Lance Armstrong and the UCI plan

b

Some days ago I blogged about Lance Armstrong and his “apology”, for winning 7 Tours de France while using one of the most sophisticated doping regimes ever seen.

In particular I was incensed to read of his desire for a “Truth and Reconciliation commission”. This is where a commission hears everybody confess their misdeeds, for which they then receive immunity. In South Africa where the criminals of the Apartheid years received immunity, little changed as a result. In the case of cycling, this would save Lance from prosecution, protect his assets and open up a new career in Triathlon and extreme sports.

I was even more riled to read that the International Cycling Union supports this! This is the organisation that accepted two large donations from Armstrong, at about the times he posted peculiar test results.

Such a commission would let everybody off the hook.

I was reading my luxurious “Official Tour de France 1903 -2004” celebration of 100 years of the race, with its forward by Lance Armstrong.

The key year seems to be 1993, I quote;

“A quick look at Armstrong’s career gives a clear picture of this young man from Austin, Texas…Lance returned to Europe in 1992 as one of the favourites for the Barcelona Olympics. He was never in the running, but consoled himself with the fact that he had already signed a contract with Motorola. A week later, he rode in his first professional race, the San Sebastian classic, and came last. Two weeks later he came second in the Championship of Zurich and then went on to Italy where he won a race before beating some of the best Italians in the sprint.

If I had to guess when Lance decided to start doping, it would be here, after being booed and whistled at as he fell off the back of the race at San Sebastian.

Of course, it wasn’t just him, many were at it. Most of them have already been exposed. None of them made the money that he did. None were so brazen.

I think there are probably enough angry US sponsors and a few DA’s who feel even more angry about it all than I do.

Allez! Allez! Vites!

Pour Le Tour.

Pour Le Maillot Jaune.

 

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

 Home:    helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

Contact;  neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

 

 

Justice

                          Mr K in a strange house.

On entering a strange house and before settling down, Mr K looked for the doors leading out of the house and nothing else. On being asked why, he answered with some embarrassment: “It’s a tiresome habit. I believe in justice; so it’s rather important that there should be more than one door out of the place where I’m living”.

 

Taken from “Anecdotes of Mr Keuner”.

Tales from the Calender by Bertholt Brecht.

 

 

helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Doh!

      OOPS!       

J

                  I DID IT AGAIN!

Dumb and Dumberer

I always knew I was stupid, the problem is that I still assume everybody else knows what they are doing. They don’t, necessarily.

So, for the last month I’ve assumed that the problems I’ve had with my laptop were down to me, and my inability to sort them out. When my internet dongle ran out and I bought a new one; I was amazed to find that all my problems were due to a faulty dongle.

New dongle = new laptop.

Then a friend asked me for a link to this blog – it didn’t work. I checked it and found I am a dotcom not a .co.uk. Now I never wanted Blogger to do that – when I opened it, it was a .co.uk. Somewhere along the line I’ve become American and, more importantly so has my Blog’s address.

Which of course means I’ve been giving out the wrong address.

DOH!

It also explains why my Blog entries seem to be timed by Eastern Standard Time. Now that’s interesting too. Thought I was a bit more tired lately.

I’m amazed anybody has ever got to see this Blog.

For that matter, I’m becoming puzzled that anything ever works, anywhere.

 

 Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Fight on sisters!

This is a poignant sight; from saturdays protest against the closure of A and E and maternity at Lewisham Hospital to bailout a bankrupt Trust next door.

These two protesting nurses are wearing the costumes they wore for the opening ceremony of the Olympic games last summer, a big part of which was celebrating the NHS and what it means to us.

Fight on sisters!

Neil Harris

(a don't stop till you drop production)

helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Crutches Two.

Since this all started I’ve had this fantasy/wish; I don’t need my crutches anymore and I take them to a skilled metal worker to have them bent into the shape of something fairly rude, before I hand them back to the Accident and Emergency Department at St. Peter’s Hospital, Chertsey.

I won’t do it; they were lent to me free of charge by the NHS even though it was the Accident and Emergency that gave them to me. However, I’m certainly not giving them back to that A and E.

So it’s a toss up between taking them to a different hospital – like my much loved West Middlesex, or perhaps to the Orthopaedics department at St. Peters, who certainly did look after me.

So, when it hurts again there’s still a chance I may get a pipe bender and do the job myself. Perhaps I should spell out the name of the consultant who couldn’t diagnose a broken ankle when he saw one?

neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

Everybody hates us.

You couldn’t make it up.

Lewisham Hospital is solvent, efficient and well loved by its patients. Their Accident and Emergency unit has just been refurbished at a cost of £12 million.

The next door “Trust” lumbered itself with a massive “Private Finance Initiative” debt, the payments on which are £1 Million PER WEEK or £52 million a year.

PFI is a kind of Hire Purchase agreement where financiers pay for new Hospital buildings, and us taxpayers are lumbered with a 50 year deal costing gazillion times the actual cost of building and running the building, had we paid for it ourselves up front. But we never get to own the building at the end of the deal.

It’s not too bright of us – at the moment the government can borrow money at about 2% interest, while the commercial cost of PFI agreements is about 15% plus annual running costs on top.

And this for a no risk investment by the financiers.

We are mugs.

The result in Lewisham is there is a proposal to shut the well run A and E and Maternity units there and make those patients struggle to the units at the inefficient and bankrupt hospitals miles away.

This would “balance” the books. Not in my book it wouldn’t.

Well, the government was happy to nationalise the bankrupt banks, its time they nationalised the impossibly unfair PFI contracts (with a bit of compensation) to bail out these bankrupt trusts.

Meanwhile some 15,000 angry people marched through Lewisham on Saturday, protesting against these ridiculous closures. Feelings ran so strong that Millwall Football Club had to move the Cup Tie to accommodate the protests and allow locals to attend without missing the match.

The Millwall slogan used to be “Everybody hates us and we don’t care”.

Not any more it isn’t.

 

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

 

Home; helpmesortoutStpeters.blogspot.com

Crutches

I’m fighting a war with my laptop. At the moment it’s a draw.

I thought it was my USB, now I think it’s the damn dongle.

Either way, every so often it has a minor stroke and I lose a load of downloads when it restores itself to an earlier version. That would be no problem, except I don’t have broadband (a long and boring story, more boring even than this one), so I have to go to the long suffering Café Nero, to download a mass of stuff via their broadband.

Yesterday, I did that and it was a really great day. I wasn’t feeling too bad, which shouldn’t be, given what’s happening to me at the moment.

Best of all, I didn’t take my crutches with me at all. It’s a really big deal. Up till now (from August) I’ve been either using them or carrying them with me for as long as possible, until I needed them.

 I just had a walking stick – which isn’t much use for support. It felt pretty exposed, but pretty great too.

I know tomorrow will probably be a bad day again, bring it on.

 Neil Harris

(a don't stop till you drop production)

neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Home; helpmesortoutStpeters.blogspot.com

 

Caring for infants.

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE!

t

          STOP PRESS!

                                                               

This is from the Daily Telegraph of 25/1/13, it’s pretty unbelievable at any hospital but at Stafford – what is going on?

 

 

“A scandal-hit NHS trust has apologised after a four-month-old baby boy was found with a dummy taped to its mouth.

By Steven Swinford

Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust has confirmed that a member of staff has been suspended and that police are investigating the incident. The trust is at the centre of a public inquiry, due to be published in less than a fortnight, after up to 1,200 patients died due to appallingly bad care between 2005 and 2009.

The incident was reported by the hospital to Staffordshire police three weeks ago, but they have not yet made any arrests or interviewed any suspects under caution.

Colin Ovington, director of nursing and midwifery at the trust, said the baby was unharmed. He said he was "proud" of staff for reporting the incident.

He said: "We will continue to encourage staff to do this, and will continue to report incidents, even before they have been fully investigated, despite any negative attention this may create.  

An official inquiry into failings at the hospital, where between 400 and 1,200 patients died needlessly due to a catalogue of failings and appalling standards of care, is due to be published within weeks.

The £11 million review of what went wrong at Stafford Hospital between January 2005 and March 2009 will suggest hospitals that cover up mistakes by doctors and poor treatment of patients should face fines and possible closure, it has been reported.

A separate highly-critical report by the Healthcare Commission in 2009 revealed a catalogue of failings at the trust and said "appalling standards" had put patients at risk.

Between 400 and 1,200 more people died than would have been expected in a three-year period from 2005 to 2008, the commission said.

In February 2010, an independent inquiry into events at the trust found it had "routinely neglected patients".

A recent report, conducted by a team of independent experts on behalf of regulator Monitor, concluded that Mid Staffs is "financially and clinically unsustainable".

It recently emerged that the trust has paid out more than £1 million in compensation to 120 victims of abuse or their families.”

 

What can you say?

I cannot understand how such a thing could be allowed to happen – why no one stopped anyone from doing it in the first place.

No one suspended, no enquiry, three weeks has passed – what is going on there?

Yet again, perhaps this is a trial for adult patient care in the future.

 

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production) 

neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Home: helpmesortoutStpeters.blogspot.com

Wilko Johnson

Took a big hit this morning when I heard on the radio that Wilko Johnson had pancreatic cancer. Wilco, the manic lead guitar and writer for Dr Feelgood has decided to go for a farewell tour rather than take Chemotherapy, and who of us is to say his choice is right or wrong.

The Feelgoods were a great live band, actually that doesn’t do them justice. If you watch the Julian Temple film; “Oil City Confidential”, you will get a bit of an idea of this band, which grew out of the backwater of the Thames Delta known as Canvey Island.

In it you will see Lee Brilleaux’s Mum talking about a gig at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1977, and she describes how it was so exciting that none of Lee’s family could sleep that night. I was there, it was so good that when the kids spilled out into the area of Hammersmith under the elevated section of the main road, there were running fights breaking out everywhere.

There was no reason for it, it was just the buzz of the night. Unforgettable. I would guess it was like that when Bill Hailey was playing at the birth of Rock ‘n Roll.

If there was problem with the Feelgood’s it was that they looked back at a time when punk was looking forward – they just got left behind.

In a time when bands were pretentious poseurs, they played in black and white under bright white lights. The first album came out in mono too.

But the effect of their music was to blast out all the crap of the 1970’s and open the door to something new that changed the world.

But they left behind such memories and music.

The Cancer Crew salutes you, Wilco.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Home; helpmesortoutStpeters.blogspot.com

Be-bop

I’m listening to Dizzy Gillespie.

I don’t know why he has been so forgotten here in England, he shouldn’t have been. It’s a really cheap, bad CD. A collection of old 78’s from the 1940’s. I would never have bought it except his stuff is so hard to get (I know, I know, use the net). Thrown together without a lot of thought, because they are out of copyright and Dizzy has a name they could sell.

And his trumpet hadn’t even got sat on yet.

And yet it sounds great, not so far off how it would have sounded back then; full of youth and fire and the new.

Strange really. He and Charlie Parker pretty much invented Bop and his early bands put together many of the major be-bop artists and some others; there’s a young Milt Jackson in there, whacking the vibraphone like a wild thing, rather than in the quiet way he does with the rather respectable Modern Jazz Quartet. They always walked a tightrope between “hotel-foyer” jazz and great jazz.

I don’t know why Dizzy got forgotten here, he came over a lot in the 1960’s.  Then again, Parker isn’t so popular either. Maybe people are frightened of Bop.

Can’t imagine it happening in America.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

Losing Money

     FROM OUR FILES

15    

   THE HIDDEN TRUTH  

So what are the ways a “Trust” can “make” money?

 

Well here’s one;

Ashford and St. Peter’s NHS Foundation Trust thinks it is pretty well run. Last year it made a surplus of £1 Million.

If you take a look at the Accident and Emergency department, it has 4 consultants. All the guidelines (that’s mine and the College of Emergency Medicine) say that you need at least 10 consultants to run an A and E properly.

The “surplus” would be eaten up if the A and E was properly staffed and that’s only the area where I discovered a problem. There will be other problem areas I haven’t found. That’s where you come in.

Another 6 consultants is the surplus gone, but the A and E wouldn’t be sending people home with broken ankles.

Yet if you look at the “Trusts” next door; Epsom and Slough, they are both “losing” money. I wonder what their A and E’s are like?

 

UGIMME 10 !

 

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Home: helpmesortoutStpeters.blogspot.co.uk

The Big idea.

So, what’s the big idea?

The government aims to make hospitals run like businesses.

Problem: hospitals only have one customer and that’s the government.

Now, “Trusts” are being formed, with a degree of financial independence. How exactly do they “make” money?

They do more operations. Except, the “Trust” next door wants to do the same. 

Soon, G.P’s will be choosing where people go for operations, which is supposed to reward “good” hospitals and penalise “bad”. This is supposed to reward the efficient and penalise the inefficient.

Problem: a Hospital can’t get new work by encouraging A and E work; the rules state that every case above the 2008 level is only paid for at 30% of cost. So, a successful A and E becomes a financial disaster.

So, hospitals will fight to do planned (elective) surgery.

What’s the effect of this “survival of the fittest”, in terms of inter hospital rivalry?

1) If the battle is to win elective surgery from G.P’s, this allows private provider’s to take work from the NHS.

2) If local NHS hospitals are trying to steal work from each other then hospitals will have to close. Just how that will work out in practise will be the subject of posts to come.

 

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Home: helpmesortoutStpeters.blogspot.co.uk

Picking and choosing

 

 

 
            WE REVEAL

 

   WHAT THEY CONCEAL!

The government wants hospitals to be run like businesses, now why is that?

They say it’s because businesses are more efficient than the State at running things (try out Northern Rock, HMV, Royal Bank of Scotland, Woolworths, for a start).

The fact is there are good managers and bad managers. The good ones tend to go for the big salaries, but that doesn’t mean that if you pay a big salary you get a good manager – it doesn’t work like that.

So, how can a public service hospital be run like a business?

Private hospitals don’t exactly flourish in this country, even though they all have charitable status (did you realise that?) which means they pay little or no tax.

They employ very few Doctors or Nurses; they rely on agency staff, part timers and Surgeons using the hospital for their own private work.

Most of the treatment is paid for by insurance companies rather than wealthy individuals. The result is that the hospital is parasitic on the NHS. Most private hospitals are sited very close to NHS hospitals, which makes it easy for staff to turn up to do an extra, private shift.

What don’t private hospitals do? Accident and Emergency and difficult illnesses. They all cost money, in terms of staff and equipment. Insurance companies don’t like that.

What they love are short stay, quickie operations, planned in advance. Just the kind of thing the NHS would love to concentrate on but can’t. Using NHS staff moonlighting, they can do these very efficiently.

So, how could an NHS Hospital be run like a private hospital? It can’t. So the private health providers are circling around like vultures, waiting to pick off profitable parts of the NHS, leaving the difficult and expensive things behind.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

Stafford Hospital

The public enquiry into mistreatment at Mid Staffordshire Hospital NHS Trust has still not been published but is due shortly.

It’s estimated that between 400 to 1200 preventable deaths occurred there due to neglect or mistreatment by staff.

It’s produced an admission by the health Secretary today that; “whilst we don’t believe there is anywhere else that has got the problems that Stafford Hospital had, everyone can sense that there are little bits of Stafford dotted around the system.”

You bet! The problem is that there are going to be cuts coming – even if the overall spend stays the same. Money is being diverted away from treatment and care to private suppliers and wages are being freezed.

In a climate of cutting back, it’s up to staff and patients to make sure that the last thing to be cut back is compassion.

In the following weeks there will be more on Stafford Hospital, before and after the release of this long delayed report, which was only ever written after years of campaigning by bereaved relatives.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com
Home; helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.co.uk

Cabin Fever

 

Cabin fever is setting in. It’s snowing again, the front path is iced up. It’s that moment in “The Gold Rush”, when Charlie Chaplin eats his boots.

I’m getting impatient, I need to be promoting this campaign and I’m only too aware that time is slipping away from me. In fact, I have to assume I’ve got about a month to make things happen.

There are lots of excuses; I’ve got other things to do, my ankle was bad, it was Christmas, I’m ill, I don’t have broadband, it’s snowing.

Truth is, nearly 5 months have passed and the idiot who treated my ankle is still there, earning good money and still messing things up for people.

There aren’t enough staff in the Accident and Emergency unit at St. Peter’s Hospital, Chertsey for patient safety and my complaint has been pushed into the long grass where they hope it will be forgotten.

I am letting them get away with it.

I need to get out and about fighting the hospital.

I am not going away.

T

 

 

 

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

Neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Home: helpmesortoutStpeters.blogspot.co.uk

Oh, what is failure?

I’m a 787 dreamliner,

with a burning battery in the hold.

I’m a Ford Edsel

that can’t be sold.

 

Oh, what can I be?

I’m an 8 track stereo sitting in the bin

Blockbuster, Jessops, HMV

I’m Fukushima a smoulderin'

 

Does the hint of failure help you guess,

Don’t you wonder who I could be?

I’m not exactly a success

I’m St. Peters A and E.

 

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Home; helpmesortoutStpeters.blogspot.co.uk

The Bad Poets Society

JTEE!  HEE!  HEE!

I’m starting “The Bad Poets Society”, (membership one). Slogan; “Perhaps it would be better for everyone if you didn’t seize the day”

Regular readers of this Blog will probably have noticed that in between the hard hitting reports on the NHS, the cutting edge computer graphics, the up to the minute hold on the new technologies and social media, there are occasionally some really bad poems.

In fact most poetry is bad, only a tiny proportion is any good. I’m only adding to the mountain of bad poetry, it’s a vocation, really.

If you are interested check out these entries;

A Christmas Carol.

Take a trip Downtown with a beat poet.

A yarn from the Empire.

A Sweet Sonnet for a Summer’s Eve.

A Tale from the Gold Rush.

A Western tale.

 

I fear there is more to come.

 

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

HOME;  helpmesortoutStpeters.blogspot.co.uk

Snow Blindness

T

OK, since I last Blogged, it’s gone on snowing and reached about 4 to 6 inches. I’m trapped.

The local school has shut for the day and the kids sent home (wheee!). Traffic is moving at about 5 miles an hour. We don’t do snow and ice very well here. In fact, I think I’ve got snow blindness.T

T

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

Lance Armstrong's confession

I’m snowed in.

OK bit of an exaggeration there. There’s a little bit of snow now, a lot more on the way.

Yesterday I did the shopping, then went for a walk in the afternoon. All the while only carrying my crutches.

Truth is I still need them for emergencies. So it may only be a little bit of snow, but I’m snowed in.

On the other hand, the angry river has quietened down. By the time the snow melts, the flood waters should be that bit slower.

Lance Armstrong has made his “confession” and as far as I can see is asking for a “Truth and Reconciliation commission”. This is what happened in South Africa after the Apartheid regime fell; “people confessed” and their crimes were excused. Very convenient. In that situation only one side had done anything wrong – so they all got off.

Right now Lance Armstrong needs to answer to the Federal doping agencies, the sport, the sponsors, his fellow members of the peloton and above all the fans – those are the people who lined the road to watch the races go past.

I don’t think we are in a forgiving sort of mood.

These days, saying sorry comes very easy. So does getting away with it.

 

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

P.A.L.S.

             WE REVEAL

 

   WHAT THEY CONCEAL!

Earlier I was wondering why so few people complain about Hospital treatment, when I speak to so many people who wanted to complain but didn’t do so.

Common reasons;

Q) We love the NHS, and don’t want to hurt it.

A) It won’t. It makes it better.

Q) You have problems with the Hospital but there are lots of other staff who are really good and you don’t want a complaint to reflect on them.

A) It won’t, they won’t mind. They are embarrassed by the things that go on.

Q) You are really frightened about going back for    treatment after making a complaint.

A) It makes no difference. They don’t put two and two together.

You made a complaint to P.A.L.S. but it didn’t get anywhere. Well;

k

   If you don’t complain

       They do it again

What is PALS and why are they no PALS of mine?

All will be revealed in the next few weeks as I expose P.A.L.S. and what it is really about. (That’s the organisation, not the people who work for it).

By the way there is an alternative. Get in touch and blow that whistle – through this site you can do it anonymously.

Either post a comment – I’d like to hear from you even if you tell me to jump in the lake. (Just no racism, sexism etc, lakes are fine)

Or send an e-mail direct.

Privacy guaranteed.

Remember, No grasses here!

This Blogger doesn’t give a F~@#!

 

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Lance Armstrong

I think its tomorrow that Lance Armstrong’s appearance on Oprah is broadcast. It isn’t going to be a helpful show – by which I mean that he’s going to use it to wriggle.

I’ve been a lifelong cycling fan, it’s always been common knowledge that the sport was plagued by doping, until 1998 when the French police took criminal action, there seemed no way of dealing with it.

Here are two facts;

Until recently, when gifted amateurs moved over to semi- professional racing on the continent, their performances often improved dramatically at their new clubs and no one could explain it. Now this could have been due to better training, diet, more races but actually it was doping. My heart goes out to those who lasted one season, then got fired. They went home a failure – they were probably drug free.

Lance Armstrong won the Tour De France 7 times. His closest rivals in those races have all admitted doping as have some of his team mates. So he could beat the dopers and remain drug free? I don’t think so.

The rest we don’t need to hear.

There needs to be a clearout of officials in the sport and the French Police need to be as pro-active as they were in 98.

As for Lance? Not interested.

Neil HHHarris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

City desk

C CITY DESK

This pretty cool graphic is a new weapon in my armoury and as usual you can see that no expense has been spared.

I’m going to be passing a L

over the accounts for the Hospitals, in the months to come, looking for some interesting stuff that I feel is lurking away there.

Of course,if you know where the skeletons are buried, let me know.

Confidentiality guaranteed.

On the quiet,

Hush, hush.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Something to say

I was sitting in my favourite café, on the net. I’d done the boring things I needed to do; updated things, downloaded boring stuff, tried to fix problems that will never get fixed.

Then I ended up wasting time on you-tube, which I shouldn’t have been doing. I was getting nostalgic, checking out live performances from the 70’s – the Jam, the Clash. Trying to work out if I’d been there (well, sometimes I had).

It’s great in a way, a chance to re-live all kinds of things.

Except it isn’t.

What I also remembered was how angry we were then, when there was nothing new happening for youngsters like us, how everything was looking back. Just like now, actually. We changed that.

I can see how the “new” technology is fantastic, things we never had or even dreamed of. But the hardware isn’t really what it’s about, it’s the stuff you put on it.

And that new stuff just isn’t there.

Hardware; Mr Edison inventor of the phonograph (wax cylinders), had to go round America and Europe promoting it. An advertisement wouldn’t do; people wouldn’t understand what it was about.

So, he would book a theatre and then put a string quartet on the stage. After the audience had got used to the music, the curtain would slowly come down. When it came up again, the quartet had gone and in its place was an Edison Phonograph, playing the same piece. Then they took in the orders.

Of course, people weren’t so familiar with technology – there wasn’t much back then. But the point is that a new cylinder on a new machine was a pretty hot item, not like hearing a scratchy old thing now.

People were hungry for cylinders – their problem was they couldn’t afford enough of them. Same in the 1930’s, 50’s, 60’s, 70's with records and then CD’s all the way up till say ten years ago.

When I worked in a record shop in the 1980’s and CD’s first came out they were £25, when I was earning £75 a week. They flew out. People couldn’t get enough. It wasn’t just the technology, it was the music.

Today the problem is that there isn’t anything new that really matters to young people anything that has something to say.  Back catalogue music is just living someone else’s life. Which is the real reason HMV just went into administration.

Which is what Aaron Swartz was about.

 

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Aaron Swartz

Aaron Swartz, died yesterday at 26, it’s likely he killed himself. He was facing up to 30 years jail time, if convicted at trial due to start in the next few weeks. There’s a lot of pressure when they come after you.

His crime? He was consistent in fighting for free access to information on the net and did things to try to realise it.

The actual trial was about downloading academic articles, just as previously he had been involved in trying to make US legal docuements/cases available to all.

This was significant, just like there are scientists trying to patent genomes or bacteria in order to make money, the companies that publish information are trying to privatise it, so that we all have to pay for access.

No one objects to publishers making money when they publish, it’s just not right for this to be a permanent licence to make money.

Two examples;

Lawyers who have access to case law on Lexis-Nexus, which costs big bucks have an advantage over lawyers who don’t. Guess who they represent? Yet those cases were public information once.

Scientists in the first world can access scientific articles, those in the developing world can’t afford the subscriptions. This includes articles from 30 years ago.  Scientific progress needs the free flow of information if we are to keep developing.

There are a surprising number of “hackers”, actually earning a good living from the FBI, Department of Defence or the big corporations.

Aaron Swartz seems to have been one of the good guys and we are all the worse off for having lost him.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com