have received a few complaints at the lack of medical updates on the blog. The truth is that I am in medical limbo - waiting for my new implanted hip to fuse with the bone is the medical equivalent of watching paint dry -- except there is nothing to see.. I can't tell if its going well or badly -- that has to wait for my consultant. I may be green or I may be amber. The big thing to avoid is re dislocating my hip -- which would be a definite red and I think I have avoided that as I am sure I would have noticed.
However six weeks (ie tomorrow!!!!) is a key milestone... I can start sleeping on my side which will be the biggest improvement in my quality of life since I ended the self-injection saga... I might even be able to start driving... (as long as I remember not ti run over my crutches which we nearly did the other week); I could start coming off crutches BUT that needs an X-ray -- and I have managed to hit consultant holiday time -- so that is delayed until 19 March and trip up to big city. In the meantime I have to stick to my partial weight bearing physio regime where within limitations I seem to be gradually getting more flexible. Toughest questions are when the physio asks whether I am better than before and I have to admit I did not spend my life in awe at how much or how little I could elevate my left leg while lying on my side.
The big discovery is swimming with the pensioners. I am now pretty confident swimming on my back and I also seem to do better front crawl that ever before - which is very gratifying (the big no-no is breaststroke as the frog style leg action risks undoing all the good of the op by making my hip pop out). What is really good for me is striding around the pool -- but that still feels a bit wobbly. But for half an hour I am liberated from crutchdom. Next update post consultant visit and hopefully can start the long process of retraining my muscles to support a straight leg....
Monday, 3 March 2008
Saturday, 1 March 2008
Compulsory reading
I used to think that every civil servant should be made to visit the Millennium Dome - to make sure they realised that it was not enough to hope that a misconceived project would suddenly come right and that things could go horribly wrong. My latest candidate for the mandatory list is to read "The Great Deluge" by Douglas Brinkley (recommended in my appeal for reading suggestions by Tom Burke of E3G) -- about the week of Hurricane Katrina.
When I lived in California I was always a bit sceptical about the handy earthquake advice in the yellow pages suggesting that every home should have three days of supplies available in case of a major disaster. After all this was America -- a first world not a third world country and surely it was inconceivable that the USA could leave any of its citizens needing basic supplies for three whole days. Against that complacent background, GD is a stunning wake-up call showing how badly bureaucracies can screw up. Its a great antidote against the muddling through thesis.There are many villains of the piece. First of all years and years of development which eroded the Louisiana coastline -- seemingly no politician since Theodore Roosevelt understood the role of the wetlands in protecting the cities. All compounded by a rush to develop and a failure to maintain. Sustainable development anyone?
The second villain is corruption and cronyism. I had been about to blog earlier on the massive tax that corruption imposes on poor countries after reading a book on India which suggested that only 30% of any funds made it through to intended recipient after everyone in government had taken their cut. But GD shows that corruption can expose the poor and vulnerable even in the richest of countries - corruption as a reason why money voted for maintenance of the levees was not spent and they were hopelessly undermaintained at the time of Katrina hit; in the New Orleans Police department and cronyism in the appointment of the wrong person to run the Federal Emergency Management Agency (the infamous Brownie); in letting contracts to contributors not the those best qualified to meet needs. But of all these the most pernicious impact was the Mayor of New Orleans concern at the impact of requiring what might prove to be an unnecessary mandatory evacuation on his business backers when there was still time to get the old, sick and poor out of the city -- and these were overwhelmimingly Katrina's victims.
The third villain is focus. The absorption of FEMA into the department of Homeland Security meant that the big boss was only really interested in terrorism - a second 9/11 not a big storm. And FEMA could cope with hurricanes -- and recover from wind damage -- but not flooding following a hurricane. FEMA was complacent because it had done well with the last four Florida hurricanes but those were ordinary hurricanes......and in a Republican state in an election year....
The fourth villain is a failure of political leadership - compounded by the intrusion of partisan politics in the struggle between the Democrat governor of Louisiana and the Republican president. And a Mayor holed up in a hotel determined to put his own safety above any sign of caring about the plight of his citizens - a failure to be there.
But all that was made much worse by incompetence before the event - lack of preparation (buses standing in flood zones; failure to have any lists of vulnerable people; failure to have any plans to evacuate in many public facilities; a failure to think about how to contact people not tracking the eye of the storm through the internet or on TV and a failure to learn any lessons from a simulation exercise of just such a catastrophe a couple of years before - and then unconscionable bureaucracy after the event -- stopping help that was being offered getting through, compounded by a lack of imagination... about what people might need; how they might react. and one of the most bizarre lessons to come out of Katrina is how many people refused evacuation because they did not want to be separated from their pets -- misery compounded by pets not being allowed on the buses which finally arrived.
And throw into the mix the more peculiarly US factors of segregated neighbourhoods and an awful lot of weapons around which means when law and order began to break down it did so with potentially very deadly consequences.Lest this all sounds dire, it is -- but it is leavened by huge numbers of stories of amazing individual heroism, some real corporate social responsibility showing up the leaden footed Feds = Wal Mart. American Airlines and Coca Cola to name but three and some stunning acts of individual generosity which I think no other country would ever match.
So it might never happen here on this scale and in this way - but after reading this I will never treat our business continuity planning as a boring compliance chore - and we might want to send it to everyone we are asking to draw up an adaptation plan = and a good Christmas present for many of our friends in the Treasury.
When I lived in California I was always a bit sceptical about the handy earthquake advice in the yellow pages suggesting that every home should have three days of supplies available in case of a major disaster. After all this was America -- a first world not a third world country and surely it was inconceivable that the USA could leave any of its citizens needing basic supplies for three whole days. Against that complacent background, GD is a stunning wake-up call showing how badly bureaucracies can screw up. Its a great antidote against the muddling through thesis.There are many villains of the piece. First of all years and years of development which eroded the Louisiana coastline -- seemingly no politician since Theodore Roosevelt understood the role of the wetlands in protecting the cities. All compounded by a rush to develop and a failure to maintain. Sustainable development anyone?
The second villain is corruption and cronyism. I had been about to blog earlier on the massive tax that corruption imposes on poor countries after reading a book on India which suggested that only 30% of any funds made it through to intended recipient after everyone in government had taken their cut. But GD shows that corruption can expose the poor and vulnerable even in the richest of countries - corruption as a reason why money voted for maintenance of the levees was not spent and they were hopelessly undermaintained at the time of Katrina hit; in the New Orleans Police department and cronyism in the appointment of the wrong person to run the Federal Emergency Management Agency (the infamous Brownie); in letting contracts to contributors not the those best qualified to meet needs. But of all these the most pernicious impact was the Mayor of New Orleans concern at the impact of requiring what might prove to be an unnecessary mandatory evacuation on his business backers when there was still time to get the old, sick and poor out of the city -- and these were overwhelmimingly Katrina's victims.
The third villain is focus. The absorption of FEMA into the department of Homeland Security meant that the big boss was only really interested in terrorism - a second 9/11 not a big storm. And FEMA could cope with hurricanes -- and recover from wind damage -- but not flooding following a hurricane. FEMA was complacent because it had done well with the last four Florida hurricanes but those were ordinary hurricanes......and in a Republican state in an election year....
The fourth villain is a failure of political leadership - compounded by the intrusion of partisan politics in the struggle between the Democrat governor of Louisiana and the Republican president. And a Mayor holed up in a hotel determined to put his own safety above any sign of caring about the plight of his citizens - a failure to be there.
But all that was made much worse by incompetence before the event - lack of preparation (buses standing in flood zones; failure to have any lists of vulnerable people; failure to have any plans to evacuate in many public facilities; a failure to think about how to contact people not tracking the eye of the storm through the internet or on TV and a failure to learn any lessons from a simulation exercise of just such a catastrophe a couple of years before - and then unconscionable bureaucracy after the event -- stopping help that was being offered getting through, compounded by a lack of imagination... about what people might need; how they might react. and one of the most bizarre lessons to come out of Katrina is how many people refused evacuation because they did not want to be separated from their pets -- misery compounded by pets not being allowed on the buses which finally arrived.
And throw into the mix the more peculiarly US factors of segregated neighbourhoods and an awful lot of weapons around which means when law and order began to break down it did so with potentially very deadly consequences.Lest this all sounds dire, it is -- but it is leavened by huge numbers of stories of amazing individual heroism, some real corporate social responsibility showing up the leaden footed Feds = Wal Mart. American Airlines and Coca Cola to name but three and some stunning acts of individual generosity which I think no other country would ever match.
So it might never happen here on this scale and in this way - but after reading this I will never treat our business continuity planning as a boring compliance chore - and we might want to send it to everyone we are asking to draw up an adaptation plan = and a good Christmas present for many of our friends in the Treasury.
Thursday, 28 February 2008
Revealing preferences
Economics (real economists can stop reading here) offers many useful insights and one of them comes from revealed preferences --put quite simply instead of theorising about how much you would be prepared to pay for something, it shows how much you are actually prepared to pay for something. I have been thinking quite a lot about this recently as I have become a major consumer of the local service economy -- and it seems to me that is revealing quite an interesting hierarchy of charges.I was quite taken aback for instance (and this may seem off) with how little my consultant charged for his part in cutting me to bits.. a clear hierarchy -- he charged £ 1750 (and the anaesthetist charged £ 690) for a couple of hours work plus visits every morning to discuss my progress and how India were getting on vs Australia. That may seem quite a lot, but it was a very small proportion of the overall package given the costs of the hotel/ hospital. If he had lifted his fee by 50% I wouldn't have batted an eyelid (though whether Visa would have increased my credit limit enough to pay is another thing).
The second person who seems to me not to know her own value is Mary. I have only just discovered Mary but she is what you might call a treasure. She will mend, shorten, remake anything. Since I discovered her she has rescued a moth-eaten cashmere sweater, taken three sizes out of a jacket and shortened two pairs of trousers (though they may have to be taken back to be lengthened since my left leg has grown by an inch and a half) -- and all with change from £ 40. And add to the list Sue the chiropodist - I had never visited one of these before but she seems to have done wonders for my feet in half an hour for half the price of getting my hair cut at a relatively cheap place (and a tenth of what I have been known to pay -guilty secrets).
This may all seem a rather odd and inconsequential ramble. But it puts the NAO report on GPs into an interesting light. If, rather than have their contract determined by government, and provide services to punters free at the point of delivery, what would they or could they charge and what would people be prepared to pay. I am not the right person to ask - I would pay very good money to keep out of their clutches (and indeed do which is why I always get travel injections from Trailfinders). But not clear that if you had asked the patients they could have doubled their charges over the past few years while radically cutting back the offer to their customers. Since GPs pride themselves on being private contractors -- and the government's mistake in negotiating the GP contract seems have been to underestimate just how much they would react to incentives - it would be quite interesting to expose them to a world of revealing preferences.
The second person who seems to me not to know her own value is Mary. I have only just discovered Mary but she is what you might call a treasure. She will mend, shorten, remake anything. Since I discovered her she has rescued a moth-eaten cashmere sweater, taken three sizes out of a jacket and shortened two pairs of trousers (though they may have to be taken back to be lengthened since my left leg has grown by an inch and a half) -- and all with change from £ 40. And add to the list Sue the chiropodist - I had never visited one of these before but she seems to have done wonders for my feet in half an hour for half the price of getting my hair cut at a relatively cheap place (and a tenth of what I have been known to pay -guilty secrets).
This may all seem a rather odd and inconsequential ramble. But it puts the NAO report on GPs into an interesting light. If, rather than have their contract determined by government, and provide services to punters free at the point of delivery, what would they or could they charge and what would people be prepared to pay. I am not the right person to ask - I would pay very good money to keep out of their clutches (and indeed do which is why I always get travel injections from Trailfinders). But not clear that if you had asked the patients they could have doubled their charges over the past few years while radically cutting back the offer to their customers. Since GPs pride themselves on being private contractors -- and the government's mistake in negotiating the GP contract seems have been to underestimate just how much they would react to incentives - it would be quite interesting to expose them to a world of revealing preferences.
Tuesday, 26 February 2008
Missing in action
Last week there was an intriguing piece on the news about new government advice to employers on the need to design every building to take account of terrorist risk -- with some advice that it made sense to design in at the start as a cheaper alternative to retrofitting. Since that sounded rather like the line we take on the need to build in sustainability features and make buildings resilient to climate change I thought it might be worth a look -- not least to see how generalised the advice was. After all, the risk of higher summer temperatures or more extreme weather events -- or indeed higher prices for carbon - are rather more generalised than the risk of terrorist attack - just ask the Save our Selsey campaign who are not quaking at the thought of jihad in West Sussex. So while the advice might make sense for some high profile locations in densely packed cities, I was interested to see just how big a cost the government was thinking made economic sense.
But the report seems to be missing in action. Despite there being a nice video of the report to replay on the BBC website, I could turn up nothing on the Home Office website. And a google search yielded no results at all. so my excellent scheme to contrast vs our sustainability advice frustrated at the first attempt.
And not for the first time. Back in the autumn the PM announced a new terrorism strategy which sounded interesting - not least for the proposal to require baggage checks at mainline train stations (which would have done nothing to foil the Madrid bombings where the bombers took the trains into Atocha mainline station). The proposal to ban cycles from any proximity to any potential target including train stations seemed to fly in the face of the need to move to lower carbon travel. So I thought I might look at the way in which the carbon assessment had been done in the regulatory impact assessment. But again, whatever document underpinned the statement was missing in action on the Home Office website - and certainly is not there today.
This may all seem a bit obsessive and sad. And it may all just be that the Home Office hasn't got its website together. But one of the other lessons from the excellent PB (see previous post) is the power of "terror" in politics and how "availability" affects the assessment of risk - why people are much more worried about some risks than others. It would just be reassuring to know that we are being equally rational about climate change as other more visible threats.
And at least Yasmin Diamond is back at work and now can sort out the HO website....
But the report seems to be missing in action. Despite there being a nice video of the report to replay on the BBC website, I could turn up nothing on the Home Office website. And a google search yielded no results at all. so my excellent scheme to contrast vs our sustainability advice frustrated at the first attempt.
And not for the first time. Back in the autumn the PM announced a new terrorism strategy which sounded interesting - not least for the proposal to require baggage checks at mainline train stations (which would have done nothing to foil the Madrid bombings where the bombers took the trains into Atocha mainline station). The proposal to ban cycles from any proximity to any potential target including train stations seemed to fly in the face of the need to move to lower carbon travel. So I thought I might look at the way in which the carbon assessment had been done in the regulatory impact assessment. But again, whatever document underpinned the statement was missing in action on the Home Office website - and certainly is not there today.
This may all seem a bit obsessive and sad. And it may all just be that the Home Office hasn't got its website together. But one of the other lessons from the excellent PB (see previous post) is the power of "terror" in politics and how "availability" affects the assessment of risk - why people are much more worried about some risks than others. It would just be reassuring to know that we are being equally rational about climate change as other more visible threats.
And at least Yasmin Diamond is back at work and now can sort out the HO website....
Sunday, 24 February 2008
Irrational voters -- part two
Today's book of the week (if that makes sense) is "The Political Brain" by Drew Westen - a psychology professor and frustrated Democrat from Emory University in Georgia -- an an attempt to explain why Americans keep voting Republican when it doesn't seem to be in their interests to do so. I had wanted to read this for a long time once I saw in the Economist review that the book was much sought after by both Presidential candidates and Gordon Brown's team...
It seems that despite the fact that Bill Clinton is the poster Democrat for Westen, he may not have given the book to Hillary as a Christmas present. The key thesis is that people decide on emotions not issues -- and no point trying to convince voters with facts, arguments, evidence. More theses: the need to take on "difficult issues" not avoid them; the need not to cede values to your opponents; the importance of "curb appeal" in selecting candidates. And an awful lot of examples of how successive Democrats - Dukakis, Gore, Kerry have been out Atwatered and outRoved to the White House. And it suggests that my Edwards/ Obama supporting friends might just be onto something..
So does any of this have any application here... I am sure we would not be too surprised by the result that people go with their feelings and are not convinced by reams of statistics. And some very interesting stuff on the politics of the "war on terror". But some of the most interesting stuff is on the need to use the right frames to discuss issues -- with a lot of cross references to Republican pollster Frank Luntz's "Words that Work" (for those of you who don't remember Frank Luntz he is the guy who pops up on Newsnight, looking as though he has come via Krispy Kreme and whose focus group during the Tory conference gave David Cameron leadership momentum (and who would have heralded a John Reid Premiership if Labour had reacted in the same way)).
According to the "Words that Work" thesis, "protecting the environment" would do nothing for the average American voter and "global warming" even less. Much more complimentary about Al Gore's reframing to "climate crisis" in his Oscar wining movie. The book is also very critical of the Democrat consultants (the real villain of the piece) warning Gore off talking about the environment in 2000. But I am not sure that they even bothered to market test "sustainable development" - but not sure it would have scored very high as a gut appeal that would have people rushing to the polls.
But apart from reading this have also just finished Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Chronicle of a Death Foretold in Spanish -- which was all fine EXCEPT I just can't work out what the end of the story with the non-virginal bride was... to save me re-reading in English, if anyone would like to explain this to me, would be very welcome. Otherwise weekend has been an orgy of televised sport from round the world -- golf from Arizona, tennis from Qatar, cricket from Christchurch and Sydney --but the implausible drubbing of the French in the Stade de France probably the highlight.. Spanish teacher has asked me to write a poem this week -- which will require a level of creativity not seen since I was fifteen. Or I just ask a niece for a link to a GCSE homework website. Have only agreed to do this in the basis that next week I get to do a Spanish version of a climate change presentation.
It seems that despite the fact that Bill Clinton is the poster Democrat for Westen, he may not have given the book to Hillary as a Christmas present. The key thesis is that people decide on emotions not issues -- and no point trying to convince voters with facts, arguments, evidence. More theses: the need to take on "difficult issues" not avoid them; the need not to cede values to your opponents; the importance of "curb appeal" in selecting candidates. And an awful lot of examples of how successive Democrats - Dukakis, Gore, Kerry have been out Atwatered and outRoved to the White House. And it suggests that my Edwards/ Obama supporting friends might just be onto something..
So does any of this have any application here... I am sure we would not be too surprised by the result that people go with their feelings and are not convinced by reams of statistics. And some very interesting stuff on the politics of the "war on terror". But some of the most interesting stuff is on the need to use the right frames to discuss issues -- with a lot of cross references to Republican pollster Frank Luntz's "Words that Work" (for those of you who don't remember Frank Luntz he is the guy who pops up on Newsnight, looking as though he has come via Krispy Kreme and whose focus group during the Tory conference gave David Cameron leadership momentum (and who would have heralded a John Reid Premiership if Labour had reacted in the same way)).
According to the "Words that Work" thesis, "protecting the environment" would do nothing for the average American voter and "global warming" even less. Much more complimentary about Al Gore's reframing to "climate crisis" in his Oscar wining movie. The book is also very critical of the Democrat consultants (the real villain of the piece) warning Gore off talking about the environment in 2000. But I am not sure that they even bothered to market test "sustainable development" - but not sure it would have scored very high as a gut appeal that would have people rushing to the polls.
But apart from reading this have also just finished Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Chronicle of a Death Foretold in Spanish -- which was all fine EXCEPT I just can't work out what the end of the story with the non-virginal bride was... to save me re-reading in English, if anyone would like to explain this to me, would be very welcome. Otherwise weekend has been an orgy of televised sport from round the world -- golf from Arizona, tennis from Qatar, cricket from Christchurch and Sydney --but the implausible drubbing of the French in the Stade de France probably the highlight.. Spanish teacher has asked me to write a poem this week -- which will require a level of creativity not seen since I was fifteen. Or I just ask a niece for a link to a GCSE homework website. Have only agreed to do this in the basis that next week I get to do a Spanish version of a climate change presentation.
Thursday, 21 February 2008
A new model for flexible staff resourcing?
Not sure if our Renew colleagues have focused on events in India yesterday -- where the first ever auction for cricket talent took place for the new Indian Premier League. But maybe it offers a model for the future...
after a few players were identified to lead their home cities, the rest -- a motley collection of the good, the were-good-but-now-slightly-over-the-hill and the up and coming were divided into groupings and the new franchises were each given a budget to bid to optimise their teams. And with some interesting results with different strategies (solid v flashy; batters v bowlers) emerging -- and some players had rather rude wake up calls when they were sold at the base price... so might be really interesting if once we were through business planning we set up a Defra auction market to see who would pay what for whom -- and who would be the Glenn McGrath left on the bench with no takers.
Talking of HR innovation was interested yesterday with the Alan Johnson proposal for wellness notes. Having never in my life seen a Med 3, this is exactly what I got my consultant to write for me .. to say that I could work (or in his rather odd phrase "contribute intellectually") but not come into the office. But the fact that I am spending so much time blogging might suggest that other intellectual inputs not yet in much demand....so it may not just be doctors that have to change.. incidentally when I asked my doctor for that note his first reaction was -- you're in the government -- they are really slack there. Surely not....
after a few players were identified to lead their home cities, the rest -- a motley collection of the good, the were-good-but-now-slightly-over-the-hill and the up and coming were divided into groupings and the new franchises were each given a budget to bid to optimise their teams. And with some interesting results with different strategies (solid v flashy; batters v bowlers) emerging -- and some players had rather rude wake up calls when they were sold at the base price... so might be really interesting if once we were through business planning we set up a Defra auction market to see who would pay what for whom -- and who would be the Glenn McGrath left on the bench with no takers.
Talking of HR innovation was interested yesterday with the Alan Johnson proposal for wellness notes. Having never in my life seen a Med 3, this is exactly what I got my consultant to write for me .. to say that I could work (or in his rather odd phrase "contribute intellectually") but not come into the office. But the fact that I am spending so much time blogging might suggest that other intellectual inputs not yet in much demand....so it may not just be doctors that have to change.. incidentally when I asked my doctor for that note his first reaction was -- you're in the government -- they are really slack there. Surely not....
Tuesday, 19 February 2008
The view from the car park
Since I am effectively under house arrest, I am reliant on the "media" to know what else is going on in the big wide world... most of that is the same as the rest of you are looking at -- but I thought it might be interesting to have a look at the Defra agenda from the perspective of the good burghers of West Sussex as reported by this week's guest publication, the Chichester Observer. The first thing that you note about the CO is that the bit of news that there is is basically a wrapper around a mountain of car and housing ads....this must be a city of second hand car dealers and Location, Location, Location groupies. But the news itself shows that the Defra agenda is THE big news agenda outside the metropolis...or almost.
Headlining this week in Chi (what the locals call it -- and easier to type -- getting better but still rubbish) is the tragic "Disabled Man dies after falling out of back of minibus" -- sounds like a need for more regulation there to me (though quite what regulation escapes me for the time being. But also making the news is a real Defra double hit (and potential treble) -- complaints about localised air pollution by the residents of Orchard Road -- caused in part by another local cause celebre - lorries driving toward the site for gravel extraction in Lavant. This was a big feature in last week's news as RAGE (residents against - you can guess the rest) had its first protest meeting. And Lavant is also the location in dispute over whether its pretty enough to justify redrawing the proposed southern boundary of the incipient South Downs National Park -- presumably too much gravel extraction will make that a no brainer.
So moving on through the paper, the other big political story is on Post Office closures. A new perspective on the rural post office issue is that these seem to me to be closures on estates or little parades of shops where people are all within quite easy walking, biking (except they don't do that here.. see earlier blog) or bussing distance of central Chichester. But there is clearly a real campaign being waged and BERR had better be ready for the charges of destroying the community.
By page five we are into an interesting harbinger of issues to come with the Subnational review with the district councils up in arms about County Hall's "confrontational approach" over disposal of surplus land -- maybe why Richard McCarthy has decided he needs to sort out the West Sussex LAA. I bet SEEDA is looking forward to being the referee in this. What is striking down here is how many infill sites are being built on == and there are 7000 homes slated for the old army barracks up the road.
By p6 we have moved onto cute kids time --- one lot for an environmentally friendly school travel plan (well done Birdham Primary) and another for giving up chips and being a healthy school (go Thorney Island!) - they also claim over half the children walk or cycle to school. But the really big news there is an invasive species issue - a plant never seen in the UK before found in Chichester Harbour -- hands up who knows what a mullein is? this is apparently a Middle Eastern mullein which may have got here courtesy of a returning soldier from Iraq (who then went straight birdwatching in full kit --not sure I would buy that). And a good year too for rare arable in the harbour..but a mixed year for wildfowl - Brent geese, red-breasted mergansers and pintail up; teal, shelduck and goldeneye all down. Little egrets stable. Sounds like the shipping forecast.
... in which Selsey Bill - part of the wonderfully named Manhood peninsula - always features. The peninsula gets its own news - but the big news there is about a new bakery so its not quite clear why. But lower down there is the ongoing big Defra story here - the cost of flood defences and a Phil Woolas mention for answering a PQ from the local MP! estimates of 4000 houses at risk by 2108 if sea coast defences not maintained. A complaint about Cost Benefit Analysis from the founder of Save our Selsey including a comment" at the moment you are more likely to get government funding for making new salt marshes than protecting existing towns like Selsey".
Amazingly for the CO we have to wait for the first mention of rubbish or recycling -- usually a bit of a news staple (front page headline a couple of weeks back about a pensioner's bin not being collected because it wasn't pushed quite far enough out on the pavement) - but this is a textile recycling success story so its buried on p9. You may be losing the will to live now -- but the Down Memory Lane is a whole page on - Land Girls -- who says Defra doesn't set the news agenda.
Bit of a lull through the letters -- and then finally some other people get a look in Whit stories about skills, daycare and 11 year olds drinking (different stories) -- but then we strike back with a big story on .. rabies - though this turns out to be about a puppy rescued at Gatwick -- and no one needed to call the Pet Helpline.
This seems to be an unusually carbon light edition -- normally there are lots of climate change stories as well. But when the PM next asks what is setting the political agenda beyond the M25 - you have a nifty evidence base to draw on.
And the house arrest comment was something of an exaggeration. Indeed social life is burgeoning by going out to eat two days running. All fine -- except for the pub where they were worried about me sitting with crutches at the emergency exit (aka some French windows). But this has provoked an idea for the next series of Dragon's Den - what I need more than anything (now my foot lassoo is redundant and I have discovered you can buy ankle weights at Argos for virtually no money - thanks China) is a portable crutch holder.. Entrepreneurs, where are you?
Headlining this week in Chi (what the locals call it -- and easier to type -- getting better but still rubbish) is the tragic "Disabled Man dies after falling out of back of minibus" -- sounds like a need for more regulation there to me (though quite what regulation escapes me for the time being. But also making the news is a real Defra double hit (and potential treble) -- complaints about localised air pollution by the residents of Orchard Road -- caused in part by another local cause celebre - lorries driving toward the site for gravel extraction in Lavant. This was a big feature in last week's news as RAGE (residents against - you can guess the rest) had its first protest meeting. And Lavant is also the location in dispute over whether its pretty enough to justify redrawing the proposed southern boundary of the incipient South Downs National Park -- presumably too much gravel extraction will make that a no brainer.
So moving on through the paper, the other big political story is on Post Office closures. A new perspective on the rural post office issue is that these seem to me to be closures on estates or little parades of shops where people are all within quite easy walking, biking (except they don't do that here.. see earlier blog) or bussing distance of central Chichester. But there is clearly a real campaign being waged and BERR had better be ready for the charges of destroying the community.
By page five we are into an interesting harbinger of issues to come with the Subnational review with the district councils up in arms about County Hall's "confrontational approach" over disposal of surplus land -- maybe why Richard McCarthy has decided he needs to sort out the West Sussex LAA. I bet SEEDA is looking forward to being the referee in this. What is striking down here is how many infill sites are being built on == and there are 7000 homes slated for the old army barracks up the road.
By p6 we have moved onto cute kids time --- one lot for an environmentally friendly school travel plan (well done Birdham Primary) and another for giving up chips and being a healthy school (go Thorney Island!) - they also claim over half the children walk or cycle to school. But the really big news there is an invasive species issue - a plant never seen in the UK before found in Chichester Harbour -- hands up who knows what a mullein is? this is apparently a Middle Eastern mullein which may have got here courtesy of a returning soldier from Iraq (who then went straight birdwatching in full kit --not sure I would buy that). And a good year too for rare arable in the harbour..but a mixed year for wildfowl - Brent geese, red-breasted mergansers and pintail up; teal, shelduck and goldeneye all down. Little egrets stable. Sounds like the shipping forecast.
... in which Selsey Bill - part of the wonderfully named Manhood peninsula - always features. The peninsula gets its own news - but the big news there is about a new bakery so its not quite clear why. But lower down there is the ongoing big Defra story here - the cost of flood defences and a Phil Woolas mention for answering a PQ from the local MP! estimates of 4000 houses at risk by 2108 if sea coast defences not maintained. A complaint about Cost Benefit Analysis from the founder of Save our Selsey including a comment" at the moment you are more likely to get government funding for making new salt marshes than protecting existing towns like Selsey".
Amazingly for the CO we have to wait for the first mention of rubbish or recycling -- usually a bit of a news staple (front page headline a couple of weeks back about a pensioner's bin not being collected because it wasn't pushed quite far enough out on the pavement) - but this is a textile recycling success story so its buried on p9. You may be losing the will to live now -- but the Down Memory Lane is a whole page on - Land Girls -- who says Defra doesn't set the news agenda.
Bit of a lull through the letters -- and then finally some other people get a look in Whit stories about skills, daycare and 11 year olds drinking (different stories) -- but then we strike back with a big story on .. rabies - though this turns out to be about a puppy rescued at Gatwick -- and no one needed to call the Pet Helpline.
This seems to be an unusually carbon light edition -- normally there are lots of climate change stories as well. But when the PM next asks what is setting the political agenda beyond the M25 - you have a nifty evidence base to draw on.
And the house arrest comment was something of an exaggeration. Indeed social life is burgeoning by going out to eat two days running. All fine -- except for the pub where they were worried about me sitting with crutches at the emergency exit (aka some French windows). But this has provoked an idea for the next series of Dragon's Den - what I need more than anything (now my foot lassoo is redundant and I have discovered you can buy ankle weights at Argos for virtually no money - thanks China) is a portable crutch holder.. Entrepreneurs, where are you?
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