Chris Saul's Blog

Tuesday March 11, 2008

World's greatest columnist returns

If you happen to find yourself in an Emirates lounge, business or first class seat this month, you will enjoy reading an excellent column on page 24 of their excellent in-house magazine, Portfolio. Wit, style and general genius literally shine from the page.

Who could this potential Pulitzer Prize winning chap be?

The Poles are coming!

There's an interesting from the BBC about immigration to the UK, focusing on the area around Peterborough.

I like the comment from a certain Hema Patel, suggesting immigration should stop now. I can understand the sentiment, but I wonder how far she's looked back in terms of her own family's history?

Mrs Saul's mother works as a quality checker in a clothing company in Milton Keynes. Apparently most of their unqualified workforce is now Polish - they do a better job and are more reliable than the local British workforce.

I can't condone unemployed people getting paid benefits when they're surrounded by work - what I don't understand is why the local people interviewed in the article are still entitled to benefits when there is work to be done locally. I thought the rules were that you had to accept a job of some kind after a certain number of opportunities being offered, but maybe I'm wrong.

Immigration generally seems to be a good thing for Britain, but it's clear that little planning has been made with regards to with upgrading public services to cope - I have no idea how that can be handled. Tax revenue will be a long time coming in terms of allocating budgets to local government.

Hazard lights are not to be used in fog

I've been in Dubai for five and a half years. Five and a half years ago, whenever there was fog, people would drive along with their hazard lights on, seemingly oblivious to the fact that a mass of orange lights flashing around you, with no way of seeing whether a car is indicating to change lanes, would make the situation even more dangerous.

Drivers of the UAE - there's a reason that your hazard lights are called hazard lights and your fog lights are called fog lights. They serve two different purposes, hence their different names.

It seems that five and a half year later, most drivers still haven't cottoned on.

It is so blatantly obvious that driving in fog with your hazard lights on, as well as speeding in fog, is a stupid thing to do. All I ever read in the press is letters and comments from people reinforcing this message - I'd love to meet someone who actually thinks hazard lights in fog are a good idea and hear their explanation.

Ironically lots of drivers, particularly BMW drivers for some reason, seem to drive at night with their fog lights on, even when there isn't any fog. I get the impression that when there is fog they think they are switching their fog lights on, when they are actually switching them off.

I hope the current Dubai Police traffic education programmes are successful in eradicating this practice.