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There's this problem with councillors
Jun. 13th, 2005 01:08 pmLocal councillors, as I am sure you are aware, do not get paid very much. Indeed, you basically only get expenses and perks. The downside of this is that no-one with an IQ larger than their waist size would volunteer for the job.
This has had consequences in the Highland Council, north Scotland, which would be farcical if it weren't so tragic. Last year the Council decided that it would fully enforce some joke new public liability law (thank you, Scottish Executive) by insisting that all businesses tendering for Highland Council capital spending projects be insured for £5m public liability.
Now, I suspect you might have noticed that the Highlands & Islands are not exactly awash with conglomerates who deal with repairs, drains and the like. Mostly they are one- or two-man businesses earning an honest crust. And when a council suddenly tells you that, sorry, if you want to tender for any business with us, you will need public liability insurance for five million smackers (probable cost, about £20,000 a year, would be my guess) then the small businesses say, well, sod you, we'll go over to the private sector. In some parts of the Highlands, which are booming without the help of public spending, this is no problem for the workers (although it is a problem for the public sector), but in other, less buoyant areas, there isn't that much private work around.
Now, the Highlands Council also receives vast sums of government money for spending on capital infrastructure (in fact if you want to go anywhere guaranteed to be on broadband, just go to the Highlands). In fact it is sitting on £9m-worth at this very moment. AND IT CAN'T SPEND IT.
I reckon that they must have sat there for nine months wondering why they couldn't find anyone to repair the local schools before it occurred to someone that the liability insurance rule that they had in place was causing it.
So, we have workmen in place willing to do work. We have work that needs to be done. And we have the money to pay for it. Try explaining to a local voter why nothing is being done. "Well, you see, they refuse to buy liability insurance for £5m, so we can't hire them".
Lunacy, sheer lunacy.
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I saw a nice little comment in Paul Phillips' blog about why the pro tourers in Poker tend to hang out with each other:
It's fun to have friends around when you're in some exotic locale like dublin or aruba or barcelona, and even MORE fun when you're in some armpit like foxwoods or tunica or atlantic city.
Dublin? Exotic? I think that it just goes to show that the distance you are away from a place lends rather more style to it than it has to people living on its doorstep.
Paul makes another serious point here, about the dangers of playing poker for high stakes. Even at the silly level that I play, I have noticed what he writes about impacting me to a certain degree.
Also, a lot of full-time poker players feel a bit unfulfilled when hanging out with "regular" people because it takes them out of the action. Many of us (myself included) enjoy hanging out with people who can wager a few grand at the drop of a hat because we're action junkies.
What happens is that, basically, you become divorced from reality. And you also become a little bit like Henry in Goodfellas, unable to bear the thought of being an "ordinary joe" who worries about "ordinary things". One of the reasons that I am better at hanging onto my money than a lot of the big players is that I know how close that danger can be. But I can sympathize with Phillips' point that it's a bit hard to relate to people who go to the cashpoint and draw out £20.
In a sense, life is like poker here. As we all know, the poker player who has just got back to even is likely to play more tightly than the player who is a long way up or a long way down. Well, some of these nights out with the non-poker playing world are as if you are with a whole group of people who have just got back to even. Twenty quid has some relevance. If you are a poker pro you are probably either a long way in front, or a long way behind. Either way, twenty quid is going to be neither here nor there.
Phillips also recommends Pot Limit Triple Draw with three blinds. Now, there's an action junkie's game.
This has had consequences in the Highland Council, north Scotland, which would be farcical if it weren't so tragic. Last year the Council decided that it would fully enforce some joke new public liability law (thank you, Scottish Executive) by insisting that all businesses tendering for Highland Council capital spending projects be insured for £5m public liability.
Now, I suspect you might have noticed that the Highlands & Islands are not exactly awash with conglomerates who deal with repairs, drains and the like. Mostly they are one- or two-man businesses earning an honest crust. And when a council suddenly tells you that, sorry, if you want to tender for any business with us, you will need public liability insurance for five million smackers (probable cost, about £20,000 a year, would be my guess) then the small businesses say, well, sod you, we'll go over to the private sector. In some parts of the Highlands, which are booming without the help of public spending, this is no problem for the workers (although it is a problem for the public sector), but in other, less buoyant areas, there isn't that much private work around.
Now, the Highlands Council also receives vast sums of government money for spending on capital infrastructure (in fact if you want to go anywhere guaranteed to be on broadband, just go to the Highlands). In fact it is sitting on £9m-worth at this very moment. AND IT CAN'T SPEND IT.
I reckon that they must have sat there for nine months wondering why they couldn't find anyone to repair the local schools before it occurred to someone that the liability insurance rule that they had in place was causing it.
So, we have workmen in place willing to do work. We have work that needs to be done. And we have the money to pay for it. Try explaining to a local voter why nothing is being done. "Well, you see, they refuse to buy liability insurance for £5m, so we can't hire them".
Lunacy, sheer lunacy.
---------
I saw a nice little comment in Paul Phillips' blog about why the pro tourers in Poker tend to hang out with each other:
It's fun to have friends around when you're in some exotic locale like dublin or aruba or barcelona, and even MORE fun when you're in some armpit like foxwoods or tunica or atlantic city.
Dublin? Exotic? I think that it just goes to show that the distance you are away from a place lends rather more style to it than it has to people living on its doorstep.
Paul makes another serious point here, about the dangers of playing poker for high stakes. Even at the silly level that I play, I have noticed what he writes about impacting me to a certain degree.
Also, a lot of full-time poker players feel a bit unfulfilled when hanging out with "regular" people because it takes them out of the action. Many of us (myself included) enjoy hanging out with people who can wager a few grand at the drop of a hat because we're action junkies.
What happens is that, basically, you become divorced from reality. And you also become a little bit like Henry in Goodfellas, unable to bear the thought of being an "ordinary joe" who worries about "ordinary things". One of the reasons that I am better at hanging onto my money than a lot of the big players is that I know how close that danger can be. But I can sympathize with Phillips' point that it's a bit hard to relate to people who go to the cashpoint and draw out £20.
In a sense, life is like poker here. As we all know, the poker player who has just got back to even is likely to play more tightly than the player who is a long way up or a long way down. Well, some of these nights out with the non-poker playing world are as if you are with a whole group of people who have just got back to even. Twenty quid has some relevance. If you are a poker pro you are probably either a long way in front, or a long way behind. Either way, twenty quid is going to be neither here nor there.
Phillips also recommends Pot Limit Triple Draw with three blinds. Now, there's an action junkie's game.
