Order of the Bath

The York meeting will decide whether to accommodate opponents to women bishops and if they could opt to remain under the ministry of male bishops instead.

BBC News

I may be missing something but I don’t see what all the fuss is about. Whatever your opinion, there is already a system in place to accommodate you. After the Women priests decision some 15 years ago dissenters had a special provision made for them. If your church wanted to stick to the old ways then, after certain procedures were completed, you could elect to come under the authority of the Bishop of Ebbsfleet rather than the Diocesan. Now, presuming that those who object to Women Bishops are a smallish superset of those, surely the same procedure can apply and, in the majority of cases, is probably already in effect. I suppose that there may be a small minority who approve of one but disapprove of the other but it would hardly be worth making a lot of fuss over.

Parking cars is a real problem in our central city area and congestion is a big issue locally as well as nationally. When combined with lobbies from the Green interests as well it is a hot topic for debate. Recently the city council has issued a “consultation” document and a proposal to set one up in the greater urban area (there are already controls in the centre). The quotes are because it says a reasonable amount about the scheme but doesn’t allow much opportunity for response apart from directly lobbying the councillors. Also the public exhibitions are bang in the middle of the holiday season.

The initial thoughts were that it was a good idea. £40 per year does not seem unreasonable that a space, though not guaranteed, should be available. They say it is for administration and enforcement and, to adequately patrol the area will be expensive. A system that is not enforced will be worse than we have now. Studying it more closely we came up with some issues that they apparently have not considered (or are not telling us about). These thoughts may only apply to our immediate area and others have have a different experience. (Nice picture of our church on the front by the way.)

There is a neighbouring street, presumably within our zone, which contains a number of restaurants, bars and pubs. Their businesses will suffer if they cannot attract customers from a wide area due to no parking being available. Although we often curse the load this places on space in the evenings, it dramatically affects the character of where we live. The business permits don’t allow for this. Similarly, our church is inside a zone close by (the one in the picture); we usually walk, but worshippers come from all over. There is very limited off road space—no more than 8 cars. It may also force it to get officious and get stranger’s cars removed.

What happens if our parking zone is full? The situation now is that we tour the area in ever increasing circles until we find a space but if those are barred to us due to being in another zone then what do we do? It rather depends on how large our zone is and what sort of streets it covers. They say a zone will be 300-500 households which does not seem very large.

Strictly enforced planning will need to be applied to stop the area being blighted by the loss of front gardens converted to off road parking. Also the practice of stripping the entire front garden to create a 25′ wide standing and corresponding haulage way must be stopped as this will remove a disproportionate number of street spaces. Indeed, existing wide haulage ways must be restricted to only that required for access.

They talk about providing double yellows (no parking) markings for corners and access ways. Although this is a serious problem with access to some roads becoming very difficult due to stupid parking, a strict adherence to the highway code requirements is unnecessary and would significantly curtail the available spaces.

Where does one buy visitors permits and what will be the arrangement for carry over to following years if too many were estimated. We will not be wanting to traipse down to the council house nor will we be happy to have too much capital tied up “just in case” nor if they expire prematurely.

They will charge £80 for a second permit and this is not bank breaking either though it makes you think twice about needing a second car. The third is shown as £500—now this clearly has nothing to do with costs, this is to stop people even considering getting one. I can see that they might want to use it to restrict multiple occupancy houses in the area (mostly students around us) but some of the families have three people where an adult child is working in a different part of the city but has not yet left home. Why force them to set up independently when there is also a housing crisis. The public transport would have to be a lot better to compensate. Those of us who live in the centre often work on the outskirts and there are few bus services.They say that even a second permit will not be available in some (unspecified) zones. This would be unacceptable.

A final thought came from thinking deeply about our immediate area. I came to the conclusion that, apart from the bar/restaurant evening load, our parking problem is mostly self inflicted. Stopping non-residents parking will make no difference at all because they don’t. We are too far from the city centre for commuters. The only way that is likely to affect us is if restrictions closer in force the commuters out to our patch. If that is the case, then where do you draw the limit? So when it comes to it, we want to manage our own parking, with help if needed to enforce safety restrictions where necessary.

In these troubled times I find myself agreeing with people that previously I had very little time for. Last week it was David Davis MP (Conservative). Today it is Helena Kennedy QC (Labour) on the same subject. She writes in The Independent…

The Government has justified its abandonment of civil liberties on the basis that this is what is required for security reasons and it is what the public wants. Yet when people are given the real facts, they are usually aghast at the catalogue of inroads into our liberties, often unaware of just how extensive the salami slicing has been. The steady flow of power away from the citizen to the state has been extraordinary.

One of the great values of being a British citizen has been the strong sense that we are not here at the behest of the state; the state is here at our behest. That was why policemen could not just stop us and demand to know who we were or where we were going. It was why we did not have to have an internal passport, as is now being put in train with ID cards. It was also why, if we were arrested, we would have to be charged promptly. We knew that to give police the power to lock people up for weeks on end while they went looking for evidence was a recipe for serious abuse.

It is the existence of these quiet but enduring entitlements that are at the core of our national being. When people hear the evidence they often take a different view of what government should be doing. David Davis knows that and wants to win the argument so that his own party sees it is not an electoral handicap but a bonus to espouse liberty.

Is this for real?

If so, as Matt says, we should be using headsets at all times.

Update: No, it is a hoax, but I was taken in for a bit. Now how was it done? and why? (answer 2)

“Geheime Staatspolizei, die Papiere bitte!”

“Homeland Security, boarding pass and ID please!”

Can you tell the difference? I can’t. The second is now standard for internal flights in the USA even though it is unconstitutional and goes beyond the legal requirements. Some of us are sure that the same thing will come here if we are not careful.

Thanks to a comment by Ravan on Bruce Schneier’s blog for the idea.

I don’t know if the Darwin Awards have a category for industry enabling, facilitating and encouraging the improvement of the gene pool. If so prime candidates would be Smart for their little two person car and B & Q for their range of chain and bench saws.

For a runner up I would like to nominate Tesco for their “Spa Invigorating Bath Jet.” This device which looks like a cross between a fish tank filter and something that Ann Summers might sell is designed as a bathroom accessory to simulate a whirlpool bath. I am sure that it is safe and the instructions are “adequate” but it is just asking for those of pale complexion and intelect to run an extension lead (available on a nearby shelf) into the bathroom to plug it in.

What do you suppose Valencia Orange Cordial is like with Gin?

Nithe, vey nithe.

Windows XP will not be available much after 30th June as that is the official end date both for the retail version and the OEM version pre-installed on machines. You may be lucky after that as it will be “while stocks last” and smaller independent system builders have until January to stop, but don’t cut it too fine if you must have one. Time to check if you have enough licences for your future needs.

Support will be available until April 2014 but I am sure that it will be a gradual wind down.

Not yet of course, I’m sure it is still a great deal of fun. But what will you do when it breaks, or you get tired of it and a cooler toy comes along? Weee is the European Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive which makes it compulsory for this sort of thing to be disposed of properly. The ideal situation would be for the council to collect them with the other recycling, and there is always a chance that someone else will have it away from your bin before it is emptied. Getting it working again for a second life is the ultimate in recycling. We have found that casually leaving old video recorders propped up against the front garden wall is the quickest way to get rid of them. Bigger stuff like TVs don’t go so easily.

I couldn’t possibly comment.