Sometimes in politics it’s easy to become cynical. To be spoon fed the dire predictions about youth, conflict in society, community breakdown and despite often having personal experience to the contrary, even the hardest of skins can be pierced by this gloomy outlook on our society.

Then something comes along and makes you think that not all’s bad. There’s a great deal of work going on out there by ordinary people who just want to make their communities better. That all young people aren’t druggie alcoholic harbingers of anti-social behaviour and vandalism.

Anyway, this little piece was brought to my attention and for those suffering from the constant pounding of doom and gloom from the Daily Mail et al, this can really lift the spirits. Especially for myself as it come from somewhere quite local, Dudley. Enjoy.

Working on a massive project at the moment which is probably going to take me until Sunday so expect light postage if indeed any until then.

Yesterday I was in an undisclosed town in the Black Country. While walking through the bus station I was asked by a youth aged about 14-16 “which town is this mate?”

Now to ask directions is no problem, “what street is this?” is a valid question but if someone doesn’t know what town they’re in when their standing in the bloody bus station surrounded by signs with the towns name then there’s something wrong.

On a side issue, 100 yards down the road I was stopped by someone who I’m assuming was under the influence of some substance or another and asked:

“Have you ever come here to f*ck somebody?” Fearing I may have been mistaken for a male prostitute I hurried on and ignored the guy calling after me.

There truly are some weird people out there.

This looks like really good news doesn’t it? Microsoft, bless them, are going to be investing £14million in the Black Country, setting up academies in each of the four local authority areas to train 35,000 people.

I’m sorry to sound like a miserable old critic on this one but I thought it might just be useful to explain a few things here. Firstly, Microsoft are stumping up £14million which as far as they are concerned as a company is absolutely nothing. They’ll be getting by 2010 these four academies and 130 learning centres.

Now that’s a lot of centres irrespective of staffing them so just on a rough estimation taking in things like running costs, buildings, land and tax, I don’t think £14million is going to go that far so who’s putting up the rest of the money?

Equally, can someone tell me what these people will be learning in these centres? Somehow I doubt it will be anything outside of the world of Microsoft which raises an important issue. FOSS (free open source software) is rapidly overtaking the proprietary stuff like Microsoft in terms of it’s growth. Across Europe the signs are there and various countries have been actively encouraging it’s use and development. No matter how many people at present use Microsoft software the sheer weight in terms of numbers and more importantly the vastly quicker development times of FOSS will eclipse it because the proprietary model cannot compete.

Other countries recognise this and are already going down that route of equipping their workforces with the IT skills for the future. It’s sad to see we are doing the opposite and equipping our workforce with the skills for the present (just about) and the past.

Here’s an analogy. It’s 1989, the Eastern Bloc is crumbling. Lada come to the Black Country and offer to train a whole load of people how to maintain/repair/work with their cars. Would that have been an investment for the future? Oh, and Lada aren’t stumping up all the money so actually you’re going to have to find the cash to train people to only be able to maintain/repair/work on their cars.

Sorry, I’m all for investment but this one not only promotes the interests of a single company which somewhere along the line we will be paying for because there is no way £14million is going cover this for the 30 year period they’re talking about. It also promotes and equips people with the skills to use systems that are not as productive as other alternatives, don’t have a viable long term future and because these ‘trained’ people will obviously adopt what they’ve learned, it will also mean that while companies in other countries are using far more efficient/robust systems, we’ll be lumbered with rubbish that will have a detrimental effect to our competitiveness against them.

I know many bloggers have been giving their views on the budget and I didn’t get round to saying anything.

Apart from the different aspects of who will benefit or not etc etc that seems to be the run of things in the media I just like to comment on the comments and positions taken largely by the media.

A common theme seems to be, both in the media and the attack lines from both the Tories and the LibDems that Gordon Brown has tried to pull a fast one and has given with one hand by taking with the other.

Now for the economic illiterate here’s the four possible budgets that any Chancellor can announce.

1. Give lots away, tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts. Works well just before an election, a particular favourite of the Tories in days gone by, leads to a massive public sector borrowing requirement, economic instability and is a pretty crap way to run an economy.

2. Take a lot more out of the economy by raising taxes and don’t spend it. Not a very common type of budget and almost unheard of in the UK but occasionally needed in times where paying off national debt to reduce the cost of servicing that debt is beneficial in the long term, however tends to completely kill off economic growth so the returns are diminished in the longer term.

3. A neutral budget. Maybe bugger about a bit with where you get the money from to encourage certain economic activity and deter/penalise others but fundamentally you’re balancing the books, it’s called good house keeping and promotes economic stability. A very sensible way to run the economic affairs of the country.

4. The neutral budget but a bit more complex. Here you can justify borrowing and or modestly cutting some taxation on the basis that the additional money put into the system or allowed to circulate there will promote efficiency and productivity gains that will in a few years time offset the initial loss of revenue or loan. This maintains economic stability but can have the added benefit of boosting economic growth at the same time which is better in the long run because it increases future revenue.

Yes, pretty much since Gordon Brown has been Chancellor he has done a 3 or 4 type budget. So for all those journalists desperate to fill column inches with crap about the budget, whatever happens you have a choice of 1 to 4. 1 may bring short term booms which will turn to busts, 2 will propagate permanent economic stagnation, 3 keeps things going nicely but doesn’t boost growth as much as 4. So please tell me what exactly all these dipsticks expected Gordon to say?

Oh, and here’s what they would have said: Option 1, Gordon isn’t Mr Prudence any more, he playing fast and loose with the economy. 2, Gordon’s a money grabbing git, 3 or 4, he’s giving with one hand and taking away with the other. So on that basis I’m not listening to anything any economic commentator wishes to say.

On a personal note, my highlight of the budget was that my son took his first few proper steps half way through Gordon’s speech and much as a love economics and respect Gordon Brown, my son took most of my attention away from the event.

As yesterday Bob tagged me about what I was doing on the 20th March 2003 I suddenly realised that there’s one person I had forgot to pass it on to. My old mate Colin Ross. That’s the guy who works for Ian Shires the Leader of the Liberal Democrats in Walsall and who’s salary is paid for by Walsall MBC.

However I thought I’d make it a bit more specific in terms of dates and times, so here goes. I’d like to ask Colin what he was doing at:

10.37am, Thu 1st Mar 2007
2.56pm, Thu 1st Mar 2007
4.30pm, Thu 1st Mar 2007
9.18am, Fri 2nd Mar 2007
10.43am, Mon 5th Mar 2007
10.40am, Tue 6th Mar 2007
12.41pm, Tue 6th Mar 2007
4.52pm, Tue 6th Mar 2007
12.01pm, Wed 7th Mar 2007
12.37pm, Thu 8th Mar 2007
10.34am, Fri 9th Mar 2007
10.41am, Fri 9th Mar 2007
11.05am, Fri 9th Mar 2007
2.41pm, Mon 12th Mar 2007
4.47pm, Tue 13th Mar 2007
9.46am, Wed 14th Mar 2007
3.37pm, Wed 14th Mar 2007
10.58am, Thu 15th Mar 2007
11.07am, Thu 15th Mar 2007
5.03pm, Thu 15th Mar 2007
10.20am, Fri 16th Mar 2007
10.19am, Tue 20th Mar 2007
2.02pm, Tue 20th Mar 2007
10.29am, Wed 21st Mar 2007

OK, it’s a rhetorical question, I know the answer. Colin was posting to his blog and has been throughout the day for the last few years. Feel free to browse his archives he’s been at this for quite a while.

The only problem I have is that I thought Colin worked up at Walsall Council for Ian Shires, the Leader of the LibDems in Walsall and these times that Colin seems to post to his site throughout the week appear to fall pretty much within what would normally be defined as the traditional working day.

I only say this because I spotted this little article on the Express & Star’s website where it appears staff at Walsall Council caught doing things like downloading stuff and posting to their personal blogs might get into rather a bit of trouble.

I’m sure we’d all hate that to happen to Colin wouldn’t we?

NB.

I have of course recorded Colin’s entries for this month should they be requested from me for further investigation if Colin tries and pulls a fast one by deleted them or removing the timestamps.

Hello to the person from the Nationwide Building Society looking up stuff about the Portman merger. Nothing personal against your Building Society but yes, that is what happens when another Society takes over another. Sometimes the customers get very arsie and take their business elsewhere.

Secondly a hello to the person from Westminster trying to find my identity. It’s all there, I’ve already told you where to look.

For regular readers it’s probably quite obvious I’m a lefty, I’m also a bit of a greeny and a liberal. However for years I’ve been avoiding the obvious clothing accessory that confirms this stereotype - the sandal.

This has changed today as I bought my first ever pair of sandals.

Yes, I’m now a sandal wearing leftie greeny liberal. However there is a very good excuse. I have an ingrowing toe nail that is exceedingly painful and shoes/trainers have become unbearable to wear. I might add this comes at the perfect time of the year just before the main planting of the crops season and the run up to the local elections but I guess I’ll have to live with it until it’s pulled out.

Note to readers, I still don’t eat yoghurt or muesli so I’m not all the way yet.

Thanks to Bob for tagging me about what I was doing on or around the 20th March from a meme started by Tim Ireland.

It’s not an original or exciting answer but I’d hazard a guess I was doing one of the following three things. Drinking in a pub in West Bromwich, drinking in a pub in Bilston or drinking in a pub in Willenhall.

As Bob’s already picked the obvious local targets to tag I’ll pass it on to:

Black Country Boy
Mike Ion
Tygerland
Little Penguin
although he hadn’t been born then so I guess he won’t have much to say.

Where was Mrs Penguin last night?