Support Phil Packer to raise £1 million in support of Help for Heroes

When Phil was recovering from surgery in Hospital, he decided to embark upon a quest that would change his life forever; by doing so, he hoped that he could help change lives too. He visited Help for Heroes and was inspired by Bryn and Emma Parry, Mark Elliott and their Team’s work at Help for Heroes. Until he was able to return to work in the Army, Phil was determined to selflessly assist others and provide information on sports and events to the disabled military community and the wider disabled community as a whole. He believes he has a responsibility and duty to do so. He also pledged to raise £1million for Help for Heroes and to try to help in making a difference to fellow injured servicemen and women.

Major Phil Packer was injured in an incident following a rocket attack in Basra on 19 Feb 08. Sadly, as a result of the accident he lost the use of his legs and is now a paraplegic with what are classed as catastrophic injuries. He was originally told he would never walk again, however there have been positive improvements and it is his aspiration to walk the Flora London Marathon on the 26th April this year over a two week period on crutches. (he has completed the marathon!) He attends Headley Court every other month where the Medical Team assists him in physical rehabilitation.

Phil needs support to make his Quest a success. He is supported by family, friends, colleagues and those that hear about his story. To enthuse and inspire others, Phil has laid down the gauntlet for ANY challenges, events or sports to participate in, that will assist him in reaching his target. Amazingly, within a year of his injuries, he rowed the English Channel in just over fifteen hours!

If you want to support Phil, his Just Giving Page is www.justgiving.com/philsmillion and there is more information on his website at www.philpacker.com

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http://www.sitepoint.com/ are Australian publishers of web based material. They have a very high reputation among the web design community. For this limited period they are offering to sell five of their PDF format books for less than 30 USD. All of the proceeds will go to the Australian Bush Fire Relief fund.  I am sure that anyone who has an interest in web design and associated business will be able to find PDF based books to buy. Sitepoint offer an enormous range of titles. Just click the link 5 for the price of 1! You’ll be kicking yourself if you miss out ... (61)

This is the best book deal we’ve ever done and it’s all in the name of charity!

For the next 3 days, you can pick 5 PDF books and pay just $29.95.
That’s $149.75 worth of books for only $29.95. Oh, and did I mention it’s any 5 books?

Our entire range of PDF books are on offer. Designers, developers, freelancers, managers, and business owners alike can have instant access to “How to” and reference guides galore.

Sound too good to be true? Imagine having 5 electronic SitePoint resources at your fingertips—same information as the physical books, but without the wait. PDF means you can have it now!

100% of the proceeds from this sale will be donated to the Australian Red Cross Victorian Bushfire Appeal. That’s the entire $29.95. Our ambitious goal is to raise US$50,000 to help the thousands of people affected by this tragedy.

Remember, we’re only doing this for 3 days and since this is the biggest promotion we've ever done before, it’s going to be a long time before we do it again - so what are you waiting for?

And its not just the people who have lost everything if they are lucky enough to remain alive.

The animals are suffering as well. http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25034233-661,00.html

 

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I am like everyone else pleased to hear of the incredible action of Captain Chesley Sullenberger who used his knowledge and considerable experience to save the life of all the passengers and crew of Flight 1549. Captain Chesley managed to not only land the aircraft in the river Hudson but also to land it close to boats which could help in the rescue.  The bird strike that caused both engines to fail could have meant that the aircraft would have crashed in New York city, resulting in a large loss of life and considerable damage.

This news also reinforces the decision made by President Bush, who under pressure, raised the age of retirement of airline pilots in the USA from 60 to 65 . http://www.leftseat.com/age60.htm Captain Sullenberger would have been due to retirement under the earlier law!

I don't think that a younger, less experienced pilot could have saved that plane. Provided older people are fit and healthy why should they be compulsorily retired? Of course there is the other argument that people could be worked in to the grave.

Captain Chesley Sullenberger is no ordinary pilot though, as the following Wikipedia article reveals Chesley Sullenberger. Let's make sure that we don't compulsorily retire people, as this is nothing more than age descrimination. And society loses those who still have valuable skill and experience.

 

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Front page of the Evening Standard today:

If you don't live in London or would like to read any UK newspaper then you could subscribe to pressdisplay Pressdisplay can provide you with an opportunity to read not only nearly all UK newspapers but many papers from all over the World.

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There has been a lot of criticism of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Chancellor Alasdair Darling's cut in VAT from 17.5 per cent to 15 per cent. Whilst there have been quite significant reductions in the shops and by suppliers of,  for example building materials, this reduction is important.

Unfortunately, the Chancellor plans to not only remove the reduction from its present 15 per cent sometime in the future but also to claw back that loss in tax by increasing VAT to 20 per cent! 

I am pleased to have a reduction of two and half per cent on the cost of my purchases. This reduction, applies of course, to products that are possibly already reduced. So it is not to be sneezed at!

The future increase in VAT means that one fifth of most of what we buy will go to the Exchequer!  I personally resent paying this tax anyway. No matter what your income you have to pay a substantial amount of the purchase price of a product as a tax. For the effect of VAT on fuel see petrolprices.com

Are we just a load of mugs? The cartoon below is republished under a creative commons license from Matt Buck's Cartoon Diary. Matt's website

 

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

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I see it, not as an International issue but as a national issue. The BBC "auntie" Oh dear! What Jonathan Ross and Russell Brandt forgot was that Andrew Saxe is not Manuel and can't be pushed around like Basil did in Faulty Towers. Yes that's it they got stuck in a time warp -let's phone up Manuel, But:

Andrew Saxe is an elderly actor he is NOT Manuel. That's how I see what went so sadly wrong coupled with the complete lack of taste that so many British viewers seem to be amused by this drivel.

Whilst it is of interest to British viewers, there are implications for other nations and cultures. How do they think that we respect people? If you have gone through the educational system and achieved graduate or even post graduate qualifications or professional trade level City and Guilds qualifications but find that you need to work in some menial job because employment is not available at your level, then how would you feel when you read or hear about how much money these popular "****heads" earn at your expense -assuming that you pay your license fee.

The BBC produce wonderful programs. I have bought a few hundred DVD's of TV programs and I find that all yes all, perhaps I have made a mistake, are BBC productions or if not they are films. Let's put pressure on the BBC to cut their expenses by not paying these people millions of pounds a year.

So they will leave the BBC? They won't last for long with commercial TV as commercial TV depends on revenue that will not be maintained at the present level -as World supplies of energy sources run down- and the consumer society disappears. Why spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on advertising?

But the problem is not Jonathan Ross et al it is the BBC. The BBC thinks that they have to make sure that they have a decent share of the viewing population. This means that programs have to appeal to the lowest common denoninator, or so the BBC executives seem to think, at least at peak times. The BBC which, let's not forget is the British Broadcasting Corporation is our national television service.

To receive the TV service we must pay a license fee. as part of that fee we get the BBC and other TV companies broadcasts. In my opinion it would be nice, or would it? to be able to pay for:

1. BBC only

2. BBC and others

3. Others

This is hardly likely, but if it was, would the people prefer mainly to elect for option three? I have not been able to find any market research information on how people might opt  if given the opportunity. I would opt for two. At present there is no option - except don't renew your licence and only use your TV for playing DVD's. The option is not desirable anyway - see below.

The licence fee is obviously of vital importance. Why? because the televison service provides the means to communicate with the people. There must be a reliable unbiased TV service in a democratic society. This does NOT mean that the service needs to be entertaining. But if the service is not entertaining there is the danger that most of the people will not watch it. It is obvious that commercial TV must be subject to pressure from those companies who provide the revenue and this is the danger - who wants to be attacked by the service that one is spending money for to promote their company? Maybe this view is simplistic. But then maybe it is simplistic to consider the options in any other way.

My view is that the BBC should continue to develop, commission and broadcast high quality programs and avoid popular "c**p".  Money should be spent on worthwhile program development and broadcasting not what the lowest common denominator wants to view but what an educated viewer would like to view.

This might mean that in terms of statistics viewers of BBC broadcasts might be in the minority - they are most likely to be!  But the programs will at least maintain their quality

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How is it that our economy has been been affected more adversely - as reflected in the rate of exchange between the GB pound and the US dollar when this problem was created in the USA?

The American financial corporations created the problem by advancing money against nothing more than what US citizens may earn in future. And worse, some of these "bankers" advanced money to people without checking whether they would be capable of repaying that money. I suppose we have come off worse because the UK economy appeared to be in better shape.  No doubt we will find out, sooner or later whether we were in better shape.

Update, as I write: Baroness Vadera -the Business & Enterprise Minister - has revealed in the House of Lords debate today (Current Economic Situation Debate) that we, indeed did have a serious problem. . .

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I am sure I heard right! An Amercian Senator saying: " we'll have to borrow more money from China!

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Whilst Bath is over five miles from Freshford it is a place where many locals work and prefer to shop. Whilst I enjoy the occasional shopping trip to Bath I usually shop a little nearer in Trowbridge. I also often cycle to shop, so a congestion charge is not all that relevant to me. 

I am not really sure where the traffic in Bath is going and whether it can avoid the central area? There must be vehicles that need to head for Bristol who are travelling from North of the river Avon who can't head up the A46. It does seem unfair to penalise these drivers. Are all the other drivers going shopping? As Freshford is located South of the Avon I usually head for Sainsbury's Homebase car park via the A36 and lower Bristol Road and walk. I can always manage to find something to buy in Homebase or Sainsburys, as payment for my free parking -which is only fair. If I did have to pay a congestion fee or car park fee I would probably arrange for Home Delivery instead.

The present government is hell bent on building more, and more, houses in this area without considering the infrastructure. So there will be even more demand on Bath as a shopping centre, or perhaps not.

Napoleon's observation that we are a nation of shopkeepers, whilst perhaps true in his time but altered by the rise of the supermarket in the Twentieth century - which swallowed up the small shops, still has some relevance today.  But now we are a nation of shoppers!

However, whilst this might be good for Bath and Cribb's Causeway and Cabots Circus and other out of town shopping centres, shopping  does rely on people having money to spend. Shopping requires money. This money should come from earnings and a return from investments. But is it coming from those sources? No! shoppers' money is coming from those who have cashed in some of the value of the rise in their property value (which could fall and has fallen!) and ignorant youngsters who pay through the nose to use their credit cards, as if there to be no tomorrow.

There will not be so many people who are ready to go shopping in future. These shopping cities and out of town shopping centres are probably going to become white elephants in future,  probably in the near future.

An increase of thirty per cent in home energy bills doesn't help! Fuel whether for the home or the road is never, never going to get cheaper, is it? Unless the government reduces the fuel tax  (and pigs can fly!). So travelling by car will get more and more, and more expensive.  It will take several hundred million years to recreate the conditions for fossil fuel to be created again, and then by and by we will repopulate the world and use up nearly all of that fossil fuel in a little under two hundred years once again.

I won't be paying any congestion charge and I don't expect many others will be doing so either. I don't even see any need for a congestion charge.

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There is now an International category. This can also be used for national news items. Have you contributed to a newspaper and found that your contribution has been ignored? well, within reason your news item or comment could be published here. Your contribution will be published unless it is defamatory or otherwise subject to possible legal action. I will not edit or mark as unapproved your contribution just because it differs from my own views. But why an International category, just because we live in the "sticks" doesn't mean that our views are those of some country bumpkin.

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