The storm clouds gather

Yesterday my company's main competitor publicly announced that they are looking to buy another company. They are not saying who it is that they want to buy, but some of their people have been seen in my company's offices, and they have said that they are only interested in one company. Definitley a case of 2+2=4 I think. They've already spent $100K and are looking to spend another $100K in the next quarter on the purchase, so they are serious.

So what happens if they do buy us out. Well they are certainly interested in part of the company as it will fill a gap in their portfolio, but the bit I work for produces a product that is currently in direct competition with then. I suspect that that means that they will want to close my part down as it wouldn't make much sense for them to shoulder the development costs of two very different products that do the same job. I just hope that it doesn't drag on too long.

As for the future, well I'll consider myself lucky if I find another job that pays 3/4's of what I'm now on, and I probably have to start paying travel costs to get back and forth to work. Time will tell.

- snowjest

*?x!@&^! Cars!

I just read a story in the newspaper that said that 30 years ago there were 30 million less cars on the UK's roads. By my reckoning its actually worse because 30 years ago virtually every car was legitimate, nowadays there are hundreds of thousands of grey imports, ghost cars that were meant to have been written off after an accident but were instead shoddily repaired an are now back on the roads, and there are also the cars that were stolen but never recovered.

When I was a kid, 30 years ago, there there were only 2 cars in my street of 30 houses. In the street that I now live in, its more like 45 cars per 30 houses. Admittedly its a better neighbourhood, but even my old street now has at least 30 cars on it.

All these cars are leading to a much lower quality of life. The roads are more congested for more hours each day, and everywhere there are cars parked in inappropriate places. Soon there will be nowhere left to park them. This is rapidly becoming the case where I live.

My solution to this problem is simple. The government should only allow a new car onto the roads if an old car is first scrapped. This stopping the problem from getting any worse. The government can then help to reduce the number of cars buy actively buying up old cars and scrapping them, so reducing the pool off cars available for offsetting new cars. I would gladly pay more taxes for such a scheme. Of course there are problems. How do you ensure that a car has been scrapped, especially if it never officially existed in the first place. But to do nothing will soon lead to grid lock.

So would I be willing to give up my car? Well in a world were not having a car is difficult, then its unlikely, but at least for the last five years I've done my best to minimise my car usage and its consequential environmental impact, mostly by leaving it in the garage and walking to work. Sadly I looks like I'm about to lose my job, and I may end up working many miles form home. So its one more for the rat race then. Sigh.

- Snowjest

Job Worries

Today we were told that our most senior development manager is to leave the company. This is in a week in which Suits from our biggest competitor were seen in the office, and a salesman who came from that company a few months ago has also left.

We know that the company owners are not adverse to selling us as last year we made a loss and we aren't even close to being a part of their core business (they practically said this at a public share holders meeting, so there is no doubt about this). Reading between the lines it seems a fair bet that we may be about to be sold to the opposition. If that happens then my guess is that only one or two of us will be kept on so as to keep the existing customers happy. As for the rest of us, well its not looking too clever, as I doubt that they will be interested in developing both their own product and ours, and somehow I think that that means that we will be closed down.

The most worrying bit is the resignation of the senior development manager. Has the sdm been involved in talks with the opposition, (if I were them I would want to know if there is any technology in our product that they could use)? And if the sdm has been talking to them, do they know that they will have no future if we are sold and so have jumped rather than waiting to be pushed?

I really don't know, but I'm not going to be buying that new car any time soon.

Dan Cruickshank - he also da man

I've just seen the last in the series of the brilliant "Around the world in 80 wonders", written & presented by Dan Cruickshank. Maybe its the shank thing, but I had the same feeling of hope after watching the film Shawshank redemption. Its the sense of wonder that Dan Cruickshank gives as he describes each of the, hmm, wonders that is humbling. Humbling because with his help we are shown how mankind can, if it wants to, really get its act together and produce things of immense beauty and pathos.

Today, bizarrely enough, I saw a wonder worthy of inclusion in the series, although because I missed the start of the series so I don't know if it made it. My wonder is one that is practically on my doorstep, my wonder is Silbury Hill.

Sir Ian Blair - he da man

Sir Ian Blair, I commend you.

I fully support your view that we need to seriously consider the introduction of ID cards.

Of course the usual suspects, namely that hardcore of liberal activists who think that any form of authoritarianism equals facism, have howled long and hard. "How dare the Metropolitan Police Commissioner say anything about ID cards so close to an election" they cry. Well simple, Sir Ian has let us know that if we vote Labour, who we know are keen on ID cards, then they will recive the support of the security services. This in my opinion, makes it much more likely that they will happen. Hence clarifying an important issue. In effect he seems to be saying, vote labour and you will get ID cards. Sure, this is a political thing to say, but even politics isn't above the law. Law & Order must come first, and if a Police Commissioner says he wants it, then we should listen.

The end of MG Rover

I was once made redundant and it wasn't a good experience, so I can sympathise with the Rover Workforce. I've also been too close for comfort on a number of other occasions, and my future is far from certain. Still, the Rover workers are better off than many others that have had suffered a similar fate. At least the UK car manufacturing industry is doing well, and many will be able to find work at another car plant. The coal miners, steelworkers and ship builders weren't so lucky. Having said that though, its likely that for most of the older workers, today will the last day that they will ever work. And as I saw with my father, when he was "encouraged" to take early retirement, the shock of what has happened will never really go away.

Its easy to see why Rover failed. They got stuck in a vicious circle of not being big enough to develop new models and update the plant. This meant that their cars, whilst originally being as good as anyone else's (after all they were really BMW's), slowly but inevitably slipped behind the competition. But that's not the whole story. The real issue was the decades of under investment, management incompetence an union trouble that preceded BMW's involvement. BMW realised that Longbridge was too broke to fix, and got shot of it. But even then most pundits were saying that unless the Pheonix group found a new partner, Longbridge was still doomed. And so the inevitable has now passed. How cruel that its the sons that are having to pay for there father's failings.

Rest well Pope John Paul II

Today Pope John Paul II was buried. Although I'm not a Roman Catholic, I do share his faith in the Lord, and I consider that Pope John Paul II was a truly remarkable man. The world is a better place for his having been here.

There are those that criticized his stance on contraception, and the consequences of that, but each person must make their own decisions, and to blame the Pope for any weaknesses in his flock is unfair.

I can remember when Pope John Paul II came to my home city of Cardiff in South Wales. They built a temporary bridge across the River Taff so that he could get to Poncanna Fields where the service was held, quite a feat because at the time the Taff was tidal. To me that bridge symbolized the greatness of the man. It was done for him, just for him, a whole bridge, accross a difficult river. And whilst that bridge was only a temporary one, the ones built by John Paul to other faiths and to the faithful are clearly much more substantial, and will last for many many ages to come.

I can only end by saying a prayer, and sincerly wishing that he rests peacefully forever more.

Flat battery

My car's battery is flat. Its a newish battery, ~ 3 months old, and whatever's been draining the battery has had 4 days to do it, as I haven't used the car since Sunday. There isn't even enough juice to illuminate the interia light. I've checked all the light switches, and they appear to be off, so I hope - touch wood - that I left the radio on. I really hope it was the radio. If its not, I still have the old battery, so at least I can easily check if its a fault with the battery, or if its something in the cars electrics. I really hope it was the radio.

Suffice to say, a flat battery means that I will not going out tonight.

Role on may 5th

First blog entry for nearly a week, I must do better.

Uncle Tony went to see her maj today, so its now official, 5th May will be the date of the general election, and I still don't know who I'm voting for.

On the whole I am now inclined towards Labour. True I think that their tax policies are underhand and basically dishonest. And I also think that too many people are getting too much in the way of handouts, but their heart is in the right place. And at most of the tax is going to where its needed, but I would prefer it if it was an honest 1 or 2% on income tax, rather than the stealthy way that its been done.

Other than tax, I do agree with Blair & co on some of the major issues, such as the War in Iraq, identity cards and the house arrest of terrorist suspects. They have also managed the ecconommy better than most other European countries. So on balance, at the moment, they will get my vote.