vivweb01blog

Important Update 12.10.25: A notice appeared recently at the prospective NCR6 crossing point for the new Garendon distributor road to the effect that '....Butthole Lane will be closed from 13.10.25 for 10 weeks'. This has now been confirmed in the local press, with a TTRO in place. NCR6 is an established PROW, and is the only remaining traffic-free route between Shepshed and Loughborough for cyclists and pedestrians. Closing it for this length of time will inconvenience pedestrians and cyclists; there is no viable alternative route, since the Coach Road is also closed until April 2026.  I will update this blog as soon as the 'alternative diversionary route' promised by Persimmon has been properly publicised.  Update 14.10.25: An inspection today revealed that NCR6 is still open despite the yellow notice, which is still in position. No additional notices or advice on alternative routes has appeared. Please see the website's Garendon page for more details and a ma...

  I first published this blog in late 2023 when the realisation that vaping was harmful to teenage lungs was becoming more widespread, and the authorities were finally waking up to the fact that they needed to do something.  All the evidence that has emerged since then has tended to confirm our suspicions - i.e. that long-term vaping does impair lung function, and is likely to be doing so irreversibly. We should thus only be permitting the use of vapes strictly as an aid to stop smoking, and only for as long as is necessary to 'kick the habit'. If we fail to restrict availability, and don't manage to convince our kids as to the dangers, we will be condemning a whole generation to breathing problems in their middle and later years, with a serious burden placed on our perpetually overstretched NHS as a result. And it's not just the UK either, the problem seems to have spread worldwide , with 100 million plus now vape-addicted, no less tha 15 million of them teenagers. In ...

There has been much talk in the press and on social media recently about the Government’s intention to roll out digital ID in the UK. As yet, the fine detail of the eIDs themselves, and the process of their implementation,   hasn’t been presented. Reading between the lines, I suspect the leadership are wary of imposing this in their usual 'bull in a china shop' fashion, and are testing the water before revealing any concrete plans or timescales.  Here are some thoughts regarding the practicability and implications of such a scheme, assuming the end result is some sort of smartphone-based personal ID product. First, let’s consider desirability. We are told that a personal ID card will assist us in allowing quicker access to all manner of benefits and other state provisions, as well as removing the cumbersome requirements for paper documents that are needed to prove ID and address at present. That could indeed be the case, but we seem to have managed with the old paper s...