World Watching

If you have read my earlier post you already have an idea about who Jerry is. If not let me introduce him to you.

Jerry is a wheelclamper and has been for a number of years. He is 41, a white male and lives in the south of England. I have been talking about the coalition governments announcement that it is going to ban wheel clamping on private land whithin a few month’s.

author: Jerry, how did you get into clamping in the first place?
Jerry: It wasn’t a concious decision, i migrated into it from another sector of the security industry.
author: so not planned?
Jerry: No, definately not.
author: Do you enjoy your job?
Jerry: absolutely! i have a job where i get out and about, help people and have earnings directly reflecting effort put into the job.
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Yesterday i wrote about the news that wheel clamping is to be banned in new legislation as part of the coalition government’s Freedom Bill.

I have since writing the article, discussed the situation with a Wheel Clamper and a land owner who is plagued by unauthorised parking on his land. What i found out will i suspect if it becomes public knowledge kill off much of the celebrations as Parking Enforcement Companies are not it seems going away and will rise to the challenge with a number of resources in their arsenal.

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The Government has announced that it will ban wheel clamping on private land as early as next year.

The Legislation will be introduced to parliament in November as part of the coalition government’s Freedom Bill. If passed it could come into force as early as next year.

The news comes after a spate of high profile cases where people have been clamped after parking on private land without permission or authorisation.

While on the surface it looks like a good thing there is far more to the issue than just wheel clamping companies are bad people.

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A conversation with a close friend got me wondering, Has the UK turned into a nation of whingers in recent years? or have we just moved from the ’stiff upper lip’ mentality into a culture where we simply stand up for our rights more openly?

My friend was a service engineer visiting people in their homes and rectifying problems with their domestic appliances until recently when he quit his job stating he “could not handle the persistent whinging and the got to get something for free” mentality of the customers. He cites many examples of customers who would phone the company call centre within minutes of engineers leaving the property with the single minded mission to wriggle out of paying the bill, and if necessary resorting to fabricating a complaint about the engineer in question.

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Google seem incapable of not making the news of late, usually for all the wrong reasons (street view, google books etc) but as one famous hollywood type whose name i have forgotten said “all publicity is good publicity” It seems google is battling on none the less.

The lastest brainwave of the internet giant is apparently called ’shop view’ where it seems they are trialling something similar to the much hated street view, just inside shops now. Coupled with an aquaintence bemoaning how it seems google are ignoring the noindex tags on his website, this got me thinking, If you don’t invite google or any other search engine to index your site i.e submit your url to them… do they actually have a right to be indexing your site, docs and pictures that you may have on the server at all?

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yes? whats stopping you? If the answer is along the lines that, its expensive to set up a credible online store and make a little cash working from home then read this e-commerce article because the truth of the matter is, that it can be done for free… yes FREE and no, i’m not trying to sell you anything either all information provided on the worldwatching website is totally free of charge. 

The credit crunch may still have it’s fangs into the country and economically times may still be hard, recession still causing hardship, ebays fee’s still high and the future uncertain… BUT if you can set up a small online business and make a small success out of it now the law of averages says it should be a bigger success in better times.

The fact of the matter is people are still shopping online, albeit a bit more prudently than in the past… So if your going to sell to them you have to keep your costs down and if that means axing ebay fee’s from your overheads it can be done.

The abundance of online payment processors today also totally negates the need to have business bank accounts etc until such time as you actually find your business has grown and a business bank account is a realistic option.

The usefulness of twitter to business has been called into question at the Chicago SES 2009 conference by site logic’s Matt Baily.

Do you think twitter is a business tool or gadget?

WebProNews.com interviewer, Abby Johnson talked with Baily about whether or not Twitter was a viable and useful channel to pursue for the average business.

Watch the WebProNews video here

Bailey feels like businesses feel an unwarranted pressure to ‘get someone on Facebook or Twitter’ without fully understand why they are doing it – aside from the fact that some marketing expert told them they needed to. – WebProNews

Early comments on the WebProNews site seem to suggest that Baily is not alone in his views.

While driving home an hour and a bit ago… i had the radio on in the car and quite by chance while searching through stations i decided to listen to the BBC World Service.

What do you think about Global Warming?

The feature was about Global Warming, Not unusual you may say.. given that the Copenhagen International Climate Change Summit is kicking off today. The key part of the feature was an international survey carried out by somebody (i forget who it was now) which recorded results that around the world there is far more concern within populations about global warming and its effects than there was last year.

Are you concerned about global warming?

What i couldn’t believe i had heard was that in two countries, China and the USA there are reported to be fewer people who are concerned about Global Warming than there were just 12months ago. China and the USA are also coincidentally the worlds two biggest polluters.

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Philip Laing, the 19 year old yob who pissed over a wreath on a First World War memorial in sheffield has escaped jail, but landed up with 250hrs community service.

Does community service really act as a deterrant to others in this day and age?

Philip, who was on a commercially organised pub crawl operated by Carnage UK, consumed copius amounts of alcohol at £1 a drink. The company was critised by the judge who suggested that maybe someone from the company should also have been in the dock.

Should Companies like Carnage UK be held to account for scenes like this and if so, to what degree?

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At least it appears it has said no on the piece of legislation used by the OFT. It also appears that the judge has hinted in his ruling that the OFT could potentially have a case however if it uses another clause in the Unfair Terms and Conditions in Contracts laws (UTCC).

Many who have been trying to reclaim bank charges levied against them by the banks to the tune of up to £40 for going even £1 overdrawn on their accounts were evidently disappointed but even more determined to carry on the fight.

One spokesman for the banks has been quoted as saying “enough is now enough and it is over”.

However the website moneysaving expert run by Martin Lewis has declared that although today’s judgement was a blow, that a ‘Phoenix has risen from the flames’ thanks to the judges hints.

• Should Banks be made to repay the charges?
  
• Should free banking for some be funded by those who can least afford it?

At the moment it sounds like the issue is far from dead in the water.