I recently caught part of the updated documentary on Stephen Hawking and his continual quest to solve the universal puzzle. These days Prof Hawking is down to one facial muscle to communicate. It is both awesome (that he can) and sadly shocking at the same time. But his communication also contains some higher plane mathematics which remains invisible for many of us mortals, particularly around that of black holes.
Through all of this, Prof H seems to have defied all medical science as his emaciated body continues to function. Who says 'will' is not the strongest asset you can have?.........
Of black holes
The concept of black holes, i.e. that time and space has collapsed in on itself has both fascinated and bewildered me in equal measure. The increasing evidence that black holes are where life begins and ends is even more fascinating. Bottom line BLACK HOLES = GOD is an extraordinary equation of possibility.
Of budgets
Talking of black holes this week's budget must rank as one of the non-event (horizon)s of the millennia, as the wheels finally come off the government's chariot.
But I'm not going to talk detail here. No I'm talking about the big pie, cheese, cahuna, hippo, MONSTER that is the £617.8 billion annual spend. (According to my calculations to 'earth' that number if you counted a penny a second it would take you 1,956,494.2 years i.e. almost 2 million years).
Remembering of course that we can't afford this (which is why we keep borrowing and therefore cannot be classed as a rich nation anymore!) it was interesting to see where it all goes.
One thing that stood out was that £84 billion is currently raised through VAT and £94 billion is currently spent on the NHS. I won't look at VAT with the same disdain anymore.
What was still very concerning - after all the past ten years economic miracle (?) is that we are having to spend over £165 billion in social support. (for example we only actually raise £155 billion in personal income tax).
And let's hear it for the private sector that weighs in with a hefty £51 billion contribution in corporate tax - I think a few people out there need to be reminded of this......
But as we forever tinker around the (black hole) edges, looking at the bigger spend picture, the overwhelming message is that something radical is going to have to happen sooner rather than later........
Plastic bags
What do you get if you put a bunkered government, bankrupt nation, environmentalists and a gimmicky tax raising idea together in a room?
Answer: plastic bags
Poor defenceless, ubiquitous plastic bags. What have they done to deserve this? After all we invented them.
So rather than set-up a prize fund for the first company (lets' not forget university also) to come up with the '100% biodegradable bag' which would probably be the most eloquent solution to the problem, we instead pontificate with some rather hair-brained tax penalty scheme that appeals to the populous (well those that give a monkey's anyway!). Brilliant! It's all stick stick stick stick - what happened to the carrot? Central Government still hasn't learnt from all that coaching its been getting!!!
But in terms of the economic reality, as a father, I'm proudly(!) looking forward to the day when I inform the children of how, as a nation, we mortgaged their future several times over, but boy! didn't we give those plastic bags one hell of a beating !!!???
