Seeing the Light?

The European Union has jumped on a dimly lit bandwagon by proposing the phasing out of traditional incandescent light bulbs, as part of its energy efficiency measures to combat Climate Change. They will be displaced by long-life low-energy bulbs (compact flourescent (CFL) bulbs). The measures are claimed to save fifteen million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually and should reduce electricity bills. Surprisingly, it is claimed that nineteen percent of all electricity consumed world-wide is used to provide lighting, so the potential for helping to combat climate change seems significant.
For people with health risks, such as epilepsy, halogen bulbs will still be available. The new long-life bulbs contain mercury, so they will have to be recycled properly, (such as by returning the bulbs to suppliers). Nevertheless, the measure will, say the Commission, reduce the amount of mercury going into the environment - because less coal will be mined (which process involves the release of mercury.) Incidentally, one low energy lightbulb contains about 1/3000th of the amount of mercury in a thermometer. No less than twenty-four similar regulations are also on the way, to cover such things as water heaters and air-conditioners.
Forgive me if I lack enthusiasm for the lighting related parts of the regulations. I want to do my bit to combat climate change, but I would like to choose how I do it. The quality of light from CFL's is debatable and I would rather turn down the heating another notch, or walk rather than drive, than creep around in the yellowing gloom. As a matter of principle I do not believe in trying to force people to do things that are considered good by experts. Force diminishes liberty and often does not work. We see this in the increasing number of measles cases due to parents avoiding the Measles / Mumps / Rubella jab, having been denied the opportunity of separate injections for their offspring. Making the latter available, along with persuasion rather than compulsion, would in my view have worked better. Fluoridation of the water supply is another example of force by authorities and I will make a separate posting on that issue.
The authorities have again attempted force in terms of lightbulbs. What we have seen so far is ‘advisory’ but European legislators are poised, at the time of writing, to harden this into law. Supermarkets agreed to start phasing them out earlier than the August 31st deadline. We have an increasing older population who need good general illumination in their homes as well as focused light for reading. There will be resistance to the measures as well as temporary avoidance through consumers stocking up. Some specialist lighting suppliers have been prudent enough to lay in good stocks themselves and have supplies of 150 and 200 Watt bulbs as well as the standard 100 Watt incandescent bulb (one source near to Birmingham is www.gbslighting.com ). There will also be considerable resentment and discomfiture in what is a neglected section of the community in policy terms (for example, not just pensions not increasing with the relevant inflation rate, but the failure to protect the savings income of pensioners.) However, in the longer term there is the possibility of the best of both worlds with truly low energy bulbs based on developing technology for dispays on electronic equipment that produce great light and use almost no energy. In fact these bulbs, in the same shape as incandescent bulbs, are available from specialist suppliers in the United States - but are a bit pricey at the current cost of $120 per bulb!
There is also the question of Summer (Daylight Saving) Time. The clocks go forward each year at the end of March. In my opinion we should have the clocks set two (rather than one hour) hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time in the summer and one hour ahead of GMT in the winter. It is an established fact that this would save lives in traffic accidents. This arrangement would also be better for evening sport and outdoor activity in general. It would also reduce the effect of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) as people, on the whole, would get more daylight. And, as is also well known, it would save energy too. In the United States they have brought forward the date of summer time to early March for the same reason.
But why isn’t this apparently good idea brought in? It is reported that some people in very high places don’t like getting up in the dark, but I find it hard to take this seriously. Our farmers may grumble (and indeed they’ve much to complain about as undervalued contributors to the productive economy) but I imagine that livestock go by other perceptions of time rather than how we choose to set the nominal dials on our timepieces. I believe that most people in England support such a measure - and have done so for a long time. If Scotland wanted to keep the present system then they should be allowed to go their own way in this as in other matters.
All in all we need more illumination at home - not to mention in our national affairs (I suspect few would disagree with that!) Let’s hope that the Government sees the light sometime soon!

An Economic Balancing Act

While the Governor of the Bank of England’s recent statement advising caution in respect of further economic stimuli is understandable - indeed welcome in some respects (lessening the chances of any more tax cuts of a useless variety) - this does not mean that all sensible options are closed. However, can I say that it is no great surprise to me that (as per previous postings) there is little risk of price deflation (as most shoppers for basic items will confirm). I should also like to say that more does need to be done to save the economy in the face of the global financial crisis that is corroding the real economy. The question is, how can this apparent circle be squared?
If I can return to my Keynesian position I would like to draw attention to the concept of a balanced budget multiplier. This is where in a broadly neutral budget spending power is moved towards those with a higher propensity to consume. In other words smaller deductions from the pay packets of lower income earners and somewhat higher taxes for the rich - and I mean rich, not the middle classes picking up the bills again.
One way to achieve this would be to smooth out National Insurance contributions, making them a flat percentage of earnings with no limit on the range. Also, to balance over a longer period, the top rate of tax could go up from the presently proposed 45% to 50%. Alongside this, the 10p rate, so rashly abolished by Mr Brown, could be reinstated.
If the flat rate of National Insurance contributions was set at a level that brought in a greater total this would free resources for increased support for manufacturing industry and public works projects. In the latter respect I doubt if there is a local Authority in the country that does not have ready to go engineering schemes (especially after the impact of the relatively harsh winter on the roads) that are thwarted by budget constraints and ever-increasing demands on the social care front.
Speed of action is important too; with the glacial progress of assistance to vehicle manufacturers a dismal example of dilatory policy implementation in the case of Jaguar / Land Rover and apparent lassitude and passivity in the case of LDV. Elementary mistakes are best avoided too - such as whacking up business rates and discontinuing business rate relief schemes in the teeth of a recession and in flat contradiction to other declared policies of national support for business.
And there are other fiscally neutral measures that can be taken both at local and national level. Here I refer to procurement of goods and services. The Government must ensure that as much of its purchasing goes to domestic producers - from major defence or construction projects to the cars provided for ministers. There are ways of framing conditions for bids that do not contravene Euro legislation that can help domestic producers. You can be sure that certain other European countries do this - and more - already. The same goes for contracts from Local Authorities. There is a multiplier of around 4 so that when a contract for say £250k is awarded to a business there is a total benefit of £1m to the area (as that firm and its employees spend and the beneficiaries of that spend spend too.)
So there is some policy latitude remaining. Perhaps it is a vain hope, but maybe an element or two of this kind of traditional Keynesian thinking will filter its way through to the forthcoming budget. We shall see.

What's wrong with our economy?

Commentators in newspapers in right wing ownership accuse the government of ‘vandalising’ the economy with bailouts and now increases in money supply. They decline to say what actions they, or the politicians they support, would have taken instead. And all miss a fundamental truth - the economy was already vandalised. (Incidentally the Vandals get a bad press - the originals had some positive qualities lacked by the present corporate ‘vandals’ and bankers.)
The sources of the destruction are globalisation driven by the avaricious needs of individuals high up the corporate control ladders who are totally free of patriotism, their political placemen (similarly afflicted when it comes to economics) and a perverse competitive force that belongs more to a societal example of Catastrophe Theory than the ‘dismal science’ (the sadly apt nickname for economics) - the Lemming-like "the other lot have made a fast buck out of shutdown-and-offshore so we will too" mentality.
Real industry, especially manufacturing and engineering, has been eviscerated and other productive sectors such as agriculture have had their needs neglected and standing reduced. We sometimes still hear talk of a ‘post industrial society’. You can certainly have a post-industrial society. Indeed we may yet get to find out what this is like (it will not be like the past quarter century). What you cannot have in a country larger than the Cayman Islands is a post-industrial economy.
I have said for many years that when a representative US Government came to see that the globalisation trumpeted by self interested executives was not working for the country they would, entirely understandably, stop singing along with the shrill brass. This was evident in the response - or lack of response - to the parts of Mr Brown’s recent speech to Congress that whispered the worn out words ‘free trade’.
But make no mistake, I am in favour of ‘free trade’ - which can and does work to mutual benefit when practised by responsible agents between societies with broadly similar sets of values in key areas. Here I am not talking about those conveniently elastic terms ‘capitalism’ or ‘socialism’. I refer to moral stances in relation to much more fundamental concerns such as the use of child labour, pre-Victorian working conditions and befouled environments.
We need to be clear that a particular concept - such as ‘free trade’ for example - is neither inherently good nor inherently bad. Its merit depends on the conditions and set of principles under which it operates. A bit like America’s constitutional right to bear arms - one thing in the birth of a nation phase, quite another today. What can produce great benefit in one set of conditions can be malignant in another.
And two more things. Trade is not the only thing that should be ‘free’. The people producing the goods to be traded should be free too (unless they are, you do not know that the export / import imbalance is what they would have chosen). And national currencies should be free to find their own relative levels. Undeniably, these conditions are not extant in many major participants in global trade.
There is one more critical factor - the distribution of power and choice in countries and regions used (and I choose this term deliberately) by globalised corporations to make their products. Used and then discarded in the mindless quest for ever greater ‘shareholder value’ and executive bonuses. Such has been the fate of great swathes of the Midlands and North of England and the Midwest of the United States. The production of industrial wastelands and ruined communities at home is as corrosive a by-product of global profit-seeking as is the chemical effluent discharged in the countries to which the jobs and production have been taken.
An essential part of the context needed for free trade to work properly is morality and social conscience. We have seen the total lack of principle (which resulted in the lack of principal) in the banking sector and the disregard for the fate of communities shown by those entrusted with the power to manufacture. Company executives should not be free to act regardless of scruple (nor should they want to - a change essential for a long run solution) any more than they should be free to ignore chemical pollution.
Corporations should be trusts, not in the sense of being monopolies (although they are often effectively these anyway) but in the sense of holding the livelihoods of individuals, the life of communities and the self respect of nations in their hands. We need due diligence here too.
I dread to think of the timescale that would be required for such a change - it could take a generation. You can see the resistance to universal social pressure to changing the disgusting bonus cultures and contempt for us mere ‘punters’ in banks and other ‘services’. There needs to be a comprehensive re-education of corporate (and no small part of our political) leadership. In fact we need our very own cultural revolution.
The original name for economics was ‘political economy’. What is needed now is ‘moral economy’ where concern for the human consequences of decisions is embedded in the psyches of the captains of industry as should be some sense of responsibility to the society that gave them the opportunities that they so frequently abuse.
Genuine competition might not be a bad idea to imbue too, rather than the claimed competition (such as in banking, communications, power and fuel supply and a good chunk of retailing) that is in reality informal cartelisation designed to exploit consumers to the maximum extent. Included too should be the politicians who have so often seen their primary role as the reinforcers of, and apologisers for, this dire mis-managerial capitalism.
We also hear talk of the still incomplete Doha round of international trade negotiations. In my view this should be the last of these discussions structured in the present way. Future discussions, if any, should have a fresh infusion of social and moral as well as environmental responsibility.
At home in England we are constantly tampering with educational syllabi. In recent years ‘citizenship’ defined in particular ways has assumed a considerable role. As part of the much needed moral restructuring of society there should be moral economics as well as bog standard economics on the syllabus.
Our society should also give careful thought to rebuilding the status and role of religion (the enlightened forms thereof) and indeed to the equivalent humanist philosophy and to strengthening the spontaneous movement to rediscover worship and ‘worthship’ while resisting intolerance, repression and religious apartheid.
It is a very tall order to accomplish this journey in full, but a useful start can be made. And this is a journey that we do need to make, because the current crisis reflects a spiritual problem every bit as much as an economic one. Failure to get a grip on the greed of globalisation, the culture of cheating and deceiving, the disregard for sustainable natural limits to growth and the lack of morality that produced these undesirables, will result in a post-industrial wilderness rather than a post-industrial economy. We should start that journey today.

Middle-earth Weekend 2009

Lose no time to pencil into your diaries the dates of 16th and 17th of May 2009. This is when the Middle-earth Weekend takes place at Sarehole Mill, The Shire Country Park in Hall Green, Birmingham, England. The weekend is open both days from 11-00am until 5-00pm. Admission is free. Parking is available nearby for £1.
This will be a very special year for this unique event, since it will be the tenth anniversary of the weekend that began in 2000. This has grown year by year, both in visitor numbers and in the number and variety of exhibits and activities, ever since.
In 2000 it was called ‘Fun at the Mill’, it then became the Tolkien Weekend and finally the Middle-earth weekend. The volunteer organisers of the weekend are now doing detailed work on the event and are meeting to work through new ideas for the annual festival at Sarehole Mill celebrating the life and work of world famous author and local resident JRR Tolkien who as a child lived across the road from Sarehole Mill.

The Middle-earth weekend attracts over 10,000 visitors each year from far and near. It brings together local residents and community groups; Birmingham City Council; Shire Productions Drama Society; Hall Green Residents’ Association; Hall Green Library; the Tolkien Society; Sarehole Mill Museum; The Shire Country Park Rangers; the Birmingham Poet Laureate; environmental organisations and many other involved groups.
The theme for 2009 will be ‘Exploring Middle-earth’. The site and events will be themed to fit in with the geography, peoples and cultures of Tolkien’s Middle-earth. There will be the ever-popular traditional items such as dramatic presentations of Tolkien-related themes; local environmental and archaeological guided walks; displays and information; historical re-enactments; arts and crafts; local historical displays; demonstrations; booksellers; Elvish and Rune lessons; war-games; poetry and prose readings; an award-winning Farmers’ Market; archery and of course food!

There are also children’s activities; bus tours to sites of local Tolkien interest; costume competitions; quizzes and games; swing-boats; donkey rides; a Tolkien related climbing wall and numerous other attractions that are in process of being booked. It is hoped to have even more exciting and adventurous experiences for fans and visitors who enjoy a festival with a distinctly 'old-fashioned’ air about it.
Once in Birmingham, there are good connections by rail and bus to Hall Green and there is parking nearby for those arriving by car or coach. If you would like further information on this year's intriguing Middle-earth Weekend, in the tranquil settings of The Shire Country Park, please contact Hall Green Library on 0121-464-6633 or Sarehole Mill Museum on 0121-777-6612 or check out the website of Shire Productions at:

http://www.shireproductions.co.uk/

So do come along and see the surroundings (not to mention some of the characters who apparently can still be found there) where Tolkien's concept of Middle-earth began!

Apostrophe Update

You may recall an earlier posting on this blog and the widespread media interest in England and to some extent in the United States about the use, or rather the impending official non-use, of possessive apostrophes on road and place nameplates in Birmingham and indeed other cities and towns.
This pedantic seeming issue rumbles on and so, not sparing myself in the relentless pursuit of wisdom and truth, I wondered lonely down to St. Paul’s Square, Birmingham, which had featured prominently in press comment.
The walk was well worth it, since it turns out that there are not two but three different renderings of this auspicious name on the signs. But at least there’s no doubting where you are, since in an attractive yet relatively modest sized square, there are no fewer than sixteen nameplates! Fortunately, the regrettable tinny modern ones (which are easily bent and which rapidly fade) are not to be found amongst them - at least not yet.
The first of the three ways of rendering the name is in what I will call (for want of deeper knowledge) the classical style with apostrophe and ‘Saint’ rendered as a capital S followed by a superscript lower case ‘t’ underlined and with two commas beneath - as shown in our first photograph. There were eight signs in this style.

There were three with apostrophes only (an example of which is shown in our second photograph) and five sans both apostrophes and punctuation for ‘Saint’.
Elsewhere in the city, such as in my own ward of Hall Green, we can also find the 'St.' rendering for saint and a longstanding absence of possessive apostrophes. While some may argue for this rich diversity, it is unclear which of the versions would get the nod in a tick-box examination!

As for me, my vote definitely goes to leaving it simple in the future!