Representation of Safeway

No taxation without representation was a mantra of the nascent USA. In the USA a company is treated as a person through the concept of corporate personhood. In EU law, corporate personhood is established via certain 'human' rights, but without many of the drawbacks. Corporations can claim the right to a fair trial, which not only effectively enshrines their current equality with real people before the law, but means that, for example, corporations cannot be made to incriminate themselves, which may allow them to conceal relevant documents in criminal cases.

Here is an interesting read on the subject in pdf form from Corporate Watch.

The question is, if corporations are accepted as persons, should they be allocated a vote, especially on issues which will affect them more than the average person, such as Brexit, for example? Analyse and discuss.

Health tourism is estimated to cost the NHS £500m a year. When considering how this could be reduced, one has to consider what percentage could actually be recovered (some may not be able to pay and others may simply not pay and skip the country) and the cost of policing/recovery. 

I hear Morrison's is to relaunch the Safeway brand.  Isn't that a bit like rebranding comprehensives as academies and expecting improved results? We've got two of these academies within about 5 miles, and they both need improvement, according to Ofsted. A bit of a damning indictment on ideologically driven policy.

Gemütlichkeit Blood & Cinnamon Girls

What's our fascination with German markets at Christmas? They're popping up all over the show. The Bath one starts tomorrow and has been a feature for many years, but I'm buggered if I ever saw a stall manned by your actual Germans.

They should just call them Christmas markets. However, it could be said that our Christmas was a German invention that the Victorians latched on to. Christmas trees, cards, gingerbread, cinnamon, cloves, etc.

Giving my 15th donation of blood to the Blood Transfusion Service on the 29th. If you're reasonably fit, I would urge you to donate, especially at this time of year when we know there will be many road accidents, and especially if you're O- (apparently they're short of O in general and O- in particular). I'm O+, which makes me what's called a Universal Donor, meaning my blood can be given to virtually anyone without an adverse reaction.

Bringing the two subject together....

Patented, Globalised Candles

That's the last time I ever order anything to be delivered by IKEA. Bought some large candles and a bunch of tealights ready for Christimas; total order value was something like 40 quid; delivery 10 days. I wouldn't mind, but we have one of their stores not 7 miles away. Should have spent an hour over the weekend going there instead.

While we were having our weekend walk, Hay and I discussed what we'd 'invent' if we were to go back in time some 600 years with today's knowledge. Hay opted for a simple form of food preservation; I  chose electricity before realising I'd first need to invent patent lawyers. Supermarkets would be a good idea and instead of calling it Waitrose, I'd call it War-of-the-Roses, complete with a swords and armour essentials aisle.

Going back to the issue of globalisation leaving people behind; the Industrial Revolution and the British Empire were the largest ever globalisation projects, They were both British and benefited only a few (but not necessarily just those at the top of the pile), but a whole new middle class of entrepreneurs and administrators was created.

Sunday Assembly Roadkill

I  was listening to an item on Radio 4 yesterday afternoon about the Sunday Assembly - for want of a better expressions, an atheist church. All the community benefits associated with traditional church, but without the God aspect, the irrational metaphysics or the desperate need for certainty in an increasingly uncertain world.

There's no doubt that the church was once the focus of community life, but since the decline in belief and the associated decline in churchgoing, nothing has really filled the social void. Social isolation, especially among the old, is a big problem, but if you're not religious you feel out-of-place in a church.

Sunday Assembly is a neat concept which addresses community cohesion in the face of a decline in belief, much in the same manner as the local village hall. The traditional church is constantly fighting a battle to save its fabric, as is the local village hall - all coming from the same community pockets. It's a pity these two community efforts can't be combined within a single, shared building.

The problem with any new movement, however, is longevity. Without a charismatic leader, organisations tend to fizzle out after a while. Sunday Assembly really needs to capture the current popular zeitgeist by having snazzy uniforms (perhaps in a fetching black and silver) and injecting some catchy slogans like; ''I Want My Country Back'. Perhaps there's even a role for a charismatic leader, like Nigel Farrage...

Went on our usual Sunday walk yesterday and came across some roadkill in the verge of one of the little-used country lanes.

Must have been at least 3 kilos. Poor thing obviously had an altercation with a car. Hay and I took turns to carry it as it was so heavy - we called  it a training marrow...

Not sure why Hay was so insistent on taking it home - I hate marrow.

Freezing Mum & Dad

Cryogenic freezing, in the hope of there being a cure for whatever killed you in the first place. Not that I believe it will ever work, but the legal implications for wills is a minefield. Imagine your parents coming back to reclaim the inheritance!

Hay says she couldn't stand having to look at my frozen head in the freezer every day either.

Coffee Envy in the Big County of Yorkshire

I'm certain this DeLonghi Nespresso machine I liberated from work when we had to close down our office in Southampton is costing me a fortune in pods, even though I use the el-cheapo Lidl pods. However, a couple of espressos in the morning is so seductive, as well as keeping part of Europe alive in our house (and keeping me bouncing around the room).

After having seen the Led Zep tribute band, Whole Lotta Led, the other week, Hay asked me whether there was a tribute band festival - and bugger me, there is - TribFest in Yorkshire!

Talking of The Big County - was watching The Sons of Katie Elder on TV; why is it that the theme of the film (and other films, like The Big Country), having lots of strings and brass, came to be associated with cowboy films in the 60s? I suppose it all changed with The Good, The Bad and the Ugly genre, but for a time it was full orchestras, which you don't tend to get on cattle drives.

The Magic Roundabout

You know those people who insist on using the inside lane of town centre roundabouts to go straight ahead? I'm starting to get quite adept at forcing them to keep going round the roundabout for a full loop once they realise they have to use their car as a dodgem to nudge me out of the correct lane.

It's guaranteed to happen to me at least a couple of times a week. At one particular roundabout it's caused by queues on the run-up to go left due to traffic lights within 100yds of the roundabout exit, so those in a hurry dodge into the right-hand lane to try and beat the traffic and go straight ahead. A dangerous practice.

Remember the mystery yellow road sign from last week? Here it is - any  guesses?

Soaps

When I was a kid the only form of shampoo was the super-concentrated sort - it was called soap. Similarly, when I went to sea, unless you brought a suitcase of your favourite shampoo with you (which was impractical) you used soap. Shampoo was almost unheard of at sea.

It was only on eventually coming ashore that I was gradually seduced by the various women in my life to adopt shampoo, as they said they preferred my hair to smell of bubblegum instead of a carbolic soap factory. 

Shampoo is the soap company's way of getting you to part with more of your money than is strictly necessary.

Ritual Slaughter

Been seeing a few posts on Facebook about banning Halal slaughter, with some vociferous comments that appear to be based more on Islamophobia than concern for animal welfare.

There was a very famous experiment conducted in the 70s by Wilhelm Schultz of Hannover University which concluded that ritual slaughter produces no pain, whereas bolt stunning did and our views are clouded by the feelings for people, not animals:

"Not all is what it seems, then. Those who want to outlaw Islamic slaughter, arguing for a humane method of killing animals for food, are actually more concerned about the feelings of people than those of the animals on whose behalf they appear to speak. The stunning method makes mass butchery easier and looks more palatable for the consumer who can deceive himself that the animal did not feel any pain when he goes to buy his cleanly wrapped parcel of meat from the supermarket. Islamic slaughter, on the other hand, does not try to deny that meat consumption means that animals have to die, but is designed to ensure that their loss of life is achieved with a minimum amount of pain."

That's borne out by the number of times I've cut myself, quite deeply, without even being aware of it until I saw the blood over the floor. Admittedly that was a cut vein and not an artery, but can it be so different?

However, a more recent study by CB Johnson in New Zealand concluded the opposite, but the literature is littered with the word 'likely':

"The precise assessment of the point after slaughter at which non-stunned animals become insensible remains a major methodological challenge. In sheep it is at least 2–8 seconds, but may be 8–20 seconds in duration. In cattle the mean duration is similar, but can commonly be extended to longer than 60 seconds with occasional instances of even greater durations. Taken together, these findings indicate that because the slaughter of cattle, sheep and goats by ventral-neck incision without prior stunning is likely to cause pain, this poses a risk to animal welfare."

The Roman senatorial class' preferred method of committing suicide at the invitation of an Emperor (which couldn't be refused) was to sit in a warm bath and slit one's wrists. People having seen this method of suicide have said it was peaceful.

If you were to be topped, which would you prefer - slit an artery with a razor sharp knife and drift off, or a violent bolt on the head before being butchered? I suppose you could argue that expectation would colour your view. I think I'd prefer exsanguination - I don't know of anyone who has suffered a rugby concussion who didn't say it hurt.

There are undoubtedly good and bad slaughterhouses on both sides of the divide, and nothing should allow such slaughterhouses to survive.

Here's an interestsing paper on the subject so you can make up your own minds.

Globalised Racism

Who are these people who we're being told have been left behind by globalisation? We have the lowest unemployment statistics in over a decade, for heaven't sake, What has undoubtedly happened is that successive Conservative governments have cut benefits in the name of austerity, which could feasibly be laid at the door of globalisation and the irresponsibility of financial markets.

Is it possible that the jobs that have been created are the wrong kind of jobs, that the remaining unemployment has now been super-concentrated at the unskilled end of the market? When you think about it, all progress leaves someone behind; the hunter-gatherer was left behind with the invention of farming; the manual labourer was left behind with the industrial revolution (hence the Luddites); mass production left many unemployed and the digital revolution is leaving the unskilled behind. However, how can that be addressed? You certainly can't turn back the tide of progress and things can't be uninvented. Reducing the benefits of those left behind certainly can't be the solution, but training can. The problem remains that training requirements can't always be predicted in advance of seismic changes in progress.

Changing tack - are we all racist at heart, under the right (or rather wrong) circumstances?

There have been many attempts to link racism to education and/or income, but while there may be a prima facie case, correlation is not necessarily the same as causation. Closer scrutiny has shown that rich, educated people can be just as racist as some poor, uneducated people. Conversely, many poor, uneducated people are totally devoid of racism.

Could racism be more to to do with proximity to immigrants? If you're middle class and educated or live in the countryside, you are more likely to be insulated from immigrants and as a consequence not see them as a threat - let's face it, you wont find too many immigrants in leafy suburbs or country villages. Live in an urban sink estate, however, and you're more likely to be living cheek-by-jowl with them and see (real or imagined) threats to jobs, culture and security. The result is that most middle class and countryside people view immigrants quite dispassionately and as a consequence could fallaciously believe themselves not to have a racist bone in their body - nothing has arisen to challenge their laissez faire view on race. Change their circumstances and you could end up with a rabid racists. There, but for the grace of God, etc...

That's not to say, however, that there aren't wealthy racists living in rural villages, but that's more to do with warped ideology than fear. Perhaps the racism expressed by some may not be a belief in the generic superiority of their race at all, but a genuine and justified fear of a very small community that gets exponentially extrapolated.