The Graybrigg accident, like all others on the railways, received a huge amount of press coverage. It seems every time something happens on the railway system it is the duty of the media to blow it out of all proportions and try to scare every person in the world away from using the railways.
Some more realistic points really need emphasising. The first one is a simple one, which should really be emphasised every time an accident happens, as its the reason they make front page news. The railways are the safest form of land transport by far. The best figures for measuring this are casulaties per mile travelled. Or to put it another way how many miles would you have to travel on average before having an accident. If we compare the roads to the railways the railways are literally hundreds of times safer (I don't have figures to hand and haven't seen any since 2003, since when I expect railways have improved). Railway accidents make front page news because they are so rare. A couple of major incidents a year is the most you are likely to see. How many accidents do you see on the roads each day? There are hundreds, many resulting in deaths. There are not daily deaths on the railways.
Secondly, the use of the phrase 'accident' is important as far as I am concerned. If you read a red top newspaper you probably saw 2 words used in relation to the incident; disaster and miracle. It was in truth neither and this is just sensationalist reporting. The word disaster conjours images of hundreds of deaths, which there were not. There was one (RIP), an 80 year old lady, which logic suggests could have been caused by anything like a heart attack. Now it is a horrible thing that somebody died, but when you look at the nature of the accident and what the train went through it is anything but a disaster compared to what could have happened.
So was it a miracle? Well, no. Much more it was a credit to the good design of the rolling stock. One of the newest pieces of rolling stock on the network stood up very well to hitting catenary masts and rolling down an embankment, probably with the front 2 carriages colliding with each other. It has not busted, it has not crumpled, it is very intact. And that is a testament to the good design that was a part of it and its good build quality.
If anything this is, in a rather twisted way, a positive to the railways in the safety debate. As horrible as it is that the crash happened, we know they happen very rarely and now we know that they stand up to an impact like that brilliantly, so we're all far safer on the railways.
Now we just have to get fares lowered!
Tuesday, 27 February 2007
Wednesday, 14 February 2007
14/02/07 - loveless day to be British
Its every card company's favourite day. That seems to have said all that needs to be said about Valentine's day.
As a huge Lost fan I have to mention that I thoroughly enjoyed its return and my faith in it is now restored, 'Not In Portland' was a brilliant episode. I watched it at 1am in the dark and Room 23 really freaked me out! My main (irrational?) fear is of torture, I don't particularly feel safe in our society anymore. I would crack straight away to torture even though it probably wouldn't help me, I'm not physically or mentally strong enough. The chances of me ever having information of much use is of course slim.
In reality the period since World War 2 has been one of relative peace, yes we have had various 'wars', Vietnam and the Cold War being the predominant ones, but in reality not all that much has really happened and most people have felt relatively safe. But now things are changing. The Gulf War has reignited ever since 9/11 (or 11/9 as we would prefer to call it) and nuclear weapons are a key issue once again. Part of the problem is that while America feels the need to defend itself it tends to be fairly myopic as it goes about it. America sees one threat and tends to forget about others, or at least not do anything meaningful about them. It has been noticable how it has hopped between Iran and North Korea as each appears to become more of a threat than the other. Whilst this is happening Russia has been stocking up on weapons again, led by Vladimir Putin who feels that Russia once again deserves to be a major power. If it truly decided to it would be a better stance than it once was too. In the 1930s Britain feared Communism, now Britain can fear Russia for stockpiling weapons and a monopolistic position in the market on European energy production.
I would be lying if I said I felt that I was going to get kidnapped, tortured and beheaded when I wake up later this morning, the truth is that it probably will not happen, although a possibility is there. However, I do feel that the possibility is becoming more real and that there is a fair chance of circumstances worsening before they improve. In the case of nuclear weapons another Cold War scenario would probably actually be for the best, then each country was too afraid to use its expertise for fear of retaliation, and it would not be a terrible thing if we end up in the same situation.
According to a report compiled by Unicef Britain is the worst of 21 developed countries to live in for a child. Brilliant news! As a child brought up in Britain and feeling that they had a very good upbringing I'm wondering how wonderful it would have been in the 20 other countries (apparently Denmark is the best, mass exodus anyone?)
Unfortunately, like most other reports this one should be taken with a meal full of salt. The categories and how they are measured give a fairly good idea of how it is not the most enlightening report in reality. There were 6 categories, these were:
- material wellbeing;
- health and safety;
- educational wellbeing,
- family and peer relationships,
- behaviours and risks;
- the young people's own perceptions of their wellbeing.
Now, the first category is the best example of where this report falls down. Material wellbeing was looked at as the proportion of children in relative poverty, which in the UK is 15%. This is a horrible sounding figure, 3 in 20 children in poverty scream the headlines, but in reality relative poverty is a lot more complicated than that. It has nothing to do with income or your actual welfare, just how you fare compared to other people. Now, if you live in a country with very high levels of welfare, you could be in relative poverty and still be doing better than the average person in your neighbouring country. To be honest I doubt the children of many African countries would be too perturbed by the lives of some of our children living in relative poverty.
If we take family and peer relationships then we find that this was measured based on what children reported. Now, once again we see the problem with this report is that it is very subjective, you can't ask children in 21 different countries how their relationships with their families are because it is simply an opinion, and as soon as opinions come into reports like this they lose a lot of their usefulness, as important as they are. Britain is fairly well known for being a country that likes to complain, so how can we say that the same relationship that is complained about by British kids is not considered brilliant by Swedish children? Another part of this section gave the figure "Not much more than 40% of the UK's 11, 13 and 15-year-olds find their peers 'kind and helpful'". Now, how exactly are 11 year old peers really expected to be kind and helpful? When you were 13, would you really have described your friends as 'kind and helpful'? I doubt it, I know I wouldn't have, even though in reality they actually were!
Perceptions of wellbeing is the most obviously flawed category. Not only does it lower a survey to the level of 'what do you think of your life?' but it also misses a point. This is the future generation, who in 10 years time will be able to truly make a difference. Now if they think that things should be better then they might put some effort into improving it, whereas if they thought everything was great they would have no motivation to bring about a change. Considering everything brilliant is not necessarily the great thing that it is thought to be by this survey.
Having said all this there are serious points to be raised. Britain is one of the worst countries for subjecting children to smoking, drugs and unsafe sex. How to deal with this is a whole different argument, but needless to say it is not a positive thing and it worries me deeply.
As a huge Lost fan I have to mention that I thoroughly enjoyed its return and my faith in it is now restored, 'Not In Portland' was a brilliant episode. I watched it at 1am in the dark and Room 23 really freaked me out! My main (irrational?) fear is of torture, I don't particularly feel safe in our society anymore. I would crack straight away to torture even though it probably wouldn't help me, I'm not physically or mentally strong enough. The chances of me ever having information of much use is of course slim.
In reality the period since World War 2 has been one of relative peace, yes we have had various 'wars', Vietnam and the Cold War being the predominant ones, but in reality not all that much has really happened and most people have felt relatively safe. But now things are changing. The Gulf War has reignited ever since 9/11 (or 11/9 as we would prefer to call it) and nuclear weapons are a key issue once again. Part of the problem is that while America feels the need to defend itself it tends to be fairly myopic as it goes about it. America sees one threat and tends to forget about others, or at least not do anything meaningful about them. It has been noticable how it has hopped between Iran and North Korea as each appears to become more of a threat than the other. Whilst this is happening Russia has been stocking up on weapons again, led by Vladimir Putin who feels that Russia once again deserves to be a major power. If it truly decided to it would be a better stance than it once was too. In the 1930s Britain feared Communism, now Britain can fear Russia for stockpiling weapons and a monopolistic position in the market on European energy production.
I would be lying if I said I felt that I was going to get kidnapped, tortured and beheaded when I wake up later this morning, the truth is that it probably will not happen, although a possibility is there. However, I do feel that the possibility is becoming more real and that there is a fair chance of circumstances worsening before they improve. In the case of nuclear weapons another Cold War scenario would probably actually be for the best, then each country was too afraid to use its expertise for fear of retaliation, and it would not be a terrible thing if we end up in the same situation.
According to a report compiled by Unicef Britain is the worst of 21 developed countries to live in for a child. Brilliant news! As a child brought up in Britain and feeling that they had a very good upbringing I'm wondering how wonderful it would have been in the 20 other countries (apparently Denmark is the best, mass exodus anyone?)
Unfortunately, like most other reports this one should be taken with a meal full of salt. The categories and how they are measured give a fairly good idea of how it is not the most enlightening report in reality. There were 6 categories, these were:
- material wellbeing;
- health and safety;
- educational wellbeing,
- family and peer relationships,
- behaviours and risks;
- the young people's own perceptions of their wellbeing.
Now, the first category is the best example of where this report falls down. Material wellbeing was looked at as the proportion of children in relative poverty, which in the UK is 15%. This is a horrible sounding figure, 3 in 20 children in poverty scream the headlines, but in reality relative poverty is a lot more complicated than that. It has nothing to do with income or your actual welfare, just how you fare compared to other people. Now, if you live in a country with very high levels of welfare, you could be in relative poverty and still be doing better than the average person in your neighbouring country. To be honest I doubt the children of many African countries would be too perturbed by the lives of some of our children living in relative poverty.
If we take family and peer relationships then we find that this was measured based on what children reported. Now, once again we see the problem with this report is that it is very subjective, you can't ask children in 21 different countries how their relationships with their families are because it is simply an opinion, and as soon as opinions come into reports like this they lose a lot of their usefulness, as important as they are. Britain is fairly well known for being a country that likes to complain, so how can we say that the same relationship that is complained about by British kids is not considered brilliant by Swedish children? Another part of this section gave the figure "Not much more than 40% of the UK's 11, 13 and 15-year-olds find their peers 'kind and helpful'". Now, how exactly are 11 year old peers really expected to be kind and helpful? When you were 13, would you really have described your friends as 'kind and helpful'? I doubt it, I know I wouldn't have, even though in reality they actually were!
Perceptions of wellbeing is the most obviously flawed category. Not only does it lower a survey to the level of 'what do you think of your life?' but it also misses a point. This is the future generation, who in 10 years time will be able to truly make a difference. Now if they think that things should be better then they might put some effort into improving it, whereas if they thought everything was great they would have no motivation to bring about a change. Considering everything brilliant is not necessarily the great thing that it is thought to be by this survey.
Having said all this there are serious points to be raised. Britain is one of the worst countries for subjecting children to smoking, drugs and unsafe sex. How to deal with this is a whole different argument, but needless to say it is not a positive thing and it worries me deeply.
Sunday, 11 February 2007
Feb 11 2007 - the big one nine
It doesn't have quite the same ring to it as something like the big 4 0.
A large part of this blog will hopefully see me mature and grow into something worth being. So it is somehow fitting that this post should be fairly clearly the least mature one of them all. Birthdays are strange for they are supposed to be the one day you know that things will be good. Yet, for whatever reason they are never the best day of the year or anything, that tends to be a lot more unexpected.
Today was surreal in many ways. It was my first birthday away from home. This was made easier to deal with by the fact I've spent very few with my dad so it was a bit more gradual than just suddenly not seeing family on my birthday, but still strange. It was also the first birthday where I didn't get a single present, although I did save a (non-birthday) present from Adam to open on my birthday, but technically I received nothing. Now opening presents has lost its appeal really, you outgrown that at about 16, but still, its the knowing that they are there, which still retains some excitement, so having nothing was just odd.
And for the childish bit. People remembering my birthday. I never celebrated birthdays because all my friends forgot. But now facebook exists and I'm at university, and everybody here did remember. However, only one person from home remembered, and that was only because I told them a couple of days ago. This will be the year that I leave Colchester behind, there is not really anything left for me there anymore, although I will still live with my parents in holiday times the emotional attachment is gone. It is sort of difficult to do, I lived there for 15 years, many of those years were rough but I have some good memories and I achieved a lot there. However between Bristol and London I seem to have a lot more going for me, however difficult I have found it socialising and networking in Bristol.
With no presents I had to celebrate my birthday some way. Funnily enough I only know one way to do it, and for me it isn't a party as such. Last year I went to see Coheed and Cambria for my birthday and this year it was the Bouncing Souls. They were quite amazing in fairness to them, the stage invasion was awesome fun. The Draft, who supported, were very good as well, yet another Welsh rock band, obviously something in the water in those Valleys.
We did have a gathering of friends where I was treated to a rendition of happy birthday both in person and over the phone, impressive in many respects, one had to enjoy it. My room is now full of balloons, of varying colours, shapes and sizes.
However, today was not entirely dominated by birthday proceedings. We also began the search for a house, already proving slightly fruitless and depressing. We enquired about viewing a property that sounded quite nice, but alas a group of girls had already put an interest in for it so that is not looking too hopeful, there will be more to come though and we will end up living somewhere!
No matter how much I try to deny it I do now consider myself an adult, which brings strange things with it, including, apparently, disdain for a large proportion of my friends. Many of my friends have always been younger than me, before this was not a problem, especially as I lose most of my confidence with a girl if I feel they're older than me. But now I feel very different and the way they are growing up is at the opposite end of the spectrum from how I did. A friend gleefully told me yesterday that they had stolen a pair of shoes from a bowling alley, which appalled me on a lot of levels. Firstly, you don't even come close to having a need for bowling shoes, so really you're just doing it for fun. A second level is that it is considered so cool by these people to boast about stealing, which I find quite horrendous. Then the best line 'in the grand scheme of things, its only a pair of shoes'. World, I urge you all to have this philosophy, and I welcome you to anarchy. Everything starts small, somehow it never seems to finish that way. The person told me not to go 'all moral' on her, I wonder when being moral became so 'uncool'.
And there end the first entry. The aim of this will be to have something serious to say, but the first entry will always be the strangest. I could try and introduce things, or I could dive right into what I'm aiming for, but really I knew when I was going to start it and did not have a specific event in the world in mind. The point actually is to see that whilst I've always considered myself more mature than many of my age group, somehow I still don't feel ready to be an adult, and yet I'm feeling my way into it very quickly, probably more quickly than I truly need to. Yet, this isn't just about my life, its the principle that my opinion on anything has just as much worth as anybody else that can post on the internet, so I feel I should make the most of my opportunity to voice that opinion, it may not change the world, or anybody's life, but I feel I'm doing something, and that has a lot of value to me.
A large part of this blog will hopefully see me mature and grow into something worth being. So it is somehow fitting that this post should be fairly clearly the least mature one of them all. Birthdays are strange for they are supposed to be the one day you know that things will be good. Yet, for whatever reason they are never the best day of the year or anything, that tends to be a lot more unexpected.
Today was surreal in many ways. It was my first birthday away from home. This was made easier to deal with by the fact I've spent very few with my dad so it was a bit more gradual than just suddenly not seeing family on my birthday, but still strange. It was also the first birthday where I didn't get a single present, although I did save a (non-birthday) present from Adam to open on my birthday, but technically I received nothing. Now opening presents has lost its appeal really, you outgrown that at about 16, but still, its the knowing that they are there, which still retains some excitement, so having nothing was just odd.
And for the childish bit. People remembering my birthday. I never celebrated birthdays because all my friends forgot. But now facebook exists and I'm at university, and everybody here did remember. However, only one person from home remembered, and that was only because I told them a couple of days ago. This will be the year that I leave Colchester behind, there is not really anything left for me there anymore, although I will still live with my parents in holiday times the emotional attachment is gone. It is sort of difficult to do, I lived there for 15 years, many of those years were rough but I have some good memories and I achieved a lot there. However between Bristol and London I seem to have a lot more going for me, however difficult I have found it socialising and networking in Bristol.
With no presents I had to celebrate my birthday some way. Funnily enough I only know one way to do it, and for me it isn't a party as such. Last year I went to see Coheed and Cambria for my birthday and this year it was the Bouncing Souls. They were quite amazing in fairness to them, the stage invasion was awesome fun. The Draft, who supported, were very good as well, yet another Welsh rock band, obviously something in the water in those Valleys.
We did have a gathering of friends where I was treated to a rendition of happy birthday both in person and over the phone, impressive in many respects, one had to enjoy it. My room is now full of balloons, of varying colours, shapes and sizes.
However, today was not entirely dominated by birthday proceedings. We also began the search for a house, already proving slightly fruitless and depressing. We enquired about viewing a property that sounded quite nice, but alas a group of girls had already put an interest in for it so that is not looking too hopeful, there will be more to come though and we will end up living somewhere!
No matter how much I try to deny it I do now consider myself an adult, which brings strange things with it, including, apparently, disdain for a large proportion of my friends. Many of my friends have always been younger than me, before this was not a problem, especially as I lose most of my confidence with a girl if I feel they're older than me. But now I feel very different and the way they are growing up is at the opposite end of the spectrum from how I did. A friend gleefully told me yesterday that they had stolen a pair of shoes from a bowling alley, which appalled me on a lot of levels. Firstly, you don't even come close to having a need for bowling shoes, so really you're just doing it for fun. A second level is that it is considered so cool by these people to boast about stealing, which I find quite horrendous. Then the best line 'in the grand scheme of things, its only a pair of shoes'. World, I urge you all to have this philosophy, and I welcome you to anarchy. Everything starts small, somehow it never seems to finish that way. The person told me not to go 'all moral' on her, I wonder when being moral became so 'uncool'.
And there end the first entry. The aim of this will be to have something serious to say, but the first entry will always be the strangest. I could try and introduce things, or I could dive right into what I'm aiming for, but really I knew when I was going to start it and did not have a specific event in the world in mind. The point actually is to see that whilst I've always considered myself more mature than many of my age group, somehow I still don't feel ready to be an adult, and yet I'm feeling my way into it very quickly, probably more quickly than I truly need to. Yet, this isn't just about my life, its the principle that my opinion on anything has just as much worth as anybody else that can post on the internet, so I feel I should make the most of my opportunity to voice that opinion, it may not change the world, or anybody's life, but I feel I'm doing something, and that has a lot of value to me.
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