Come on Olly

I am a republican. Notice the small ‘r’? I am not a US Republican (as they are the equivalent of a metastasizing tumour), but a ‘republican’, i.e. one who would like to live in a republic. As I am British, that means I would like Britain to be a republic. I read at the weekend that the Queen was unwell and had to cancel a trip to my hometown. I hope the old lady bounces back. I think she has performed a marvellous service linking different eras of the UK, not to mention been an excellent queen. By ‘excellent queen’, I mean keeping out of the limelight in terms of scandal or whatnot, and waving when she is told to. Not drunkenly falling out of the Rolls-Royce or flashing her pants, that is a quite a skill for a famous woman to have. The Queen is dignified, for someone that is wheeled about and told what to do by her advisors.

However the rest of the Royal family are a bunch of conniving, rude, selfish, cretinous, idiots that have ever sucked oxygen. They are feted as actually being better than us commoners when they live in the biggest bubble of unreality that exists with the possible exception of the circumference of Donald Trump’s head. I would love the Royal Family to be brought down to earth however I doubt they realise its existence. The finances of the Royal Family are largely a mystery. There is no transparency or accountability. Why don’t the National Audit Office audit them? Why is the Royal Family exempt from Freedom of Information requests? Prince Charles lobbies extensively on a number of subjects and issues yet we are not allowed to know what, how and when, and to what effect. Up until 1998 (but still technically now as well) advocating the replacement of the monarchy with a peaceful republic is a criminal offence and could send me to prison for life.

Monarchist routinely claim, and this is the main reason espoused, that the royal family is worth keeping because of “tourism”. Well, let me debunk that particular argument. Tourists go to see buildings and castles because they are interesting within a historic context and look pretty spiffy as well. They do not go to see people. If they did, they would be sorely disappointed about 98% of the time as tourists virtually never see the royal family. According to visitbritain.com, the top tourist attraction in the UK, Chester zoo is higher up the list for people to visit above Buckingham palace. There is a compelling argument for a family of Orangutans to replace our existing royalty if we are basing it on how popular the tourist attractions are. “But it wouldn’t be the same without the royals living there.” People still go to see the Taj Mahal, don’t they?

I just think we should get with the whole 21^st century program and become a Republic. 

Food Stamps y'all

I came across an interesting article today about how legislators in South Carolina are proposing to treat benefits payments. They basically want to restrict food stamps to only be able to buy healthy food. For those of you that are not aware, in the US, food stamps are how the most common form of benefits are distributed. They are coupons with a monetary value which most supermarkets accept and they are currently restricted so you can buy all food and drink but not cigarettes or booze.

In the UK, the BBC had a poll last year where they asked people about this idea as with the soon to be introduced Universal Credit could be used to bring something like this about using a prepaid credit card. Generally, according to the poll, the majority of the people favoured some sort of restriction on what benefits could be used on.

So the case in point with food stamp restriction. I think it is a great idea. Three quarters of society in the US (and two thirds in the UK) are obese. Obesity is more prevalent in lower income families. Billions of dollars are being spent on trying to make people eat more healthily and billions more on dealing with the effects of obesity. Obviously there need to be safeguards over what constitutes “healthy” food but I think it could work. Some frozen and canned food would be acceptable, as only fresh food means more trips to the supermarket meaning more in petrol or public transport costs and time. The only issue is that all the big purveyors of crappy highly processed food will lobby the hell out of not carrying it through. Guess why? Fast food companies can accept food stamps! 

Mad George 2: Beyond Moodydome

So the credit agency Moody’s has downgraded the UK’s credit rating from AAA to AA1 due to medium term sluggish growth, the projected continuation of the austerity measures into the next parliament, and the fragility of the UK’s balance sheet. All this sounds like very frightening stuff, doesn’t it? The shit has really hit the fan. We are all fucked. Already I can hear baying mobs of people roaming the streets clad in leather pants wielding machetes and taking off the heads of all the people who are wearing a different shade of leather pants. A thunderdome has been erected just by Leicester Square and squads of former telephone hygienists who are now cage fighters are oiling up and sharpening their sharpened slate tipped sticks. Babies are eating pools of feculence on the flinty rubble of destroyed buildings.

Hmm. My imagination might be running a little bit Tahrir Square on that one. Fact is, the US and France have been downgraded (the US is lower than the UK, France is now the same) and their cost of borrowing hasn’t changed one iota. Fact is, neither will the UK’s. The problem with the international credit agencies (Standard & Poor, Fitch, and the aforementioned Moodys) is that for decades they were highly sought after purveyors of information without people realising that they were completely full of shit and whose data means nothing at all in an emperor’s new clothes type scenario. With everything coasting along nicely all they did was rubber stamp things. When the shit hit the fan they didn’t move quickly enough or even give any warnings like, you know, they were being paid to do. Enron was rosy until they were found out. Freddit Mae were coasting along fine flinging out toxic sub-prime debt packages until Warren Buffett said something on TV then the credit agencies made a statement whilst putting their trousers back on hurriedly. There are other numerous criticisms of them but the point is that the credit agencies don’t really matter.

Unless, of course, your name is George Osborne, erstwhile Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, who has staked his entire Chancellorship on the UK maintaining its cherished triple A credit rating. If it got downgraded, then George Osborne would be pretty embarrassed. Well, it turns out, that triple A status doesn’t really matter now that it has been downgraded according to Curious George. 

Legalise #

A while ago I listed some of the policies that I would implement if ever I became mayor of Englandshire. One of these policies would be the legalisation of some drugs. There is an interesting piece in the Guardian today regarding this very issue but with the kicker being that it would be a perfect Tory policy to announce. Now it goes on in detail about it, but the matter is so toxic that despite actual physical evidence to the contrary they still won’t legalise drugs at all and in fact, no political party (Nick Clegg wants a Royal Commission however) will as it would be suicide for them. The blue rinse brigade a.k.a. the only ones that vote would have collective fits if their party did it, so they won’t.

It is a big shame though, as it would be a fantastic opportunity to wrong foot the other parties and actually introduce and use evidence based policies as opposed to naked electioneering. It works in Portugual and the Netherlands, and there are even laws being currently passed in some states in the US that would allow certain substances to be decriminalised. For a pro-business party, I cannot understand why this frankly speaking, revenue stream would go unrecognised let alone the reduction in crime it would bring. It can only really be the argument above and also intense lobbying from the tobacco and alcohol industries that prevent it.  Notice I didn’t even bring up the ‘morals and ethics’ argument? That’s because there is no such thing for modern politicians. All they are are craven yes-people who only want to keep being politicians as it gives them job security for 5 years and as much expenses as they can trouser.

To be fair, the implementation of such a system would initially be costly, as well as processing permits and the setting up of controlled shops etc. so it may drive the cost of the products up past the point where people would actually buy them, as black market (as opposed to current illegal) stuff would be cheaper but that is pure speculation. 

An Everest a Week

“...It's like climbing an Everest a week, then if you get to the top, there is a bigger Everest you need to ascend. To get down from the climb is easy. There is a fun water slide with food to take and munch as you go. If you stay on the ascent then you can't even see the furthest Everest, but you know it's there. And after that last Everest is not another mountain, but a very thin plateau. That's the path you need to take for the rest of your life. But there are fun fireman's poles to get down from there all the way along it...”

I am on a diet.

I have written that sentence in my head a hundred times in the last 10 years. Then I deleted it. Or ignored it. Or just gorged myself on a Taco Bell. I think I am doing better this time. At least, it doesn’t feel like so much of a diet. My best diet was when I was 25 and I lost lots of weight by basically going to the gym everyday and exercising until I felt sick and didn’t even want to look at food. Turns out it wasn’t that sustainable. I have been on my current diet for over two months now but the time has flown and I still have lost a lot of weight. Still, time will tell.

I use an app to count my calories. It is quite handy but not too accurate about homemade stuff or some other things. The one thing that has been really hammered home to me is how so many products are extremely high in calories. Most people know that Domino's has got high calories, but almost 300 calories per slice? I never really thought about it before when I polished off a whole large pizza (ten slices) over 24 hours or even in one night (!).  Plus dips and starters, it is literally a weekly diet killer. Alcohol too, I discovered, is highly calorific. I went on diets before, went to the gym, ate carefully, but had beer and wine, and maybe a pizza once a week too, and wondered why I was only losing a few hundred grams a week or even nothing at all. Turns out I was just eating up to around my maintenance limit. Well, tracking my calories has cured me of that.

But I can see how easily that approximately 60% of adults in the UK are obese. It’s maths, biology, chemistry and physics. More energy is being consumed than being used. Those poor bastards on programs like “Half Tonne Teen” didn’t become like that overnight and they certainly didn’t want to end up like that. Just a few hundred extra calories a day and it all adds up over the years. I think we have a severe societal issue which could become even more absolutely massive in a few short years. It is already stretching the NHS to its limit.

Problem is, well, we know what the problem is. However the solution is not easy. You walk into any supermarket and all the high calorie products are on 2 for 1 whilst the vegetables sit there unsung and lamented. A double cheeseburger from McDonalds is cheaper than a stew pack of vegetables. So what can we do? It could be as simple as just supplying effective information. Basic education. But as far as I know, we as a society already do that. People sleepwalk into obesity and it is very difficult to return to normal.