vivweb01blog

  Two years ago I published a blog describing in detail some of the problems with our UK political system, as I saw it then.   The recent General Election result has ‘set the seal’ on the unsuitability of our ‘First Past the Post’ (FPP) system, and reinforced the need for change. This will need to be radical if we are to maintain  our democracy in a healthy state, and ensure it continues to be fit for purpose in the 21 st century. A reappraisal is particularly important at a time when populism is eroding modern democratic institutions and the world as a whole is tending towards autocracies as the chosen method of government.   Amongst other things, to achieve this we will need to exert more control on the UK government of the day, and this will involve some form of continuous assessment ‘with teeth’. We cannot afford to continue to give governments we elect with large working majorities 'carte blanche' to do whatever they want for the whole of their 5-year ter...

  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 the serious burden that will put on our NHS as a result. Teenagers who have not yet taken up the vaping habit should be prevented from doing so at all costs. Those who have already been ensnared by the marketing hype, and nicotine's extre...

  This particularly thorny question is the subject of much discussion at present. It has also resulted in many sleepless nights for many of our pensioners and for single occupiers of all ages, who now fully expect to lose some or all of their entitlements on October 30 th . There is little doubt that Starmer and Reeves are planning to use the ‘Tory Black Hole’, as they call it, to justify both swingeing benefit cuts and tax rises in the Autumn Statement.   The size of this new ‘celestial’ phenomenon is reputed to be £22Bn, although it should be noted that the calculations supporting it have never been fully verified. To put the amount properly in context, the calculation was based on an audit performed by the treasury in July, comparing the Spring Budget Forecast of £1226 Bn for total public spending with a post-election updated estimate by Labour. If this is correct, the difference would represent only a 1.8% underestimate of spend (i.e. well within 'experimental' error ...

This blog will be updated regularly in the run up to the Autumn Statement at the end of October.  I'm planning to ask a series of key questions on 'X' (Twitter in old money), then attempt to answer them myself  in this blog,  in more detail than X will allow.  Why ? It's important that we all keep this Government's 'feet to the fire' to reduce the risk of losing any more of our precious and hard-won benefits.....  See also my recent blogs for more details on this topic: https://vivweb01.blogspot.com/2024/07/labours-war-against-pensioners-where.html https://vivweb01.blogspot.com/2024/09/update-on-pensioner-benefit-changes.html Here's the first offering for the pot: 1)   DWP have identified 880,000 pensioners who they 'believe are entitled to Pension Credit'.  Why don’t they do the decent thing and simply award these folks the benefit, without forcing them to fill out a 230-question form ? Comments: The answer is almost certainly money....and to an...

  Amidst all the current government-inspired gloom we’re currently experiencing, a ray of hope shone out in the retail sector in late September with the news that the last of the Issa brothers had quit his executive role at ASDA. Before we roll out the bunting, however, we should remember that the ‘terrible twins’ as they became known after their takeover in 2021, both retain significant involvement and influence in the business as non-executive directors, and one of them remains a part-owner. This is because the EG group, in which they both still have a major financial interest, continues to own ASDA. Zuber Issa sold his stake in ASDA in June ’24 but remains a non-exec. director of EG. Mohsin Issa stepped down as CEO of ASDA in September, and is now sole CEO of EG group. Stuart Rose has now assumed his responsibilities as ASDA’s CEO. As I predicted in a previous blog , from a financial point of view, the Issas’ intervention in ASDA’s fortunes has been little short of disastrou...

I first published the text of this post on my website. As  a consumer interested in installing solar panels in UK,  I wanted to see what detailed advice was available on how to go about it, but didn't really find anything suitable. I decided to share my experience, as far as it went, in the hope that it would make life a bit easier for anyone else in the same boat.   There is plenty of advice out there on the web, but it seems to be mostly from installers, who will naturally want to extol the benefits of their product, and won't necessarily want to highlight the pitfalls. I've tried to do just that by taking the reader through what is likely to happen if you embark on a quest for solar panels yourself.  I hope it's useful in helping you answer the question in the title...... --------------------------------   Solar Panels: Are They Right For Me ? Despite the relatively slow uptake of domestic micro-generation technology over the past decade, m any of us are...