So long, farewell, auf weidersehen, goodbye

It's been ever such a long time since I've put anything on this blog.  Mostly because I've been so busy getting 'outputs'. [Outputs are a fancy way of saying 'the things that you are supposed to do for the money you've been given'].  So for the past few months I've been in schools and Sixth Forms assemblies and classes to make sure I've reached enough people to show I've earned my wage.

But there are two reasons why I've decided to write a blog post today: one, it's my last day in post.   After today I am no longer the Youth Regeneration and Development Officer for Copeland Borough Council, no more forum meetings, no more regeneration projects; and I wanted to say goodbye, and make it official.  My out of office reply is set to say:

Hello,

As we have reached the end of the three year period for this project, I am no longer working as Copeland Borough Council's Youth Regeneration and Development Officer.
If you have anything you wish to discuss regarding community regeneration or economic development, you might like to contact Sarah Mitchell, Economic Development Manager s_________@_______.gov.uk
If you wish to contact me personally, I am available at g._________@_______.com

Thank you,   

My desk is cleared, and I have a box of tea bags and pens and a potted plant to take home.

(This isn't me by the way, it's a stock picture to make a point).

The other reason that I wanted to do one last post is because the world seems to be going Pete Tong at the moment, and if I don't comment on this I think I'll explode.

If you look at all the stuff that I've written about over the last couple of years, quite a bit of it is pointless or frivolous or just plain rubbish. If there's been a slow news week I've tried to squeeze a story from something totally irrelevant (remember the story of the Lynx being released into the Lake District? I got two weeks out of that).

Now we have the biggest political event since the Second World War, and that's no exaggeration: the economy is all over the place, the Prime Minister is resigning, the Labour Party is tearing itself apart, Scotland is threatening to leave the United Kingdom, one MP has been killed, others threatened, incidents of racist abuse have increased, and no-one, and I mean NO-ONE, knows what to do next.

This is big, this is huge! 

In fact, in order of hugest things we have this hat

then this dog,

this fish,

this pizza,

Donald Trump's ego,

and then Brexit.

   

Just to let you know, I voted to remain in the European Union, because I believe we are better together.  In this age of world travel, and the internet, it's not possible to be separate as though we still lived in the days before aeroplanes.  It feels a bit like the guy at a party who refuses to have fun, thinking everyone else will stop enjoying themselves to notice him.

 ain't gonna happen...

  That said, the majority of voters want to leave the Union, and being the champion of democracy that I am, I have to respect that decision.  What we need now is stability, good planning, and a clear idea of what we have to do next.

But we haven't got that: the government are split over who will replace David Cameron as Prime Minister, the MPs of the main opposition party (Labour) are trying to replace their leader, but the ordinary members don't seem to want that.  The Scottish National Party (who you'll remember are talking about trying to leave the UK again) now argue that they should be the main opposition party.

Know what that sounds like?

If it wasn't so crazy, this would be funny.

So, there we have it, everything's going crazy and I'm going home.

Laters. 

Mobile phone films

Newsflash: we're living the 21st Century. This is the future.
    Which is great for many of us.

It means that we have lots of advantages. Mobile phones and the internet make world-wide communication almost instant, and give us access to information on a scale that we've never seen before.

But if I've learnt nothing else from Spiderman, I know this: with great power comes great responsibility.

[Actually, I also learnt that Tobey Maguire went crazy, fast]

Having a mobile phone means that you can find stuff out really easily, and you can take pictures and videos and record your life as it happens.  But that's not always a good thing.  Here's a couple of examples of what I mean.

A hotel in Dubai caught fire on New Year's Eve last year, leaving many people distressed (though fortunately no-one was hurt).  Two people nearby decided it was a good opportunity for a selfie

Now, most people agreed that it was pretty insensitive and disrespectful to use other people's misfortune for a photo opportunity, and after getting a roasting on social media, the couple removed the picture.

But it's not just insensitivity that we're talking about.  There's also the safety aspect.

This picture is of a lorry crash that happened on the M40 last week. Again, no-one was seriously hurt, but one half of the motorway was closed, and the other half was reduced to one lane.  This caused huge delays (of up to seven hours for some people).

The issue here though was that people in that one working lane were slowing down to take pictures and videos of the crash, which is insensitive, but it also added to the delays and, even at those low speeds, involved drivers controlling their cars while using mobile phones.

Up to eighty motorists were identified as using their phones while driving and they are all being issued with fines for breaking the law.

So the warning here is: think before you take pictures or videos, it might land you in the middle of a Twitter storm, or even in court.