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?

Dual Standards on Alcohol by the UK Government

We are hearing that David Cameron and his government are looking to impose minimum pricing for alcoholic drinks to address problems with alcoholism and drink fueled social issues.

At the same time, the Palace of Westminster where the government resides has a subsidised bar, paid for by the taxpayer, to ensure MPs and other staff can enjoy cheap drink.

If this is not dual standards then I don't know what is. Apparently there is already a history of drink fueled problems within this bar.

At the very least, the subsidies in the bar should be removed so that drinkers there pay the same prices as anyone else in pubs in that part of London does.  I think however it should be taken further perhaps and closed completely.  MPs are already capable of making daft decisions on their own without adding beer goggles to their armoury of decision making tools.

How many private sector employers actively encourage drinking during the working day by providing a bar AND subsidising the drink costs.  In many of the workplaces I have encountered drinking is frowned upon during the working day and some go as far as to have a condition of employment that you may be required to take a breathalyser test (certainly in my last employment where you could be asked to go home if the test was positive as safety standards could be breached)

I would also point out to the government that many alcohol fueled problems are caused by drinkers in night clubs and bars where prices are already exorbitant.  A minimum price will have most impact upon the moderate social drinker and not address the problem at all.

Capitalist Church

On Friday the protests in London under the name 'Occupy' led St Paul's Cathedral to close.

I presume the protesters are happy because it would appear that the church were not as focused on the fact that their flock would not be able to worship there but more that they were losing money.  Apparently the takings from the various sources within - including the 'donation' for entry - average at nearly 23,000 pounds per day!

This has uncovers an aspect of the church that it would rather was kept hidden, it's capitalist element.

Why as the protesters ask has it closed now, because any 'risks' were no different on previous days? Surely it must be because the loss of revenue is hitting it hard and if it closes there will be less outlay.  They clearly don't worry about their flock!  But then they can worship their IMF elsewhere.

The Highwaymen Strike Again

Yesterday a stretch of road I regularly use was closed all day for repairs.  Nothing new there and indeed the surface was badly cracked and contained many potholes of varying depth. Repairs were long overdue.  As a cyclist I found the road very bad to ride along.

Having closed the whole road, in both directions you would expect the highways team to arrive, strip back the road surface, make any necessary deeper repairs and then resurface the road.

But no, it seems that some of the potholes were clearly not important enough to fix, similarly some of the cracks in the surface.  What was actually done was selected areas of the road, probably between eighty and ninety percent of the surface, were stripped back and resurfaced.  This left a patchwork quilt of unrepaired areas.  Had these been pristine road surface then I could have understood the logic, save money perhaps, but no.

It may even not have saved any money, because I think the job would have taken less time and manpower if the whole stretch had been resurfaced rather than doing a patchwork job which then involved selectively cutting out areas.

What we are left with therefore is a road that is good in parts, but where the unrepaired areas will have to be done as a separate job.  I am no expert but I also suspect that the joins may well be a weak area which could soon allow water in and start the cracking process all over again.

And just to add insult to (potential) injury, in some areas the strip either side of the centre line has been repaired but the areas where cyclists and motorbike riders will ride has been left unrepaired.

I will report back when the next round of repairs on this road is undertaken.

And our councils wonder why they are struggling financially!

Chinese Lanterns

More and more these days we are seeing these pesky chinese lanterns.  They are launched at weddings, parties, in fact any time when someone has got them without any particular reason.

I think they should be banned on a number of grounds, and this is just from personal knowledge - there may be other reasons that I haven't thought of.

Firstly, it seems that they never burn out completely, so even those with 'biodegradable' frames rather than metal wires will still come to earth in some form.  The metal frames are litter that is dangerous to animals and children that come across them, but even the new biodegradable frames are potentially hazardous and can remain around for a long time.

Secondly, the fire risk.  I have seen a chinese lantern, still burining, land on the roof of a nearby house.  This was likely to be the result of a downdraft which exceeded the lantern's ability to rise.  Fortunately it sat on the tiles and burned out without causing any damage- how different that could have been if it had landed on say a plastic gutter, thatched roof, or perhaps a dry crop in a farmer's field?  There could have been massive and expensive fire damage.

Then of course we have the calls to the emergency services after people are convinced they have seen distress flares, aircraft going down in flames or in some cases, they are convinced these are aliens flying over.

Finally for now, as a pilot I have never had the misfortune to encounter one whilst airborne, but there are clearly two concerns.  Firstly there is the possible damage, though unlikely, if one or more lanterns are ingested by an aircraft engine - the metal framed ones will be worse here.  Secondly, the potential distraction caused to the crew if one suddenly comes into their field of view and they have to quickly identify it.  Here I speak from experience of flying around bonfire night, with around 500 litres of high octane fuel in tanks either side of me, and questioning how high fireworks can get!  The simple answer is that I climbed another 1,000 feet just to be sure but these lanterns can get very high depending on the weather conditions.  I wouldn't want to experience that!