1 Timothy 5:18

Yesterday's figures  from our mendacious government claim a reduction in dole claimants. It is a fact not widely known that unemployed people who are placed on work related activities (workfare) are classed as being no longer unemployed. This sleight of hand, or lie if you will, instantly reduces the figures. The figures also hide the massive under-employment in this country with millions in part-time work. There is, of course, massive resentment at the use of unpaid labour in commercial firms but perhaps the biggest ire is aimed at charities taking on so-called volunteers who are nothing of the sort and cannot leave for fear of losing benefits for up to three years. Thankfully many firms and charities have withdrawn from the scheme. There are many small protests up and down the country about this but I suspect that when the diabolical changes to housing benefit and council tax benefit come into effect in April we shall see massive protests.

Today's image is part of a dozen or so on a wall facing the river showing trades and skills from the past. It shows a navvy who would never have dreamt of working for no pay.

Toys "Я" Them

I don't know what children make of this big impersonal toy supermarket. Clearly it's not aimed at them but at their parent's wallets. Still the sign's colourful. 

High hopes on High Street

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a plot of land standing idle must be in want of a hotel. So this site between High Street and the river has been earmarked for an "iconic" 22 storey hotel and conference centre [ 1 ].  Well in the intervening six months 22 has become 18 and no doubt by the time it ever gets built it'll be 5 or 6. Here's an impression of the latest scheme, it's a wonderful box shape don't you think, so original and so in keeping with the area. Readers with long memories may recall a proposal I mentioned to build a hotel complex a little further up the river at Clarence Mill two years ago almost to the day [ 2 ]; well nothing has come of that little plan either.

Ogre

This handsome fellow guards the entrance to a cattery that claims to have 'luxury holiday chalets for cats'. I've seen the website and I wouldn't let my cats go there; they'd never want to come back. It's on Long Lane between Cottingham and Beverley.

Neptune sunk

In March last year I posted about the installation of this tidal power generator [ 1 ]. Sadly earlier this month the company running it announced that it had gone into liquidation [ 2 ]. It seems the use of a vertical turbine was technically flawed and unsuitable for commercial use. It's one of those instances were the small scale models gave misleadingly optimistic results that the full scale could not deliver. This is a considerable setback to the development of tidal power on the Humber. 

With the gods on their side

At the end of January I showed a silhouette of this figure in Queen Victoria Square [ 1 ]. Well here's a proper look at this piece of Edwardian nonsense. Their sense of imperial might had clouded their judgement and they have slipped back into Roman times, City Hall in the background with its columns and cupola is a fine piece of a classical wannabe. This is clearly one of Neptune's little helpers giving a guiding hand to British shipping. If this reflected the mindset of the powers that be in 1903 what are we to make of the leafy ball that is planned for close by?

There's more monchrome madness at the Weekend in Black and White here.

Two men in a boat

What to do in Hull to while away an hour in a February snow shower... why not try a visit to the Hull & East Riding Museum? During those sixty short minutes you can go back 235 million years, come face to face with a woolly mammoth, walk by iron age swords, Roman mosaics, Saxon invaders and on to the siege of Hull in the civil war. If you like your history in bite sized morsels and over quickly this is the place for you.

These two well endowed figures were found in Roos Carr in East Yorkshire in the 1830's. Victorians being what they were thought the genitals, which are detachable, were short arms; when they eventually worked out what was what they kept them hidden. The figures are 2,600 years old and made of yew. As far I know no-one knows much what purpose they served or why they were left. There's more about this here.