Wanted - A Strong Programme Manager

 The last half of my life's work was sorting out other people's problems.  You'd have thought that all possible mistakes could have been made and by now controlled and managed.  The vast annals of programme and project failures would have been documented and lessons learned.

Not a bit of it.  It kept me employed for years and years but today I doubt I'd be in a job very long as I'd probably upset too many people and they'd all be off with some sort of PTSD or some other such.

So on an occasion I answered a plea from a customer who's projects and overall programme were just a mess.  The usual suspects, no formal specification, no measurable goals, over budget, uncontrolled change and no gelling team work, blah blah blah.  They were in a bit of a state and I did my usual thing of saying that I'd take a week or two to analyse what was going on and then bring it back on line.

Doing due diligence is key and interviewing everyone, getting the documents together and sorting out things like Programme Office and so on.  You find out a lot when you interview people.  Those who have something to hide, those who are downright hostile, those who haven't got a clue, those who lack management or financial ability and so on.

The picture comes together and it can be all sorts of things including lack of proper management and support etc., culture or lack of it, company politics etc.  After a period of time you come up with a plan. It can be shock and awe, it can be subtle like moving key personnel, it can also be hiring and firing and it can also be a realignment of individuals or the whole team.

When you act after planning it all out there needs to be a strong direction, fairness and some sort of measurement of your actions and as well as the team.  It's all basic stuff but it is fair, proportionate (to what you've found) and decisive.

So on the particular job I'm talking about.  A few £million off target and overspent, I made some sweeping changes.  Team members were sacked, some were reassigned and some were sent back to their departments with explanations as to why they were no longer part of the programme or projects underneath it.  The whole programme was tightened up and made measurable and areas where risks or gaps were discovered were to be reviewed by a new technical and management panel of various good people who would be a steering group if you like.

The impact was startling and the shock was felt around the business.  I recall having a difficult conversation with some of the people outside of the programme who were not expecting me to have gone in so fast and so deep cutting away the "Infected areas" and opening the programme up.  Did you want a strong programme manager to stop haemorrhaging money, get the programme back on track, take out the internal problems stopping it being delivered or not?  You could see how uncomfortable they were and you could see the internal politics at work.  Long term people had lost their jobs or been reassigned, my sponsor knew what I was doing but they really disliked the impact shocks.

Did they want to never get finished and continue to lose money, have lots of infighting, tie up their resources for months and years?  No but they didn't like what had to be done to do it.

Goes back to what things happen in the real world.  Stuff at the present needs to happen and the threats are already here and have been for a decade or more.  Start to look at the economic issues brought about from foot shooting political decisions and then plot the rise of India and china and the BRICs group.  There's very little left that we produce ourselves and that we do is under threat through blind ideology.  

The medicine tastes horrible but the disease really will give you a cold that will last a lifetime.  Me?  I'm p1ssing in the wind when I tell people what a power house China and India actually are and we are heading headlong into finding out. FAFO. 

Near And Yet So Far

I had noted that my friends of 50+ years were far more centrist or left of my views.  We have a meet up of old school friends and a very old school chum came along.  We haven't seen him for 50 years or so.  Crazily he lived around the corner from two of us (twice as he also lived near me in my first house).  In 50 years I only met him once at the station very briefly! 

We all had very different jobs but I was surprised at the vitriol for President Trump.  I looked at some of the hatred and wondered why they hated him so much.  He's got some horrendous problems in the US to deal with and funding a war thousands of miles away using his voter's money cannot be a popular policy along with the waste and other problems he has to tackle.  The soaring debts and imbalances are being tackled - not to everyone's liking but the medicine is intentionally bitter if he is to save the patient.  But my friends don't like the man himself.

They did not vote for him, the don't live there, they don't have an inkling of the problems he needs to tackle.  Being an INTJ of course, I do not understand the need for people to be likeable, I certainly wasn't (probably I'm still not).  I cannot deal with fools or these sort of ad hominem attacks based on nothing other than whether you like someone or not.  The sort of people who do this are the worst sort of decision makers or workers you can have I've found for they do things based on feelings and liberal ideals of the world and are often surprised that the fail, often spectacularly as their ideas crash and burn out of nowhere and they are left blinking at the wreckage wondering, "How did this happen?"

From the church going people there, it was the worst kind of wish too.  How can you wish someone, the winner of the popular vote, who is there to MAGA, the evil end they were discussing.  Then they were off on their fantasy of him becoming a dictator blah blah. Normal sensible people off on a rant about something they know little about.  I would have expected better given they took in a refugee family who then proceeded to trash their house!  Mmmm.

Oh well, we are each entitled to our opinions and I guess they can have theirs but I changed the subject rather than pile in with what I know and how the game (if it is that) is played.  I used similar tactics if needed in my professional life, especially when the boss was being an idiot.  Want to change someone's behaviour?  Either hit them in their pocket, screw up their management figures or make them stand out for some other reason.  A change in policy that is stupid can be combated by following the new rules to the tee whilst previously have warned in writing what might happen.  Stuff turns around fast when the boss attracts his boss's attention.

There's a plan, it's being followed whether we like it or not.  We know nothing of what is going on at the highest levels and it's best at the moment to watch it unfold.  It's not how we are used to and it's not always pretty but it seems to work.  If we don't understand the fundamental reasons why this is all going on, then we probably don't have the right to comment or criticize.  Follow the money, always.

Look Over There - Squirrel!

 Is there a lot of distraction techniques being used at the moment?  We look in one direction and are told to look in another.  We've got a row brewing over Ukraine and we are distracted towards that.  The TDS is surprisingly big in the UK, I cannot fathom out why because surely we can take a better look at the USA and see what actual home problems they have and are dealing with?  We worry about out £3 Trillion debt - have a look at theirs. 

I quite like the idea that we are providing assurances over securing the borders of a country that is 2000 miles away when we cannot even secure our own borders less than 60 miles from London!  Shocking stuff and to my mind, it seems a little hollow.  This government and many of its members were happy to see members of our armed forces prosecuted for carrying out orders of their government.  So why would anyone go to war for these people?  I like that someone suggested that if they do that all politicians should give up their children first to go fight and show us a good example.  It was also interesting to see how many would fight if it came to it and there's very little appetite for it.  

Whilst our man is trying to appear all statesman like and diplomatic he's overseeing the destruction of his own country and still we shake our heads and watch the car crash continuing.  Draw all the snippets of economic news together for yourself, the MSM won't tell you and in fact are still toeing the party line on many areas.  Look at food inflation, energy prices, sales of vehicles and general sales, savings and investments and job figures.  All you can see is that every action is having the opposite effect that is wanted.  The Laffer Curve in full observational view and statistics and data are beginning to mount up.

Why can a layman see this?  I think it is that these people are too near the problem and are trying to fix a problem at the coal face not doing the big picture stuff.  It was my biggest learning coming away from a technical problem solving person to a manager.  As a techie I could see the problem and I could fix it at the macro level.  In general terms that's what is happening here but a fix here will have an unwanted outcome elsewhere.  

The big picture should allow you to see the whole problem, the impacts and risks involved in taking a certain action.  Mitigating actions, likely outcomes, you know, good management practice.  And yet they don't appear to have approached this like that at all.  They weren't expecting the level of push back the impact on jobs and prices.  Their lack of vision will badly affect us all and their parochial approach will be their undoing.  

I recall the last Labour Government and their IR35 assault on contractors and businesses.  We altered our business to fall outside these measures and worked out an exit plan so we maximized our business for a short while and then shut it down and did something else.  It killed off thousands of businesses and meant that prices went up, tax income went down.  Good people left and went to work abroad draining us of some elite IT people.  That's what it is like.

The lack of incentives to build a business, employ people, pay tax etc will change our behaviour, it must do, what's the point in taking a business risk if someone just comes along and takes your money from you?  Not worth it is it?  My little business, now severely under threat, will not employ anyone in this country at all given the new laws coming in nor will we use contractors in the UK.  The normal admin required can be brought in from abroad at a decent price and low risk.

So whilst we are all looking this way, something else is happening in the other direction.... 

SQUIRREL! 

We Still Do Not See Through It.

 I'm sure many do but why is it that we speak to authority on things we know little about and additionally haven't looked at from outside of our own perspective.  Outside of our own comfort zone and our own bias?

Because it is difficult to do so I imagine.  We aren't exactly taught to do this unless you've had a scientific or perhaps a historian's training?  I don't know, maybe some other disciplines too (philosophy maybe)?  What I mean is to take a problem and to work out all the angles and to analyse what it is that needs solving (or doesn't) and to come up with a strategy (or strategies preferably) to tackle it, if it is in your remit to do so. 

I cannot solve the world's problems nor can I work out how they came about nor who is right and wrong (if there has to be a right and wrong).  I can just make the sweeping statements as all others do about how to go about things but I find that often I am on the minority side of such things.  Let's take Ukraine as an example.  I think I said just after it started what on earth are we all doing and why aren't the powers that be investigating how to mediate and find a peaceful solution.  It's like me going in against a professional boxer and expecting to win.  I might last a few rounds but I'd be permanently damaged and for what purpose?

Not a great analogy I'll agree.  But here's the upshot of all of this.  Where is the money going, what happened to all the equipment?  Who's profiting from all of this?  But worse than that is the cost in human lives, the misery and the pain, the long term damage to the countries involved.  It seems no one cares about that and happily the supporting governments pour our taxes into the killing of our fellow citizens in the name of progress and democracy.  Where's the diplomatic effort been hiding?  

The sh1tshow between the EU and USA is an interesting place to observe the demonstrable in your face nationalism on display, the flexing of muscle and the flashing of cash but what are you all doing?  Sort it out FFS.  Surely we don't think that it is in our gift to sort this out?  I see we've signed off more billions in loans when we don't really have and still it's going to be a US/Russia settlement as we are all too busy looking at our belly buttons and playing one-up-man-ship to each other in some bizarre ghoulish game. 

As mush as we try to be relevant our country and our economy are going through the cramp and pains of stagnation and deterioration but are we doing anything about it?  No, we are racing to the bottom and have bough a few shovels so that when we get there, to the bottom, we can start to dig further!  We've lost sight of our car crash even though to act now they could at least prevent it or make the impact worse.  No they've pushed their foot on the accelerator of death!

Not all, but many Facebook friends are "Standing with the Ukraine" but are they willing to send their children there?  Are they f**k!  Of course they don't want that but their present stance is exactly that.  In the Mike Tyson's "Everyone has a plan until they get hit!" world, what are these normally sane people actually proposing to do?  They appear to have TDS driving their actions and how he has managed to get under their skin is still a mystery to me.

My friends are now experts in international politics, US politics, socio-economic theory and so on.  I miss the good old days when they were experts on virology and microbiology but not so good on logic, figures and statistics (which they still aren't).  

So when I say that we do not see through all of this I mean that stuff goes on way above our pay-grade and I imagine way above those of the EU who's socialist experiment is now exposed and who present themselves globally as crying weak twats.  They are being played and manipulated so that they dance to a tune that they are not fully aware of the origin nor the underlying melody, which they think is theirs but is in fact written and used carefully by another actor.  Every step choreographed to make it look like they are exercising free will and in defiance to the tunes author and composer.

Maybe we will realise where our place is in all of this.  For the moment it feels like they are the little bullied child in the playground left with the threat that "My dad's bigger than your dad" My friends are busy changing profile pictures to flags and candles in the hope these will make a difference other than to mark them out for the virtue signalling they gravitate towards.  Quoting a Democratic party source or a X thread as justification for a continuation of war along with all the other stuff you can do.  My favourite is quoting the BBC News as proof of a point they are making not understanding that that institution is currently going through it's death throes and  is approaching it's own bunker of failure in the not too distant future. 

Asked whether I saw the Brits / Golden Globes / Oscars etc etc ad nauseam I am delighted to say that I haven't seen these now for decades I think.  If you want to see what is wrong in the world and you have a particularly good stomach for such things, then just look at the sort of people it attracts, the false images of those who pretend to be someone else as a profession telling you how to live your life whilst they prance about and proclaim world politics from their position of being, well, actors.  Yea, right.  If you see through that charade, imagine what the rest of the world show is like.  

The Interpretation Of Facts And Figures

 I should have paid more attention during school / college.  Well, luckily I did, more so at college and later on.  I love that meme where the chaps dying breath is "I got through my whole life without using Algebra!"  Or did you?

But here's the thing, go to say, Facebook or X or your <insert favourite social media or MSM here> and start to look at what they are actually showing you and dissect the data you are given.

Today, I saw a map of the UK and on it were coloured dots of all the windfarms, solar panels and so on.  It was a pretty messy thing and the dots overlapped and blotted out large areas.  No one questioned the blindingly obvious which is how large are these dots compared to the terrain location.  A few counties were obliterated in dots so they must have covered around 4 or 5 miles per dot - it was nothing other than propaganda and whilst whoever (well meaning or not) used it to demonstrate a point it actually made people angry and upset which is what it was meant to do but it bore no relationship to reality.   There are no windmills here and whilst there are a few solar panel fields, they are few and far between but it looks like there are hundreds.

Another one to look at is charts and graphs.  In recent news on Ukraine and the USA and EU funding of that war there are some graphs going around that they show demonstrate that the US isn't giving that much compared to the EU and UK.  The figures don't add up and the argument isn't how much, we know it is substantial and in the multiple billions, it's why a US citizen who doesn't even know where the Ukraine is is paying their tax dollars for it.  Hilariously people say that it is to prevent Russia invading the US?  Really?

So graphs and diagrams are simple ways to show things that fool the viewer or reader.  I like the use of Logarithmic scales on graphs - that really looks scary or my all time favourite is skewing the X and Y axis so that the point you are making shows up large.  The other trick is to only show the period that demonstrates your headline and so missing out a whole dataset is prevalent in climate change charts as it shows huge rises in temperature (say) but only compares it to recent not great  historical data.  The reason?  If they did it would not support their narrative.

I had so many people over my working life produce data and tables that when properly produced and delivered with all the data meant that they could be analysed, understood and a decision made on what you were presented with.  That's the point, I had to make decisions based on this.  My job was to challenge and check the data, assess it and then take appropriate actions.

If the data is false or made up (God preserve me from assumptions - to assume makes an Ass out of U and Me) the whole thing is useless and serves no purpose whatsoever apart from, possibly, someone trying to pull the wool over my eyes.  Lying or misdirection etc.

These things should be delivered as accurate and impartial.  These days, you can fact check pretty much anything if you take the time do some research and review what's presented to you with an inquisitive and challenging manner.  Start to ask why the chart or data is there in the first place?  Is it real information, is it backing up a position or is it plain propaganda?

Simple things are to look at Electric Vehicle sales.  Apparently they are taking off and doing well?  To check this, go and look at how the manufacturers are performing?  Note the numbers of closures, lay offs and the difficulties they have, look at their financial reports.  Go look at the Auto magazines and go past the hype, look at the massive discounts and at the registrations and mileage of the new vehicles.  Then ask why there is no real second hand market for them and you'll start to see a very different picture.  Once again. politicians have got involved in setting a market's targets and it's not what we, the buyers, want.  They've imposed all sorts of silly tariffs onto the manufacturers and additionally made cars un affordable in the process so the market is collapsing.  The companies are collapsing and yet to read what they are saying, see the adverts and the like, you'd think we all drive electric vehicles.

Take climate and warmest year eva! Records exist that show that the 1930s were much warmer than today as was the Medieval warm period and the Roman warm period but you never see those on a graph because it will skew the narrative they are pressing ahead with.  Any graph that went back will also show that there's been no catastrophic warming at all.  Compared to recent history (geological) we are still in an ice age, the poles haven't melted and for many periods there were no ice poles at all, look it up and check the data.  

Go back to the basics.  Who makes money from all of these things?  Who benefits? Who employs the "experts" and does their continued employment rely on continuing the narrative? Why do research if it leads to you losing your job?

Hang On Lads, I've Got A Great Idea!

 As that great film, The Italian Job, concludes with the coach hanging over the abyss and the gold sliding towards the back of the coach we are left teetering on the edge ourselves.  Did they get the gold, did they lose it all?  It's an interesting twist but I think back in the day the bad guys were never allowed to be seen winning. It was a simpler time back then I think.

I see that today's great idea is to change our picture on Facebook and elsewhere to "Stand with Ukraine"  I imagine candles will be lit and so on but the pressing matter of ending the war and keeping the dead, injured, missing etc below the 1,500,000 mark (the worst European disaster since Stalingrad) is being missed and the slaughter goes on.  I really don't care too much about some spat and I'm pretty certain that, as many things these days, it was stage managed in a way so that those who had drifted away returned with renewed vigour and support and dare I say, step up to the plate and sort this out FFS.  

What on earth has all that bloodshed and destruction done?  Well, I'll give you a clue.  Go and follow the money, let's see what's behind it shall we?  These days it looks to me as if we can control things from our cosy western living rooms and we haven't a clue what it is like.  We get our information from our own state propaganda machines and we are constantly lied to by our governments.  

You feel you want to do what I'd have probably done 30 years ago with disputes at work and that's to figuratively knock the two protagonist's heads together and knock some sense into them.

Here, those with already heightened Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) are flipping out and having mental melt downs and why?  I suppose these days you have to get angry with something or lose your temper with someone and why?  I don't get it.  These people have about as much knowledge of foreign affairs and diplomacy as I do which is the square root of sweet fanny Adams.  The game is being played, the pieces on the chess board are moved to a plan and we are not party to that, have no influence over it and have no idea what the endgame is in mind.  So why all the wailing and gnashing of teeth about some school ground ruckus in the playground?  

I think it is some sort of Psyop myself, designed to bring the Europeans into line by getting them to rally around the bullied school boy.  But....., I've been wrong before.

I really wish people were focused on stopping the bloodshed rather than wanting to finance further weapons and prolonging the agony of, what is, an unwinnable war.  It was always going to be so despite the West's wet dream that they could beat Russia.  Getting off on this by sending someone else's sons off to fight your proxy war.  

So, keep changing your profile picture, flying your flags and rearranging your TDS allowing you to vent your spleen and at the same time reinforce and embolden our lords and masters.  

Nice Lads - Good To See

 I've had some nice lads here working on re pointing the front wall and repairing bits around the house.  They've done a nice job, interrupted by rain and the like but they've always been good humoured, polite and they've done a really nice job.  It's drawn comments from the neighbours so that is good (I think).  Maybe they'll get some more work, I hope so as it's nice to see some honest hard working, polite workmen.

My cold has come out now but I really could have done without it, but these things happen I suppose.  I am meant to be out for breakfast tomorrow and so I hope it will have gone way by then or at least be manageable.

So I must go and give a positive review for the lads and their work.  It certainly looks to have improved the wall which was in a bad state of repair.  I'll give it a blast with the pressure washer later in the year to clean the bricks themselves but they actually look very good as it is.

Cold Out Of Nowhere

 Blast it!  Sore throat and now sneezing my head off!  Where did that come from, I've hardly been out recently if the 48 hour is to be believed.  Just what I don't need as the bricklayers are her and the butcher is a just about to arrive.  I feel like bleh!

a couple of Lemsips and a big hit of Vitamin C will hopefully allow me to get through the day.

I don't think I've had a cold for around a year though so should count myself lucky I suppose but it's one of the fill your head up and affects your ears too.  Fingers crossed I can shake this off.

I've setup the new telescope so grandson 1 can see the planets all aligned today/tomorrow.  

Reconnecting To Old Friends - Mind Whir

Why you may ask is my mind whirring?  I think it is because I know now what I didn't know then.  

Have a listen to this and see if you can see what the problem is?

 Yes, it's something like that but not entirely.  It's the same with a number of the friendships from back then.  We were good friends and now I look back and think to myself, oh my goodness, that's what they meant!  I'm not very good at picking up signals at all and here I am looking back and suddenly it all makes some sort of sense in that neither of us were asking the right questions and not just this occurrence.   

I wonder what would have happened as, of course, I probably wouldn't have had the same course through life had these things happened in the order they did but blow me down, there's photos of us just being good friends and we all used to hang around together.  

Later on there's a photo of someone else and she's looking at me in a way that sort of confirms what I felt at the time but didn't act on.  

Too late now but these insights and what their ramifications may have been are interesting.  You can't change the past but you can imagine what it might have been like.  Are they regrets or just an insight?  It is often stated that "I wish I'd known then what I know now" and I can see why that would be.  I would have actually asked the question, been more certain about my ground, understood that the signs were all there but I wasn't as quick on the uptake as I should have been.  Certainly in one case I am sure of it.  Life would have been interesting indeed had that happened.  It's the same with another friend who I just hadn't realised was making lots of signs and I was just being a thicko LOL.

The band, Bear's Den are well worth a listen to.  This series of First Loves is a particular favourite but I mustn't listen for too long as it does make me a bit sad.  

Shakes Head In Disbelief - Yet Again

 You have to wonder how these people got to power and what made them think they were good enough to do the job they were voted in to do?

I recall that they said they'd freeze council tax and energy bills.  Mmm well council tax had gone up as has my energy bills, not just by a small amount either.  A 5 or 6 pence rise in my kerosene and add some VAT to that sounds OK until you realise that I use around 2,500 litres a year.  Our electricity bills have, I'd suggest gone up almost double in 5 years.  Green taxes and idiotic reliance on medieval technology will do that, although our politicians still adhere to something that failed to work hundreds of years ago. 

So I shake my head once again as we can all go back and see on YouTube and elsewhere these promises made and within a year broken.  Not just one promise either, all of them.  I have no idea quite how they are going to fix the hole they've made themselves but it will be funny, in a ghoulish kind of way, to see what happens.  We are being laughed at and rightly so, our silly leaders are making grand quotes and gestures as if they, and they alone, can bring peace and stability to regions way out of our control.  It's the "My dad's bigger than your dad" school playground sort of stuff that you used to hear when immature and at primary school.  Did they ever grow up?  We all know the answer to that.

You often hear that we want the adults in charge and perhaps soon, if it all goes down the toilet, that might happen but watching all this unfold in front of our eyes is both fascinating and painful at the same time.  Sort of sadomasochistic I suppose and as my friend used to say "You pay good money for that in London!"

Respect - Or The Loss Of It

 I remember being told to respect my elders and betters.  There are few left to respect these days I think.  The odd person you see or hear but generally, the "celebrities", the newsreaders, the reporters and worse of all, the politicians are odious characters.

The BBC, once the bastion of reporting was stating that the AfD party in Germany were far right like the party that was voted in before the second world war?  Huh?  The National Socialist Party were voted in and they were, as the name clearly states, socialists. The brainwashing that goes as reporting these days and the use of weaponized words actually doesn't have the affect that they want, it does the opposite, it makes me suspicious and ultimately these words lose their power as they are invariably used out of context and they no longer shock which is when you should reserve the use of such words to impact what you are saying.  Everything these days cannot be the way they describe them and we've run out of adjectives to use.

People are desperate to stay relevant and the trouble is, the more they do that the worse a job they make of it.  "It is better to keep one's mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."  We are being played and our time as a big power in the world has eroded fast in the last few years.  The robot Prime Minister we have now doesn't seem capable of being a big stage player and has no real say in matters even though he thinks he does.

So respect, how do you earn respect?  How about not taking me for a fool, not taking my money, not being a complete dickhead when you speak, not acting like a spoiled child when criticized.  How about answering a question truthfully, not lying all the time, not blaming anyone but yourself because, you know, you're in charge now and the buck stops with you.  Because these people have never held down a real job (no matter what their CV might say) they don't have the character or mentality to tackle the work ahead of them in a controlled, disciplined and planned manner.  Without proper planning and good management failure comes as a complete shock to them, they thought that writing it on a bit of paper would make it happen, they don't seem to have a clue.  Called to high office, they haven't a scooby.

Earn our respect by doing the things that need doing no matter how hard they are and by doing them for the benefit of all especially us, the tax payers who they come to time and again to prop up their failures.  People only have so much tolerance and so much money too.  A laffer curve ought to be etched into everyone of their portfolio cases so they continually have the reality of their actions before their eyes.  Socialism hasn't worked EVER.  It cannot work in the way they want - a big state produces nothing and consumes everything it comes into contact with. It stifles everything and rewards no participants with the diminishing wealth of the working classes who were meant to benefit from these policies.

When will the people withdraw their consent?  When will they stop the bread and circuses and see through this awful period in our history?  I think it is gradual but more people need to wake up.

Deceit and Dishonour

 Surely these things in high office are to be frowned upon and indeed they should be whiter than white so to speak?  Not our lot in government now - there seems to be a daily exposé of untruths and downright lies if we are honest about it.

I cannot say that I am a Policeman or a Doctor or trained professional but if I were a politican I can claim to be many things.  The recent on is the Business Secretary who states he is a Solicitor.  Well. no he isn't, he did train to be one but no, he isn't one.  His CV and many other documents state that he is.  These people have no shame though and despite this being pretty serious, they come out with some old bollocks about it.

None of them appear to have actually done' any of the jobs they say they have and all of them seem deficient in the ability to do the job or to actually tell the truth.  

We had this in business and the thing was, despite what our bosses stated, to test them in difficult circumstances and see if they pulled through or buckled.  The three year men we used to call them for that is how long each job role lasted before they were promoted through their incompetence and then, just before they were found out, they'd leave and go to the next company ready to cause havoc there.

One of the most amazing things was my old boss took on an "Electrician" and sent him to site where he turned up in his shiny new shoes, tool box and extremely smartly dressed.   There was something strange but he seemed willing and pleasant enough.  My foreman set him to work and I went to see him and took one look at his work and asked him to redo it.  Even I, a few years off the tools could do better.  He did another go and I called the foreman and we went to see him when he then admitted that he wasn't an electrician at all, he just chanced his arm.  I bollocked my boss and asked him how he'd taken on these guys.  He'd placed an advert and conducted rudimentary interviews, didn't vet them with anyone, didn't ask to see their union card or their trade card and just took them on.  

As an aside he'd managed to take on two of the very worst (blacklisted) people too and so I had a lot of fun to come on that but I digress.

So why is it acceptable that these people lie? Why do we, the paying public stand for it?  Are we so worn down by these corrupt officials we let them get away with it or are we hoping for some sort of miracle to get rid of them?   They really are the worst bunch you've ever seen and some of them can barely string together a coherent argument but you'd not like to be near them out in the street or down the pub they look deranged and the sort to break out into violent disorder as they are foul and spout incontinent verbiage.  Evil acid tongued no nothing liars the lot.

I enjoy how enraged they are by Donald Trump.  They sound pathetic and make out like they really matter in world affairs anymore.  Not one of them is statesman like or politically astute enough to realise that we as a country no longer matter and Europe is not faring better.  We've been called out and found wanting and we are making ourselves look and sound irrelevant on the world stage.  Amateurs could do a better job than this lot, really they could.

Oh well, I suppose we need to give them enough rope and let themselves run as fast as they can.  I don't know if they know how irrelevant they actually are and what a car crash awaits us all as we hurtle headlong down a blind set of very dark, foggy  alleys.

Preserve Us From Experts

Can there be anymore massive a Red Flag than  "Experts Say", "Scientists Warn" or "Environmentalists state"?  

Of course not.  It's all bollocks and is often accompanied with weasel words like "Could" "Might" "Opinion" - it's headline grabbing deflection and generally is to be ignored as it doesn't move anything on, it's packed with assumptions and generally based on computer models and adjusted data.

Start reading things with the actual data produced where you can go and verify it yourself.  Just one example was a recent one about Polar Bears and someone getting upset that they have licences available to cull certain Bears.  BUT THE BEARS ARE ENDANGERED you hear them cry.  Go look at the data and you'll see that some populations may indeed be, but others are thriving.  You need to go beyond the headline and see through the tugging at your heart strings.

We have a problem with Deer that no one appears to be addressing because they are all like Bambi and no one wants to harm them, they're cute.  Mmmm, tell that to the farmers and land owners and you might be surprised.  If you've ever hit one in your car then you might also realise what a danger they are that way too.  I don't expect the townies to realise, they don't live with them but the population is out of hand and they need to be controlled.  So many do gooders live in the cities and I'm sure if they lived out here they might actually appreciate the problems we have.  

These well intentioned, but generally badly informed, people know what's good for us and have a full conviction that they are right and we are not.  There's no room for discussion about it.  They actually ruin the countryside that they don't live in and are pretty much ignorant about how we live.

Anyway, experts eh?  God preserve us from these "elites" and let us just get on with our lives free from these people.  

To Stifle Or To Stimulate

 I see this all the time.  "We are going for growth", "We need to stimulate our economy" ad nauseam.  And, what do they do?  Yes they push up taxes, push up National Insurance, hike local taxes, mess up the roads, make car traps to raise revenues and increase the costs of parking and the hours that you can park are extended overnight and at weekends.  

What exactly are our councillors and politicians smoking these days?  They have all lost their minds but in reality they aren't that bright to have lost them.  At least we know where all the village idiots now work.  Have ANY of these people worked in business, do any of them live lives like us?  I do my own revolt to this by no longer going (unless forced) to town, f*** them.  You'll not get money from me and the shops wont get trade from me either.  A bit harsh you say but it's ridiculous that they are driving customers and businesses from the high street.  Next they'll be cutting the number of spaces, narrowing the roads so that you can only use a push bike and that will be it, dead centre of town.  It already looks like a battlefield of pound shops, charity shops, nail bars and Turkish Barbers, the last bank went last year I think and no one is ringing the alarm bells about it.

Growth, a word written on paper but of no substance in the minds of these people who honestly think that by saying something it will magically happen! They have no idea how it all connects together, no understanding of the utter bollocks they spout.  Have you listened to them?  Energy can be magicked out of the sky without a problem, it will solve the world's problems we are leading the way on this!  But even if you agree that CO2 is a problem (dear reader it isn't it is life itself look it up) the headlong rush to affect 1% of the world's CO2 estimated in the trillions - yes trillions with a T wont make an iota of difference ever ever.  It cannot be done, "the science" should tell them that but it's zealotry not science, its dogma and ideological gobbledegook.  

It's like running the 100 metres with your shoelaces tied together, each and every turn they cannot detach from their heads that you cannot have both growth and repressive environmentalism as bed fellows - it never worked before and given the trillions already thrown at getting nowhere in the past 50 years, what makes them think they can do it now, other than writing it on paper and hoping it will be done.   Their God like proclamations mean nothing without the power to actually do something about it and asking for the wrong things gets you nowhere.  

Get some business people into running the country and see what that will do for you.  

I see our esteemed leader is talking of putting 30,000 troops into Ukraine.  Does that sound like a good plan to you?  Is that wealth creation and looking after our interests?  30,000 against 1.3 Million - interesting odds.  But if he can't stop illegal aliens invading our shores what chance will he have against the Russians?  All they need to do is order some Rubber Dinghies off Amazon and they're through!  

Such is the feckless leadership in this country, wondering why we are heading into a mess of their own making and being unable to understand how they got there.  Any sane person can see the problems and I like that the EU and UK are getting all upset about the way Trump is going about things but wake up, we aren't who we used to be, we are weakened by all these woke policies imposed on us, by the destruction of our economy and the outsourcing of our industries to India and China because of our green zealotry. The EU too have followed socialist ideology and this is the outcome, you don't matter anymore, your economies and ours are failing and rather than hurting the BRICS countries, you need to wake up and see what those markets are like compared to ours, do some homework and watch the demise of the West before your very eyes.

It's late, we need to wake up, populism is rising and it probably needs to as we are at a turning point and need to steer away from the iceberg we've just navigated and accelerated towards.  

We ARE Better Than These "People"

We are better than the rabble that pretends to look after our interests.  Left alone we would probably be able to prosper and certainly wouldn't have the ugly politics and moral bankruptcy of those who think they know better than us.

I believe we are innately good, of course a few bad apples, of course there are.  But, we are generally good but societal pressures make us bad.   Take the high ground, do good, be good and try and demonstrate a higher purpose.  There's a lot of anger and selfishness around but you don't need to be like that.

Don't be the angry driver waving your arms at me because you are breaking the speed limit and want me to get out of your way when I'm just keeping within the limits.  The person who drives furiously at you down our one track road and expects me to jump out of their way.  The angry person who bumps into you whilst looking at their iPhone and then curses you for not getting out of their way.   It takes nothing to be respectful, polite and pleasant, nothing at all.

I worked in a shop and found many people were kind and polite but a few were ignorant, didn't use pleases or thank yous and treated you like dirt.  I very much doubt that they would have liked it had they been in the same position.  It costs nothing to remember where you came from and it costs nothing at all to say thank you, please or compliment someone on a job well done or for helping you out.  Always say thank you no matter who it is.  The till person, the shop worker who helped you find something, someone answering a question or serving you food it defines who you are.  The Amazon delivery person who turns up in the pouring rain, a grateful thank you is going to do them the world of good and I am always grateful that something that I want has been safely delivered.

Thanking people who come to your house to give a quote shows that they are appreciated, telling them whether they've won or lost the quote and a brief explanation why.

Why is it so difficult for people to be pleasant to each other?  I like to think that Karma will indeed reward these people.  Many instances I've seen where their ignorance and vitriol are rewarded appropriately.   Having said that, I suppose I shouldn't revel in their discomfort but I suppose that's just being human too and seeing someone get their just desserts after being particular obnoxious is a sort of reward in some way?

Have a look at this video, it moves me in many ways but it also points out that despite those who say they are here to help you, you may have to help yourself but there is good out there and it's generally us, not those who want the power from us but use it only for themselves forgetting who they represent.  

Ugh People!

 We went to see an exhibition with the grandchildren yesterday.  We had no problem parking but when we came out there were people trying to park and waiting for spaces to appear.  A quite nice woman asked if we were going and we said yes.  She seemed alright but, the car behind was some crazy waving at me yelling, pointing at her head etc etc.  Now I had to settle in 4 people and then back out and it wasn't helped that where I needed to reverse into was blocked by this crazy!  

So I reversed slightly but they didn't move, then drove forward and edged back again.  Eventually I just reversed so close that they finally got the message.  All the while they were waving and I just hoped that they didn't steal the place off the lady who had asked.  As I am trying to drive out I've then got a head on car going the wrong way towards me probably seeing I was moving and racing to get to the space! 

Why don't people either go to the three other larger car parks or just be patient and also not steal spaces off others who have waited.  I find this sort of mental behaviour quite abhorrent really.  Most of them should, join in with me now, you know my words. "Grow the f**k up!"  It's pathetic, it really is.

And so onward and upwards and off to the local shops and once again, there's the clown world parking - they have to stop double parked so they can get to their shop yet 20 paces away are open spaces.  But no, stop me and those behind whilst you, who's universe revolves around you go about your business oblivious to everyone else.  Confront them and it's not them but you who are in the wrong. 

We live down a small, quite long single track road.  I have learned to now just stop my car and let those coming the other way manoeuvre past me.  They drive like lunatics (not all granted) and yet it's pot holed, speed ramped and we have plenty of wildlife too from Pheasants to Deer, it's a Bridleway so we have Horses and dog walkers, Badgers, Squirrels, you get the picture.  A few of us have SUVs but there are quite a lot of small saloon cars and they seem to be the  ones rushing to get somewhere.  The other day I saw one of these small cars coming at Formula One pace so I pulled into a passing area and as luck would have it, on her side of the road to pass me was a monster of a puddle which she saw too late, hit and speed and made a muddy mess of her car.  Karma.  So I don't try and pass these people at speed as they do but just let them work their way around.

I think it is the same lady who when I was having heating Kerosene delivered wa getting super angry.  The lane is only big enough for a car or tanker and he was delivering 500 litres to me.  It's not that much in terms of time maybe a 5 minute job at most.  She was beeping and then came to the end of the drive and was grumbling about missing her gym class or some such, so it gave me great pleasure to say I'd go and tall to the delivery driver.  We quite enjoyed spending extra time and slowing the delivery right down.  She had to wait and when he climbed back into his cabin she realised she'd have to reverse to let him past as there's no way he could have gone backwards.  Ho Ho!  Karma once again.

Why people don't allow enough time to do things, aren't planned (I knew where every car park was in case they were busy) and so on I don't know.  All that happens is they get angry and impatient and stressed.  It's not necessary.  As my old School RE Teacher used to say "Impatience make Inpatients!"  

Falsehood and Dishonour

 Some will recognise these words:

AI Tells me:

"In the Bible 

2 Corinthians 6:8 says, "through glory and dishonour, slander and praise; viewed as imposters, yet genuine". This verse means that people should serve God regardless of whether others honour or despise them.

In Freemasonry

In the Third Degree Ceremony, there is a passage that refers to the "stain of falsehood and dishonour". 

In the Master Mason ceremony, there is a demonstration of the principle that it is often better to die than to be subjected to falsehood and dishonour. 

The ceremony also teaches loyalty to fellow men. 

In general

Dishonesty can have negative consequences, such as lowering self-esteem and increasing negative affect. 

In the workplace, dishonesty can lead to self-deception, which can lead to erroneous predictions of future success. 

Some people see lying as a distinctive wrong, while others see it as morally equivalent to other forms of verbal deception."

I am an adherent that you should be honest and truthful and there is something terribly wrong with you if you continue to lie to me.  We all know that old adage of "Q: How do you know when a politician is lying to you?  Their mouths are moving!" Today's motley bunch hold us in contempt and appear to lie non stop, right in your face, blatant, dishonest and treat us like fools.  

I used to enjoy it, being treated like a fool that is.  Why?  Well, it's the last thing I am and so my retorts sting badly when I eventually break cover.  I was reminded that my ex housemate had a very deep and slow voice which people mistook for a slowness of mind on his part.  Believe me, he was never slow of mind and in the 70s was one of only a few computer technicians I knew.  He was exceedingly bright, amazingly intelligent and people only found out a little while after they'd think they were taking the mickey out of someone who they thought was "a little backward".  He too enjoyed correcting the record shall we say.  Both us us enjoyed the word play and intellectually getting even.

J D Vance, vice president of the USA just tore a strip off of our ruling classes in the Munich Security conference and sort of suggested that perhaps they ought to start listening to us, the voters and the people.  You could see the shock and the denial from the German geezer was a sight to behold, almost reinforcing what was said with the Philistine Pig Ignorance we have come to expect from the EU and most of our "leaders" these days.

They've ignored the very people who put them in power, who they are there to serve and they've lost their moral compass (if they ever had one) and continue to be in denial about the impacts of their policies.  How formerly intelligent people have such shrivelled brains is beyond me.  But then, perhaps you've had the same experience I have.  There were very, and I mean very, few people who became bosses who didn't completely lose their technical or management abilities when they became Big bosses (Directors head of department that sort of thing).  Their decision making capabilities and their policies were completely at odds with all the good things (generally) they had done to earn the position.  They turned on their former colleagues, made stupid policies and generally destroyed working environments.  I'd say 80% of them did this.  Of the 20% only say 5% were brilliant managers.

Is it built into our DNA to turn into a complete arsehole the moment you get authority?  Is lying and contempt for your fellows a natural gravitation away from being someone good?  I have no idea.  I used to like our phrase about these people "His men would follow him anywhere BUT only out of curiosity!" 

I like to think that in the main, except for one particular incident, I've always tried to do the right thing and have been prepared to walk away from my job if they didn't like it.  The exception was where I was forced to do something, quite against my will.   made my stance clear about it, had to do it and regretted it.  But, a few weeks after I did that I left the company, started in a new industry on a lot more money and benefits and never looked back.  They were left with myself and part of my team leaving and then they had a big problem as no one had any idea what we really did.  One of the Directors came and took my mobile hone from me as he wanted one (they were very rare back in the day) and then complained that it kept ringing.  It was the 24 hour help line!!!  Silly sod another one who deserved exactly what he got - no good asking me, they'd taken the phone off me and could work out what to do with it as it was no longer my problem.  Anyway, it cost them half a department eventually.  A few weeks earlier it had also cost them half of the businesses turnover as my boss, Mr. Intelligent (Sarc) decided to barge in on a meeting with a prospective customer and proceed to destroy all the good work we had done up to that point.  

I like that the customer wrote to the business explaining that he was delighted with my team and myself but he had to withdraw the contract as he was unimpressed with the Director that barged into the meeting uninvited and he felt that they could not work with us if he was part of the proposed management team.  Of course, that was my fault.  So many people are like that, God knows why?  

Be open, be honest, don't be an arsehole. 

Helicopter View

one of the biggest things I learned was to use a technique called the Helicopter View.   It's a good analogy for dealing with problems and whereas, as an engineer I was used to diving in and fixing a problem in a sort of single minded macro view, the helicopter view allowed me to tackle problems completely differently and look at things in a whole new way.  

It pulls away from the immediacy of the problem and allows you to think about the totality of things.  I use it a lot as it allows me to view things in the world somewhat differently to others.  A global view of the world and what is going on soon wakes you up to the idiocy that is happening here in the UK.  Our weak feeble minded politicians have been navel gazing for far too long and are under the impression that they have a big say at the table.  I'm sure the world looks on in awe (oops that was a bit sarcastic).  I see our people saying great things and demanding particular actions and yet, no one with any sense would take their bleating realistically.

The UK no longer has the influence it thinks it does.  Frankly we've given away any authority we had at the alter of woke ideology and our financial acumen is in dispute.  Our headlong leadership (opp more sarcasm) into net zero is also showing what a bunch of clowns we are.  Continuing to push the awful war in Ukraine, that has taken 1.6 Million lives so far and then to poke the Bear further by making them a NATO country in direct opposition to what you said you'd do proves you a liar and not someone who keeps their word, as well all know now, the present incumbents doubled down on the previous pile of excrement and none of them have told the truth.

So helicopter this if you can, trace the money, trace the reasons why and look at the overall world picture.  No one is coming out of this covered in glory at all.  Higher fuel prices,  huge debt, lives lost, trade diverted, inflation (wait until you see that work through). Huge swings in prosperity away from Europe and the West.  Go look at the BRICS economies, look at how they control almost everything except aerospace at the moment.  Russian sanctions impacted European economies but look at India, China and their trading partners. Get up in that helicopter and go and look at the power these countries have.

I was impressed that certain goods are banned or attract tariffs.  They just get around these and the BRICS markets are bigger than Europe and North America and so they don't need to trade with us.  What's the point of trying to sell say a few hundred cars to the UK when they can sell tens of thousands to Brazil?  

I can go on about this but we need to raise our eyes and look beyond our puny economic woes and see where the next threats are coming from.  Get up to high altitude and look for yourself.  

Service - At Last

 Gosh, I emailed late yesterday, got a response back, came to see me this morning and I have a quote and they can start pretty soon which is brilliant.

Wow, finally someone who was not only responsive but also courteous and turned up when they said too.  Excellent.

The other company turned up but in reality they were a little too expensive but they turned up and were pleasant.  A bit too rich for the blood perhaps though.

I am glad about that as I need to get things sorted out for the house.  re-pointing the front wall may seem a bit extravagant but it needs to be sorted out as the frost has got into the mortar and I'd rather give it a new lease of life now than if it falls down!  I can then get my hedgerow sorted out too.

Which Got Me Thinking More About Kindness

 I mentioned that the women I knew were kind, sure there were some nasty ones but once you've left school and go to college yo no longer associate with those who gave you a hard time but gravitate towards those whom you have good relations.

It occurred to me that, of course, there were plenty of people who disliked me and gave me a hard time.  A lot of that is because of my personality type.  Being an INTJ is difficult and lots of people don't know how to handle us.  Then as I was just mulling it over a flashback to a situation where I was a young up and coming technician who was plucked out of the pool because I had a specific skill for understanding complex control systems and I could scan multiple drawings and see problems in them - it's a pattern thing that I can notice things like this.  A number in a series that is out of place, a connection that is in the wrong line and so on.  So I became a young wizzkid I suppose and now it dawns on me, all these years ago, that the reason I was treated quite so badly was that I could do something other people could not and maybe I was a threat to them?  I don't know, I liked to be around clever people but something must have affected people who'd lose their minds in anger sometimes.

All it did to me was to make me work harder, learn more and move around jobs.  I look at how people are losing their mind over Trump and Musk and I wonder if it is some sort of problem people have that they cannot work with people or perhaps they've been found out and karma is coming down the road fast towards them?  I'd say I'm pretty much a dark horse and keep my cards close to my chest in business, not so much outside of that area.  The thing is that perhaps I scared these people somehow?  I'd always have run ins with the vast majority of my bosses, there were only a handful that I really excelled working for, two of them were women and they were scarily good but they knew that I'd get the job done, would leave me to it and I'd only have to go and ask and they'd put things in place for me.  A couple of men too were good but the rest were chancers who had no idea what they were doing and who made decisions that weren't thought through.

What they'd hate is that I'd challenge their decisions where needed and I'd produce data and plans why their decision wouldn't work or be suitable and then they'd get angry and tell me to implement it.  I'd document my objections, tell them what might happen and blow me down, it would come to pass.  Then they'd explode and I'd make the situation worse by giving them a copy of what I'd told them would happen.  I wasn't a diplomat! 

So back to it, all this mistreatment was because inevitably these guys would screw up all by themselves and then they'd come after me.  I didn't help myself as I'd probably make the situation worse :-) I see this in the world now.  Cr@p decisions made by inadequately prepared specifications, a wrong grasp on facts and figures and no planning, ROI, work on risks or knock on impacts.  It's pitiful.  When you point out that there's a problem they actually use words like "I don't care" or "No it's not" and there's absolutely nothing there at all.  They don't listen and they make stupid decisions as if just by making them it's going to solve things.  Then they get angry and yell and are nasty and for what purpose?

It's a nasty place at the moment.  We are run by intellectual lightweights who hold idealogy above real life actual data and who's idea of an impact assessment lacks any coherent argument, planning or cost benefit analysis.  The reason is?  None of them have been in business or understand the totality of what it means to approach the self inflicted problems in a holistic manner.

Anyway, as I daydreamed this meeting I had with a technician who couldn't see the problems I was highlighting it struck me that all they saw was a threat and all I saw was the danger of wiring up some components in a way that would potentially kill someone if installed as shown.  I wonder if all displays of anger are based in this inadequacy to be open to discussion and more likely to protect their own necks?