Month: March 2012

Pausing For Breath

| Richard

Well it’s been a hectic few weeks since I finished – albeit temporarily – in Wigan at the end of February.

Knowing I had a week or so without fee-earning, I decided to use some of my 2011 holiday entitlement and bugger off for a city break to Barcelona, staying in a suite at the Hotel 1898 right on La Rambla. Utter luxury and recommended! I grabbed some snaps whilst out and about which are on my photography site and Flickr.

The following week and I was back in London with a number of evening dos to go to including being entertained with GT at the Texas Embassy Cantina off Trafalgar Square: a great laugh with some lawyers I’d drink with any time.  And drink we did, which prompted an overnight stay with a shopping trip on my way in to work the following night to pick up a new shirt at London Bridge!

Hired Gun
Gunslingers

The weekend saw an invitation from a long-standing Client to celebrate a result we had had by having lunch at Caffe Mamma in Richmond followed by the England v Ireland 6 Nations rugby match at Twickenham. And lots of drinking.

England v Ireland
England v Ireland at Twickenham

The next week was busy with speaking engagements and evening meetings before a really epic weekend, starting with the Pop Will Eat Itself gig at the Electric Ballroom, Camden on the Friday after some excellent tapas at Bar Gansa.

Pop Will Eat Itself at the Electric Ballroom
The Poppies take to the stage at the Electric Ballroom

Then Saturday was spent up in Wymondham seeing Amy and her Uni mates before heading into Norwich for Nando’s and the Norwich v Wolves match with Jack. Sunday was more shopping before heading back down to London and work again this week. Some interesting work in the pipeline…

On the ball, City
On the ball, City!

Robin Hood, Or What Is “Fair”?

| Richard

So we had a new Budget with the Chancellor, Gideon, heralding things that won’t happen for another year in the hope that we will assume he means April 2012 when he refers to “next April” when in fact it’s April 2013.

But apart from that, the Government continue to bang on about everyone paying their fair share in taxes, unless you’re Simon Hughes MP, in which case it’s a “fare share“…

This latest statement by Simon Hughes MP is headlined “Budget makes sure the richest pay their fare share – Simon Hughes MP” but then goes on to fanfare that:

“…hundreds of thousands of South Londoners on low and middle incomes given a tax cut, paid for by raising the burden of tax on the wealthy.”

…

“Liberal Democrats have made sure that this government has done what Labour never did – make sure the richest pay their fair share … despite a cut in the top income tax rate to 45p next year the richest will pay five times the amount in taxes they do today.”

Oh I see! So that’s fair is it?

And where does this magical “five times the amount” come from? I haven’t seen that calculation shown anywhere, or is it just another case of “lies, damned lies and statistics”?

What’s wrong with a proportional tax system whereby everyone pays the same tax in percentage terms? Does a “rich” person use more of what the Government provides from taxes by way of health and welfare than a lower paid person? I’d wager not; probably the opposite with private healthcare being a likely perk. Education? Surely the “rich” are more likely to pay for Quentin and Letitia to go be educated privately too. Local services are paid through Council Tax which increases with property size so the better off are already paying more for local services that way.

If you are going to look at taxation based upon affordability, why not own up and call it that?

For the record, I’m not rich by any means and by a quirk of the tax system which appears bewilderingly complex and confusing, HMRC has already decided that I somehow paid less tax through PAYE then I should have last year – HMRC helpfully provided my tax code which calculated the “incorrect” deductions – and taking that and the tax rules into account, for 2012/2013 I will have a negative code, i.e. I will pay tax on more than I actually earn.

Which is “fair”, if you happen to be a Liberal Democrat politician, obviously. Or a Conservative. Tricky to tell them apart…

London 2012 Olympic Games

| Richard

Yet more reasons for abandoning London during the Olympic Games have come out this week: reports of a lack of hotel rooms and extortionate pricing for those which are available have been discussed on various news channels.

It’s all about supply and demand, of course.

In this case, demand is high because of both the ‘main’ Olympic Games as well as the Paralympic Games afterwards. As noted on the BBC’s “Democracy Live” website:

 ”Speaking during questions on 9 February 2012, Ms Jowell told MPs of a mother who had been forced to pay £1,000 a night for a specially adapted hotel room in order to take her disabled daughter to the Paralympic Games.

“The same room would cost £375 during the Easter holidays, a 167% increase, Ms Jowell claimed.

“She told MPs that her team’s research found that hotel prices in London during the course of the games were, on average, 315% higher than normal.”

Of course demand will be high from tourists and visitors wanting to watch the Games, but it’s also the supply side that’s being affected. Why? Well it’s down to that great gravy train of excess and privilege known as “the Olympic family”. This is estimated to mean 78,400 people. Yes, 78,400!  Of these, well over 60% aren’t actually athletes or officials:

“National Olympic Committees (NOC) 19,900
Includes:
– Athletes
– Team officials

International Federations (IF) 4,150
Includes:
– Technical officials
– International Federations staff and guests

Media 21,300
Includes:
– Press, photographers, journalists
– Rights holding broadcasters
– Olympic Broadcast Organisation

International Olympic Committee (IOC) 1,650
Includes:
– IOC members
– World AntiDoping Agency
– Court of Arbitration of Sport
– IOC Medical Commission
– IOC staff
– Observers and guests

Marketing partners (sponsors) 31,400
Includes:
– The Olympic Partners and guests
– Marketing Partner Coach Programme (ticketed)

Grand total 78,400″

Wow!

This is the bunch that will be bringing traffic chaos to London with the Olympic Route Network of Olympic Family-only traffic lanes carved out of the already-congested existing road network.  It’s explained nicely here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16277688

And where are all these Olympic Family members staying? Well maybe in the rooms they’ve block-booked at specially reduced rates:

“Under a deal struck in 2005, Locog booked around 600,000 room nights in London during the course of the games, for Olympic officials, media and others.

“In January, around 120,000 of these rooms were put back on sale to the public after Locog said it no longer needed them.”

Ah! That would explain it! I’m so pleased I won’t be here in London during the Olympics…

You Know I’m Waiting

| Richard

Transport for London now has a really useful service whereby you can track how long you’ll need to wait for a bus at any given stop. Excellent stuff!

It does, however, really show up the complete lie published by TFL on its timetable for the 381 bus route which promises a bus every “10 – 12 minutes” during the day.

Last night, for instance, the mobile service was suggesting a 25 minute wait at City Hall for my bus home so I walked and never was passed by one. This morning it’s a 20 minute wait.

Our local MP, Simon Hughes, has been promising action on this bus route since I moved here in 2008 and like all LibDem promises, it’s been an empty one.

Must try harder…

Barcelona Images

| RHMP

In other news, I’ve just had a quick city break to Barcelona this week and took in some of the sights and sounds whilst I was there.

Sadly, a lot of the Gaudi architecture was hidden by scaffolding and hoardings as there appeared to be a lot of renovation going on, but I managed to grab some images I quite like whilst walking around.

They can be found in the Lifestyle and Scenic portfolio pages.

Kites

Soraya Edits – Finally!

| RHMP

I’ve had a few days free this week and started going over some of my back catalogue of images: I still have hundreds of images worth using if I can do a little cropping and adjustment and add my watermarks and copyright information.

There are some edits from shoots with Polly to add plus I spent some time looking at some of the images from a shoot I did with a really lovely mature model, 46 year old Soraya. Some of those images are in the Fetish, Headshots, Fashion and Lingerie portfolio pages.


Invitation

DVLA Accuses Me of Passing Off

| Richard

This afternoon I received an e-mail from the DVLA:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I’m writing to you because your email address has been brought to our attention. You may not be aware but we have trademarked the acronym ‘DVLA’ along with several other logos, and by using ‘DVLA’ in your email address you are considered to be ‘passing off’ against our trademark/name.

I would appreciate your co?operation in this matter by ceasing to use ‘dvla’ in your email address.

Kind Regards

Now in common with every other supplier or Government agency I deal with, I have set up a specific email address for when I deal with them in the format of {suppliername}@{mydomain} so the only people who would see this address is the DVLA themselves.

I’ve told them not to worry their little heads about it. We’ll see what the two jobsworths – the sender and the person copied in on the email – make of it…

Hein Gericke – Appalling Lack of Customer Service

| Richard

Around 18 months ago, I bought a pair of Alpinestars GP Pro gloves from Hein Gericke – these are £130 gloves I’m talking about, so not cheap rubbish.

Sadly with limited use – one trackday, RBLR1000 1,000 miles in 17 hours and some very occasional weekend rides – one strap fasterner had started to come away from the rest of the glove.

So after my trip to the  Gorges de l’Ardeche in France with some mates this summer, I got in contact with Hein Gericke’s Customer Services department and a guy called Ross Marchant. He told me that Hein Gericke would either repair or replace the gloves if I sent them back to Hein Gericke: either option was fine as far as I was concerned.

On 16 September 2011, he e-mailed me over a returns note, saying:

“Please return your goods back to the following HG FREEPOST address for a refund or exchange…”

On 19 September 2011. I e-mailed back saying:

“Dear Mr. Marchant,

Many thanks for this.

Just to let you know, the Alpinestars GP-Plus gloves were posted on Sunday so they’ll be collected at the postbox I used this afternoon and hopefully be with you shortly after that.

Kind regards,

Richard”

A couple of weeks later, having heard nothing in the meantime, I e-mailed Mr Marchant on 7 October 2011:

“Dear Mr Marchant,

Any news on the repair/replacement?

Many thanks,

Richard Morris”

Nothing!

On Christmas Eve, 24 December 2011, I followed it up, coying in Hein Gericke’s Customer Services e-mail address too:

Dear Mr Marchant,

Any news on the repair or replacement gloves?

It’s been months now with no news and no gloves at all!

Richard

Still nothing! Not even an acknowledgment.

Today I’ve followed it up yet again:

“Dear Sirs,

I cannot believe how appallingly bad the lack of customer service is at  Hein Gericke.

Not only am I without any gloves at all – expensive ones at that – but also you never reply to any of my follow up e-mails.

When will I receive my gloves back, a new pair or a refund?

Yours faithfully,

Richard Morris”

This time if I still hear nothing from them it’s off to the Small Claims Court, I think. Hein Gericke? Avoid them like the plague: they’re clearly only interested in taking your money for defective goods and then ignoring your complaints.