DAB

I'm not sure whether it's the station I listen to, but I find it impossible to listen to DAB in a car. The signal goes in and out like a fiddler's elbow. It's almost as if the reception area is shaped like a multi-petaled flower and I'm travelling around the edge, constantly going in and out of the lobes.

I invariably switch to the LBC App and listen on mobile data, which can be just as bad in places.

I was going to get a DAB radio for the motorhome, but not after the experience in the cars I collect around the country.

Does anyone else have this problem?

Purdah & PR

The UK’s election day broadcast ban is illogical, a delightful relic of yesteryear, where the belief persists that television and radio waves possess mystical powers capable of swaying the electorate with but a whisper. It's as if the moment the clock strikes midnight on election day, broadcasters must become as politically mute as a royal corgi during a state banquet.

Meanwhile, our valiant print media, those purveyors of pristine impartiality, continue their merry dance of endorsements and op-eds, free to shower us with their political prose. It’s a bit like sending your kids to bed with a stern “no sweets” warning while leaving the biscuit tin wide open on the kitchen table.

And let’s not forget the internet, that unruly teenager who completely ignores the house rules. While Auntie Beeb clutches her pearls, desperately avoiding any political whisper, social media gleefully explodes with information and misinformation.

In this age of digital enlightenment, where news travels faster than a politician dodging a tricky question, the broadcast ban feels like trying to prevent a flood with a teacup. We’re told to trust our good sense with printed words but must be shielded from the dangerous allure of televised chatter. It’s almost as if they think the mere sight of a politician on TV would hypnotise us into voting for them, like a reverse Pied Piper scenario.

So, here’s to the election day broadcast ban: a charmingly anachronistic quirk of British democracy, valiantly trying to keep our airwaves pure while the rest of the media world throws a raucous, politically-charged Covid party in No.10. It's the result of differing regulatory environments which have not been harmonised, but should be.

At least we have a new government. The Tory strategy to chase the far right, while leaving the centre undefended, has come to bite them in the bum and they have been the architects of their own demise. Elections are generally (not always) won on the centreground, not the fringes. Also, as I predicted, Galloway is back in the wilderness after losing to Labour - while by-elections can be swayed by single issues and low turnout, General Elections generally aren't.

As for changes to the voting system, it’s like watching a classic comedy sketch. When a party’s in government, they cling to First Past the Post (FPTP) like it’s a winning lottery ticket. “Why change a system that got us here?” they say, grinning like Cheshire cats. Meanwhile, the opposition, left out in the cold, suddenly becomes the biggest advocate for Proportional Representation. “It’s the only fair way!” they cry, having just discovered a burning passion for electoral reform that was mysteriously absent when they were in power. 

And then there are those parties who come nowhere, bless them. For them, PR is the holy grail. FPTP is a cruel joke, an unkind trick that leaves them shouting into the void. “If only we had PR,” they lament, “we’d be on the map!” They say this while wistfully imagining a parliament filled with an eclectic mix of voices, including their own, naturally. 

It's all a bit like musical chairs, really. The music stops, and the ones without a seat start clamouring for a bigger table. So, the next time a politician waxes lyrical about electoral fairness, just check where they’re sitting – it’s probably the best indicator of their true feelings on the matter. Farage, after having taken the time to carefully select where he stood as an MP and having thrown Tice under a but, will now probably become a huge supporter of PR.

For the record, I support PR - it's democratic because it provides a more accurate reflection of the electorate's preferences, reduces wasted votes, enhances voter influence, encourages consensus politics, encourages greater participation and mitigates regional disparities. These factors contribute to a political system that is more representative and inclusive of the diverse views within a society.

Identity Politics

Spotted this at Gloucester Station the other day.

Look carefully at the signs. Is it a metaphor for our times?

If you want to identify as a sausage roll while being a bacon roll, and vice versa, that's fine.

Litter

I wonder if cafes that have outdoor seating have ever considered that used paper sachets of sugar are just waiting to be lifted by the slightest breeze and deposited somewhere where they're not appreciated?

At outdoor venues, sugar cubes in a jar would be so much better. Perhaps it's some health concern.

Pondage

 Collected 3 pumps, one a 1.1kW whopper, for £50. Also a 200W UV-C system from Cardiff for £80.

The guy in Cardiff was Vietnamese and had a wonderful, yet very expensive setup to filter a relatively small koi pond in his garden. Filters and UV systems galore. Couldn't understand a word he said though, despite him having been here 20 years. He probably couldn't understand me either. A series of nods, smiles and pointings sufficed.

I then spent about twice that that for bloody pipes and joints to connect everything, and was still short of a few connectors. It would seem that plumbing, pond and pool systems have differing connectors.

I connected the UV system to the pump I'd bought previously so as to at least mark time on the algae growth, although I really need about 3 of the UV systems for a pond the size of ours.

The missing connectors should be in stock by the end of the week, so I'll make more progress then. However, the UV system should be placed after a filter, not instead of it, but I'm still pondering how to position the two filters, which will be in a cascade formation.

The previous owner of the filters have them jacked up on concrete blocks indoors, but my ground isn't as sturdy. Those stands for water butts seem ideal, but they'll need to be placed on a level surface or a concrete pad.

It seems to me that a lot of people are getting rid of their koi because it has pushed up their electricity bill considerably and hence there's a lot of reasonably priced pond accessories on the market; however, I have the advantage of solar PV, which means it costs me nothing to run a power-intensive system during the daylight hours.

Watch this space.

Classic Cars

 My annual Chipping Sodbury Classic Car Run video.

I screwed it up though when I was adding some footage - I repeated a section.

Overheard while looking at the cars:

Hay; "Look at that nice dog - it looks to have a bit of Jack Russell in it."

Chairman: "It's a Mutt-Mutt cross."

Fixation on the Past

 We went away to Hay-on-Wye for a long weekend. While there I spotted this image in the marketplace.

The Town Crier of the 1800s was obviously so secure in his Britishness that he felt comfortable wearing his everyday clothing while performing his duties. 

In the 21st Century, however, the Town Crier in Hay, and a lot of other towns up and down the country, feel the need to revert to the clothing from a time when we had a powerful Empire.

Ceremonial uniform, the clothing of lawyers and judges and a host of other activities are from the 18th and 19th Centuries and haven't moved on. It's as if we're stuck in time - a time when Britain was indeed Great. Britain is fixated on the past.

Expensive Cars

Went to somewhere near Moreton-in-Marsh last week to collect a crappy Navarra and happened upon this place which deals in some very expensive motors.

You wouldn't get much change from £300k for most of these. People already having expensive cars also leave them here when abroad for several months.

Interweb Data

On a journey up to Manchester on Tuesday I became aware of the Senior Railcard, a device that gives over 60s 30% off off-peak rail fares. The woman in the seat next to me was using one. Never using rail, unless for work, it's not of much use to me (at least until Hay reaches 60 next year, when we may use rail a bit more frequently); however, to save money on car collections I managed to persuade my boss to pay for one for me - £30 for 12 months, or £70 for 3. He wouldn't do the 3 years because he didn't think I'd live that long. 

Signing up for one of these cards would normally be no problem and should take no longer than a couple of minutes, but trying to do it on the rail line from Bristol to Manchester is a totally different matter due to Vodafone mobile data coverage being patchy, to say the least. It took me from Birmingham to Manchester to fill in the relevant form, which is about an hour.

If you manage to find a spot with 4 or 5G coverage, it lasts no more than 30 seconds before the phone shows the dreaded E, which stands for EDGE and is is as useful as no data at all, which happens to be the situation for over half the time. EDGE is allegedly between 100 and 200 kbps, but I generally find it facilitates nothing more than a text.

Other people have complained about this particular line and the excuse from Vodafone is that the fast transition from tower to tower has a deleterious effect, yet I don't have the same problems on the line to Paddington.

It's incredible to think that when the internet was initially developed, we were browsing quite happily at 32 kbps on dial-up and there wasn't a single advert on websites to bloat your browsing experience. Images were stripped down to their minimum, yet today you're downloading images that haven't been optimised in the slightest.

I downloaded the Railcard App once I'd signed up. It was 32Mb and does nothing more than display your railcard photo and the number. Any other features are performed by linking you to an external website. Why it's 32Mb is a mystery. In my younger days I wrote a programme that calculated your position on the globe using spherical trigonometry in under 1024 kilobytes, which was all that was available at the time on the programmable calculator I used.

Then came the issue of trying to get the Trainline App to recognise a Senior Railcard I'd purchased outside of the App. The Trainline customer support people were of no use and gave me the number of the customer support people at National Rail, from whom I'd bought the Senior Railcard. They passed me back to the Trainline. I eventually discovered how to do it myself.

Another problem with that particular railway line is that it's also impossible to keep track of where you are with GPS. The windows must be treated with some kind of shielding.

Far Left & Far Right

In the labyrinthine landscape of political ideology, the extremes - be it the far left or the far right - are characterised by their uncompromising stances and radical solutions. These fringes often claim to be the true bearers of their respective ideals, yet, as history and contemporary politics reveal, the farther one strays into the realms of extreme ideology, the less tolerant and more divisive the community becomes. Strikingly, this intolerance often manifests more vehemently towards fellow extremists than towards those in the political centre.

 

The Far Left:

On the far left, the pursuit of ideological purity frequently leads to infighting and fragmentation. This factionalism can be observed in various movements and organisations that, despite sharing a common goal, splinter over nuanced differences in strategy or doctrine. The phenomenon of “purity tests” becomes prevalent, where members are scrutinised to an extreme degree, ensuring they adhere perfectly to a rigid set of principles. Any deviation, however minor, can result in ostracism or accusations of betrayal.

For instance, within socialist and communist movements, disagreements over the interpretation of Marxist theory or the best approach to achieving a classless society can cause deep rifts. Historical examples abound, from the splits between Bolsheviks and Mensheviks in early 20th-century Russia to the myriad factions within contemporary socialist parties worldwide. This fractious nature often hampers the left’s ability to present a unified front, undermining their efforts and alienating potential allies who might not align perfectly with every ideological tenet.

The Far Right:

The far right is no stranger to similar dynamics. Extreme right-wing groups, driven by nationalism, ethnocentrism, or authoritarianism, also tend to fracture under the weight of their own rigid ideologies. These groups often demand absolute conformity to their worldview, and dissent within their ranks is met with fierce resistance.

Consider the various nationalist and ultra-conservative movements that have emerged and dissolved over the past century. From the fracturing of the National Socialist German Workers' Party during the final days of World War II to the infighting among contemporary far-right groups in Europe and America, the pattern is clear. The intolerance for differing opinions or strategies within these movements often leads to purges, splinter groups, and a cycle of internal conflict that weakens their overall cohesion. This is quite starkly shown in within the EU, where extreme right parties are unable to counter the centre due to factionalism.

Hating Their Own More Than the Centre

Interestingly, the intensity of this internal animosity frequently eclipses the disdain these extremists hold for their political adversaries in the centre. While centrists may be viewed as misguided or complacent, those within their own ranks who diverge from the prescribed path are seen as traitors or heretics. This phenomenon can be attributed to the belief that those who are close yet divergent represent a more significant threat to the ideological purity and cohesion of the movement than those who are clearly opposed. One need only think of 'the wrong Brexit'.

In essence, extremists often reserve their most vitriolic attacks for those who are similar yet different, seeing them as a direct challenge to the integrity and authenticity of their cause. This creates an environment where internal policing and ideological enforcement take precedence over broader coalition-building or pragmatic politics.

In contrast, the political centre, despite its own shortcomings, tends to foster a culture of dialogue and compromise - a true 'broad church'. Centrists are often more willing to engage in constructive debate and seek common ground, recognising the value of diverse perspectives in shaping effective policy. This flexibility and tolerance for differing opinions can be a significant strength, allowing for more sustainable and inclusive solutions to societal challenges.

The extremes’ intolerance, both towards their own and towards outsiders, ultimately undermines their potential for lasting impact. By prioritising ideological purity over practical progress, they alienate potential supporters and weaken their movements from within. The centre, with its emphasis on dialogue and compromise, may not always offer the most radical solutions, but it often provides the most viable path forward.

The lesson here is clear: extremism, whether on the left or the right, carries with it an inherent weakness. The further one travels to the ideological fringes, the less room there is for tolerance, even towards those who should be allies. This intolerance not only hinders internal cohesion but also limits the broader appeal and effectiveness of these movements. 

In a world that increasingly demands collaboration and understanding, the inflexibility of extremism is a liability rather than a strength. The centre, for all its imperfections, remains a vital space where diverse voices can come together to forge a more inclusive and pragmatic path forward.