I learnt an interesting fact this week, one which I admit I have had rows about previously and it appears I have been wrong. Merchants in England and Wales do not have to accept Scottish bank notes if they don't wish to.
Now I always thought they did as they were same value and had the same wording relating to payment to bearer as the Bank of England notes. I knew Jersey money was not legal, but had no idea Scottish was discretionary.
it was brought to my attention as there is a campaign North of the boarder to make these notes compulsory tender. I am not sure why as most places do accept them, but the sweaties are always looking for something to dis the rest of the Country with.
The Bank of Scotland ( soon to be Lloyds Group) , The Clydesdale bank and Royal bank all produce their own notes, and there is a fine old market in forged notes which fly around at and during the Edinburgh festival.
I wonder how much it costs them to print the stuff, either they should stop and save themselves the overhead in these times of banking crisis, or they should work a few extra weekends at the print producing extra to eradicate the debt they have racked up with the government!
Friday, 23 January 2009
Thursday, 22 January 2009
...I wantmy baby back.....
Race has become the hot topic at the dinner table, overtaking house prices, second homes and the physical attributes of the Swedish Au Pair. This is all due to Black being the new White, a metamorphosis for which Barack Obama has become the catalyst.
I thought I would test this out using my IBM worldwide employee directory. There are seven Weathers in our organisation, me in London, a no relation in Leeds, and seven in the USA. Its strange, but the two of us in UK are white and the five in the USA are not. I thought I would test this a bit further, and test out our roots. Sure enough all our Irish cousins are white and have been for generations.
Carl Weathers, the actor is black, as is Clarence Weathers the ex-American football player, but research in Wikipedia indicates there is a diversity and dilution of my transatlantic theory, with Weathers even being tracked to Australia.......strewth, and Beck Weathers is worth a look at too.
Not sure what this proves, but it would be fascinating to trace the Weathers roots from Ireland to American and where the Afro-Carri bean influence first came from. A project for old age me thinks. Here is the Wiki Weathers list
I thought I would test this out using my IBM worldwide employee directory. There are seven Weathers in our organisation, me in London, a no relation in Leeds, and seven in the USA. Its strange, but the two of us in UK are white and the five in the USA are not. I thought I would test this a bit further, and test out our roots. Sure enough all our Irish cousins are white and have been for generations.
Carl Weathers, the actor is black, as is Clarence Weathers the ex-American football player, but research in Wikipedia indicates there is a diversity and dilution of my transatlantic theory, with Weathers even being tracked to Australia.......strewth, and Beck Weathers is worth a look at too.
Not sure what this proves, but it would be fascinating to trace the Weathers roots from Ireland to American and where the Afro-Carri bean influence first came from. A project for old age me thinks. Here is the Wiki Weathers list
Thursday, 8 January 2009
Get up that chimney
A happy New year to all of you. Its the festive season which has generated my first thoughts of the year.
During the industrial revolution, the use of child labour was commonplace and well documented by Dickens and others. It provided a source of cheap and subservient labour at a time when the momentum of the revolution needed to be maintained. they worked in mines and factories performing a wide range of menial tasks in terrible conditions. ...and you tell the youth of today that, and they just won't believe you... to paraphrase Monty Python.
Now we are in the midst of a new revolution, and we are missing a trick by not deploying children to help.
I am referring of course to the technological revolution which continues at a pace that adults are struggling to keep up with.
What I say, therefore, is lets get the child labour principle back in vogue. I think when you go to Richer Sounds, Comet, PC World or elsewhere and purchase something, you should get a seven year old thrown in. You can take them home, get them to configure and install the particular electrical product you have purchased and away you go. The child can be fed at your discretion with portions comparable with the size of the task they have performed, and then a call to said retail outlet will result in a cab arriving to take them back for their next assignment.
That should keep them off the streets, teach them that a square meal does not automatically turn up when they are hungry and that the better they are at something the more they are rewarded....more? the boy asked for more?
During the industrial revolution, the use of child labour was commonplace and well documented by Dickens and others. It provided a source of cheap and subservient labour at a time when the momentum of the revolution needed to be maintained. they worked in mines and factories performing a wide range of menial tasks in terrible conditions. ...and you tell the youth of today that, and they just won't believe you... to paraphrase Monty Python.
Now we are in the midst of a new revolution, and we are missing a trick by not deploying children to help.
I am referring of course to the technological revolution which continues at a pace that adults are struggling to keep up with.
What I say, therefore, is lets get the child labour principle back in vogue. I think when you go to Richer Sounds, Comet, PC World or elsewhere and purchase something, you should get a seven year old thrown in. You can take them home, get them to configure and install the particular electrical product you have purchased and away you go. The child can be fed at your discretion with portions comparable with the size of the task they have performed, and then a call to said retail outlet will result in a cab arriving to take them back for their next assignment.
That should keep them off the streets, teach them that a square meal does not automatically turn up when they are hungry and that the better they are at something the more they are rewarded....more? the boy asked for more?
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