How bad is the economic situation at the moment? One perhaps should ask how one stimulates an economy. One significant stimulus is to devalue the countries currency in order to make drive exports. In the summer of 2008 I was in the US enjoying a 2:1 exchange rate, this February the exchange rate was just about 1.5:1 and the Euro has gone the same way. The pound therefore has been devalued by about 25% and the economy should be making significant strides to recovery; manufacturing should be exporting all over the world driving the recovery. Manufacturing, what manufacturing? The UK economy has turned into a service-based economy the coal, steel, UK car, ship building and many other manufacturing industries have all but disappeared. The majority of growth in the last 13 years has been in the public sector jobs and after the election huge saving need to be made in government spending. Efficiency saving translates pretty well into “do with less people time” either fewer or quicker. To grow the economy successful companies need to become more successful, increasing taxes so the incentive is to employ fewer and have less to invest probably is not the way to go. There is a good chance that the next time the growth in the economy is measured 0.2% this time around might not seem such a bad result. Double dip anyone?

The airlines are asking for compensation because of the volcanic ash cloud, do they have insurance? It would appear not and they would like the government to foot the bill. The rules are the same for everyone; if the airlines have insurance then they might be covered and if they don't then unlucky. They are complaining that an overly cautious approach was taken. This is an industry where you sit at 33,000 feet in a metal tube and you don't want the captain saying “sorry, slight miscalculation, it would appear the engines have stopped”. BA said the stoppage cost £28m, if one of their planes had crashed because a risk was taken it would have destroyed their business. Then the Irish man initially said he would not abide by the rules relating to delayed passengers, still, did the right thing in the end. I just don't use his airline; I want to land near where I am going with as little hassle as possible and not feel I'm being exploited at every opportunity. A low base price is not everything.

Something I never thought I'd say “travelling by train and loving it”. I take my bike on the train and cycle the 13 miles back along the canal home. The train is clean, not too busy and has been very reliable to date.

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