TTIP or Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership to give it its full name, a trade deal between Europe and USA.
Do you know about it, should you know about it, would you care? Should you care?
Its confusing, its a good thing, its a bad thing, it all depends who you are from what I can see.
Politicians, business, countries - UK, Europe, USA. But whatever a lot of folk are not too impressed with it, they have looked at it and can see possible problems, business having too much power and being able to access work in NHS for example or even hold countries to account for actions that damage there trading ability.
Its been going on for years now the negotiations around this, is the general public aware I dont think so, should the general public be aware I think so.
What do our political parties think of it? Well most of them or there local wannabe MP's are wary of it if not against it. Labour, Greens, UKIP. The Tories and the Libs take a different view and actively say we have nothing to fear, we can trust them to make sure no dodgy deals will be done as it could benefit the country (uhhuh) by billions a year.
To my mind that if nothing else says we should know more.
Saturday, 21 March 2015
Utter load of rubbish
I have been thinking about an article in the Cambridge News from a week or so ago and I am still fuming. A website PeoplePerHour has the paper suggests listed what the hourly rate of individual trades.
There are also quotes from the company such as"Everbody has freetime and a skill or service that has value to someone. It helps people not only earn extra cash by 'moonlighting', but also take the first step in creating a fully fledged entrepreneurial business".
It goes on to say "By bringing the unit of work down to as little as one hour, and giving power to the worker to define what they can do and at what price, we're unlocking a huge untapped market for micro-services that people can deliver in their spare time".
There is the lovely statement that " Those who earn less per hour are not always worse off, especially if they are in professions where it is possible to clock up the hours."
It appears to suggest you should employ people for the time you need them for a particular task.
Now some of the hourly rates as listed in the newspaper article;
Receptionist £6.80
Chef £9.75
Gardener £10.23
Builder £12.52
Primary teacher £17.31
and on and on.
Is it just me! Encouraging 'moonlighting' entrepreneurial business, blah blah blah. We have issues with zero hours contracts and exploitation of employees a plenty and this sort of claptrap is being spouted.
Oh and by the way I dont work for £10.23 an hour and cant think of many self employed gardeners who do, but then I'm self employed with insurance and paying tax etc etc etc and not shoving cash in my back pocket.
There are also quotes from the company such as"Everbody has freetime and a skill or service that has value to someone. It helps people not only earn extra cash by 'moonlighting', but also take the first step in creating a fully fledged entrepreneurial business".
It goes on to say "By bringing the unit of work down to as little as one hour, and giving power to the worker to define what they can do and at what price, we're unlocking a huge untapped market for micro-services that people can deliver in their spare time".
There is the lovely statement that " Those who earn less per hour are not always worse off, especially if they are in professions where it is possible to clock up the hours."
It appears to suggest you should employ people for the time you need them for a particular task.
Now some of the hourly rates as listed in the newspaper article;
Receptionist £6.80
Chef £9.75
Gardener £10.23
Builder £12.52
Primary teacher £17.31
and on and on.
Is it just me! Encouraging 'moonlighting' entrepreneurial business, blah blah blah. We have issues with zero hours contracts and exploitation of employees a plenty and this sort of claptrap is being spouted.
Oh and by the way I dont work for £10.23 an hour and cant think of many self employed gardeners who do, but then I'm self employed with insurance and paying tax etc etc etc and not shoving cash in my back pocket.
Did something happen yesterday morning
So what was all the fuss about yesterday then eh, something solar was it.
Around Cambridge it was very cloudy and then got a bit dull for 9ish of a morning and cold. Then it got brighter and warmer, all over then?
Mind you seeing all the pictures of people standing together wanting to see something I blundered into a new bit of wordery, Social Eclipse.
Its a good job we were not relying on seeing it to sow crops is all I can say.
Around Cambridge it was very cloudy and then got a bit dull for 9ish of a morning and cold. Then it got brighter and warmer, all over then?
Mind you seeing all the pictures of people standing together wanting to see something I blundered into a new bit of wordery, Social Eclipse.
Its a good job we were not relying on seeing it to sow crops is all I can say.
So what sort of wood was it then......................
It was Ivy a very large branch growing off to one side of a listed wall, and I mean listed not listing although how long before it did is another matter.
Wednesday, 4 March 2015
what sort of wood is this then
Worked on a woody plant today in a garden that I am not going to name just yet. Can you guess the plant from these pictures is the thing.
You dont usually see a stem this big, well it was a new one on me so what is it????? Growth rings very thin really, does that help.
Better show you the bark!
Can you guess what it is yet, or has that line been discredited!!!!!!
You dont usually see a stem this big, well it was a new one on me so what is it????? Growth rings very thin really, does that help.
Better show you the bark!
Saturday, 28 February 2015
Supermarkets, business etc etc
Went to see Mum yesterday in Chatteris, on the way I noticed that the new ALDI was not looking like its conversion from a COOP was underway, hmmnn I thought, was supposed to be open soon.
Why did the COOP close, well my suggestion runs as follows.
TESCO had a big new supermarket built off the bypass causing all sorts of local issues with traffic and diversion of a drain, it was due to open early this year, then when the wheels fell off TESCO financially they decided it wasn't going to open at all despite a rumoured 25 year lease on the building so there it still sits on a site that should also house a new Travis Perkins depot.
Meanwhile COOP see TESCO supermarket taking shape, they have been in Chatteris years running a store that was big, but did it do enough trade and take the decision to close, lets face it they have financial problems as well. I can guess it was not an easy decision to take or perhaps stop when TESCO announced its brand new swish supermarket was not opening.
ALDI now come into the frame. They were announced as taking on the COOP store and local rumour had it, it would open within a month of COOP closing. All COOP signage was down very quick after it closed.
Now ALDI are saying it could be 2016 before they open and Chatteris has just one small Budgens and a couple of even smaller convenience stores to supply its needs, as locals say you cannot do a big shop in the town now and have to travel miles.
So what am I bumbling on about, business large and small only exists with customers and staff prepared to buy from them or work for them. To my mind they forget this too many times and its customers and staff who lose out while they sit there wiping out a line of words on a list of stores.
It doesn't matter to them one bit that a town like Chatteris with its large surrounding area of farms is now without somewhere that people can do a weekly shop. Its all about finance and competition and long term strategy.
Still there has to be a winner in here somewhere and lord help Chatteris its UKIP who are according to a local newspaper running a minibus once a week for folk to get to another nearby town with two supermarkets.
Why did the COOP close, well my suggestion runs as follows.
TESCO had a big new supermarket built off the bypass causing all sorts of local issues with traffic and diversion of a drain, it was due to open early this year, then when the wheels fell off TESCO financially they decided it wasn't going to open at all despite a rumoured 25 year lease on the building so there it still sits on a site that should also house a new Travis Perkins depot.
Meanwhile COOP see TESCO supermarket taking shape, they have been in Chatteris years running a store that was big, but did it do enough trade and take the decision to close, lets face it they have financial problems as well. I can guess it was not an easy decision to take or perhaps stop when TESCO announced its brand new swish supermarket was not opening.
ALDI now come into the frame. They were announced as taking on the COOP store and local rumour had it, it would open within a month of COOP closing. All COOP signage was down very quick after it closed.
Now ALDI are saying it could be 2016 before they open and Chatteris has just one small Budgens and a couple of even smaller convenience stores to supply its needs, as locals say you cannot do a big shop in the town now and have to travel miles.
So what am I bumbling on about, business large and small only exists with customers and staff prepared to buy from them or work for them. To my mind they forget this too many times and its customers and staff who lose out while they sit there wiping out a line of words on a list of stores.
It doesn't matter to them one bit that a town like Chatteris with its large surrounding area of farms is now without somewhere that people can do a weekly shop. Its all about finance and competition and long term strategy.
Still there has to be a winner in here somewhere and lord help Chatteris its UKIP who are according to a local newspaper running a minibus once a week for folk to get to another nearby town with two supermarkets.
Thursday, 19 February 2015
Save the whatever, stop the thingy.........
Out last night a with a few folk, a conversation sort of starts up, someone works for an organisation trying to stop illegal wildlife trade. Very laudable and necessary to my mind.
Someone else there then comments, how can we try and stop this when we did this in the past, followed by another person commenting, yes its like industrialisation how can we try and stop other countries when we did it and got rich.
I was very tempted to bite hard but thought better of it. But you have to wonder how they would resolve those issues or would they?
Someone else there then comments, how can we try and stop this when we did this in the past, followed by another person commenting, yes its like industrialisation how can we try and stop other countries when we did it and got rich.
I was very tempted to bite hard but thought better of it. But you have to wonder how they would resolve those issues or would they?
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