Eighteen months ago it was ‘two weeks to flatten the curve’; now, after a large part of the population has had two jabs to save ‘our’ NHS we are told we will need two more in the same year. Just how good is the efficacy of the jabs we have been given, if we now need two more to protect freedoms that have not returned?
*** FUTURE POSTS WILL ALSO APPEAR AT 'NOW AND NEXT' : https://rolfnorfolk.substack.com
Saturday, July 03, 2021
WEEKENDER: If someone had told me... by Wiggia
Eighteen months ago it was ‘two weeks to flatten the curve’; now, after a large part of the population has had two jabs to save ‘our’ NHS we are told we will need two more in the same year. Just how good is the efficacy of the jabs we have been given, if we now need two more to protect freedoms that have not returned?
Friday, July 02, 2021
A share-owning democracy, or socialism?
If the project works, it destroys the socialist ‘take all
and provide for all’ model; but if it fails, how many might opt for shabby
security over potentially ruinous freedom? The jury is still out, but I dread
the verdict.
The stock market has
become a rollercoaster in recent years. Here is a graph of selected days – the high
of the tech boom of the ‘90s, the low points of 2003 and 2009, and where we are
now. To give some idea of ‘real terms’ I also supply the figures adjusted by
the official RPI index https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/timeseries/cdko/mm23
(June’s market close is deflated by May’s RPI, the latest available):
As you see, the magic 7,000 figure around which the market is now circling – above the historic high point of 6,930.2 on 20 December 1999 – is actually worth about half what it was then. Yes, you might do better by picking particular stocks or funds, but yesterday’s star could be today’s dog, as for example we see in the legal-vulture-besieged Neil Woodford https://www.ft.com/content/2f077ae2-f19e-11e9-bfa4-b25f11f42901 . At least with Prince Ras Monolulu’s racing tips https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/horse-racing/54695641 you got a result the same day.
Most people aren’t gamblers, at least not with their life
savings, which is why they used to like with-profits funds, getting an annual
statement from the insurance company to say how much their holding had grown
since the year before. However such funds found it difficult to cope with the volatility
of the last decades, sometimes having to impose ‘market value adjustments’ to stop
investors running away en masse in a bad year.
The uncertainty is compounded by what’s happened in the bond
market. The unimaginable levels of debt in our system have forced the
government to drop interest rates to near zero; when a personal pension plan
holder wants to retire with an annuity, it has to be secured with bond
investments on which the annual yield is now pitiful, so that one needs a far larger
fund to get the same income. The alternative is to leave one’s pension
investment in equities, with their associated risk.
This dilemma was not anticipated in the good old days, when (for
example) Equitable Life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Equitable_Life_Assurance_Society
sold pensions with a Guaranteed Annuity Rate at retirement age of up to 12 per
cent. When EL were caught out by the rates collapse at pay-out time they tried
to reduce the investors’ fund value to compensate, but the court ruled that out;
hinc illae lacrimae https://www.latin-is-simple.com/en/vocabulary/phrase/749/
.
The investment boom of the 1980s lit expectations that were
fanned by regulators. It’s understandable in a way – there were cases of maturing
mortgage endowment plans that yielded six times their target value – but only
if you think good times go on for ever. At one point the illustrated yearly growth
on pension funds was in the bracket 8.5 – 13 per cent. However by the beginning
of the 90s even the best funds run for our insurance company weren’t showing
anything like that higher figure.
As with so many issues, instead of looking for cat-stroking
villains we need to understand that the roots of our problems are systemic. Britain
threw away the wealth of generations in two world wars with a great depression
in between – there was no Roaring Twenties here. Post World War Two America –
seizing the chance to finish off the British Empire - turned off the financial
tap to us even as it poured money into western Europe to rebuild it and prevent
an outbreak of communism. The terms on which we joined the EU withered many of
our industries for over forty years. Meanwhile the Third World gained our
technological know-how and exploited it with desperate urgency as only the poor
can – one company I used to advise specialised in exporting large machine tools
from our closing factories. Is it a surprise that money-making seems to centre
around housebuilding these days, rather than industry? It is as though Stone
Age men could eschew hunting in favour of selling each other caves.
Well, now we’re out of the EU, though it seems that like
jilted lovers they still try to make as much trouble as possible; but there’s
no going back to the status quo ante; it’s a different world now. Although it’s
nice to hear a PM who makes optimistic noises, we’re already seeing that ‘free
trade’ is not an unmixed blessing; we have exchanged the mini-globalism of
Europe for the maxi-globalism that has done so much for the multinationals but
whose benefits have not really trickled down to the rest of us. If we really
are de-industrialising and also turning expensively and erratically green in
various ways, how are we going to support our over-large population, especially
when we are still expanding it with further influxes of people?
We are long overdue a consideration of how to cut our coat
according to the cloth we still have; otherwise people will start to contemplate
a different system.
Thursday, July 01, 2021
THURSDAY BACKTRACK: Music and news from 60 years ago - week ending 1 July 1961
Some memorable events (via Wikipedia):
1 July: Fantasy Island opens: a theme park on Grand Island near Buffalo, New York |
Htp: Clint's labour-of love compilation https://www.sixtiescity.net/charts/61chart.htm
1 |
Runaway |
Del Shannon |
London |
2 |
Surrender |
Elvis Presley |
RCA |
3 |
Temptation |
The Everly Brothers |
Warner Brothers |
4 |
Pasadena |
The Temperance Seven |
Parlophone |
5 |
A Girl Like You |
Cliff Richard and The Shadows |
Columbia |
6 |
Hello Mary Lou / Travellin' Man |
Ricky Nelson |
London |
7 |
Halfway To Paradise |
Billy Fury |
Decca |
8 |
But I Do |
Clarence 'Frogman' Henry |
Pye |
9 |
The Frightened City |
The Shadows |
Columbia |
10 |
You'll Never Know |
Shirley Bassey |
Columbia |
11 |
Pop Goes The Weasel / Bee*Bom |
Anthony Newley |
Decca |
12 |
Runnin' Scared |
Roy Orbison |
London |
13 |
Well I Ask You |
Eden Kane |
Decca |
14 |
I Told Every Little Star |
Linda Scott |
Columbia |
15 |
Little Devil |
Neil Sedaka |
RCA |
16 |
Have A Drink On Me |
Lonnie Donegan |
Pye |
17 |
More Than I Can Say |
Bobby Vee |
London |
18 |
Marcheta |
Karl Denver |
Decca |
19 |
Ring Of Fire |
Duane Eddy |
London |
20 |
Weekend |
Eddie Cochran |
London |
Tuesday, June 29, 2021
Bang goes real estate, eventually - a reader's comment
Saturday, June 26, 2021
WEEKENDER: Plans, Trans and Sportweardeals, by Wiggia
A couple or so of items caught my eye this week. The first was another announcement from Bojo on how to waste our money, and it is always ours.
To be paid for by the MoD... as the MoD is using the same money
as everything else the government uses that is just double talk. What he was
trying to imply was there would be no extra money being spent on this vainglorious waste of time. It could be the MoD will cut our defence spending even
more to make room for this pointless exercise, who knows these days, we are
rarely told the truth about anything.
Do we really need a ‘national yacht’? Which other nation uses
a floating gin palace to exhibit its wares around the world and would anyone
else contemplate such a choice? It looks to me like jollies for all again at
the tax payer's expense.
£200 million: when was the last time a government project
came in on budget?
It could have spent the £200 million on some much-needed
coastal protection vessels, but that would have also been a waste of time as
the few we have are only used as Channel shuttles and we wouldn’t want to
increase the inward flow even more again at our expense.
Bojo ‘hopes’ it can be built in a British yard. To be honest, what a cringe-making statement: a vessel made to promote British goods and services is made in a foreign country? Sometimes making it up is easier; no doubt a yard in Hamburg or similar is already drawing up plans, I would love to be wrong but the irony is too strong.
When this was offered up as an idea, someone somewhere should
have said nah, but it like HS2 will go ahead anyway; while the printing presses
are running there is no stopping this government hosing our money away.
And now for something completely different. Our phone use is quite limited these days as we are both long retired, I have a good SIM deal on my mobile which fits my lesser needs these days and a combined broadband and landline package.
We all pay the monopoly Open Reach a twenty pound a month
line rental charge which is in itself a rip off as you have no choice, but
there is another matter which slipped under the radar: our package including
the landline phone that is rarely used these days has free evenings and
weekends as part of it, not free of course but cheaper. What I never realised
was the fact that calls made during day time in the week were so bloody
expensive, I was still under the assumption that landline calls were always
cheaper than a mobile; wrong!
It was the fact that our having just moved house, the phone was used a lot more than normal contacting tradesmen suppliers etc., and I expected my monthly bill to rise so did not check the details, just acknowledged the final figure; but a very long call trying to get through to that other monopoly our GP surgery made me look out of curiosity at that monthly statement and I could not believe what I saw: they actually have the cheek to charge 25p a minute for daytime calls including a connection fee. I know with what I would like to connect, it has to be the biggest con in all our utility charges. How on earth can they justify that on top of a £20 line rental?
I had to check around the other providers as I thought there
was a mistake, but no they are all similar.
I stupidly assumed that landline calls were around a 1p a minute, which they should be, there must be hundreds of thousands of old people who are not digital age savvy who have no idea what their landline is costing them. It's an absolute disgrace to charge so much, no wonder so many are ditching landlines all together and using their mobiles for everything; even my old Nokia emergency phone on PAYG is only 2p a minute.
And lastly something that was always going to split opinion
and could turn nasty as women's sport becomes a playground for those men who
failed as men in sport but could be winning as trans women.
The various sporting bodies have had more than enough time to take a view on this but the woke world we live in now has hobbled their answer to the question. An awful lot of medical facts show whatever medication to lower testosterone is taken, people who grew up as men have a built in advantage in power and bone structure.
It is noticeable that so far those who have transitioned and
suddenly declared an interest in competing in women's sporting events are all
well past their sell by date as men, and most are appearing in what could be
called the less glamorous sports or versions of sport like masters events. Again, for the older transition-er, whether or not Laurel Hubbard wins in
weightlifting in Tokyo is not really the point, what has happened is that a wedge has
been driven into women's sport and the door is being prised open to accommodate
trans women.
When I was cycle racing many moons ago at a decent level on
the track, the East German machine was well in action producing endless women champions, all on drugs that gave them much of the power of men. Anybody who saw
them close up was looking at something from a horror movie: muscled beyond
belief, hair on the face and elsewhere and setting world records few could
approach. It was wrong, they hid behind the Iron Curtain and got away with it
for years; it made a farce of many women's events in many sports.
One thing that is never mentioned in all the prattling that
has gone on as to whether any of this has a place in sport, is the fact there
is not one example of a woman changing to a man trying on the same scam because
it would be a waste of time; it only works one way, but no one dares to speak
out on the fact, so cowered are they about saying the wrong thing.
As Sharon Davies, brave lady, has said they are gaming the system, and they are. It hasn’t really started yet but when those more youthful start to go down this path and claim they are women there will be a big problem. Also, n this day and age people will do anything to make money or be noticed: note the number of TV programs based on people with no talent other than being able to make idiots of themselves with no shame as long as they are in the limelight for their fifteen minutes of fame. Changing one's sex is just another way for some to be noticed; the parents who put little boys in dresses and claim the children want to be something else is another example; a small section of the gay community can’t wait for a Pride parade and get their willies out in public as has happened.
The fact that the NZ government and their woke feminist PM Jacinda Ardern have come out and backed their weightlifter is no surprise.
In boxing they have a bigger problem and it has already raised its ugly head. In a physical contact sport like boxing any man-held physical advantages are positively dangerous. How any trans is allowed to compete against women is beyond comprehension. Women's boxing is very much a minority sport anyway but is this one ripe for the trans mafia to compete in? This example shows the danger and the simply mind-numbing indifference by the sports controllers. The trans community would appear to sanction what could be legalised murder in favour of hurty feelz. We live in strange times.
Women's sport is on the cusp of being made irrelevant. The
answer is of course to have a separate category for trans athletes, the
competition could be put on in the Coliseum in Rome where they have a history
of one-sided competitions put on for the masses.
And finally, as Scotland once again fail to advance in the European Football Championships, not all is lost for the fans...
Friday, June 25, 2021
FRIDAY MUSIC: Wally Fawkes, by Wiggia
But one of those scans of today's birthdays in the paper brought back some memories of the past so something slightly different emerged as a suitable stand in for JDs Friday slot.
The birthday that stood out was of one Wally Fawkes, clarinettist and cartoonist, who I have to admit I believed had gone to a better place, but no he is still around at 97 Born in Canada, Wally emigrated with his family to Britain in 1931. He showed through various media a talent for art and ended up on the Daily Mail drawing column breaks and graphic illustrations after winning a Daily Mail competition and being spotted by the paper's chief cartoonist.
It was during the war that he started on his musical career. He once joked that Londoners were spending so much time in underground shelters during the war they were in danger of becoming troglodytes; this gave him the name for his band Wally Fawkes and the Troglodytes and also a shortened version, Trog, as his pseudonym for his cartoons.
Fawkes took a course at Camberwell Art College and it was there that he met Humphrey Lyttleton. They both played in George Webb's Dixielanders band but when Lyttleton left in ‘48 to form his own band Fawkes left with him and stayed until ‘56. He played sporadically with Lyttleton for years afterwards.
His cartoon character Flook ran in the Daily Mail for 35 years and Lyttleton and others including Barry Norman and George Melly contributed to the scripts for the series. It later appeared for a while in the Observer and he became the political cartoonist for Punch and other titles and finished at the Sunday Telegraph.
His music is best known as a band member with Lyttleton; his own band the Troglodytes was disbanded not long after the war.
The contribution that he and Lyttleton made extended far outside of music and both enjoyed prolonged careers. They are a type of talent not seen today, being able to switch in their careers and run parallel with the same success, Fawkes only gave up his cartoons when failing eyesight forced him to stop in 2005.
Thursday, June 24, 2021
THURSDAY BACKTRACK: Music and news from 60 years ago - week ending 24 June 1961
18 June: the OAS, a terrorist organisation trying to force France to keep possession of Algeria, bombs the Paris-to-Strasbourg express train, killing dozens and injuring over 100. The newspaper splash above is found here. |
19 June: Kuwait, a British protectorate since 1899, gains independence (photo source.) Iraq's leader Abdul Karim Qasim, who seized power there in 1958, lays claim to Kuwait six days later. Britain sends forces to defend the country in Operation Vantage. |
21 June: the USA's first desalination plant opens in Freeport, Texas. |
(Image via 'Historic Photographs' Facebook page) |
24 June: despite a ban in Dade County, Florida, Henry Miller's controversial book 'Tropic of Cancer' is published in the USA by Grove Press, 27 years after its first publication in Europe. Booksellers are still threatened with prosecution for violating anti-obscenity laws; in 1964 the US Supreme Court rules that the book is not obscene because it has some redeeming social value.
Htp: Clint's labour-of love compilation https://www.sixtiescity.net/charts/61chart.htm
1 |
Surrender |
Elvis Presley |
RCA |
2 |
Runaway |
Del Shannon |
London |
3 |
Temptation |
The Everly Brothers |
Warner Brothers |
4 |
Pasadena |
The Temperance Seven |
Parlophone |
5 |
The Frightened City |
The Shadows |
Columbia |
6 |
Hello Mary Lou / Travellin' Man |
Ricky Nelson |
London |
7 |
You'll Never Know |
Shirley Bassey |
Columbia |
8 |
But I Do |
Clarence 'Frogman' Henry |
Pye |
9 |
Pop Goes The Weasel / Bee*Bom |
Anthony Newley |
Decca |
10 |
Halfway To Paradise |
Billy Fury |
Decca |
11 |
I Told Every Little Star |
Linda Scott |
Columbia |
12 |
A Girl Like You |
Cliff Richard and The Shadows |
Columbia |
13 |
Runnin' Scared |
Roy Orbison |
London |
14 |
More Than I Can Say |
Bobby Vee |
London |
15 |
Have A Drink On Me |
Lonnie Donegan |
Pye |
16 |
Well I Ask You |
Eden Kane |
Decca |
17 |
What'd I Say |
Jerry Lee Lewis |
London |
18 |
Little Devil |
Neil Sedaka |
RCA |
19 |
Weekend |
Eddie Cochran |
London |
20 |
Ring Of Fire |
Duane Eddy |
London |