Reading headlines, anticipating Christmas and electronics - groups of three.

Here is the headline to an article in yesterday's Guardian newspaper: Romanian and Bulgarian workers in UK up 50,000 after curbs lifted. 

And here is the sub-headline: Britons account for two-thirds of extra jobs and are not being displaced by migrants, Labour Force Survey finds. 

So the headline suggests that the article is all about the increase in workers from Romania and Bulgaria but in fact it's not really about that at all. It gives a much more balanced view of the situation of immigration and employment. Figures for increased immigration generally were given. And yes, immigration has continued to increase, from both EU and non-EU countries. It goes on, however, to say: 
"But the Labour Force Survey provides little evidence of displacement of British workers by migrants. British workers accounted for two-thirds or 445,000 of the extra 675,000 people working in the British economy. Foreign nationals accounted for 230,000 or one-third of the increase in employment over the past year." 

The article also tells of a 30,000 reduction in EU immigration in June to September of this year. Just in case you thought this was because of our PM's efforts, it goes on to explain: 
"But the fall is more likely to do with seasonal variations than as a result of David Cameron’s high profile campaign to restrict free movement rights across Europe." 

So it's not just tabloid newspapers that use misleading headlines. No wonder people are so confused about the state of the world. 

Here's another example. We are led to believe that vast amounts of our taxes are spent on things to do with Europe. Well, today I received a letter from the taxman. Not a demand for extra tax, nor a (more pleasant) tax refund, the letter began: "For the first time we are sending you an Annual tax Summary." And it did just that, telling me how much money I have received and from where, as well as how much of that is taxed and how much tax they have taken from me. On the reverse was a nice little graph of how the money they take from me is used. 

Contrary to what excited propaganda might have us believe, a tiny proportion goes to the UK contribution to the EU budget. In fact if you put together what goes to the EU budget, to overseas aid, to the environment and to culture, that comes to the same as what is spent on defence. I wonder if I could opt out of contributing to defence spending! 

Imagine, though, the chaos if we could all opt out of or into paying our individual taxes into different bits of the annual budget. Those without children, or who send their children to expensive fee-paying private schools, might opt out of contributing to Education. The permanently healthy, and those with huge health insurance plans, might opt out of Health. Young people might stop contributing to State Pensions. Better to leave stuff as it is and just try to vote some more sensible people into government. 

 Other things! Last Friday they had the official ceremony to switch on the Christmas lights in central Manchester. (Cue for a fair amount of comment about how they could at least have waited until after Remembrance Day on the 11th of November.) The ceremony involved a host of "stars" I have never heard of! Yesterday I saw workmen busily erecting the stalls for the Christmas Markets, which I have just googled and discovered that they will extend over an even greater area of the city centre than last year. These too will be officially opened by a media star I have never heard of. I am clearly getting out of touch. 

In our village a huge Christmas tree has been put up in the square. It is not yet decorated but no doubt that will soon be remedied. Running around the village I have spotted a house which already has a decorated tree in the living room window. It's not quite the middle of November and the Christmas madness is well under way! 

Our nine year old grandson has begun to make a series of requests, along the lines of, "Grandma, for Christmas will you buy me .... ? To date this has included several age-inappropriate, very violent computer games, all declined. The latest was the FIFA 2015 game for the PS3 or a jar of pickles. If those are genuine alternatives, I wonder how he will feel about receiving a jar of pickles! 

His older sister, 17, has been having a series of electronic-device catastrophes. My mother always said things go in threes. it seems to be the case here. First she dropped her kindle and, catching it mid fall, gripped it so tightly she cracked the screen. Although the kindle still works, she can't read it as the screen shows fractured patterns instead of words. Probably reparable! Then she dropped her iPhone down the loo. Not a good idea. The phone works ... most of the time but clearly has not been improved by going for a swim. 

The latest disaster was her laptop. Perched on the sofa with the laptop beside her, she jumped up to get something, tangled her feet in the wire and the laptop hit the floor. After that it only gave her error messages. Computer-doctor Granddad has taken it apart, examined the entrails and put it back together. The prognosis is not good. Despite several goes at disconnecting and reconnecting the hard drive, in the hope that it was just a loose connection, the error message persists. Phil tells me that on the back of the hard drive is a warning message: avoid jolting! Maybe the message should be somewhere more prominent. 

I suspect someone needs to put in a special message to Santa. Let's hope she has been a good girl this year! And can she survive without laptop until December 25th?