My client takes matters of health and safety extremely seriously…

That was on the 24th March 2009. A couple of years down the line, Whitbread have changed their management in the Premier Inn [...]]]> I’m reminded of a comment by a lady called Beverley who works for Gerald Eve. They are the company that manages property for Whitbread.

My client takes matters of health and safety extremely seriously…

That was on the 24th March 2009. A couple of years down the line, Whitbread have changed their management in the Premier Inn London Euston twice now, but the same basic problems of safety still exist. The previous manager, Mark, gave us the direct line for reception so we could call if there were any problems. We do that, but we still have to keep calling back because no-one takes charge of the issues and resolves them.

I’ve been banging on at the PILE since 2008 because they have a problem with glass in their car park. When the staff empty their glass bin into their recycling bin, some inevitably falls out, but they aren’t trained sufficiently to know to sweep it up, it gets ground down to small, sharp shards of glass, and I get a puncture.

I had two this weekend, fixed one, then pumped my tyre up again this morning to get me into work, got most of the way in, but I’ll have to change the inner tube at lunchtime.

As a test, if I carry my bicycle out of their car park, I don’t get punctures. As soon as I go back to cycling through it, I get them. I asked myself if I should carry it all the time, but that’s unfair to anyone else who uses their car park. PILE should really sort themselves out in that respect.

Noise

Everyone is affected by noise in their life at one time or another. PILE generate a fair amount with their contracted-out delivery staff slamming cages around the car park, vehicles reversing because the hotel lets cars park where they like which blocks access for their deliveries. The biggest problems, by far, are the garbage crusher and the ‘new’ air-con.

The air-con emits a low-level whirring noise, akin to a helicopter passing overhead. When the fans need to stop, it emits a screech.

The garbage grinder emits a 2kHz tone, which pearces your thoughts. It’s designed to do that, it’s a warning tone, however I have stood in the car park watching the hotel staff operating the machine with this noise emitting. You would not believe how many times the hotel’s number appears on my ‘phone bill. It’s not like I’m calling them to say hello, or have a chat. Each call is a problem.

To help explain the noise, here is a recording of the garbage grinder, with a frequency analysis. That solid yellow line by 2k means it’s a very loud noise, at that frequency.

Coffee, anyone?

Now, we all know what double-yellow lines mean? No parking. And if there are double-yellow kerb markings? No loading (or unloading).

I have referred to that piece of the highway code a few times in this blog. Here it is again:

And here’s the Kuehne & Nagel delivery driver for Costa Coffee parking where he shouldn’t to unload. It’s not like there’s a whacking great car park out the back.

Lets just make sure he is unloading, otherwise he w0uld be allowed to park briefly, say if he had an emergency to deal with…

That looks like someone making a delivery to me. This is a daily occurence, not just a one-off.

It’s not just a hotel…

I’m now reminded of the licensing hearing last year, where the hotel was asking to allow outside drinking (until 1am in the morning!) and their solicitor John Gaunt said:

We’re not a budget chain, this is a premium budget hotel.

I’ve yet to see what’s premium about it. Just remember next time you stay at the Premier Inn London Euston that you’re encouraging the hotel’s management to continue this lacklustre style of dragging the hotel along by the hair.

Dear Friend,   I am so pleased that, like me, you are supporting I Value the Arts. The campaign aims to provide a voice for everyone who values the arts in their community and it has now received 16,430 pledges of support. This is great news, and a [...]]]>

Kate Adie - image: Steve Brock

Dear Friend,
 
I am so pleased that, like me, you are supporting I Value the Arts. The campaign aims to provide a voice for everyone who values the arts in their community and it has now received 16,430 pledges of support. This is great news, and a true reflection of how cultural services are an integral part of every community. However, in light of recent developments it is now more important than ever that everyone has the opportunity to sign up. I would like you to help raise the profile of the I Value the Arts campaign and get more people involved. It is vital that you get in touch with as many people as you can and ask them to pledge their support at www.ivaluethearts.org.uk
 
As you may know, the recent Comprehensive Spending Review left local councils facing an average cut of 28 per cent. The non-statutory status of local funding for cultural services has meant that the arts sector is left vulnerable to bear the brunt of these local authority cuts.
 
Unfortunately last month, Somerset County Council became the first local authority to announce that it was axing all of its arts funding. Not only has this signalled a cultural decline for the county itself, it has also set a precedent for other local authorities to follow suit. 
 
The arts are an easy target for cuts, and the repercussions of Somerset _ s decision are already being felt. Darlington Borough Council is preparing to withdraw the subsidy from Darlington Civic Theatre and the Darlington Arts Centre; which may lead to their closure, as it attempts to trim £22m from its £107m budget. The arts in Rochdale are also facing significant cuts, as budgets for all parts of the arts and heritage service are to be severely reduced, often by 50 per cent.
 
To prevent lasting damage being done to the arts, I Value the Arts has given supporters in affected areas relevant and useful information about plans for the arts in their community with practical suggestions about how they can make a difference. Of course, the more signatories we have, the more people there are to take action. So please, forward this email to as many people as you can and ask them to pledge their support at: www.ivaluethearts.org.uk
 
The more support we have the louder our voice and the louder we shout the more likely we are to be heard.

For more information about the campaign, go to www.ivaluethearts.org.uk or you can call the National Campaign for the Arts on 020 7287 3777
 
Thanks for your support

Kate Adie
Chair, National Campaign for the Arts

If the Parliament [...]]]> Most people don’t want a hung Parliament. Yes, it would be good to give our politicians a good hard kicking, to make them start to be a bit more democratic and less totalaristic, but that novelty wouldn’t last long, and we’d be spending millions on a fresh set of elections within months.

If the Parliament is hung, Gordon Brown can stay on, and try to make a pact with the Lib Dems. Nick Clegg hasn’t been vocal about what he’d do if the Parliament was hung.

Remember what happened in Camden Council after the last local elections? The Liberals didn’t bat an eyelid, hesitate or pause for thought before they got into bed with the Tories.

The Tories didn’t come second, they came third in the actual polls. The Liberals, instead of listening to the voting population, chose that they could build on their poll result, and take the whole of Camden Council the next time. They jumped straight into the fire, and there’s no sign of regret in their eyes.

Over the last few years, the Liberal Democrats introduced a new ethos at Camden Council – “cheaper is better”. Even if it means more expensive in the long run repairing shoddy workmanship. They’ve been cutting costs and paring things to the bone well before that vile attempt at a human from Barnet Council came up with the idea of an easyCouncil. The same vile attempt I wrote about asleep at his desk, when he was supposed to be Mayor of the bloody Borough!

Bearing in mind how there are many identity groups in this country who don’t appreciate the Tories, it’s worth bearing in mind what the Liberals could do if the Parliament is hung. Will they get into bed with Cameron? I wouldn’t even consider voting for the yellow lot until we know we’re not going to get Cameron as a PM as a result.

Essentially, it’s the welfare state. The bit which props us up when we’re down. At least that’s the job it’s supposed to do. Over the years some [...]]]> I’ve always been slightly suspicious of the Jobcentre, the Dole, DHSS, whatever the Government of the day wants to call it. It’s real name is the Welfare State.

Essentially, it’s the welfare state. The bit which props us up when we’re down. At least that’s the job it’s supposed to do. Over the years some complex calculations have been drawn up to pigeon hole you, your circumstances, and those around you; the aim being to decide if you’re eligible for extra income.

I’ve wondered since I was about nine, when I accompanied my older brother to sign on, why a building, a structure, or a Government department designed to be so helpful can appear so austere and alienating from the outside. On the inside, things weren’t much better, the atmosphere was borderline suicidal; the staff a prime example of dereliction of duty.

This was 1980′s Britain. It was Thatcher’s Britain. It was 1987 and I was nine. It may have been grim up north, but the Job Centre was depicted as a shithole, a cesspit, and somewhere only the lowest lifeforms would inhabit. I often wondered how the staff coped working in such boring, grey and depressing conditions.

Fast forward to 1999. Two years into the “New” Labour government. Tony Blair was working his magic, and the country was coming up on a high. This was the inspirational time, just before the dot-com bubble burst (the first time around). Just days before the magical year 2000, just days before the whole world was about to change into a magical wonder-world where the standards suddenly improve because it’s the 21st Century.

Yet in the middle of all this, I was sat at home in the run up to Christmas, broke and jobless. I was given a ‘generous’ payoff. A whole month of cash in lieu. So I didn’t rush to seek help. I let Christmas and the whole year 2000 thing get out of the way, and then popped my head into my local Job Centre.

Over ten years have passed now. I remember it vividly. The smell, the people, the pure lack of imagination in the place. Thatcher’s Britain was still alive and well, in the Walthamstow Job Centre. I explained to the nice lady that I’d lost my job. She told me I’d have to fill out a form, what’s my National Insurance number, and there’d be a two week wait before I’d start seeing any money in my bank account. “You do have a bank account, don’t you?” Yes, I’m not just off the banana boat, I’m from the UK, I tell her.

That’s the first mistake. When the woman in the Job Centre is sarcastic to you, don’t be sarcastic back. It puts the whole process back decades.

The money lady found me on her computer, confirmed the vital aspects of me – my name, address, date of birth.

“Are you male, or female?” she asked, quite fluently, with no sign of embarrassment. “What?” I ask.

“Are you a boy, or a girl?” Oh yes, I remind myself, there’s no conversation, there’s no irony that an obviously rhetorical question in any other setting had been asked. There were questions, and there were answers. I answer the questions, I don’t question the questions.

I remember the date. It was the first Tuesday in 2000. Two weeks later, to the day, my first DHSS income arrived in my bank account. I had to sign on two weeks after that. And Christ, if the actual signing-on was a process from hell, signing on again was enough to leave even Irish twins JEdward depressed.

The lady I saw on day one had told me I needed to apply for three jobs per week, and bring proof with me. Several jobs were suggested to me, too. I really didn’t fancy being a dustman, a dentist receptionist, or working on the checkouts in Netto. Yes, those were my three suggested jobs from the Job Centre. During that month of January I had successfully applied for and received offer of employment. I just couldn’t wait for my last trip to the Job Centre, to thank them for their ‘help’, and to sign-on for that one last time.

Except where I had gone wrong was to assume that by getting a job, I was in the clear. “You’re not due to start until 15th February.” The man said, not even trying to put some inflection or other sign of humanity into his voice. “That’s not allowed, you need to keep applying for jobs to cover those two weeks.”

Remembering the hell I went through for my sarcasm back in January, February was to be different. I apologised, and said I would get on the case. “Don’t bother”, he said, “no-one else ever does. We’ve just got to say it so you’re not breaking the law.”

The people may have been nice enough, but their workplace was typical Central Govt, unmaintained for many years, and barely keeping with the new computer technology the rest of the world was adopting post haste. Nothing much had changed from my first insight into the Welfare State 12 years previous.

This got me wondering, and I’ve wondered ever since. Why are staff in Job Centres quite so anally retentive, humourless drones. Their job was to treat everyone as if a criminal. The Welfare State is the only institution in the UK I know of where it’s okay to be guilty until you can prove yourself innocent. The staff will flatly refute any allegations, but their denial only prompts further questions – if you don’t treat everyone as a cheat, why the attitude problems?

I am speaking from the past experiences I mention, but also from a more recent experience of helping a friend. I’ve never came across any group of people more reluctant to give a friendly and helpful attitude than those who seem to have it ingrained in their mind that everyone is guilty until proven innocent. Successive Governments have chosen this as the face of their Welfare State. Does it help anyone at all get back to work quickly?

We’re coming up to a General Election this year, during this time the Welfare State always comes under immense pressure. Parties promise to tear it apart, to stop benefit cheats, and to reform the system. Each little promise puts more strain on the system, more stress on the employees, and gives the recipient of Welfare more hassle and anxiety.

Will any party dare to veer away from the ‘benefit fraud is bad’ mantra, and promise a root and branch reform of the archaic system which leads to these manic depressive inhabitants of the benefit system? I sincerely doubt it.

Just as the main parties have decided that there is no alternative to cutting public spending to reduce the UK’s debts, the main parties haven’t even bothered to think further than benefit fraud when it comes to the Welfare State. Why should that be at the forefront of your mind when you come to vote? Because as 2009 has shown us, you just don’t know when it will be your turn to come up against these strange, grey humans hiding behind their (now) computerised system.

And if I end up in front of them anytime soon, I’d much rather that the politicians I vote for ensure that the staff in these Job havens are trained to be personable, informative and helpful. Treating people as if they’re guilty before you even know their full situation is so Thatcher. I still can’t believe that the Benefit system relies on it so heavily.

This was too strong language for the Tories though, and he’s had to apologise to them.

His tweet, though, was factually correct. You can put lipstick on a scum sucking pig, [...]]]> Yup, Labour MP David Wright is in the brown stuff this weekend after he called the Tories “scum sucking pigs” on his twitter page.

This was too strong language for the Tories though, and he’s had to apologise to them.

His tweet, though, was factually correct. You can put lipstick on a scum sucking pig, but it will still be a scum sucking pig. He didn’t mention Tories in the posting. Eric Pickles, the Chairman of the Tory Party, didn’t sound very impressed.

“This is exactly the sort of politics that voters are so sick of.”
“All one of Gordon Brown’s ministers can provide in response is gutter language.”
“This sort of language falls way short of what you would expect of a minister of the Crown.”

Yup, you’ve either got gutter politics, or sound-bite politics. How nice of Mr Pickles to give THREE succinct soundbites.

But hang on a sec. This is the same Tory party crying foul play whose leader (John Major) called his cabinet “Bastards” in 1993. In the 1980s, the Federation of Conservative Students used the campaign slogan “Hang Mandela.” John Bercow, now Speaker of the House of Commons, was in charge of them. The same party which has Boris Johnson, who wrote in his book in 2001, ““If gay marriage was OK … then I saw no reason in principle why a union should not be consecrated between three men, as well as two men; or indeed three men and a dog.” Staying on the gay topic, David Cameron was interviewed by the Independent newspaper recently, after reading, many were still unsure of his true views toward gay people. He voted to keep Section 28. If that helps.

And I know this is going back a fair bit, but in 1964, Birmingham candidate Peter Griffiths stole the seat of Smethwick with his campaign slogan “If you want a nigger for a neighbour, vote Labour.” Mr Pickles could do well to remember where his party has come from, the more recent history and what’s left to do…

They’ve [...]]]> Westminster Council got a bit of a battering this week. They have a plan to increase the hours that parking is chargeable within the West End, and to rais the prices for residential areas outside of the centre of London. Westminster Council needs to raise £22m, and the car parking charges would raise £7m.

They’ve argued a lot, including on the local TV news, that the charges are designed to combat congestion. With this whole congestion charging scheme, is congestion Westminster’s problem anymore? Too many cooks?

For the new home, I’ve decided to change the emphasis a little. I have never been the type of blogger to sit all day and write banal shit about whatever pops into my mind. I’m going to enforce [...]]]> I’ve moved homes. The fnar blog is now firmly entrenched at rollkit.com for your delight and delectation.

For the new home, I’ve decided to change the emphasis a little. I have never been the type of blogger to sit all day and write banal shit about whatever pops into my mind. I’m going to enforce that ethos more, and post items I think fall into the distinct categories of:

• Laughable - such as the news today that the man replacing Professor Nutt at the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, in 2003, called for Cannabis to be legalised - wasn’t that why Nutt was sacked?
• Kitsch - something showy and thought to be in bad taste – such as that really annoying Halifax advert - where they happily give customers £5 per month, despite more than quadrupling overdraft charges in the same breath.
• Insane - such as the news from Radio 4 that British Salt offered 60,000 tonnes of rocksalt to UK Councils at a heavily discounted price back in April, and not one of them took up the offer.
• Troubling – the thing which troubles me most is skewed statistics, and today’s example is the Liberal Democrats latest attempt to say “Labour isn’t working”.

Do let me know if you find something quirky which fits into those categories.

BBC News reported from an East Anglian town that a bingo caller was being told to [...]]]> Sometimes I read things in the news, and it takes me a few days to actually get my head around the archaic stupidity on display. It has taken me over a week to get my head around this one.

BBC News reported from an East Anglian town that a bingo caller was being told to drop the traditional bingo patter from his charity games. The local Council feared that “two fat ladies” might insult fat ladies who play bingo, and that “legs eleven” may make women think the bingo caller was looking at their legs.

The bingo caller in question, John Sayers, is a former mayor of Sudbury in Suffolk, and is now a town Councillor. The bingo games he runs are for charity – John is 75.

“I was advised that someone might take offence and we could end up being taken to court. No-one had ever complained about being offended. But they moan now they say it’s boring. And I think just saying the numbers is boring too.

“I’m obviously not being offensive – just having a bit of fun. It’s the tradition of the game and part of our language.”
John Sayer to BBC News.

In defending their decision the Council said that because John is a Councillor he had to be “politically correct”, adding that it was a sad case because the lingo is part of the fun of charity bingo.

Of course, the Tories think they will win the next election purely because they deserve to. I can’t see any policies, just the Tories (and other parties), meddling with devolution, and the independence of the BBC.

Ironically, Culture Secretary [...]]]> Jeremy Hunt, the shadow culture secretary, has said that the BBC should recruit more conservative newsreaders.

Of course, the Tories think they will win the next election purely because they deserve to. I can’t see any policies, just the Tories (and other parties), meddling with devolution, and the independence of the BBC.

Ironically, Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw described it as “unacceptable political interference”. That’ll be the same Ben Bradshaw who less than ten days ago was meddling with the BBC himself by campaigning to scrap the BBC Trust, Ben also wants to take your license fee and give it to ITV’s shareholders, and earlier he got involved in the mass media panic over Arlene Philips leaving Strictly Come Dancing.

Neither party can be trusted. even the Liberals have waded into the political attacks of the BBC over the last few years.

Only when the BBC has gone, and we’re watching repeats of good programmes on UK Gold, or new fly-on-the-wall Katie Price ‘documentaries’ on ITV, will we understand how much the UK, and the world, cherish the BBC.