Winter solstice

It's been a while since I had a few minutes of spare time to update this blog. This past semester has been incredibly busy, with little time to enjoy life's little pleasures. However, the upside has been the delight of working with so many wonderful people, who make going to work much less than a chore by which I earn my living. With quite a few now having completed their studies, it is a double-edged sword: on the one hand it is terrific to see young people whom I have grown fond of develop their skills and move on to the ext stage of their lives, on the other hand it is always tinged with sadness when people for whom you have developed some affection move on. The true measure of the bond which has developed between us will be the degree to which they stay in touch in future. And staying in touch has never been easier, especially with such social networks as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.


Here in London, where everyone is always obsessed with the weather, there has been even more to discuss with the excessive cold weather and transport-disrupting snow we have been experiencing since the start of December. It always amazes me that the country which invented the Industrial Revolution, forged a world-wide empire, and gave the world it's finest sports (especially Association Football) is unable to cope with snow. A few inches and the transport systems grind to a halt. While so many British will take the opportunity for a well-deserved, but sly, day off work, the huge numbers of people stranded at airports, Eurostar terminals and see-ports is surely unacceptable in the 21st century? The lack of information is reminiscent of what passed for "service" in the UK in the 1970s. With almost every traveller in possession of a smartphone, this seems all the more unacceptable. The pictures on TV and elsewhere of hundreds and thousands of people stuck in airport terminals is not what one would expect in a modern, well-functioning capitalist economy. Queues of this nature are surely much more part of the old third-world Moscow-dominated communist world?


There are some who have conjectured that the bad weather has been a plot by the British Conservative-Liberal Democratic coalition government to cover up the bad news coming from Parliament. The immense cuts in government expenditure and the increases in taxation are surely no surprise, whether or not one agrees with them. However, some of the government's more radical proposals seem as ill thought out and rushed as those of the previous Labour government. For Labour's absurd ID card scheme the Con-Dems have given us a radical change in the way the NHS will be funded, putting the funds into the hands of GPs (most of whom appear not to want such responsibility). It seems that those elected to government wish to make their mark, whether or not it is in the interests of the people. Perhaps they should familiarise themselves with the oath taken by medical practitioners: first do no harm.


And finally, and perhaps most importantly, before we know it January will be upon us, and with it the football transfer window. Surely in these hard economic times (so we are told) there will be a real paucity of high profile marquee signings. After all, even many of the wealthiest and most successful clubs are in positions of (unsustainable?) debt. My own hope is for Spurs to strengthen their squad, first by releasing some of the players who are unlikely to see much play, even within a squad system, and then by signing players of note who will compete with the first-choice incumbents and raise the overall standard of play.


Let me wish you all the compliments of the season, and may 2011 be the year which sees us all enjoy health, happiness and a degree of fulfilment.

Medical excursions

In recent weeks I have had to undertake a number of medical excursions. Following a trip to see my GP (family doctor) it turned out that I needed to be referred to specialists for at least two areas of my body which were not operating within normal parameters! As my GP suggested, I had finally become "a gentleman of a certain age". In other words, my body was beginning to show significant signs of depreciation.


Under most circumstances I am quite happy to await an appointment with a NHS specialist. My experiences with the NHS have been mostly quite good, and I had never had to wait more than six weeks to see a specialist. With one of my body issues I was sent an appointment within two weeks. However, the second issue I was told might take between six weeks and two months, despite any (highly unlikely) "worst case scenario" being quite serious. While I generally felt okay within myself, and despite my head saying it would be fine to wait, my heart felt that sooner with a specialist was better than later. Consequently, I made use of the private medical coverage which is part of my employment remuneration and booked an earlier appointment via BUPA. This appointment was within a few days of my calling the BUPA centre.


The private hospital which I attended is on the same grounds as my local NHS hospital. However, the private hospital is much nicer in terms of decor and is much more modern. The NHS hospital has been around for many decades and has a touch of the Edwardian about it; it could certainly do with a lick of paint in places! However, despite the nicer cosmetic appearance of the private hospital my recent experience was much, much better with the NHS than privately.


In both cases I felt it took too long before I was seen. I understand that in a hospital things cannot always be timed exactly and that the unforeseen is a necessary element of medicine. But a quiet word from an administrator or nurse to the effect that the doctor or specialist is running a bit late would reduce a great deal of unnecessary stress from what to most patients is something of an ordeal: a venture into the unknown.


However, the key difference between the two 'sectors' was that the NHS staff generally treated me with humour, dignity  and respect, and showed great sensitivity to my fears and trepidations, while the staff in the private sector generally treated me with great indifference, as if it was a standard business transaction. I did not like this mode of "bedside manner" especially when my health is at stake, and more importantly when my body is about to be prodded, poked, investigated and diagnosed in possibly invasive ways. My expectation was that this was the reverse of what we are typically inclined to expect.


In fairness to the private sector, I was gratified that only those procedures which were clinically required were requested. My experience and second-hand understanding of other private sector medical provision (such as in the USA) is that this is not always the case.


In the end, I was pleased to have essentially been given a clean bill of health by both sectors, with only minor amendments to my lifestyle (well, diet) required. The removal of any worst case scenario on both accounts was a huge relief and release from the mental anguish that had afflicted me. While I am grateful to all of the doctors and nurses I have had to meet in recent weeks, I am particularly grateful for the wonderful treatment I received, both medically and personally, from the exceptional staff of the NHS. While it is entirely possible that my experiences are not the norm, I suspect that it is much closer to the truth than the occasional horror stories which sometimes appear in the popular press.


The NHS is indeed an incredible and miraculous institution, which serves the British people well. Its successes should be noted and applauded, and while it is (obviously) less than perfect, governments would do well to interfere with it as little as possible, and allow it to be run for the health of the people. Any proposed changes should be thoughtfully considered over a long period of time, during which consultations with all the NHS' constituents should occur.

Treacherous scum!

I am a self-declared football fan. Although an avid supporter of my club, at this time all attentions are on the (English) national team at the World Cup in South Africa. So far, England have played three matches with varying levels of performance:

• Against the USA England played reasonably well overall. Many pundits were quick to pounce on the goalkeeping error by Robert Green which permitted the USA to equalise; my own feelings were that England squandered a handful of key chances which would have enabled a win. Not least of these was the one-on-one opportunity which Emile Heskey singularly failed to convert.
• Against Algeria England were a pale shadow of even below-par expectations. While credit must be given to the Algerian team, there can be no doubt that England seriously under-performed. A team of top-class players from England's Premier League—one of the most respected and watched leagues in the world—was completely incapable of anything approaching club form. The whole was so much less than the sum of its parts!
• Against Slovenia England played somewhat better, with greater conviction and better off-the-ball movement. The inclusion of a proven goalscorer with pace, Jermaine Defoe, made a huge difference, although more service from the wings would have increased England's scoring chances.

There can be no doubt about the quality of England's manager. Fabio Capello has proven himself in club football time and time again, and his work with England in qualifying for the World Cup finals in South Africa has been unquestionable. Which makes England's performances thus far all the more puzzling. Of course, Capello is not beyond criticism: he promised that he would only select players who had played regularly for their clubs and were in-form, yet still selected Rio Ferdinand (whose lack of fitness soon became VERY apparent) and Emile Heskey. Neither player had played many games for their club, and Heskey seems to be a striker who scores very few goals at best. To select Heskey ahead of Peter Crouch (for example) seems incredible, especially given their comparative scoring records for club and, more importantly, for country.


It is also of some concern that the player regarded as England's talisman, Wayne Rooney, has looked completely out of sorts. It is hard to believe that such a fantastic player with his phenomenal drive and ability is suffering from physical and mental tiredness after a long season. It seems much more likely that he is carrying an injury. How else to explain his poor 'first touch'? In which case, why does the manager continue to select him? Again this flies in the face of Capello's criteria for selection. A fit Wayne Rooney would be an invaluable asset to any international team; this Wayne Rooney looks to be more of a liability—a fitter player would be a better selection. That is surely why there is a squad?!


One of the best things about this World Cup, as with several recent international football competitions, is how it has brought out the best form of nationalism here in England (and elsewhere). The fluttering of England flags from house and cars has been a sight to gladden the heart of all true Englishmen and women. It is an outpouring of collective national faith and identity with the end being hoped-for sporting success (rather than war or imperial ambition as in previous generations). In the USA flying of the national flag has ling been a norm; in the UK and particularly in England our national fervour tends to me much more understated.


This outward nationalism was recently spoiled for me. We have been flying two England flags from the back windows of our car. Earlier this week, while parked in the Stamford Hill area of London one of the flags was taken, with damage to the flagpost itself. This vandalism, which occurred while my wife was at work, is simply unacceptable. As well as the damage involved, the taking of the national flag is (in my mind) an act of treason. It is hard to work out who the scum involved in this act might be.


It is hard to believe that such a treacherous act would be committed by anyone with any sense of Englishness. One can only hope that they will find their actions have consequences; that karma will come into play for them as it did for the French national team: having qualified via the "helping hand" of Thierry Henry, their ignominious departure at the end of the group stage seems to be just reward. It is something which no Irishman will be crying over, I suspect! I am hopeful that England will beat Germany on Sunday (not on penalties!) and go on to defeat the Argentines in the quarter-finals, and finally avenge defeat to Maradona's "hand of God". Karma may take some time to arrive on occasion, but let there be no doubt that it does arrive!

COME ON ENGLAND!

March musings: Bankers and other inveterates

March has arrived. My university is on Spring Break, but there is still no sign of Spring. Temperatures have moderated slightly from the overly extended cold spell, and crocuses are peering up slowly through the turf, fearful of a double dip winter in the event of yet another overnight frost.

As it is with horticulture, so it is with the economy. The "green shoots of recovery" can be seen poking their heads up through the wintry turf of recession, but there remain signs of economic frost. Fortunately, with a May election in the UK (in all probability) the government remains deeply committed to doing very little in the hope of not making too many mistakes and upsetting the electorate even further. While the UK government budget deficit is so large that it will require a dose of fiscal austerity, it may well be prudent for the government to follow the prayer of St Augustine who cried "Lord, Make me chaste, but not yet". While the hedonistic Greeks need a large dose of fiscal austerity before their country becomes entirely bankrupt, the UK for all its ills remains in a preferable situation. It is to be hoped that by the time a new government is sworn in in May, that the recovery will be under way more robustly than now, and the need to trim the fiscal deficit will not derail economic growth.

As well as the debate over when fiscal measures ought to be applied, the issue of bankers and their bonuses remains firmly on the debating floor. There is a natural sense of injustice when public funds have been (rightly) used to bail out the banking system, yet many people find themselves unemployed, asked to reduce their pay, and feel generally insecure in employment. For those who work in the banking sector to then continue to pay themselves "bonuses" essentially out of the public purse is immoral and unjust. When banks are underperforming and, in some cases, making losses, yet charging ever higher interest rates on loans to individuals and business while borrowing at historically low rates from the Bank of England suggest that regulation of banking needs to go deeper than at present. I would argue that it was wrong to have taken regulation of banks away from the Bank of England in 1997, and would like to see it returned, despite some arguments over there being a conflict of interests between the regulation of banks and conduct of monetary policy. Plainly, the evidence of recent years is that the FSA has failed spectacularly in its banking regulation. Like so many recessions, this one was built on the shaky foundations of over-zealous banking beforehand.

Taking a wider view, it is becoming increasingly clear that it is not only the banks who have taken risks which are proving to be unsustainable. In the (more important?) world of Association Football there are an increasing number of football clubs in debt to the taxman, and finding themselves in the courts or in administration for excessive debts. Of these, the most high profile case currently is that of Portsmouth. Despite having sold some £70m of players, the club still finds itself in debt of £80m, which it is unable to pay back. In the lower divisions clubs such as Chester and Southend are in similar difficulties, yet they have not over-extended themselves by bringing in big name expensive players from overseas (like Portsmouth). The problem here is not, as some would claim, the ever-increasing need to bring in expensive imports to compete; more simply it is a failure of football to run clubs in a sustainable manner like any other business. Until football understands this simple law of economics we are likely to continue to see more clubs in financial distress. Unless football adapts, especially at the lower echelons, then we will see increasingly fewer clubs in existence.

As well as bankers and football clubs, many individuals and businesses have also been bitten in recent years by the debt bug, and overextended. While on the one hand some blame might be attached to lenders (banks!) for permitting an easy supply of credit, the old adage of "caveat emptor" should surely also apply; in borrowing individuals and businesses need to learn to take a view of debt as something useful if handled sensibly, but still risky, and highly dangerous if not handled sensibly.

And on that note, it is time to see if the sunshine has yet made it's appearance, and if the crocuses have continued to poke their heads above ground.

And so it is February. One month of 2010 is now behind us, and eleven lie ahead. For me, the Latin phrase tempus fugit was never more apt, as it barely seems as if a few minutes has passed since we were welcoming in the New Year. If the adage that "time flies when you are enjoying yourself" is true, then for me January must have been a most enjoyable month. But the beginnings associated with a New Year are now well and truly over, and the current year is well under way.

We associate the New Year with hope and optimism; with turning points, sweeping away old trends and ushering in new fashions. Yet we continue to remain surprised when February comes about that last year's trends continue unabated without much sign of anything new. The official statistics tell us that the UK has now come out of its recession, but only just—less than 1% growth—while the US economy has roared out of its recession with a whopping growth rate of more than 5%. There has been hope for many months that the banks would turn their act around without the need for increased regulation, but this continues to remain a forlorn hope. Banks seem to be like leopards: unwilling or unable to change their spots!

to the tragic plight of the people of HaitiThe only change thus far has been the incredible global response on the part of "ordinary people" following the devastating earthquake. Of course, governments and, in particular, bureaucrats who are supposed to do the work of government ("humble functionaries" in Sir Humphrey Appleby parlance!), have done little to help and much to hinder any efforts to bring shelter, food and comfort to the Haitian people, for whom this earthquake can be seen as the latest in a long line of natural and political disasters going back decades. If ever the phrase "there but for the grace of G-d go I" was appropriate, it is applied to those of us living in the comfort of high-income economies especially when compared to Haiti.

It is hard to think of anything to brighten the remainder of 2010 in the perspective of what is going on in Haiti, but as the worst aspects begin to pass, many Haitians will start to look forward to this Summer's major global sporting event, the World Cup. While there remains the question
of how well the host country, South Africa, will fare the event itself is perhaps the brightest jewel in the crown of sporting events. Everyone must be hoping that South Africa will not find itself subject to the kind of terror which forced Togo to withdraw from the recent African Cup of Nations. The decision to then ban Togo from the next TWO African Cups seems to be nothing more than ignorant bloody-mindedness on the part of the bureaucrats who organise the event; one can only hope that karma will do its part to change their minds.

In the UK we can look forward to a change in government, with the general election likely in May. Even the staunchest Labour supporters must be thinking hard about re-electing a government which continues to erode traditional English freedoms—hard-won over centuries—with the flimsiest and continuously changing excuses. But then, this current UK government are primarily Scots, no great lovers of anything English, which apparently includes freedom. I hope that all British citizens will throw out this government and consign them, and their dictatorial attitudes and ID cards, to the dustbin of history. For all his flaws, Tony Blair was an infinitely better Prime Minister than the present incumbent. Unfortunately, the tone set by the government also sets the tone for how people conduct themselves in business and in schools and other institutions. We can only hope that a new broom will sweep clean all of the compounded forms of bureacracy, alleged "health and safety" regulations, and political correctness which has blighted the lives of ordinary people in the UK for almost two decades. It is time to demand a return to the freedoms which made this country one of the greatest and strongest democracies on Earth.

Happy New Year

And so we say goodbye to 2009 and welcome in 2010. The arbitrary move through time from December 31st to January 1st is for many people a chance to begin again, a renewal, a resurgence of previously-moribund optimism. For many it is a time to try to put that optimism into words via a new year's resolution: a statement of one's (good) intentions for the year to come. I do not make new year's resolutions; I do not make resolutions at any time of year, knowing only too well that to do so would invite disappointment when I fail to live up to expectation. So what can we expect from 2010?

Perhaps the most important event to occur in 2010 will be the World Cup, football's premier international competition. Hosted in South Africa, this will be a chance for many of us to see the world's elite footballers challenged by their peers. And yet the seedings, and the playoffs to enter this elite contest are skewed to permit geographic diversity to triumph over the elite teams globally. Thus, we shall see some teams (and even officials) whose weakness will be exasperating, and we shall ask how ourselves how such teams were able to make these finals when other, more worthy teams (Croatia, with the magnificent Luka Modric comes immediately to mind) will not be seen on this magnificent stage?

The coming year will hopefully see the end of the recession which was brought about by the credit crunch and liquidity crisis which began in the USA in 2007. If policy-makers in the world's wealthiest economies can hold their nerve and avoid protectionism measures, then we shall a return to global growth, albeit at a slower pace than previously. And it may be another year before such growth translates into increased employment or, more importantly, decreased unemployment.

In the United Kingdom, sometime before June we shall see a General Election. The less-than-loves Gordon Brown will surely be replaced as Prime Minister regardless of which party gets a majority of seats in Parliament. But after the MPs' expenses scandal of 2009, and the lost direction of New Labour following the departure of Tony Blair, surely a change is as good as a rest?

With cold, arctic winds continuing to spread snow, ice and travel chaos throughout the UK, the debate on global warming will continue. The protagonists will continue as doomsayers, although they have changed tack and talk now of "climate change" rather than "global warming". The antagonists will complain of lack of transparency in the research of their opponents, and tell us the Earth is self-repairing, and global warming is natural in any event. Either way, it is to be hoped that local councils learn how to deal with extremes of weather in a more satisfactory manner than at present. Previous generations had equally extreme conditions, yet dealt with it much better. It is a patent absurdity that with so much greater technological and other expertise, the country grinds to a halt when there are a few inches of snow. This simply does not happen elsewhere, and did not happen in the past.

I am hoping that my football team, Tottenham Hotspur, will continue to improve under the management of Harry Redknapp, who has done a magnificent job thus far. When considering the average age of successful managers in top-flight football in England (and elsewhere) there is a strong case to be made for reviewing the retirement laws in all occupations. In the past, say the era of heavy industry, and even its successor, light industry, there was a case to be made for people retiring as physical strength declined with age. In an era of service industry dominance there is no such case. Indeed, the opposite is clearly true, as experience counts for so much more where "intellectual property" (broadly defined) is the key driver of economic growth.

It is my fervent wish that 2010 sees the world continue to move away from conflict, and especially war, but this seems to be as unlikely as ever. We need to remind ourselves that what divides us is much less important that those things we share in common. While the adage that good fences make for good neighbours is universally true, it is crucial that good neighbours talk to each other over their garden fences. With human beings the whole is always greater than the sum of the parts!

Wishing all readers the most wonderful and fulfilling 2010.