Feeling Oddly Relaxed

Image: Meshlife

I’m not sure if it’s a coincidence, but slotting in reading time on the way to the day job and wherever I can grab 10 minutes throughout the day, might be having a calming influence on me.

With my boss away this week, working double shifts and a load of work on my plate, this should be a stressful week but that’s not how it’s turning out. There are all the usual problems to overcome plus extra, but generally speaking my stress levels seem somewhat lower than normal.

It could also be the week off I had at the start of the month had a bigger effect on me than I realised. Obviously, blowing off the steam like that must have helped, but as to how much one may never quite find out. The next thing to organise is a wee break away with the Diners—it’s been too long since our last one and I know a couple of the boys need it too.

I noticed in the news yesterday, that ex-Labour MPs will probably have to pay back legal aid they are receiving to fight charges over their controversially claimed expenses. Politicians are up in arms about it (including the ones who weren’t prosecuted and only made to pay the money back), but it shouldn’t come as a surprise to them given the legal aid system in this country is nothing short of a shambles.

In theory it sounds like a good idea: on the basis that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, those without the means should be provided assistance from the public purse to prove so. In practice it’s not so cut and dry.

Those sent forward to the courts for prosecution have, in the main, had their case tested out by the Crown Prosecution Service with a view to ensuring the charges stick, that is to say, they have gathered enough evidence for a positive verdict. In other words, walk into any court in the land and it’s full of the same old faces that keep re-appearing over and over; physical assaulters, abusers, thieves and all those who think they are above the law and society or just don’t have any respect for anyone else alive.

As a result, they know how to manipulate the system and they know how to squeeze public money in their direction. And so do their lawyers who benefit massively from the whole thing. Legal aid is open to abuse and therefore it is abused; it simply does not work in its current form and although it was recently given an overhaul, all that happened was a papering over the cracks. It needs to be looked at bottom up.

I also noted that Twitter has said it will allow advertising on its site for the first time. Provided they are Tweets that resonate with users and are part of conversations, advertisers will be able to buy “Promoted Tweets” that will appear on search results pages.

I can understand them wanting to tap into what will no doubt be a lucrative area of income for them, but it sounds a bit sneaky and off-putting to think of robotic Tweets being dumped into conversations simply because a keyword was stroked into my Tweeting software. Still, it’s an inevitable path I suppose.

Today: day job, reading and get caught up on a whole load of email that’s come in. Oh, and carve out some more writing time.

Until tomorrow, peace and out!