A Tale of Two Tills

I've been shopping twice this week and my experiences may explain why one store is expanding and the other has, over the past few years, had its problems!

On Monday, I was in the High Street and popped into a branch of a national chain and selected a newspaper and a paperback book. I then went to the only till open and stood behind a lady who was being served. After a few minutes I realised that this lady was having an involved discussion with the assistant regarding lottery tickets! She was obviously having some tickets checked to see if she had won anything. This involved some confusion! First of all they couldn't agree on how many tickets had been handed over - a recount was necessary! Then one of the winning tickets caused mayhem when the till refused to deal with it! So help was called for from another assistant. The three of them then tried all over again. By this time a rather long queue had formed - at least six other customers all wanting to pay for their purchases - including a man behind me who was threatening to leave because, by now he was going to be late for work! Eventually, the problem was sorted and the second assistant opened up the other till and I was able to pay for my goods and leave.

By contrast, yesterday I went down to a recently opened store on the A34. After selecting a few salad items for my diet (!) I went to the tills. The very pleasant young lady whizzed my purchases through her scanner and all was paid for within sixty seconds. On other occasions I have seen staff taken off shelf stacking duties to open extra tills whenever a queue develops at any of the checkouts.

So, as they used to say in my school exam papers - Compare and Contrast!

Top Totty for me, please!

I can't believe the furore caused by the sale of Slaters Top Totty ale in the Strangers Bar of the House of Commons. As everyone will now know, a totally unknown politician - Kate Green, shadow spokesperson for Women and Equality - objected last week to the cartoon (see picture right) of a bikini clad blonde on the pump clip of Slaters fabulous ale! And by alleging that it 'demeaned women', the parliamentary authorities banned Top Totty immediately!

Well, I think this incident proves that there are some MPs who don't live in the real world. If this spokesperson believes that she has struck a blow against sexism on behalf of other women, she should speak to people outside the Westminster bubble. Perhaps the Telegraphs opinion poll - over 90% believe the ban was wrong - should convince her that she's spending too much time at her desk. Get out, lady, and get real!

And what a coup for Slaters, one of Staffordshire's fabulous craft brewers! They couldn't buy that amount of publicity! (Just take a look at their website!) Top Totty has always been a favourite tipple of mine. It sold out by Saturday evening at last year's Stone Food and Drink Festival. And now that the whole country has heard of it, I can see that the brewery will be going into overtime and, perhaps, expansion to cope with demand!

Incidentally, another favourite brewery of mine, Wye Valley, produces a lovely tipple called Dorothy Goodbody! If Ms. Green ever set eyes on that pump clip she'll need immediate CPR treatment from Vinnie Jones!

Now the Food and Drink Festival has recently been pondering on who to invite to open the 2012 Festival! I wonder if Ms. Green will be doing anything during early October!

HS2 gets Thumbs Up!

As you are all probably aware, I love railways. So you'll not be surprised to hear that I am delighted the government has given the proposal to build HS2 the green light. The building of a dedicated high speed railway from London to Manchester and Leeds will be the biggest transport civil engineering project for over a century and the first section, from London to Birmingham, might just be built in my lifetime - I hope!

Last year I sat and watched hours and hours of television on the Parliament Channel when they transmitted in full the hearings before the Parliamentary Transport Select Committee. Dozens of witnesses were called to give evidence - some in favour and some against the proposals. I was left in no doubt, as was the Committee, that the case for HS2 was overwhelming. An upgraded West Coast Main Line has no potential for dealing with the projected over capacity. The current scheme for adding an extra two coaches to the Pendelino fleet and extending the length of platforms is simply a 'sticking plaster' solution.

A new railway will provide the necessary intercity capacity and, much more importantly, will free up the existing network for a much improved local and regional network. I can see huge advantages for us in North Staffordshire. Local services can be vastly improved without having to worry about getting in the way of Mr Branson's precious intercity trains.

So well done, Mr Cameron. Stick to your guns and bring on HS2!

Nothing but trouble ahead.

I woke up early this morning and put the earpieces in to listen to 5Live and caught the breaking news of Cameron's defiance at the Brussels summit. So the rest of Europe will now go off and do their own thing and Britain's role in Europe will be further diminished. John Major's group of 'bastards' (his description of the eurosceptics in his midst) will feel empowered and the coalition's fault lines will suddenly widen.

I've always thought that it would be the European issue which would ultimately bring down Cameron and the coalition but never thought it would begin to happen so quickly. The likes of Bill Cash and his henchmen would have us out tomorrow and then we truly are finished.

But it's even more dangerous than that now. Because everything is now in the same melting pot - Britain's role in Europe, the future of the Eurozone and the euro - and  the global economy.

The Dad's Army catchphrase "We're all doomed" may become very apt in the weeks to come.

So much for a civilised society.

I don't know enough about the facts of the case to express any opinion as to whether the conviction of Troy Davis, the American who was put to death last night, was safe or not on the charge of murder. All I would say is that when the 'white jury convicts black defendant of killing white off duty policeman' scenario was raised, it was obvious that the case was going to generate a lot of heat.  John Grisham's latest work of fiction, The Confession, appears to have been played out in real life in this case.

However, my revulsion is directed at a country that still uses capital punishment and, much more importantly, allows a convicted man to be held on death row for the best part of twenty years. That is simply barbaric.

America needs to put it's own house in order before it attempts to export 'civilisation' to the rest of the world.

'Policing by Consent'

The Home Secretary, Theresa May, was interviewed on Radio 4 this morning about the riots that are taking place in London and elsewhere. In amongst the predictable politicians' claptrap, she came out with the classic response that in this country we are "policed by consent".

A grand sounding statement which actually means very little. Yes, provided the population agrees to accept the authority of the police, it works. But when a group of only a few hundred yobs who have never accepted authority from anyone - parents, schoolteachers, police, anyone - decide not to consent to being policed the outcome is anarchy.

Unless she and the government realise the enormity of the problem and tackle it head on the prospects for London and other cities are frightening.

Where will it end?

A little over a week ago (July 7th) I posted an item headed ' Words fail me' just after it had been made public that the News of the World had hacked into the phone messages of Milley Dowler and members of the armed services and their families when serving in Afghanistan. I suggested that NOTW was out of control and questioned the role of the Metropoiltan Police. And I ventured that we hadn't heard 'the half of it'!

Well, no sooner had I posted that article than Murdoch announced that he was closing down NOTW! 200 people lost their jobs through no fault of their own. Then Cameron announces that he is to set up a judicial enquiry and accepts personal responsibility for employing former NOTW editor Andy Coulson as his spokesman. Then the bombshell - Murdoch withdraws his bid to buy remaining shares in BSkyB. Then senior police officers Yates and Hayman appear before a Parliamentary Committee and I doubt if anyone was impressed by their evidence. Then police start to arrest senior executives at the NOTW. But still Rebekah Brooks and her buddies the Murdochs brazen it out. Then the FBI announce an enquiry in the alleged hacking of 9/11 victims phones.  Then Rebekah resigns! Murdoch pays for full page adverts to say Sorry. And then over the weekend - Rebekah is arrested and the most senior police chief in the country, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Paul Stephenson resigns after it was announced that he'd received free accommodation at Champney's courtesy of a friend - a heath spa that just happened to employ a discredited ex NOTW journalist!

Phew! What next? Where will it all end?

I've given up forecasting. If this was the plot of a novel we'd be saying it was too implausible!
But of one thing I'm sure. This is the end of the cozying up of politicians, media and police. Murdoch's influence has been dangerous - is it right for one man to have so much power that he can influence the result of the democratic process. Is it right that he can own several newspapers and television stations. Hopefully the events of the last two weeks will eventually be seen as a momentous moment in our post war history.

And there's a lot more to be revealed yet - I'm sure!

So Vince Cable was right!

Do you remember the battering that Vince Cable got a couple of months ago when he was caught by a sting operation mounted by a couple of undercover reporters posing as constituents? He was caught saying that Rupert Murdoch needed to be stopped from taking over BSkyB and that he would do all he could to make sure he was.

Result? Slagged off by the Tories and removed from his position in the Cabinet so that the BSkyB decision was taken away from him. Almost the end of his political career.

And now what?  Well, ever since Murdoch closed down the NoTW yesterday, every politician under the sun is now brave enough to say that Murdoch needs to be stopped from taking over BSkyB and that they will do all in their power to make sure he is!

Oh Vince! We need people like you - leaders not followers. Perhaps you'll be welcomed back now.

Words fail me

I haven't bought a copy of the News of the World (or its sister publication The Sun) since Hillsborough. I thought The Sun's reporting of that tragedy was as low as gutter journalism could go. But they've proved me wrong! It's been known for years that the News of the World were hacking the phones of politicians and TV celebrities. I don't quite understand why that was 'acceptable' in some peoples eyes.

But now it transpires that the hacker had details of the phone numbers of murder victims and their families and relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan - with the consequent risk that they've been hacked as well.

Clearly this is a newspaper that is out of control and has absolutely no moral standards. And I doubt it's the only one. Why is the Daily Mail not covering this issue as fully? And what is the Metropolitan Police involvement in all this?

Methinks that we've not heard the half of it yet.