Monday, December 31

Petrol prices

Every so often someone wants to involve me in a campaign to lower petrol prices. I invariably decline and in this blog post, or rant - we'll see how it turns out - I shall attempt to explain my reasons.

Primarily, I don't think that petrol prices are too high. I can afford to fill my tank up, and last time I checked the roads were full of other people who had managed to fill up too. If people want to save money on motoring I suggest selling cars and using public transport.

Secondarily, everyone wants public transport to be better  but I think the only way this is going to happen is if more people use it. Higher petrol costs would give an incentive to use it.

Finally, since the more people use their cars the more petrol they have to buy this is the fairest way to tax motoring. I think that Road Tax should be integrated into fuel tax, this would benefit people who have a car but use it only sparingly but would transfer the cost of road maintenance etcetera to the people who use the roads most.

In summary, I will not sign your petition.

Thursday, December 20

That beer is tainted with fish

One of our suppliers decided to show their gratitude today by donating a case of lager to the support team: 24 cans of Stella. I haven't drunk this particular brew because I had heard that it wasn't vegan but since this was free beer I had to check my facts - and it isn't even vegetarian since they use isinglass (a kind of gelatin made from fish) for fining (clarifying by removing the bits of yeast etcetera floating in the liquid)
I must confess to being a bit slack myself with booze, since it doesn't usually have ingredients and normally when people are talking about this topic they are somewhat drunk and unreliable. Also after a few drinks I become unreliable. But I'm going to make an effort. After all most brewers have an Internet presence and it isn't too much work to email them asking if their products are suitable for people who don't eat animal products. If they get enough emails they may even think about the commercial benefits of products which appeal to the 0.3% to 7% (estimates vary) of the population who are vegetarian.
I'm going to email Joshua Tetley right now