vivweb01blog

Update 15.2.26 : This year marks a relatively rare coincidence of key events in two of the great Abrahamic religions - Christianity and Islam.  Ramadan, the Islamic holy month, and Lent, the Christian festival leading up to Easter, are important periods in the religious calendars which traditionally both involve  period of personal abstinence and reflection. It's no coincidence that the start of both of these periods are dependent on our only astronomical satellite, the Moon, which is by far the brightest object in the night sky and was thus an important determinant in the adoption of the early religious calendars. In the Christian calendar, the date of Easter is determined by the Paschal full moon and falles on the first Sunday thereafter each year. The 'drift' in the lunar calendar as compared with the Gregorian is responsible for its calendar variability, and causes the timing of Easter to vary over a period of over about a month from year to year (March 21-April 25). Le...

The NHS is 75 years old, and one of our most prized institutions. As you'll see from the analysis below, it is now  sorely in need of medical assistance   itself . How can we save it from its terminal decline ? Editors note: This blog was first published in August 2022 - in view of the steady deterioration in the service since then, which has now reached crisis point, not least because of the ongoing industrial action, I've  updated it to reflect the changes. The Election result has finally introduced some real soul-searching amongst politicians as to why the current funding and organisational model of the NHS is failing...unfortunately this is likely to be a tough nut to crack without a radical change in its funding model - which any Labour government will find difficult to square with its ideology. We shouldn't therefore expect much progress in this direction, despite Labour's large majority. Nevertheless, I stand by the original recommendation of a radical funding mo...

A Warning to low Electricity and Gas users:   If you are anything other than a high user of both fuels, don't be tempted by offers from your supplier to fix your tariffs now.... Suppliers are now piling on the pressure to fix with a plethora of different and highly confusing offers, few if any of which include a reduction in the standing charge . These offers have been coming in thick and fast since last month following the latest price cap rise, and the unexpected rise in the cap from January, and OFGEM are effectively 'co-conspiring' with suppliers to try to get you to fix now, by soft-pedalling on a final decision on the precise details of any SC reductions.  Their own website gives little indication of any timescale for a switch, merely referring to a 'consultation' on tariff revisions. There is also a nasty rumour that OFGEM has caved in even further to the cartel and is likely to set a minimum consumption level (ca 666 kWh for electricity and 2500kWh for Gas) ...