Monday 27 January 2020

Motivational speakers.


What on earth is the purpose of motivational speakers, I’m just asking as I cannot see that they serve a useful purpose in life at all.

Admittedly my knowledge and contact with these people is somewhat limited, even so it seems to me that most of them are neither use nor ornament, as the old saying goes.


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Some of the lesser mortals of this species seem unable to motivate their way out of a paper bag, let alone motivate a room full of people to reach their goals and desires.

Perhaps, not quite the same thing but I had the misfortune to go to a meeting of a motivational speaker who was also selling a beauty product, a very strange experience to say the least.

From my point of view this fellow spoke for some three hours or more, I likened it to one of Hitler’s rousing speeches at Nuremberg and in the end perhaps 10% of the audience got up and bought the product.

The product in question reminded me of the snake oil salesmen of the old wild west, I wouldn’t say it was completely useless but it certainly was extremely overpriced, proving the point that you only have to fool half the people some of the time.

Myself, I have to admit I have a deep ingrained loathing of any sort of motivational salesman or woman for that matter as I am more than able enough to decide if I wish to purchase a product without having to sit through the Nuremberg rally and it was at this point that I made a hasty retreat before I lost the will to live completely.

Friday 24 January 2020

Harry Dunn/ Anne Sacoolas accident.

I have thought of writing about this subject for some time but once again the subject matter may be somewhat controversial which has delayed putting pen to paper.
At first glance this unfortunate death may seem to be the fault of an American woman driver unused to driving in this country, who in a moments loss of concentration accidentally drove on the wrong side of the road.
That much is I think beyond doubt but as with all stories there is always more than one perspective and this has made me want to examine the evidence a little closer.
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I find it strange that there has been a suggestion that the Police are now going to give driving lessons to the Americans on the base at RAF Croughton for surely if you don’t think yourself competent enough to drive on the wrong side of the road you could use public transport or a taxi, or get a lift with a colleague.
As someone who has personally been driving across Europe for over 50 years I wouldn’t expect to embark from the ferry or the tunnel and be greeted by someone giving driving lessons on how to drive on the other side of the road.
In all the news items it is reported that Harry Dunn died when the car of Anne Sacoolas collided with him but sadly without a court case to examine the evidence we are left to speculate as to what really happened.
I have to admit that I am not personally familiar with the road where the accident took place so can only try to piece together the story from evidence from news items and research on google maps as to what the road looks like.
It has been said that the accident took place near the entrance to RAF Croughton which has a 40 mph speed limit and a clear field of vision in both directions for some considerable distance.
Looking at the map of the road it would appear that the road is relatively straight in both directions from the entrance of the RAF base, in fact for 1/2 mile and 1.1/2 miles respectively, although there may be some blind brows along the road which would obviously require caution when approaching if this is the case.
I have no idea what speed either Harry Dunn or Anne Sacoolas had attained prior to their collision but as a generalisation people who drive Volvo motorcars buy them mainly for the safety aspects of the vehicle and tend to drive fairly cautiously, conversely young men on powerful Kawasaki motorcycles may have a tendency to ride somewhat faster, this of course is pure speculation.
As an experienced driver of some 50 years I have to suggest that there has to be an element of excessive speed  which contributed to Harry’s death for if the accident happened outside the RAF base and they were both doing the 40 mph speed limit one would have thought they could have both slowed sufficiently to avoid a collision completely or at the least to be able to have avoided a fatality altogether.
If however the accident happened further down the road where the speed limit allows much higher speeds I still find it hard to see how a fatal collision was possible as the road appears to have good visibility through the bends and assuming some of the brows may be blind surely caution and a lowering of the speed would be in order.
If we assume excessive speed caused the crash we have to ask ourselves, were they both travelling too fast or was only one of the parties going too fast, had one of them managed to stop before the impact and in that case, who crashed into who?
The only conclusion I can come to without a shadow of a doubt is that excessive speed was a major contributory factor in this unfortunate accident and having presented the evidence as best I can I leave you to make up your mind as to what really happened.
I must say I am not keen on the actions of the “family spokesperson” Radd Seiger who seems to be acting more like an ambulance chasing lawyer, not something we are used to in this country; however he does have a point.
The only way we will get to the truth of this matter is for Anne Socoolas to come back and face the music and I would encourage her to do so.

Tuesday 21 January 2020

Princess Diana.

Moving on from my rather sad post about Prince Harry I find this leads naturally to the story of the tragic death of his mother now amazingly over two decades ago.
Obviously, Prince Harry was deeply affected by the death of his mother and perhaps more so when you start to look into the details of that tragic night.
I have steered clear of voicing my thoughts on this matter for some time as it seems so easy nowadays to offend people and end up being trolled for the rest of your life, this I hasten to add is definitely not my intention.
The deaths of both Diana and Dodi would have been so easy to avoid and their actions that night makes them complicit in their deaths. There I’ve said it, controversial as it may be, you can see why I avoided the subject for so long.
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I had no idea that the paparazzi were so intrusive until I saw news footage from that night, rather foolishly I had assumed they would form a massive pack outside any building where a celebrity was either leaving or entering and blast away with their flash cameras and leave it at that.
How naive can you be, I was astounded to see the press chase after the car of Diana and Dodi on motorcycles and subject the poor driver to a barrage of flash bulbs as they left and whilst driving down the road which in itself seems a rather foolish action leaving the poor chauffeur temporally blinded.
However, I’m getting ahead of myself and we need to go back to the first mistake made that night, the decision not to exit via the front door of the Ritz in Paris and take the official car which was waiting at the front for them, but to leave by the back door to try and evade the press.
Their attempted escape was thwarted when members of the paparazzi spotted Dodi and Diane entering the back of a black Mercedes whilst the bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones sat in the front passenger seat and the allegedly drunken manager of the hotel Henri Paul took the drivers seat.
I imagine that a properly trained driver who would have undergone a very strict  training programme which might have included evasion tactics in the event of an attack might have driven somewhat differently that night than Henri Paul for even a well trained driver in a saloon car cannot out run paparazzi on high powered motorcycles through the narrow streets of Paris.
Unfortunately, Henri Paul made the fatal mistake of trying to out run them which as we know ended with fatal results.
Much was made at the time of a white Fiat pulling out if front of them causing the crash as they tried to avoid it which when you view images of the trajectory of the car and the damage received  seems to me to make perfect sense, unfortunately the end result is the same whether you believe the story of the white Fiat or not.
Sadly both Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed died together with the driver Henri Paul leaving the only survivor the bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones.
All of which leads me to my conclusion of the events of that night, a conclusion I might add which adds a slightly different twist to the view taken by many that the press was to blame, although  it cannot be argued that they are blame free by any means.
Now the slightly controversial part of the story; It was the decision of Dodi and Diane not to use the official car, also their decision to let Henri Paul drive. When they left and attempted to out run the press, one assumes it was within the power of Diane and Dodi to ask the driver to slow down.  Lastly and perhaps more damming than anything they both took the decision not to wear seat belts which would have undoubtedly saved their lives.
These are the sad facts of the matter and as to apportioning blame I merely present the facts and leave the rest up to you.

Monday 20 January 2020

Harry and Meghan.

I do hope things work out well for this couple in their future life together but I have to admit, I have my doubts.
Image result for harry and meghan in E type Jaguar
Always sad when there is a rift and someone leaves a well established family firm but what worries me most is, how can you trust a man who drives an electric car especially when they have buggered up a perfectly decent classic E type Jaguar to make it!