Category Archives: Thinking allowed

Thinking allowed

Taking a long sabbatical

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This post has had a gestation period of 5 years, in fact since December 2018 when WordPress released the much-hyped Gutenberg Block Editor update.

At that time I’d been blogging on WordPress for nearly 10 years and felt comfortable with using the platform.

This was in the halcyon days of blogging when hundreds would come here every day to read about London. These days the hit rates rarely reach three figures, in fact, I’m now averaging less than 50.

But first a little bit about me. Having been a typesetter since the early 60s, in 1982 we dropped using ‘hot metal’ and started assembling pages of type matter using machine coding. So you would think with over 40 years of experience with this code assembly malarkey, using the ‘upgraded’ WordPress system would be a doddle. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be.

CabbieBlog’s theme is Twenty Fourteen released as WordPress’s theme of the year. The theme’s sidebar headings were displayed in a distinctive typeface in black with a rule running above them. Now if I want to insert a new item they cannot incorporate this heading, even though they at WordPress developed the theme. The only way is to copy a previous heading.

The sidebar ‘What I would read on the rank’ is written in CSS, unfortunately, the first few characters on each line disappear beneath the sidebar’s edge, so it’s guesswork to write up a new book’s description.

The block editor is fraught with traps. Each post section has to have a new block, and trying to code in HTML is nigh impossible. Mistakes are easily made unless you keep a strict eye, if you update the post it reverts to a draft and doesn’t then publish at the scheduled time, and things jump and move around all the time.

Also, every time you click on anything, you have to wait for everything to stop moving or you risk clicking on the wrong thing.

Refreshing the page is something that takes an age and getting to look at your work, as readers would read it, often just doesn’t work.

Can someone tell me what specific concrete problem was raised with the old editor that Gutenberg is supposed to solve?

Oh! Did I say? The times are given in a 12-hour clock, presumably, the Gutenberg children don’t understand 24-hour timings.

Much of this was overcome by using the ‘classic’ version, in other words as we have always written posts. This was still possible as a secret pull-down tab enabling you to post in the old way (thank you BeetleyPete followers for the tip).

Not content with making life difficult for hobby bloggers, WordPress has promised the ‘out-of-date’ dashboard will be upgraded, and, no doubt, the secret button removed, this, of course, will force you to write in block editor.

You might think this is a post about an old man not wanting change until you look at Gutenberg’s popularity rating, (at 25.03.24) in which out of 4,006 ratings 2,414 gave it just one star.

I’ve tried using it for a while and it is terrible and it’s just gotten worse, how many mouse clicks does it take to do the simplest thing? It may be great for people who know how they want everything to look, from the very beginning down to whether your links are no-follow, and which text will be in italics. But if you work on the fly, or God forbid, make a mistake and want to change things, it’s awful!

By way of an apology and an excuse for this rather rambling post, goes to explain the cession of the daily post from CabbieBlog. Life is too short to keep fighting Gutenberg’s idiosyncrasies.

So with a heavy heart soon only Saturday’s Previously Posted, Sunday’s Trivia and Monday’s London Quote will appear, up until 29th February 2032 at 13.50. The Tuesday to Friday postings will cease, with just the occasional missive to hold your attention.

Adverts may start to appear as I’m not now prepared to pay WordPress for their ‘Personal Package’ which, ironically, when launched was aimed at the hobbyist blogger, the very people WordPress is doing their damnedest to exclude.

There is good news, should you have an overwhelming urge to follow my witterings, Substack has a platform that makes it possible for writers to communicate via email, with the addition of an app should you wish to read work from other writers. Once in a while an occasional London subject pops up in my brain, often these are not worthy of a long-form post, or short enough for a tweet. As an experiment, I thought I’d try drafting these snippets for anyone who would like to receive them and send them via email. It’s free, of course, titled Unblogged London. Most posts will be short reads only taking a couple of minutes to peruse with the addition of the odd photo. At uncertain intervals, you won’t be getting these that often, they’ll pop into your inbox. Signing up is free (a paid version is offered for some other Substack writers), contributions from me will always cost nothing. If you’d like to sign up please do so and consider sharing. CabbieBlog can be now be found on Substack under the title: Unblogged London, sign up for free and download the app.

If you have been following CabbieBlog since the Dawn of Time a huge thank you, it has been quite a journey these past 15 years.

I can’t sign off before a special mention must be made to thank those who’ve taken the trouble to comment on my ramblings. Regular commentators know who are, again, thank you for putting your virtual pen to my comments box.

 

Thinking allowed

What do you say to cabbies?

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A study conducted by the taxi-hailing app, Freenow, has delved into what must be one of the most annoying aspects of being a London cabbie.

The good news is that the UK has emerged as having the second most sociable taxi passengers in Europe, trailing only behind Ireland.

The research focused on the interaction between passengers and black cab drivers, part delved into the top five questions posed by passengers, be they: traffic, cyclists, speed limits, or the correct route:

1 Have you been busy today?
2 How’s the traffic?
3 What do you think about cyclists?
4 Why is the speed limit 20mph?
5 Is there a quicker route because I’m in a hurry?

My questions, driving at the beginning of the Millennium tended to be:

1 What do you do for a living?
2 What time are you on ’til?
3 Where do you live? or Live far?
4 How long have you been a cabbie?
5 Had anyone famous in your cab?

Thinking allowed

No Farmers: No Food

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I have recently received this statement from Heather Gorringe, managing director of Wiggly Wigglers.

I think you have an interest in this campaign, after all you are likely to be composting, feeding the birds, or growing your own to be a Wiggly customer, and so I am going to take a risk and tell you what I think from the horse’s mouth as it were – no filter…It’s desperate times.

As one farmer put it:

Want to know why farmers are so angry? We’ve had enough of working for nothing, to produce something that everyone needs, whilst being told we are doing a sh-t job of it, by people who have never done it…

The squeeze on family and tenant farms is more than just a financial pinch; it’s a chokehold threatening to snuff out generations of tradition and custodianship of the land.

Here’s the blunt truth: asking farms to diversify while their core business bleeds money is like telling a sinking ship to carry more cargo. What other sector is advised to expand into new areas when the original enterprise is failing? It defies basic business logic.

Then there’s the baffling directive to produce less food under the guise of carbon sequestration and the environment. Let’s be clear: carbon reduction is a global challenge, not something that can be siloed within national borders. Arguing that reducing food production in the UK will somehow benefit the planet, ignores the reality that as long as humans need to eat it merely shifts the carbon footprint elsewhere and to countries with lower production standards.

This is not just short-sighted; it’s a recipe for disaster. The lessons of Ukraine and COVID-19 are clear – reliance on overseas trading can backfire dramatically in times of crisis. We need food security and support to produce the best food sustainably. No Farmers No Food.

The current approach by the government is unsustainable on two fronts: economically, for the farms themselves, and ecologically, for the planet. It risks the future of local farming and undermines global environmental efforts. They have forgotten the 3p’s People Planet Profit.

What can you, the consumer, do? First, really educate yourself about carbon, farming, and the real impact of your food choices.

Understand the issues facing farmers and the environment.

Then, support farmers directly by buying direct quality produce whenever possible. This not only helps sustain local economies but also reduces the carbon footprint associated with long-distance food transport.

I have no doubt it’s time to rethink our approach to farming and food production. Support buying directly, understand the broader impact of your choices, and advocate for policies that genuinely benefit the planet without undermining our food security. Remember, every purchase is a vote for the kind of world you want to live in.

Wiggly Wigglers is based in rural Herefordshire, within The Duchy of Cornwall Estate on Lower Blakemere Farm. From its humble beginnings on Heather’s kitchen table over 30 years ago, their small team sells items promoting sustainability and regeneration.

 

Thinking allowed

The most dangerous place in London

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If you’re a member of the Royal Family for tomorrow marks the 50th anniversary of the first attempt in modern times to kidnap a member of the Royal Family.

Princess Anne narrowly avoided kidnap while she was on her way back to Buckingham Palace.

Riding with her first husband Captain Mark Phillips, they had left a charity event and were returning to Buckingham Palace along Pall Mall, when a vehicle blocked their chauffeur-driven car.

Ian Ball drove his Ford Escort blocking the road, got out of the car and pulled out a handgun, shooting Princess Anne’s chauffeur and her security officer Jim Beaton.

Ron Russell, a 6ft 4in, ex-heavyweight boxer, suspected it was road rage, went over to see what was going on, realising that it was more serious, punched Ball in the back of the head and helped the Princess to safety.

PC Michael Hills arrived on the scene, as he called for backup was also shot by Ball. Finally, DC Peter Edmonds chased after Ball and he was arrested.

Ian Ball was charged with attempted murder and kidnapping, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. At his trial, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 41 years in the high-security psychiatric hospital, Broadmoor. He is still detained under the Mental Health Act at Broadmoor.

In 1936, George McMahon tried to assassinate the Queen’s father, King George VI as he rode his horse near Buckingham Palace. As McMahon was aiming with a revolver, a woman in the crowd grabbed his arm and a policeman punched him, causing the weapon to fly into the road and strike the monarch’s mount.

During the 1981 Trooping the Colour, Queen Elizabeth II rode down the mall on her 19-year-old steed, Burmese. Turning down Horseguards’ Parade, six shots rang out from the crowd. Although the shots were blanks, they startled the horse she remained remarkably stoic calming the startled steed with a couple of pats.

Constitution Hill really should be named Constitution Slope, as it barely rises along its thousand yards. The road might be short, but Queen Victoria had four assassination attempts upon her person. Edward Oxford, John Francis, and William Hamilton all shot at Queen Victoria in her carriage in 1840, 1842, and 1849, respectively. They all occurred very similarly, with each man firing at her carriage, failing to injure her or anyone else, and then getting swiftly captured and incarcerated afterwards.

Thinking allowed

Plain trees

I am reading Hedgelands by Christopher Hart. A chapter on the attributes of trees within a hedge is discussed.

Quoting research titled ‘The Value of Different Tree and Shrub Species to Wildlife’ by Keith Alexander, Jill Butler and Ted Green it transpired that the London plane is useless.

The paper’s authors rated trees as to their friendliest to British wildlife, using a range of criteria, rating species from one to five.

The London plane actually scored zero stars in several categories, including foliage inverts, wood decay inverts, blossom for pollen and nectar, also the tree’s fruits and seeds.

The species is a hybrid of the American sycamore and the Oriental plane, whose native territory is south-eastern Europe. But the London plane tree faces a problem. According to climate models from the Met Office, the planet’s mean temperature could increase by as much as 4°C by 2100, this will push the London plane to the edge of its range.

Only 1.36 per cent of the Capital’s trees are London planes, and they may not be much use to wildlife, but it has a redeeming attribute. The bark of the tree has the amazing ability to trap pollution. By shedding the bark, the tree removes pollution from the environment.