Peter’s Blog

The Olympic flame, for now, burns bright in Britain - International Herald Tribune

Britain, it seems, is desperately short of heroes, and the minute any sporting figure reaches even modest altitude in the foothills of the champions, they are feted beyond all proportion. In 2005, for instance, when England’s cricketers beat Australia to win a coveted cricketing trophy called the Ashes, they were deified with a Bacchanalian victory tour of London in an open-topped double-decker bus followed by the bestowing of august honors at Buckingham Palace.

Then their fortunes fell. Only now, with a new skipper, the South African-born Kevin Pietersen, leading the cricketers to unaccustomed victory have they clambered from the abyss - a mythological mixing of Icarus and the Phoenix.

Across the sporting spectrum, it sometimes seems, post-imperial Britain has never quite gotten used to the idea that its teams and individuals may be less than the best. Every four years, for instance, the England team gears up for the World Cup soccer tournament, and its followers are filled with enthusiasm for the fray and glory. But, hardwired into the national memory is the knowledge that the English have not won the World Cup since 1966.

So true.

BBC NEWS | UK | ‘Bring on the property crash’

I understand that it’s hard to buy a house in the UK when you’re young and making a basic salary. But what’s unsaid in this article is that you have people earning £20k a year (like one IT worker profiled) and people thinking it’s a good salary. It’s long been my conviction that British purchasing power is shit: numerical costs are only slightly lower, thanks to the strong pound, but wages are much lower. I would MUCH rather earn $40k in the US than £20k in the UK.

What if we thought of stag tourism as actually a subtle form of currency arbitrage? It’s not like any of the things purchased are significantly different – they’re just cheaper, and specifically in a less-valued currency.

UK’s fastest train on track for 2009 start: “Since Japan launched the first modern high-speed Shinkansen train in the Sixties, when Britain still had steam trains…”

That says a lot right there, doesn’t it?

The BBC is now apologising after three people complained when Iggy Pop, “while impersonating a imaginary English person reacting [to?] his attire”, used the words ‘paki shop’. Good thing they didn’t play “You Better Run”: “On the way home I said, ‘Baby! You might still get raped.’ She said, ‘Oh, Mr. Pop!’”

The Observer looks at the News of the World’s editor in light of the bugging accusations, and what’s really amazing is that tabloids bugging people’s phones is so widespread and accepted.

It turns out that the Covent Garden piazza is owned by one company, which just sold it for £421 million. Impressive but not surprisingly when you learn:

Covent Garden attracts one million visitors a week, and is made more valuable by its central London location.

Damn!

The head of the BBC World Service recently said that British journalism operates in a ‘moral vacuum’ and publishes stories that are simply false or great stretches of the truth. That strikes me as true, but what is interesting is that he complains about the need for a stronger press watchdog. This seems somewhat ironic, as Britain has some of the toughest libel laws in the world (). Why haven’t the laws changed press behavior? Most likely because the awards have never been so large as to force real changes and instead are seen as a cost of business. That being said, ultimately there is an aceptance of the status quo. The newspapers will change if the editors and, more importantly, the readers no longer lap up such stories.

Due to an accident many drivers were left stranded on a freeway and water was airlifted to them on this “hot” day (it wasn’t even 85 degrees). I was reminded of a story this winter of a similar thing happening, though granted in that case they did get 4 inches of snow in an hour. But really, this is just pathetic. Why in an advanced country like the UK are drivers getting stranded on freeways because of one truck caught fire? Is it really that hard to divert the road a few exits back and then just have the drivers turn around and drive off the freeway at the previous exit? Apparently.

The Economist turns its focus this week to something I find quite interesting: the peculiar role of Scotland in the UK. Scotland has its own parliament, yet it doesn’t raise any taxes. Perhaps surprisingly, many of the top British politicians are Scottish: Ming Campbell, head of the Liberal Democrats, is Scottish, as is his predecessor Charles Kennedy. In the Labour leadership Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown and Home Secretary John Reid. Even Tony Blair, though not Scottish, was born in Edinburgh. As the Economist notes:

They are also noticing some other anomalies arising from Scotland’s home rule. One is that Scottish members of the Westminster Parliament can vote on matters that concern everyone in the United Kingdom, but that English, Welsh and Northern Irish MPs cannot vote on matters devolved to Scotland. Another is that the man now running the Home Office at Westminster is John Reid, who answers only to the voters of his Scottish constituency, though his department deals not with Scotland’s internal affairs, a devolved matter, but those of England and Wales.