OneGuyFromBarlick

Barry Cryer on the BH programme, but not a joke this time!
"I'm principled on this, I believe services should be provided by the public sector".
It had me thinking how we were all told decades ago that the private sector providers of products and services were better than the public providers. I believe that at the time there was some truth in that but the irony is that it's all changed as companies got ever larger and now they suffer the same problems that the public sector faced. We're left with many private organisations that not only have the disadvantages that used to be typical of their public brethren but they are creaming off large amounts of money from the system to pay grossly inflated salaries, bonuses and perks to `executives'....and they're letting us down right' left and centre. Witness the banks, the insurance companies, the energy companies etc. And the Government has more difficulty controlling them too.

Tiz, we listen to the same programmes.... I heard him say that also. I have always shared that view and the proof of the pudding is in the reason why, during both World Wars, governments of all political persuasions realised that the private sectors were so inefficient that they had to be put under direct government control in order to win the wars. After the Great War Lloyd George and the Coalition government bowed to pressure from the magnates who had been deprived of power and returned the key industries to private ownership, in the case of coal in direct contravention of the Sankey Commission’s clear verdict. In 1923 the railways were in such a mess that the government stepped in and forced rationalisation but not public ownership. They never solved the problems in the rest of industry but it's significant that as soon as WW2 started all industry was in effect nationalised. In 1945 the Labour government under Atlee bit the bullet and went for straight state control of 'the commanding heights of the economy' and for good measure health and housing as well. Ever since then there has been a political campaign based on right wing dogma to reverse what most people saw as in improvement. Remember Thatcher and her privatisations? Even Macmillan described it as 'selling the family silver'. Remember what John Major's last political act was when he saw the Tory Party sinking again? He forced a hurried privatisation of the railways with consequences we still suffer today. Interesting to note that whenever a franchise has to be taken into government control during a hiatus in the franchising process they run cheaper and more efficiently. The evidence for the Cryer point of view is overwhelming so we are left with the question of why? The answer is that the potential gains for the top money owning classes to so high and they control the right wing of our politics. That's why in the words of the independent budget responsibility committee we are being driven back to the 1930s. It is raw plutocracy and we let them get away with it.
But what the hell do I know about it.....

On the Radio 4 `Infinite Monkey Cage' programme they always pose a question for the audience and read out some of the responses at the end. This week the programme was about other planets and the audience was asked where in the universe would they most like to travel to. I was taken by one answer which summed up my own feelings: "When I was a child I was frightened that alien beings from elsewhere in the universe might come and take me away. Now I wished they would come and get me and take me somewhere better!"

I heard a bit of that. I liked the one which said "return to home planet".....

Frank Lloyd Wright's houses were notorious for having leaky roofs. He himself described one as 'a six bucket house". This stems from the fact that when one client complained about a leak he told them to 'put a bucket under it".

"Am I tough enough - hell yes I'm tough enough"

Ed Miliband.

Reminded me of IDS and his 'Quiet Man' moment....

No one goes there any more - it's always too crowded.

In a funny way that reminds me of one of my pet hates. You go into a shop and what you want isn't on the shelf. Reason given is 'there's no call for it'. There won't be if it isn't on the shelf... and Hello!.... I'm calling!

In the 21st Century retailers decide what you want to buy, not you.

They'd like to think that but quirky buggers like me know what we want and seek it out. My purchase of 3 X 450ml bottles of cod liver oil was because the shop I usually get it from informed me it was too expensive and they'd stopped ordering it. I told them that it wasn't a matter of their judgement, the essence of successful retailing and stock control is 'Does the customer want it? Can I make a profit?' Same syndrome with the Co-op and my Condor tobacco...

"All the media - we have collectively bored the electorate stupid"

Tom Newton Dunn - Political editor of the Sun.

And we have another three weeks to endure it.

That will be about right David..... The question now is not whom we will elect but will we end up with a workable government? How can any one paper make a sensible call on that and sell copies?

" I remembered that at the back of the cupboard I had a 30 metre coil of thinner, 1/4", leather belting."

Wonderful - worth the price of admission on its own.

My dad once said I was a pack rat.... He was right and it's served me well over the years...

Sir Bob Worcester - founder of Pollster MORI.

An Opinion poll is not a prediction. It is a snapshot of a moment in time. I have been saying and teaching this for many years.

Perhaps he should have done a poll to find out how many people were listening?

Nice......

I can't give you the source but I heard a description of Altzheimer's this morning that struck me. It was described as being like living in a house on a pitch dark night and gradually, one by one, the lights go out and can never be switched back on.....
Depressing I know but I;ll bet that's what it is like.....

No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable. Adam Smith.

I think this should be circulated round all those in favour of austerity.....

HM Queen on being given a gift of a painting from the German Head of State yesterday -

"That's a funny colour for a horse - and - is that supposed to be my father?"

He replied - "If you don't like it, we have here some marzipan from Lubecke"

They truly are - as they say - on another planet. Her palace is falling down - A million Africans are knocking at the door - Greece is skint, and . . . .

Dead right..... And ask yourself who is paying for it.....

It's easier to share out the marzipan!

"Only those who know the past can understand the present and shape the future."

Sepp Blatter, who has now said that he has not resigned. We may yet need the wooden stake and the garlic.

He's on a different planet......

In the long run we are all dead.... John Maynard Keynes.