Regarding cheque payments and their forthcoming demise - which is a serious problem for local councils and charities whose articles of association dictate they must have two signatures for every payment.
The law will be changed and until it is they say it is down to individual councils to find ways of dealing with the situation.
I suggest that a payment card or credit card may be used providing the clerk has a numbered form, signed by two as now, filled in approving a payment, either with the exact amount or a No More Than specified for each usage. These forms would be filed as legal documents in the same way as cheque stubs are now, but with the serial number of the form listed in place of the cheque number as we do now. Reconciliation of payments would be made in the same way as current account reconciliations are now. These Electronic Payment Approval Forms (EPAFs) may be the system for the future of parish councils and charities. It is possible we need to design a form and pay attention to possibilities of fraudulent usage, though I see little opportunity for that happening. It also needs to have a name that gives us a catchier acronym.
Preventing a fictitious rogue clerk or charity tearsurer somewhere in the future taking advantage of any payment system needs to be tested.
Monday 30 November 2009
Sunday 29 November 2009
Star Wars revelation
On Star Wars movies there are floors on different levels, mezzanines all over the place, but no railings or bannisters to prevent anyone inadvertantly stepping over the edge.This implies all the Elf n Safety people have been rounded up and thrown into a very deep burning pit, maybe to have their entrails fed to giant mechanised camels. But who did that? Was it the Jedi Knights (good guys) or the followers of the Dark Side (baddies)?
I contend that the Elf n Safety proletariat had exceeded acceptable standards and interfered so much in people's lives and comon sense risk apprehension that the good guys were summoned to do this as an act of liberation.
I contend that the Elf n Safety proletariat had exceeded acceptable standards and interfered so much in people's lives and comon sense risk apprehension that the good guys were summoned to do this as an act of liberation.
Tuesday 24 November 2009
Iraq war inquiry
I feel the whole topic of the Iraq war is very very distressing. I said at the time it was wrong to go to war with no exit strategy, with no plans for the welfare of the population we were to invade and take over the governance of, and with our armed forces equipped for Northern European operations only. To my mind this was illegal in itself. It was tantamount to the attenpted murder of our people in uniform. And sending them to a war we had no gain from, on a lie, saying it was not for regime change when it clearly was, and always has been. Blair even claiomed success in achieving regime change as justification for going to war in the first place so he did acknowledge that had been his objective - an objective outlawed by the United Nations on whose paperwork they used to send our forces in.
Wednesday 11 November 2009
That letter and the PM’s eye.
That letter and the PM’s eye.
OK, look at it this way. The PM has ordered a generation into a war that carries no chance of victory, knowing if they come back they will see there are no jobs for the young generation he under-equips them so more get killed or maimed. But before bedtime he is told he must write letters to loved ones of all who died that day as a result of orders he gave. He threw the printer out of the room in a fit of temper and is now banned from access to printers, and keyboards, and pointy things like pens and pencils - all he has to do the job with is felt tipped pens and some headed writing paper. So he rushes off a few and leaves the room for others to do the folding and the posting. Knowing how violently explosive he has become they would not dare suggest maybe he has done it not well enough.
Then he finds the letter is doing his reputation no good at all and phones the recipient to keep her quiet, make her sorry she sent it to the press. She records it and quick as blinking the words are all over the Internet, would have been all over TV and radio if his organisation had not managed to frighten broadcasters into not broadcasting his voice on the tape.
What will he do next? What can he do?
There is his monthly press briefing coming up that same week, his one next chance to get away with having blotted his copybook, so to speak. His eyesight is poor, and like many others he has been attending the eye clinic and using the drops they tell us to use. The solution in that eye medicine is not exactly the same Ph as that of the eye so when we apply the drops it makes a stinging sensation that soon passes, but generates eye watering for a few minutes. With a flash of inspiration he puts the eye drops into that one good eye he has been told to apply it to, steps through the curtain into the public gaze with one eye still glistening. Right across the nation people with nothing better to do see him of their screens with one weeping eye. His reputation goes up. He is safe for another day – but the young people in the services are not, and the young people queuing in abject futility for every job vacancy are growing depressed and angry.
Keep using the eye drops, Gordon; you must know the side effects will give you cataracts and an excuse for leaving that job without crawling away in ignominy!
What you or I would have done is this. Having been informed that a young man, someone’s son or husband, has died as a result of following orders you initiated you know you have a duty to write to those who are grieving to let them know you are sorry for what happened. That you are sorry the consequences of your decisions led to the death of another highly trained and committed young man. You take a walk and sort out in your mind how to say what you have to say, figure out what would be the best choice of words, and think through the effect that wording will have on the recipient. Then you sit down at the desk and take up the selected writing implement. You look at the blank piece of paper, a lump developing in the throat and hand shaking, you know this had better be done right, no mistakes will be forgiven in a letter craving forgiveness. Getting the line straight you start moving the pen on the paper, so hesitantly that blots soon appear and that sheet of paper is crumpled up and dropped into the bin. On a piece of notepaper you scribble out the text, edit it and amend it and then you start again with the best ink pen on best paper, painstakingly forming every word in line and properly spaced, properly spelled. When it is done you hold it up and imagine yourself as the bereaved recipient, asking yourself if this good enough. If you decide not you do it all again. Then you have it checked over by one of the many secretaries ranked throughout the building. Only then would you fold it into the addressed envelope and place it carefully in the post out box on the sideboard by the door and get on with ending the day.
OK, look at it this way. The PM has ordered a generation into a war that carries no chance of victory, knowing if they come back they will see there are no jobs for the young generation he under-equips them so more get killed or maimed. But before bedtime he is told he must write letters to loved ones of all who died that day as a result of orders he gave. He threw the printer out of the room in a fit of temper and is now banned from access to printers, and keyboards, and pointy things like pens and pencils - all he has to do the job with is felt tipped pens and some headed writing paper. So he rushes off a few and leaves the room for others to do the folding and the posting. Knowing how violently explosive he has become they would not dare suggest maybe he has done it not well enough.
Then he finds the letter is doing his reputation no good at all and phones the recipient to keep her quiet, make her sorry she sent it to the press. She records it and quick as blinking the words are all over the Internet, would have been all over TV and radio if his organisation had not managed to frighten broadcasters into not broadcasting his voice on the tape.
What will he do next? What can he do?
There is his monthly press briefing coming up that same week, his one next chance to get away with having blotted his copybook, so to speak. His eyesight is poor, and like many others he has been attending the eye clinic and using the drops they tell us to use. The solution in that eye medicine is not exactly the same Ph as that of the eye so when we apply the drops it makes a stinging sensation that soon passes, but generates eye watering for a few minutes. With a flash of inspiration he puts the eye drops into that one good eye he has been told to apply it to, steps through the curtain into the public gaze with one eye still glistening. Right across the nation people with nothing better to do see him of their screens with one weeping eye. His reputation goes up. He is safe for another day – but the young people in the services are not, and the young people queuing in abject futility for every job vacancy are growing depressed and angry.
Keep using the eye drops, Gordon; you must know the side effects will give you cataracts and an excuse for leaving that job without crawling away in ignominy!
What you or I would have done is this. Having been informed that a young man, someone’s son or husband, has died as a result of following orders you initiated you know you have a duty to write to those who are grieving to let them know you are sorry for what happened. That you are sorry the consequences of your decisions led to the death of another highly trained and committed young man. You take a walk and sort out in your mind how to say what you have to say, figure out what would be the best choice of words, and think through the effect that wording will have on the recipient. Then you sit down at the desk and take up the selected writing implement. You look at the blank piece of paper, a lump developing in the throat and hand shaking, you know this had better be done right, no mistakes will be forgiven in a letter craving forgiveness. Getting the line straight you start moving the pen on the paper, so hesitantly that blots soon appear and that sheet of paper is crumpled up and dropped into the bin. On a piece of notepaper you scribble out the text, edit it and amend it and then you start again with the best ink pen on best paper, painstakingly forming every word in line and properly spaced, properly spelled. When it is done you hold it up and imagine yourself as the bereaved recipient, asking yourself if this good enough. If you decide not you do it all again. Then you have it checked over by one of the many secretaries ranked throughout the building. Only then would you fold it into the addressed envelope and place it carefully in the post out box on the sideboard by the door and get on with ending the day.
Saturday 7 November 2009
Taxing risk takers out of the markets.
If this government goes ahead with confiscating the rewards of risk taking in financial transactions I will take all my money off the stock market immediately and leave it off until they see sense. I already pay stamp duty every time I buy shares. Government tax revneues depended on the City making money but government took away the regulating mechanism that worked and then abolished our own Glass Spiegal rules - thus killing the goose that laid the golden egg.
No extra taxes or we risk takers and investors go on strike.
No extra taxes or we risk takers and investors go on strike.
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