Tag: politics

Divided Nation…but not as you know it

I have noticed that in the UK we are divided nation! No , really? I hear you say……..

But thankfully this is nothing to do with politics or Brexit.

Much is already said on that divisive subject so I really don’t need to add to it!

We are in fact a technology divided nation. Although this is in some ways generational,  there is actually a big split within the 50 to 70 year age group… the baby boomers and early years generation x. So what is the split..it’s all about fear.I was in my local supermarket on a busy weekday lunchtime and the queues were building at the tills. Standing behind were two ladies in their 50’s. One immediately sauntered off to the self service service till…a few  scans, bleeps and screen presses and she was done. No ‘unexpected item in bagging area ‘ warnings for her.  The other lady resolutely refused to go near the device.  She explained she had never used such a device, would not know what to do , had not been shown what to do and she was fearful she might break it.

So why this difference. It all comes down to attitude to technology and being able to differentiate between mechanical and electronic.   We all see very young children grasping (literally) electronic devices, and using them intuitively and fearlessly.  However  in  the previous generations there are   large numbers of people thinking of  electronics in the same way  a car…you have to have lessons,  you have to be approved to use it (ie have a licence) and if you do the wrong thing…you could seriously damage it.

So is there an answer…yes it is education. My (at the time) 80 year old mother enrolled in a class called IT for the terrified…it was fun, factual and in her case transformational.  Ok it might be a diminishing generation who need this…but the need is currently still there.

And the winner is….

In the UK things have been somewhat hot over the past few days both politically and meteorologically. For those that live here or indeed follow international affairs it won’t have escaped your notice that we have just had a new Prime Minister elected . I use the word elected loosely as only a very small percentage of the population, about 0.1% get to vote on this . If this intrigues you , read more here.

Anyway with all this argy bargy going on and tv full of what may or may not happen next, Global Warming (or just cycles of nature..as both believers and non believers read my blog) has sent us the mother of all heatwaves this week.

Put these two together and you get a very hot and bothered nation.

So, imagine my delight to see that you.gov, one of our leading polling agencies, normally telling us what will happen in the next election or what people think about government policy or the state of the railways have put out a survey today…………… on ice lollies.

So how uncontroversial is that! Evidently not. A twitter furore has evolved and even challenges are now being made on what constitutes a lolly!

And for the record, why no mention of White Chocolate Magnum? Surely one of the world’s greatest inventions after the internal combustion engine, the internet and latte machiatto ?

Pantomime or Game show? UK chooses a new Prime Minister

If you don’t live in the UK at the moment you will be escaping the bizarre times we live in. Due to this thing called Brexit, our Prime Minister has been , err, well asked to leave by her party. So we need another one. We are not like the US where everyone has their say; we do it a bit more like a TV game show. The party in power get to choose the PM. Just to add to the farce the current party in power doesn’t have a majority! Are you still with me so far – good you are doing well. So, first all the wannabes (or is that wallabies) put their name forward..they do need some other support but not that many. A few swift promises of jobs for the boys or girls secures this. Then the game show stuff happens – Like Love Island, Blind Date, or Naked Attraction there are a series of elimination rounds down to the final two. Fortunately they do all keep their clothes on. This first stage is just voted on by the 300 or so party members with seats in parliament. Just to add to the fun there are live TV debates where they all have a bit of a ‘love in’ …determined not to upset whoever the winner is so that they, a loser , might still get a top job with the winner as Prime Minister.

On these tv programmes they all excel in promising everything and maligning what hasn’t been done by the previous government (yes, you are right…the government that they were in!)

Finally for the last two candidates, the 160,000 party members get to choose the outright winner. Yes that’s right only less than 1% of the whole UK population get a choice in this. Anyway, all very entertaining. Thinking of cancelling Netflicks – this is far more fun.

%d bloggers like this: