Hootsuite forever

Just begun trialling Hootsuite and I think it's pretty cool. But a lot to learn.

F1 Handicap Race

A few years ago I was privileged to watch a handicap race at Oulton park featuring a range of single seater cars from different eras. It was only a short race of perhaps 6 laps with the fastest car setting off nearly a lap behind the slowest! It all came together over the last lap and was a great watch.

Wouldn't it be great to have a handicapped F1 race. It would be dangerous to have all the cars handicapped to the point that they all converged on the final lap - but setting the handicap point 5 or 10 laps from the end would provide an intriguing spectacle! Cars could start from the pit lane at intervals - Marussia's off first with the Red Bulls last. Throw pit stops into the mix and it would be quite a spectacle. I'd certainly pay good money to watch such a race.

Starting to like Lewis Hamilton

Something unexpected has happened over the past few Grands Prix, I've actually started to like and support Lewis Hamilton! When he was with McLaren, in a clearly great car, it was possible to respect his talent but still feel that he had been handed it all on a plate. Now that he is having to coax a reluctant Mercedes round the track I am beginning to appreciate his massive talent. This is all very difficult for a Schumacher, Button and Ferrari fan. I'm sure I'll get over the shock in due course. Anyway, let's hope for some more great racing to the end of the season. I don't want Vettel to just waltz away with the title. Can't wait for Spa - the greatest racing circuit of the lot (if we really can't have Brands Hatch back on the calendar).

The right to die

So, are we ever going to get the right to end our own lives in a dignified and humane manner at a time of our own choosing? No one bats an eyelid when a beloved pet is put down to relieve unbearable pain and suffering, yet the same right is not easily accorded human beings! Bizarrely, a non paralysed person can take their own life in any way they find acceptable - yet someone confined to a wheelchair has little or no options. Wouldn't it be much better if we could all buy a pill to do the job humanely. Plenty of safeguards could be introduced to ensure that the person seeking to take their own life was not wishing to do so because of other pressures. Don't worry, I'm not feeling in the slightest bit suicidal currently - sorry if that disappoints anyone! I do however feel a great deal of sympathy for the guys refused justice today.

Give us a job

Well, it's been a long time since my last blog, it's just amazing how time flies by. I'll get back to blogging about motorsport very soon - but right now I feel a need to rant about being mid 50 and seemingly unemployable.

Okay, there I was, happily plowing away in IT until the need to have a change came along and I left to purse a long held ambition to write. Nine years later and having learnt that I'm not going to be the next JK Rowling I need to find regular employment.

In those nine happy years I have written one novel and four film scripts, created two web businesses and qualified as a: Technical Trainer, Business Analyst, Prince 2 Project Manager and Bookkeeper. Despite all that valid endeavour I am currently not even getting a sniff at interviews for any kind of job - and I've applied for just about anything reasonable.  Can someone please explain to me why someone with 18 years IT experience - plus all of the above is considered unemployable? And to cap it all there are still people appearing on TV complaining that there's an IT skills shortage! (Oh yeah, forgot to add I can also program in C#, MVC, Entity Framework, Jquery, Razor etc etc etc). Rant over.

Melbourne Magic

Qualification is one thing - racing quite another. What a great start to the new F1 season. Plenty of action, surprising performance and even proper racing!

Maclaren have come out fighting and the rest must be wondering how to stop them before they cruise to an unassailable lead in the early fly-away races. An immaculate drive from Jenson Button. And hat's off to Kimi Raikkonen, after his very suspect qualidfication performance he demonstrated he can still race at the top. The Lotus looks a great package.

Unluckiest drive of the day must go to Pastor Maldonado who richly deserved to record early points for a rejuvenated Williams team. Perez in the Sauber was another star.

Ferrari had a so-so race and need to find some quick improvements or they may even find themselves outside the top 4 teams.

Bring on Malaysia next week. Can't wait.

Alonso Grits His Teeth

Well, here we are at last - another F1 season gets underway and the toys are already being thrown out of the pram! Alonso makes a mistake in qualification, slides backwards into the gravel and then takes it out on a marshall. It looks like it could be a frustrating start to the season for Ferrari fans as Massa was hardly shining this morning either.

Kimi also looks like he's finding out the hard way that F1 is no respecter of talent. You really can't step back into an F1 car after a few years away and expect to hit the front. Perhaps that will help temper people's views on Schumacher's return! But Michael's looking very much at home in the Mercedes this year. Could be an interesting season.

Elsewhere, I was highly impressed by new kid Jean-Eric Vergne driving for Torro Rosso - and where did Roman Grosjean's 3rd quali place come from? Roll on tomorrow morning. Best remember to set the alarm clock. Forgot this morning but woke at 5:45 anyway.

2012 Olympic Ceremonies Great Value at £80m

How on earth can spending £80m on the Olympic ceremonies be justified when athletes are struggling to compete through lack of funding, and when our country itself is all but bankrupt? These should be the austerity games - a chance for us to lead the way and show that hosting the Olympics needn't cost the earth?

Besides, who would miss the ceremonies - certainly not the Athletes. The ceremonies are just TV spectaculars and therefore quite unneceesary. All that's really needed is to march the Teams in and round the stadium , play a bit of music and light the flame - job done. As to the closing ceremony , many of the athletes have already returned home - so it's not for their benefit. And who cares anyway? Once the 4 x 400m has finished it's all over. But doesn't it make military action in Libya look cheap at £212m

Referenda

There was an intriguing suggestion on the TV last night re the Greek situation to the effect that some matters are too important to be trusted to a referendum. What an incredibly arrogant and undemocratic suggestion. I would say that some matters are so important that a referendum must be held! What is an election if not a weak form of referendum – weak in that we are asked to vote on a whole range of measures in a manifesto that may or may not actually be implemented. A referendum on a specific subject is a very strong form of democratic practice.

The arguments against holding referendums tend to concentrate on the cost and the potential for delay. I rather suspect that it has more to do with politicians not trusting the public to come up with the answer they want! But politicians really should be capable of arguing the merits of a given case. As it is the suggestion made implies the public cannot be relied upon to make a true judgement on a given case.

Of course referenda should not sought on every issue that arises but there must be a case for canvassing public opinion on key issues to judge whether a referendum should be held. I would go as far as to suggest that a referendum must be sought on any major issue – short of national security – that arises but was not contained in the governments election manifesto! That would sort out some of the nonsense we have as a result of the current coalition government. Failing that, I rather like the Swiss model where referendums must be held in certain situations or if demanded by enough petitioners. There’s a good article on Referendums in Wikipedia.

Schumacher to join Vettel at Red Bull

Wouldn't that make a great headline and an interesting team pairing! Anyway, it's good to see Michael back on form - it certainly looks like he's on a level with Rosberg now. But wouldn't it be interesting to see him in the best car up against the current best driver in the world.

The way things are going Michael must start wondering if all his records will tumble to Vettel. But anything could happen to the cars over the winter so who knows what 2012 will bring. Loved the India circuit - should be even better when the dust has dispersed. And wasn't it good to see Lewis and Felipe waving handbags around watched by Mr Bean!

Doesn't the BBC know when Halloween is?

Halloween is pretty obnoxious at the best of times but is not improved by the BBC trying to stretch it out over 3 days! Don't they know it's only Halloween on the 31st October - and not on the two days prior to then as well. Standards in West London have been slipping for some time. It's time we sent the ridiculous festival back to America where it belongs. Yet another commercial excuse to sell tat. And don't get me started on Xmas.

Give us our referendum

So once again we have been denied a referendum on our membership of the EU. Surely there can’t be a more important topic than who actually governs us. We were conned in 1975 and since then there hasn’t been an opportunity to voice our views on the direction the EU project has gone. Totally disgusting – won’t the politicians ever listen to the people that keep them employed? We elected each and every one of them on the basis that they would represent and reflect our views as our servants and not our masters. I applaud all the Tories that defied the 3 line whip – but what about the rest? I for one will never vote Conservative again. Now, come on David Cameron, give us our referendum!

A bad week for motorsport – RIP Marco Simoncelli

I was terribly saddened to turn on the TV to hear the awful news of Simoncelli’s tragic freak accident. Coming so soon after Dan Wheldon’s death it will no doubt set the anti-motorsport crowd off. So be it. I just hope things are kept in perspective. To my mind, road accidents in which families suffer tragedies through no fault of their own are far worse. I lost my own Mother, Aunt and Uncle in a car crash eleven years ago and it has not changed my views/enjoyment of motorsport. At least competitors in all motorsports know what they are doing and choose to put themselves in a position of risk.

Marco might not have had too many friends up and down the MotoGP pit lane but he certainly blew a breath of fresh air into the sport. Now, sadly, we will never know how good a rider he could have become. RIP Marco Simoncelli.

The Jury's out on DRS

As we near the end of the season it may be time to reflect on the introduction of DRS. So has it been the much heralded solution to the lack of overtaking in Formula One? Well, we’ve certainly had a season full of overtaking and many people will say with some justification that it has made overtaking too easy! But this year was always going to be difficult with DRS zones being set by guesswork. Now with plenty of statistics to go on it should be possible to set DRS zones far more accurately next season. That being the case perhaps we should only judge DRS after next year. Having said that, it would seem that there is quite a lot of interplay between KERS and DRS where one can sometimes be used to nullify the other. KERS is beginning to look like a defensive tool against DRS and perhaps DRS works best when combined with KERS. It’s certainly giving drivers something else to think about - and wasn’t it interesting to see Webber overtake Hamilton in Korea only to be instantly repassed.