Derek Evans Thoughts

It has now been a week almost since Gary Speed took his own life and the inquest is ongoing. It is very likely that if a note had been left that certain parts that might give rise to a painful response for one or more persons will be left out. Given the speculation that there has been either publicly on the internet or privately in wondering why then I suspect that this will remain except for the few who will know or unless somebody (most likely the police service) leaks the contents of the note in full to the media - I am assuming a note was left because there were no suspicious circumstances. So why did he take his own life. Alot of people think that this is the easy way out but I would argue that it is the reverse. It may be easier to go on through what normality that could follow but that taking one own's life could be a one off painful event that at least would not give rise to a longer period of painful existance for all members of the family at least. So what would have dr

I think that the end of the Euro as a pan national currency is very much on the cards. The recurring sovereign debt issues together with appropriate analysis even by historians (see Norman Davies's article in the FT on Saturday October 29th) bear this out. The only way out would be for the greater EU, those EU countries that have the Euro as their currency to become more like the United States. Why do I say this? Well if you look at the US it is clear that the different states have different economic conditions and economic strengths and weaknesses, from the highly industrialised states to those which was large agricultural and also tourism led. This is largely the same in Europe. Germany and then France are the two strongest and largest economies but they largely consume only from within their own "states". Yes the abiltiy to trade goods and services across these nation state borders has made economic flows move more in terms of volume and faster but this is not worked

Alot has been said about what is turning out to be a switch and backup malfunction which has affected all non business based Blackberry users such as I. However, I along with many others may have then looked at their emails directly using the webmail services most ISPs offer. What I have seen is that there have been no emails available for periods of around 2 hours on at least two occasions during the day. Therefore, the question has to be asked, is this more than just a Blackberry problem and is this in effect a concerted attack on the whole email mechanism by someone or organisation that is therefore affecting general email availability on the backbone. My thought is that there is more to this than what is being said, at least publicly, but the chances of us knowing more about this are probably slim. However, that does not stop me asking the question and perhaps this is one that users need to ask their ISPs along with the actual speed of connection in the future.

In my profession the big rock is the conversion requirements and preparation for moving to IFRS from a local GAAP. That local GAAP includes USGAAP and therefore the version of IFRS that we would move to will be a USGAAP inspired ethos. In Europe the differences between the GAAP applied to say United Kingdom and Ireland and Germany, and France is significant so that even an EU applied IFRS is probably going to have different treatments depending on that origin. Then we have Australian IFRS at least so we will always have at least two accounting operaitons in use for each company, being USGAAP IFRS and local GAAP IFRS and hopefully the methods will be very similar.

I was reading an article in this weekend's FT about the broadcaster Ed Stourton's experience with moving from hardbacks or paperback books to using an eReader and his mixed response to it. I have not yet moved to using an eReader for two reasons. Firstly, an eReader is a limited product, surely something akin to a tablet would have more use but then I believe that the tablet is a limited product where if you are able to type you will leave finger marks or residue unless the screen design is able to clean up without too much intervention. Secondly, it also means you are carrying more kit around and naturally the storage has to be enabled and of course you separately pay for soft and hardcopies potentially of that book. I therefore remain old fashioned with my book purchasing.

So S&P have downgraded the US's AAA debt grading. Big news given the overall depressive state of their economy and it is and been that way for a long time. Finally the excessive consumptive nature of that country is there to be bitten yet again I say. The US has been saved at least twice in recent times. Firstly by Japan, which in turn led to the reduction in Japanese consumption as outflows of funds led to what has become the Japanese economic problem. It has never recovered and that is why even with interest rates at virtual zero the exchange rate is having to be manipulated by the Central Bank because of its strength which seems to have no logic to it. The second more recent time was basically by the European banking system which was the precursor to the crisis of 2007-8. Greenspan was involved that time and laughed mocking the Europeans for being so dull and stupid, as the losses increased beyond the banks means to hold the financing. So here we are again. Debt ceilings bei

We have just seen the end of an era with the final touchdown of the space shuttle atlantis. This leaves the Russians and potentially the Europeans and maybe the lesser space nations in carrying the can for the International Space Station. In many respects this ending is similar to that of Concorde. The financials did not add up and yet this is what sometimes happens to a technically advanced piece of kit. Consider this that the Shuttle was effectively a reusable vehicle although rocket boosters were not really recyclable and that such a gliding plane like configuration was generally well received. Also like Concorde it had its defining disaster (not totally killing the project at the time but effectively ending development). So will there be another like it for manned exploration at least up to an orbit around the planet Earth, or just like Concorde is the possibility of this sort of travel off limits for at least the next generation of 15 years or more.

The problem with politicians is that they can make some really dumb decisions and this is a good one. This authority had such a unit a few miles south of the town of Maidenhead, at the village of Holyport that had been in use for some time. I am not aware if the building was deteriorating beyond repair (probably not) but to go and build what was the special school at Holyport at this site and then expect income from other authorities that use this facility to go from £35 per night per person to £350 per night per person is either extreme optimism, a lunatic, or a ploy to get out of the provision and to convert it quickly to an equally income/margin generating facility. I thought local authorities were there to provide services that benefit their population and as sharing has to go on in this highly devolved environment as it currently is then is this not self defeating. Could this be a case of a white elephant?

Whether the Murdoch empire at least in the UK implodes due to the NoW affair or not is not my concern but what does concern me is the whole method of what could be described as investigative journalism. Phone hacking is an illegal activity. However call or information interception undertaken through official warrants and other statutory instruments by authorities is not, be that the police or the other security services. Unfortunately, the conduct of the police with preventing such illegal activities or enforcing the law where it is not does not give the public confidence. Therefore, we need to ask what is investigative journalism today. Has it beoome one where the speed of getting the story has superceded the need of getting it done thoroughly and comprehensively and therefore getting it quick using such activities is what has made it important.

The announcement concerning the availability of so called extra places in popular university courses is naturally a method to ensure that those people who could be excluded due to possible diversity/mix requirements that could be imposed on universities can be circumvented to some extent by those students who I would assume would still need to get the grades as any other but has access to full tuition fee funds (£20k instead of £9k) and can pay it up front due to either wealthy parents or those who have made significant savings or has connections to trusts/businesses who are willing to sponsor (with possible tax advantages) including intern availability that means that they go to a good/top university but deprives probably those without that funding availability to go to somewhere like Oxford/Cambriged/London/Durham etc.

Watching this commitee in action, in this case with Dame Helen Ghosh, Permanent Secretary at the Home Office, and Matthew Coates and Jonathan Sedgwich of the UK Borders Agency, it is to some extent surprising how few there are of members on this committee. It is however, well chaired by Margaret Hodge and you have the idiosyncratic observations and questioning by Austin Mitchell which is at least amusing. I was a little impressed by the input of Jackie Doyle-Price and also of Stephen Barclay. I was surprised by the lack of confidence and quality of questioning (just looking at basic difference in figures which was explained by them relating to different time periods) by Jo Johnson, who is a younger brother of Boris Johnson. I looked him up on Wikepedia and again with his education and background would have given to a better expectation. Getting onto this actual event, I am amazed that as usual basic, to me, IT projects are not properly project managed and do not seem to be being deli

Found this on Euronews website and have tweeted it as well. This is the extent of protectionism that maybe we thought was ending at least in what we consider the developed capitalistic world. Well there you go. When the going gets tough the Italians seem to be called foul. But then is the authority of what we Brits also despise, the precedence of European Union law above national edicts and a requirement to come into line, going to prevent this. Somehow I doubt this. But consider this. If the UK took the same view at least of its companies that it considers strategic, would it allow foreign ownership of say Cadbury's, and American CEOs at places such as Barclays. Oh and naturally when the US considers its company's it has certainly blocked takeovers by Chinese companies of US businesses so do not think that in reality the US is nearly as open as we are because that is not the case. Whether you like him or loath him, Murdoch had to become a US resident and committed to that co

Terrific profile of @Ed_Miliband in the Guardian magazine today by Andy Beckett, who (almost literally) puts most of the Lobby to shame This was a statement I saw on a tweet by Stefan Stern yesterday. So I looked it up on the Guardian's website. If you are at all interested in politics in the UK then look at both Stefan's tweets, I use to really enjoy reading him in the FT but that is no more, and also the appraisal made of Ed Milliband. Just like many politicians before him you really do not know the heart and soul of a person usually until he has gone. I got this when watching Brown. Most people around me use to be a little unkind about him but the fact was and is, that Brown, though imperfect was at heart a deeply commited man who was determined to undertake what he believed in but based on logic and rationality. The price he paid was that like most perfectionists around the world, toleration of those who do not show that commitment or a desire to learn and from that learn

Just a short question. What is the difference between David Cameron today concerning actions in Libya with David Cameron on Iraq (to some extent) and Afganistan. Answer: The beauty of power but now the opposition can now say that his ability to hold double standards increases by the day - and see the u-turn on plane requirements to post July 2011 etc following on from the so called cuts that they believe will get the country out of the central government deficit.

So today is the last day and what a contest it has been so far. In a few minutes we have the Scotland v Italy game from Edinburgh. The former must win to prevent a whitewash and dare one say it but the next worse team, whoever that could be would have two wins more. The only thing is Scotland's favour is that Italy do not play well when away from their home ground. The next game in today's schedule is Ireland v England. England are going for the grand slam and therefore win all their games. Ireland need to regain some pride after last week's defeat to Wales. This game is probably the most important one of the three as it will either confirm England's progress towards the World Cup that will take place in New Zealand starting in September, or re-invigorate the planning being made for the same reason by Ireland. An Ireland defeat would bring back concerns about the playing and backroom staff and the impact it would have on expectations at the World Cup. The final game

The publication of school performance tables has been well publiscised and the edition concerning 2010 has been available for a little while. The relevancy for secondary eduction relates to examination results at what is now called GCSE and equivalent which is generally at the age of 16, together with Key Stage 5 which is commonly referred to as A Levels at age 18. These two performance quotes are therefore relevant for academically capable children, and generally those schools which are selective in the students that enrol achieve higher percentages. However, what should also be looked at is the results published at Key Stage 2 which is at Year 2 in Primary school. Again the results are dependent upon the general capability of the children in each year. Therefore, if a particular year has a higher than normal number of children with a statement of special education needs and that if there is an environment where children are not encouraged in their learning outside of school hours t

On March 9th the Department of Education issued a Green Paper changing the method for setting a Statement of Special Education Needs (SEN) for the education and care provision of children and young people. Alledgedly it will give parents a legal right so that the current situation of parents having to pursue strongly the needs of their child for educational and care needs where there are physical and/or mental issues. But is this really a repackage of something that is currently one of negotiation to one where the courts become so involved and therefore costs incurred but there is a period of consultation and comments can be left via the appropriate link.

What is Libya, what is she, to paraphase a song Who Is Sylvia, What is She but the events of the last couple of days implies one thing for definite, a lack of a publiscised plan of action, whatever that might be, with regards to the government/autocracy/dictatorship and opposition in the State of Libya. It is just too quiet. We see that the "Empire Strikes Back" if that is what we define the regime, but the empire could still overrun a lightly armed opposition just because it has the armaments capable of inflicting such severe damage, by way of air strikes and high velocity and long range armaments including missiles. The question that I am asking is what does the outside world define this episode in the history of Libya. Does the opposition have viability or whatever that has entailed that it has been recognised by France or was this done prematurely. Or does this prove nothing. In other words, is this Kosovo and Bosnia, or even Iraq, or on the contrary is this Zimbab

The earthquake and tsunami has brought upon severe issues with nuclear reactors in Japan, their safety and viability. The world awaits if a possible catastrophe is about to unfold and the population be further devastated. At least the population around Chernobyl was not as large as this, so one has to pray or something. However, the question has to be asked and is being asked. Given the population of Japan and its limited energy resources what can it do with regards to the availability of it and to maximise energy efficiency when geographically the incidents of earthquakes is always going to be a threat at this sort of level. The statistics of one in a hundred year event is suddenly becoming more regular than that and so all forms of energy sourcing for Japan is at high risk. Refineries are on fire as well so this applies to carbon and non-carbon fuels. With the plate tectonics mainly to the East of the islands of Japan it would seem to make more sense to source energy as far away

What the hell does the British government think they are doing. That was at least incompetence at worst a botch job on the scale of say Suez in 1956. If the task was to make contact with the rebel command and governmental structure in the "East Zone" then it needed basic contact before sending in a discreet corps of relevant people. This was just plain stupid needing another cringing u-turn of values which is what this government is learning all about. It makes big statements and then learns that it has to repent. So the UK had it coming to it doing the wrong thing at the wrong time. All credibility with foreign policy has gone and behind closed doors our European allies and the Americans are probably sniggering at this, if not laughing. This is therefore a hasty job and the repentance will be long and hard. You cannot trust the Brits to do the right thing and to think that government expenditure in embassies and the like is being reduced by the 20+%. Well there is not going

I have just read the entry made by Robin Lustig of BBC Radio 4 which makes an interesting point of the potential domino effect of these autocratic regimes as seen by their peoples now changing through generally dramatic protest and how it is perceived vis-a-vis the worries of Saudi Arabia and the price of oil which of course effects most of our energy requirements. Although he looks at the knowledge that he has regarding Bahrain and Yemen, we do not seem to have any analysis at this time of the potential for Kuwait, UAE, and Qatar amongst what the "West" perceives as progressive and friendly countries and then also if there are concerns with the unfriendly countries of Syria, Iran and Lebanon within the region we would categorise as the Middle East. Are we in fact at a stage where regimes that are not thought as being overly autocratic can loosen the financial econmonic distribution of funds as a way of maintaining their control, but evidently after financial control comes

It is becoming even more critical as we have moved from Tunisia through Egypt and now in the civil war taking place in the tribalistic environment that is Libya that the actions or otherwise of the military trained forces is crucial in gauging the success or otherwise of the change activities. However, things are not fully quiet in Egypt with some events in Alexandria today but in Libya who has the military hardware and software and the knowledge of using it is why we are in a basic position of stalement, of punch and counter-punch. The non intervention of other nations is to some extent understandable. We are not aware of whether behaviour that best the Balkans crisis is evident here so therefore there is not a human rights precursor to an external impact be it by way of the effective closure of Libyan airspace which would prevent air strikes by the Gadaffi forces that still seem to have the full support of the air force. This therefore limits the ability of what is an effectively lig

I have an issue with what has been reported in the last day or so. Has Mubarak really resigned the post of President or has something been lost in translation or has that word even in reality been stated in any form of official statement. I wonder about this because in all non-death changeovers that I recall, the so called leader/dictator has left the country to a possible lifetime in exile (wonder what is happening in Haiti given the return of Duvalier which has gone quiet recently). This is not the case at this moment with Mubarak staying at a residence in Sharm el Sheik. So what can we speculate on. Mubarak still harbours some form of "leadership" in Egypt but I can only refer to something like Spain in the aftermarth of the death of Franco. His so called successor became a monarch and not a president/dictator setting up the democracy that Spain now has. This though was a reasoned change and maybe Suleiman needs to see how this can be brought to fruition with a president t