HMS Illustrious at Greenwich November 9, 2008
Posted by Andy Roberts in : London , add a commentUpon alighting from the Docklands Light Railway at Cutty Sark, Greenwich on Friday the view of the Thames was dominated by a huge warship.
HMS Illustrious is moored in the Thames off Greenwich for a week to help with the Royal Navy’s participation in Remembrance Day commemorations in London. This year is the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War.
HMS Illustrious was also used as a platform for the November 6TH Fireworks display which by all accounts was quite spectacular, being accompanied by the dramatic sounds of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 overture.
Photo derived from one by Simon Starr
Can Countries go Bankrupt? November 4, 2008
Posted by Andy Roberts in : economics , 1 comment so farThe IMF has a $250 billion bailout fund for use in emergencies to lend to countries that could go bankrupt, but this is not enough to cope with today’s mounting crises so some of the rich oil producing states are being asked to contribute to an extension fund.
Ukraine accepted a 40 billion dollar loan from the IMF to avoid bankruptcy, Romania is currently negotiating and Iceland has already taken drastic measures after the collapse of its financial sector. Belarus and Hungary are also on the critical danger list but the UK and Switzerland have serious national debt and currency problems as well.
Iceland has enough natural resources to survive in some way outside of the global financial system but The UK should be especially worried, as one of the main importers of goods in Western Europe. UK national borrowings also tend to be in other currencies so the debt balance will almost certainly increase as the pound sterling weakens against both the dollar and the euro, after printing and lending out huge sums of money to avert the banking and finance sector crisis.
When Gordon Brown the UK prime minister went to tell the Eurozone leaders how to restructure their banking industries along the lines of the UK model this appeared as a great act of economic statesmanship, but I bet Sarkozy and Merkel had a quiet word in his ear about the UK ditching the pound and joining the euro zone eventually. The big question would be at what rate? The present rate doesn’t look too great, having fallen from 1.5 Euros to the Pound down to 1.25 over the past year or so, but as the financial crisis gets worse over the next few months the worsening terms could end up looking look more like a collapse and rescue operation rather than a dignified merger.
Wizz Jones with the Beatniks in Newquay Cornwall 1960 October 30, 2008
Posted by Andy Roberts in : Music , add a commentWizz Jones sings a topical song about the Beatniks in Cornwall 1960 and Alan Whicker reports on the local council’s letter to shopkeepers urging them all to refuse to serve people with long hair.
Wizz Jones with the beatniks in Newquay 1960
Wizz Jones was one of the seminal acoustic singer songwriters who helped to create the british folk guitar style, and he still plays monthly at a small club in Tooting.
The beatnik era was before my time, in that I was a child in Cornwall at the time and can remember these stories on the local TV news programmes as well as seeing the “No Beatniks” signs in all the cafes in St Ives, another Cornish resort which took a hard line against the beats, eventually deploying police and dogs to chase them out of the town.
The Post Office for Best Broadband Deals October 27, 2008
Posted by Andy Roberts in : best broadband deals , add a commentI think the Post Office might be one of the best broadband deals for anybody making the move from dial up to broadband for the first time because of the hand-holding you get with the setting up. It’s also a serious contender for anybody disatisfied with their present broadband provider and considering switching over. The Post Office have a simple choice of broadband and/or telephone package with a free calls option and either medium usage or unlimited downloads. With all broadband options there is no connection or setting up charge and with broadband unlimited you get a free wireless router. The homephone option also includes free calls to UK mobiles and twenty top international destinations.
Q Which are these top 20 destinations for free international phone calls?
A According to this new release from Royal Mail Group the list includes:
Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, USA.
For alternative broadband suppliers maybe check out Best Broadband Deals .org.uk
Walkway Closed - No Pavement for Pedestrians October 26, 2008
Posted by Andy Roberts in : food and drink, transport, video, London , add a commentBack in the old days, before you could do any kind of building or digging work that required a temporary closure of the pavement, it was necessary to erect a proper cordon with signs and diversions including a clearly marked safe route for pedestrians. But now we seem to get all sorts of obstacles places in the way making travel by foot an increasingly hazardous venture. It’s not like this is some American city where everybody is expected to get around by car and walkers are treated like weirdos. No this is in central London where crowds of people get about using shanks’s pony on a regular basis.
And it’s not just builders, scaffolders, road maintenance and utilities crews. Where I live, a bit further out, parked cars are often left straddling the pavement blocking the right of way for pedestrians. Other obstacles are provided by roadside businesses who decide to expand outwards from their shop front onto the pavement. Hand car wash services for example seem to use the pavement, kerb and bus lane as part of their workshop area. Then there are the tressel tables of vegetables in bowls, all at £1 each which are spreading like potato blight in front of all kinds of non-food related shops, to the extent that proper greengrocers are going out of business unless they join in the bowls system as well. So now you can’t buy two lemons you have to have five, and a bowl of tomatoes is expensive at £1 whereas three aubergines might seem like a bargain until you notice that the two underneath are going brown.
Tags: pavementclosed, no pavement, walkway obstacles, vegetable bowls, hand car wash, rant
How is wealth destroyed and where does wealth come from? October 11, 2008
Posted by Andy Roberts in : economics, theory , 14commentsWhere did the wealth destroyed on Stock Markets come from?
If 20 percent of the value of world stock markets can be wiped out in one week, as has just happened, then where does that wealth actually disappear to? Is it buried in a big hole somewhere, scuttled at sea or sent on a rocket into outer space? Apparently not, but if money can simply disappear from world markets how can we make any sense of the concept of value in finance. How is it measured and where did it come from in the first place?
Theories of value
In the first post of this series I asked “where does money come from” and gave a brief history of the origins of money in the form of precious metal coins used to facilitate the process of trade from simple barter to the exchange of goods of different values. Without exactly defining where money comes from I hinted at the idea that monetary value is realted to the total amount of work or labour which is tied up in bringing the goods to market. That’s a theory which is known as the labour theory of value and is not always widely accepted, probably due to association with a certain Karl Marx who took that theory, which was already known by cpaitalist economists, and developed it a bit further with his concept of “socially necessary labour time”.
Money grows on trees
People who don’t subscribe to the labour theory of value believe that money comes from being rewarded for taking risks, that value is determined entirely by the balance between supply and demand, and that substantial sums of money can somehow just “grow”. They say that money doesn’t grow on trees, but that’s not too dissimilar to the idea that interest just accumulates on investments because money begets more money. In reality, investments such as stocks and bank deposits typically pass through a number of hands but end up being used to buy goods not for consumption but for increased or more efficient production. Investment of capital buys machine tools, land, property and other wherewithal to employing labour in order to create goods or services for the market which can be sold at a profit. The important point here is that the capital doesn’t generate a single penny of orginal value until the employment of labour has happened. To be profitable, the output from this process of applying labour to previously accumulated capital must be of actual use to a buying market, and must be produced with a total number of labour hours which is competitive with alternative setups, such as differently tooled machine shops employing labour under different terms and conditions. That’s pretty much all that’s meant by the “socially necessary labour time” formulation really, to counter the idea that simply getting enough people to work hard for the the most minimal wages will necessarily creaste wealth.
Wealth Ceated by Labour
All wealth is created in the first place by labour, and that is the real answer to the question answer “where does money come from”. It comes from work that has been done by somebody, that has been abstracted and turned into a type of commodity itself, which can then change hands and accumulate, which can be exchanged for special kinds of products, Which can then be deployed in the employment of further labour. Capital is an accumulation of the results of previous rounds of expended labour, or “dead labour” as is sometimes expressed. The capital exchanged on world money markets then represents a further abstraction as speculators buy and sell options to receive the fruits of other people’s labour in the future, that hasn’t even been expended yet, and place bets on the likelihood of prices rising and falling.
Destruction of Wealth in a Slump
In a serious recession, when stock markets crash, and seemingly abstract wealth is destroyed, this is not just a accountancy game played out with pieces of paper or rather electronic transfers. It does actually play out into the very real destruction of productive capacity as enterprises go under or cut back and the very concrete machinery, buildings, expertise and systems are abandoned due to lack of a buying market that can afford their products at a profitable price. All of that overcapicity which has been built up out of the relentless requirement to reinvest and expand will be scrapped, levelled, and laid waste at the greatest of human cost until enough real capital has been wiped out for the accumulation cycle to begin all over again. In the current circumstances the effects are particularly catastrophic because the downturn had been temporarily postponed for a couple of decades or so through the use of massively expanded credit, which could distort the outward shape of the cycle for a short while, but never the underlying forces at work in any free market system based on the private ownership of capital.
What’s odd about this Dartboard? Found in an East London Pub October 2, 2008
Posted by Andy Roberts in : London , 9comments
Do you notice anything odd about this dartboard seen in an East London pub recently? Most darts boards look a bit like this, but different.
How on earth would you ever end a game of 301 on such a dart board?
Theatre Breaks September 29, 2008
Posted by Andy Roberts in : theatre breaks , 1 comment so farTheatre Breaks not for cutbacks
Having avoided traditional summer holidays the past two years, preferring to go abroad in the off seasons, I certainly won’t be cutting back on theatre breaks and other little weekends away or short breaks in the UK. Neither will hoards of other people up and down the country regardless of what the doom and gloom mongers would have us believe.
Some might be thinking twice about booking long haul trips to Oceana and Asia, granted, and the shopping trip to New York is looking decidedly passe but there’s never been a better time for squeezing in a little treat of a weekend, just the two of you, with a bit of style in London’s West End.
Hotel and Theatre Breaks in London
With the shrinking of the finance sector and slightly less demand for business trips to London, the big hotels have a few rooms going spare and these are being bought up by tour operators who can then offer even better value hotel and theatre breaks in London. The advantage of booking a hotel at the same time as your advance theatre tickets should be obvious really. To get the best out of a good night out at a top West End show you don’t want your shared elation to be instantly let down by a long and tiresome journey back with the night crowds. Instead, an after show drink in the hotel bar and a comfortable night allows the magic to continue though to the next day, with who knows what London has in store. Sightseeing, culture, chilling out on the river, fine dining - central London has it all with always more surprises, even if you only live in the Greater London area or home counties.
Theatre Breaks by Rail
Cars are practically useless in central London so it’s usually best to arrive by train. The extra fast east-coast line is proves increasingly tempting, with discerning citizens from Doncaster, York, Newcastle, Darlington, Leeds, Wakefield, Sheffield, Stoke able to arrive at Kings Cross London in just a couple of hours or less. It’s a great way to travel from Norwich, Exeter, Cardiff, Coventry, Manchester. Bung it all on the same booking transaction and you can save up to 40% on the advance rail fares.
Favourite London Theatre Shows
One or two musicals have closed recently and there are some interesting new ones coming up, but here is a selection which have become standard West End Favourites:
Les Miserables
Phantom of the Opera
Billy Elliot
We Will Rock You
Mamma Mia
Blood Brothers
Dirty Dancing
Sound of Music
Hairspray
New shows you can book theatre breaks for now:
Oliver
Imagine This
Carousel
Zorro
Theatre breaks Booking tips
* Try to be flexible with your preferred dates, but if you fancy a Saturday night or even New Year’s Eve these are still worth checking.
* If you have two or three possible shows in mind then you get more hotel choice and overall cost possibilities.
* Weigh up hotel prices against location eg The Strand Palace is very convenient for most of Theatreland but Billy Elliot and Wicked are on at Victoria. Some of the best value hotels are near Kings Cross or South Kensington / Gloucester Road so you might need a London black cab after the show.
* Extra nights can be good value so see if you can possibly make time for a three night stay in London and make the most of your theatre breaks booking.
Where does Money come from? September 26, 2008
Posted by Andy Roberts in : economics, theory , 6commentsHave you ever been asked, Where does money come from?
This might sound like a stupid question - “where does money come from” - but how many people actually know?
In recent days European and UK national banks have pumped billions of Euros and pounds into the economies to try and stabilise a volatile market. The US is debating whether to spend $700 billion dollars on covering bad housing debts. People are asking why should tax payers pay for the well heeled banking speculators mistakes, and will it be enough! Where does $700 billion come from? Where does one dollar, Pound or Euro come from?
Origins of Money
Money originated soon after the time when the simplest forms of trading began. Once people got the hang of surviving from day to day in a hand to mouth existence, they had a little spare time to themselves. Different people started to specialise in different types of work. So if I could make more than enough animal skin coats for myself and family, and somebody else could catch more fish than they needed, we might give some away to each other. At first this must have been how it worked. Descended from primates who lived in large social groups, we mostly looked after each other by instinct.
Early Humans
As things progressed, early humans who were genetically pretty much identical to ourselves became more efficient at simple farming, making pots and other basic crafts. The opposable thumb left over from gripping tree branches was a big help, as was the ability to form grammatical meaning out of vocal cries.
Surplus and Transport
The extended families grew into tribes and the tribes into larger communities. People wandered further afield and bumped into other settlements, sometimes specialised for a slightly different lifestyle. Rivers and coasts were the super highways along which regular travels could be undertaken and occasional trading relationships were established.
But there was only ever anything to trade as long as people were surviving reasonably well and had some spare capacity to create a surplus of worthwhile products. Without refrigeration, a surplus of fish became a stinking heap after a few days so that was no use. A good pot could be used for preserving foraged food for longer though, so a pot was well worth bartering for if you haven’t got one. But how many animal skins are worth two pots?
The Underlying Calculation of Barter
The calculation would have been based roughly on availability. If community A had produced a surplus of 4 pots since the last trade and commuity B had produced 8 extra animal skins then two skins for one pot would have seemed like a fair trade. As the surpluses grew and the number of parties taking part increased so the bartering became more complicated. One canoe is worth 9 animal skins so if I give you 5 pots you can give me one skin change, which I don’t really need, but I might be able to swap for some particularly tasty berries. In this example the animal skin is being used for its exchange value rather than its intrinsic value, and it’s exchange value is still linked to the amount of time and effort put into catching the animal and processing the skin, including some part of making the tools for hunting and scraping.
Precious Metal Coin Money
The inconvenience of carrying around skins, pots and canoes just for use as small change soon became a burden, so anything just as valuable but smaller and more transportable was preferred. In it’s earliest form, money was made out of precious metals and the value of the coin was related to the weight and value of the silver or gold. That is, to the amount of work involved in finding, mining and refining the precious metals. This worked so well you could set off from Phonoecia (Iraq/Lebanon) and sail across the Med, through the straits of Gibraltar, up past the coast of Gallicia all the way to the West of the British Isles just to collect some tin and drop off a load of grain.
Confidence in the value of metal coins was such that some people were even able to give up farming, boatbuilding, mining and pottery to become full time travellers and traders.
End of Where does money come from part one - more next week..
Sea Eagles in Scotland - problems of reintroducing species September 23, 2008
Posted by Andy Roberts in : wildlife , 5commentsSea Eagles Release Programme
Various attempts have been made over the years, some successful, to reintroduce wildlife species into areas where they have become extinct in the past.
The ospreys in England are one well known example, and a similar scheme is currently underway to reintroduce sea eagles into Scotland. This season is the second in a five year plan to release young sea eagles taken as chicks from Norway and already there are some breeding pairs reported. They’ve been seen around the Isle of May in Fife as well as in the North West Highlands. But there is a problem. As the farming today programme on BBC radio 4 reported, crofters in Gairloch are complaining about the sea eagles taking lambs. It is claimed that as many as 50% of one farmer’s lambs have been destroyed and that conservation groups are not taking the problem seriously.
RSPB
The RSPB pointed out that there are only three breeding pairs of sea eagle in the Gairloch area, and it would be highly unlikely the birds were responsible for the loss of all of the lambs. A spokesman for the crofting foundation said “We feel they put the birds here without our consent and without asking our advice.” So there we have a conflict of interest that may be quite hard to resolve. Sheep have been kept on hillsides ever since the land was cleared but white tailed sea eagles are historically indigenous to the country. How do we decide when to embark on a reintroduction programme? If there were a way to compete with the greys I’m sure we’d all be in favour of the reintroduction of red squirrels into the english countryside where they have been wiped out. Some people would reintroduce the wolf into Northern forests. But if it were possible to bring back the sabre toothed tiger and let them loose on Salisbury Plain I somehow don’t think it would happen.
Who decides?
Wild boar were once a common species in english woodlands and modern gastronomic tastes have brought about domestic cross bred boars, some of which have escaped and multiplied in the wild. Where this has become a problem they have been culled as an interloper, like the Canada geese in Victoria Park, Hackney. Who is entitled to make these decisions as to which species shall be allowed, reintroduced or culled? There is a difference between environmental concern and conservationism, habitat management, agricultural needs and possible pandering to a sentimental foem of tourism with attraction only to certain kinds of species which attract charity revenue.
Sea eagles have landed - video
Sea Eagles Update:
Lamb not on sea eagles’ menu, says RSPB
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds ( RSPB ) described the claims of some crofters as nonsense and said that the birds would have taken only carrion. It said that the birds thrived mainly on a diet of herring gulls, fulmars and fish fed to them by friendly trawlermen.
another source: Timesonline
I’m not very happy abut the fulmars!
Lamb-eating sea eagles upset Scottish farmers
William Fraser, chairman of the Gairloch and Poolewe branch of the Crofting Foundation: “In a few years time there’ll be no sheep left on the hills,”
It has also been claimed that bird watching is a hobby that creates little or no income for an area, whereas crofting / farming is a way of life and an income provider. On the other hand, eagles and the largest birds of prey are more likely to live off carrion so most of the sheep may be already dead.
is an online professional who initiated DARnet 
