the beast

We are all used to seeing limos on our streets now a days – they used to be the preserve of presidents and royalty, but now every hen do or similar has a limo. But they are normally huge, with really poor environmental credentials – the worst is probably President Obama’s;

Known as ‘the beast’ it carries tons of extra reinforcements like bulletproof glass, bomb-proof chassis, run-flat tyres and personal oxygen supply and is thought to be able to survive a direct hit from an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) and biological weapons. One also assumes that it is not particularly economical or ‘green’!

However there is now an alternative – based on a cute city car (possibly one of the cutest currently built) and with electric power! The car in question?

A Fiat 500! But this one has been custom-built with a few extras;

Enter Castagna Milano, and its LimoPresidential, available to discerning buyers (or anyone with the money) as build-to-order vehicles.

Combining two electric motors capable of reaching a top speed of 100 mph, and a battery pack large enough to carry its occupants in opulent luxury for 160 miles, the all-electric limo is certainly different.

cute?

At nearly twice the length of a standard Fiat 500, the limo boosts the diminutive city car’s proportions from a tiny 3.5 meters in length, to 5.32 meters and an increase in wheelbase by 1.8 meters, to 4.1 meters. The vehicle’s height is also slightly raised to 1.58 meters. The all-electric LimoPresidential loses some of the maneuverability of the original but will still be more agile than President Obama’s armoured Cadillac!

I love the idea of a greener mini limo – I can’t see it catching on but it is a great fun idea! Oh, and the downside? A certain Algerian Dictator was a previous client of the company!

I was under the impression that the likes of Tesco were ‘addressing the problem’ following the bad press - I am sure I saw a press release to that effect somewhere?

Unfortunately it appears this is not the case!

A recent visit to Tesco produced the deal in the photo below. Two options;

Cadbury cream eggs – 3 for £1 or 12 for £5 – the normal expectation is that the larger size purchase must be better value, yes?

Obviously not, but look closer and the individual prices are shown on the deals (helpfully enlarged by me) - a reasonable size on the 3 egg deal but very small (sorry still difficult to read) on the other deal – in fact it is the tiny type under the £3.30 figure!

Why so small? Because it is so much more expensive and dare I say it – they don’t want people to see it!

the two 'deals'

Now most of you will have been there ages ago – you know which is the best deal, but just incase you couldn’t be bothered to work it out;

The best deal is to buy 4 of the 3 packs for £4 – that’s 12 eggs by my reckoning at 33p per egg – not a bad deal actually.

But, the deal that Tesco hope you will go for is to pay £5 for two 6 packs (still 12 eggs) that’s 41.6p per egg!

Shame on you Tesco – not done to catch people out obviously!

The today programme is a very civilised way to wake in the morning and I often find Radio 4 on in the car when I am out and about. It’s easy to forget how long radio has been a part of our lives – this week sees the 70th anniversary of one of the best program’s – Desert Island Discs.

First broadcast on 29 January 1942, the programme was conceived and presented by playwright and novelist Roy Plomley, who each week asked a guest to choose eight songs, a book and luxury item for their imaginary stay on the island.

To celebrate there will be 44 different versions of the radio programme transmitted today across the BBC’s entire UK network. The special editions will feature the public’s favourite tunes and memories.

Over the 70 years the great and the good have imagined life on a secluded island; Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony has been the most popular musical choice, and Je Ne Regrette Rien by Edith Piaf has been the most frequently chosen non-classical tune.

Amongst the 2,881 luxuries chosen to be taken on the island are 183 pianos, five trombones, the Albert Memorial and a cheeseburger machine.

Since it started the programme has only had four presenters;

Roy Plomley (1942-1986)
Michael Parkinson (1986-88)
Sue Lawley (1988-2006)
Kirsty Young (2006-present)

My personal favourite is Kirsty Young, give it a listen you may surprise yourself!

ambulance of the future?

Apparently the East Midlands Ambulance Service is to spend about £800,000 on ambulances – nothing wrong there, we all need ambulances. No it is the specifics that are causing my bile to rise. They are having to buy ones capable of dealing with obese patients.

It’s current fleet of 270 ambulances only includes a few capable of handling patients up to 80 stone! And it is buying 80 of the ‘super size’ vehicles with larger stretchers, ramps, hoists and specialist chairs. The new ambulances, which are currently being built, will be able to take patients weighing up to 50 stone (318kg).

Now I am willing to accept that we are all getting bigger, this is a result of better living standards over the past few decades. And there needs to be provision for transporting ‘larger’ patients – that goes without saying. But 50 stone is the equivalent of my entire family (and a bit)!

But there is a bigger picture here – if obesity is getting to be such a common problem that we need all of our ambulances to be capable of carrying ‘larger’ patients shouldn’t we be using the money to educate people on how to eat healthily so that the problem reduces (and the weight).

An example of shutting the gate after the horse has bolted?

Nottingham tree branch ‘armed’ robber hunted by police

The new weapon of choice....

You have to agree that this headline from the BBC is a classic! I am not sure what it says about Nottingham criminal classes – the national press would have us all believe that Nottingham is the gun crime capital of the UK – which it isn’t – perhaps this supports that claim as there can’t be many illegal firearms around if robbers are resorting to tree branches now!

The story from the BBC website reads as follows;

A man armed with a tree branch who threatened staff at two Nottingham supermarkets is being hunted by police.

The offender first wielded a branch at the Sainsbury’s store in Arnold Lane, Gedling, on 14 January and made off with cash and cigarettes.

The same man is believed to have struck at the Co-operative store in Gedling Road on Wednesday but left empty-handed, Nottinghamshire Police said.

The suspect is described as white, of slim build and in his early 20s.

He was wearing a Nike hooded top, black track suit bottoms with white stripes down the side, black trainers and a scarf covering his face, police said.

No-one was injured in either robbery.

On the basis that no one was hurt I feel comfortable about this blog – sorry if it offends anyone!

these can save you lots.......

The low energy light bulb (or compact fluorescent to be more accurate) has been given pretty rough treatment by the public since it became available a few years ago. Yes, it is fair to say that the early versions were fairly poor in terms of warm up times, so the early poor press was probably deserved. They are however much better now and provide good levels of instant light. They are also one of the cheapest and easiest ways to reduce energy use in the home and make a much bigger impact on energy-saving than most people realise – I highlighted this in an earlier blog.

Unfortunately the press (the Daily Mail in particular) have done such an effective hatchet job on them that they will probably never make the level of contribution that they should in the domestic market. However there is now a ‘young pretender’ on the block – LED lighting. In reality it has been around for some time and we have become used to great little torches and the like using this technology. But now it is beginning to break into the domestic and commercial market as costs start to fall – and its energy usage is equally low.

And now to help move this forward the European Commission has launched a green paper and public consultation on the future of LED-based lighting. Part of the reason behind this is that the European Union completes its phasing out of traditional light bulb sales in September 2012, and in the next few years about eight billion incandescent lamps in European homes, offices and streets will need to be replaced by more energy-efficient lighting solutions (unless Daily Mail readers get their way!).

These include LED and organic LED (or OLED) lighting technologies, also known as solid state lighting (SSL). It is predicted that faster LED deployment will help reduce energy use from lighting by 20 per cent by 2020, but there are market challenges;

• High purchase prices – compared to traditional sources
• Lack of familiarity among potential users – a real ‘catch 22′
• A lack of common standards

The key questions from the consultation include;

What would help to overcome existing barriers and accelerate LED deployment in Europe?
How can it be ensured that LED products on the European market are good quality, safe and meet consumer expectations?
How can co-operation be reinforced between the lighting sector and architects, lighting designers, electrical installers and the construction and building sectors?
How can the EU best support entrepreneurship and competitiveness in the lighting sector?

The consultation runs until 29 February 2012 and can be found  here.

However one of the UK’s largest real estate investment trusts (REIT) British Land have recently been trialling automated meter reading systems in some of their multi tenanted buildings with a view to sharing the findings with the tenants. In tandem with energy-saving initiatives, the REIT has introduced a six monthly energy consumption report for its occupiers. This shows each occupier’s use of energy and compares it to the same period in the previous year together with their performance against others in the same building.

Monitoring and good management are key factors in energy savings and the evidence shows what can be achieved with relatively low levels of capital investment, particularly in additional metering. The key finding has been that active and expert management of the building counts. British Land is in effect funding its own version of the government’s green deal, forward funding green capital investment and recovering the outlay at no additional cost to occupiers through guaranteed savings in energy, which are given by the supplier. This enables the landlord to recoup investment costs through an increased service charge on the back of reduced costs for occupiers.

So by helping tenants see what they are using in energy terms the landlord saves them money, makes them more comfortable and reduces his own costs. While at the same time he makes the building more attractive for potential tenants – simple but highly effective!

a hill top town

My home town is Malmesbury in Wiltshire – described as a hill-top town, it is rather pretty as it is surrounded on three sides by rivers. It has a Norman Abbey (or what is left of it) at its heart and was also the capital of England once (no really!) and has a King buried in the Abbey (Athelstan). It was also the site of the first manned flight (by Elmer the monk).

So, a lot of history and not a huge amount of room for the town to grow, although it has over the last 30 years more than doubled in size. Unfortunately that now makes it of interest to the large supermarket operators and it is now subject to two planning applications – one from Sainsbury’s and one from Waitrose.

Now, I have commented on this blog numerous times before about my view on the negative effect that the supermarket has had on our town centres (and our way of life). Mostly by way they cause the loss of the traditional traders – butchers, bakers etc, and this is my concern in respect of Malmesbury. The town, which has a population of around 5000, still has two bakers, two good butchers and green grocers and delis and similar. It has a real community feel to the High Street and surrounding area, my dread is that the supermarkets will kill this dead.

As usual both supermarket operators are offering ‘the world’ to the town by pushing all the positives to get the planning they desire – link buses to the store etc. My personal hope is that neither application succeeds, but realistically one of the applications will undoubtably be passed, if so I hope it won’t be Sainsbury’s, as their site is too far out of the town. History tells me that they will perhaps also “change the ground rules” once they have the permission!

Waitrose have a site closer to the town centre (within walking distance) and will in my view be a kinder bed fellow for the local businesses if they are forced to have one. Time will tell, but I really hope my home town doesn’t become yet another victim of the supermarket tidal wave! Whatever happens there are interesting times ahead for Malmesbury.

the workshop

One of the things I love about my job is that I get out of the office and meet some really interesting people who often do some amazing things in their businesses. Some while ago I come across a client who does something ‘extraordinary’ in his business, now a coffin maker is not the one you would expect to be coming up with something so ‘off the wall’. But Vic Fearn & Co who I have acted for longer than I care to remember have an amazing side line to their business.

You may have seen it on the BBC news this week – it is one of Nottingham’s more individual exports – crazy coffins! They will literally make you a coffin in any form – ranging from waste skips, aeroplanes, viking long ships – in fact the list is endless!

I have been lucky enough during my time acting for them to see many of the coffins they have made for clients and they really are works of art. They are currently exhibiting some on the South Bank in London at the Royal Festival Hall, you can find the details here.

If you are in London and have a few minutes spare go and have a look – you won’t be disappointed!

100 days achieving.......... nothing!

When I was down in London in the last quarter of 2011 I passed the camp outside St Pauls and if I am honest thought even at that point that they had made their thoughts known so perhaps the demonstration had run its course? There was also the issue of the large number of 9-5 protestors which had rather ‘taken the edge’ off the whole thing as well!

The city of London finally acted in the first part of 2012 to evict the camp – good news if not a bit late – but it appears now that they have moved on into empty office buildings and an unused court building (although I expect the irony of that to be lost on them).

Isn’t it time for the protestors to move on? The point has been made (rather poorly in my view – what ever happened to swampy?). The cost of dealing with this type of occupation is huge at a time when money is tight. Not just for the state but also for landlords and agents who are responsible for these buildings. Ironically the only people to benefit from the occupations will be the professionals that the protestors hate – lawyers, surveyors and the like!

And moving closer to home – was it me or did the Nottingham camp move out over Christmas and then return? Can’t we even demonstrate or occupy something properly in the country anymore?