More than time for me to start blogging again. This time though I feel the need to vent and try and persuade the majority to agree with me (and a lot of others) to back a campaign to get the Davies report binned.
I have seen the figures for another runway for both Birmingham and Gatwick and while my home heart says back another runway for Birmingham I know the London centric government won't allow it even though with HS2 Birmingham won't be much further away timewise than Heathrow especially if you want to drive from Heathrow. Unless they build some more motorways. Specifically widening the M25, again, and adding another lane to the M4. Oh and adding another rail line from Heathrow to Victoria. That should considerably shorten the journey time, but hang on a bit!
There is nothing in the proposal for an extra runway at Heathrow which addresses these necessities. No budget, no proposed act of parliament and no consultation with the people whose lives and properties will be affected by them.
Compare the proposal from Gatwick, which by the way, has the backing of Paul Kehoe the MD of Birmingham ariport, which was researched to include the cost of widening the M23 and the spur road to Gatwick, improving the rail links and the lines to cope with the extra traffic. Building a new terminal and runway with ancillary support teams and infrastructure. Consultation with local authorities and communities (which included the offer to pay the council tax for affected properties for the life of the owners or until they sold up) the whole package was costed and delivery dates for the completion of the project would be 2 years earlier than the Heathrow debacle.
I'm not sure that Sir Howard Davies actually knows how a plane works when he states that Gatwick isn't recognised nor would be suitable for long haul flights! No Sir Howard, you accelerate down the runway, take off and fly to wherever the hell you like. Actually having a destination to arrive at is a matter for negotiation and persuasion and is accomplished by people like Paul Kehoe who has just announced long haul connections direct from Birmingham to Beijing, in fact just about every month for the last three or four years Birmingham has added to it list of destinations somewhere that either didn't exist in the life of the airport or like New York which stopped flying direct from Birmingham a long time ago.
These things don't just appear because those airlines and destinations think it might be fun they do it for clear and lucrative benefits and those benefits were explained and profitability of the flights speaks for itself. With more and more inward foreign investment into the Wes Midlands area, a lot of it from the USA, connectivity for this region is considerably more important than another batch of tourists and more imported goods flown into Heathrow because another so called reason for expanding Heathrow is the number of freight flights but if you look carefully the balance of payments for Heathrow freight flights is negative.
So let's all have a go at getting a public enquiry chaired by an impartial judge to review the Davies report and show it up for the sham it really is.

Parking idiots

I'm sorry that many of my posts seem to be about driving and car related issues but these things annoy me. The one thing I am certain of is that driving has been mystified by too many "driving instructors" into a kind of magic or higher ability. It definitely isn't, in fact it is really very simple and boils down to the undemanding ability to push one of two pedals, (one to go and one to stop), and a very small learned skill in turning a large wheel in front of you sufficiently to negotiate corners.
That said the next mystery is why some drivers cannot judge the distance between their car and the path, lampost, other parked vehicle or any other type of obstacle when they are parking. Emergency service vehicles, especially the wider ones i.e. fire engines need 10 feet or 3 metres of space to get through. If they are to get to the scene of a fire before all the children in the building are reduced to cinders they need to be able to drive without having to ease gently between to stupidly parked vehicles.
Simplifying the mystical driving game once again - PARK A FEW MORE YARDS/METRES AWAY AND WALK BACK TO YOUR DESTINATION YOU BONE IDLE DUMMIES.
There, see? so easy to get the anger out!

Blind safety lens

As part of the blind industry I am aware that there is only token understanding of the issue of child saftey with regard to the dangers of blind cords.
While there have been reports of the deaths of many children in the last year there is still no legislature governing the way we approach this, and the main reasoning is that the industry is very actively giving the end user warning signs, labels and advice so that the government does not have to devote parliamentary time to passing a new law.
This is standard procedure these days and to a certain extent is to be commended as this issue particularly shoud have cross party support, centring as it does upon the safety of children, but there are still debates to be had and the drawing up of this type of legislation requires a considerable amount of time before the matter can become law.
To keep everyone going requires those of us who can to keep the subject alive and also to push it as far as we can towards the top of everyone's agenda, at least getting more people looking into there own homes to see if they have the safest environment for their own children or perhaps visiting relatives or friends children if they have grown up families.
The danger from strangulation in looped blind cords affects mainly children below the age of 4 years, not because they are incapable of realising the danger to themselves but from the fact that they can die due to the immaturity of the neck physiology. Death can occur in less than a minute even if a paramedic were to be on scene it is unlikely the child could be revived.
My latest Squidoo lens How safe are your blinds has more detail.

Dipstick in car

I was following a car today and I noticed in the rear window two small T shirts one read "small dude on board" aaaaah!
The other read "little princess on board" aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!
Hanging from the rear view mirror in the front window was a pair of little bootees AaAaAaAaAaAaAaAa!!!!!! Presumably belonging to a mini "little dude" or "little princess".
The only sign missing was the one that read "dipstick who can't see out of the windows on board"

Is it speeding?

Oxfordshire have turned back on their speed cameras after 8 months without, because, they say "there has been an increase in the number of deaths since they were turned off". While the number of poeple killed has risen they don't tell you that these deaths occured away from the camera sites and that around the actual camera sites there were no deaths and only 2 more crashes.
Bearing in mind that last December was one of the worst for crashes since the car was invented due to the apallling icy conditions I don't find any increase either surprising or alarming.

While the debate will continue and there will be more crashes where the severity of the injuries will be due to the speed of the vehicles involved, the ridiculous "Speed Kills" campaigners will now become ever more vociferous.
I've stated this on every occasion I can and I reiterate; speed doesn't kill or all the F1 drivers would be dead, it is CRASHING that will kill you. Drive carefully whatever speed you do and you will survive roads full of incompetent and untrained drivers without crashing.

New article on Hubpages

Just completed an article on Hubpages

New look website for Effigy Blinds

Finally finished the new look website and Effigy Blinds should now benefit from all the hard work put in by the creative side of the business which is Faith.
Most of the pages have been re-worked with more images of blinds and less words. Now the name of the game is driving traffic to the site