Food for Thought: On UK’s Foreign Policy

Let me commence by saying that I am, by no means, an expert on international or EU politics and am, thus, not writing this article in any professional capacity.

Rather, I am writing it in my capacity of a hurt and outraged Bulgarian and EU Citizen.

I have been living in England for over five years now and have never been more surprised, confused and disgusted of its foreign policy which is, at present, outright discriminatory and unbelievably malicious.

I shall try to speak without allowing any bias to permeate my arguments or logical train of thought, difficult as it may be under the circumstances.

In fact, I shall let the reader decide whether the policies described below are discriminatory, illogical and counter- productive.

Work Permits

Bulgarian and Romanian students need to apply for a Yellow Work Permit in order to be able to work, up to a maximum of twenty hours per week (forty, during school holidays).

In order to apply for such a permit, you need to send your ORIGINAL passport to the HMRC along with some bank statements to prove that ‘you will not be a burden to the state’ AND proof that you are paying for your own private medical insurance.

Since Mr. Cameron kindly dismissed about 50% of those who had been dealing with the above, the process now takes between nine and fourteen months.

In furtherance, there is no longer any way in which you can track the progress of your application because the direct line has been done away with; there is now a single email that you can write to.

As you can imagine, about fifty people manage one email; ergo, you end up with several thousand answers which tend to always be contradicting one another….

None of the above makes ANY sense whatsoever and it is incredibly counter- productive.

Bank statements to prove that they are ‘not a burden to the state’…? Would it not have been easier to let them work so that they do not become a burden to the state? Also, how exactly are they going to become a burden to the state when they have not got the right to claim ANY sorts of benefits until they have been paying National Insurance Contributions for twelve consecutive months (which they cannot physically do as a) they can’t work without a work permit and b) NI numbers are only given out to people who have got a work permit; Catch 22, anyone?).

Furthermore, do you think that an employer will even look at a Bulgarian or Romanian student’s application when he can simply hire a Spanish or Italian one without the hassle of  work permits, etc?
Does this not fuel discrimination?

Also, the private medical insurance that students are required to take out costs £ 450 per year- you are making EU CITIZENS pay for their EU RIGHTS which they are legally entitled to.

Last but not least, do you consider it ‘normal practice’  to keep someone’s original passport for over twelve months when he has NOT been charged with committing a criminal offence?

UK’s Negative Advertising Campaign

'Don't come to Britain, it's horrible and wet': New advertising campaign aims to put Romanian and Bulgarian immigrants off a new life in the UK’

<< http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/dont-come-to-britain-its-horrible-and-wet-new-advertising-campaign-aims-to-put-romanian-and-bulgarian-immigrants-off-a-new-life-in-the-uk-8469582.html >>

Initially I thought that the above was a joke of sorts; a misunderstanding.

I mean, how can a GOVERNMENT even contemplate pulling off such a publicity stunt?

I would understand it if it had employed a private company or body to do it without formally affiliating it with itself but this…

Correct me if I’m wrong but the above translates to:

‘Damn Bulgarians and Romanians, don’t come to England, we don’t like you and we don’t want your kind here.’

Also, rain? You are trying to scare people with RAIN…?

I spoke to my father yesterday and he told me that the above were already partly implemented. Two of them read:

‘How would you like a country with no summer? Don’t come to England.’

‘We, too, are in a crisis; our unemployment rate is almost 10% and our minimum salary is £ 1000. Don’t come to England.’

The minimum salary in Bulgaria is £ 200…Also, the above would have made SOME sense if they were to explain to people that they would have to pay over 90% of that £ 1000 for rent and food.

But they didn’t.

If a person could earn five times as much as he did, do you think that he would be put off by ‘bad weather’? Do English people honestly think we don’t have ‘bad weather’ as well…?

Finally, I should like to remind you of the concept of reverse psychology- if you tell someone not to do something, he will do it.

Yes, Mr. Cameron, we are now going to invade your country, take all of your jobs and claim all of your benefits.

As noted previously, I shall not comment on whether the above policies are flawed; I shall, instead, let you decide whether it is normal to treat two nations as second- class European citizens and implement hateful policies which will ultimately make English people detest the ‘zounds of Bulgarians and Romanians that are to invade the UK in 2014’.

I shall leave you with that thought as well as several videos which will, hopefully, prove that we, Bulgarians and Romanians, have a myriad of reasons to stay in our ‘second- class’ countries. As for the negative advertising campaign, just use the photo below; that’d keep us away from the UK…

 

A Runt’s Rant: The Horror of Eating Out

I shan’t waste your time (and mine) with idle introductions aimed at inducing you to read this semi- humourous article.

Instead, I shall commence ranting away tout de suite because, frankly, I have had enough.

Let me pose a very simple question to you:

Why is the service in most restaurants in England so appalling!?

Or is it just the places I go to?

If anyone has a logical answer to the above query, pray, drop me a line; I shall gladly hear you out.

Until then, I shall continue ranting about several of my recent ‘outings’,

I shan’t mention any names, of course, as doing so might have a profound effect on my life, namely I might get bad service next time I go there.

Oh, no, wait; that’s already happening!!!

Prior to taking you on a journey of whinging and complaining, I should like to point out that I am not that demanding as a customer; I only expect what people expect from me- to do the job that I am paid for properly and diligently.

And, no, it’s NOT too much to ask for!

Here we go then.

_____________________________________________________________________________

 

DAY ONE: Le Chicken Place (Unnamed for reasons Unknown)

So my friends and I decide to go and have some grilled chicken (where could we have gone to, I wonder…) and go to this amazing restaurant that specialises in chicken dishes.

We all ordered our respective meals. In about fifteen minutes, my friends got theirs.

I didn’t.

As etiquette went, my friends decided to be polite and wait another ten minutes at which point I implored them to start eating as their food was getting cold.

Mine wasn’t; because it wasn’t there…

Forty minutes had gone by; I started getting a bit angry and VERY hungry and complained to the manager.

He apologised, got my food (in another ten minutes…) and gave me my money back.

Except he didn’t; instead, he gave me some free garlic bread to appease me…Did that work, do you reckon…?

DAY TWO: Le Steak House (Ibid.)

Yet another outing; this time at an American Steak House. Again, we waited for a fair amount of time but it was well worth it- the steaks were outstanding.

We took about an hour and half to finish off our meals; it was nearing closing time.

Yet, we wanted to have a look at the desserts menu; the waitresses did not like that one bit.

They wanted to go home.

With a frown, one of them passed us the desserts menu. A couple of us ordered the cheesecake.

It was brought in with unbelievable alacrity- almost straight away, in fact.

The cutlery, however, was on the table; on the actual table (which hadn’t been cleaned since we had our steaks...), not on a napkin or anything.

I then asked for the tab; having waited for about fifteen minutes, I asked one of the waitresses whether everything was alright.

She said, and I quote:

‘Yes, you will get the bill in a second; it’s just that everyone is so tired.’

Wow, should I try that on a client, do you think…?

DAY THREE: Le Burger Pub (Ibid.)

Every Tuesday, I go to this pub that does the most amazing burgers in the world.

Last night, my friend and I waited for our burgers for an hour and ten minutes.

Not ten. Not twenty. Not forty. No, SEVENTY minutes.

Do you want to know why?

There was a ‘mix- up’ (short for incompetence); they had lost the bit of paper which had our order on it.

It had taken them an hour to realise that; there are seven tables in the pub; I mean, surely they’d noticed that EVERYONE was having their burgers but us…

At the end, they gave us a free drink.

Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but I think that EVERYTHING should have been free.

Seventy minutes…I mean, what the Hell!?

_____________________________________________________________________________

Now, before you start saying that I am very horrible and demanding customer, think about the above scenarios and how each and every one of them could have been easily avoided if common etiquette was followed.

But, for some nebulous and mystical (at least to me) reason, it wasn’t.

To sum up, the above is getting on my nerves and spoiling my nights out; fix it, please!

Good Idea, Chap: The Bookless Library

Since a very early age, my parents had been encouraging me to read books.

As most of the children of the 1990s, of course, I was quite sceptical of the idea and used to constantly remind them that there was this new thing called ‘the internet’ where you would soon be able to find pretty much everything you needed.

What were books good for anyway? As far as I was concerned back then- nothing; they were just devices designed to keep me away from my Playstation One and my PC.

In time, however, I grew to realise that that was, probably, one of the biggest mistakes I had ever made.

I had tried reading a couple of books (other than the ones that I had to read for school) and did not like them at all; it was then when I, rather foolishly, assumed that all books were the same.

Yes, that’s right; I judged all the books by their cover.

Had I not done so, though, I would have never started to read Terry Pratchett (have you seen his books’ covers?!) and would have, consequently, never found out that reading could be quite entertaining and educational.

Since that very day, I had been reading all sorts of books and could, rightfully so, call myself a bookaholic.

Until recently, I had been very content with reading books at home; however, the busier I became, the more I wanted to read books anytime, anywhere.

I then started to get audio books and read books on my PC or laptop; at one point, I even considered buying an e- reader.

(Note to the reader: I shan’t get into the whole paperback vs. e- reader discussion; not today, at least.)

As time went by, however, I started to dread the fact that I could not walk into my local library and borrow an e- book (or an audio book that was not on a CD…) rather than having to buy them all the time.

As I was listening to my daily podcast the other day, however, I found out that the above might soon be a thing of the past.

Without further ado, I present to you the first bookless library :

<< http://www.dezeen.com/2013/01/21/bookless-library-based-on-apple-store-planned-in-texas/ >>

Designed to look like an Apple store (God knows why…), the library will offer its users not only access to e- books and audio books but will also allow them to borrow e- readers, laptops and even tablets.

Judge Wolff, who is in charge of the project, explains that the idea is quite simple (yet incredibly innovative); people will be able to borrow e- books for up to, say, three weeks. Then, if they do not ‘return’ them to the library, the staff can ‘purge’ them off the users’ laptop/ PC/ tablet/ e- reader.

Judging by the comments on the project that I have read through on various websites, it has, at least for now, been the object of ridicule and unnecessarily acerbic remarks.

Many have said that it was ‘ugly’ and ‘tasteless’; some have even gone as far as saying that it ‘would slaughter the spirit of books, as well knew them’.

Well that’s exactly the point, is it not?

As much as we don’t want to accept it, times and trends are changing; and fast.

As homo sapiens sapiens, we are supposed to adapt and survive; remember, that’s what we do.

In today’s fast paced world, the new generation spends more than 70% of their time on their laptop/ tablet/ PC.

What better way of getting them to read than introducing e- books that can be read on those…?

Furthermore, what better way of inducing people in reading those by making them more affordable and more easily accessible…?

Don’t get be wrong; I like my paperbacks and if I really like a book, I will always buy the hard copy for my personal library.

But why not sample the book first?

The world is becoming more and more digitized by the day; we might as well make some use of that.

‘Academic’ Intelligence: An Overview of Copyright, Part Two

As some of you might remember, last Monday’s entry opted to provide readers with a brief overview of the criteria that needed to be satisfied under English law so that copyright can subsist.

Today’s article will, in turn, focus on the requirements to establish a valid copyright infringement claim under the current English law.

Prior to commencing, I would like to point out that the information contained below must not, in any way, act as a guide to pursuing a self- litigated copyright infringement claim; those are best left to Intellectual Property lawyers.

The purpose of this article is to merely improve the readers’ general understanding of copyright by familiarising them with the basics of an infringement claim.

To begin with, it must be noted that infringement of copyright can be primary or secondary; primary being direct infringement of the copyright work and secondary being indirect (i.e. assisting in producing or distributing or the copyright work).

An infringement claim is best approached in five steps, namely:

Step One: Subsistence and Ownership of Copyright

This has already been discussed in some detail in last Monday’s article, please refer to : 

<< http://myveryownhell.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/academic-intelligence-overview-of.html >>

Step Two: Identify the ‘Infringing Act’

The most important and common infringing acts are:

• Copying (ss. 16 (1) (a), 17 Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (‘CPDA’)

Includes reproducing in ANY material form. Also, for artistic works, note that, as per s. 17 (3) CPDA turning a 2D picture in a 3D sculpture is also considered copying

• Issuing copies of the work to the public (ss. 16 (1) (b), 18 CPDA)

Includes issuing copies of an already published work (i.e. producing, distributing the work, etc.)

• Performing, showing or playing the work in public (ss. 16 (1) (c), 19 CPDA)

A rather curious example of that is the ‘Happy Birthday’ song which cannot be performed at public or social events and gatherings without paying for a licence to do so as it still under copyright in England (expires 31^st December 2016 in England, 2030 in the USA).

• Making an adaptation of the work or doing any of the other infringing

      acts in relation to an adaptation (ss. 16(1)(e), 21 CPDA)

Essentially, this mirrors the above and adds a further prohibition on using adaption of the work without the owner’s consent.

Step Three: Comparison

• Causal Link

It must be proved that the defendant’s act was done in relation to the claimant’s work and NOT independently or coincidentally. It must, therefore, be proved that the defendant’s work was objectively similar to the claimants and that the defendant had access to the claimant’s work at the time of the alleged infringement.

• Substantial Part

In order for the there to be a valid infringement, a substantial part of the claimant’s work needs to be concerned. This is assessed on a quantitative and qualitative basis using tests developed through case- law.

Step Four: Defences

• ‘Fair Dealing’

Very narrow set of statutory defences contained in the CPDA; a closed and exhaustive list, in fact. Also, whether a defendant was dealing in a ‘fair’ manner will much depend on the facts on each individual case.

• Recording For the Purposes of Time- Shifting- (s. 70 CPDA)

Home- recording re TV, radio, etc, so long it is solely for private use.

• Temporary Electronic Copying (s. 28A CPDA)

Viewing works on various websites, browsing, etc.

Step Five: Remedies

• Injunction (s. 96 CPDA)
• Damages OR account of profits (ss. 96- 97 CPDA)

Note that no damages can be claimed against an ‘innocent infringer’ (i.e. one who had no reason to believe that copyright subsisted, tested objectively, s. 97 (1) CPDA)

• Order for delivery up (s. 99 CPDA)
• Interim Injunction and/or search order

Establishing a valid copyright infringement claim can sometimes be quite a herculean task mainly because copyright is an unregistered intellectual property and, as such, the claimant needs to prove its subsistence.

To conclude, then, with the constant development of various online mediums, the case might be that protecting copyright might become even more arduous than it has been lately.

On the other hand, however, it would, theoretically, be a lot harder for a defendant to say that he could not have possibly been aware of a certain copyright work when it had been readily available on the internet.

In the end, it seems that copyright law can well be described as a double- edged sword which needs to be wielded with reasonable care and skill.

Poet's Corner: Paranoia

KNOCK, KNOCK!

‘Who’s there?

And do be aware that,

Seeing your stare,

I sense your despair and,

Just to be fair,

I don’t really care.’

KNOCK, KNOCK!!

‘Who’s there!?

I advise you, beware,

I’m armed and, I swear,

I’ll fire and smear

That smile off of there!

I really don’t care!!!’

KNOCK, KNOCK!!!

‘Who’s there!?!

That’s it! It’s quite rare

For me to shoot where

The people seem fair

And as bright as my hair.

But I really don’t care!!!!!’

The mirror had shattered.

But no- one was there...

‘Social’ Intelligence: Should Old Acquaintance Be Forgot?

Prior to starting to read on, I’d like to implore you to have a listen of the above song as it gives today’s topic a very distinct flavour, instilling it with memories that you might have long forgotten because of your busy- body existence.

I first listened to the song when I was about ten years old; in fact, it was one of the first songs that I had learned to sing in English. Back then, of course, the lyrics did not mean anything to me- they were just words which fit the melody quite well (also, as you might imagine, at the age of ten, I did not have that many ‘old acquaintances’ as such...).

As years have gone by, however, I tend to go back to that song every now and then and listen to the lyrics, in quiet contemplation.

It has nothing to do with artificial sentimentality or temporary sadness; in fourteen years, that song has accumulated in it a vast array of memories which, to this day, I can still link to various faces and places.

The lyrics quite often remind me of how stubborn and childish I had once been; of how I had forsaken friendships, that I had worked very hard to create and bolster, because of a mere scuffle or misunderstanding.

It reminds me of all those friends that I used to play with, study with, fight with and fight for.

And then I suddenly want to forget all of the stupid reasons for losing touch with those people.

But I can’t; several excuses come to mind:

·         We went our different way after primary school.

·         He’s no longer the same; he’s changed a lot.

·         I heard he said something about me behind by back.

·         We live in different countries now.

·         Everyone’s got their own lives now; we can’t call each other every day.

·         I just haven’t had the time to do it.

·         He’s not called me in ages; why should I call him?

The mere thought pains me to an unbearable extent; none of the above seem reasonable or logical...

It sounds absurd to say that you haven’t had the time to call one of your best friends because you have had a lot on your mind lately.

If you go back and think of everything that you have been through together and everything that you have done for each other, would it not make sense to call your friend up, albeit for five- ten minutes, to see how he is?

Maybe he, too, has a lot on his mind. In fact, maybe that’s why he’s not called you in ages; he might need help, he might even be in danger.

Even if he’s not on Skype or Facebook, are all those years of friendship not worth a £ 5 phone- call...?

Believe me, I am quite aware that the more you think about it, the more horrible you feel.

Mainly because we all know that I’m right; we all assume that our friends will be there for us when we call them, even if we haven’t spoken to them in ages.

But why would we possibly assume that...? What if we hadn’t been there for them when they needed us most? What if we had not called them in months or years just to get back to them for not calling us themselves?

People forgive; alas, they also tend to forget.

Forgetting about our friends and what they have done for us tends to happen quite often mainly because we take it for granted.

But, pray, keep in mind that forgetfulness works both ways.

...you don’t want to be forgotten, do you...?

‘Everyday Intelligence’: Today, My Favourite Day

I’ve been thinking of the most brilliant and original way to begin today’s article for over fifteen minutes now.

Sat in one place, staring blankly at the screen, I’ve been watching the minutes ridicule my every effort as they fly by.

But worry not; I shall come up with a way to commence the story sooner than you might imagine.

Actually, why not start from the ending…

It’s 6 a.m. on a cold Saturday; and you’re awake.

What woke you up, however, was not the freezing sensation which was currently creeping up your spine but a single thought that had stuck in your mind in way which flies stuck to honey; namely, not because it was sticky but because they WANTED to ‘stick around’.

The very fact that you have only slept for three hours perturbs you to such an extent that you get up to grab a glass of warm milk, forgetting that you haven’t got a microwave to warm it up in.

As you down the glass of ice- cold milk, you frown to yourself in the firm belief that you will never have cold milk in your life ever again; ever.

Walking back to your bed you cannot help but feel like a zombie; you can only focus on this one thought that inhabits every corner of your consciousness, every fibre of your being.

Have I done enough lately and will I be able to do enough tomorrow?

It will not let go of you, no matter what you try: working out, jogging, watching mindless movies, socialising…vodka- NOTHING works.

It eats you up and you feel that the darn thought is coming to life and doing the breathing and thinking instead of you.

It keeps reminding you how much you haven’t done and how much more you have to do before being able to feel happy with yourself.

It even makes you go to your desk and look through your to- do list which looks, to your currently troubled mind, looks like a bottomless pit that draws you in.

It’s 6 a.m., for God’s sake; that much you know.

You need your rest, you need your sleep, you need your energy to keep going.

But before that, you need to do those remaining twenty things on that list and think of a legitimate excuse for not having done them yesterday, says the thought.

The more you think about it, the more depressed you feel, mainly because you remember of all those ‘to- do lists’ that you have not been able to see to.

But, as the thought slowly dilutes into the huge mug of black coffee which you have been sipping for the last five minutes, you start realising what day it is.

 It is today; your favourite day.

And, having woken up at 6am means that you will have an astounding eighteen hours of today.

And that’s great because today gives a meaning to yesterday and a hope for tomorrow.

Yesterday was today.

Tomorrow will be today.

As to the ‘to- do list’; well…you can always do that today.

"Yesterday is History,

Tomorrow’s a Mystery,

Today is a Gift,

That’s why it's called the Present."

Pretty simple, right?

Food For Thought: KLOUTed Judgement?

In case you are wondering, I am neither trying to be original by intentionally misspelling the word ‘cloud’, nor am I unintentionally demonstrating an episode of, albeit temporary, retardation.

Rather, I am merely referring to a concept which I have only recently been familiarised with and the deleterious effect that it has had on the judgement of both individuals and companies alike.

I was listening to a podcast interview with a senior recruiter from a FTSE 100 company the other day when, half way through, he said that it was now commonplace for companies to look at someone’s KLOUT prior to recruiting them.

• He said it was an ‘established practice’ now.

• He said that it was quite useful.

• He said that everyone who used the internet knew how to maintain and improve their score.

• He said that, until recently, Justin Bieber had a higher KLOUT score than Barack Obama.

Until that very moment, I thought that I was quite up- to- date with most useful ‘established practices’ and, as a person who uses the internet, was quite aware of any possible scores that Justin Bieber had achieved throughout his distinguished career (that was a JOKE, ok!?)

Yet, I had absolutely NO idea what he was talking about.

Well, now I do.

<< http://klout.com/#/corp/klout_score >>

Put simply, your KLOUT score represents the degree of your ‘online influence’ (a bit nebulous, no…?)

Apparently, the score is calculated by analysing the number of entries that you have published on online mediums such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogger, etc. as well as the quantity (and, quite possibly, quality) of the comments and ‘likes’ generated by those.

The score is also affected by the amount of ‘friends’ (that’s right, folks- yet another platform for ‘befriending’ people…) that have selected you as someone who has ‘influenced’ them.

What KLOUT effectively does is attach itself, as an application, to your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc accounts and draws out all of the ‘relevant’ information from those pools of data.

Obviously, the more mediums you allow it to connect to, the higher your ‘influence’ or ‘score’ would be.

My very first thought on the above was that KLOUT was yet another factory for the continuous accumulation of Big Data; that is to say, it generated its revenue through collecting data on individuals and passing that data onto various retailers, corporations and, quite alarmingly, governmental bodies.

Leaving that aside, however, it is equally perturbing that KLOUT scores are being increasingly used in the recruitment process.

I know for a fact, for instance, that UK graduates are neither familiarised with, nor provided with any training on it.

Another possible use for KLOUT is to establish whether your business partners, etc. are business- savvy.

As an example, an FTSE 100 company might not want to instruct a solicitor who has a KLOUT score of less than 70 (out of 100) as such a score might denote that he is not up- to- date with online mediums and cannot, thus, speak in ‘modern business terms’.

Don’t get me wrong; I am not trying to be a proponent of the idea.

I am merely pointing out that the KLOUT score is quite real and it might soon bark AND bite.

The above might all sound quite ridiculous and rather farfetched to you but I can assure you that KLOUT is ‘coming to a store near you!’

And, unless you want to be stuck in the pile of discounted goods, you’d best look up yours and see where you stand.

A Runt’s Rant: Snow Day, You Say?

So it was snowing all day last Friday down in Southampton and we managed to get about an inch of snow.

As I walked to work, I knew exactly what was to follow- a painfully familiar sequence of events that had been repeating itself every winter for the past five years of my life.

To begin with, I was quite certain that I would be able to walk on the actual roads because there weren’t going to be ANY cars.

That was, of course, mainly because English cars are sensitive creatures that had long feared snow; in fact, it would seem that the mere thought of snow made their engines freeze up.

On a less sarcastic note, the fact that there were no cars at all did come to me as a surprise; after all, cars DO need winter tyres to be able to move in such weather conditions.

And no- one had any.

I remember this one time, about three years ago, when I was still at university. It was a snowy and cold winter day; yet, I managed to wake up as I had three essays to hand in that day.

As my university was on the top of a pretty steep hill (which was now covered in snow and ice) I thought that I’d be a good idea to take the bus.

Little did I know, however, that buses did not run in such ‘adverse weather conditions’.

As I neared the bus station, a bus driver came to me and explained that there were no buses running that day.

I was taken aback mainly because I KNEW that I was in England and NOT South Africa…after all, was it not normal for people to had expected snow and be ready for it?

‘What about winter tyres?’ I asked.

‘Too expensive, boy. Not worth getting them for three days a year, init?’ said the bus driver.

(In case you’re wondering, yes, I did have to walk all the way up the frozen hill to hand in my essays only to find that my university had shut for the day. Fun times.)

Too expensive!? Init!? A winter tyre costs between £ 60 and £ 90. That’s £ 240- £ 360 for four tyres. Tyres that you would be using for about three days a year; that meant that you would be able to use those for, say, at least five years.

In fact, I tried getting a taxi last Friday and was told that they only ran until 5:30pm because of the snow and because they did not have winter tyres.

Well, if they were smart enough, they would have bought winter tyres and would have been one step ahead of their competitors and would have earned a lot more than the tyres cost in just a day or two…

But they didn’t; probably because winter tyres were too darn expensive.

But let’s go back to last Friday; many friends of mine did not go to work because there was no public transport running (re winter tyres…) OR because they lived more than forty minutes away from work and could not be bothered to walk the distance.

And, I mean, who would blame them…? NONE of the ice or snow on the pavements had been gritted on Friday- it was slippery and quite dangerous EVERYWHERE. The only one to blame for that was the city council which failed to grit the pavements for four days! Having said that though, the council’s timetable had been quite hectic those four days.

On Friday, they had a ‘snow day’ so that they could all take part in the inter- county snowball bonanza.

Saturdays and Sundays were not working days, sooooo…

Monday...Well…It WAS Blue Monday, the most depressing day of 2013. They could have been too blue to grit, I guess…

Also, even if someone was to slip on the thick ice down the slope on Hill Lane (towards Commercial Road), fall down and end up on the road and get hit by a car, they could always blame it on the driver who did not react properly as he had failed to buy winter tyres for his car, right?

Sure they could. Because, you see, it might not be deemed reasonable for the council to have been able to see to ALL that snow and ALL that ice in JUST four days.

But maybe, just maybe, they were all hoping for the rain to come down and wash their woes away. And, surprisingly enough, it did.

But can you imagine what would happen if it snowed for, say, five days in a row and we ended up with, God forbid, six inches of snow!?

Of course you can’t; after all, England is in Africa.

And, let’s face it; it never snows in Africa.