Britain's finances are a mess. The U.K. has a debt of almost £1 trillion, with a budget deficit of £150 billion. Every day the country pays nearly £120 million in interest on this debt, roughly £40,000 per household. So as you can see, we have a problem. But what do we do about it? Quite obviously drastic spending cuts need to be made, along with a review of how we spend whats left. Quite obviously that is unless you have a beard, wear sandals and live in the 'village' of Islington.
All over the country unions are holding protests whenever local authorities announce how they plan to implement their budget cuts. On the 26th march The Trades Union Congress plan a mass demonstration against public spending cuts through the middle of London. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-union, far from it, I'm a member of one of Britain's biggest, The Rail Maritime & Transport Union, which has over 80,000 members. I understand why union leaders are fighting the cuts, its their job to fight for their members. What I don't understand is why millions of seemingly intelligent people, fail to see that we can't continue to spend what we don't have. When the government recently announced it was scrapping the Education Maintenance Allowance - to people of an older generation, this was a part-time job in McDonald's - and the introduction of university tuition fees, thousands of people vandalised London under the pretence of the right to protest. Personally I think the socialist view that you can spend your way out of a recession is, to put it bluntly, utter nonsense.
The public sector employs more than six million people, just over half of all those working. When the financial downturn started in 2007 and reached crisis point in 2008 with the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the first thing private sector companies did was make redundancies and cut spending (I'm not going to comment on the rights and wrongs of the banking bailout as it would take too long) but strangely enough, when the private sector were making thousands redundant and implementing their own spending cuts, not once did I see a placard waving, sandal wearing, bearded man from Islington, or a posh student, whose family own half of Berkshire, wearing a hooded top telling us polar bears have rights too, standing outside a bank, law firm or high street store, demanding that everyone has the right to work.
Tony Blair, with his ideology of New Labour, almost gave us the perfect middle ground. In his book, Blair, while having many socialist beliefs also states his views on economics are very conservative. He says he understands aspirations, he likes people who want to succeed and admires those who do. It is something I can go along with one hundred percent, that's why I voted for him three times. Unfortunately New Labour can only work when times are good. When times are bad you have to be nasty, and no one does nasty quite like the Tories. I don't wish to see thousands of people lose their jobs, but the U.K must be led from recession by private sector investment and not by government spending, funded by borrowing.
Britain must be run as a business and David Cameron must lead it back into profit, because if he doesn't I fear I may have to change my postal addres from the 'U.K' to 'The European State of England'.
Tuesday 22 February 2011
Sunday 20 February 2011
The Importance of Tradition
There are many things that make me proud to be British - The Royal Family, the armed forces, British engineering and most importantly, The Knowledge of London. For those who don't know, The Knowledge of London, or K.O.L, is the voluntary form of torture that men and women from all walks of life, races and religions sign up to in order to gain the coveted 'Green Badge' to become a London Cab Driver.
The Knowledge takes on average three years to complete and consists of learning the streets, roads, squares, one way workings, underground and railway stations, all the hotels, pubs, clubs and restaurants, along with all the Police stations, Fire stations and hospitals - which thanks to the miss management of UK governments for about the last forty years, are becoming fewer by the day - within a six mile radius of Charing Cross. As well as all this you will also be expected to have a clean criminal record, the manners of a choir boy and the patience of a saint. A knowledge candidates temperament is tested throughout the process.
The examination process involves a series of oral examinations every 56,28 and 21 days. The better you are, the more frequently you'll be seen by an examiner. When a candidate reaches the required standard, they then take an advanced driving test and an oral test on the best way to the suburbs of London.
When I started the K.O.L in 1994 and "passed out" as a London cabby in 1998, the licensing of taxi-cabs and their drivers was carried out by the Metropolitan Police. I once heard The Knowledge refered to as "the last bastion of the British Empire. Where men still wear suits and call each other Sir". And even though licensing is now the responsibility of the more left wing and liberal Transport for London, I believe it's still very much a case of what you know, rather than who you know.
Many of my passengers ask me why? Why do we still use this antiquated way of doing things in London? Why not just use a Sat Nav? But as anyone whose ever used a Tom Tom Go will tell you, it's illegal drive down one way streets the wrong way, and most cars can't float on water and tend to need a bridge to cross a river, no matter what the rather posh voice coming from the device attached to your windscreen tells you.
The other reason we continue with the Knowledge is pride. The pride of knowing we have earned the right to be part of a trade respected around the globe. London cabbies were recently voted the best in the world for the third year running by a hotel travel survey. There's no better feeling than when a businessman or woman from the other side of the globe tell you that London cab drivers help make London the greatest city in the world.
There is an unfortunate trend in this country of degrading or making easier the way to earn a trade, in some cases even abolishing the trade altogether. This has also been done in universities by allowing people to get a degree in watching paint dry and then having to explain that Investment banks only want people who have a degree in something useful. I hope the powers that be don't try to make the knowledge easier for people who are too lazy or can't be bothered putting the effort into doing something that doesn't involve a control pad for the X-Box, but I fear I may be viewed as either a Nazi or a dinosaur by anyone under 25 for expecting them to work for something, rather than have it handed to them on a plate.
The Knowledge takes on average three years to complete and consists of learning the streets, roads, squares, one way workings, underground and railway stations, all the hotels, pubs, clubs and restaurants, along with all the Police stations, Fire stations and hospitals - which thanks to the miss management of UK governments for about the last forty years, are becoming fewer by the day - within a six mile radius of Charing Cross. As well as all this you will also be expected to have a clean criminal record, the manners of a choir boy and the patience of a saint. A knowledge candidates temperament is tested throughout the process.
The examination process involves a series of oral examinations every 56,28 and 21 days. The better you are, the more frequently you'll be seen by an examiner. When a candidate reaches the required standard, they then take an advanced driving test and an oral test on the best way to the suburbs of London.
When I started the K.O.L in 1994 and "passed out" as a London cabby in 1998, the licensing of taxi-cabs and their drivers was carried out by the Metropolitan Police. I once heard The Knowledge refered to as "the last bastion of the British Empire. Where men still wear suits and call each other Sir". And even though licensing is now the responsibility of the more left wing and liberal Transport for London, I believe it's still very much a case of what you know, rather than who you know.
Many of my passengers ask me why? Why do we still use this antiquated way of doing things in London? Why not just use a Sat Nav? But as anyone whose ever used a Tom Tom Go will tell you, it's illegal drive down one way streets the wrong way, and most cars can't float on water and tend to need a bridge to cross a river, no matter what the rather posh voice coming from the device attached to your windscreen tells you.
The other reason we continue with the Knowledge is pride. The pride of knowing we have earned the right to be part of a trade respected around the globe. London cabbies were recently voted the best in the world for the third year running by a hotel travel survey. There's no better feeling than when a businessman or woman from the other side of the globe tell you that London cab drivers help make London the greatest city in the world.
There is an unfortunate trend in this country of degrading or making easier the way to earn a trade, in some cases even abolishing the trade altogether. This has also been done in universities by allowing people to get a degree in watching paint dry and then having to explain that Investment banks only want people who have a degree in something useful. I hope the powers that be don't try to make the knowledge easier for people who are too lazy or can't be bothered putting the effort into doing something that doesn't involve a control pad for the X-Box, but I fear I may be viewed as either a Nazi or a dinosaur by anyone under 25 for expecting them to work for something, rather than have it handed to them on a plate.
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