Ubuntu One Music Store

Ubuntu have launched a DRM free music store as part of their Ubuntu One cloud. I would love this to work. Alas...

Tracks cost 99p and as a quick example the new Gorillaz album is £7.99 (the same price as HMV) . Compare to good old amazon mp3 where the same tracks are 89p each or £5.49 for the lot.

It's not an option really especially since amazon mp3 works so exceptionally well with Linux. Can anyone tell me of any other benefits (apart from cloud synchronisation)?

How a railway franchise should be run

Railway franchisee Grand Central is different. It is not backed by the promise of a taxpayer bailout. If the owners do not make enough money or even if they lose money they cannot pull out of the franchise. This is exactly how a franchise should work.

The big riddle here is how with all this extra risk on board do GC manage to offer lower fares than their rivals? Is this a ploy to establish market share? Or are they genuinely fair fares (sic)? They also offer no advanced booking scheme - one does not have to book a journey months ahead to get a lower fare. It is even possible to buy a ticket on the train without being made to feel like a fare dodger who is causing the aisle to be blocked by a conductor.

It all sounds too good to be true. My last post on DHL was also positive about a privatised business. 2 in one week. All we need now is the rest of the free market to work; the banks, the supermarkets, energy and water franchisees, employers etc.

God bless DHL

I sold something on eBay. It was very large and I was petrified about going down to the Post Office.

Then I decided to go for a private courier. I booked it. They came to the door on the day and efficiently took the parcel away leaving me with proof of postage.

I tracked the item on their website. I knew when it had arrived and departed every distribution centre along the way. I know the exact time, to the second, that it reached my customer.

23 hours door-to-door. And it cost me just £8. Fantastic. I will never, ever use Royal Mail again for any parcel over 2kg.

This is what a privatised market should offer. I had a service I required and based on the details of this I could choose which service provider I wanted by going to https://www.parcel2go.com/

Zilla's BLW update

We've been baby led weaning (BLW) with baby Zak for around 5 weeks now and I wanted to post an update and thank BLW Dad for his encouragement and BLW tips. Zak has really taken to eating solids and time has proven that we were right to take the BLW route. Although he will take the odd bit of weetabix or yoghurt from a spoon he insists on feeding himself and will try to grab the spoon for himself when we do spoon feed him. He loves all kinds of food and is happy to try anything we put in front of him, the only foods he has rejected we think had odd textures and that's why he wouldn't entertain them. He doesn't like babybel and some kinds of meat.

Last weekend we went out for our first family meal at a restaurant, with granny and grandad. Zak sat in a highchair and scoffed whatever we gave him from our plates - pieces of chicken, pizza crust, linguine, courgettes. We thoroughly enjoyed all eating together, at the same time, as a family and I was so proud to see my little guy enjoying his meal just like us. The staff at Ask were excellent and didn't bat an eyelid when Zak chucked pasta all over the floor.

Although it's turned out messier than I imagined and I seem to always be washing up or putting the dishwasher on, I'm more convinced than ever that BLW is the way to go.

Zilla's TV election

The 2010 election seems to have been billed as the TV election, with leaders debates taking place for the first time in British politics and unprecedented coverage across the terrestrial and satellite 24 hour news channels. But who did the best job of covering the election for a TV audience, and who should accompany the outgoing PM into the sunset?

The good:

• Gary o'Donohue - Able to explain the most complex of issues concisely and in an easy to understand manner, o'Donohue deserves a much higher profile. Relegated to breakfast time reporting only, allegedly as a result of Nick Robinson's ego, o'Donohue has nevertheless been a voice of clarity and calm for the BBC.

• Michael Portillo - Once universally derided, Portillo has reinvented himself in the last couple of years into a thoughtful and intelligent political commentator. Unafraid to disagree in the politest possible way, Portillo has been excellent on This Week, as well as the other programmes on various TV networks that he has popped up on.

• The Sky News election team - The Sky News team were fairly effective throughout the election month, managing to get the big stories and seemingly always in the right place at the right time, particularly during 'Bigotgate'.

• David Dimbleby - pretty ubiquitous throughout the election coverage, Dimbleby brought the right tone to proceedings, serious but without taking things too seriously and unafraid to take politicians to task.

The bad:

• Nick Robinson - little better than a state-funded gossip and irritating at the best of times, Robinson has spent the last month jumping up and down like a hyperactive toddler, using 50 words when 10 would have done and has been all over every BBC news bulletin like an unwelcome rash. Despite his high profile Robinson seems unable to provide viewers with any real insight into British politics.
  

• Alistair Stewart - the host of the first leaders debate SHOUTED his way through ITV's election coverage.

• ITV's 'embedded correspondents' - ITV sent a correspondent to follow each party leader around the country to little effect. They reported little of substance or importance throughout the month.

A bizarre result for our Democracy

So we have a hung parliament. A large shift to the Conservatives but not large enough for them to form a government.

Conservative			36.0% ie	+3.9%
Labour			29.3% ie	-6.3%
Liberal Democrat			22.9 ie	+1.0%

The first thing that leaps out is how poor the Liberal Democrats performed. They ran a good campaign. They did very well in the leaders debates and they gained lots of extra exposure. Unfortunately, with extra exposure comes extra scrutiny. Policies such as joining the Euro and an amnesty on illegal immigrants have clearly not gone down well. It is reassuring that people have looked at policy rather than TV persona.

Another reassuring matter is the high turnout. I hope that if a hung parliament cannot be configured and we need a second ballot then the turnout will remain high. If people lose their voice because of boredom then we are all in trouble.

What is truly bizarre about the result is that a Lab/Lib coalition cannot form a government. They will need the support of Plaid Cymru and the SNP for this. In return Plaid have already asked for £0.3 billion extra to their budget. The SNP will also doubtless ask for scottish public sector workers to be partially insulated from the coming cuts. So such a coalition will be a bad result for people in England.

The regional variations are fascinating. In England as things currently stand the Conservatives have 56% of the seats (but only 40% of the vote - that's why we need PR). This means that the people of England have chosen a Conservative government. In NI, Wales and Scotland the Conservatives have only 8 seats out of 119, just 7%. The devolved regions have rejected the Tories as an English party.

This is the true cost of devolution. The people of England have had their choice rejected by regions of Britain that have their own parliament. Budget cuts will now affect the people of England much more severely. Look at the constituency map here. Look how small the devolved regions are. Look how the map is dominated by red and blue. And remember that none of this matters. That orange and green and yellow are deciding the outcome of who loses their jobs and services.

I did not want the Conservatives to win (see earlier posts). I didn't want any of the big three to win. But I didn't want this. For the good of England I'm going to swallow my ideological preferences and say that the Conservatives should be the party to form a government. They got the most votes and the most seats. It won't be so bad - the opposition will be strong enough to keep the Tories in check.

One thing is for certain. Either way Gordon Brown is finished. Only an English Prime Minister will do now for a Lib/Lab pact.

Deficit Reduction Plan for Britain

• Scrap IT programmes (and take the public sector over to Linux - much cheaper than Microshaft).
• Scrap Trident and other hugely expensive MoD procurement programmes.
• Do not sign any more private finance initiative contracts.
• Stop spending money on consultants and use the civil service more.
• Reduce the number of NHS managers significantly and stop NHS privatisation.
• Raise taxes in every area by a small amount.
• Levy the banks to provide a fund to protect us against another collapse.
• Tax all migrant workers heavily to pay for the drain on our infrastructure (legal and otherwise).
• Raise the minimum wage - more tax revenue, companies less likely to hire migrant workers, fewer british citizens on the dole.
• Encourage a baby boom so we have a young workforce to support the ageing population.

Should save/earn us about £200 billion which pays off the deficit without a single public sector job loss.