Written on August 14th, 2009 by adminno shouts
It’s a sad fact of life these days that any of us are liable to be arrested for doing perfectly normal activities. You would think that taking photographs in a shopping street would attract little attention as it is something many of us would have done at some time in our lives. I know I have so I was somewhat shocked to see that someone was arrested for doing exactly that and then when questioned about it refusing to give his name to some unidentified people who approached him which, apparently, he is perfectly entitled to do.
You can read the full story on his blog and make up your own mind but to me this just demonstrates how the government are letting the terrorists decide the society we live in instead of defending the freedoms we always claimed were what made Britain the great democracy it used to be.
Read the full report here… click here to read
Written on August 5th, 2009 by adminno shouts
One of the mantras of business and politics over the last 30 or so years has been to worship the god of efficiency. Everything has to be super efficient and costs are to be cut to the bone. Cut out all the waste and have super efficient businesses and cost effective government.
You can see the logic of the argument. We don’t want to waste money so being efficient makes good sense. The problem with efficiency is that it plans for stable conditions and it takes away any flexibility. For example. If you are not fighting a war then having an army is very inefficient, the same applies to the fire brigade and police. If nothing is going on then you don’t need the service.
When war breaks out or there are lots of fires, thefts or civil disorder you need these services to be available instantly. It is easy to cut back when things are going well but you have to plan for times when things do not run so smoothly.
One of the current super efficient companies to have made a success of cutting to the bone and running a super efficient service is Ryanair the cheap flights airline. They have cut out all the waste in their efforts to offer the cheapest possible flights and people have been attracted by the low costs of flying but you have to wonder if they are not now cutting back a step too far.
The idea has been suggested by their CEO that they might start charging for the use of toilets on flights and even allowing standing passengers. The idea of passengers standing in the event of even a minor ground accident doesn’t bear thinking about and I find it astonishing that the idea can even be suggested but it shows how far down the road of cost cutting we have gone.
Ryanair are trying to encourage passengers to check in online to avoid the need for check-in desks at airports and they have started charging extra for luggage so passengers now try to travel with only hand luggage. It makes sense and is efficient for everyone until there is a sudden demand for people to check in luggage. During a lot of the year many travellers are able to travel with little luggage for short breaks but when it comes to the summer holidays people have lots of luggage and it would seem this may have been the cause of the problems at Stansted airport at the weekend. It is always a very busy time of year leading to problems with car parking at stanstead as hundreds of people with lots of luggage try to find their cars, or their friends who are collecting them, and queues of cars try to get into and out of the airport area.
The passengers were queuing at the weekend to check in their bags and it is thought that up to 700 passengers missed their flights at stansted airport because there were not enough check in desks open.
There may have been other reasons but the obvious assumption must be that Ryanair had not made plans for the surge of families travelling with luggage during the summer holidays. What works the rest of the year is likely to fail at a time like this and you would have expected the company to see this coming.
So is efficiency good for us? It certainly reduces prices but the lack of flexibility when circumstances vary from the norm must make us wonder if perhaps cheap isn’t always best and cutting beyond a reasonable degree is bad for all of us.
Once upon a time air travel was considered glamorous and exciting but these days air travel seems to be something we have to suffer to get where we want to go. Another reason for holidaying at home perhaps.
