Open letter to my MP

Dear Mr Vaizey

I have been following the progress of the petition for a referendum on the UKs EU membership, and was extremely pleased to see it has resulted in a parliamentary debate. I am less pleased to see that the Conservative Party are considering use of a three line whip on this debate, something I would consider not only inappropriate, but also damaging to the reputation of both Parliament and the Conservative Party.

I notice from your voting record that you have never voted against the party line, may I strongly urge you to consider doing so on this occasion, or at the very least abstaining from the vote now scheduled for Monday.

There would be many advantages in allowing this call for a referendum to pass:

- Many people in this country have never had an opportunity to have their views on the EU represented by a major parliamentary party. The 1975 referendum on continued membership of the EEC was exactly a year before I was born. I am 35 years old.

- No voter has ever had a direct input into the huge transfer of power away from Westminster, as the previous referendum was over membership of a trading organisation, not a political one.

- The bill comes as a direct result of a call from a huge number of the voting public. To allow a three line whip to hold in this circumstance is a direct snub to the people on whom you rely for your continued position in parliament.

- The Conservative Party is currently in a coalition government simply because it did not garner sufficient votes. It will lose even more voters to UKIP if it blocks this chance for a referendum. UKIP would become redundant overnight in the event of a commitment from the Conservative Party to hold a referendum.

- There is an assumption that the public would vote for a withdrawal from the EU. This is not necessarily the case. If it can be shown before any referendum how our lives are improved by our continued membership, then it stands to reason that we would vote for continued membership; A vote to remain within the EU would close the debate down altogether for a generation and allow the UK to become unequivocally committed to the project.

Your back-bench colleague Mark Pritchard speaking on the Today Program this morning stated that “This is about country first, party second and career last". Please give this matter serious consideration before Monday.

Many Thanks,

Chris Brenchley

The iCloud is going to be a massive pain in the arse.

I have a family. I have an iPad and an iPhone. So does my wife. We own things together. You know, the house, it's contents, the CDs... The iTunes library. And herein lies my first problem with iCloud. All of my wife's future purchases are going to AUTOMATICALLY load themselves onto my devices. I don't want Michael Bublé on my phone thanks. And I'm pretty sure my wife doesn't want the Astronomy podcast on hers. But we will end up filling each other's 16Gb pretty quickly with unwanted presents.
The same goes for Apps. My iPhone and my iPad are very different devices for very different things. Both are used very differently from each other, and from my wife's devices. If I download an app on the phone, I don't want it automatically on my iPad. Waste of time, space, and data.
I also don't want my music purchases on my iPad. It's primarily a visual device, so I may want films on it. But I sure as he'll don't want those films to automatically download onto my phone. It will crucify my 16Gb disc space and my 3G data cap. If I use my phone as a hotspot, I don't want my iPad wasting my limited hotspot data by background synching photos and iBooks purchases over my phone's 3G, it will slow everything down massively. And if I'm abroad and switch on the data roaming for an important incoming email, I don't want to pay for the extra fluff that the phone is going to try and grab from the cloud.

Wandering around with my phone in my pocket, leaking a cloud of location (and other) data as I go is not a good thing as far as I'm concerned.

Splitting what MY phone does and doesn't download from what my wife's does and doesn't download is a pain already, and we are just juggling a single mobile me account and a hotmail account each.

I also really don't understand all the hate for mobile me. It was a little pricey, but I have never had a problem with how it functions. What the iCloud will do with mail, calendar and contacts is no different. Also, if MobileMe no longer exists as of today, can I have my subscription back? (I'm be happy to pay for the 3 months I have used this year but I paid for 12)

Cloud documents is , I grant, probably quite useful- as long as my mac has access.
And the cloud backup that will synch your new phone looks very slick. The fact that a PC is no longer required may just sway me into getting my parents an iPad for Christmas.

I'm looking forward to Lion, it looks great.
And the enhancements coming in iOS5 are excellent (and with that volume button shutter long overdue) but the message from Apple to anyone making a really slick, functional app, like dropbox is - if your idea really makes our product better... We will nick it and call it a software upgrade. Apple have form with this. Look at what happened to the beautiful but ow abandoned "Classics" app and iBooks.

It might just be that I'm doing it wrong, but iCloud looks like it's going to add some unnecessary complexity to my apple family.

- Blogged from my iPad

Get over yourselves

We just watched the incredible documentary about the John Radcliffe's Craniofacial surgery unit on the iPlayer. Episode 3 "Rogue Gene" is available on the BBC iPlayer for another three days.

This particular episode hit very close to home for me. We have become very familiar with the John Radcliffe over the last six months, and this episode concentrates on Apert's syndrome which is caused by a "spelling mistake" on the FGFR2 gene. The mechanism is very similar to that which causes Achondroplasia (which effects the FGFR3 gene). Watching "the science bit" was like replaying our consultation with the genetics department.

But that's not the point.

Today, all of Twitter (in the UK at least) has been falling over itself to show how clever we all are at knowing that a certain footballer shagged around a bit.

A Footballer. Paid millions to kick a ball round a pitch.

The exceptions have been the Lawyers on Twitter wringing their hands, and telling us how we should all respect an out-of-touch Judge's rulings on an unwelcome foreign law which is clearly unenforceable. They have actually been defending this man's right to threaten with prison ANYONE caught telling the truth.

NONE OF THIS MATTERS

There are men in a Hospital in Oxford dismantling and reassembling children's skulls so that their brains can grow properly. These men do not seek celebrity, nor do they seek sexual partners from reality TV shows. So get over yourselves, step away from the nonsense on twitter for an hour and watch them in action. They deserve our utmost respect and admiration.




- Blogged from my iPad

Grimsvotn

This photo by Snæbjörn Guðbjörnsson was lifted via Google images from This Site

It just so happens I have the next few days off, and I appear to have been volunteered by PRGeek as the go-to blog for information on the latest volcanic eruption in Iceland. Seeing as I got a week off work last year while half an Icelandic Mountain was floating above us, this blog is the least I can do.

I'm not entirely sure what's happening at the moment, but it's early days. It appears that Grimsvotn is larger and more powerful than Eyyafyallayokull, and is also under a Glacier. It was the glacial ice falling into the magma that sent the plumes of ash into the sky last year. But the magma is a different consistency or temperature (or something- I haven't looked hard at the geology), so the ash particles are not as fine and not staying suspended in the air for as long as last year. The weather system is also currently very different, with higher winds and more likelihood of rain which will wash the particles out of the air.

The upshot is that the ash cloud this year is likely to effect air traffic much less than last year. I suspect that there is also political pressure on the regulatory body that will prevent all out closure across Europe.

What people are after though is up to date information on what's happening, so to help with that, here are some useful links, and some people and hashtags to follow on twitter.

@eurocontrol

@thisisiceland

@UKAirspace

@Grimsvotn

Twitter hashtags to look for are:
#grimsvotn
#ashcloud
#ashtag

For news from the European Air Traffic Control Centre, Eurocontrol, look Here

And the latest news from the UK Met Office is Here
And for charts giving the shape of the ash cloud look Here and Here

A great blog from @hjortur : Important informaiton: How Will The Grimsvotn Eruption Affect Air Traffic? Here

And another from @eruptionsblog with information about the Composition of the ash.

The latest Update I saw was that the ash plume is at 15-17km height, and the winds are winds N to NW, (ie blowing vaguely towards Scotland) and Keflavik airport is closed. No Airspace closures are expected in Europe today or tomorrow except in Iceland.

I will try to add to the list and update information as the week goes on, but also check the twitter list that I have just set up:
Grimsvoten-Info



- Blogged from my iPad

Telegraph App -alling

The Daily Telegraph App was one of my most used iPad apps until last Thursday. I used to download the highlights of the newspaper as I left the house at 3am before the print version hit the shops, and I could carry the content with me to read at my leisure during the day.

Just before I went to vote on Thursday I spotted a tweet saying that the new version had gone live. I was hoping that it would be an upgrade to the previously excellent app, maybe allowing me to tweet links to the articles. The update blurb promised extra content and interactivity, so I hit the update button. To my dismay, AND WITH NO WARNING the app now demands £1.19 per day for a download, (or a £9.99 monthly subscription). As I understand it, the paid for content is not even ad-free!

The new subscription rules are even hidden on the app store details, unless you click to read "more" where you also discover in a wall of text that you can extend any subscription period by handing over your personal details and the soul of your firstborn*. Cheeky bastards. You have advertised your app as "free" when it is subscription based, hidden the details of the subscription on the app description, and expect me to trust you with my personal details?

Bizarrely, ALL of the content is available for free on the Telegraph website. I can still cache it all to read later using instapaper or similar (but it will be more of a faff at 3am).

I learned about two major news stories on Twitter. Bin Laden's death, and the Japanese Tsunami. Both stories were promulgated worldwide in minutes, and yet here is a newspaper peddling yesterday's news at inflated prices- I just don't understand why anyone would consider paying for old news anymore.

I don't understand why a newspaper would choose to alienate its online readership in this way. Lost readers more than ever represent lost influence and lost relevance to a newspaper. The Telegraph has an old and stuffy demographic, and as a result I would guess a limited future. It needs to be courting its younger (by which I mean under 50) readers, but despite my politics, I am being pushed towards the Grauniad for news on my iPad.

This situation has now been compounded by Apple, who have chosen to promote the Telegraph as App of the Week. It isn't often that a promoted app gets a barrage of angry reviews and the 1-star ratings currently outnumber the 5 stars planted by Telegraph employees by more than 10-1 (so far).

If you were a Telegraph app user before, all is not lost. Delete the app quickly, before you synch with iTunes. The old version of the app will still be there, and it still works at the moment (although it's full of ads for the new version).

If you have already updated the version in iTunes, delete that too, and you should be able to rescue the old Telegraph.ipa file from your recycle bin.

Unfortunately this will mean you have to manually manage your updates and are stuck with an "update available" badge on your app store icon which is intensely annoying.


(*ok, I made the soul thing up)


- Blogged from my iPad

Don't get Suckered in!

There are two films out this weekend, both of which had screenings in Leicester Square earlier this week.
Sucker Punch Has had some pretty damning reviews http://is.gd/cDrlW6 but the promotional budget has been huge with posters and flat-screens pumping out it's (admittedly striking) imagery all over London. It's virtually at saturation point. Now I like Zack Snyder, and I loved 300 but I'm approaching this one with caution. I will probably see it at some point, as I have an unlimited Cineworld pass, but in the wake of the opinions of a consistently accurate film reviewer it's not high on my list of must see films.




If you are planning a cinema trip this weekend, I urge you to see past the pretty posters (and they are pretty) and go and see something else instead. Duncan Jones who can be found on twitter under the name @ManMadeMoon releases his second film Source Code this weekend and it's brilliant. With all the best elements of Quantum Leap, Groundhog Day, and 24, this film is clever, brilliantly paced, drip feeds the back story of Jake Gyllenhaal's confused helicopter pilot, Colter Stevens, masterfully.

You can see the first five minutes of the film
HERE but you really should go and see the whole thing. You won't be disappointed.

Sympathy for the Devil

I'm feeling a little conflicted. I have spent this week doing things I wouldn't normally approve of, but I haven't really had a choice.

First of all I flew as a passenger with a certain Low-Cost carrier (lets call them AirLeary) who I vowed never to travel with. I would never have booked the flight myself, but the reason I was flying in the first place was to operate flights on behalf of the alternative (lets call these guys Green Air)- whose Cabin Crew are on strike (which I will come to) so there was no other way to get there.

The flight was a short 40 minutes, and (whilst I would never choose to fly with AirLeary) try as I might, I can find nothing to complain about. The flight departed on time, the aeroplane was new and clean, the cabin crew smartly turned out and professional, and since the seats had no pockets in the back, I had enough room for my knees.

Actually I think this is one area that they have absolutely right. No seat pockets means no space for an inflight magazine, or safety card so magazines are handed out only to people who ask for one. It keeps the magazines in much better condition, and must keep the aircraft weight down as you don't have to carry so many. The safety card is now stuck to the headrest in front of you and therefore never gets bent or crumpled. It's position means that you are almost forced to give it some attention, and while this is a little intrusive, for just 40 minutes it was tolerable. I would still not fly with them if I had an alternative, but for a short flight, they do job fine.

And so to the strike-busting. I don't know the details of the strike, it has not been well publicised in the UK as we have our own high profile flag carrier with cabin crew problems. From what I gather, though, the dispute centres around extra working extra hours, at more unsociable hours, for less money. This is not a workforce who went to their employer with unreasonable demands and threw their toys out of the pram, these are people who feel they are being treated unreasonably and unfairly, and they have my sympathy. And yet I am in effect crossing their picket line (there was no one actually picketing but you get my point).

So how do I justify this? Well, I work for a charter airline. A significant proportion of our money is made from chartering our aircraft and crew to air operators who, for whatever reason, cannot provide the service themselves. Sometimes it's due to a "Tech" (broken) aeroplane, sometimes, it's a regular arrangement for an independent travel agent, sometimes a football team playing in Europe, sometimes it's down to industrial relations.

I have a certain amount of discomfort knowing that I am playing a part in the deterioration of aircrew terms of employment which have been under constant attack for a long time now. However, the cabin crew are making their point very well. They are causing Green Air disruption and embarrassment, and imposing a financial penalty on their employer by having them pay for charter companies, which is not cheap. Despite this Green Air has a duty to it's passengers not to cancel flights willy nilly, and is making an effort to get the job done even using other people's aircraft. I hope the Green Air passengers acknowledge this and that there is a job for the Crew to return to when the dispute ends.

I wish them all luck. To the airline that needs to keep ticket prices competitive so that they manage to keep their passengers. To the Cabin Crew whose mortgages and living standards depend on fair wages and conditions. I hope you reach a reasonable and amicable conclusion, and also, since it was obvious what I had been doing at your base, thank you for not taking your frustration out on me During my flight home in uniform tonight.

- Blogged by a mercen-air-y