pumpkinstrokemarrow

But once our government moves into cuts mode to pay for the RBS bankruptcy, it is going to get worse. All this talk of preserving front line services is piffle. Government may not be the most efficient place on the world, but on the whole it does things because there is a need. To that extent all its services are front line services. To the extent that there are second line services which exist to keep the front line services in the field - remember the rule of thumb which says that you need 100 RAF personnel to keep 1 RAF fighter pilot in the air - one can cut those without causing immediate, visible damage. But again, the second line services are there for a reason and if you cut them you are apt to damage the front line services. If you pack up training the front line servicemen, the standard of front line service is going to get worse over time.

All of which means that there are going to be some hard choices to be made. Epsom Council has made a good start by abolishing the concession whereby holders of blue cards do not need to pay to park on council car parks. But we keep the concession of having more convenient and bigger spots on which to park. So for us, with FIL not very disabled and well able to pay, a reasonable outcome. But it might not happen yet. A car park attendant told us that most of the car parking paying machines are out of the reach of someone in a wheel chair and that it is going to take lots of months and lots of money to fix this. Maybe the council will decide that it is not worth the bother after all.

But what about the workers in Greece? Probably unbeknown to them, they had been living on credit lines provided, at least indirectly, by the thrifty Chinese, but facilitated by the bankers who now need bailing out. Bankers who were very well paid for taking risks with other peoples' money and most of whom still seem to be very well paid. But the credit lines now moribund if not dead and the Greek government is busily slashing government expenditure to make up the difference. I guess the Greek workers want to see a few more bankers hung out to dry on crosses before they start taking the pain themselves. And while they are doing that, maybe we should be starting to think more seriously about the value-add of the financial services sector. Are they really worth the candle? Never mind the bother. How do we put the squeeze on them? See the tail end of the post of August 16, 2007. Maybe I really should get on with that MPhil.

Odd dream again last night. I was at some summer tea party. Outside, in the sun, various attractions, work flavoured. I leave, going through some rigmarole to get from the tea party, through the ancient office building, back to the real world, accompanied by one of the attractions, something but not exactly like a younger version of the BH. I think that I am onto a good thing, but she rushes across the big road we have wound up on, into the large Boots-like shop there. She busies herself buying toiletries or toothpaste or something and shows no sign of coming back over. I can see all this through the large, blue tinted plate glass shop front. Not too good. But then I spot a harassed looking business person standing on the kerb-side with a rather harassed looking pile of luggage. By way of distraction, I go across to see if I can help. He turns out to be some kind of an engineer from the US on his way to a conference but who has got lost. He gets out some papers which are no help. Then he fishes out a battered business card which tells us he should be going to Clapham Common. We are somewhere in the vicinity of Whitehall. First thought taxi. But then I think that this is going to take far too long so the tube is the answer. I know that Clapham Common is on the Northern Line but completely fail on how to get to the Northern Line from Whitehall. Various passers by stop to help, one of them producing a wildley inaccurate and completely unhelpful map of Clapham Common. But I can't deal with the situation at all. Start to wake up, thinking that maybe a taxi in the middle of the day would have only taken 40 minutes or so and might have been the right option. And as I get to be fully awake I solve the conundrum of how to get from Whitehall to the Northern Line. Far too late to be of any help to anyone.