not possible. All that was needed was an automatic response, send an application form for the official appeals process. It leads one to wonder how many of the delays you are experiencing in your Dad's case are a result of similar failings in the NHS administration. Are they actually talking to each other? More prompt attention in your case will almost certainly mean less expense in your Dad's case in future. It looks like a no-brainer but is perhaps an illustration of my oft-voiced contention that these systems are too complicated to administer efficiently given the communication tools (and skills) that seem to be absent at the present. It's almost as though these difficulties have been internalised in the system and are accepted.

[Tardis]

The snow plough

In the time it took me to walk across the Green last night at about 9pm, the road was covered in snow again

[Bodger]

In the time it took me to walk across the Green last night at about 9pm, the road was covered in snow again

Wow.

[Tripps]

I had a visit from a bailiff this morning. I tried to ignore the doorbell - I was in bed listening to the tennis - but he was persistent. I was greeted by a large African gentleman who asked politely if I was his target. I pleaded not guilty, and he believed me, which was not difficult since the guy he was seeking was Russian / Polish ?, and 25 years old.
He asked me to show him documentation that he did not live here. That's tricky - I'm not sure how you do that? Luckily when I got my glasses, I was able to show that he was at the right house number, and the right street, but fortunately in the wrong village. He apologised profusely .

Strangely enough, the postman had done the same thing a while ago with a letter to this gent so I recognised the name. I gave the letter back to the postman, and he delivered it again the next day!

[Stanley]

The police made the same mistake almost with me. They came round to inform me that I was in danger of being prosecuted for disturbing the peace with loud music and all night parties. I asked to see the documentation and it was for 10 Hill Street, not East Hill Street. No apology so I'm afraid I was quite short with them and suggested they actually read the instructions before bother5ing people. I was not popular....

[Bodger]

Good news for Oz.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... tback.html

[Stanley]

My Shardlake books should arrive today Comrade......

[Tardis]

LCC are going to replace the bridge one Pickles Hippins over the beck, apparently the big girder requires replacing

Maybe Pendle can sort out the newly refurbished cobbles at the same time so that it is no longer an open drain (stream) when the fields are wet. It is quite impossible to grit a moving body of body that freezes

Utilise the inconvenience to walkers constructively, so to speak

[PanBiker]

LCC are going to replace the bridge one Pickles Hippins over the beck, apparently the big girder requires replacing

Maybe Pendle can sort out the newly refurbished cobbles at the same time so that it is no longer an open drain (stream) when the fields are wet. It is quite impossible to grit a moving body of body that freezes

Utilise the inconvenience to walkers constructively, so to speak

Agreed, this was the ginnel last year at this time, accident waiting to happen:

[Tardis]

Yes, it has been that bad this year. We always walk 'up' it now as the stones on the right there often afford some purchase but not going down.

I did ask about it at the last West Craven Area Committee meeting, I haven't as yet had a response.

I'm quite happy to put grit on it from the bin on Esp Lane if it is just snow.

[Stanley]

The fact that my lost sheepskin slippers turned up. I had forgotten to pick them up from Brian Birro's! Incidentally, by coincidence the Celtic catalogue dropped through the letter box yesterday. I looked up the slippers I bought for £45 a year ago and they are now £59. Bit more than 3% inflation!
Both Chris Hune and his wife are now charged with perverting the course of justice and are expected to go for trial on Monday next. It's taken a year but it looks as though, if he and his wife were indeed lying, justice might be done.
I have long admired the Dutch royal family and their position in society and the news last night that Queen Beatrix intends to abdicate on April 1st to allow the succession on the grounds that it is time the young took over sounds such a sensible attitude. I can think of one person here who would be all in favour of this.....

[Tizer]

Bodger's web link about shale oil reserves in Australia typically makes it sound wonderful, but then the Telegraph wants us all to think we can ignore climate change because we've got endless reserves of oil and energy. What often fails to get mentioned is that shale is a rock - you have to pyrolise (heat at high temperature) the rock to get the oil out, then you have to do much more processing before you can refine it than is needed with petroleum (e.g it will have much more sulphur content). So, you have to put in a lot of energy to get shale oil and prepare it for refining. And then it can't replace all the uses for petroleum oil, only some of them. No doubt shale oil is useful but let's not exaggerate it's value. (Another forgotten fact - shale oil has been used by humans for millenia because in some places it occurs on the surface, could be collected and burnt for heat. More recently there have been big projects for shale oil extraction but they were abandoned due to being too expensive, e.g. in the US in the early 1980s.)

[Nolic]

Flooded roads between Wigglesworth and Gisburn at 4.30 this afternoon. I had to go this way as the road from Gisburn to the A65 is closed near Nappa as they are repairing a rail bridge. If I'd been travelling any later there is one part where I would not have attempted to get through as the water levels were rising quickly. Nolic

[Stanley]

Tiz, there was a big shale oil industry in Lanark at the end of the 19thC. Mainly used for lamp oil I think.
Comrade, the Ribble reacts badly to snow melt from the Dales and I suspect that's what caught you. It's a long time since I used the Wigglesworth road......
The Hilary Mantel book 'Bring up the Bodies' has won the Costa prize as well as the Booker. I'm not used to being swept along in the forefront of modern literature!

[Wendyf]

Shale Oil was a big industry in West Lothian. The shale bings still dominated the countryside when we moved there in the late 70's. We thought people were joking when they told us about the paraffin mines! There is a new website all about it HERE

[Tardis]

The road on Esp Lane appears to have been washed out.

Quite a bit of the gravel has ended up down Pickles Hippings

Sand bags were at the ready to prevent house flooding

[Stanley]

Wendy, it's a long time since I heard the local word for the waste heaps used, 'bings'. When I was spending a lot of time round there with the cattle wagon a lot of them were still burning. The waste was liable to spontaneously combust and burned for decades. You could smell a 'burning bing' downwind for miles on some days.

[Wendyf]

I'd forgotten about them burning Stanley. You could always tell when you had crossed a county boundary into Lanarkshire because the council used the pink slag for road making. I don't know why West Lothian didn't do the same.
The "Fie Sisters" near West Calder is now a National Monument.

[Wendyf]

I've been looking to see how the new high speed rail link will affect Woodlesford, south of Leeds where my mum lives. Amazed to see that the line will virtually straddle the canal (Aire Calder Navigation) as it heads towards Leeds, built up on a viaduct and criss crossing the canal. How much money has gone into upgrading this canal to make it into an attractive leisure facility over the last 20 years or so? All the new houses built along the canal to enjoy the beautiful views...just going to be ruined because someone with a crayon has seen an open space to draw a line through. Grrrr

[Bodger]

.just going to be ruined because someone with a crayon has seen an open space to draw a line through. Grrrr

Someone probably said the same when they proposed building the canal !

[PanBiker]

Yesterday actually, Cumbria County Council voting against the proposal to build a nine square mile underground bunker in the county to be used as a repository for high level nuclear waste, (that's roughly the same size as York). The leader of the council made the point that there was a nice site down near Witney in Oxfordshire that would be better suited, the planners should try that and see if Mr Cameron agreed!