Tuesday

A day when I should have done lots of things and done very little. Tomorrow of the BCME, a conference of maths educators. Many years ago I realised that maths was the thing that was for me. It is still something which excites me and it is hard to understand why other people don't get excited by maths. It has a beauty which exceeds almost any other study, with both form and function.

Saw an old friend for coffee and we wondred why Blair has got so many old labour party workers so disillusioned. It seems that we are being told to vote New Labour because the alternatives are even worse. That seems to be blackmail, you have to vote for me, I might be dishonest and I will lie to you BUT I am still the best bet. Sorry I am not going to buy this story. If Labour haven't got the guts to get rid of Tony Blair then they had better lose their jobs. They let him lead them into an illegal war, support private profiteers and pretendthe market will support the poor and disadvantaged. This is both stupid and irresponsible.

Private companies exist to make a profit NOT to give a good service to their customers. They will give the cheapest quality goods and services and goodsthey can get away with. There is nothing new about this. Many people know the story of Archimedes leaping out of his bath shouting "Eureka". But do many people know why he was worrying. The King had bought a crown which the goldsmith claimed was made of gold. The King was suspicious but how to work out whetherthis was true, so he consulted Archimides. He knew what the density of gold was, but how to work out the volume. That was his eureka moment.

The point is that the goldsmith had lied and had not used pure gold. So private companies have always tried to cheat, and when we trust them to run public srvices they will still try to cheat! So never trust a profit making company, "caveat emptor", nothing changes.