Some basic perspective please. Fed up with these type postings which fail to acknowledge the completely disastrous and monopolistic utility provider system before privatisation. Before privatisation water was supplied in effect by the government. Repairs - renewals - were funded out of taxation. Consequently nothing was done. The system was Victorian. Totally broken. Leaks everywhere. Our rivers in a shocking state. No fish in the Thames. Sewage outfalls straight into the sea was the norm. Billions needed to be spent. The point of privatisation is you create a business that can borrow to invest rather than taxation paying for it. New capital. Of course investors want and need a return on their investment in terms of dividends and interest. Nothing wrong with that. Water companies have borrowed a lot - they have invested a lot. Billions. There was so much to be done and it costs so much. By any measure across the board our water / sewage system has massively improved from what it was pre privatisation. However there are still massive problems. Not every company has been run well. Populations have massively increased. We are building on flood plains. Environmental standards have rightly increased. Government require OFWAT to limit price increases. It is a massive challenge. One thing for certain if we go back to the bad old days - a monopolistic public utility - forced by governments to keep their prices down - politics - starved of capital for investment because it relies on tax allocation in the gift of government - politics - things will be much much worse. The only way is to incentivise private capital investment and manage it properly.
I can hardly be bothered to write this because it is so basic in my opinion. However I shall do so in the battle against the nonsense of socialism.
Commonsense point one.
You have to have the money before you can give it away. You have to earn it. The Good Samaritan could only help because he had the funds to do so.
Socialists fail to understand this either because they are inept or because they willfully decide not to. Socialism is focused on redistribution of wealth - on fairness (as they see it) - on equality - taking off the rich to give to the poor. They are NOT focused on creating conditions to generate wealth - they despise the wealthy - they despise business - they despise employers. They see them as little more than cash cows. Even though the new Labour Government and particularly the Chancellor of the Exchequer Reeves said they were going for growth (the right thing to do) what they/she actually did when they first got into office was increases taxes on middle England and businesses - and gave it to the welfare state and public servants. Put another way - they torpedoed the prospect of growth.
Commonsense point two.
If taxation rates are set too high the tax take actually reduces. Socialists just cannot accept this truism and anytime they get in government they choose to ignore it for doctrinaire reasons. Why is it true though?
Firstly while most people will be prepared to pay fair taxes for the sake of "society" it is not their primary motive for working.
People work primarily to support themselves and secure the future of their families - to have a better life.
If people (or businesses) feel their tax burden is too high - unfair - they will seek ways to reduce it. This can come in a number of forms :
Tax avoidance.
Tax evasion including the black market.
Working less. Early retirement.
Stop investing in the future.
Closing businesses
Emigrating/businesses relocating to another country.
High taxes disincentifies working hard.
Working hard is further undermined if the worker sees his hard earned being creamed off by the government taxman to give to people who are not working hard - to fund welfare based lifestyles. Generous welfare benefits deincentifies a hard work ethic.
Another huge factor is high taxation reduces spending power. Businesses struggle. Confidence falls. Sales fall. Recession looms. Unemployment increases. Benefits bills increase.
The end result the tax take falls - certainly in the medium term. Worse still it makes economic growth much less likely. Hard work and business enterprise is the engine of growth.
POLICIES THAT WORK
What works is the opposite of what socialists do. The key is to incentify hard work and reward enterprise. The key is to motivate people to do the right things.
How do you do that ?
Low taxes - allowing the hard workers to benefit from their hard work. It encourages spending. Confidence returns. Trade increases. Businesses do better. Employment increases. The opposite of recessionary pressures.
Low taxes to encourage entrepreneurship and investment in businesses. Why do it otherwise? Why take the risk - take the hassle - if all that happens is high taxes are levied on any profits? (I won't refer to excessive/additional employee rights and red tape at this time but it is another millstone around our businesses). Businesses are being stripped of their profits through high taxes - which leaves them without the funds to reinvest and grow.
Low taxes to encourage businesses to remain in the UK and to locate to the UK.
Cut Welfare benefits. While I 100% want to support the concept of welfare for the people that really need it I also have no doubt the welfare net is set too high and people who could help themselves more are not doing so - are excepting and are entitled to benefits and handouts. This disincentifies them from working - disincentifies them from taking personal responsibility for their own circumstances. It turns people who could be contributors into beneficiaries. Sadly it often generates a victim mentality - I am poor because other people are rich. What is the government doing for me ?
This is a massive drain on society. We cannot afford it. It is unsustainable. We are borrowing billions. The taxation being taken to fund it is crippling the country - dragging us to recession. It is also not good for the soul - for self esteem - for mental health. It might seem like harsh medicine but we must wean people off welfare. We must get people back to work. This will be good for them - good for society - better for growth - taxes will come down - but the tax take will go up. As a result we will be better placed to help those that really need it and have the resources to improve our infrastructure.
This is not the most carefully crafted blog I have ever written - but you will get the gist - sense my frustration. I am convinced it is based on practical reality. Based on commonsense. Based on real world observations.
All days should be good days but some days come together especially well.
Yesterday I crossed on the Yarmouth Lymington ferry with my pushbike to meet Jo at Lymington. Our plan - to get out to Hurst Castle/Lighthouse at the end of Hurst Spit.
As usual I did my early bike ride this morning and spent most of my time reflecting about the day before. As I have just said it was an especially good day so I thought I would try and describe the modest elements.
First of all, I live at the extreme eastern end of the IOW. The Yarmouth ferry runs from the western end - so the first job on a bright, calm but very cold morning was to drive from one end of the Island to the other. Believe it or not despite the fact it is only about 25 miles it is not something I do regularly in the way mainlanders do not drive from Southampton to Inverness regularly - ha ha! The West Wight is rural where much of East Wight is more urbanised. It is an enjoyable drive going through the relatively depopulated - demotorised West Wight.
I park up and within a few minutes I am cycling to the Wightlink Ferry. A tip - Grace's Bakery on the Quay. A meal deal - a decent coffee, a hot pasty and a lovely cake - £5-25. Well I will be cycling and doing a decent walk - ha!
The Yarmouth ferry has more charm - more personality than its big brother on the Ryde route. The boat is older - feels dated in its style and furnishings but it does the job. For some reason even the passengers seem more quirky ! Whenever possible I sit outside. On this morning I was the only one up there because it was bracing - but all the better for that. What was great was from mid Solent I could photo our route for the day - the whole length of the Hurst spit with the Fort and Lighthouse at the end - the Needles Channel - and the Needles. It was such a sparkly sea in the bright sunlight. Gorgeous - a wide expanse of natural environment.
The ferry run into Lymington is also lovely. The windey narrow channel means the ferry has to go slowly through the exposed mud flats and marshes. Sea birds and boats everywhere. There must be millions of pounds worth of boats moored at Lymington. My guess - as in most Marinas - many of the boats do not get the use intended or deserved - ha! Undertaking to self. Make full use of my boat this season !
As usual Jo is a bit late - blames it on the ferry being early - ha ha! Within no time we are heading into Lymington town and through - then skirt the coast to Keyhaven Marshes. It is a truly special area - a twitchers paradise especially at this time of year. There is no rush - it is a totally flat ride - and it is not too long before we emerge at quaint Keyhaven Harbour - a boaters paradise - especially if your draft is not too needy ! I will be back there in the summer I hope.
A bit further on we arrive at a little footbridge that takes us up onto the shingle bank. (we chain out bikes to the fence.) Wow it is bracing - that easterly is still blowing - but it is a beautiful bright sunny clear day as a result. We decide to walk on the western side of the spit rather than the top in order to be in the lee. However the shingle is fine and ankle deep and it is a wade. It is hard going. So a scramble on to the top and maybe a mile walk to the spit end on compacted shingle. With the breeze and cold and maybe the shingle the numbers of people making the walk reduce to less than a handful. I cannot describe it adequately but you are more at less at sea level - you have 360 degree flat panoramic views - seascape and landscape - the Fort and the Lighthouse - the pristine almost tactile shingle bank - sparkling sea east and west as far as you can see - the Isle of Wight closer than the mainland - picturesque little Keyhaven Harbour tucked in behind the spit and the marshes beyond. Beyond that is the New Forest and everything north that is England. A pretty special place. We had our packed lunch sat on a gun emplacement in the lee on the edge of the Hurst Fort and right by the lighthouse. Only a few hours before I was photographing this place from the cross Solent ferry and several miles away. Big smiles !
Eventually we retrace our route and cycle back into Lymington to have a beer. Our fav is The Kings Head on Quay Hill - a proper pub. What to do - the ferry is 4pm or 6pm ? I could just make the 4 if I gulp my pint. So I caught the 6pm - ha!
Just a bit on the Hurst Spit. Why is it there. What is the geology ? Usually spits are formed at estuary mouths where sediment being brought down by the river is checked by the tide and dumped as the flow reduces or is reversed. It builds up to form a bank.
Hurst Spit is a bit different I think. The stones - the shingle are gathered by the strong tide and pushed into the Solent entrance from the west - prevailing south westerlies. However when it gets to the narrower entrance it encounters the out flowing Lymington river which has created the Keythaven Marshes and the strong westerly flowing tides out of the Solent. Same thing. The water speed is checked - the stones are dropped - and the bank is gradually built. This is my understanding. It might not be right - ha!
Here are some mob photos :
Hurst Fort - bigger than you might think.
From the ferry - the IOW - left - Hurst Lighthouse and Fort - middle and the spit running to the right to Keyhaven and Milford on the edge of the New Forest.
The return IOW ferry coming out of Lymington.
Keyhaven Marshes
The shingle bank - the Needles in the distance.
A lovely pint of real ale - not to be rushed xx
To provide some more facts/information I have downloaded this from Wikipedia :
Hurst Spit is a one-mile-long (1.6 km) shingle bank near the village of Keyhaven, at the western end of the Solent, on the south coast of England. The spit shelters an area of saltmarsh and mudflats known as Keyhaven and Pennington marshes. At the end of the spit is Hurst Castle, an artillery fortress originally built on the orders of King Henry VIII, and much enlarged in the 19th century. Hurst Point Lighthouse was built on the end of Hurst Spit in the 1860s.
Geography
Hurst Spit is a hook-shaped shingle spit which extends for 1.4 miles (2.25 km) from the Hampshire shore into the Solent towards the Isle of Wight. The spit forms a barrier which shelters a Site of Special Scientific Interest known as Hurst Castle And Lymington River Estuary. To reach the end of the spit one can either catch the seasonal ferry from Keyhaven, or follow the footpath (part of the Solent Way) along the top of the spit.
The sea route past Hurst Spit can be hazardous to boats because the constriction to the tidal flow caused by the spit creates strong tidal streams, as well as spiky waves mixed with circular areas of flat sea caused by the upwelling water. In addition a sand bar, known as The Trap, sticks out 60 m (200 ft) into the Solent just east of the round tower of Hurst Castle.
Geology
The spit formed from loose flint pebbles which had been eroded from the cliffs further west.[Although originally formed by natural processes, Hurst Spit has been declining in volume, probably since the 1940s when coast protection works in Christchurch Bay first began to interrupt the flow of the shingle towards the spit.In 1989 the spit was so weakened that it was danger of being permanently breached.A stabilisation scheme took place in 1996-7. This scheme rebuilt the shingle bank using dredged shingle, and saw the building of a new rock revetment utilising larvikite rocks shipped from Norway at the western end of the spit and near the castle.The spit has to be replenished from time to time, most notably in the aftermath of the 2013-14 UK winter storms when New Forest District Council had to rebuild and reinforce parts of the spit.The spit no longer has its original natural appearance and looks "more like a railway embankment."
Hurst Castle
Hurst Castle was built between 1541 and 1544 by Henry VIII as part of his network of coastal defences to protect England against French and Spanish invasion. Hurst Castle was established to defend the western entrance of the Solent. During the English Civil War the castle was occupied by parliamentary forces and at the end of 1648 Charles I was held prisoner in the castle.The castle was enlarged in the 1860s, and two large wing batteries were built to house heavy guns.Soldiers were stationed at Hurst Castle as recently as World War II.
Lighthouses
The first lighthouse at Hurst was the Hurst Tower, sited to the south west of Hurst Castle, and lit for the first time on 29 September 1786.An additional and higher light - the High Lighthouse - was constructed in 1812.
These lighthouses were dismantled and replaced by two new lighthouses built in the 1860s.The first was the "Low Light" built into the rear wall of the west wing of the castle, which was superseded by the adjacent iron lighthouse in 1911.The second lighthouse was the "High Light" – the free standing Hurst Point Lighthouse built on the end of Hurst Spit between 1865 and 1867.
The other day I had an E Mail from Easyjet advising their flight sale was coming to an end. On impulse I had a quick look. For no particular reason clicked on Barcelona. Go in 10 days time - £48 return ! Amazing. I booked it on the spot (after all it is cold February !) I was overdue doing something with my bruvs (otherwise known as the Three Tenners - ha!). However youngest brother Mike is completing his Yachtmaster Offshore Commercial qualification - so I called middle brother Rob. He jumped at the chance so I booked him too.
The basic logistics - it costs me about the same money and takes about the same time to get from the Isle of Wight to Gatwick Airport - as it takes to get from Gatwick to Barcelona ! That said the Fast Cat and train into Gatwick is not a bad journey if everything dovetails and runs on time (which of course they do not always do !) This time they did.
So I arrange to meet Rob air side N Terminal. No surprise he suggests we meet in the Red Lion (Wetherspoons) ! Alas not S Fowler & Co prices (and no Ruddles but at least it is Abbot Ale) ! By the way - a great improvement that a last at Gatwick you do not have to remove liquids from hand luggage when going through security. It is easy to knock Easyjet but they got us there on time - the Aerobus is the way to get to the City Centre. Smooth. It no doubt helps it is a Monday in February.
Ok Barcelona. It is the Catalan capital - a global city - ranked the 20th most visited city in the world. It is an international transport hub - the busiest passenger port in Europe. The city has a population of about 1.75 million and in the immediate urban hinterland there are about 6m more souls.
My overall impression is Barcelona is a very civilised place. (it does have a reputation for pickpockets and petty crime but we saw no evidence. Of course we were sort of out of season). The streets and walk ways are wide. The traffic is reasonable and orderly. The shops and restaurants in the centre are up together. There is a bit of hawking but not much for a large city. It is easy to move around. Of course we were there out of season - Barcelona gets very hot and that would change things but of course it has its own well regarded beaches and a swim in the Med would not be too terrible.
Rob and I had a very limited agenda - not least because we had very limited time (I should have booked an extra day at least). We want to relax - we want to catch up - we want to see the major sites - most obviously the Gaudi architecture that features so highly in the guide books.
The solution was to book a guided bike tour. It took about 4 hours - lots of stops and as much information as you could want. It worked so well for us. Barcelona has a brilliant bike lane network. The roads are generally wide anyway as I have said. Barcelona is also pretty much flat - built on a plain.
I have included some mob photos below.
I have also included a Wicki extract about how Barcelona was restyled/rebuilt which helps it inhabitants handle some extraordinary summer temperatures.
There is also an extract about Gaudi who is synonymous with Barcelona. His buildings - most notably the Sagrada Familia are why so many visit.
Rob and I had a real laugh. A full days sightseeing always ends in having a beer. We stumbled on a 2 for 1 offer. 4 pints later we had a usual rambling chat - part memory lane - part talking about our much missed and loved late parents - much about life - and overload on giving each other advice for the future - ha ha! It is amazing 2 close brothers can be so different in many ways but so similar in others. What we all have is a strong sense of family and it is a tremendous thing to feel.
Last reflection - we did not really do Barcelona justice on this whistle stop visit - pretty much glossed over everything - especially Gaudi. However that was not what it was really about. It was about some quality time with Rob at a bargain price - ha!
Transforming the city
In the mid-1850s, Barcelona was struggling with population density as it became an industrial, port city and European capital. The city's density was at 856 people per hectare, more than double that of Paris. Mortality rates were on the rise and any outbreaks of disease would devastate the population. To solve the issue, a civil engineer named Ildefons Cerdà proposed a plan for a new district known as the Eixample. The citizens of Barcelona had begun to demolish the medieval wall surrounding and constricting the city. Cerdà thought it best to transform the land outside the walls into an area characterized by a scientific approach to urbanization. His proposal consisted of a grid of streets to unite the old city and surrounding villages. There would also be wide streets to allow people to breathe clean air, gardens in the centre of each street block, integration of rich and poor giving both groups access to the same services, and smooth-flowing traffic. Urban quality, egalitarianism, hygiene, sunlight, and efficiency were all major keys for Cerdà's vision. Not everything he imagined would be realized within the Eixample district, but the iconic octagonal superblocks with chamfered corners for better visibility are his direct brainchild and remain immensely helpful even 170 years later. The district and its ideals were not appreciated at the time. The city council awarded the design of the extension plan to another architect. The Spanish government was the one to step in and impose Cerdà's plan, laying the groundwork for many more tensions between the Spanish and Catalan administrations. Regardless, some of the upper class citizens of Barcelona were excited by the new plan and began a race to build "the biggest, tallest, most attractive house" in the district. Their interest and money fueled the rich diversity that we now see in the district's architecture. In the end, Cerdà's ideas would have a lasting impact on Barcelona's development, earning it international recognition for its highly efficient approach to urban planning and design.
GAUDI
Antoni Gaudí i CornetCatalan:25 June 1852 – 10 June 1926) was a Spanish architect and designer, known as the greatest exponent of Catalan Modernisme.Gaudí's works have a sui generis style. Most are located in Barcelona, including his main work, the Sagrada Família church.
Gaudí's work was influenced by his passions in life: architecture, nature, and religion.He considered every detail of his creations. His work combined crafts such as ceramics, stained glass, wrought ironworkforging, and carpentry. He introduced new techniques in the treatment of materials, such as trencadís which used waste ceramic pieces.
Under the influence of neo-Gothic art and Oriental techniques, Gaudí became part of the Modernista movement which peaked in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His work transcended mainstream Modernisme, culminating in a style inspired by natural forms. Gaudí rarely drew detailed plans of his works, instead preferring to create them as three-dimensional scale models and moulding the details as he conceived them.
Gaudí's work enjoys global popularity and continuing admiration and study. His masterpiece, the still-incomplete Sagrada Família, is the most-visited monument in Spain.Between 1984 and 2005, seven of his works were declared UNESCOWorld Heritage Sites.
Gaudí's Catholic faith intensified during his life and religious images appear in many of his works. This earned him the nickname "God's Architect". His cause for canonization was opened in the Archdiocese of Barcelona in 2003.
Barcelona's Arc de Triomphe. Our guide made me laugh. He said it was built for people to take photographs!
The Catalan Parliament. Very limited powers now. Our guide - a Catalan - said Catalonia will never ger independence.
Barcelona's bull fighting ring. Our guide says Catalonia is the only place in Spain where bull fighting is banned (no bulls are killed anymore anywhere in Spain). Our guide says the Spanish government removed the right to stage bull fighting to punish the Catalonians for trying to be independent.
At the bottom of The Ramblas approaching the Marina area.
Rob looking very stylish. I must admit (as Rob told me) I was a scruff bag - ha!
Gaudi's Sagrada Familia
I am glad to have seen it. It is a tremendous draw. Still in the course of construction as described above. Not my favorite type of architecture. Not a particular fan of Gaudi's style/concept.
From our hotel balcony Sonda Casa Luc. 5 min walk to the Playa Cataluna and the top of The Ramblas
Mercat de Boqueria off the Ramblas. Fantastic feast for the eyes. Great place to eat. Our guide says anything near the Ramblas is overpriced. Fair enough.
BARCELONA CATHEDRAL (at night because we stayed in the bar a bit too long !)
