creating a hard hat zone for engineering work

I'll be trapped indoors on Monday waiting for The Engineer to Fix The Internet.

They will be doing a broadband update and have to do things indoors between 0800 and 1300 (but please allow an additional four hours after 1300, in case the engineer arrives at the end of the allotted time period).

At some time I'll tell the story of the broadband update, which started in about last August. This should be the final iteration, but I won't tempt fate and say too much until it has been completed.

The engineering connection with today's picture is tenuous, except that I may use some of the waiting-in time to collect a few pictures of politicians wearing hard hats. I've decided that there should be some sort of scoring in the run up to the election. Some starter categories:

Predicted:
- Economy : politicians in Hard Hats (5 points)
- Workforce : politicians in High Visibility jackets talking to workers (5 points)
- Education : politicians in classrooms with school children (5 points)
- Health Service : Politicians in a medical setting (5 points)
- Healthcare : Politicians with a patient/patients (5 points)
- Rural : Wellington boots (green 3, black 5)

Dubious:
- Banking and related : Politicians with bankers, in suits and ties in office setting (-3 points)
- Well heeled people : Politicians playing golf, drinking red wine or champagne (white wine not included) (- 3 points)
- Expected : Politicians drinking cocktails, explaining sleaze or expenses problems (-10 points)
- Everyman : Politicians drinking a beer, smoking a cigarette, or eating chips/fast food (-1 point)
- Sporting : Politicians in lycra, with knee pads, at rugby, polo or similar events (-5 points)

All scoring can be cumulative, except when in bad taste (smoking in a hospital for example).

I may need a tumblr site for this...

throwing dice along the wharf

The New Year has more or less resumed its normal rotation this week, with work restarted, traffic jams re-instigated in the usual places, TV schedules back to normal and an early start to the 2015 UK election featuring in every single news broadcast.

Like summer holiday adverts which start on Boxing Day, there's probably been a popular agreement that broadcasters get their spinometers out at the first hint of a new year speech.

The old colour coding won't hack it for the next time around, that's for sure.

Nowadays, there'll probably be talk of big data and deep dive analytics.

It'll be interesting to see how the pundits dance along the coloured wind without dangling from a rope of sand.

Meantime, here's an aerial view of Nathalie Miebach's transformation of some big data.

Weave away, boys, weave away.

time to repaint the H on the helipad

I see there's a few more allegations about political mishaps involving inaccurate expense claim submissions.

I can't help wondering whether we've all got this wrong though.

The process seems to be that some modest claims up to around £32,000 can be made within a year for politicians as part of general upkeep. Kit Kats, bath plugs, a few hotel movies, moat plumbing renewal, the odd extra house mortgage or two and redecoration of the half timbered dwellings on the estate all seem to be within the permissible claims.

So why not extend the process to the rest of us?

We pay into the tax system, so a few gentle claims for day to day running couldn't be too much of a problem. There could be a limit like the one the MPs get. Why, I'd even settle for that same amount as long as it was tax free and available annually.

But please don't misunderstand me. Here at rashbre central we've been economising too.

Take the helipad. We added a tennis court to the top surface so that it could be used at other times for relaxation, and even invite the neighbours around for a game of doubles. But the difference between us and some of the MPs is that we've had to pay for this ourselves, instead of being able to claim it at as necessary expense of doing business. I ask you, how else could we get from the rather distant redesignated primary residence back to place of business if we didn't have this essential facility?