Appy Talk

Share your results with your friends on social media, get a discount of up to 20% on your car insurance, it works on smart phones. Where this sort of description could be any of the myriad of games and adverts for apps these days, it is linked to Aviva car insurance, where if you log in and track your driving you could get a discount on your insurance.

Sounds perfect, who wouldn't want (up to) 20% off their annual insurance for downloading a free app and letting it score you out of 10 for your driving ability? There can surely be no downside to this at all can there?

Clearly there is, and the risks are probably more far reaching than people would guess from the friendly and fun adverts and campaign that is going along with this, that has actually been around a little while. 

Obviously this is my opinion and assumptions, I don't work for Aviva or know anyone who does, but as the main aim of an insurance company is not to pay out on a claim, any supposed "gift" should be viewed with a level of cynicism.

Imagine you are an insurance company. Clearly the ideal situation is to only insure safe drivers so the risk of any payouts is low, that is the most profitable scenario. So if you could screen customers first that would be great. As that is not really practical, getting your existing customers to do something like using an app to track their driving makes sense, as it will show you what the risk is. The initial requirement is 200 miles of driving to get your score and discount, which all sounds good - drive well and carefully for 200 miles and all is good.

What if it then became a log of 200 miles a month, and then had to be on for at least 50% of miles driven, or indeed all miles driven in the car. This is all trackable via the mileage at MOT etc, so you can't actually not do it if required. Instead of having a fun app to get a discount, you are now providing the details of your entire life to an insurance company.

A few obvious ones, if you always drove to a caravan park for weekends they would be able to guess you have a caravan, often at the boating lake - you have a boat, leaving your car at a pub every Friday night after work - you would flag as a binge drinker. What do you think would happen to your application for some life insurance when applying for a mortgage in a few years - more than likely be a lot higher than you would have had if they didn't have the Friday night piss up information on you.

Starts to add up now doesn't it.

Imagine you are at the stage where to keep your discount at the lower level you need to have the app on for at least 50% of your annual mileage and you have a small accident. Nothing major, but is going to cost a few grand in total to sort all the damage out. Now imagine you were driving at 50 in a 40 zone. It was OK as it was at about 5 in the morning, and the road was empty until that deer ran out in front of you. No worries really - make the call, get the cheque, get the work done on the car, all as good as new. 

Until the claims advisor rings you and says there is no payout - you were speeding because the app has recorded it, your own little "black box" just like a plane. Insurance not valid, have a nice day. Hmmm. Doesn't sound as good now does it?

Like I said, this is just my assumption of how this would pan out. The news is all about spies and Prism and Government data, and yet many people will willingly give all this data to an insurance company without a second thought. Much like the supermarket clubcards, they are not for you, they are for them to know every little thing about your life.

The first years insurance on a car is always a git to get, but once you have it, the power is yours as a consumer - and the best way to get a discount is to compare and change providers all the time to the best deal. Not to tell them you have a works piss up every Friday!

Put your hand on your knee...

...and count to 10. Advice to stop some of the knee jerking that happens at the event of all tragic and horrific murders, be they of children or in some way linked to "terrorism". The media whipping up moral panic and outrage on all sides, it is hard to keep out of it as each "side" takes more and more offence at anything that anyone else says.

The murder in daytime in London of the soldier by two men is the perfect storm in new media, and leaves less and less time to think before reacting, and the comments on line and in the street get far more aggressive far quicker than they ever used to be. I found out about the murder on twitter as I logged on and one of the first things I saw was the image of the man with bloodied hands, quickly followed by clicking on to watch the video, which I stopped within seconds.

There are a few areas of concern on things like this, starting with the knee jerking and the instant loss of common sense before commenting. Bring back hanging instantly makes an appearance, one of the best traits about the UK is the lack of capital punishment in my opinion. It doesn't work as a deterrent, so why are people so keen on it? Is it to watch in public as used to be the case, almost as a form of entertainment? Even if not seen live it would be on youtube within seconds, so not to worry if you miss it.

Second up is the call to deport "them". While there are legal processes for deportation of people that are used in the UK, this doesn't help in the case where people are born and live in the UK. Deport them to where? Where would we deport extreme right wing terrorists or those from the IRA? While the EDL are almost a parody of themselves, they have the capability to kill, there are racist killings more often that you would think, and also never forget that Anders Breivik was in communication with the EDL. We like to think it could never happen here, but it only takes one or two extremists as we saw all to sadly again this week. 

As soon as the deportation shout comes up, like night following day, people start to claim that could never happen due to "Political Correctness gone mad" and also that the Human Rights Act wouldn't allow it, and the story of the cat owner is never too far away. The fake and made up story about the cat, obviously. Again, like hanging, the Human Rights Act is what I like to believe is a good thing. It sets out rights that humans should have, and we try as best as we can to live up to them. Not like the good old USA who ignores them when it doesn't suit, or all those other countries we like to criticise the whole time for the way they treat women and children. You can't pick and choose who has human rights, it is fairly simply just all humans.

This cycle continues where incorrect facts and statements are made in abundance, and like the cat story, if you see it often enough it becomes true. Apparently you can't call people Muslim, well if they are you can, but worryingly a large amount of people seem incapable of distinguishing between a race and a religion. 

Referencing other cases to show the different way the media treats murders then becomes a whole different issue.

There are, sadly, many horrifc murders every day the world over, some get far more coverage than others and understanding the agenda of the media you are looking at is a key in understanding what you are being shown. I have just started watching The West Wing again, and there was a telling scene which shows just how much we have changed in a few short years. There was a story about to break about someone in the White House, and the question was asked as to when it would be in the news. The answer from CJ was that it was "On the internet now, so will be on the news by tomorrow evening". How quaint, over 24 hours before an event was on the TV news, now the chase is quick.

Very quick, and with very dubious reasons now as well.

The original video I glanced at in the early afternoon I saw again on the 10 PM news, and it was the same, apart from the logo of The Sun newspaper in the top corner, on the BBC news. So they had obviously bought it and terms of broadcast must have included the requirement to show the logo. The following day a different video of the probable killers being shot appeared, and this one was water marked with a Daily Mirror logo in the corner.

Take a step back and think about this. Newspapers having a logo on anything is for the reason of brand awareness and advertising. So the tabloid press think that using a brutal murder scene as an advert for their paper is acceptable. And no one cares. Many people being told what they can and can't say and think, but hardly anyone realises that the event itself is now being packaged as entertainment for commercial gain. Remember last year when we all hated the tabloids, all that has become chip paper and memories now it seems.

Not all Muslims are terrorists, not all Arab looking people are Muslims, not all English people think the EDL is a good thing, and many of us should count to ten a lot more often than we do.

Jump The Broomstick

Back to the wondrous place that is home to our "leaders" in a political sense and todays chat is all about who finds issues with two people of the same sex kissing in public.

Because that is what it is really about, and like racists at least admitting the real feelings is a starting point to grown up debate, but to try and say it is about religion is similar to saying Spurs finished 5th in the league this year because of a curse on their ground. Not true in other words.

In very simple terms, marriage has been re-defined so many times it is hard to understand what the discussion and debate and need for new laws is even about. Divorce in the UK is common because a King made up a religion. I am married, but that was an entirely non-religious ceremony, and civil partnerships have existed for some years, which as far as I can tell is the same thing in all but name. Age of consent has changed all over the world over the years, and continues to do so.

Whatever your religious beliefs, they hold no sway in real life, it is the legal part of marriage that is important, and mainly for financial reasons like pensions and inheritance more than any other reason. I have no issue with anyone who wants to have a religious ceremony, go for your life if that is what you want. I do struggle to understand why people would actually want a same sex religious marriage in a church that says being gay is a sin, but that is a whole other question.

The bill should be quite simple really, with all age and marrying relatives bits not changing, and is quite simply "Any two people above the age of consent can get married". Fill the forms in, pay the registrar and that is it. Two men, two women, one of each - how does is affect anyone else in the world?

Far too many MPs and Lords need to just grow up and worry about what are actual issues that affect us all, like the economy maybe?

India & UK - What is the agenda here?

While all regular listeners and people who know me will be well aware I both love and hate India in equal measures. The food and people, the sights and sounds are amazing but the inequality and poverty are among the worst in the world. But that is not for now, what I am very confused about is the news agenda in the UK and what seems some very strange focus points on the appalling issue of rape, and child abuse.

There have been a steady stream of stories from India about sexual abuse and rape which got the kick start from the lady in Delhi who was gang raped on a bus. Since then it seems a weekly story from India about some horrific crime makes headlines in the UK - on BBC and Sky News and in much of the print media. This is what I don't understand.

While in absolutely no way saying any one crime of this type is better / worse / different because of the country it is in, it is purely the reporting focus I don't get.

Earlier today, one of the top stories on the BBC Website was "Raped" Delhi five-year-old in a critical condition. Clearly a shocking story anywhere in the world, and nothing in the world can ever fix that poor child. Words can not express what a heinous crime this is, and we can all only hope that at least justice is carried out.

What is odd though is this article I read a few days ago in the Daily Telegraph, Children safer from strangers in the park than their bedroom, NSPCC warns. I initially thought this would just be the standard piece to quell the moral panic that every stranger is a paedophile and children should be outside a lot more these days. Which it sort of was, apart from one statistic dropped in the middle of the article. 

There were more than 21,500 recorded sexual offences against children in the UK last year alone including almost 6,000 rapes.

What the actual fuck? How is that not the headline? At very rough mental arithmetic, that is 15 child rapes a day. Have a look at the paper you bought today, watch the news, look on line, see if you can find coverage of 15 child rapes a day. I can tell you now that you can't find anything like that in any form of mainstream reporting.

Mass coverage of rapes from India, and almost no mention at all of what is happening in the UK - that is some crazy agenda from the media there. I am not saying anyone wants to hear or see this, but that you should. How can we as a country and society accept this?

In India for these few high profile cases there are riots and fingers pointed at the police for failings and corruption as people vent their anger and disbelief that these events even happen, in the UK they seem not to even make the papers. This can't be down to some weird interpretation of "PC gone mad" as I am sure certain papers would love to be printing some of these cases in all their "McCann" style glory, so what is it?

Why are we not allowed to see the bad news from the UK?

Delhi Again

Once more I find myself in India, and while I sip at a cold beer feeling very pleased with myself that I walked for about 4 hours around Delhi and did not get lost once, it reminded me that Delhi encapsulates everything I love and hate about India.

By one of those absolute chance scenarios this morning I saw it was a big day in the Sikh calendar, so with some help from twitter and Google I planned to vist a couple of temples that I had missed on previous visits. I have learned that they are called Gurdwara and my first stop was the Gurudwara Bangla Sahib which was incredibly busy, and the taxi driver who took me there just seemed to want to get out as quickly as possible for some reason. This was a shame as it was an amazingly beautiful place, with a large pool and some fantastic architecture, as you can see from the pic, I blended in like a local..

While being rushed I remembered that there was another Gurdwara in Old Delhi near the Red Fort, so after some intense discussion with the taxi driver he agreed to drop me off there and I would find my own way back. I walked up the busy road and when I got there it was almost total chaos with people everywhere, so I did what anyone would do and just asked someone if I was allowed in. This was Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib.

This lead to such an interesting couple of hours there I was so glad I did. After working out where to drop off my shoes and picking up some of the rules to follow so as not to offend and look like the bumbling tourist I usually do, I washed my hands and feet and entered. Rather than stand out, I felt welcomed, the music playing with the chanting of verses was hypnotic, and the peace and calm compared to the main road a few yards away was a welcome relief. The first main room where the music was was packed with people, sitting, meditating, relaxing and even sleeping, but the constant flow of people coming through was unstoppable. 

Restricting my urge to take too many pictures inside, I was approached by a couple of men, who asked if I wanted to understand what was happening. I spent the next while chatting with them about what the Gurdwara was, what faith was, some philosophical debate and the origin of the phrase "don't put all your eggs in one basket" which was not what I thought at all. 

We also chatted about the meaning of religious buildings and why they were created, and the creation and fall of the British Empire, and many other topics. While continuing to walk around the smell of food was not far away, and they explained that there was free meal for anyone who wanted or needed it being prepared and served in the next building, I will post some pics of that later. 

As above, this is the side of India I absolutely love. Friendly, approachable, happy, food. No pressure for anything, just the genuine desire to help and enjoy a good life. My first experience in India was like this in Kolkata, a place with so few tourists that there isn't an industry built around fleecing them! When walking there and being approached by someone it is almost always to check if I am lost or need help. In most areas there the sight of a large white man getting in peoples way is rare - and many a time I have been walked back to my hotel when I wasn't actually lost.

The difference in Delhi, and the main tourist places in India, like anywhere else in the world is that the main motivation for many people is to hoover as much money from you as possible in the shortest possible time. I met an Australian couple who had paid 3,000 Ruppees to a taxi driver for almost the same journey I had paid 100 for. The constant and incessant hawkers and rickshaw riders and drivers all over, obviously targeting the white people becomes unbearable at times. Clearly they need to earn a living and I always pay a good rate and tip, but some of it crosses into the realms of the Soho strip clubs with the £100 glass of champagne.  To translate the taxi prices, I paid about £1.50, the Australians had paid over £30, an expensive lesson for them, and will also leave a very bad memory of their time in Delhi.

The begging in Delhi is also a totally different level to the other places in India I have visited. At every traffic lights a seemingly teenage mother with a tiny baby will appear and tap on the car window or tap you on the shoulder if in a rickshaw. There is clearly no physical threat, but it is heart wrenching every single time as I just stare forward into space and ignore. I far prefer the "taking all of the toiletries every day from the hotel and giving to the street kids" method of trying to do the best I can. What they don't want or use they can sell, everything has a value. Toothbrushes and paste, soaps and razors, it is all good. This is balanced with a walk I had in the week where five of the most beautiful children I have seen started following me, all barefoot and filthy, constantly talking but not begging. After a few minutes we got to a lassi stall, I spent less than 30p on drinks for them, and the smiles of joy will like many experiences here stay with me forever.

Just those little bits make the annoyances of the other parts fade away.