Every week there is something new which demands our attention, affects our lives and causes change for change’s sake. Much is in the cause of appearing to care, rather than caring
Gas-Guzzlers are being taxed unfairly I believe, because the government wants to appear eco-friendly. I personally hate them; parking spaces were never painted to accept these monstrosities, thereby making getting in and out of one’s own car a contortion. At roundabouts they are like lorries and obscure one’s view. Half are driven purely for the Mummy Run, and parked outside schools in estate roads and so don’t help make through traffic flow easily, and get behind a slow one and passing is almost impossible. However, that is not the point, they cost an arm and a leg, so the Vat must have been shattering, we all are taxed on our petrol and as they are Guzzlers, allegedly, they pay more tax – it is unfair, it contravenes their rights by being selected for special attention, it was imposed without a reasonable period of warning, so the owners were caught on the hop. They have already, as others, paid their dues by differential, what has been legislated is, I believe a type of arbitrary action without due process, just to appear eco-friendly and is despicable.
Shopping bags, the last comment The other day I wrote a piece about M&S stopping providing bags and proving to my own satisfaction the idea was silly. I realise it was a sop to the Green Lobby, looking for Brownie Points, but it is so inconsistent. As I deal mostly in Tescos I weighed a number of their ordinary bags and found they weigh 8 grams each. Then weighed the plastic packaging other items came in and they ranged from the box which had contained a small cheese (16g) to a small box for chocolates (58g), In my experience plastic boxes for tools, electrical and electronic components are of thick and heavy plastic. So is this gesture by M&S going to save the world on its own? Or is all plastic packaging going to be banned, or is it just another pointless band- wagon?
The Psychological ploys of Vendors are not new. That old chestnut of charging £X and 99p goes back to the days of farthings. I can understand the placing of certain items at eye level or ‘jammer goodies’ where small children will see them, that is common sense, and if you are not careful 3 for 2 will fill the pantry to overflow. But what I really wonder is whether the Stores carry out exercises because they have been told they are effective, or have they really carried out surveys to check. I can’t really see logistically how they could have. One ploy which drives me mad is shifting product positions not only on the shelf, but shifting whole aisles, on the principle shoppers will see new items. A fallacy! The shopper is so frustrated he or she either asks, which takes up the time of the staff, or gets what is easy and goes somewhere else for what he or she couldn’t find. Have they checked peoples’ reaction to the ploy?
Yet another case of government selectivity in seeking popularity I am imaginative, and I’m not basically hardhearted, so, as a great grand father, I can sympathise with the parents whose child has been abducted in Portugal, and sincerely hope for a successful outcome. What I find amazing is the dichotomy this incident has created. Millions of pounds have been promised, there may also be a fund; millions throughout the world are hitting a website, there has been a report on every news item for weeks, and a media feeding frenzy. The other day it was reported on BBC News, another child had gone missing, it received merely a passing comment. Dozens of our men are being killed, in wars unlikely to be solved, also with a passing comment, and I wonder how much compensation there will be for the grieving families. Yet our Prime Minister-in-waiting singles out this occurrence in Portugal for special attention. Perhaps, as he is not in office, no one has told him of the plight of the immigrant girls and young women, forced in to prostitution and being killed as a warning to the rest, when they rebel.
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