More dangerous than horseriding...

You may have seen things in the news recently about this story.

To summarise, the government finances an independent scientific study into the dangers of Ecstasy. The results that were returned suggest that Ecstasy is not especially dangerous and should be reclassified as class B (down from class A). However the government ignores this recommendation and Ecstasy remains a class A substance. I find this incredibly irritating...

I am not an expert on drugs and this post is only superficially related to Ecstasy. Beyond the usual legal things such as alcohol, nicotine and caffeine I have only really tried marijuana, although I must admit that I do find that particular experience fairly enjoyable. I have friends who experiment or regularly take much stronger drugs, but it has never really appealed.

I digress, as I said before this post is not really about drug use or it's effects. My grievance is this...why is the government spending public money upon scientific enquiries that they evidently have no genuine interest in. If you commission a report where there are two possible outcomes (A and B), but regardless of the results you intend to follow path A anyway, well you might as well skip that step in the middle where you actually examine the evidence.

As for comments regarding the relative dangers of horse riding and ecstasy, well if the figures support the statement then fair enough. People ride horses to enjoy themselves, to feel good. It's a lifestyle choice. Mountaineering isn't illegal, but a very high percentage of people die doing it. I recall reading that in America more children are killed in accidents with swimming pools than accidents with guns.

I guess what I am trying to say is that there are dangers in many things, you could argue for a long time regarding that. What you cannot debate is that if you commission a report then completely ignore it you start to look a little bit of an idiot.

Till next week, may you trust the evidence
D

Dave on...The Credit Crunch

I work with accountants, but I'm not exactly an economic wizard myself, but I'm still pretty interested in the current situation. So I thought I would share my limited knowledge with you.

The first thing is this, the credit crunch is not entirely a bad thing. Sure some people are losing their jobs. And I'll admit that if you took out a mortgage in the last five years you're probably F***ed, but there is a bright side...let's look at which business' are in trouble
Woolworths only sells things that you could get in Tesco for cheaper...so no loss there
MFI, Land of Leather...if DFS gets into trouble we'll really be cooking
Chrysler??? General Motors, they're only killing the planet with gas guzzlers that no one wants anyway

So all things considered we're not losing anything worth having and with a little bit of luck we might manage to get rid of a few faceless coffee houses and mobile phone shops as well

The main question though is this, why are these companies in trouble??
The answer is simple, they all make shit that we don't want.

Land of Leather aren't selling any sofas because most people are still paying for the ones they bought back in 2006 with a pay nothing for two years deal. Something that has always confused me is this, who actually buys a couch after watching a tv advert? Or for that matter, who buys a tv? I've always assumed that anyone watching an ad on tv, probably already has a tv, which rather takes away the main selling point.
The same is (you would assume) true for reasonably priced, leather, three piece suites now available at up to 50% off. If you are watching tv (I would assume) that you probably already have something to sit on.

Most advertising works best with the sort of stuff you might buy on the spur of the moment, as I'm wandering through Tesco or Asda (but not woolworths) I might pick up a particular bar of chocolate. Domino's adverts have made me fancy a pizza. Grabbing a brand new car with my morning paper? Less so...

More thoughts next week as the pound slides further towards parity with the euro...looks like everyone is holidaying in Scotland next year...bad times
Dave