Bike Ride: Abbey Route

First bike ride of the year, 4 miles, 6.45 km.

I got my bike up and ready last weekend, sorted out the brake adjustment, and made sure it was all in good order (amazing how much difference it makes).

Went for the ride this morning, round the back of the abbey and then the steep hill back toward home. This is my shortest route, just to make sure it all is running ok.

Budget

A fairly understated budget, no big measures - but at least fairly responsible with no real election bribes.

That is considering the stamp duty for first time buyers as a non bribe. This is a good move, but as always it is making more complex rules that then have to be policed - it would probably have been better to raise stamp duty for all for a couple of years, without needing to define a "first time buyer".

MPs for hire

Stephen Byers gets himself caught by an undercover reporter claiming that consultancies fees are a bit like a "taxi for hire".

The mere fact he was so open about it makes me think there must be a lot of this type of lobby consultancy going on - otherwise with a less competitive environment there would be no need.

Byers himself was probably thinking of where to head after the election - which cannot come too soon.

Book read: The Secret State by Peter Hennessy

An interesting account of how the government prepared itself in the cold war for the possible nuclear attack. The book is based on now declassified documents from the 50s and 60s, although it seems much is still restricted.

It makes a good case for Britain even having a nuclear deterrent during this time. The thinking was that Russia would look to knock out the US forward base of Britain, and we might not be able to count on their assistance in the event of a wider war between the two superpowers.

The difficulty of having such a deterrent is interesting, the sheer financial cost - the move from air power (V bombers) to submarine based launching meant in reality we were always dependent on American know how and programmes to provide our own weapons.

Other interesting aspects are the now decommissioned underground bunkers outside of Bath. This is where government would have fled to in the event of war. The question of if they could have even got there is also raised. This reminds me of the Yes Minister sketch "in the event of complete destruction of the UK, of course government must go on!"

It also covers current day the nuclear deterrent. Each Prime Minister has to have his sealed wishes carried on the Trident boats in the event that there is no time to give a direct command from the UK.

If the on duty commander believes the UK has suffered a nuclear attack (one of the tests for this is not being able to receive Radio 4 for a few days running!) then he is to act on the sealed instructions. Apparently the options the PM has to choose from on taking office are:

1. Head for America and put yourself under US command.
2. Head for Austrailia.
3. Retaliate against the nation who attacked.
4. Use your own judgment.

It seems that much is still secret, strange really but much of this book makes chilling reading and a timely reminder of the world we used to live in.

Book read: The Great Game by Peter Hopkirk

A book I had made a few attempts at reading in the last couple of years. This time I got past the initial scene setting and really got into this interesting period of history.

The book covers the covert, and military activity in Afghanistan during the 1800s. The chief players are Russia, Britain, and the various leaders of the fragmented kingdoms inside the country.

Russia always had eyes on getting through to India, and pushing the British out. Britain had interest in making this difficult for Russia, and by doing various deals with the leaders in Afghanistan it was hoped it would give a buffer zone through which Russia could not pass.

The book gives great character descriptions of those involved, and the brutal regimes they had to deal with. It is a piece of history I would consider to be less than well known. I wanted to read this book in part to understand the modern history of the country.

The names of places really resonate because of this, Helmand, Kandahar, places where our history and forces have died previously.

One thing that did strike me, was several quotes of deals being done or places being held "without a shot being fired". This reminds me of the John Reid quote on when our armed forces went back in 2001 - it is a shame it was not true this time round.

Formula 1 - Bahrain

The season starts in Bahrain. Alonso an easy winner, from Massa and a Ferrari 1-2. All became clear after Vettel's reliability problem. Mclaren a little disappointing, Schumacher beaten by his team mate.

Also the return of the world's quickest bet, first lap leader - pretty consistently the guy who has qualified on pole.

Looks like the rule changes on refueling could make for an interesting season.

Abolish the Lords!

An early entrant for the year's most misleading headline in the Telegraph today.

On the face of it great idea - we need to save money, a second unelected house probably is overkill in our democracy. Close the whole lot down and use it to pay off the national deficit.

But it's not quite that severe, instead proposals to reform the house to make it electable rather than chosen by elected representatives who typically use it to serve their own interests.

The one good point made for this is the longer term that they would serve, 15 years - maybe giving a longer term view to law making. But other than that couldn't we just save the money?

FA Cup Quarter Final Portsmouth 2 - Birmingham 0

Another good cup result for Pompey, back to Wembley in the semi finals. Birmingham had the better first half which they failed to capitalise on, Pompey then played better in the second and got the goals.

Birmingham were denied a goal, that a video replay technology would have allowed. It was ironic that FIFA issued their announcement of not using the technology one the same day!

The Media keep saying it's all good for finances. But I think we'd probably have to win this competition for the next 25 years to clear the debts!

Ethical iPhone

The press has had a few stories about the harsh employee environment under which subcontract firms working for Apple (and doubtless every other major consumer electronics firm) operate.

The original story was about the suicide of a worker who had taken a prototype iPhone and had subsequently committed suicide after being "interviewed" by his Chinese employer's security people.

In fairness the article does point out Apple is kind of strung to one or two big suppliers who can supply the volume they would need for their products. An attempt to move to a more ethically run supplier in the same region would see a swift buy out by the original firm.

But it does highlight that in our addiction for cheap consumer electronics we sometimes forget the human cost to this. In the case of Apple whose products are always reassuringly expensive, maybe their is more margin for manufacturing somewhere with more employee protection.

Also the culture of secrecy, would it harm Apple that much to be a little more open about what it was developing? - they excel at user experience so getting first to market should not have so much importance.