Who to vote for in spring
I had been planning to blog this just before the next general election, but now that the main party conferences are over, I think the picture is clear.
It’s obvious that Labour is an unmitigated disaster, especially under Gordon Brown. They claim to be progressive and prudent, but they’re centralist authoritarians that waste our money. Also, they’re dependent on public-sector votes to a degree that makes it unlikely that they’ll ever be able to shrink the public sector to any meaningful degree.
It’s also clear that while the Tories have some interesting policies in some areas (e.g., their free school plans are captivating), they’re more hostile to the EU than ever before. Their plans to repatriate powers could lead to a huge disaster, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the UK left the Union if the Tories were in power for very long. Also, they haven’t really demonstrated that they have a proper plan for growing the British economy.
The SNP are doing a decent job in Scotland, although I disagree with quite a few of their ideas (esp. with regard to alcohol), but the only reason to vote SNP at a general election is to call for a referendum. At certain times, that might well be the most important question, and it is then proper to vote SNP at a Westminster election, but at the time of a deep financial crisis, it would be foolhardy.
That leaves the LibDems as the only party that will try to end the recession and keep the UK within the EU.
Of course, it’s unlikely that the LibDems will get a majority, but it’s not at all impossible that the Tories will need their votes to gain power, which would be a great outcome: The LibDems could prevent the Tories from doing anything really stupid in Europe, and the two parties could probably agree on a feasible economic recovery plan.
To conclude, here are my voting recommentations:
- If the LibDems have any chance of winning in your constituency, vote for them.
- If not, vote SNP/PC if they have a chance.
- If it’s down to Labour or the Conservatives, evaluate the local candidates and make your own choice.
Den forsinkede bryllupsfest
Som læsere af denne blog vil vide, blev Phyllis og mig gift den 28. februar.
Man vil måske også huske, at vi holdt brylluppet i huj og hast, fordi jeg havde fået at vide, at mit job muligvis skulle skæres væk.
Idéen var på det tidspunkt, at vi ville blive gift hurtigt og så holde bryllupsfesten, når jeg igen havde fast job.
Så langt, så godt! Vi blev gift, og det var en dejlig dag.
Vores nærmeste familie var der, og mange af Phyllis’ venner kom forbi til receptionen.
Det blev i månederne derefter klart, at jeg ville miste mit job, og vi fandt også ud af, at recessionen gjorde det meget vanskeligt at finde et godt job i Glasgow-området.
Vi startede derfor vores eget firma, og det har jeg ikke fortrudt – med fire børn i huset (og det femte på vej) er det skønt med den fleksibilitet, som det giver.
Men livet som selvstændig er også uforudsigeligt: Der er gode måneder, og der er dårlige måneder.
Det gør, at det desværre ikke er tilrådeligt at brænde en masse penge af på en stor fest på nuværende tidspunkt. 
Det er vel først, når de dårlige måneder er gode nok til at betale de faste udgifter, at man kan tillade sig at spendere overskuddet fra de gode måneder, og det punkt har vi ikke nået endnu.
Reelt er det derfor udelukket, at vi holder bryllupsfest i år, og de første par måneder efter den forventede fødsel i januar er vi nok for udkørte.
Hvis vi er heldige, kan vi derfor måske begynde at planlægge bryllupsfest i løbet af foråret (2010), men hvis firmaet tager længere tid at løbe i gang, kan det også nemt blive en del senere.
Det var naturligvis ikke det, vi så i ånden, da vi besluttede at adskille bryllup og fest – dengang troede vi, festen ville blive holdt nogle få måneder senere, mens vi stadig kunne genkende os selv på billederne.
Nu står vi så i en underlig situation: Til brylluppet gav nogle folk os gaver, men de fleste gjorde, hvad vi anbefalede på bloggene, og gav os blot et kort, hvor det stod, at vi ville få en gave til festen. Og mange af vores venner, især dem i Danmark, nåede måske slet ikke at opdage, at vi skulle giftes, og vi sendte dem ingen invitationer, da vi ville gøre det til festen i stedet.
Men hvem gider komme til en bryllupsfest flere år senere?
How to make business cards in LaTeX
When we set up our company, we needed some business cards.
VistaPrint will make business cards from a PDF file made according to the following specifications: “Full Bleed Size: 90mm x 52mm; Document Trim Size: 87mm x 49mm”.
I prefer doing typography in LaTeX, so I just needed to set this up properly.
I had a few problems with the margins, but with some help from DK-TUG’s mailing list, I came up with the following:
\documentclass[11pt,a4paper]{memoir}
\setstocksize{52mm}{90mm}
\setpagecc{49mm}{87mm}{*}
\settypeblocksize{43mm}{81mm}{*}
\setulmargins{3mm}{*}{*}
\setlrmargins{3mm}{*}{*}
\setheadfoot{0.1pt}{0.1pt}
\setheaderspaces{1pt}{*}{*}
\checkandfixthelayout[fixed]
\pagestyle{empty}
\usepackage{color}
\begin{document}
\pagecolor[cmyk]{...}
...
\end{document}
The “[fixed]” option is very important here, but it is only available in the newest versions of memoir, so you might need to upgrade this package if you have problems getting it to work.
After designing the actual business card, I ran it through pdflatex and uploaded the resulting file to VistaPrint, and it worked beautifully, as can be seen on the photo.
Happier news
The fact that my job is at risk means that our original plans for a wedding in early summer aren’t feasible any more.
However, waiting for stability to return during a bad recession could mean that we’d wait for the right moment for years and years, and we don’t want to do that.
So we’ve decided to do the opposite and get married as soon as possible, but have the party later.
My parents had already announced a visit next week, so we decided to get married on Saturday the 28th of February at 2pm in Park Circus (please do come along if you get a chance!).
Fortunately my sister, Miriam, has been able to get a ticket despite the ultra-short notice! 
As I wrote above, we’re still planning to have a real wedding party for friends and family at some later date, but we’ve no idea when that’ll be – it could be later this year, but it could also be one or two years hence if the recession gets worse.
Forlovet!
Phyllis’ skilsmisse gik endelig igennem i onsdags, så i dag fik jeg lokket hende ind til Glasgow, officielt for at finde en fødselsdagsgave til min søster, men reelt for at se på ringe i Argyll Arcade.
Efter nogle timer fandt vi endelig en smuk ring, en platinring med en marquise-formet diamant med exceptionelt klar farve.
Da Phyllis var med for at finde den, blev jeg “nødt” til at fri kort efter, og hun sagde heldigvis ja!
Vi har endnu ikke fastsat en dato for, hvornår vi skal giftes, men det finder vi sikkert snart ud af.
Gordon Brown and the euro
What is it with Gordon Brown and the euro?
I know he’s never liked it (it’s well-known Tony Blair wanted the UK to join but that Gordon Brown came up with a way to scupper his plans by setting up some tests that the Treasury could claim were not met), but something interesting has happened since he became prime minister.
If we look at the pound/euro exchange rate (see the graph on the left which I made based on data from this website), the euro kept falling for the first three years after it was introduced. This was the time when it didn’t exists physically, and during this time any of the eurozone countries could theoretically have called a halt to the process and insisted on reverting to their old currency.
However, shortly after the notes and coins were introduced, the euro started rising against the pound. Presumably, many former sceptics could now see that the euro was now here to stay, and that there was no easy way to go back for any of the participating countries.
Then for some time, more or less from the beginning of 2003 to the middle of last year, the pound was very stable against the euro, normally staying between 66p and 70p to the euro.
However, as soon as Gordon Brown became prime minister, something weird happened: The pound started dropping like a stone. I haven’t included the dollar in the graph, but what seems to have happened is that the pound has stopped mirroring the euro and attached itself to the falling dollar instead.
I guess many people might not fully have realised this yet, but when they come back from their summer holidays to the continent and study their bills, I think we’re going to see a reaction.
4D-scanning
Filed under: da, family, featured, kids, love, photography, pregnancy, science
I dag troppede vi syv mand høj (os, børnene, Dougie og Ann) op på en privat scanningsklinik på Ingram Street.
De scannede Phyllis, og ikke blot sagde de, at det med 97% sandsynlighed er en pige, men vi fik også en DVD med hjem med utrolige billeder af pigen!
Er hun ikke smuk? Jeg kan næsten ikke vente til december!
Buying a house
My two-bedroom flat in the city centre has felt a little bit crowded ever since Phyllis, Marcel, Charlotte and Léon moved in last year, and it’s not been ideal for Marcel and Charlotte to live so far from their school.
What with Bart arriving in December (no, we’ll find another name before then!), things were not going to get any better, so we were happy when we found a house in Newton Mearns with enough rooms for us all.
Phyllis has taken some nice photos of it.
The dimensions of the rooms are as follows:
| Name | Dimensions | Area | |
| Lounge | 399 | 363 | 14.48 |
| Dining | 328 | 310 | 10.15 |
| Kitchen | 378 | 282 | 10.67 |
| Family room | 597 | 216 | 12.89 |
| Dining/bedroom | 381 | 305 | 11.61 |
| Porch | 239 | 104 | 2.49 |
| Bedroom | 307 | 241 | 7.42 |
| Bedroom | 389 | 203 | 7.90 |
| Bedroom | 384 | 279 | 10.72 |
| Bedroom | 292 | 297 | 8.68 |
| Bathroom | 307 | 173 | 5.31 |
| Bathroom | 198 | 183 | 3.62 |
| Bathroom | 254 | 198 | 5.03 |
We’re thinking about making a new kitchen in the family room, and having three bathrooms with bathtubs is somewhat over the top, so we might do something about that, too.
The rooms listed above add up to 110 m2, but the survey claims the house altogether is 160 m2.