Ketterings Delusions of Grandure

Kettering is a market town in the East Midlands. It is not far from Corby. The problem is not so much with the town, as with it's council. Kettering is in financial trouble. The town centre has lost many of it shops due to the recession. There are about 40 shops that are now empty. It is also lacking any of the big names that you would expect for a town of this size. It has a M&S and a McD. But other than that it has mobile phone shops, estate agents and pound shops. Nothing really to attract shoppers.

Corby, which is only 5 or so miles from Kettering has a newly referbished shopping centre. It has cheep town centre parking (40p per hour max) and a good mix of shops. Wellingborough, which is just south doesn't charge for parking, but has a thrithing market, like Corby.

So what is the problem? Surely the council has reacted to the downturn in the economy in order to help the shop owners and attract custom into the town? Nope. They spent a couple of million referbishing the old market area, well away from the town centre (which is where the four or five stalls that constitute its pittiful market now gongregate) into an open area with a water feature, so that people can see shows and events there. It is, in fact, an unoficial skate board park. My daughter loves it.

When the recession first hit the council stated that they would help the businesses in any way it could, but would not reduce the business rates. Bearing in mind that Kettering charges it's business the same rates as those asked for the center of Cambridge. Now Cambridge is an old city with a large population and, more importantly it is strongly on the tourist map. Kettering isn't. There is no reason to visit Kettering, other than for the weekly shop. There is little of historical interest and few shops. The shopping centre is a small affair, with the usual shops. WH Smiths, TK Max, Poundland.

Now bearing in mind how feeble the shops are, you would expect the town council to offer an incentive for people to visit, like low parking charges. No. The council car park charges 90p per hour. So the local alternatives charge 40p, nothing, or in Market Harborough 20p per hour. Kettering charges 90p per hour. Now for an extra 10p per hour I can use the Sainsburys car park, close to the shoping centre, for two and a half hours.

£1 per hour is a high rate, but it is what you pay for the centre of Milton Keynes. Not in the car parks at the back, but smack bang in the middle of the shopping centre, right next to the police station and within a stones throw of the second set of Concrete Cows. £1 per hour will park you in the middle of a decent town centre, like Nuneaton, which has thiving market place, with over 50 stalls, as well as a well presented pedestrianised shopping zone. £1 will allow you to park in a city centre for an hour in most midlands locations. I have parked in a large, three story shopping centre with large stores in Stoke on Trent for £1 per hour. I would even pay £1 for Northampton.

So here is the problem. As a business, you can set up in a small midlands town, with competitors close at hand in the forms of Corby, Wellingborough, Market Harborough and Northampton, or you can set up shop in Cambridge, with better parsing trade and tourists just looking to spend money. As a shopper, I can either spend 90p parking for an hour in Kettering and struggle with the poor selection of shops to fill that hour, or I can spend, at most, 40p for a thriving town centre with lots of interesting shops. Hmmm. What should I do?

Now it could be that the council has drawn up a demand curve and is actually profit maximising or, more realistically, it has spent money thrivolously on clocks and open spaces that do nothing to attract more people (The newly developed area is well away from the main shops and does not see many visitors because of this) and have now got to pay for these expensive items at the cost of the shop owners and shoppers.

Yeah Kettering Council.

Healthcare

I was reading an American Blog the other day and the subject of Obamas free healthcare scheme came up. This was a medical site. The general concensus was something along the lines of, why should they give away their services for free? If they did so, then they wouldn't be appreciated etc. Funny, I thought that the subject of worrying about payment before treating a person was covered in the hypocratic oath.

Apart from feeling that I was reading the posts of Victorian sergions who viewed that the poor were poor by choice, because they were lazy or lacked some spark that seperated them from the hard working middle classes, it got me thinking. America can not afford to build a national health system. The money to do so is currently floating around the Gulf ensuring that America has a viable foreign policy.

But what is a governments actual responsibility for it's people? Especially if that government represents the West? Also, what should our government do to ensure that a general level of healthcare is open to all. The privatisation of the medical system is not viable. Many Americans, even those who are earning enough money to have a comfortable life are under insured. Those who do not have medical insurance are treated in mercy hospitals. This may mean that they are not taken to the nearest hospital, but the nearest hospital that deals with the poor.

On the other side of the coin, there is a lot of waste and mismanagement in the NHS. A national provision is still viable. However, throwing money at the problem is not an answer, nor is bringing in more office workers. Unfortunately, the NHS has become like many other public services where it is staffed by many people who have attained rank through long service, or who are earning high wages through the same long service. This is not a bad thing. But when you have people promoted into a middle management area, but no line responsibility, then it gets a bit murky. Many people in the NHS, a recent study found, could not name their line manage. They did not know who they reported to.

So some trimming is in order. However, the purely private system is not viable without some form of provision for everybody. A happy ballance may be achieved, but finding that happy balance is going to prove tricky.

As for the Americans. They have great health provision, as long as it is covered by insurance. Everybody else is in trouble. It is an area that can be made fair and open, but only with direction from the government. There is an old army idea that there are no wrong decisions, as long as the officer in question makes a decision and acts on it. Obama has an idea of updating the US medical establishment. This may prove as difficult as updating the NHS. However, just like Peter the Great, he needs to drag the US medical establishment into the 21st C, kicking and screaming if necessary.

(Waits for backlash from US medical establishment)

Luck

BA Strike

You have to wonder what world the BA unions are living in. I was listening to one of the union reps ohe radio yesterday and he was saying how the union had done everything that it could to talk to managenment, but that they were going to strike anyway. When the interviewer pointed out some of the responses from the listeners and that nobody in other BA departments were supporting them, his attitute was that, he appreciated their position but. He was equally unsympathetic regarding the economic climate and the fact that his union could finish the company.

From what I understand, this all came about because the airline needed to make staff cuts. BA cabin crew earn around 29K and get a very nice expenses package for staying overseas. Their nearest competitor pays 20K and Virgin pays 14K. Given the economic climate BA has no choice but to cut costs and is doing so in all of it's departments. But the cabin crew don't like it and want to continue as usual. They are prepared to lose their jobs and the whole company in order to prove a point or to keep the standard of living at a level that was generous, even in a good economic climate. The question that they should be asking is who, after such a blatant display of 1970s militant action, is going to hire them once they are unemployed?

Many other industries have had to make difficult choices. Redundancies or wage cuts have affected everybody else. Why does the union at BA assume that it can carry on regardless or that they have any form of public suport?

Becuase the union is so out of touch with the economic realities of their industry and that even the members were not awair of the fact that the union were planning a 12 day campaign, I say that BA should bring on the scabs. Damn the union for endangering so many jobs with their folly.

Luck

Cycle Lights

OK, Victor Meldrew winge moment.



In case you have not guesed it, I am a keen cyclist. It therefore really bugs me when I see people out riding their bikes without lights.



Last night I was driving home from work along country roads. Now these roads have lots of dips and hidden rises, as well as your usual corners. The edge of the road is quite deteriorated with some serious pot holes, so that you need to see where you are going. Anyway, what do I see? A man riding his bike with a carier bag on the handle bars, no lid and no lights. The roads were pitch black. He couldn't see where he was going and, more to the point, nobody could see him. His only nod to safety was that his bike was fitted with reflectors and that had more to do with legality when the shop assembled the bike.



Lights are not expensive. You can get a pair of LEDs cheaply for about £15. They will flash on and off, front and rear, and give everybody a fighting chance of seeing you. You can get a nice, viable front light for about £30 - £40, or even a reasonable rechargable for little more than this. Ideal for road work. Why the hell don't they? Do they think that, because it is a bike it doesn't count?



The one that really gets me is that at 8 or 9 O clock you will see children out with their mates on bikes. They wear dark clothing, often with hoods, ride dark bikes etc. And the worst thing is, that the parents who sent them out in that condition, who don't have a clue where they are anyway, complain when you run them over.



I think that we need to promote cycling, which is becoming more popular. But I also think that we need to do more to make it safe. When was the last time that a cop pulled someone over for not having any lights? Why are schools so apathetic when it comes to cycle safety?



A scheme runs in the UK where, through schools or individuals, you can get a £40 cycle helmet for your child, a high vis jacket and reflective stickers, for £10. My partner approached my daughters school about this and, rather than leaping at it with both hands, they asked what was in it for them. Ummm, live children.



Anyway, we need to do more to educate parents and children about cycle safety, even the minimum of lid and lights would be a start. Consider. In order to drive any other vehicle on the road you are legally compelled to take a test. Most people learn to ride on the pavement and stay there. So with no idea of road sence or basic safety, people set out onto the roads. Grrrr.



What are the parents and authorities doing ignoring this?



Luck

Cars in a Hurry

I cycled over to Harborough tonight. Quite cold, I thinks it is dropping below freezing. Anyway, I am off to the spinning class on country roads and I get overtaken by a lorry. No biggie. I am doing 30 and he is going faster. Fine. Then he slams on the anchors and takes the next junction, only 30' away.

On the way back a Bmer overtakes me, just before a series of parked cars, where he has to stop for oncoming traffic, forcing me to stop. Now if he hadn't done that, I would not have had to stop. Further down the road I had another car driver overtake me, only to slam on the anchors to turn right onto his drive.

I get the feeling that the chase instinct is in action here and that car drivers can not stand to have anything slow in front of them, even when allowing the cyclist to go in front is the most sensible, considerate action, people can not stand the thought that the might be held up, even for a second.

This is similar to other instances that I have seen while out driving. They have to beat the lorry to the roundabout, if in the right hand lane they will have to overtake, even as the two lanes become one and they are not even 1/3 of a car length within sight of clearing the car that they want to get past. So even though they are out of position, the fact that they are in the RH lane gives them the right, or some sort of imperative to force their way to the front.

We are not that long out of the treas after all are we? The technology has advanced, but we still behave as though we are chasing after the wooly mammoth. The end result of this sort of driving is usually that someone end up a casualty. Usually, it is the poor cyclist or other car driver who has got into these guys way.

I think that we need to take a step back and look at what it is that we are actually doing on the roads. Do we need this hassle in our lives? Do we need all of the agression and frayed tempers? The solution is simple. Get on your bikes. It allows you to chill out. It is healthy for you and has a very good carbon footprint.

Another point to consider is this. Harborough is only 8 miles from where I live. It only takes me 30 minutes to cycle. The same car journey takes 20 minutes and I have to pay parking. Do we really need to use cars as often as we do? I think that we have become too posesive of our cars. We instill too much of ourselves into them. But they, along with freezer food diets, are killing us through lack of exercise.

Time to chill out and leave the car in the garage once and a while.

Luck

Winter Riding

Wow. We have snow on the way. It is time to get out the chunky tyres and look forward to some crisp riding as the white stuff comes in. Last year the A14 was at standstill for about 4 hrs due to the snow. If it happens again this year I am going to get on my mountain bike, complete with a big flask full of tea, bickies and varous snacks, so that I can ride though the stationary traffic and make a fortune selling to the stranded.

Ha Ha Ha (Evil laugh).

Seriously, though. I was watching this program last night about too fat to walk. Morbidly obese people were set the challenge of walking 500 miles accross England. Devon to Edinborough. 50% made it. One was a genuine hit the wall, but the excuses from the others. Oh, I have a bone in my toe. Oh I can't do this because....

If I get that bad over why I shouldn't go out and ride (Oh it looks like rain, oh its a bit cold out), just slap me and tell me to stop winging. Winter riding is great. You get to hone your skills, so that you are able to handle slippy conditions and not panic when your rear end skids out. Your cadence is improved and you end up with a smoother peddling action.

I have been a bit lax on one cycling front though. Cleaning the bike. But thats in keeping with my bikes persona as a SCUD missile (Seldom Cleaned Used Daily). The best way to clean the bike is to ride it through a puddle.

Anyway, back to the winter riding. At this time of year there are going to be lots of reasons why the gym looks warmer and cosier. I have fallen to the temptation of a nice warm spinning class as well. But I will be cycling there (8 miles is a nice warm up).

So now that I have had my rant, I have convinced myself that it is not too cold or wet out there and I am going to hit the winter traffic with renewed vigor.

Luck

MPs

I notice that some of the MPs who were found with their fingers firmly in the cookie jar have been allowed back into their positions. What do you have to do to fire these people? If we had made similar claims to our accounts departments we would have been called into the office to explain ourselves. We may even have faced criminal charges.

Our MPs on the other hand have been found to have defrauded the government, claiming expenses for second homes that are neither in central London or their constituencies. Overall, I do not have a problem with the idea of bent MPs. What I find objectionable is that this lot are so useless that they got well and truly caught. That, for no other reason, should proclude them from office.

Luck