Should Auld acquiaintences...

Well, everyone else is at it, so time for this little blog to make predications for 2010.  Here, then, the distilled considerations of what the future may hold from the pen of the Greek sceptic himself...

1. CCBC will all convert to Masonry, hold secret meetings and never speak to the press ever again.
2. A new government will slash spending on almost everything in sight whilst simultaneously promising not to
3. The media will take turns to compete for 'Biggest Liars of the Year' award and they'll all win
4. Significant sums of money destined to regenerate Colwyn Bay will mysteriously disappear and Rhyl will enter a new Age of Renewal
5. MPs will complain they don't have enough to live on while continuing to try to claim for their moats to be cleaned and their duck houses to be painted
6. Bankers will be paid massive bonuses
7. Reporters will openly decry the Bankers' massive bonuses while sorting out the finance for their second and third houses.
8. People will continue to say what a wonderful person Margaret Thatcher was.
9. People will continue to point out just what a disaster for the country Margaret Thatcher was, partly by reminding people that it was she who started the entire covert, unmonitored, secret expenses system for MPs to replace the salary rises they wanted to award themselves when she'd stopped everyone else in the country from having them.
10. People will continue to argue that Climate change isn't caused by human activities, as yet another area of rainforest the size of China disappears.

Finally, some carefully considered New Year resolutions for the councillors on Conwy CBC:

1. Tell the truth

Have a wonderful New Year's Eve.

2 + 2 = ?

Yesterday, we wrote about schools, teachers and management. It's an interesting topic, because few realise just exactly what goes on in the average school, and particularly the average secondary school.

If you left your own education behind many years ago, then you might be surprised to find out just how much things have changed.  Of course, some things haven't, and therein lies a problem.

We read a lot about 'failing schools' and 'special measures' and - if we're perfectly honest - those of us who don't have kids at school don't really care, while those of us who do only care about certain things: whether the child is being bullied, what times the school starts and finishes, what results the school is getting at GCSE and A level and whether our child seems to be happy there. School is, after all, a place of transition, a place in which we grow up, become influenced about many things, and eventually choose a career path.  The only time we start to care is when school kids - specifically secondary - start to have an impact on our lives. Then we all too often look around for someone to blame;  and it's usually the parents, followed by the school. But like all such issues, it's rarely that simple.

Blaming a bad teacher used to be commonplace and - to be fair - bad teachers were not that uncommon.  But what's the definition of a 'bad teacher'?  For this, you have to remember your own  secondary schooling.  Remember that teacher that couldn't control your class?  The one where you could do what you wanted?  The one you almost felt sympathy for? In Carneades' case, that was the science teacher.  Although it was a good boys' Grammar school, boys will be boys, and this inadequate was ritually dismembered each lesson by thirty or so pack members as he utterly failed to comprehend how a class should be controlled.  There was no reason, other than his own, staggering lack of capability, than he couldn't manage a group of 12 year old, fairly bright boys. But have things changed?

Although we might bemoan the parlous state of our young people, the fact is that most of the kids in our area are easily dealt with, generally pleasant and mainly inoffensive.  That acquiescence translates into 'easily controlled in the classroom', so the lot of most staff in the area is reasonably pleasant. Inadequate teachers, therefore, stand out more easily and can be identified, supported and - if all else fails -  become OFSTED inspectors.

No - that's not a joke.  Teachers with the most appalling records in classroom management do go on to become advisers and Inspectors. But why does classroom management matter so much?

Think back.  If you're honest, you probably didn't enjoy that lesson (where they couldn't control the class) that much.  You didn't learn much, because of all the noise, the trouble-makers made all the running, and you felt a little insecure, since order, predictability and security had gone out of the window, usually along with half the books and a variety of other missiles.  But there's a far more worrying aspect.

Badly behaved children are not clearly identified until the final years of the primary school. They are then sent up to the Secondary school, which has to make its own assessment of the degree of bad behaviour. That can take up to three years, because a lot of reports, paper work, sanctions, meetings, discussions and more have to be completed before any sort of firm action can be taken. During that time, if your child is a part of that class, you can assume that they'll learn precious little, because most of the class teacher's time will be taken up controlling and dealing with the trouble maker. That is a fact. There are usually one or two kids in any class who behave badly, but the problems really start when there are several. That can have a catastrophic effect on the learning potential of any class, and it's one reason why the demand for home tuition has never been as high.

In fact, there's now a growing body of opinion that favours home education, for many reasons.  And, apart from the bullying, swearing, aggression, disruption and general time wasting in schools, what is there to commend them as institutions? Perhaps we need something different.

Back to School - but mind the potholes

As school teachers in the area enjoy the long Christmas break the news that the litigation culture is alive and well will go some way to ameliorating their worries about the impending return to the classroom.

Today's Daily Post reports that quite a bit of cash has been paid to teachers and pupils over the past few years for incidents which led to injury.  But you have to wonder about how some of these 'accidents' happened, with pupils and staff falling into potholes, tripping on cobble stones, sitting on dining room chairs and being buried beneath several mounds of equipment. Falling into potholes? And did they fall or...

Having said that, teachers do a stressful job - really stressful - and it's not helped by senior management who spend lot of time covering their own backs, doing as little real teaching as possible and generally worrying more about how they can retain their own, extremely well-paid positions than the teachers working at the coal face. There are - is has to be said - exceptions, but these are few and far between.

It's a curious anomaly that the management in most professions move away from practising the very skills that earned them their positions in the first place. Teaching is a prime example of this absurd situation.  The higher up the career pole the teacher slimes, sorry  - climbs - the less actual teaching they have to do.

Let's take an example - say, a fictitious secondary school in the area, Ysgol Bryn Dandelion. Their least experienced teacher will be given the most classes to teach, so their timetable for, say -  a 30 period week will consist of teaching 26 periods, with only four periods of so-called None Contact time, during which they will almost certainly be called on to 'sub' for another member of staff stricken with illness, terminal confusion or who's been sent on an Organisational training course, providing they remembered to post off the application form in time, of course.

Now, many of these teaching periods won't be in the same - or possibly even - adjacent - classrooms. So the member of staff whose own training centred around lesson preparation, marking, homework assignments, differentiation, materials preparation, presentation, targets, cross-curriculum theming, the Welsh Dimension and - if they're lucky - something about the subject they actually studied to degree level for three years, will have to grab their papers, books, planners, lesson plans, pens, pencils, rulers and personal effects, push their way out onto a corridor far too narrow for the hordes of creatures varying between 11 and 18 currently free of the classroom restraints and now ploughing their way between various rooms with a verve and determination that would make Genghis Kahn think twice about tackling, and attempt to survive the human torrent long enough to reach the next classroom in which they're slated to teach, and where they find thirty 13 year-olds awaiting their arrival with the sort of anticipation animal specialists note in wolf packs prior to an attack.

For those who know little about education, which would include many of the past members of Ysgol Bryn Dandelion, it's worth pausing a moment to explain how the average initial lesson with a group of first years  - or year sevens, as they're now confusingly named - often works. People outside of the education world often have very strong views on teachers and teaching, mostly woefully uninformed and based on their own, hazy memories of life in the convent. In reality, however, the deceptively simple task of giving out new exercise books and labels and then getting the children to write their own names, the name of the subject and their registration form on the book will take about 40 minutes.  Why so long?  Because of that 30 children, seven will complete the task quickly, neatly and perfectly, ten will confuse their name with the subject name, five will be unable to spell the subject name, two will forget which form they're in, three will have no writing implements whatsoever, two will misspell their own name and one will have a panic attack, need the toilet, destroy the book, wreck the label or any one of a dozen other highly unlikely, utterly improbable but almost inevitable experiences. Thus, the average newly qualified, degree-holding member of staff will have to combine the skills of logistics orderly, surrogate mother, sergeant major, foreign language specialist, counsellor, psychiatrist, lion tamer, psychologist, counter-terrorist specialist and - oh yes, teacher for 26 / 30ths of their working week.

Now, if we examine the role of the senior management - the Head teacher - an entirely different picture emerges. It's unusual if the Head Teacher actually teaches, so their knowledge of what is happening in the classroom is based on their own, hazy recollections of an environment they spent most of their working life attempting to escape. They'll have a pleasant, plush office, a secretarial staff at their beck and call, and - if they actually do any teaching - you can be pretty sure it'll be to some highly motivated, distinctly delightful sixth formers (or year 12 and 13s, as they're now known). The Head Teacher of a school is supposed to lead, inspire and set the tone for the school, but the reality is that far too many, having attained the relatively stress-free, none-teaching role of administrator, prefer to sit back in their little towers and pronounce from afar on matters of Mission Statements, acronyms and organisational import.  There are, however, many in the teaching profession who believe many head teachers adhere singularly to the philosophy of  Creative, Realistic, Attainable and Pertinent management.

Happy holiday.

Really?

The period between Christmas Eve and New Year's Day is - for many - a time of unrepentant over-indulgence and sheer unadulterated pleasure. Of course, some of the public services - Police, Hospitals, Fire brigade - continue to work as hard as ever, and manage their family lives - somehow - amid a welter of shifts and child-juggling.  However, some public services - most government departments, Council administration, Social workers and Teachers - have the whole time to themselves, and are rarely called out, as staplers with catastrophic failure don't usually rate the overtime and there's always an out of hours team to deal with the most pressing social work needs.

Which neatly segues into the Christmas NSPCC ads. Each year, around this time, the NSPCC emblazons the small screen with multiple and harrowing scenes of implied nastiness being wreaked on the children of this country, along with dire suggestions that abuse over the Christmas hols doesn't get reported, so it's really important to telephone them to report any hint you might have of anything possibly worrying taking place anywhere.

What the NSPCC won't tell you, however, is that not only do they spend significantly more on advertising than they do on child protection but that they don't actually do anything about the reports themselves.

Yes - that's right;  in case you're having trouble comprehending exactly what's being said, NSPCC don't actually do child protection themselves

So what do they do with the money they collect from the well meaning?

When they get a call, they simply ring the out of hours team at the Social services department for the area and pass it on.  So - you might ask - why don't those reporting the incident go straight to the equine's orifice? After all, ringing Social Services directly eliminates one extra layer of communication, and thus one extra chance of confusion and error.

Effectively, it's down to the remarkable image-trick the NSPCC has been pulling for years.  Through the use of massive amounts of money, they've persuaded a large number of the UK citizenry to believe that they are the only guardians of children in the UK. In fact, the only actual services they offer are counselling services - which are actually fairly good - but not the hands-on, inspector-led child protection services they would have you believe.

So next time the NSPCC approach you and ask for a donation, ask them what they actually do with the money.

'Tis the season to be brave

Funny thing about Christmas; the best time seems to be Christmas Eve, with the actual day sometimes being a little anticlimactic. The newsmedia also gamely attempts to take a break from the usual non-stop fare of misery and malignancy which it normally peddles, to bring the odd, the curious and sometimes the uplifting to the light of day.

There's been the usual run of stabbings - one during a snowball fight, would you believe - and North Wales police revealed that they're taking a 'tough line' on so-called 'hate' crimes in the area, with more than 800 listed as Racial and 166 as homophobic.  Which does all make one wonder what sort of society we're breeding, when the mindless morons of mendacity still see fit to vent the consequences of their miserable, damaged and deprived childhoods on those who don't share their sexual preferences, or are simply born with a different skin colour or perhaps language or religion.  If they could read, they might well learn that just about every war ever fought has been about language or religion, and if we ever want a truly just society we should perhaps consider the abolition of all religion, particularly as the world continues its remorseless and accelerating move towards English as the international language.

But the really important news is that twelve Scouts have been honoured for their bravery, including a 13-year-old boy who risked his life to save a friend who fell through ice on a lake.  Damian Coles went into action after the other boy walked on to the ice to retrieve a bike which bullies had thrown on to the lake.

He said: "I saw him fall in through the ice and I knew I had to do something quickly or he could die. We got really cold and had to go to hospital but I'm really, really glad I was able to do something to help."

Hannah Walker, 14, from Sheerness, Kent, was recognised after she pushed another schoolgirl to safety when a vent fell from a school gym ceiling. She suffered head and back injuries in her rescue, but continued to care for her friends who were also hurt.

"I just acted out of instinct and I was determined to help my friends. I never realised until later that I was injured as well," she said.
Chief Scout Bear Grylls said all 12 Scouts were an "inspiration".

What he didn't say, however, was that this sort of selfless act is happening all the time, but is often unreported or unrecognised.  Scouting attracts those who think of others before themselves - it's the only youth organisation where every single member has to take a promise which makes that obligation manifest - but it's also an organisation which places an emphasis on self-reliance, training and competence. Congratulations to not only those 12, but to all those who think of others before themselves and who give of their time to help make our society the truly mature, just and decent culture it ought to be.
.

A very happy Christmas, Hanuka or holiday to you all 

HSE contd...

The Rocking Song

Little Jesus, sweetly sleep, do not stir;
We will lend a coat of fur,
 We will rock you, rock you, rock you,
We will rock you, rock you, rock you:

Fur is no longer appropriate wear for small infants, both due to risk of allergy to animal fur, and for ethical reasons. Therefore faux fur, a nice cellular blanket or perhaps micro-fleece material should beconsidered a suitable alternative.

Please note, only persons who have been subject to a Criminal Records Bureau check and have enhanced clearance will be permitted to rock baby Jesus. Such persons must carry their CRB disclosure with them at all times and be prepared to provide three forms of identification before rocking commences.


Jingle Bells

Dashing through the snow
In a one horse open sleigh
O'er the fields we go
Laughing all the way

A risk assessment must be submitted before an open sleigh is considered safe for members of the public to travel on. The risk assessment must also consider whether it is appropriate to use only one horse for such a venture, particularly if passengers are of larger proportions. Please note: permission must be gained from landowners before entering their fields. To avoid offending those not participating in celebrations, we would request that laughter is moderate only and not loud enough to be considered noise pollution.

Rudolph the red nosed reindeer

Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer
had a very shiny nose.
And if you ever saw him,
you would even say it glows.

You are advised that under the Equal Opportunities for All policy, it is inappropriate for persons to make comment with regard to the ruddiness of any part of Mr. R. Reindeer. Further to this, exclusion of Mr R Reindeer from the Reindeer Games will be considered discriminatory and disciplinary action will be taken against those found guilty of this offence. A full investigation will be implemented and sanctions - including suspension on full pay - will be considered whilst this investigation takes place.


Little Donkey

Little donkey, little donkey on the dusty road
Got to keep on plodding onwards with your precious load

The RSPCA have strict guidelines with regard to how heavy a load that a donkey of small stature is permitted to carry, also included in the guidelines is guidance regarding how often to feed the donkey and how many rest breaks are required over a four hour plodding period. Please note that due to the increased risk of pollution from the dusty road, Mary and Joseph are required to wear face masks to prevent inhalation of any airborne particles. The donkey has expressed his discomfort at being labelled 'little' and would prefer just to be simply referred to as Mr. Donkey. To comment upon his height or lack thereof may be considered an infringement of his equine rights.


We Three Kings

We three kings of Orient are
Bearing gifts we traverse afar
Field and fountain, moor and mountain
Following yonder star

Whilst the gift of gold is still considered acceptable - as it may be redeemed at a later date through such organisations as 'cash for gold' etc, gifts of frankincense and myrrh are not appropriate due to the potential risk of oils and fragrances causing allergic reactions. A suggested gift alternative would be to make a donation to a worthy cause in the recipient's name or perhaps give a gift voucher.

We would advise that the traversing kings do not rely on navigation by stars in order to reach their destinations and suggest the use of AA Routefinder or GSP navigation, which will provide the quickest route and advice regarding fuel consumption. Please note as per the guidelines from the RSPCA for Mr Donkey, the camels carrying the three kings of Orient will require regular food and rest breaks. Facemasks for the three kings are also advisable due to the likelihood of dust from the camels hooves.


Away in a Manger

Away in a Manger
No Crib for a bed

Social Services will visit and may remove any child to a place of safety pending further action against parents, or other persons, who may be found to be guilty of neglect by not providing adequate bedding and shelter for a child in their care. Criminal proceedings may be instituted after a case study has been carried out and fully discussed at a full meeting of the appropriate Social Services Committee.

Christmas is coming....

From the Health & Safety Executive:
Re:

While shepherds watched
Their flocks by night
All seated on the ground,
The angel of the Lord came down
And glory shone around.

The Union of Shepherds has complained that it breaches health and safety regulations to insist that shepherds watch their flocks without appropriate seating arrangements having been determined. Therefore all employers of all such shepherds must make benches, stools and orthopaedic chairs available with effect from Christmas Eve. The Comfort Committee will determine which model is appropriate to which shepherd, regardless of age, gender, sexual orientation or religious belief. Shepherds have also requested that, due to the inclement weather conditions at this time of year, they should watch their flocks via CCTV cameras from centrally heated shepherd observation huts. HSE commends this proposal to shepherding management both in the UK and overseas. In addition the angel of the Lord is reminded that before shining his/her glory all around he/she must ascertain that all shepherds have been issued with glasses capable of filtering out the harmful effects of UVA, UVB and, especially, glory.

The HSE wishes all its readers a Not too merry Christmas, within appropriate guidelines.

Oh no it isn't!

A couple of Thursdays ago readers of Cllr John Oddy's blog will remember that he told them about a special meeting the Town council was holding on the following Monday to debate the regeneration issues for Colwyn Bay.  Of course, a lot's happened since then, but there's been a surprising and worrying outcome.

Things started to get nasty after Cllr Oddy had asked folk to submit questions through himself for the meeting.  One lady did, so he asked her question, which was whether Landlords in Colwyn Bay were being offered free refurbishments if they then took-in people on the homeless list.  Immediately, Cllr Chris Perry accused Cllr Oddy of asking the question on behalf of another councillor, Councillor Dave Maratos and yet - oddly - was not brought to order by the Mayor, despite the allegation being totally unfounded.

After Cllr Oddy left the town hall, things apparently deteriorated, with Cllr Perry accusing Cllr Maratos  of being a trouble causer and of spreading unfounded rumours about properties being demolished in Colwyn Bay.  Now this last bit is important and it's where things become murky and muddy. Like a Shakespearean tragedy, the plot unfolds, with twists and convolutions and - rather like a badly written panto - the Panto Villain emerges, no other than our old friend Cllr Chris Hughes.

So what was the truth behind the wild accusations made by Cllr Perry?

In fact, Councillor Maratos HAD told people he believed some unnamed properties were to be demolished BUT he was merely repeating what County Councillor Bob Squires had said in the Weekly News. However, Cllr Maratos claims he was contacted by County Councillor Chris Hughes who told him to stop relaying the story because it wasn’t true and that Bob Squires had never said such a thing to the Weekly News or the Pioneer and that he, (Bob Squires) had received an apology from the Weekly News over his comments (essentially untrue, but more on that one later). According to Cllr Maratos, Cllr Hughes then waged a campaign to undermine Cllr Maratos' standing in the community by spreading rumours that Cllr Maratos didn’t know what he was talking about and was  - to use Cllr Hughes’s words - just 'scaremongering'. This had the desired effect of turning public opinion against Cllr Maratos, who then found himself and his family subject to harassment from local residents including eggs being thrown at his windows, dog dirt being left on his doorstep and malicious texts being sent to him.

The upshot of this orchestrated campaign of vilification was that Cllr Maratos resigned as a councillor on the following day, citing fears for his families' safety.

So what are the facts? Was Cllr Maratos merely repeating what Bob Squires had publicly stated or not? It's important, because of what Cllr Hughes had said.

This is what the NWWN printed:

“There is a master plan being discussed as part of the regeneration and it will be include major proposals for demolition for some of these properties. Conwy County Council will resist future bedsits, the policy will be dead against it. We will formally resist houses of multiple accommodation, and reduce them and therefore some of the undesirable types that live there.”

And here's the 'apology' which Cllr Hughes used to berate Cllr Maratos:

*On the Letters Page of last week’s Weekly News we ran a headline saying "Councillor’s ‘underclass’ comments spur debate".
This implied Cllr Bob Squire had used the term in relation to people in Colwyn Bay. This was not the case, and Mr Squire has not used this term in the past. The term ‘benefits underclass’ was actually from a report from the Welsh Assembly.
We are happy to clear up any misunderstanding this may have caused.

So nothing about the comments regarding demolition, then.   Which means that not only were those comments accurate, but that Cllr Hughes was (surprise, surprise) wrong when he claimed that Cllr Maratos was 'scaremongering' and 'didn't know what he was talking about'.  In fact, the Cllr who doesn't appear to know what he's talking about is Cllr Hughes - or does he?

 Councillor Maratos appears to have been completely in the right, merely repeating what the NWWN had already printed and deserves  an apology from the Cllrs concerned. That neither the  Council nor Councillor Chris Hughes want it further publicised is a different matter entirely and -  if what Councillor Maratos alleges is true, and we have no reason to doubt him as Cllr Oddy is in receipt of some emails sent out by Cllr Hughes - there is most certainly a case for the Standards Board to investigate the actions perpetrated by Councillor Hughes who, for too long now, seems to be getting away with some very dubious behavior.

Putting the Boots in

Progress can be a wonderful thing. As can the internet. But then some stupid, dogmatic, unhelpful, useless, moronic, ludicrous 'service' arrives, that manages - at a stroke - to deliver an inferior service and have the sheer gall to call it an improvement.

Boots - that nanny-like, avuncular, pie-in-the sky, expensive appalling pharmacy has always been on our list for up against the wall come the revolution, but we've always had the choice of avoiding their patronising piles. As the company, however, slowly but inexorably swallows up the pharmaceutical minnows in a continuous and unending feeding frenzy, however, our choice steadily diminishes, and our only recourse is then to call into the pill palace from hell.

Their latest 'improvement' is the 'repeat prescription' service. Now, a couple of our family have continually repeating medicinal needs, and - two years ago - our local surgery introduced us to Emis - the online prescription, appointment and re-ordering facility. Now, Emis got off to a rocky start it has to be said, often going off-line when the surgery was closed (although we secretly suspect some well meaning Health worker was dutifully shutting everything down when they left for the day, forgetting that the main point about an online service is its 24/7 availability).  However, for the past 12 months it has run impeccably.   All one had to do, to reorder a medication, was to log on, choose the medication, then press 'reorder'.  The surgery would pass the request to the relevant GP, the prescription would then be passed to the pharmacy - previously 'Lloyds, who would send round someone to collect it,  and we would pick it up from there it from there a day or so later.  This time, however, we were telephoned by a nice lady who told us that they no longer pass them over to Boots.  Instead, we'd have to register (again) for Boots' 'repeat prescription service'. On the pamphlet, Boots says

"Our free Repeat Prescription Service gives you a convenient way to get your repeat medicine. What's more our service is flexible enough to suit your needs and best of all it's free! You can sign up for our time saving Repeat Prescription Service either online or in store. Register for our Repeat Prescription Service and your Boots Pharmacy Team will collect your repeat prescription from your doctor and arrange to have it waiting for you to collect on your next visit.".

But it's not that simple.  First off, you can't do this over the internet any more.  You now have to 'phone Boots.  So that costs a phone call, when using the internet wouldn't.   Second, you have to go through the registration process, so the pharmacy has all your details.  But in a small community, you might not want the pharmacy staff to know all about your medical needs.  Thirdly - and most worrying - they say

"We'll order your repeat prescription from the surgery, collect it for you and have it ready and waiting for you when you next visit us."

but that's what used to happen, expect it was easier. And this is inserting an extra layer between you and the GP, thus increasing the possibility of error.  Finally, they have the unmitigated gall to add

"PLUS as a regular user of our free Repeat Prescription Service, you'll be able to benefit from a free consultation with our pharmacist. Here you'll be able to ask any questions you have about the medicines you are taking to make sure you're getting the most from them." 

For God's sake, why?  If I have any queries about medication, I ask the GP. Why on earth would I actually get something from the GP without knowing what it was, what it was for, and how to use it?  And why on earth would I trust a pharmacist to know more about my medication than the GP who'd prescribed it?

For years, Boots has seen itself as leading the charge against choice;  not only are they expensive, but they take it upon themselves to go the extra mile in responding to the  knee-jerk reactive politics of the government by subjecting customers to an interrogation when they buy anything which could remotely be used to harm.

Some years ago, would-be suicides were able to buy 500 paracetamol at one go. Now, using paracetamol to end your life is not easy;  it's a very prolonged and unpleasant death and there are - frankly - much easier ways to shuffle off this mortal coil.  However, that's not really the point. If someone wants to kill themselves, surely they ought to be allowed to do it?  After all, it is their life and they're most unlikely to be recidivists.  What right does the government  - or anyone, come to that - have for restricting the sale of mild analgesics simply because someone, somewhere just might want to take an overdose? But the government, whose policy making in response to articles in the DFM knows no bounds,  has steadily applied pressure to pharmacies to ascertain whether those buying such items are planning mass suicides or simply have a bad headache. The result is that Boots have transformed the experience of buying any analgesic into something similar to what convicted child molesters might experience if they were staked out in a Branch of Toys R Us with a large placard tied around their necks proclaiming their proclivities for all to see.

However, it's bad enough trying to convince the humourless servitor behind the counter that the four containers of baby powder you're attempting to buy are not materials for some new type of fusion weapon and that you're not a closet member of some new terrorist group planning the mass destruction of anti-perspirant producers everywhere, without having to put up with a reduction in the quality of service you're used to from your GP and having the company dress it up as an improvement.  GPs are - generally - good at their job.  They've had at least seven long years of training to do it, and they usually get it right.  Pharmacists are cooks;  they do know something about how their preparations work, but in the main they follow a simple recipe to put it together.  They are not subject to the detailed training of the GP and - having known several - decent and intelligent folk that they are, the average intelligent patient can find out more after half an hour on the internet than they can from the Pharmacist. And if they can't they could try reading the instructions that come with the tablets.



Anyone know of an independent chemist?

Any ideas?

Chris wrote "There's probably no money for anything grandiose (to improve and regenerate the area) but here's my (very modest) wish-list:-

1. Toilets that won't give you dysentry (if you can still find one open)

2. A theatre with a sign outside that says what's on that night. (Is Venue Cymru the only theatre in the world where this deosn't happen?)

3.taxis you can flag down in the street

4. A bus service along the prom.

5. Cafe's that don't shut up shop as soon as it goes a bit quiet or custom is tailing off

None of it's rocket-science, and an invitation to the resisdents of the town would produce a hundred or morelow-cost low-energy incremental improvements like this that would between them add up to a better resort."

Cannily, Chris has identified five of the most pressing needs for any tourist destination, and - it seems - five where we fall down.

Toilets: they're busily debating closing most of them, but what we probably need is a change in the law to make all businesses above a certain size provide public toilets.

Theatre signage: hmmm...wonder why they don't want folk to know what's on?

Taxis: why don't we have the traditional taxi service here?

Buses: the problem would almost certainly have to be congestion, since most of the hotels along the prom have coaches double-parking as it is in the season.  However, a tram actually running on the prom itself and not on the road could be a winner.  Now, where have we heard that before?

Cafes: the Rest and Be Thankful cafe - Marine Drive, Great Orme, just past the lighthouse - remains open for every day of the year except Christmas Day.  But it is one of the few that does.  However, struggle up there on foot, drive or simply stroll up on Boxing day to walk off the Christmas goodies, and you'll always be rewarded with a very warm welcome.

What is an excellent idea, however,  is to ask all the locals for their ideas about what could be done to improve the local area in tourist terms.  So send them in, and we'll keep a running tally.  Thanks for Chris for the idea and starting the (snow)ball rolling.

As the snow edges imperceptibly across the country and towards out little corner, dads everywhere are anxiously checking the garages and outbuildings for the sledge they last got out a couple of years ago.

Snow is an interesting thing.  Water's actually rather interesting, as it's the only substance that expands when cold, which is a useful characteristic, since without it we couldn't skate on frozen lakes.  But whenever the first snowflakes start wending their delicate way to wards us, we become all nostalgic, remembering the last time we had snow at Christmas, and comments such as "We always had deep snow when we were young" fly thick and fast, despite not having a grain of truth in them.  But it's the change wrought to our normally staid personas that's possibly the most interesting facet of snow. Five inches of the white, fluffy stuff, and we're all little kids again, building snowmen (under the guise of teaching the kids, of course), grabbing the sledge (to show them how to use it) and lobbing snowballs like trainee marines.

But there's no denying the place looks beautiful immediately after a thick fall.  Just as long as no one has to go anywhere by road, it's a great time.

Deckchair, anyone?

Visitor numbers to Wales fell by 1.2m between 2006 and 2008, apparently, and the news that accommodation providers are having to work harder to attract visitors really doesn't come as a major surprise.

If you want to see how Llandudno's hotels fare, then visit Trip Advisor http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/. Here, folk rate their last visit to the hotel of choice, and it's here you can read the rants and raves. What you read may surprise you. For instance, the number 1 hotel in the area is a tiny, boutique hotel called Can Y Bae, run by David and Michael. Situated on the Prom, it's the proprietors that make the difference and who work their magic to have the tourists returning, like well trained clockwork soldiers, year after year.   

 In the last blog, we wrote that more folk are actually holidaying in North Wales than for some time, but behind that observation lie some interesting facts.

Florida is still the major tourist destination for folk in the UK, followed closely by Spain, Portugal, the Canaries and Greece. But there are different reasons for choosing each location. Folk choose Florida for the theme parks primarily, and the other destinations for sun and sea. Here in North Wales we can't compete on either, so we need to think a little more creatively.

For a start, one has to wonder why so many hotels in the UK charge per person and not per room. Then one has to wonder why the charges are so high.  Some places, like those owned by the coach companies, work mighty hard to fill their hotels with folk all year round;  Turkey and Tinsel weekends start early, cost comparatively little and seem a great success.  In effect, a market is being created outside of the normal period, a slot largely dictated by the school terms.

By and large, folk coming on holiday want three things: a clean, en-suite room, really good food and something to do and see. Many hotels are providing the first two of these, but it's still the third aspect which, it seems, still eludes some.  The tourist potential of the two major towns - Llandudno and Colwyn Bay - is still significant, and Rhos proves just what a decent beach and the sight of bobbing yachts can do.  But what Llandudno and Colwyn Bay could do is to capitalise on their Victorian roots.  Conwy has a built-in Castle, which attracts thousands, but making a feature out of the area's heritage could be the real winner. Time for some bold thinking, perhaps?

Cllr Chris Hughes

It seems Cllr Hughes actually started his own blog.  In keeping with his dedication and commitment,  it was started in 2007 and has just one entry.  But what is more fascinating is the profile. 

Don't waste the opportunity...

The news that John Dew -  the individual sent by the WAG to advise CCBC on their Office Accommodation proposals - has recommended that the Council extend their offices at Bodlondeb and the Civic Centre and don't build their new offices in the centre of Colwyn Bay is a welcome shot in the arm for those who believe Colwyn Bay and Rhos still have a significant capability to attract visitors and should not be throwing in the beach towel just yet.

This means the regeneration grant will not now be needed for the short-sighted proposals to turn Colwyn Bay into a large office block and could be applied to some of the more exciting and ambitious projects being put forward by various folk, not least our good friend Cllr John Oddy.

But there's a catch.

Bethan Jones, Director of Regeneration and Improvement, is now moving to Denbighshire, and that means her loyalties will naturally be towards her new employers and not us.  Her inside knowledge of our grant proposals give her an edge, but all is not lost. The meeting tomorrow night of the Colwyn Bay Town Council is now imbued with an urgency and importance even greater than it had before. The council has now to decide how the money - all of it - ought to be best used to bring the maximum benefits for the folk in Colwyn Bay.

This blog has long argued that those who preach there is no future for CB in tourism need to wake up or shut up.  UK tourism has increased dramatically in the past 12 months and the trend to take stay-at-home holidays shows no sign of abating.  Tourists, however, need to be attracted, and the beaches alone won't cut it.  The possibilities and suggestions being made by some extremely far-sighted folk, such as Cllr Oddy, are numerous and well thought out, but they need investment.  Now is the time to look at the big projects - the imaginative projects - the ones that will stay for many years and make a real, substantive difference to the town. It's rare enough in these straightened times that money is available;  we must not waste this opportunity.

Contact your local councillor today and ask them what they're going to do about it.

In the bleak

This morning, the  fog is shifting slowly across the  mountains, the temperature holding steady at freezing and a rather watery sun is clawing its chilly way into the sky.  The snow has been on and off the peaks for the past couple of weeks; like a nervous climber, it advances and retreats from day to day, but the weather's current cold snap, created by the high pressure centre which is keeping the rains at bay, does make for some excellent walking conditions.

There's something satisfying, too, about scrunching across frosted fields.  The sheep react lethargically, maintaining body heat whilst trying to eat enough to keep their unborn lambs healthy for the coming spring.  The larger animals are generally indoors, and the sheer silence of the hills, broken only by gurgling brooks and the cries of Ravens is wonderfully elevating.

We may grouch a lot at times, but days like this remind us how good it is to be alive.

The Shining - Two

Trinity might not have packed them in last night, but the hour spent listening to the choir as they bravely attempted some tricky a cappella items and fought their distance from the organ pipes to achieve a passable rendition of most accompanied items, in addition to hearing Christmas readings of varying genres was pleasingly complemented by the understated illumination of the stained glass nativity windows at the rear of the church.

Churches in the 21st Century are fighting something of a rearguard action against apathy, materialism, confusion, apologist preaching - in general, a whole host of things which seek to challenge the relevance of the church - particularly the Church of England (Wales, as it is, here) - but frequently overlooked are the pastoral and social aspects of what the Church provides.  Llandudno is well provided for by our Victorian forbears, inasmuch as there are several churches littered about the place, and being a retirement venue, older folk seem to turn to the church for all the above reasons, which can skew the membership profiles of churches, augmenting that irrelevancy many feel applies. But there's something about old church buildings - something serene and timeless - and that can be an interesting salve to the stressed soul. Whatever your feelings about Christmas, things like carol services in churches like Trinity tend to evoke the most benign childhood memories - and that has to be a plus. And the bell ringing is excellent :-)

The shining

Well, just off to see the Trinity light show.  This has been done before, and promises to be something rather special and an excellent way to start the run-up to the big day.  Sorry not to have posted more today, but things have been rather busy. Worryingly, it doesn't look as though things are going to get any quieter in the near future...

Doom...

It's going to be tough to stay cheerful today. At lunchtime, we're going to be told what's being cut, how much national insurance is going to go up, how much more tax we're all going to pay and how much higher VAT will rise.  If we believe everything we've been told, this is all because of Bank incompetence - or should that read 'Rank incompetence? -  and we're dealing with them by saving their companies and reducing their bonuses.  A little, anyway.

Naturally, we can expect all the Tories and most of the LibDems to say that what the government is doing is wrong, and we will all end up in the alms house by Easter, if we're lucky. Of course, the real problem started many moons ago, when a certain Mrs Thatcher listened to the now-discredited ramblings of one Milton Friedman, whose gospel of free market enterprise and competitive economies set the stage for everything fiscal that's happened in the UK - and US - since. It is - after all - the 'free' market that's got us into this unholy mess and you have to wonder whether by tinkering at the edges Mr Darling can do very much.

There was another interesting snippet today, however;  Farmers in North Wales are starting to feed their cows with garlic, apparently because it 'reduces flatulence'. Now, although it's tempting to assume this is all part of a plan to enhance the social standing of cattle among the well-bred denizens on the average farm, it seems that Cattle produce 4% of the world methane output, simply by burping.  Presumably, they produce a lot more by, er...well, you get the picture. Methane, apart from being a greenhouse gas, is inflammable, so it would seem to make sense to fit all the cows with very large plastic nappies connected to interminable lengths of tubing through which the evacuated methane can be reclaimed and used for providing the farm's electricity.

Of course, since the plastic takes a lot of CO2 to manufacture, this doesn't really solve a lot of problems, but the principle of waste recycling on this scale could be extended to Parliament which - if hermetically sealed - might provide enough hot air and gas to power half of London.  And one bonus is that if they continued to irritate us, we could simply forget to feed in the fresh air.

Grub's up!

Short entry today;  like most folk, we're girding our festive loins for the non-stop orgy of eating and drinking, card-writing, insult exchanging and unwanted present disposal  that is Christmas.  It's strange, too, the way things can go badly wrong at this time of the year. Part of all of us all wants to recreate the Christmases we had as children (unless you were weaned by Witnesses, of  course) and many of us also feel obligations to invite relatives we haven't seen for a year and who probably feel as awkward but obliged to accept as we do in inviting them for the Great Christmas Day Meal.

But there is something about having everyone round the table, pulling crackers, reading awful jokes and slipping on silly paper hats that can make it all worthwhile.  Families - with all their inherent issues - can be wonderful things, and the collective warmth that permeates the house at such a time isn't always down to British Gas - or Calor, depending on where you live. Enjoy life for the moment - it's too short not to.

Fluid thinking

One of our cars has developed a leak. Not exactly world-shattering news in the greater scheme of things, but annoying, nonetheless. Doubly annoying since the car in question is relatively new and triply annoying because it's a Toyota.

Toyotas, you see, aren't supposed to go wrong.  They're the most reliable brand on the planet, as the egregious Top Gear proved when it attempted to bring a Hilux to its knees and as the Consumers' Association reports every year, so one simply doesn't expect Toyotas to give any problems. Partly, the phenomenal reliability of all Japanese makes is down to their cultural mores; after all, it wasn't that long ago that ritual suicide was the only honourable option if a leader in their country failed in some way to live up to the lofty standards they often set themselves. We're hoping that the same tradition doesn't apply to the local outlets;  the thought of returning to pick up the car, only to find the reception area liberally strewn with the disembowelled bodies of the normally delightful staff is a tad worrying, if for no other reason than the paperwork involved.

But it does set the mind to thinking.  As Mr Darling starts to find areas that can be 'scaled back', which is how they euphemistically describe 'cut', we see that the ill-fated and widely condemned NHS database is the first casualty, but one wonders why such a universally reviled system, fraught with multiple problems and universally condemned from the earliest days, was ever allowed to start. After all, we who use computers on a daily basis know full well that to trust anything more than the weekly shopping list to one is asking for trouble.

Which is one reason why we won't set foot inside an Airbus. These 'fly-by-wire' 'planes - which means that the computers do all the thinking for the pilot - might work reliably in about 100 years, but for now we'll be sticking with good old-fashioned Boeing, thank you very much. All computer code is flawed - it's an inevitable part of the coding process - and it's frankly scary enough to know that it works the brakes on our cars without having to think about the blue screen of death appearing in the final moments before touch-down. 

But we digress.  The brand reliability of Japanese cars is partly what brought down the UK car industry many years ago and  - despite the odd leaky glitch - continues to make Japanese cars the sought-after vehicular commodity. Which is probably why we need to introduce the management concepts they employ to all forms of government. 

When the Japanese start any projects they publish criteria for success. It might seem a simple idea, but if local councillors or the government were to do the same, we'd all know whether any idea they'd come up with was working, who would be to blame and what action should be taken. And, actually, the idea of ritual suicide for those who fail isn't entirely unappealing.  Perhaps then, we'd have fewer disastrous projects such as the NHS database scheme, the ID card scheme and just about anything else that competes with the incompetence of the banking industry to lead the country down the road to ruin.

Be patient

We're always being asked...sometimes being asked...somebody asked us once - what the purpose of a Blog really is. Funny, but you have to think about that for a moment. Blogs - originally an abbreviation of 'Web Log' - were supposed to be a form of online diary when they first appeared, but an increasingly large number have evolved into something quite different.

In our local area there are about half a dozen bloggers, each with their own style of writing and approach to what they think of as important. Few would dispute the observation that Oscar and Cllr. Oddy's are acutely political and aim to reveal what many councillors would rather the electorate didn't know.  Cllr. Weyman's blog also offers a very useful insight into the workings of our council, often spelling out the detailed and time-consuming endless committee attendances required of the party faithful and it can surely be no coincidence that both the councillors running their excellent blogs are independent.

But for blogs that take giant strides through those services we will almost all need at some point, you have to look further afield.

The NHS is represented well, and there are many blogs from which to choose.  However, another characteristic of the blog is that for it to be relevant and widely read, it has to be publishing something new at least once every few days. By that criteria the Jobbing Doctor is always worth read: a GP approaching retirement, what he says is worth reading, and his blog is listed at the side.  It's also here:

http://thejobbingdoctor.blogspot.com/

For the nursing perspective, Militant Medical Nurse is also worth a gander, although the blog article here might leave you more than a tad concerned:

http://militantmedicalnurse.blogspot.com/2009/12/feeling-sorry-for-kids.html

For a general peek at Hospitals, this is also worth a read:

http://www.hospitaldr.co.uk/

Retired teachers also have a lot to say on the subjects of modern education:

http://frankchalk.blogspot.com/

But what all bloggers who are worth reading write about is the iniquity of life in general.  Bloggers can provide a useful function in that they say - often to a wide if undisclosed audience - what those in 'authority' would rather you didn't hear.  Whether those are politicians, councillors or management, the light shone on their dark places by the better bloggers should never be underestimated.  Happy reading :-)

Oil be blowed!

Well, Llandudno TC has decided to cancel the fireworks tonight and shelve the whole thing until next year. Which is a pity, but understandable,given the rather dire forecast. December is being very...Decemberish, with the snows on the Carneddau remorselessly advancing to lower levels each day.  Which is very pretty, if you didn't know that the Ogwen team are almost certainly going to be called out at some point to rescue the hapless, the unprepared and the sheer daft. But there's something delightful about seeing the snow, layering the fourteen peaks and edging, like scrappily prepared frosting, ever lower.

Meanwhile, the BBC's excellent Newswatch (0750 Saturdays - BBC1) found itself having to defend its coverage of the theft of the emails from the East Anglia Climate Research Unit. There are those, you see, who wonder if the Global Warming stories are all part of some massive conspiracy, created to stop us enjoying life to the full, with gas-guzzling cars, electricity hungry devices and plastic bags.

What's probably sad, however is that the message about consumption isn't really getting through.  The plastic bag story, which revealed that millions of Tesco bags are strangling the ocean, somewhere, didn't think to mention that plastic comes from oil, oil is certainly not going to last forever, and that - really - we're all still living in the aftermath and with the mindset of the industrial revolution.

Nuclear power is being hailed as the energy source for the 21st C, which it could be, although Nuclear fusion is the real hope for the future, and yet our method of generating electricity is still almost horse-and-cart.  All the nuclear option does is produce a lot of heat, which boils water, which turns turbines which generate electricity. in the short term, we'll need nuclear, as oil is simply getting much harder to extract, but fission comes with its own problems - notably the rather unpleasant waste products.

All of this is being ignored, however, as the row over data falsification continues. What we need is for climatologists to come clean, admit that no one really understands weather (it's far too complex at the moment), but we do know that the earth itself is warming, when all the astrophysical data suggest the opposite ought to be happening and we absolutely need to stop waste and profligacy.  If they did that, then they may well be taken more seriously.

Ho, ho...

The news that Josie Bottino was the only person to answer pleas for a CRB-checked Father Christmas in Caernarfon comes as no surprise.
The amateur actress saw an appeal in the Daily Post from organisers of an annual Christmas Fair, which starts today. They’ve been desperately seeking someone with a Criminal Records Bureau check to stand in as Father Christmas after no-one came forward to answer an initial job advert.

This should be a matter of concern, not only to all elves whose jobs are clearly under threat, but - more seriously - to us as a society. Our media-led obsession with and terror of all forms of risk is creating a society in which we are legislating for events we cannot possibly anticipate. Only this week, Carneades was attending a Rotary meeting in which one of the members was saying how he would no longer be playing the part of Santa for the first time in many years.  For those who don't know, by the way, Rotary is one of the biggest fund raisers for and supporters of local charities and the work it does in the community is outstanding. However, the insistence by our reactive political masters that everyone remotely likely to encounter children on a regular or even occasional basis should be CRB checked has led to significant leader shortages in many youth organisations and - interestingly - a surfeit of females in previously male-dominated positions within those organisations.

There are many of us who are fully CRB cleared and checked, yet would not volunteer for any such role in the current climate, since the restrictions on what Santa can do or say have become ridiculous and the latent fear with which many parents now regard all men tends to put something of a damper on the festivities. We are in danger of becoming a society in which our children live in constant fear and suspicion, and in which the perfectly innocent can be approached and branded as perverted simply for having cameras on their possession. And the fate of any  Male who might engage a young child in conversation in a public place can only be imagined, such is our Salemist national attitude to such encounters.

This attitude is peculiar to the UK and America - whose terminal obsession is even greater than ours -  but our European neighbours still take a reasoned, intelligent and mature approach towards such things.  CRB checking was instigated because of the sad case involving the two young girls in Soham. In that case the murdered had previously been investigated but was never charged;  the new rules flag up even the innocent, who may have been totally exonerated.

The irony of all this is that we tell young children that a old, white-haired man will creep into their bedrooms in the middle of the night, and they should be delighted at the thought. The following day, the same children will be ushered speedily past any lone male, grasped closely if said lone make is actually taking a walk in the park by themselves and trained to treat all offers of kindness from any man not known to them as though the act were a prelude to being infected with leprosy.  Yes - we need to take care of our children and yes - we need to teach them to be cautious. And no - we will never eliminate all threats, no matter how hard the DFM would have us believe we can. Perhaps it's time to start accepting that and teaching our children that not all good Samaritans are predators in disguise.

Time to face the music

Cllr Chris Hughes and the Friends of the Pier should be interested in this. We have obtained the constitution under which the following is required of the chairman:

That he

• be responsible for the day to day management of the organisation and other acceptable duties as directed by the 'Friends'.
• Ensures the Friends meet at least six times per year
• Ensures the the Trust holds an open General Meeting within a period of fourteen months or once each calendar year
• stands down at such a meeting

The 'Friends' are actually elected by a larger group of folk, all of whom are interested in the future of the pier and all of whom subscribe to and support the Victoria Pier, Colwyn Bay, for the benefit of the community as part of the long term regeneration of the area and the formation of a suitable Trust to own and operate the pier for the
benefit of local citizens and the general public.

The wider group (and even the other members of the Friends who must by now be feeling betrayed by their absentee but obstructive chairman) can get rid of the current chairman quite easily. If 40% of the current membership were to sign a demand for an extraordinary general  meeting, the secretary would be required to hold one within 21 days of the signed petition being received by the secretary.

If what has been alleged is true, then the current chairman - Cllr Chris Hughes - is in dereliction of his duty and responsibilities to the organisation and should be removed forthwith following the petitioning and subsequent holding of the meeting in question.  If this is the way he treats a group of decent, concerned people, then how - one has to ask - does he treat his council duties?

Perhaps it's time to move...

Pier pressure

Although it's admittedly rare when we become serious on this blog, our intention - as stated - is to celebrate what's good about the area.  One thing that's very good about the area is the Pier - any pier, really, but the one in Colwyn Bay springs to mind.

Seaside piers attract visitors, visitors spend money, money increases council revenues ,the council makes the place better for residents. It's really incredibly simple. Unless, of course, there are those in places of influence whose behaviour is strangely out of keeping with what one might expect from a public figure.

Now this is a serious charge, so we need to look at what's happening and ask some serious questions.    The pier - representing as it does the epitome of seaside fare - seems a good place to start.

Colwyn Bay's pier has had a chequered history;  piers are notoriously expensive to maintain but immensely useful in their pulling power. Businesses, however, want things which provide quick cash, so it's always very difficult to get big companies interested in something, the tangible benefits of which could be many years away, if at all. So it comes as excellent news that Colwyn Bay's pier has a Friends of Colwyn Bay Pier Group in existence, specifically - one assumes - to help the pier through difficult times.  Or is it?

The chair of said philanthropic body is none other than Councillor Chris Hughes,  whose name will be familiar to any followers of Cllr John Oddy's excellent blog.  So, as he represents the interests of his constituents, and being mindful of the simple equation a seaside town has to follow to bring benefits to the residents, he naturally is doing everything he can to help the pier.

But, er no.  It seems that - curiously - he is doing the precise opposite. From another excellent blog, we learn that "no meetings of the Friends Group have been held for three years and when the Secretary/Treasurer, Mrs Pat Jackson, organised a meeting herself, who turned up to close the meeting down but Councillor Hughes, who said that the meeting was 'unconstitutional'. He also allegedly said that only he had the power to call meetings and, to put the icing on the cake, refused to resign as Chairman of the Group."

This is odd behaviour, but could be explained in certain circumstances. For instance, if he actually wanted to see the pier demolished, it would be an appropriate course of action.  But then, it begs the question of why he's chair of such a group at all.  Secondly, one wonders if the group has a constitution.  If it does, then it's probably possible to call an extraordinary AGM with a quorum to get rid of this individual from the group. Finally, the Pier'sm owner and the council are in dispute, but it seems that Cllr Hughes hasn't declared an interest on the Register of Members Interests at the Council, yet he's still the chairman. 

Whatever the situation, however, it does seem clear that his behaviour is questionable and perhaps deserves further scrutiny. Worryingly, it appears as though Cllr Hughes has some sort of agenda - which might, of course, be perfectly innocent and above board - but this would seem a good opportunity for him to explain his actions to the voters of Glyn Ward and to tell them - if no one else - how his work is actually making Glyn Ward a better place to live. Cllr Hughes is certainly acquiring a reputation among the bloggers in the area, having made appearances in no fewer than four in the past week. What is going on?  Perhaps as Private Eye might say, shurely we should be told..

Tip top!

As the first snows appear on the Carneddau and across Snowdonia, the Ogwen Mountain Rescue team are looking to see even more rescues than the 120 they've carried out this year alone. The latest event was a young couple who called for help when the weather turned nasty (a little glimpse of - what's it called?  Oh, the weather forecast - might have helped) and, despite being well equipped, a little more training in map and compass work might also have helped, as they weren't where they said they where when they called for help (Carnedd Dafydd is a tad tricky to miss). 

It's easy to ridicule folk who come here and make a mess of things, of course, but there is still a worrying tendency to assume that Snowdonia doesn't have 'real' mountains.  Of course part of the blame lies with Snowdon itself, with a train running up it and a restaurant on top. It's easy to see how those unfamiliar with the area could assume that Snowdon is simply a local park, with no real dangers.  But the same can't be said for the neighbouring Carneddau. Even though they present a comparatively gentle ascent from the North, there's a reason a mountain shelter lies half way through the peaks, and many a walker has had cause to welcome the foresight of those who first constructed the place in the lee of Carnedd Fach's peak.  But it's still a wonderful place to live.

There's something in the air

As Llandudno finally - if somewhat belatedly - turns on its Xmas lights, houses around the area are starting to twinkle as outside lights make their first appearances. LEDs are very much in this year, as their extra reliability and pin-sharp brightness tends to make them an attractive choice for our often wet and windy corner in the UK. Inside, too, LEDs are arriving, but their stark colour range tends to make them less attractive that the older style of warm yellow tungsten lights.

The annual ritual of entering the loft to drag down the crated lights is often a precursor to the frustration of wondering why - when  you put a perfectly working set of lights away the year before - they mysteriously no longer work when you get them down. Is there - you could be forgiven from wondering - some Xmas lighting gremlin that delights in causing untold misery and irritation to those who simply like a nice set of lights? Probably not, but if often makes you feel better to blame some supernatural force, the weather, New Labour or next door's cat for the stubborn refusal of some sets to simply work.

Light sets are fascinating things, which have entranced Carneades since he can remember. Even stranger is the mystery of why some lights continue to work - year after year - without fail, yet others seem to yearn for self-destruction within hours of starting their job. Noma  - a US brand - are supposed to be better than many, but experience has shown that they can be both the most reliable and the least, depending on the type of light.

For those who experience the other niggle about lights - getting them all tangled - there is help at hand.  When  you put lights away, forget about gadgets 'guaranteed' to stop them tangling.  Instead, simply feed the lights into a largish box as a single line of lights - don't dump them in at one go - and let them lie as they land.  When you come to the end of the line of lights - be it a plug or the lead itself - tape that end to the side of the box.  Next year, undo that tape and the light will emerge - totally untangled - ready for testing. 

Testing, untangling and repairing light sets takes a lot of time, but the finished results can brighten both the house and the mood of anyone who sees them.  Just be careful to use extension blocks with normal 13A plugs fused to 3A and don't take the chance of sticking together light leads with tape.  There's a reason most house fires happen around Xmas. Merry lighting!

Mutter, mutter...

The news that a 15m long floating target was washed up on a Gwynedd beach the other day will probably make some residents of the Conwy Valley a little miffed at the idea that the RAF uses floating targets, rather than the houses of folk lucky enough to live beneath the main flight routes of the UK's main fast air defence training facility.  Low flying at high speed through the mountains is an essential part of any fast-jet pilot's training, yet it's sometimes hard to be totally generous of spirit when said trainees switch on reheat to climb over the mountain just as you're carefully pruning the prize roses. Having said that, it's fascinating to wonder if anyone was brave enough to go near the floating target after it had arrived on the beach.

 Meanwhile North Wales Police are encouraging people to lock car doors, windows and sunroof when leaving the vehicle, remove stereos, if possible, and sat navs including support and suction pads and to wipe away suction marks on the windscreen or dashboard, tuck in wing mirrors and put the aerial down. While most of that seems pretty straightforward, one has to wonder about the wing mirrors.   Is there something going on that we don't know about?  Perhaps a burgeoning but secret market in used mirrors?  Or perhaps it's to stop them being clouted by the inconsiderate parker in the adjacent space.  And that brings up another matter.

Why are parking bays everywhere
    too narrow
    at the wrong angle
    poorly positioned?
In the uk, we seem to think cars are only five feet wide, but that hasn't been the case for many, many years.  We also have bays which are almost inevitably at right angles.  Why not design them to they're slanted to favour direct forward drive-in?  We always reverse into spaces (you have a lot of time to park, but you don't know how quickly you might want to leave) but we'd happily drive forwards if the bays were slanted.  And can we the only ones who find the bends on the car park 'roads' are impossible to navigate easily? Asda and Mostyn Champneys both have bends which present a challenge.  Do Car Park designers ever use them, one has to wonder?

Ouch!

Next time you have to undergo hospital treatment of any kind, it's probably worth bearing in mind that rather a lot of our medical practitioners are becoming somewhat disillusioned.

It's no secret that most people expect the New Labour mob to be thrown out on their collective ears next election, and even less of a secret that most people aren't really looking forward to what might replace them, given that DC is a bland facsimile of Tony Blair and seems intent on steering his party firmly along the centreline of British politics.  In fact, only Vince Cable seems to have any cross-party respect at all.  So when we see that Doctors are not happy bunnies, we need to look further than simply the current political scene to see why.

They've been telling us - and we know - that the NHS is hiring far more managers and administrators than Doctors, and the EWTD (European working time directive) is going to cause a lot of problems in the training stages. But there's a more serious problem, and one which directly affects each one of us.

In times past, the medical fraternity were seen a little like gods;  their pronouncements were accepted as manna by the legions of the afflicted, and their status in the community was high.  This inevitably led to the creation of a group who believed their own hype, who were generally rather overbearing and arrogant, and who maintained a healthy distance from mere mortals, many of whom were almost certainly attempting to spread their communicable diseases to the Doctors. The stark separation between the different classes of Nurse, and nurses and Doctors was maintained at all costs and (this is the important bit) the medical profession had total control over both training and patient care.

What's concerning many of them at the moment is that both these aspects are being eroded;  the continual imposition of 'targets', the conversion of 'patients' to 'customers' and the increasing levels of expectation, coupled with government policies interfering more and more in training, assessment, and even medical outcomes is leaving many senior consultants feeling vulnerable, emasculated and worried that the UK's medical standards are slipping.  And there's some evidence that their concerns are based in fact. Only this last summer a Government spokesman was suggesting that youngsters with low academic qualifications could be eased into medical schools as a way of enabling the less academically endowed to become doctors.

As we've noted on here only the other day, Medicine is essentially a memory test plus the ability to know how to apply that knowledge.  And whilst it's highly commendable to think we could help the less able to become Doctors, I, personally, would prefer the person making life or death decisions on my behalf to have come top in every class they ever took.    Perhaps the wheel has turned a little too far, and we now need to give back some control to the medical professions.

Jingles all the way

As the days continue to shorten, the weather turns colder and little faces turn anxiously to the skies each evening in case Mr C is doing a test flight for the new sleigh, the mesmerising sights and sounds of Advent float into our perception, like tiny flakes of crystallised water.

It's a truly magical time, as long, clear nights and still, cold air bring that first hint of Christmas - the advertising campaign.  The time of year when the relentless campaign to divide you from your cash is mounted with a military intensity and fervour of which Churchill would have been proud. That sacred time when a seemingly endless line of entertainers (for want of a better description)  and singers conspire to release their collections of truly ancient songs, re-branded as this year's desirable album, and compete with the dead, the barely alive and the utterly unknown for a share of the shekels.  Watch out for the latest releases, which will doubtless include The Best Of X-Factor 2002 - 2009, Pop Stars Meets The Rivals and Cilla Black, The Cast of I'm a Washout Entertain and this year's Must Have offering, Michael Jackson's Dog Howls Thriller.

Christmas is that time of the year when we want to show people how much we love them, when we need to make our families and friends understand the true meaning of Christmas and the time of the year when the English language is mangled beyond recognition.  The plethora of shows that will inevitably be described as 'Truly Unique' and 'Best Ever' will compete with Brand New Re-Runs, Best Ofs and Another Chance to See offerings, designed to accentuate that inevitable downward spiral of hopelessness and misery we all secretly feel as the 25th of December inexorably approaches.

Of course, we all know what Christmas is really about. December 25 used to be the Roman festival of Saturnalia, when inebriated individuals in togas would run up and down the streets thwacking bystanders with leather thongs, a tradition which the thwackees actually enjoyed since it was supposed to boost their fertility levels, and doubtless singing 'Just a Thong at Twilight', and if you find that amusing, you're showing your age :-)) When the Romans turned Christian and gave up leather thongs, they simply tacked a new meaning onto the old holiday. The best thwacker became - yes, the number one Christmas thong...

A minority, of course, believe it to be a celebration of the birth of the Son of God, except no one knows when the aforesaid was actually born, there's some doubt among the Bishops that there was ever an actual 'virgin birth' and even among the most fervent and faithful of God-fearing families the fate of any teenage girl who arrived home one day to tell her devoted father she was pregnant but not to worry as it was the Holy Ghost, can best be left to the imagination.

But all this delightful frippery aside, the real question of how to survive the coming month can possibly be found in the real secret of Christmas.  Christmas - you see - rewards us for being children.  For a couple of days a year, we can act as though we'd never grown up, never encountered the unalloyed delights of variable rate mortgages, HMRC and Council taxes, parking tickets or speed cameras.  It's now just about the only time in the year when the entire family can actually enjoy the same sorts of things together. And although that might be a little sad in itself, it's also a little exciting.

Twinkle, twinkle...

Just returned from an interesting sojourn in Liverpool, seeing the lights and watching the rather nice Big Wheel in Chevasse Park,  Liverpool's always been a city in the news - often for the wrong reasons - but their lights and Christmas trees are superb. Seems such a shame that we don't follow their example.  The Liverpool lights are several years old but look wonderful.  Better still;  they're all on now :-))

Wheee!

December the fifth, we are told, is the new date for the fireworks in Llandudno.  They'll be set off as the end-piece of the Llandudno Christmas Parade which this year will see Santa wearing an aqualung in a sleigh pulled by eight dolphins.

Well, not really, but given the current state of the weather you could be forgiven for thinking that we're all going to be swimming towards Christmas this year. Llandudno and Conwy valley have a lot in common. Both are susceptible to flooding, although the latter only from rain and the former from storm surges and high tides.  Usually. In 1993, of course, Llandudno was flooded from a truly torrential thunderstorm, the very day when Carneades was trying to drive to a friend's house on Lys Helig Drive.

That was a very educative experience. Driving up from the West shore, the only way the road was navigable at all was to drive with one set of wheels on the pavement, whilst simultaneously attempting to dodge boulders being washed down the road towards us.  Walking round the ruined road the morning afterward, it became clear that there's a basic design flaw in the Marine Drive.

Most of the water fell on the Orme itself;  the actual cb cloud hovered over the Orme while disgorging four inches' worth that afternoon.  The water cascaded down the sides of the Orme, ripping out huge chunks of earth and rock and - on the North side - smashing through the drive wall in three places. Where it didn't manage to penetrate the wall, however, the water simply streamed down the road - using it like a giant gutter - until ending its merry slither in Llandudno. Had the Drive's builders considered the insertion of tropical-style flood drains in the drive wall, its likely that some of the flooding effects Llandudno endured, at least,could have been mitigated.

Trefriw has sustained a little flooding this past week or so, and residents are understandably peeved that the Environment Agency's defences have leaked. However, Canute notwithstanding, we're never going to be able to stop flooding. And with more people wanting to build homes on land that's designed to flood, the problem's only going to get worse.   Perhaps we need to look at a whole new approach to the problem.

Spare a penny, gov? (2)

The news that Anglesey might have to scrap its sixth forms will come as no surprise to anyone who's endured Secondary sector education in the past thirty years. This isn't the first time we've written about the concept of education that is the sixth form, but the news from Anglesey suggests it deserves another look.

On the fact if it, it seems eminently sensible for youngsters to finish their secondary education at the school in which they start it.  After all, they know the staff, they know each other, they know the buildings.  And all that might be true if it were not for the fact that there has been a quiet revolution in 16 - 18 (or KS 5, as it's so quaintly called) education during the past twenty-five years.

Regular readers, both of them (thanks, mum), may not have attended school for a little while, so may well be unfamiliar with the changes that have been wrought.  So here's a potted history (without those annoying dates):

Old style sixth form: same subjects as ordinary school, just harder. Free periods (yippee!) and the chance to become a prefect.  Went home early at the start of the Xmas holiday.  Took exams at the end of a two-year stint and - on the basis of the results - went on to University, Poly or teacher training college.

Present day sixth form: burgeoning range of subjects including exotic names such as Psychology, Sociology, Law, Nuclear engineering, Build-Your-Own collider, NVQs, BTECs, IBs, et al. Study periods but no prefects at most schools. Sometimes go home early, but not often. Take exams in bite-sized chunks, leading to a system in which some students know they've gained an 'A' grade at 'A' level in the lower sixth. On the basis of their results, everyone goes to University, because some are crying out for students and will offer places to almost anyone.

It's blindingly obvious, then, that the government has contrived to make it as hard as possible for schools to keep their sixth forms and still offer anything like a decent range of subjects. In our area, only one school - Eirias - has the numbers to even begin to offer good sixth form provision. That may sound harsh, but the reality is that without really large numbers of students, time tabling becomes a nightmare because no two students want to study the same subjects at the same time.

All of which means that 16 - 18 year olds would almost certainly be better served by the abolition of sixth forms, providing they were able to reach a decent FE college fairly easily.  Of course, it's an emotive issue when councils start warning about closing sixth forms, but in the long run that can be a very good thing for the students. And after all;  surely it's the students who matter most?

Take two of these and come back in a week

Health care is a subject close to all of our minds. In fact, it's probably fair to say it trumps climate change, politics, Policing, religion, TV, Education, Christmas and even Llandudno's fireworks in terms of importance. And it's not hard to see why. 

Think about a hospital.  None of us really likes the idea of a hospital, but probably places it one stage higher up the ladder of 'not terribly good places to spend a few days' than a dentist.  But many of us will start our lives in a hospital, spend at least some time during our lives in one and - ultimately - many will end our lives there (if you're wondering why the depressing timbre of this blog, it hasn't really stopped raining for five days...).

But however much we dislike hospitals, ultimately we need them, and it's this very ambivalence towards the medical profession in general that makes the whole concept of health care so interesting.

We depend on our GP, but most GPs don't have any idea what's wrong with the majority of patients when they present with symptoms.  Which is why some refer you to the local hospital quicker than you can say 'polyclinic' (which always sounds suspiciously like a Vet's place). Good GPs are worth their weight in Tesco vouchers, but they're not always easy to find.   So what makes a good GP?

The training for becoming a Doctor is two-fold, with the first part being essentially a memory test. People with excellent memory capacity and recall often fly through that part of the training.  But there's a second part; using the information you've learnt.  And that's where things become interesting.

Decent GPs don't rush to diagnose, they examine their patient carefully and rigorously, they listen to the history and they employ all their knowledge to arrive at the highest probability outcome. In other words, they guess, but in a highly informed way. It's how they tell a brain tumour from 'flu, or indigestion from stomach cancer. And there are those, of course, who couldn't diagnose multiple fractures in an inquisition victim.  Fortunately, they're in a small minority.

But the one characteristic of all the medical professions is their language. Medical terminology is complex, coded and arcane and stems from the origins of the profession many hundreds of years ago when it was realised that if everyone could understand what the Doctors were saying, then it wouldn't be a mystery.  Lawyers employ a similar, almost secret language for much the same reason: to cloak the practitioners of their craft in an aura of mystery and wonder.  The origins of all this lie in religion, where acolytes are required to learn the 'mysteries' and 'secrets' of their faith before being granted admission to the inner sanctum.  Shared knowledge of this sort also strengthens bonds between practitioners, which is why it's so hard to sue a lawyer.  But now things are changing. The Government's insistence on decent health care provision at the primary level is exerting unwelcome pressure on GPs and the burgeoning internet makes a lot of medical information widely available, although it's still much safer to talk to your GP.   However, we here at Carneades  Central follow two blogs with interest:

http://thejobbingdoctor.blogspot.com/

and

http://drgrumble.blogspot.com/

both of which provide excellent reading. However, the most recent Grumble blog is complaining about obfuscation and - writing about the word 'polysystems' - he remarks "People who coin new words without obvious meanings do so with a purpose. The purpose is to bamboozle and obfuscate or even confuse and conceal."  Does he, one wonders, appreciate the irony?

Roasting chestnuts round an open fire

The torrential rain over the past few days has - as usual - re-ignited the climate change debate. The media, of course, has asked the usual, if somewhat cretinous, questions about whether this heavy rain is yet another sign of climate change (at least the department in charge of moronic commentary at the Beeb has stopped calling it 'global warming') and the general message (although by no means unanimous) is that we're all going to die.  Which of course we are.  The real questions are when and from what?

It might help, of course, if those charged with working out exactly what's happening with the climate could get their stories together, and actually get some facts instead of conjecture. Today, for instance,  we hear that no fewer than twelve conservation groups have given the green light to wood burning.

Wot? But for years we've been told that burning anything is BFTE (bad for the environment).  Ah, but it seems that they've been debating over their slide rules and now - in their collective wisdom - decided that burning logs on your fire actually releases less CO2 than allowing the trees to die naturally. Wonder if the same thing applies to human bodies....

The beeb, naturally anxious to be seen at the forefront of garbage investigation, have also mounted a new show - Changing Lives: Going Green - in which a family of four, from Brynford, Holywell, faced a complete culture shock when they agreed to leave their home comforts behind and head for an extreme green, eco friendly community in mid Wales. Unsurprisingly, as they faced 10 nights in a tent deprived of their nightly fare of texting, PS3, Sky, Corrie and all the other technological delights that contrive to drive us to distraction, they weren't eager to repeat the experience and the father observed, sagely "(Climate change is)  not going to happen any time soon and I’m going to be long gone before then. I can’t make that much of a difference on my own." And the Beebs' ostensible commitment to STE (saving the...) is hardly likely to gain too many advocates, considering the environmental impact of TV cameras, lodgings, lighting, trailers and what have you.

But he makes a fair point, actually; the 'experts' (climatologists, Geophysicists, Geologists et al.) remain resolutely divided on the causes of and remedial action for climate change.  And with India and China competing economically, we might find more fresh air on the Moon in a few years.

All of which has to make you wonder. Perhaps we could cut CO2 emissions drastically by eliminating climate pundits,  That would certainly be a great place to start.