vivweb01blog

  The obesity epidemic is steadily gaining ground in the western world, and the UK is no exception. The proportion of adults in the UK population classified as obese (i.e. BMI >30) virtually doubled between 1993 (14.8%) and 2023 (29.8%). Of even more concern was the statistics in our children, with obesity classifications rising in 10-11 year-olds from 17.5% in 2008 to a whopping 25.5% at the peak of the pandemic in 2021, before falling back a little to 22.7% in 2023. Can we really ignore the fact that more than a quarter of our adult population is clinically obese, and perhaps even more worryingly, almost as many of our children have already succumbed to the same problem ? First, how do we define obesity ? The key parameter is body mass index (BMI), and anyone with a BMI of more than 30 is classified as obese. There is some argument as to whether using  BMI alone is the best way of assessing whether someone is clinically obese (see below for some of the arguments for and ...

 Blog first published November 2022. Updated April 2023, January 2025. Editors note: After a long period when the 'authorities' seemed to be in abeyance on take-downs of our much loved and well-used shadow-libraries, they have started the New Year with a vengeance by taking down two of the most popular (Anna's Archive and LibGen), by forcing ISPs to introduce server blockages. I suspect the timing of this is no coincidence, given the imminence of a new US government regime likely to be less favourably inclined towards to this type of industrial censorship, and the frequent 'spats' between the UK Labour government and the new US regime.  This nonsense has gone on for long enough...high time for a look at reforming the publishing industry model, I think... Perhaps Elon could help us sort out the mess generated by the publishers'  aggressive use of outdated copyright laws ?  See update 11.1.25 below for more details. Introduction The high-handed (and possibly even ...

Much was made in the media a week or so ago about the various meetings Nigel Farage had ‘across the pond’ with the President Elect and his current ‘right hand man’, Elon Musk. It also emerged that Musk had offered ‘hundreds of millions’ to support Reform campaign in future UK elections. After a somewhat stunned and incredulous reaction in UK, there was something of an outcry amongst the other UK political parties against what was seen as unfair advantage. While it wouldn’t be against current electoral rules for a donor to contribute a large sum to Reform, and both of  the major parties have received donations to the tune of single-figure millions in the past, the excessive amounts Musk is reputed to be offering would ‘upset the apple cart’ politically. I predict that limits on donations will now quickly be introduced by Labour. That still leaves Musk the possibility of beating any limit on individual donations by employing multiple-company approaches. I doubt whether even 'artf...

  There has been much reporting in the media recently about the 'rise and rise' of Nigel Farage’s Reform party, culminating in a row between Kemi Badenoch and Farage about his claims on snowballing party membership. This, and Labour’s abysmal performance since the July election, has inevitably led to speculation about whether our UK  2-party ‘first past the post’ system is still appropriate to our electoral needs. Before we look at the likelihood of anything replacing it , or indeed what might take its place, let’s look at the current state of the parties' fortunes. Labour, as we’ve already discussed, has not lived up to its electors’ expectations, and have made a series of strategic blunders, starting with the removal of the pensioner universal winter fuel payment just a few days into their term. Their many broken promises have made the leadership team highly unpopular, especially their PM and his chancellor, who are seen as responsible for the damage done. They have m...

  Keir Starmer’s speech last week was ostensibly intended to ‘rouse the troops’ and help drive his policies forward. It was also probably also staged by his advisors now as an attempt at a ‘soft reset’,  aimed at erasing as far as possible in our memories the decidedly shaky start his first 5 months in government have produced.  In this it was somewhat naïve, to say the least, given the magnitude and the almost universal unpopularity of the changes he has made. The tone of his address was even more inappropriate for the intended task and merely added insult to injury…. In playing the ‘aggrieved boss’, as Laura Kuenssberg so aptly puts it, he made his big (and possibly eventually fatal) mistake. By effectively ‘slanging-off’ his civil servants as being slow, inefficient and sometimes downright obstructive,   he will have made many more enemies amongst a key group of his government support team.  The bulk of civil servants are hard-working and highly skilled ...

  In a word, no..... Why ? Before I try to answer this question, here's some relevant background info.  In less straitened times, much more competition existed in the energy supply marketplace, and some quite competitive offers were available, particularly from new suppliers wanting to increase their market share. Amongst these deals were some involving tariffs which were ‘no standing charge’ i.e. you paid a higher unit rate for your gas and electricity, and only paid for the units you used, which were all priced at this higher rate.  This benefited low users of gas and electricity, and at the time these tariffs started to appear they were hailed by environmentalists as a much fairer and greener way of charging customers, given the urgent need for us all to consume less of the fossil fuels we use to power our boilers and generate our electricity. The recent upsurge in ‘raw’ gas and electricity prices, and the desire of the power supply companies to maintain their pr...