Sunday, March 07, 2010
Economical
Mr Brown, that well known son of the manse, is, according to the DT, being economical with the truth again. And, to my mind, rather insulting to the intelligence and aptitudes of his fellow voters. According to the DT, Mr Brown in his days as Chancellor in the days of wars in parts east, never said no to a request from the military. All requests were granted. No weasel word 'reasonable', so that we did not have the entirely anodyne and innocuous statement that all reasonable requests were granted. Rather, the much stronger statement that all requests were granted.
Now in a world where the pot of public money is just that, a finite pot of limited and more or less known size, and where there are a couple of dozen highly competent and organised outfits known as ministries trying to extract that money out of him for all kinds of very worthy projects, there is always going to be something of a fight about it. There will never be enough to fund all these very worthy projects. There can never be enough health. Enough bisease. Enough security. Enough rules and regulations. So to say that he never said no to the military in this context is nonsense. Depressing that he does not see fit to attempt to raise the standard of public debate. Possibility 2 is that he is being misrepresented by the DT. But my bet is that he is not, given his uncomfortable stance vis-a-vis Tony's military adventures. It all fits.
Depressing also the number of otherwise intelligent people who do not seem to understand the point. That the Treasury are not a bunch of sharks going around chewing the intelligent peoples' legs off. Far too old and chewy. Certainly not woodland reared. They are just trying to share out the cake in a reasonably sensible way. And I dare say that the adversarial style they have adopted is as good a way as any. The best cases for dosh will eventually rise to the top of the adversarial heap. Give or take a few local disturbances due to quality advocacy of bad cases, something which is going to happen even in the best run organisations.
More help centre fun last week. A very important part of FIL's equipment is his infra red powered (or maybe they do it with radio waves. Not sure) Sony ear phones which mean that he can hear his telly while we cannot while not being tied to said telly by cord, umbilical, electrical or otherwise. Now the very important foam ear pads are starting to get a bit wobbly. Maybe cost to make in China 1p.. No chance of getting spares for that sort of thing, sezzaye. But FIL reads the user manual with great care and find that Sony do indeed sell spare foam ear pads. So off to the Sony shop in Epsom. Do you have spare ear pads for a MDR-1F-140? No. We only do spare ear plugs. Can you get some for me? No. Can your computer tell me where some might be, rather in the way that M&S tills can run down obscure sizes of sock or coat for you? No. What do you suggest. Try ringing this number.
Which I do. This number suggests that I might like to try a web site. Which I do. To find that it does not sell ear pads. Try another similar web site. Same story. Try the phone number again, a bit harder this time. Yes, they do indeed sell ear pads. £13.32 including postage, packing and VAT. That's a bit strong, sezzaye. But I'll have them just the same, given that new ear phones are £30 odd. Two days later our two shiny new ear pads turn up by second class post (the postage and packing element of our bill being a far too modest £4.33 for first class post). They are indeed the right thing. But they are very dear. Much dearer experience than that with the bit of C-max plastic from Ford which came in, as I recall, at just over £2. And that bit must have cost rather more than 1p. to make.
FIL now working hard on schemes to make ear pads out of yellow foam reclaimed from a dining room chair. Will it be the right sort of foam, leaving aside the colour? Will he have a razor blade sharp enough to cut the stuff cleanly? How is he going to cut the lip around the ear pads which holds the things on to the ear phones. Hopefully, he will have got all this worked out by the time the new pads give up.
# posted by Jim @ 9:41 AM 
