By an extraordinary coincidence, the front page of The Sunday Times has come up with a rather more effective illustration of what one trillion looks like, than I employed in my previous blog. According to the ST, if you spend £1 every ten seconds (24/7), it will take 4 months to spend one million pounds. If you have one billion to fritter, you’ll need the help of cryogenics; the spending spree will take 317 years. The trillionaire looking to bankrupt him(her)self at the same rate will require considerable help from his/her descendants as the improbable mission would take an eye-watering 316,880 years. If you substitute dollars for pounds and reverse the process, to pay off the US National Debt would take a little under 7 million years. Now there’s a thought! I’d love to hear The Donald’s plans for that one.
All this is featured today because the Conservatives reckon one trillion pounds is what Labour’s spending plans would cost. Oh what fun they are all having. Does anybody believe anything this load of reprobates, of all hues, say now?
Anyway, back to my plans for enhancing education for all. The difficulties of playing sport at State Schools dates back to the 1970’s (from memory, it may have been even earlier), when clever people in high places realised they could make money by selling off school sports grounds and other recreational amenities. So many schools now have such pathetic facilities that the students are depending on local clubs and coaches if they wish to attain any level of competence. The ever growing need for building land means the chances of recovering the position is probably quite slim. However, I have a plan!
Put your hand up if you think society has become totally distorted and twisted in its priorities and values. Are footballers and other sportsmen GROSSLY overpaid? Should nurses, teachers, firemen, policemen, (doctors?), and all manner of other public servants be much better remunerated? Are far too many CEO’s and other senior executives disgracefully over-earning, often for under-performing?
How about if a salary cap was applied to football clubs? Dramatically reduce the ludicrous transfer fees and monumental salaries of the players and instead use those hundreds of millions of pounds for the greater good of their communities. If every leading football club was required to build state of the art facilities in various suitable places in their regions, specifically for use by schools and the wider public, what a dramatic effect that might have. Modern facilities, indoors and out, can be used 24/7 and whilst I agree it would require considerable planning and coordination, by lengthening the school day it should be possible to cater for a dramatically greater number of pupils than have anything at present. My children’s working day starts at 8.15am and typically ends anywhere between 5.30 and 8pm. Don’t abandon Public Schools, just make the State Sector more like them. As Jim Reeves might have said, “I hear the sound of distant squealing”!
Of course, none of this will happen until the whole world goes bankrupt, aliens from outer space finally decide to uncloak the invisibility shields on their earth-gazing spaceships and global warming causes such an ice melt that Africa becomes the size of Britain and our once great island does a rather sad impression of Atlantis.
ADayInTheStrifeOf 