What the Hell is going on?

The Riley graves at Eyam

Copyright © John Beres 2003-2009

Just looking at the headlines this week you would think that we are heading for a real life enactment of the BBC series "Survivors", or at least some catastrophic medical wipeout of the human race on a par with the Great Plague of 1666. It's flu for goodness sake! Yes, tragically people can die from it, but its hardly the Black Death. Why do the media have to whip these things up to a frenzy and cause mass panic. Yesterday on the BBC site 95% of the public comments to the Swine Flu item were suggesting it was over the top and panicing. If it really is that serious why the hell are we allowing flights into or out of Mexico and why arent we isolating people who have been anywhere near the place. The old Eyam strategy would work just as well as it did in the 17th century. Today I noticed the BBC have removed all its public comments on the subject. Maybe our politicians are just so unbelievable that until something actually happens no one takes them seriously them.

If the government want to panic the population then they are going the right way about it. Perhaps this is just an exercise in mass hysteria. One thing I know if this thing ends up the same way as Bird Flu or SARS then this government have cried "WOLF" too many times.

Every little helps - but to what?

Today Tesco announced its profits for the year £3.13 billion. The UKs biggest ever pre tax profit for any retail company. Tesco now sell: Financial products, Clothing, Petrol, Electronic Good, Food, Banking Products, Telecommunication Products the list goes on and on; it would be easier to list the things they don't sell.

They open stores out of town killing of trade in local shopping centres, by buying in such huge quantities they are able to undercut almost everyone else in food, petrol and other consumables, yet this company is still allowed to expand and make such obscene profits.

There is an old adage though that says "the bigger you are the hard you fall" Watch out Tesco, like the banks before you, I reckon you're in for a huge fall; the sad thing is they will take with them a lot of smaller companies. No company should be allowed to be so dominant. Why do companies always have to get bigger and bigger, there is a finite amount of expansion that can be accomplished and Tesco must surely be nearly there. It seems we just don't learn that not all expansion is good, sometimes it just better to say the same, make a reasonable profit and produce goods and services on an ecological sound basis. The runaway train eventually will hit the buffers.....

A Girl Called Dusty

Had she lived she would have been 70 this week, taken far too young Dusty Springfield had an enormous influence on popular music, it was Dusty that brought soul and motown to Britian. She may no longer be with us but her influence and music will live on.

Happy 70th Dusty!