Another UK crisis - MPs pay

The UK Government has imposed a 1% limit on the increase of salary for public sector workers for the next three years, having already frozen pay for the last two years.  (At the same time thy increased pension contributions by 1.28% this year, leading to a net decrease in take-home pay while inflation is obviously raging.)

Some people find that outrageous.  Others consider it to be an fair and inevitable way of balancing the books.  But whichever camp you might be in, I suspect that we are almost all in agreement that it would be grossly unfair if Members of Parliament (MPs) are awarded any increase in salary higher than that.  And yet, this is what they tell us we should expect.  In fact they might be awarded an increase of more than 10%, because (at the second attempt) the independent body that reviews their salaries has deemed that they are underpaid.

Neglecting the fact that many of them have second and third paid jobs, along with fairly generous expenses allowances and long periods when Parliament is not sitting, which world is this independent panel living in?

Somehow, it appears that the government is powerless to prevent this inevitable increase.  Exactly why that might be the case is completely unclear to me.  In my view, the MPs should:

• Do the job that they are paid for - full time, like the rest of us - and yes that sometimes means working late with little appreciation and for much less money than MPs already receive.
• Not have additional salaried posts.
• Definitely have their salary increases capped - as after all, they are public sector workers too.  

Its easy isn't it?  It is just like telling another public sector worker that they have achieved the highest level of achievement in their role which might give them a rise of a few percent in normal times, but that in spite of that their pay rise is capped at 1%.


Failing that, I can see the potential for one of the biggest protest marches ever seen in London.  I will be there, whatever else might be happening that day.

Will you?

Further comment:  38 Degrees is obviously lining itself up for a goo campaign on this topic.  Participate in their consultation by following this link.

Lennox's non-fairy tale?

Oxford University Professor, John Lennox mumbled some incoherent nonsense (it is reported, e.g. here and here, and much better here) at the 'National Prayer Breakfast'.  Presumably Lennox is quite good at mathematics.  If not, he would not be a professor at Oxford University.  Nevertheless, if the reports of the event are to be believed then he seems to grasp very little of logic.  Isn't that surprising?

Apparently he 'preached' that atheism was a "delusion" and a "fairy tale for those afraid of the light".

Can anyone explain to me how this can be true?  Surely atheism is the lack of all these religious fairy tales, not specifically the Christian fairy-tale that Lennox happens to like.

Perhaps Prof. Lennox has been an outspoken critic of "God Delusion" author Richard Dawkins, but if that is the only thing that makes him famous then perhaps he should be called 'a-famous'. 

As for blaming atheism for the "moral drift" in society, (as is reported), I would just point him to accounts of the activities of Roman Catholic Priests over recent years and indeed Muslim men who have married child brides over many centuries (collectively, at least).  Where is the moral drift now?  Has it been led by religious men, perchance?

Dismissing the common assumption that science and religion are not compatible, he said  "There is no necessary conflict between science and God, the real conflict is between world views, atheism and theism".

If not, why is he picking this particular fight? Moving on, we hear that:

"God is not the same kind of explanation as science is. 

Now . . . on this point we can agree.  One is a delusion and one is not. But then:

God is the explanation of why there is a universe at all in which science can be done."

Lennox might tell us this.  But after all, this is just a fairy story!

Isn't it?

Dr Lennox was addressing over 600 people at the Bible Society-sponsored National Prayer Breakfast at the Houses of Parliament.
As Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University, Dr Lennox has frequently spoken out against modern-day atheism, calling Richard Dawkins 'wrong'.
He said that the new atheism is responsible for 'the moral drift' in today's society. And he added that science and religion are not opposed.
'There is no necessary conflict between science and God, the real conflict is between worldviews, atheism and theism,' he said.
'God is not the same kind of explanation as science is,' he added. 'God is the explanation of why there is a universe at all in which science can be done.'
He warned that, 'The playing field is not level since atheism has become so dominant ... and is often regarded as the default position in the media.'
The risk of this is, he said, that society would forget 'the contribution of Christianity to the moral foundations of our society'.
- See more at: http://www.baptisttimes.co.uk/index.php/national-news/986-atheism-a-delusion-john-lennox-#sthash.x2vSZjv2.dpufvvOxford University Professor John Lennox told over 600 people at the National Prayer Breakfast why he is not convinced by atheism.

The math professor told guests at the Bible Society-sponsored event that atheism was a "delusion" and a "fairy tale for those afraid of the light".

He urged Christians to have "the courage to create public space" for the discussion of "a biblical worldview", as he pointed to the example of Tyndale, who translated the Bible into English 400 years ago and would eventually be executed.

Dr Lennox, who has been an outspoken critic of "God Delusion" author Richard Dawkins, blamed new atheism for the "moral drift" in society.

He also dismissed the common assumption that science and religion are not compatible.

"There is no necessary conflict between science and God, the real conflict is between worldviews, atheism and theism," he said.

"God is not the same kind of explanation as science is. God is the explanation of why there is a universe at all in which science can be done."

Atheism is a 'delusion', a 'fairy tale for those afraid of the light'. That was the message from Prof John Lennox from Oxford University on Tuesday morning (25 June).
He also urged Christians to have 'the courage to create public space' for the discussion of 'a biblical worldview' in society - citing the example of Tyndale's translation of the Bible into English 400 years ago.
- See more at: http://www.baptisttimes.co.uk/index.php/national-news/986-atheism-a-delusion-john-lennox-#sthash.x2vSZjv2.dpuf

Dr Lennox was addressing over 600 people at the Bible Society-sponsored National Prayer Breakfast at the Houses of Parliament.
As Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University, Dr Lennox has frequently spoken out against modern-day atheism, calling Richard Dawkins 'wrong'.
He said that the new atheism is responsible for 'the moral drift' in today's society. And he added that science and religion are not opposed.
'There is no necessary conflict between science and God, the real conflict is between worldviews, atheism and theism,' he said.
'God is not the same kind of explanation as science is,' he added. 'God is the explanation of why there is a universe at all in which science can be done.'
He warned that, 'The playing field is not level since atheism has become so dominant ... and is often regarded as the default position in the media.'
The risk of this is, he said, that society would forget 'the contribution of Christianity to the moral foundations of our society'.
- See more at: http://www.baptisttimes.co.uk/index.php/national-news/986-atheism-a-delusion-john-lennox-#sthash.x2vSZjv2.dpuf

Atheism is a 'delusion', a 'fairy tale for those afraid of the light'. That was the message from Prof John Lennox from Oxford University on Tuesday morning (25 June).
He also urged Christians to have 'the courage to create public space' for the discussion of 'a biblical worldview' in society - citing the example of Tyndale's translation of the Bible into English 400 years ago.
- See more at: http://www.baptisttimes.co.uk/index.php/national-news/986-atheism-a-delusion-john-lennox-#sthash.x2vSZjv2.dpuf

Atheism is a 'delusion', a 'fairy tale for those afraid of the light'. That was the message from Prof John Lennox from Oxford University on Tuesday morning (25 June).
He also urged Christians to have 'the courage to create public space' for the discussion of 'a biblical worldview' in society - citing the example of Tyndale's translation of the Bible into English 400 years ago.
- See more at: http://www.baptisttimes.co.uk/index.php/national-news/986-atheism-a-delusion-john-lennox-#sthash.x2vSZjv2.dpuf

Atheism is a 'delusion', a 'fairy tale for those afraid of the light'. That was the message from Prof John Lennox from Oxford University on Tuesday morning (25 June).
He also urged Christians to have 'the courage to create public space' for the discussion of 'a biblical worldview' in society - citing the example of Tyndale's translation of the Bible into English 400 years ago.
- See more at: http://www.baptisttimes.co.uk/index.php/national-news/986-atheism-a-delusion-john-lennox-#sthash.x2vSZjv2.dpuf

Right Royal Shame!

In this week's news we hear once again that the Queen is going to get a 5% pay rise next year, while everyone else working for the government has their increase capped at 1%.  This is on top of the 16% that she gained this year, as I mentioned in early April.

The excuse is that the royal estates are bringing in more income than they used to and that there is an agreement that the Queen gets a proportion of the income. Don't forget that she also got a boost to cover the extra costs associated with the jubilee last year, and she has been allowed to retain this year even without a jubilee to pay for.

Isn't it time for the country to put its collective foot down?  Of course that won't happen with our current barely-elected government, even though they must realise how unpopular the news has been.

Naturally royalists tell us what good value for money we get from the royal family, but with the further news that the Duke and Duchess of York's apartment is getting a £1 million makeover, I would ask how that case can possibly be defended.

Bring on the republic!

How many pies for £5.6 million?

I see in the news today that Stephen 'too many pies' Hester (see here and here for history) has 'generously' agreed to give up his overpaid job in the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).  Some interesting points arise.

• RBS is/was Scottish - perhaps - and yet the debts are British?  Hmm!
• Hester is a public servant in that over 80% of RBS is owned by the UK Government, and yet he is not subject to the rules that apply to other public servants.  It seems that the government can pay him what they want, whatever his levels of success - or otherwise.
• Hester couldn't bring himself to commit to working for RBS for a few years more, after a potential privatisation and hence . . .
• Hester generously agrees to give up his job, on the basis of a payment (eventually) of £5.6 million.

Given the choice of working for that (undeserved and obscene amount of) cash or accepting it for doing f**k all, what would you choose?

After all, how many pies could a corpulent t**t buy for that much money? 

Furthermore, how can governments create contracts that are so generous and yet trample on ordinary people - and still expect to be re-elected?

Small note:  T**t could stand for 'twit'

A ticket to Avoncliff - and great service at "The Boatyard", Trowbridge.

Planning a rail journey I went to buy my ticket this morning.  Avoncliff is a small station near Bath, and it can't be common for people to want to travel from my home station to that specific location.  The man in the ticket office asked if I had bought one yesterday.  Apparently he hasn't sold one for months, and then there were two in two days.  Coincidences happen.

So I planned to get the 14:12 train, and was waiting on the platform for the train to Bath.  I had noticed the display saying that my train was on time, and one came into the platform at exactly the right time. Since there were no announcements and there was nobody to ask, I got on board.  By chance I heard a lady speaking on the phone, saying that she was on the train to Cardiff and would be home soon.  Alarm bells began to ring.  My train was not going to Cardiff due to the second coincidence of the day!  It had arrived at the right moment for my train but it was going to the wrong place.

Too late to get off, the only option was to change at Swindon to get onto my planned train!  It arrived in Bath too late for the connection, but the nice people there put me in a taxi without me even having to think of compaining.

I don't think the taxi driver would ever have found Avoncliff station.  He ended up on the wrong side of the river which in fact was where I wanted to be.  The road was definitely 'interesting', hilly and single track for a lot of the way.

So much for the efficiency of the railways in UK!  All things considered though, it was a good service.

The only thing was that I had already been on a tight schedule if everything had gone perfectly.  Setting off from Avoncliff on the boat I was keen to get to Trowbridge, a few miles away, to fill up with fuel.  "The Boatyard" is well known for selling fuel at rock-bottom prices and its always worth calling in there.  I made it with only minutes to spare and they had already started to lock up, but they very kindly filled my fuel tank with diesel - at only 80p per litre!  5p less than it was two weeks ago!

If you are on the Kennet and Avon Canal and need fuel, this is definitely the place to go.  I have already recommended it to two people, and no doubt I will tell everyone else I meet.

The bite of the honey bee

Yes - I meant bite, not flight, and honey bee, not bumble bee.  But having misused the name of a famous piece of music for rhetorical purposes, here is a surprising (and interesting) bit of information about the familiar insects that are so important for our crop pollination.

You would think that we know nearly everything that there is to know about bees, but it seems that this is not the case.  Now we discover that bees bite and that the bites have a surprising role in the evolutionary struggle between the bees and their parasites.

This interesting information about bees came to my attention in the newsletter of the British Beekeeper's Association (BBKA).  This is not a journal that I have ever read before, but I happened across a well-written article in the February 2013 edition of the magazine. 

Even though the bite phenomenon had been recognised previously, it was not known that it is used to inject a natural anaesthetic called 2-heptanone (2-H).  When bees bite their enemies the 2-H temporarily paralyses the victim and this gives the colony the chance to eject the creature from the hive.  Bees actively use this method to fight the larvae of moths and the parasite varroa which is often heralded as bringing certain death to colonies of bees.

So it seems that bees do have a natural defence against enemies that are too small to sting.

It has been suggested that 2-H might even have a use as a new natural anaesthetic for humans too. Isn't nature amazing?

The BBKA magazine also gets another plaudit from me.  Unlike the article in the Daily Telegraph, the BBKA takes the trouble to reference the scientific paper on the subject by Dr Alexandros Papachristoforou, of the University of Thessaloniki in Greece.  You can find it on the free online, peer-reviewed, PLOS ONE web site at this link.  It gets technical, as all scientific papers ought to do, but the introduction and many other parts are written very clearly and accessibly.  Everyone would get something from the introduction.

Small note:  In the news in recent weeks, people of Europe, particularly UK, have heard a lot about the banning of various pesticides that are alleged to affect bee colonies.  I say 'alleged' because it seems to be a slightly controversial example of science being misused in a public campaign to obtain signatures to promote the passage of legislation.  Unlike many of the campaigns of organisations of 38 degrees, Avaaz and other such bodies, this one about neo-nicotinoids perhaps demonstrates that good science cannot always be applied through democracy.

Bath to Bristol - by boat

What a glorious sight to wake up to . . .

Reflections in the River Avon, Bath.

and then to cruise down the Avon on a sunny day with a stop for lunch at a nice pub was even better.

Those who have met my boat will understand why I took the opportunity to show this picture of a pretty young lady at this point.

Name that b . . . beer!  Bath Ales finest.

Perhaps the highlight of the day was to cruise around the 'floating harbour' in Bristol.  It gets this name because ocean going ships can remain floating in this harbour, whatever the state of the tide.

SS Great Britain - Brunel's fine ship

And a bit too much sun - yes, in England - perhaps that is today's surprising concept!

Approaching Bath

My boat is moored in Bath tonight.  The approach to the city along the Kennet and Avon can is quite enchanting.  I've moored on the River Avon, after a late evening visit to the famous weir by Poultney Bridge.  I had to find a mooring before it got really dark.

The famous weir in Bath, late in the evening

This might not be a surprise to you, but until very recently I never expected to see the view of this famous site from my own boat in the middle of the Avon!

The boat is moored in a place that is not entirely legitimate for a fit young fellow like me, but we'll move on tomorrow, very early in the morning.  I have very good reasons for needing to be moored somewhere accessible.  (Elderly mother on-board.)

Finding visitor moorings turned out to be more difficult than I expected.

Bristol tomorrow - I think!  Come and say hello.

34 locks on the K&A!

The Kennet and Avon Canal crosses England from West to East, and it features one of the finest examples of canal engineering in the UK.  This is the Caen Hill flight of locks - 16 of them close together.

Looking down the famous Caen Hill flight, Devizes

Above and below the flight there are other locks, and today with an able crew I have cover 8 miles and negotiated 34 locks in total.  Half way down the flight my crew had to brave the attentions of nesting swans.

Nesting swans, Devizes

Fortunately they failed to break a man's arm as they are fabled to be able to do.  Some claim that they are able to do this just by looking at him!

Narrowboat lawn

One of the many pleasures of living on a narrowboat on England's waterways is that the garden is provided free of charge.  Leafy rural England is all around you and although boats are not exactly maintenance-free, at least there is no need to mow the lawn.

Or is there?

I spotted this boat on the Kennet and Avon Canal recently.  The whole roof has been covered with turf.

A narrowboat with a lawn - best of both worlds?

One good thing about it is that there is no problem finding the water to keep it green.  If water is that short, then the lawn must be the least of your worries.  Another is that it keeps the heat of the summer sun at bay, maybe making life aboard a bit more comfortable.

But in the small space available in the boat you now have to keep a lawn-mower, or else spend a lot of time with a pair of scissors every week.  And I would be a little worried about corrosion of the roof, but I suppose that is a minor issue.

My boat will remain free of lawns!

Libel Reform happening in UK! At last!

Today the UK's new Defamation Bill passed into law, subject to the anachronism of Royal Assent, which hopefully will happen within hours.

That's great news.  Politicians of all parties will no doubt line up to take credit for beginning the reform of our preposterous libel legislation, but in doing that they would be lying to us.

I believe that this is solely the result of concentrated people-power.

LibelReform.org has led the way and they are rightly proud of themselves for what they have achieved.  They mustered the votes of so many people that the (barely elected) Government just had to take notice of them.

You can read Libel Reform's  latest news here and their initial summary assessment here.

A big Well Done to Síle and Mike!  And a general Well Done to all of us who have signed petitions and stood up for justice and free speech!

It's a great start!

St George's day cometh

In a local competition the villagers are invited to compete.  Who can build the best dragon?

Thank goodness for St George!  Dragon in West Hagbourne, Oxon.

This one is quite spectacular!  I  wonder how many traffic accidents have been caused by this brilliant edifice.

The ancient 'Sweet Track'

No doubt there are many who make claims for other ancient structures, but I was surprised to find out recently that a scheduled monument in Somerset, southern England, might be the most ancient engineered road in the world.  It is called 'The Sweet Track'.  It seems that it was built over an even more ancient structure called 'The Post Track' (which must therefore have been more ancient, but let's not be too pedantic).

Of course it is only the most ancient until an earlier one is found, but it is still interesting to hear that an artefact in England can make this kind of claim.  I would have expected that there were more ancient structures in Mesopotamia or that region.

The Sweet Track is named after its discoverer, Ray Sweet who found it while digging peat in 1970.  It was built across the marshy Somerset Levels to make it easier to travel between settlements.  It has also been dated with surprising precision to one of two years, namely 3807 or 3806 BCE (presumably therefore by dendrochronology, although that is not clear).  200 tonnes of timber went into its 2000m length and it was probably prefabricated.

Cup of tea . . . and a hot-water bottle!

A couple of weeks ago I was showing some friends around Oxford.  It was a chilly day and we had no intention of sitting outside when we stopped at a well-known cafe for refreshments, but we all found this sign amusing.

Sit outdoors for tea in England - in winter!

Even with a hot water bottle and a blanket I don't think we would have enjoyed sitting for very long.  Anyway it was nice and warm indoors.

As the spring progresses things might change!

Thatcher was right after all

You might know me as a radical anti-Tory who regrets voting for Margaret Thatcher's Tory government in my first general election.  I don't feel proud of her legacy, but I should acknowledge that she got some things right.  Not many - but I acknowledge them.

She got a lot more wrong.  She sold off the country's assets for less than half their value - gas, water, and telephone networks and social housing were worth much more than her government accepted.  I can tell you for sure that she sold 'council houses' too cheaply.  I live in one of them to this day.  I bought it for £49,500 from the former tenant who had purchased it the previous year for £19,500.  Thatcher effectively empowered the owner of this house to make a profit of £30,000 at the expense of the tax payer.  That was fair wasn't it!

Her real downfall was the 'poll tax'.  It wasn't a stupid idea.  Of course households where more adults live should pay more than households with fewer adults.  It was just implemented in the most crass and ignorant way.  A couple with children suddenly found themselves paying nearly twice as much as they had paid in 'rates' - the previous local taxation system in UK.  Single pensioners who ought to have had a financial gain found that they were still paying the same as before.  Naturally that was going to get a reaction - and indeed it got an excessive reaction.  People died because of this.

I could go on, but you will be glad to hear that I won't.

What did she get right?

• As the first ever British female prime minister I have to offer respect.
• She stood up to Northern Irish terrorists (many of whom are now in the government in that province) and resisted their violence bravely.
• I had forgotten this, but it turns out that she opposed apartheid in South Africa and yet maintained that Nelson Mandela had rightly been imprisoned as a terrorist.  I'm not prepared to change my view of this just because Thatcher agreed with me.

So I do not mourn her.  However the Tory Witch was not wrong on every subject.  I wish the same could be said for David Cameron - the current barely-elected prime minister.

Failed Tory leaders . . .

Iain Duncan Smith ('IDS') used to be leader of the Conservative Party.  He didn't last long.  He wasn't exactly inspirational.  In fact a dessicated slug would have been more inspiring.  Of course I am not a Tory supporter.  I actually have a conscience.

The current Tory leader (and Prime Minister - spit!) has aquiesced to IDS being the Work and Pensions Secretary.  Of course he knows little about work (as ordinary people experience it) or pensions, but why should that matter?  In that capacity he recently committed an interesting faux-pas where he claimed that he could live on £53 per week - just 3% of his current salary.

So anyone who shares my desire that he should honour that claim might like to sign a petition at change.org.  Let's embarrass him into proving that he could do it.  As they say:

This petition calls for Iain Duncan Smith, the current Work and Pensions Secretary, to prove his claim of being able to live on £7.57 a day, or £53 a week.

On Monday's Today Programme David Bennett, a market trader, said that after his housing benefit had been cut, he lives on £53 per week. The next interviewee was Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, who was defending the changes. The interviewer then asked him if he could live on this amount. He replied: "If I had to, I would."

This petition calls on Iain Duncan Smith to live on this budget for at least one year. This would help realise the conservative party`s current mantra that "We are all in this together".

This would mean a 97% reduction in his current income, which is £1,581.02 a week or £225 a day after tax* [Source: The Telegraph]

Caste discrimination is not illegal??

What a shock.  In this age of human rights where convicted criminals are entitled to a life of luxury (etc.) I discovered today that it is not illegal for Hindus to discriminate against lower castes!  See the report from the National Secular Society here.  Would it be illegal for me to do the same?  Of course it would!

So what is the difference between my rights and those of a low cast Hindu?

How can this be the case in present day UK law?  Well, when you think about it, it is interesting to see that the barely elected UK government is very much into class discrimination and that caste discrimination is only another low-key version of their own policies.  For some odd reason, the 'compliant quisling', Nick Clegg seems to have nothing to say on the topic in spite of the expectations of the people who voted for his party at the last election.

Since Clegg has complied with the Tory government for several years now, isn't it time for him to impose some LibDem policies?  Many of my readers have hoped for evidence that he actually does have a backbone in spite of the present evidence.

Maybe support is at hand from the United Nations. Earlier this year the UN Human Rights Council increased the pressure on the British Government by calling on it to "develop a national strategy to eliminate caste discrimination, including the immediate adoption of the clause in the Equality Act … in accordance with its international human rights obligations".

So why hasn't it happened yet?

Nick Cohen has some views on the subject here at The Guardian.

What do you think?

Top-battery.co.uk's excellent 3 year warranty

If you want to buy a replacement battery for a laptop or netbook, why not buy one from a web site?  After all, internet buying is easy isn't it - I buy a lot from Amazon and get great service.

Given the choice of web sites, when I happened to discover that the best price for a high capacity battery was from another company using a UK domain name I was quite pleased.  No worries about import duty or how to return it in the event of a warranty claim or faulty delivery.  And on top of all that, the battery came with a 3 year warranty.  Too good to be true perhaps?

It arrived a few months ago.  It weighed more than the netbook, but at least I didn't have to carry a charger with me.  Its capacity was absolutely prodigious.  The netbook had a battery lifetime of over 10 hours - enough for a return trip from Oxford to Paris by train!  But being aware of looking after batteries, it was rarely discharged below 70% full.

But of course it was not a case of 'happy ever after'.  Quite soon it started to show signs of problems.  Sometimes the netbook wouldn't start up unless I took the battery out and replaced it.  Sometimes even that wasn't enough.  I had to plug in the charger for a few seconds and it would start.  Having started, it would run fine for hours without the charger but odd battery-related lights would flash at me ominously.

During a long conversation, my 'dear friends' at top-battery.co.uk usually replied promptly and courteously, but I don't think they understand English very well.  Or maybe that is just a tactic to avoid answering difficult questions.  They ask similar things all the time, take little notice of your answer and finally when I asked for a warranty replacement they asked me to send them £15.  You see, they are not in UK at all.  Who knows where they really are, but they claim China. 

What?  £15 in order to claim my statutory right to a warranty replacement - no chance!  Their excuse was

"As yo [sic] know, our battery is so competitive.The battery is used for some times,We will resend you once get the payment."

I'm sorry to say that it all reinforces my view that (at least some) Chinese companies have a different view of contract law and indeed common decency.  They make promises that they have no intention of keeping.

e.g.  http://top-battery.co.uk/, says "We promise all the products sold are 100% brand new and free from defects in material and workmanship. Our goal is 100% customer satisfaction."  That is, unless you make a warranty claim.

They masquerade as something that they are not - namely a UK company - and their excuse "our battery is so competitive" is quite pathetic.  The battery is not at all competitive because it doesn't work properly!  In fact, in the following disclaimer you can see how they are playing with the law in innovative ways. 

Disclaimer:

The batteries supplied by our Company are [replacement for] sold for use with certain products of computer manufacturers, and any reference to products or trademarks of such companies is purely for the purpose of identifying the computer manufacturers with which our products [are replacement for] may be used. Our Company and this Website are neither affiliated with, authorized by, licensed by, distributors for, nor related in any way to these computer manufacturers, nor are the products offered for sale through our Website manufactured by or sold with the authorization of the manufacturers of the computers with which our products [are replacement for] may be used. 

And yet they claim

• ACER Laptop Battery
• APPLE Laptop Battery
• Dell Laptop Battery
• HP Laptop Battery
• LG Laptop Battery
• SONY Laptop Battery

You see how they flaunt the names of top brands to sell their dubious products?   You might be lucky if you buy something from top-battery.co.uk, so it is (of course) up to you if you want to take the risk as I did.  The ironic thing is that I was about to buy another battery for another laptop and I would certainly have bought it from them if they had been the reputable supplier that they claimed to be.

But now they can f*** off, and they are not getting another £15 or another order and I write this in order to warn other potential customers who they are dealing with!

I have no way to know how many UK domains they own with credible-looking web sites, but since my correspondent has always signed off with the name 'Sunny', I'm wary of any companies with the word Sun in their name, especially when they also come from Shenzhen province.

I think I'll stick with other traders via Amazon (who don't have the word Sun anywhere in their name)!

Small note:  I haven't actually given up on the prospect of a refund via Paypal yet.  They should expect the possibility of a long-lasting dispute to occupy them for a while.  But I offer a limited warranty on that claim.

Amazon intelligence

I buy lots of things through Amazon and have done for several years.  I probably spend thousands each year via that site and in the few cases where there has been a glitch in the product or the delivery they move heaven and earth to correct the problem.

Compared with other internet merchants I find that they balance quality and cost exceptionally well.  Buy from some of the Far-East merchants masquerading as UK companies and you have no idea whether you will get a product that complies with local safety regulations, or that your product with its '3 year warranty' will really have a warranty at all.  More on that topic in the next post, very soon, in a post called Top-battery.co.uk's excellent 3 year warranty.

But Amazon does do one thing that surprises me.  I'm more amused than annoyed but I wonder why they do it.

Now, if I happen to browse for a product (such as a replacement watch battery) and later choose to buy it from somewhere else then I could understand why Amazon might continue to offer other versions of the same or similar products to me.

But if I do actually browse Amazon and place an order for the product, what is the point of continuing to offer me alternatives?  There must be some reason why this is a good algorithm or they wouldn't keep doing it.  But I only need one watch battery for the next 5 years, so why would I buy another one just now?

The benefit of this strategy isn't obvious - not to me at least!

Religious discrimination in Wales

Flint is a county in Wales.  It used to be most significant for having had a small detached section which was an island of Wales in North-West England.

Now it is notorious for another reason.

Apparently, according to the Daily Telegraph, parents will have to produce evidence that their children have been baptised before they can get on a bus to school!  Is this the UK's version of the bible belt?

So how can this type of activity be legal in a country like UK?

I blame the barely elected government for failing to act decently (again)!