The Snoopers Charter - Why?

The recent horrific murder of a soldier in London has caused our politicians in the UK to have a knee jerk reaction.

The Communications Data Bill (or Snoopers Charter) was previously knocked back because of fears of invasion of privacy.

In essence it means that communications providers (ISPs, telecomms providers) would have to keep records of the detailed activities of their customers.  These details could be requested by certain authorities without requiring a warrant, though this would still be required for the content of the communications.

Therefore your ISP will keep records of your web searches and pages viewed, Skype will keep details of your calls, mobile phone providers will keep records of your calls and texts, the list goes on.

By stating that a warrant will be required to access content it is clear that this must also be retained.  Your every move is effectively tracked (for example the location of your mobile when you make or receive a call).  Big Brother really will be watching you!

Now it seems that they want to dust it off and bring it back.

What is the point however?  All of this data retention and indexing will cost money, and ultimately it will be us that pays.  Those of us who are innocent will be monitored.

Those with something to hide, those criminals or terrorists that the bill is intended to track, will however find a way around it.  It is already very easy to buy a Pay As You Go mobile for cash without supplying any details.  Likewise internet access 'dongles' which enable browsing, web mail products and so on.

There are also likely to be 'underground' internet systems with ISPs who perhaps don't believe in government edicts, and what about foreign ISPs?

The proposal is full of holes and will only result in the innocent being even more put upon.

What if I use a taxi firm which turns out to have a driver with criminal connections, will my phone links to them result in me being monitored?  Or perhaps a friend of a friend on a social networking site turns out to be a drug user, is my name blackened by association?

I think this bill will be an expensive waste of time and should be stopped.  It is in many ways similar to the National ID scheme launched by the previous administration - supposedly to prevent terrorism but in the Madrid train bombings I believe all the terrorists had their ID cards, it didn't prevent the attack though.

I shall be writing to my MP, I suggest you think about this and if you agree then please write to your MP.

Recycling - Taxation by another name

For some years here in Derby we have dutifully been recycling our waste, with one of our bins being a brown bin for garden waste and food leftovers.

Derby City Council have now had a rethink on the process and in a leaflet that was delivered with our new larger blue bins (more below) they dropped in a small section about the brown bin collection.

They tell us that next year they will charge for collection of the brown bin.  Of course they blame the government, to quote the leaflet

'This is because of government cuts to our budget which means we have no choice but to stop providing some services for free. This will allow us to protect other services such as children's centres, care homes and libraries'

I have two objections to the above statement:

Firstly they were not providing the service for free, waste collection is part of what I pay my council tax for.  I won't see a reduction in the council tax but an additional charge for a service I have already paid for!

Secondly they are still cutting the services they claim this charge is to protect - work that one out.

It gets better however.  If I don't want to pay the charge I can opt out of having my bin collected - I am sure the administrative costs there will not be trivial, and if say 50% of households do so across the city then it is likely there will be no cost savings as the bin wagons and their crews will still be needed for the other 50%.  Furthermore I am told that if I don't want my bin collecting I can put the waste I presently recycle in with the non recyclable waste so it can go to landfill - where is the sense in that?

There also seems to be a retrograde step with the blue bins.  To date we have had a small blue bin for plastics, glass and cans.  This has now been replaced with a larger bin into which we can also add the paper and card previously collected in a blue bag and orange bag respectively.  I hope this is because it is more cost effective to sort it at the depot but nothing has been said.  Is there some other reason?  Is it being recycled at all?

This also leaves us with our old small blue bin.  These are to be collected in or we can do a bit of 'Blue Peter' and turn them into composing bins!  I trust if collected in they will be recycled but once again I have my doubts.

There appears to be no coherent approach to recycling - but a very clear plan to extract yet more money from the captive taxpayer!

BMW - The Ultimate Driving Machine?

BMW advertise their cars as 'The Ultimate Driving Machine'.  I would suggest that no car can really meet this claim fully.

Over the weekend I visited a local National Trust property where the majority of the parking is on grass areas.  Being a Bank Holiday weekend it was not surprising that the tarmac surfaced car park was full and the grass areas were in use.  The recent weather meant that the grass had become muddy at the entrance to the car park but was on the whole in quite good condition.

I drove in and parked up with no problems, but as I was getting out of the car I became aware of two BMW drivers starting a heated discussion with the parking marshal and objecting to where he wanted them to park. Their claim was that if they parked there their cars would be stuck.  This despite the parking area being only slightly on a slope.  Apparently they felt they could not reverse up this minor slope so if the cars in front (in a double parkied row) didn't move then they were going nowhere.

This does not sound like an ultimate driving machine to me!

It is true that in slippery conditions rear wheel drive cars can have issues with traction but no one else was complaining. 

Front wheel drive cars like mine are better in these situations but are by no means perfect, primarily because they use the same wheels for driving and steering.

Four wheel drive cars also have problems, such as increased fuel consumption, weight and technical complexity.

So is there an ultimate driving machine?  I suggest there is not, simply cars which are good in specific areas.

Perhaps BMW should append a disclaimer to their advert - Terms and Conditions Apply

How Not To... Run A Hotel

This is the second in my ad-hoc series reporting bad experiences I have encountered.

This relates to a recent stay in an Ibis hotel in London.

Attending a trade exhibition in London ExCel I needed accommodation close to the venue and my usual choice of hotel was fully booked.  I therefore booked a nearby Ibis hotel.  So far so good.

Upon arrival I checked in, and apart from reception being rather chaotic the check in process went well.  I was asked for a swipe of my credit card for a guarantee of the payment of my bill and a figure was quoted which was about eighty percent of the total bill so I was happy with this.  Fairly standard practice and one which had never caused me any problems before.

Whilst my wife and I were checking in to our room, a colleague who was down in reception overheard an argument between a guest trying to check in and the receptionist.  The short story was that although they had made a reservation there was no room available for them and they were sent to another hotel in the chain.  This scenario was repeated more than once so I am intrigued as to what the point of making a reservation is!

The room itself was clean and functional but clearly the focus was on reducing costs as guests were only provided with one towel each, nominally called a bath towel but rather smaller than any bath towel you would buy.  No hand towel was provided.  Toiletries were also limited with just a fixed liquid soap dispenser in the shower and a tiny bar of soap by the washbasin.

Going to the restaurant for dinner was interesting.  They had a rather limited and exceedingly expensive (even for London) menu of average quality food.  There was no draught beer at all and only a few of the bottled beers on the menu were available..  Suffice to say that on subsequent evenings we had a much better, much cheaper, meal in a hotel just a few yards away.

Breakfast was an all you can eat buffet.  The quality of the food was better but the selection was somewhat limited, and if you wanted eggs for breakfast you had better like them scrambled as that was the only choice.  The hash browns had a good flavour but due to the manner of serving they were soggy.

When retuning to the hotel for our third and final night we found that neither my keycard or my wife's would open the door to the room.  This meant a trek back to reception (we were on a high floor) where the reaction of the receptionist suggested this was a common occurrence.  They were reprogrammed and all was well.

With a mind to expediting check out the following day I also took this opportunity to settle my bill.  There was some confusion over the correct amount but finally they got it right and charged my card accordingly.

I thought that was the end of it until two days later when I checked my credit card account on line.  It was showing that I was exceeding my credit limit.  Straight away I rang the card company for clarification as the online account made an allowance for pending transactions which were not yet detailed.  They were able to tell me that in addition to the guarantee amount I had agreed to at check in a further guarantee charge had been applied the same day for the first night's stay - this equated to about thirty seven percent of the total bill so I had now got guarantee charges for almost twenty percent more than the total bill, still on my account, and also the actual payment of the bill which I would expect would have released the guarantee hold.

Calling the hotel they were apologetic but could offer no explanation.  The guarantee charge was released some two working days after I had settled my bill in full.  Clearly not acceptable.

I have now written to the hotel and will update this post if I get anything of note from them.

For now however my advice is clear - if using an Ibis hotel make sure it is very clear how much they are holding in guarantee against your credit card and make sure they release this promptly when you settle your bill.

For the record, Ibis is seen as a budget chain - however given that they were advertising room rates of £219 per night, room only, at one point during my stay you would expect a lot more than you receive!

Update !!

I received no reply to my letter to the hotel so I posted a review on TripAdvisor - it seems they do read that.  The manager posted a comment asking me to email a copy of my letter to him, which I did.  After acknowledging receipt I then heard nothing for a while.

I followed this up with another email direct to the manager asking for an update and received a response.  He promised that changes were being made and also some financial compensation for myself.  Although the compensation did take some time to arrive it did so eventually.

Whilst the manager has promised various changes, I will keep an interested eye on TripAdvisor to see if their feedback gets better or if people continue to raise the sorts of issues I had.

Watch this space!

Horse Meat Scandal

In the UK and Europe recently we have been hearing of horse meat being in beef products, without correct labelling.

As we know, horse meat is fit for human consumption providing it has gone through the correct processing and checks.  The issue could be said to be labelling, if we knew horse meat was in a product then we as consumers could make an informed decision.

Some instances are now coming to light where not only is there unlabelled horse meat in products, but it is not fit for human consumption as it contains drugs used for treating horses which are not accepted in the human food chain.

So what do our politicians suggest we do about it?  The most pointless I have heard of so far is the plan to press for country of origin labelling.

At least we will know the nationality of the horse we may be eating!

The concept of tighter controls over the food chain and better tracking of ingredients from farm to plate seems to be secondary.

Modern technology should make this easier, and better inspection / regulation should be implemented to prevent this scenario being repeated.

Dobbin burger anyone?

Climate Change - the Unseen Reason

Much is being said about climate change and there is debate as to how much of this is natural and how much is a result of our lifestyles.

We can see that analysing data shows the climate does indeed change over time.  Historical evidence show that there have been cycles of change in planetary temperature and we are at some point in one of these.

Whilst we cannot determine how much change would have occurred without mankind, I think we can assume that we may have an effect on the climate, be it with our demand for electricity, heating, transport or even food (think methane from cattle for example).

Steps are being taken to reduce our impact by making vehicles more efficient, generating power from renewable energy sources, using heat from solar panels and ground heat systems.

One area however that has a significant impact but is not often mentioned to my knowledge is population growth.

If we kept the population of the planet fixed (impossible I know!) and reduced their energy requirements then the impact on climate could be reduced.

However the population of the planet continues to grow.  As it does so there are more people requiring transport, using power and wanting to keep warm.  Total energy requirements therefore will go up as a result of this.

Should we not be looking at controlling population growth as part of our attempt to minimise our impact on the climate.  There are other ways in which growing populations impact upon the climate, such as clearing of trees to make room for housing or food growing.

We need to look at the total picture - not just pick the low hanging fruit.

How to Promote the UK - Badly

The other day the media in the UK made a fuss about how Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie were launching a promotion for the UK in Europe.

How did they start this promotion?  Not by showcasing our products for one.

The tour started with them driving around Berlin in a Mini.  Not the original Mini, manufactured for many years in the UK but in a modern Mini made by that well known manufacturer BMW (I seem to recall they are German).

To add insult to injury, whilst the Mini is presently made in the UK, BMW are planning to move more production to Europe, leaving Oxford simply as the spiritual home of the Mini.

Being the spiritual home of the Mini does nothing for our economy, but promoting it will doubtless help BMW and hence Germany as the home of BMW and also the countries making the Mini, presently Austria produces some models and there will be new production in the Netherlands.

Some will apparently remain in Oxford but I doubt that will last long and the UK will get sidelined as a minor parts supplier soon.

If we are promoting the UK, can we at least do it with a true British product please!

The Moral Compass

Over recent weeks there appears to be a lot written in the press about where we get our moral guidance from. 

As an atheist I find it amazing when Christians claim that moral behaviour is derived from their God and that those who do not follow their religion cannot have morals.

I am sure that those of other religions also claim to have the only true moral guidance, from their religion.  These I am less likely to read about as the focus in the UK press tends to be about Christianity, amid claims that this is a Christian country (despite evidence to the contrary).

There are two key problems with these claims, both well known but seemingly ignored by the religious.

Firstly, if what they are saying is true, they are only prevented from committing murder, rape, crime and so on by guidance from their God.  The Bible is the guide for Christians and anyone reading it can see that there is much that is immoral by the standards of the majority of right thinking people.  We only need to look at the treatment of homosexuality in the Bible and the many references to mass slaughter.

Secondly it is clear that the majority of atheists have good moral standards, something that the religious would claim to be impossible.

Certainly there are good and bad in both camps, but there is no evidence that religion is essential to be moral.

It is about time that religious people stopped trying to claim the high ground on this and accept that moral behaviour is a characteristic of the majority of the human race.