Derek Evans Thoughts

I have a statement to make. I use Google maps and the roadmap images to see what houses and areas look like. I also believe that certain members of my family use the same facility to effectively spy on me. The reason that I believe this is that until recently a member of this branch of the family sent occasional correspondence by post to us. However, recently Google has updated their images in this area, they are now showing images taken either in 2012 or 2013 and not 2008 or 2009 as was previously there. Funnily enough there is a vehicle on the driveway at the front of the house. It is not ours, and even somebody who knew us could tell that because the vehicle is not one that we would have, it just would not be one that we would have. The fact is I know whose vehicle it is and can therefore tell on which day of the week this picture was taken, even though I cannot tell on what date it was taken. Therefore, we are not receiving correspondence from this branch of the family (we do not g...

The UK and the EU: in or out of the Union? | euronews, the network The problem with the EU is that it is changing what it wants to be and that change irritates those countries that have differing agendas across areas where EU agreement in participation is not guraranteed such as defence. The UK is not alone to some extent with this viewpoint, the Nordic members are in a similar position regarding the mission that the EU has. So what is the purpose of the EU and where is it going. Well it was a European Economic Community, based on breaking down trade barriers and valuing the ability to buy and sell on a cross-border basis, without excessive red tape. What it is becoming is a supra-national state encompassing all the remits of a normal national parliament of economics, internal relations, foreign relations, defence, education etc. Put together with a situation where there are multiple currencies in a free market global economy and you increase the tensions, as valuations are dependent...

If you have not kept up with the news then one you have missed is the taking out of children from a fostering environment in Rotherham and the reason given was that these people had voted for UKIP and that that was detrimental to the children they were fostering at the time. Naturally the facts have not been fully given, spin is all that seems to be endemic in this day and age so it is difficult for real comments and analysis to be undertaken without some form of if statements. We are aware that these children had been taken out of their parents and placed with this couple in emergency. This is common as sometimes the time from finding out about children at risk and action being undertaken is short. It must be considered that although the aftermath may not be particularly pleasant, the health and safety and general wellbeing of children take priority so it is a better to be safe than sorry measure that social workers are required to take. There have been too many Baby P etc. and as l...

I have a new smartphone. The phone plan that has enabled me to have this phone is in my opinion very good even though it is a 24 month contract. However, what is really scaring me is how easy it is to now become connected with apps and websites unexpectedly such as Google plus or the television screen in the next room when showing a photo to a member of the family. Technology is all very good but is this just another egotistical fix or a way of losing one's privacy without knowing it.

July 3rd 2012, and Robert "Bob" Diamond, CEO of Barclays Bank resigned from his post following the further revelations of inappropriate business practices at the bank, relating to the setting of the London Inter-Bank Interest Rate or LIBOR. This follows the now infamous sounding out of the tax avoidance, or could it have been actually evasion schemes that the wealth management arm of the bank had been found out on and subjected to investiagations by the UK's HMRC. July 4th and he is required to attend the Treasury sub-committee of the British Parliament. Credit should be given that he did actually attend, unlike the CEO of Kraft Foods, but his performance in trying to show innocence as a whistleblower does not stack up. This is a part of a pattern where the whole banking sector is trying to play against each other in more and more desparate ways in order to substantiate profitability and justification for extremely high basic and overall salary packages. Shareholders ar...

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 ...