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Paul Bigland

Category Archives: Coronavirus

22nd December picture of the day…

22 Wednesday Dec 2021

Posted by Paul Bigland in Coronavirus, Musings, Photography, Politics, Travel

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Coronavirus, Musings, Photography, Railways, Travel

Here at Bigland Towers we’re in the final wind-down to the festive season although (to be honest) it seems more like a wind-up as there’s so many things to do! Dawn’s ‘demob happy’ as she finished work yesterday but today’s hardly been restful as there was a long list of things for her to do in preparation for us heading South to Surrey for the festive season. Part of that list included her cooking Bakewell Tart and Millionaire’s shortbread to take with us to feed the family so the house has been filled with delicious smells all afternoon. I’ve also been busy finishing various bits of work and stockpiling enough other stuff to keep me occupied and fruitful if we get poor weather or enforced downtime due to Covid whilst we’re away as none of us have any idea how things might change.

As usual with this shambolic Government we haven’t got a clue what to expect them to do next – other than it’ll be too little, too late. Whilst the Welsh and Scottish administrations have announced plans in advance to give everyone certainty and chance to prepare the only announcement from Downing St is – “ummm”… Very helpful.

Despite this, we’re determined to make the most of the time away whilst still staying safe and not taking any unnecessary risks – especially when one considers the number of daily Covid cases has just passed the 100,000 mark for the first time. Unlike the shit-show that governs us I may be eating cheese and drinking wine in rather more isolated (and enjoyable) company.

So, tomorrow the four of us travel South for few days. Sadly, our old moggie, Jet, won’t be going on his holidays with us this time as he’s on a permanent and far-ranging ‘holiday’ beyond the rainbow bridge, but no doubt we’ll have a few fond memories of his first and only venture earlier in the year as a Northerner down South!

Expect a few gaps in blogging over the next few days but not too many as I’ve a series of articles previously published in the print media that I’ll be posting as blogs. Plus, I’m sure there’ll be the odd day out and chance to grab pictures (railway or otherwise) that I’ll have time to turn into a commentary.

In the meantime, I’d like to wish all of my readers (and there’s over 40,000 of you so far this year, reading over 80,000 articles – and you’re spread all over the planet, which is amazing!) a very merry Christmas and a Happy (Gregorian calendar) new Year!

I’ve a favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

2nd December picture of the day…

02 Thursday Dec 2021

Posted by Paul Bigland in Bali, Coronavirus, Indonesia, Musings, Picture of the day, Travel

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Bali, Indonesia, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Travel

I took a day off from blogging yesterday. Mind you – I took a day off from almost everything yesterday! That’s because I came down with the ‘Lurgi’ and felt universally crap so decided to have a ‘Duvet Day’. It’s not that I came down with anything major – just a heavy cold, but as I have a busy few days ahead of me I decided discretion was the better part of valour so tried to sleep it off whilst being supercharged with Dawn’s home-made hot lemon and ginger drink. The aches I can work around. It’s the snots that get me down. Anyone who’s old enough to remember ‘The Young Ones’ on TV and the episode where Neil got such a heavy cold his flatmates bound him up in a bin-liner will know what I mean!

My other reason for taking time off was that today I was booked in for my Covid booster -and there was no way I was going to miss that!

Dawn’s tincture and a day in bed seemed to work as this morning I felt a lot more human so I rose from my bed and ‘commuted’ to the office in the backroom. I even got dressed before-hand! Having spent a few hours catching up on stuff I’d neglected and having recharged my batteries I wandered into Halifax to get my jab. Our local centre for boosters is Boots in the middle of town. As usual, it was very well organised but they weren’t offering drop-in appointments today as they only had enough vaccines for people who’d booked appointments – much to some people’s dismay. To be honest, I had mixed feelings about this. It was sad to see the having to turn people away but also reassuring that people where coming in off the street to get boosted. I was in and out within 30 minutes – with no side effects. The young lady who ‘jabbed’ me did it in such an easy fashion I never felt a thing, but then I was very relaxed about it anyway, so there was no stress. Having been handed a leaflet about the jabs on the way in I asked why it mentioned we’d get two boosters a month apart. Her reaction? “I’m glad you asked that as it shows you’ve bothered to read the leaflet! It’s an old (unrevised one) and now we only do one jab” But that’s me all over. I always read these things. It’s why I always offer the same advice to anyone who buys any new kit of any sort: R.T.F.M. (Read The Fu*cking Manual!). Jabbed, I decided to have a wander around Halifax before heading home. I felt no ill-effects at all. In fact, my 5G signal was so clear I was picking up instructions from ‘Russia Today’ perfectly…

I’m now back at home, having a quiet night in and catching up on some off the stuff I’ve let slip. Dawn’s out with friends but as a ‘Leper’ I’ve been left behind! This enforced period of Purdah is only temporary as next week life will be back in full swing – with the added knowledge that I’m boosted, cold and Covid free…

Meanwhile, here’s today’s picture which is another from the series of old slides that I’ve been scanning. This particular shot was taken in January 1995. Here’s the view from our rented bungalow in Tirtagangga in Bali, Indonesia, looking down onto the village and the Water Palace, where we’d go swimming most days in the pools of the old Royal Palace that you can see in the picture.

The area’s lush, being surrounded by paddy fields and with fantastic views across the island and down to the coast and across to the island of Nusa Penida off to the left of this picture. You can find many more images of Bali and Indonesia in this gallery on my Zenfolio website.

I’ve a favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

Lockdown 1 year on

23 Tuesday Mar 2021

Posted by Paul Bigland in Coronavirus, Down memory lane, Lockdown, Musings, Politics, Railways, Travel

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Coronavirus, Down memory lane, Musings, Railways, Travel

*warning, blog under construction. This is going to take a couple of days to complete and it’ll undergo a couple of incarnations as I revise it to add more thoughts of a tumultuous year. After all, it’s a slice of history…*

When we started this lockdown malarky 12 months ago how many of us would have thought we’d still be at it 12 months later and who would have thought so many people would have died, or that our lives would have changed (possibly permanently) in the many ways they have? No me for a start, but then neither did our incompetent Government. Anyone remember how long it took Johnson to agree to a lockdown in the first place? Many of us could see that it had to happen just by looking at the infection rates and what was going on in the rest of the world. The financial markets had already crashed, which made pretty grim reading for people like me with investments but no salary. The world was starting to turn in on itself. It was an anxious time.

I managed to squeeze a couple of jobs in just before the country shut up shop. These made me realise how unprepared we really were for what was happening. The first job was back in London where hardly anyone but Asian tourists and a few cautious people wore masks whilst folk ate drank and made merry as if nothing much was happening. I travelled on a lot of trains across London that day and outwardly everything looked normal, as this picture of one of the new London Overground trains in Hackney, East London shows.

The next day, on the 12th March I travelled from Halifax to Birmingham for a press visit to the High Speed 2 railway construction site at Curzon St, where HS2 were keen to show us the remains of the London and Birmingham railway steam locomotive roundhouse. I wrote about the day on a rolling blog. The train from Manchester to Birmingham (which was double its normal size) was absolutely heaving with people heading down to the Cheltenham Gold cup horseraces. 10s of 1000s of people from all the UK and elsewhere, converging to mingle during a pandemic when other countries were already in lockdown seemed like madness – which it was. I was actually glad to get home that day.

My final trip out was on the 20th (the day restaurants and pubs were told to close) when I travelled to Leeds and Manchester to get magazine pictures, showing the effect Covid restrictions were already having on the railways as travel began to close down with people staying at home in the face of an announcement to avoid non-essential travel made on the 16th. Three days later, a year ago today, Johnson announced full lockdown and that was that. Despite the fact that as an accredited Journalist I was allowed to travel to cover stories I was more concerned about protecting me and mine, so I heeded to call like everyone else. After all, weren’t we assured that this would only be for a few weeks? Besides, I’d plenty to keep me occupied at home…

That first lockdown felt weird. Planes disappeared from the skies, most cars vanished off the roads and only the trains and buses kept running to get key workers to their jobs. Thankfully we had glorious weather so I could sit outside in the front garden and enjoy the slightly surreal quietness that was only disturbed by cacophonous birdsong as the creatures celebrated the arrival of the nesting season. Once a week we ventured out to Huddersfield to get the shopping for Dawn’s elderly parents which we’d leave on their doorstop before letting them know it was there.

Social activities transferred to the internet and we all learned a new meaning for a old word: Zoom. The Friday quiz that a group of us used to meet up for in our local pub transferred online as it was the only way we got to interact with each other. We’d planned a trip to Berlin in June but that was cancelled along with all the other events. A ‘social calender’ became an anachronism.

But, it wasn’t all bad. Dawn was still working full time (just from home) and wasn’t furloughed. I managed to manage with a bit of help from schemes and whilst the photographic work dried up I had my writing skills to fall bak on, penning several articles for RAIL magazine. I lot of railway memorabilia ended up on eBay, which also helped. Meanwhile, I got stuck into tackling the massive project to scan 30 years of old railway, social issues and travel slides – a mammoth task which is almost coming to an end. We both got into a routine and thanked our lucky stars that we were OK and could come through this.

Stories in the media highlighting the growing death toll made is realise how fortunate we were. Some of the stories were really heartbreaking. Then friends began to contract Covid (and thankfully survive) or die of other causes. That was one of the hardest bits – not being able to meet up and say goodbye to old friends. I did attend one small (socially-distanced) funeral but that was in August when ‘lockdown 1’ rules had begun to be relaxed. When all this come to an end there’s going to be one big wake we get together to toast the memories of and swap stories about the friends who’ve gone…

Over the summer the Covid numbers dropped and the Government relaxed the rules, just as they’d imposed them too late, they relaxed them too early. In the interregnum, I managed to complete a week travelling around the railway network for RAIL magazine. It’s a biannual trip I’ve been writing for them ever since 2004, but 2020 was exceptional because passenger numbers where a shadow of their former selves. Even so, it was a fascinating trip to be able to cover so much of the country at a unique time and see how the rules worked (or in some cases, didn’t work) in England, Scotland and Wales – all of which had their own standards. Sadly, the relaxations weren’t to last. Local lockdowns began to occur again across England, with Liverpool going into the first new lockdown of a city in mid October. It became clear the Government was losing the plot as the ‘plan’ seemed to change depending on which Government minister was being interviewed before Johnson countermanded them.

(to be continued)…

Hooray! – it’s jab day…

11 Thursday Mar 2021

Posted by Paul Bigland in Coronavirus, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire

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Coronavirus, Huddersfield, Musings, West Yorkshire

Well, the first one anyway. I was invited to apply via NHS letter so immediately followed the website link to book my appointments. Oddly, I wasn’t offered anywhere in the Halifax area – only Huddersfield or Bradford. Plumping for Huddersfield I had the choice between the John Smith stadium or Boots the chemist in the centre of town. Choosing Boots as I could walk there seemed like a sensible choice to that’s where I booked.

So, this morning Dawn and I drove in as Dee had arranged to do some work at the Community Rail Network office at the station, which left me with a short walk into town. I decided to make the most of it by combining my visit with a wander around the centre to get some exercise before the jab just in case I was laid low afterwards. To be honest, my perambulations were rather depressing. I’d not been into central Huddersfield for several months so I’d forgotten just how many vacant shops there are. Whilst the Council have clearly got plans for the place they’re facing an uphill struggle to attract businesses. The world’s changed with the triumvirate of online-shopping, Brexit and Covid coming together to create a perfect storm for the traditional high-street. I’ve no idea what sort of businesses will want to take on many of these premises with their expensive overheads, but I wish the Council well in trying. I could see another problem on my travels, I don’t know what Huddersfield’s demographic is nowadays, but I lot of the people I saw out and about were what could best be described as ‘economically inactive’ – a trend I’d noticed before Covid reduced numbers on the ground to a shadow of their former selves…

It gave me something to think about as I headed to the large Boots the Chemist in King St which used to be a busy pedestrian street – only now the pedestrians are mostly missing. The vaccination centre had been set up on Boots’ first floor, where one side had been partitioned off. They were very efficient. You queued to give your details to a chap who had the air of Captain Peacock from the 70s sitcom ‘Are you being served’? He had the same ex-military manner, clipped tones plus a lack of a local twang that made him easy to understand. Once you’d answered all the questions correctly and you go the green light he ushered you behind the screens to a socially-distanced waiting area where single seats had been laid out with precision. I was waiting a matter of minutes before I was escorted to one of the two groups of staff who were administering the injections. I had a young Asian couple. Whilst she double-checked I had no medical conditions he prepared he AstraZeneca vaccine and within minutes it was all over. I was given a vaccine leaflet to read and told to sit in the exit area for five minutes (to double check I wasn’t going to keel over) – and that was that. Done.

Wandering back to the CRN office I picked up my back and left Dawn busy working as I’d decided to get the train back to Halifax. I mean, having your Covid jab must count as an essential journey, surely? Plus, it was my chance to take my first train trip of the year! The station was pretty deserted. It’s hard to believe that (pre Covid) 4.7 million people passed through its doors every year. A Manchester-bound Trans-Pennine service arrived just as I did and I was pleasantly surprised to see how many people detrained, but even so, this was nothing like the numbers we used to see. But then – what’s there to travel for? Everything’s closed!

I grabbed a few record shots for the library whilst I was there before joining the 11.35 Huddersfield – Bradford Interchange shuttle service which was worked by what’s now one of the oldest diesel trains in the fleet – the BR built Class 150s.

These old girls have always been my least favourite of the old BR diesel fleets, but right now I was happy to see one! 150222 waits to work the 11.35 Huddersfield to Bradford Interchange hourly shuttle service.

In a sign of the times only two of us occupied the front car of the two-car train when departed, weaving its way across the viaducts above the town to head to Halifax. By this time my left arm was starting to throb but as I’d been told that having a reaction to the vaccine is a positive sign your immune system’s working I wasn’t worried. Instead I relaxed and enjoyed the sights and sounds of something that used to be so commonplace, but that now had become special – a trip on a train.

All too soon we arrived in Halifax – at a time that coincided with a hailstorm, but I was fully kitted out in waterproofs as I’d taken no chances before leaving home. Knowing that there was a real possibility I’d feel like death warmed-up later I elected to walk home and get my daily step quota in before I did. I really enjoyed it because after being stuck at home for so long there was a new-found novelty to treading old boards as it were…

I may have pushed myself just a little bit too far, because when I did get home I soon felt like death – only sans warmed-up! I’ve not sallied forth since. Instead I’ve spent the day shivering and aching in front of a computer, but I really don’t mind! These side-effects are positive and short-lived, unlike the severest side-effect of catching Covid!

Tomorrow the sun could shine or the wind may blow – it matters not to me – I’ve lots to do at home, so expect my ‘picture of the day’ feature to return then as I’ve a lot of new scans to choose from. Right now, I’m off to bed….

13th November picture of the day…

13 Friday Nov 2020

Posted by Paul Bigland in Coronavirus, Picture of the day, Travel

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Coronovirus, Lockdown, Picture of the day, Travel

Apologies for this features absence over the past few days – although I hope the trip down railway memory lane helped plug a gap for some!

Today’s been our first day release from our self-imposed, 14 day isolation due to contact with someone who tested positive with Covid. On balance, we both suspected the chances of us actually contacting Covid were slight, but that wasn’t really the point. The point was that – if we did – we wanted to make damned sure we weren’t going to be part of the chain that passed it on to others. Far too many people have been taking a cavalier attitude to transmission but we weren’t going to be part of that group.

That meant today was the first day we’d ventured out for 14 days – which is unheard of for either of us. Confinement really isn’t my thing, nor is it Dawn’s. Thankfully, the weather played ball, which made getting out feel even more exciting. Well, when I say ‘exciting’ it’s not like we had a flight to catch or a concert (or even a pub) to go to – it was the simple pleasures of a change of scenery and being able to appreciate those mundane interactions we normally take for granted. I never thought food shopping would seem exciting, but that’s 2020 for you!

When we finally escaped the cottage after a busy morning Dawn drove us over to the Bolster Moor farm shop near Huddersfield to pick up some supplies. To be honest just leaving the house seemed exciting, to get out of the Calder Valley and see a different view than that from the bedroom window felt positively exotic. Yep, Huddersfield and exotic in the same sentence – you can tell we’ve been cooped-up, can’t you?

Good food has become one of the few pleasures we’ve been able to enjoy and the farm shop’s always been a great place to source some of the tasty raw materials and enjoy another guilty pleasure – their pork pies, which are gorgeous.

Driving back we were both struck by the amount of traffic on the roads in the sequel to ‘lockdown’ compared to the original. We crossed over the M62 twice yet the volume of traffic on it appeared normal. Lockdown, what lockdown?

The impression was reinforced when we got back home as traffic through Sowerby Bridge was chokka. The quietest part of our day was a visit to our local Indian supermarket. The right side meant the helpful staff tipped us off about a few bargains, so we came away with enough herbs, spices and slabs of tinned staples like chopped tomatoes, chickpeas and kidney beans that we can probably survive Brexit running on into the Zombie Apocalypse! Admittedly, I may need to place a separate order with my Vintner beforehand…

The pair of us are now back at home for a relaxed evening, enjoying the fact our incarceration’s come to an end and we can get out over the weekend – which brings me on (in a roundabout way) to the picture of the day.

Those people who whinge and whine about having their liberty curtailed by Covid don’t know they’re born. I took todays picture in Stonetown, Zanzibar on the 19th May 2001. This airless chamber where there’s barely enough room to sit upright is a slave chamber. From here, people were shipped around to the globe as commodities, nothing more. The slave trade in Zanzibar was only abolished in 1876 although slavery itself remained legal until 1897. So, next time you want to have a moan about lockdown, or how wearing a mask is infringing on your liberties…

I’ve a favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

1st November picture of the day…

01 Sunday Nov 2020

Posted by Paul Bigland in Coronavirus, Musings, Picture of the day, West Yorkshire

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Coronavirus, Musings, Picture of the day, West Yorkshire

Apologies for my absence this past couple of days but things have not exactly been going to plan. Well, as much as there seems to be any sort of plan at the moment as none of us have a ‘Scooby Do’ what’s going on right now. Until today, when all matters of choice were abruptly taken out of our hands thanks to a text message

This morning Dawn received such message from the manicurist whom she’d visited on Thursday to say that they had just tested positive for Covid 19. Bugger, drat and f**k! Only it was a double bugger as Dawn’s mum had visited the very same manicurist on Friday…

So, this morning the pair of us had a chat. Whilst all the Covid safety protocols were followed and the chances of Dawn (or her mum) contracting Covid appear small, we feel that we’ve no option but to self-isolate. This means we’ve no chance to prepare for Thursday’s national event. On the bright side, we’re reasonably well stocked with most foods and we’ve both got plenty to keep ourselves occupied with, but the fact we’re stuck indoors for the next 11 days isn’t exactly a joy. Hopefully, we won’t end up killing each other as we slowly go stir-crazy! We’ve let close friends know and some have very kindly offered to do any shopping we need in the meantime. Even so, the next week is going to be an anxious time until we know that neither of us have contracted Covid – and neither have Dawn’s parents. It’s not as if any of us can get a test either as you can only get ones on the NHS if you’re displaying symptoms.

With this news in mind, don’t be surprised if my blogging becomes ever more acerbic when it comes to describing the antics of the blond buffoon and his coterie of clowns who are meant to be in ‘control’ of the situation. The only ‘world beating’ that seems to be going on is in the levels of incompetence, which are stratospheric. It’ll be interesting to see if their ‘track and trace’ system picks up said manicurist and contacts us. If it doesn’t, you can see just how ‘world beating’ it really is…

What’s going to chafe over the next 10 days is not being able to venture outside. Even during lockdown we could go for a walk, but now we’re literally going to be confined to barracks, which is a bitch. I’ll miss my daily exercise and as we live in a small cottage where both of us are working from home there’s little chance to do much without one of us disturbing the other.

OK, having shared my joyful news I’m going straight on to the picture of the day, which is of the only view I’m going to be looking at for the foreseeable as this is the one from our bedroom window. Admittedly, as views go, it’s a damn sight better than many, so I really shouldn’t complain! I wouldn’t even mind seeing it like this right now either…

I’ve a favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

20th October picture of the day…

20 Tuesday Oct 2020

Posted by Paul Bigland in Coronavirus, Manchester, Musings, Railways, Travel

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Coronavirus, Manchester, Musings, Railways, Travel

Hmm, what a strange day it’s been. I wanted to escape the office today as all the omens are that I’ll be spending a lot of (involuntary) time stuck at home over the winter months, so I’m making the most of what freedom I have whilst I have it.

Anyone reading the political runes over the past couple of days could see that there was a political dog-fight brewing over Covid, the Government’s tier system and the elected Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham. Today it came to a head. With this on the horizon I decided to take a trip into Manchester to document how this is affecting the railways, but also to stock up on some cooking ingredients that we can’t get locally. If I’m going to be stuck at home then cooking is one of my therapies, so having the raw materials that allow me to recreate South-East Asian dishes means a lot as there’s bugger-all chance of me getting out to that part of the world until 2021 at the earliest.

Manchester city centre and the railway stations that serve it were the quietest I’ve seen them for months. It seems that the message is already getting through to a lot of people who’re already staying away. I headed to Chinatown to buy the herbs and other ingredients I needed but the place was pretty much deserted – which felt very surreal for what’s normally a bustling area of the city.

Having got most of what I wanted I made my way back through Victoria station, which brings me on to a very topical picture of the day…

A solitary passenger checks his phone as he waits for the 15.33 to Newcastle at Manchester Victoria, 90 minutes before the Prime Minister was due to make a televised announcement over what Covid tier Manchester was going to be placed in after a very public spat with the elected Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham.

Personally, my feelings are that right now we’re becoming increasingly ruled by Downing St diktat as the democratic institutions of this country are ignored – be they Parliament or local politicians. Meanwhile the PM’s office has developed a standard tactic of blaming everyone else for Johnson’s failures – be that the EU, Parliament, local Mayors or other devolved institutions. This is only going to get worse as the clock (inexorably) ticks down to January 1st.

Welcome to Britain in 2020…

I’ve a favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

24th July picture of the day…

24 Friday Jul 2020

Posted by Paul Bigland in Coronavirus, Malaysia, Picture of the day, Sowerby Bridge, Travel

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Coronavirus, Malaysia, Picture of the day, Sowerby Bridge, Travel

Another busy day today that’s seen us out shopping on the first official day of ‘wearing a mask in shops’ day. I’m relieved to report that most people seem to have got the message and are abiding by the instruction. We visited the Tesco in Sowerby Bridge and I only observed one person (a man) not wearing one. Our local Tescos had one or two more backsliders, but not many. Why did we have to go to two branches of Tescos I hear you ask? They’re on a couple of miles apart but the stock they carry is very different. No, I’ve no idea why either!

OK, here’s today’s picture of the day. If you’re squeamish, I suggest that you look away now….

I took this picture on the 8th February 2009 in Georgetown on Penang island, Malaysia during the Hindu festival of Thaipusam.

TD12441. Thaipusam. Penang. Malaysia. 8.2.2009.crop

Yes, those are hooks in the mans back. He was pulling a wheeled cart with them! Although it’s a Hindu festival other religions join in and I’ve seen Muslims and the Chinese community carrying out such acts of devotional sacrifice (which are frowned upon back in India, where the festival was banned). It’s quite an event to witness and the atmosphere’s anything but painful – even if sights like this do make you wince the first time you see them!

 

 

I’ve a favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us locked-down freelances need all the help that we can get…

Thank you!

4th July picture of the day…

04 Saturday Jul 2020

Posted by Paul Bigland in Coronavirus, Musings, Picture of the day, Travel

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Coronavirus, Musings, Picture of the day, Travel

I’d hoped to have been able to blog today but we’ve had a busy day out and about picking up supplies for Dee’s parents, which meant a trip out to Huddersfield and also into Sowerby Bridge. This gave us chance to observe ‘Super Saturday’ as some sections of the media are calling today due to the fact so much of lockdown has been rescinded, allowing pubs, restaurants and hairdressers (amongst others) to reopen.

Us? We’re steering well clear of licensed premises of any variety right now – and having seen some of the antics first hand, I believe it’s not a question of ‘if’ there’s going to be a second spike, more a question of just how bad it’s going to prove.

The Wetherspoons in Sowerby Bridge has reopened. Looking at it from the car as we passed it looked like God’s waiting room – in more ways than one…Huddersfield wasn’t too bad. We passed several pubs where a small number of drinkers were making the most of the new found freedom – but in a responsible fashion. Mind you, the weather here in West Yorkshire’s been pretty crap today with drizzle being the main feature. We did see one pub in Waterloo that looked like disaster waiting to happen with groups of blokes swilling lager outside with no concept of social distancing, whilst young families with kids running in and out of the pub sat next to them. Having seen TV footage of even worse scenes in London I really do wonder what the rest of the world thinks of us. Meanwhile, a half-cut Stanley Johnson (yes, the PM’s father) gives an interview to a TV crew in Greece, the country he’s buggered off to on holiday – yet again proving it’s one rule for them and another for everyone else. Is it any wonder ordinary people are ignoring the rules now?

OK, enough of my spleen-venting. Here’s the picture of the day.

In 2002 Lynn and I visited Brazil for business and pleasure. At the time Lynn was working for the international Charity ‘Actionaid’. On reflection, it was one of the happiest times of her life. We decided to tag a holiday onto the trip and I flew out with her as I one of the projects she would be visiting was the infamous favela (shanty town) known as the ‘City of God’ – which was later featured in a famous film. I was going to be helping with a photography project but in the end it was agreed that it would cause too many problems if I went into the favela with a camera as it would mean the local groups would have to compromise themselves with the drug barons who called the shots. I could write a whole blog about our experiences there as it was one of the most threatening places I’ve ever visited, even though we were escorted by favela residents.

After the work trip the two of us headed off up North and visited Recife, then flew to a very special place, the beautiful island of Fernando de Noronha

which is out in the South Atlantic. Brazilian colleagues had recommended it as a ‘must see’ and they weren’t wrong. The island is rich in wildlife, has some stunning beaches and a fascinating history.

T13890. Cachorro and Conceicao beaches. Fernando de Noronha. Brazil. 16.08.2002crop

This view shows Cachorro and Conceicao beaches which are dominated by Morro do Pico which is the tallest part of the island, standing 323 metres above sea level. If you want to see the full selection of pictures from our Brazilian adventure, you can find them here.

 

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If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us locked-down freelances need all the help that we can get…
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Brexit: a ‘game’ of consequences plays out towards the end…

01 Wednesday Jul 2020

Posted by Paul Bigland in Brexit, Coronavirus, Musings, Politics

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Brexit, Coronavirus, Musings, Politics

With the planet in the midst of a global pandemic I’ve pretty much stayed away from blogging about politics, despite being sorely temped to vent my spleen at the populist stupidity on display in countries like the USA, Brazil and of course (to a lesser extent) the UK. I’ve also avoided talking about the looming deadline of Brexit. Well, haven’t most people? Their attentions have been elsewhere. The problem is, whilst everyone’s been looking elsewhere, the clock hasn’t stopped ticking and the Government has made sure of that by its mad insistence that – whatever happens – there will be no extension to the transition period, so on the 1st January 2021 we’re out, deal or no deal.

It’s becoming increasingly likely that ‘no deal’ is exactly what we’ll have…

Of course, the Governments narrative is that will be the fault of an intransigent EU. That narrative will be backed up by the Brexity newspapers like the Mail and the Express, and a lot of people will fall for it, both because they want to – and also because – if Brexit has shown one thing, it’s how ill-informed the majority of the population are about politics in general and the EU in particular.

Here’s a stark warning of what’s about to happen. You won’t find it covered in detail in most of the media – if at all. It makes too uncomfortable reading for some. This is the full text of a speech delivered (over Zoom) to Eurofi, which is a European financial think tank – by Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, yesterday;

“My sincere apologies for not being able to join you in person.

As you may know, we agreed with the UK to intensify our negotiations, starting this week. We do this to give the negotiations every chance of succeeding.
I continue to believe that an agreement is possible.

The EU will work for this.
We will remain calm, pragmatic and determined until the very end.

Because of the new negotiation agenda this week, I have had to reschedule many meetings.
But I wanted to address you this short video message all the same.

These are difficult times.
The coronavirus pandemic has already taken hundreds of thousands of lives around the world.
Global and EU economies have been hit hard.

Amid the uncertain outlook, I understand you would like clarity on the Brexit negotiations and the ongoing process for assessment of equivalences.

So let me tell you briefly where we stand on these two points.

As you know, the key instrument to regulate interactions with the UK financial system will be our equivalence regimes.
These are autonomous, unilateral tools.
And, as such, they are not part of our current negotiations.
I will come back to these in a moment.

Next to this, as part of our negotiations, we are proposing to include, in our future agreement, a chapter on financial services, in line with what we have in other Free Trade Agreements.
Our proposals would give UK operators legal certainty that they would not face discrimination when establishing themselves in the EU.
And the same for EU operators in the UK.

The UK, however, is looking to go much further. I will be blunt: its proposals are unacceptable.

Firstly, they would severely limit the EU’s regulatory and decision-taking autonomy.
For instance:

 The UK is seeking to create a legally enforceable regulatory cooperation framework on financial services in our agreement.
 It is attempting to frame the EU’s process for withdrawing equivalence decisions; trying to turn our unilateral decisions into co-managed ones.
 It wants to limit the scope of the so-called prudential carve-out.

There is no way Member States or the European Parliament would accept this!

Secondly, the UK is trying to keep as many Single Market benefits as it can.
It would like to make it easy to continue to run EU businesses from London, with minimal operations and staff on the continent.
For instance:
 It wants almost free reign for service suppliers to fly in and out for short-term stays (‘Mode 4’).
 It proposes provisions on the performance of back-office functions that could create a significant risk of circumvention of financial services regulation.
 It wants to assimilate British audit firms to European ones to meet ownership and control requirements.
 It wants to ban residence requirements for senior managers and boards of directors, to ensure that all essential functions remain in London.

Let me be clear: The UK chose to no longer be a Member State.
It chose to leave the EU Single Market and stop applying our common ecosystem of rules, supervision and enforcement mechanisms.
In particular, it refuses to recognise any role for the European Court of Justice.

These choices have consequences.
The UK cannot keep the benefits of the Single Market without the obligations.

In the EU’s view, our future cooperation should be voluntary and based on trust.
We would like to set up a voluntary framework for dialogue among regulators and supervisors that would allow for intensive exchanges on regulatory and prudential issues.
We already have well-functioning dialogues of this kind with other major financial services jurisdictions.

As for the equivalence assessment process, which is under the responsibility of Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis and led by experts in DG FISMA:
As you know, the Political Declaration committed us to “best endeavours” to finalise our respective assessments by the end of June.
The European Commission has therefore sent questionnaires to the UK, covering 28 areas where equivalence assessments are possible.

So far, the UK has only answered 4 of these questionnaires.

So we are not there yet.

These assessments are particularly challenging.

Firstly, because they have to be forward-looking, given the UK’s publicly stated intention to diverge from EU rules after 1 January 2021.

Last week, the UK published a paper on its future regulatory framework for financial services.
This is a useful document. We are now analysing it in detail to gain clarity on how UK rules will evolve.  But let us have no illusions: The UK will progressively start diverging from the EU framework. This is even one of the main purposes of Brexit.

Secondly, the size of the UK financial market and the very close links between the EU and UK financial systems mean we need to be extra careful.

We need to capture all potential risks: for financial stability, market integrity, investor and consumer protection, and the level playing field.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I know that many of you would like the level and ease of access to our mutual markets to remain the same.

I know that many hope our equivalence decisions will provide continuity.

Many believe that “responsible politicians” on both side of the Channel should make this happen.

But things have to change. The UK and the EU will be two separate markets, two jurisdictions.

And the EU must ensure that important risks to our financial stability are managed within the framework of our Single Market ecosystem of legislation, supervision and jurisdiction.

Having been Commissioner for financial services, I can reassure you that I know well the EU’s capital markets and the role of the UK in some parts of that market. As does Executive Vice-President Dombrovskis.

However – especially in the context of Europe’s economic recovery – we must look beyond short-term adaptation and fragmentation costs, to our long-term interests:

Building our Capital Markets Union. This means strengthening our independence when it comes to financial market infrastructures;

Further deepening the Banking Union and;

Fostering the international role of the euro.

And so, we will only grant equivalences in those areas where it is clearly in the interest of the EU; of our financial stability; our investors and our consumers.

What does this mean in practice?
It means that you need to get ready for 1 January 2021!

We now know that the transition period will not be extended.  The EU was open to an extension. But the UK refused. It is the UK’s choice.

So, 1 January 2021 will bring big changes.

UK firms will lose the benefit of the financial services passports.

This should not come as a surprise to you. We have been warning about this for the past 3 years.

Furthermore, as you know well, in some areas – such as insurance, commercial bank lending or deposit-taking – EU law does not provide for the possibility to award equivalences that would grant market access to third-country firms.
In these areas, if British firms want to provide services in the EU, they must ask for an authorisation in the EU. Or comply with all the relevant national regimes of those EU Member States where they want to continue to be active.

Nothing in the agreement that we are negotiating will change this!
These are automatic, mechanical consequences of Brexit.

If you are not yet ready for these broad changes that will take place – whatever happens – on 1 January 2021, I can only urge you to speed up preparations and take all necessary precautionary measures!

I know how mobile and dynamic the financial industry is.

I trust in its capacity to adapt to new times and continue to contribute to developing the Capital Markets Union and Single Market for financial services.

We cannot do this with regulation alone.

You all have a crucial role to play. As of now.

Let us look to the future not with fear of the unknown but with confidence in our well-regulated and supervised markets.

Thank you to all of you for your attention. And thank you, David, Didier for your invitation.

I hope to see you in person next time! ”

To recap one very important point “So, 1 January 2021 will bring big changes.
UK firms will lose the benefit of the financial services passports”.

This is going to be devastating to the UKs financial sector and it didn’t need to happen at all. Instead, it’s about to happen in the midst of a global pandemic, when firms are struggling to cope with the consequences. It is utterly, utterly mad, but it’s solely the British Governments decision and no-one else’s.

Covid 19 has caused the worst contraction to the UK economy in 41 years.

Every day we get news of more companies shutting. Today TM Lewin announced its closing all its UK stores whilst sandwich seller Upper Crust has warned 5,000 jobs could go. Yesterday Airbus announced 1,700 UK jobs will be going. The list is growing every day and Brexit is only going to make that worse. We’re the only economy that’s doing this to itself, no-one else is that stupid.

Still, all these newly unemployed folks will be able to get work abroad, won’t they? Oh, wait, the Home Secretary and Tory backbenchers are taking great delight in announcing that Freedom of Movement is ending on January 1st.

patel

If you ignore the obvious oxymoron in the first sentence, you’ll notice a glaring omission. Freedom of movement is a two way street. The Government is boasting of ending OUR freedom of movement too – and it’s worse. Much worse. The EU 27 know they’ve had their freedom of movement reduced by just one country. We’ve had ours reduced in the opposite direction. We’ve lost it to 26 nations, not 1. Yet many Britons still seem blissfully unaware of what’s about to happen – and don’t even start me on the utter stupidity of retired folk owning homes in countries like Spain and Portugal who voted Leave….

Of course, due to the Government making a mess of handling the pandemic, many thousands of Britons have already had their freedom of movement removed. Permanently.

Despite the richness of the English vernacular there simply aren’t enough expletives to describe the utter shit-show this country has become over these past few years.

Meanwhile, the political game of “look over there” is played out in Government as Johnson announces his economic ‘new deal’, comparing it to FDR’s new deal in America in the 1930s. In this deception he’s relying on an uncritical media and an ignorant public. Not only is the £5bn he’s announced peanuts in comparison, it’s not even new money. It’s yet more re-announcements of earlier spending commitments. The BBCs ‘Fact Check’ blew the whistle on this here. It makes depressing reading as the scale of Johnson’s con is laid bare. For example…

fact check

But the party faithful will lap it up, and it will work as yet another dead cat as the arguments over it detract from the unfolding coronavirus scandal and Brexitshambles until its too late.

How I wish I could get the hell away out of this mess and watch it unfold from somewhere where it had no impact on me. Sadly, we really are caught between a rock and a hard place at the moment. But only one of them is truly of our own making, not that those responsible seem in the slightest bit willing to take responsibility for it. This is like being trapped in a slow motion car crash. You know the result will be awful for all those involved – including yourself – but you are utterly powerless to stop it…

 

 

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