Before you blame…

I’m a Quality Professional – a Chartered Quality Engineer working on the most advanced airliners flying.

One of the tools we use helps us find why problems occur. It is this tool that I think more people should understand when dealing with any problems in life. Such as why the dinner is cold, why the TV won’t turn on, why your countries industries are failing, why a group of people have been gunned down in a night club. That sort of thing. Anything.

The tool should be used before you go off spouting fixes for problems, when in reality you don’t know what the real problem is. Your fixes are simply sticking plasters over some of the results of the problem, and not fixing the problem itself.

Sometimes the parts we make have faults, and have to be scrapped because they’re not fit for flight.

Scrapped parts mean lost money, time, labour and materials, plus all the overhead costs and facilities required to make the part.

When a part is scrapped we carry out Root Cause Analysis (RCA), because obviously we don’t want to make scrap!

It’s fundamentally a simple process of figuring out the fault, then listing out some of the main causes of the fault, and then figuring out the main causes of those causes, and so on, until you reach the real root cause of the problem.

A simple example would be why the cup of tea (or coffee) you’ve just made is cold.

The water didn’t heat up. WHY?
The kettle didn’t work. WHY?
Was it turned on?
Yes…
Did the switch click?
Yes…
Did the light come on?
Yes…
Did it boil?
Ah… I wasn’t there, but it was left on and when I returned to it and poured my drink, it was cold… So obviously the kettle doesn’t work.
Maybe the heater element failed.
Maybe the fuse blew when you left the kitchen.
Maybe there was a power cut.
Maybe you didn’t click the switch fully.
Maybe someone came in and nicked your hot water for their drink, refilled the kettle and didn’t turn it on again.
Let’s say the switch is faulty… Problem solved.
Nope…
Why was it faulty?
Poor maintenance?
Damaged?
Not made correctly at the factory?
Let’s say it was damaged…
We could ask why you didn’t fix it, but that’s not part of the cause.
Why did it get damaged?
I knocked it off the counter a few weeks ago. WHY?
It was close to the edge. WHY?
The cord won’t reach the socket if it’s moved back.
Okay… Apart from not looking where your going, it appears that had the power cord been longer, the kettle could have been positioned away from the worktop edge and the kettle wouldn’t have been damaged.

That’s a long root cause for something that most people would’ve just stopped at ‘The kettle’s bust… Better get a new one…’

Sure, and in a week, a month, a year, the same thing will happen again because you didn’t fix the real problem… but next time it might have boiled, and your kid runs past and knocks it as it’s close to the edge…

What is my point?

The recent shootings in America have many people calling for tighter controls on guns.

Now whilst America does have very relaxed gun laws, the gun really isn’t the cause, it’s just a step in the root cause. Much like the broken switch… It doesn’t stop there.

Had there been no gun, a homemade bomb could’ve been used, a knife, gas, drive a truck into the crowd… So clearly restrictions on guns would not have stopped this from happening.

The question shouldn’t be HOW he carried out the attack, but WHY?

At the moment the news points to the person having said it was done in the name of ISIS & Islam.

Why was he so adamant on his actions?
What caused him to become this extreme?
Was it his upbringing?
Was it his education?
Was it how he was taught to behave?
Was it how he was taught to believe?

What enabled this to happen?

In this case it is the interpretation of a religion.

Maybe people are looking at restricting the wrong things.

You can take away some of the enablers, but without acting on fixing the root cause, the massacre would still have happened, just by different means.

EU – IN or OUT?

One EU comment I see Brexit people make is that trade won’t suffer, because Norway isn’t in the EU and it has great trade deals, so that’s brilliant.

Another comment I see is that leaving will give us control of our borders and get rid of immigrants, and we’d have more jobs etc.

Back to the Norway thing… Yes, they have a sweet deal going where they can trade and not be members.

Part of that deal is that Norway allow free movement of immigration, the same as the rest of the EU.

Oh… So… Free trade, but with immigration?!?

You mean both things go together, and not just one banner waving example to bias my decision based on a blinkered segment of information?!?

It’s about time some people left racism and knee jerk comments and banner waving at home, and looked at the bigger picture instead of focusing on one key thing that they *think* will change.

I see and hear too many people ranting, swearing, abusing, pros and cons based on heresay, poor or no research or simply because ‘BRITAIN!!!‘.

Others voting to exit because of WW2. Seriously, people don’t want to be close to Germany because of what Hitler did a lifetime ago.

Some want in/out because of what has happened (for example) to our diminished numbers of military personnel (or NHS or whatever…). You must be crazy to not realise that these things would’ve happened regardless.

Blaming the EU for things just because you need a scape goat. Ridiculous. It’s the same for people giving false credit to the EU for other things. Differentiate, people.

Others are looking to vote simply to spite or support what the political parties say, rather than what’s actually best. People not voting one way because ‘fucking Cameron‘ is voting that way, or ‘commie Corbyn‘ wants this way…

Who cares which way a political leader votes? I care about the outcome more than I care about some knuckle dragging thick-headed moron thinking I must be a supporter of Mr X because I voted one way or the other.

Looking and hearing some of the racist, hate filled and bigoted comments of people about this topic makes me think ‘does Europe even want us, if that’s the image we portray?!?‘

Some say who cares what Europe thinks of us? Fuck ’em! We’d be independent! BRITAIN!!!

Yeah, great attitude. We’d be right on the top of Europe’s ‘let’s trade with them‘ list, wouldn’t we?

‘Fuck off EU!!!….By the way… Do you want to buy some British cars, you bunch of immigrant loving foreigners?!?….  What do you mean ‘no’…?’

You know how we picture Trump and America…? We laugh at the idiot sheep that blindly follow him and his hype. Oh, how stupid Americans are! Look how they all rally around like idiots, Suckling on the teat of what that idiot spouts! Ha ha!

Yeah… Take a look at yourselves.

I despair at the increasingly misinformed, bigoted, rage fuelled reasons that people give for voting in or out.

Do yourselves a favour and actually do some proper research.

If we’re in or out, let’s be in or out because of intelligent fact based and fact checked knowledge, and not because a bunch of ignorant pricks voted due to whatever misinformed bandwagon they are hitched on to, or because a tabloid newspaper wrote some poorly thought out banner headline.

And that’s it.

Vote In or Out, but at least do yourself a favour and do some bloody research (that isn’t a tabloid, your mates or a politically biased website).

Free the Power

On this day in history in 1941 a Nazi scientific research team of the Atomic Weaponry Unit (Erfundene Geschichte Einheit), lead by two scientists (Doctor Ernst Falschenamen and Doctor Torsten Alleslügen) protected by two squads of Gestapo SS (Geschlechtsorgane) made a dramatic discovery in Southern region of the Belgium Congo.

After many years, the truth is finally coming out about the potential leap in technology that the Nazi’s almost had, that the British lost to American espionage, and how the Russians managed to save a man just too late to make a difference.

Belgium Congo

During research into cold reticulated fusion (Bestehend aus Müll) they discovered a form of atomic chain reaction that formed stable perpetual energy creation (Schlucken Sie diese). What made this new energy even more remarkable was that it could be created using very basic equipment and left no damaging waste. It could power a new generation of giant long range bombers capable of hitting New York from bases in Berlin. If weaponised it could form the basis of a bomb calculated to be 28.5 times more powerful than that of the one dropped on Hiroshima.

One of the only known photo’s of Doctor Ernst Falschenamen and Doctor Torsten Alleslügen together. Falschenamen on the right.

The discovery was hushed up to keep the Allied forces unaware of Germany’s potential new advances. All of the data was packaged securely and sent by submarine (U-617 Night Warrior – Nicht Wahr) via the sea port at Providenija. Travelling with the package were the two lead scientific officers.

Unfortunately for Hitler the submarine was intercepted by a British RAF crew retrieval launch looking for downed aviators. Before the RAF launch crew could act, the Gestapo SS teams started gunning down the submarine crew as a matter of security, then the submarine was set to sink with all on board. Before it sunk the RAF launch crew boarded the submarine and after a short but fierce gun fight the packages and two lead scientists were transferred to the RAF launch and shipped back to England.

RAF Rescue launch of the type that captured the two lead scientists.

Once back in Britain the package and the lead scientists were picked up by a transport from a UK based American forces garrison to be taken to London and for attention of the War Ministry & the PM, Winston Churchill.

Churchill was fascinated by what rumours he had heard of the new technology and wanted to see if he could use it to supply clean cheap energy initially to England, and then the rest of the Allies, with plans to then supply the rest of the world once the war had ended. His view was that the world infrastructure would take a lot of time and money to recover from WW2, but with cheap free energy the focus could be on putting the effort and finance into helping people recover from the war and then develop for a better peaceful future.

The package and the two lead scientists never made it to London. A German air raid took place during the transportation to London. One of the scientists was discovered torn in two in a bomb crater near Bethnal Green.

Bomb crater from Luftwaffe night raid.

No more was heard of the package and the lead scientists until 1987 when a German arrived in Russia from America. He had been smuggled out by Russian agents (Бык дерьмо) operating in America.

The German said that he had been part of an expedition to the Belgium Congo in 1941 and had lead a team of scientists who had researched a new form of energy. British and German scientific historians were contacted to ask to corroborate information given by this American/German escapee.

German medical records proved his credentials, and scientific data only he could know proved he was one of the lead scientists.

He explained that during transportation to London, the Americans had changed course to a naval base on the West coast. They were going to smuggle the scientists and the data for American use, as President Eisenhower wanted to use it for a super weapon.

American destroyer of the type believed to have transported the Doctor to America.

They knew the British would be suspicious so they sent a vehicle to London with one of the lead scientists, who they threw in a bomb crater under the cover of a Nazi air raid. They threw in a hand grenade to kill him & make it look like he had been caught in a bomb blast.

The package and remaining lead scientist were taken to Nevada (America) to restart the research process. Unfortunately the scientist they killed had the knowledge about the precise formulation of the experiment as even when the discovery was made they knew it could not be trusted to any one source.

For security reasons only part of the data was recorded on paper, with one formula left out, half of which was memorised by three scientists and a lead scientific officer, and the other half by three more scientists and a lead scientific officer. Only the two lead scientists survived the submarine trip (all the others having been shot & sunk with the submarine), and then the Americans foolishly killed one lead scientist to cover their own espionage.

Captured U-Boat.

From 1942 until his escape in 1987 the German Lead Scientist had helped America develop more and more powerful weapons, but he wanted to use his research to help people. In the early 1980’s he had made progress and had demonstrated the initial designs for a clean and cheap energy source based on the 1941 research. With a little development and funding he could change the face of the world, but people in high office did not want this.

American security analysts saw this free and clean energy as a potential threat. Oil companies and motor companies saw it as disastrous for their profits. They had the project cancelled. For all we know they still have all the data locked away.

The lead scientist was approached by a woman in the mid 1980’s who said she could help him. She was the Russian agent who managed to help him escape to Russia.

Doctor Torsten Alleslügen in 1987, 3 days before he died.

 

Sadly not long after his story had been verified he was taken ill. It turned out he had well established stomach cancer and was already beyond help. He died in 1987 taking with him the final key to a Nazi secret power source that could have potentially replaced the climate destroying energy sources in use today.

Was all the data really lost? It is highly likely from what Doctor Alleslügen reported after his escape to Russia, that the American Government didn’t actually destroy data and designs produced in the early 1980’s, and that they are keeping it from becoming public, still stating it as a security threat and a potential financial minefield for their big oil and automotive companies.

Evocative Faceslap

I was listening to Adagio for Strings, Op.11 whilst I was going through news sites on line.

I watched some footage of both the Boston bomb & the Texas explosion… and the haunting violin music played on…

….and wondered why Fox News hadn’t already done this… Just slowed the video footage down & played Adagio for Strings over the top of it, pulling focus & then panning the scene, going in tight on a scared child’s face… You know, just to really pander to America’s heart strings. They seem that sort of a news network.

In fact, even a slow motion video of a big dog crapping becomes an epic emotional event when Adagio for Strings is played over it.

I expect Fox will realise this soon & use it in every news item they air.

…. AND THEN…. I go to look for a clip of the music to add to this blog entry for those who don’t know it, and I straight away find it … played over pictures of the 9/11 attacks…

Unbelievable.

Bad Cars, Monster Bugs & Colour me Good!

Shopping in Camberley over the weekend….Two parts – The Travesty of the Chevy Aveo and the Awesome VW Baja Bug… (you may wish to skip to the VW Baja bug part…)

As I had to go shopping & visit the bank at the weekend, and Chris has some trips to take during the week, I hired a cheap car.

It’s a Chevrolet Aveo, and it’s all wrong!

Not bad looking… terrible personality though

Not too bad here either… just don’t touch!

It looks okay inside and out (once you ignore the huge cheap plastic Chevrolet badge), but once you get tactile, the thing proves to be very cheap and flimsy. Thin plastic dashboard, body panels that pop in and out – but to look at, it’s not bad….

Once the engine starts and you pull away…. eventually…. you gain some speed…. then you’ll have to steer….

It wallows and rolls from the lowest speeds and gets worse as you get faster. The steering is super light and the slightest turn of the wheel has the car turning as though it’s one of those bikes from Disney’s “Tron“! Trouble is, it feels like it’s about to fall over at any moment! It is actually scary!

It’s a bit like a speed boat… It drives as though it is about to flip over and the steering is far too light! It’s so light the car needs constant adjusting to stay straight – Not great on a motorway!

Worse still is the suspension! For all of that wallowing and threats to roll the car over at walking pace, you end up breaking your back if you hit pebbles or slight bumps in the road! How can the ride be so harsh when the handling is so soft and pathetic?!

Fuel economy is great though…. So it looks alright, economy is great… ride is terrible and handling is more vague than a cornered politician.

BUT…. once it was parked in the Camberley car park things picked up! Well…. that’s because we had parked next to the most awesome of VW Beetles!

Wicked Bug!

Alex thought it was brilliant – A big Herbie! Big Racing Herbie!!! – and I think he was spot on! It was brilliant! I’m not a great VW Bug fan, but this one looked fantastic! Thumbs up to the VW Baja Bug!

I took the opportunity to use my iPhone photo adjustment applications. Due to the car park environment the Beetle didn’t really stand out – but some new software on the iPhone (ColorSplash and Photogene) produced some great shots!

The before shot….

…and after…

These two applications are great on the iPhone. I have had lots of success (well, I think I have!) adjusting various pictures I have taken… Here are a few more… or follow THIS LINK to see my Flickr page.

E-Type Jaguar at Goodwood Breakfast Club Event

The 1lb burger from my America Trip

Bowler Wildcat from 2006 Goodwood Festival of Speed

Eye Opening America

My new job has lead me to be in America for a few days…(The photo’s are all HERE)

It’s my own fault really – I admitted to knowing about a product we are looking into, and also that I have Quality Engineering qualifications & experience. Next thing you know I’m sat on a British Airways Boeing 747-400 at Heathrow and chugging off down the runway to start the long haul flight to Seattle.

I had an idea that the trip was coming up, but I didn’t realise that it would be at such short notice. We had 3 working days to sort it all out – Transportation, Flights, Hotels – and all the various forms needed to do the trip.

I’ve not “done” America before – nor have I flown for more than 90 minutes – so no matter what the trip was about, it was going to be an adventure and learning curve. The only advice I was given was “Order small – don’t go for the medium or large meals” – So I took that info in.

I woke at 6am on Tuesday 12th May and went into work as per usual. Just before midday I went back home to meet up with the taxi that would take me and my work colleague (KM) to Heathrow.

The taxi ride was uneventful and we arrived at Terminal 5 with time to kill. We had booked in on line and also filled in all the immigration paperwork on-line. We only had hand luggage so went straight through check in and grabbed a coffee as we waited to be called. All very painless and smoothly done – T5 seems to have learnt a lot from the previous terminals.

At around 3pm (UK) we got comfy on the aircraft… well, as comfy as economy will allow a 6’4″ guy to be! Luckily we had booked ahead so we had seats in the rear of the aircraft where the body narrows, so instead of three abreast we had a double. It didn’t offer more legroom, but it did mean I could stretch out to one a bit due to a slight gap between the seat in front and the side of the aircraft. If you look at the picture You’ll see row 52. We were in the seats on the right (last but one row – I was window side).

We trundled off down the runway and started our trip up towards Scotland, then over Iceland, Greenland and on past Canada into America. Around 9 hours flight time…. and with an 8 hour difference in time we landed 1 hour after we took off….

The views were extraordinary – I’ve not seen anything like it before. Icebergs and frozen land masses bigger than you can imagine. I had to take a few photo’s to try and show those who haven’t done it before how great it is.

Eventually we get to Seattle at 5pm (1am UK) and 5pm. Now it was a case of finding the hire car company and driving a further 120 miles to Woodland PA where the motel I had booked was situated (I was a bit nervous about a few things with the motel…. Firstly, it was a motel… secondly, I had no real idea of what it was like, apart from a Googlemap Streetview that showed it right next to a motorway….).

The hire car was a Toyota Prius – A car that does what it has to do (don’t call it an eco-car… it’s far from being an eco-car). It was a bit weird to get into the wrong side of a near silent car and drive out on the wrong side of the road at what should’ve been 1am and dark out – but was actually now 5pm and bright sun… The Prius is an odd beast… No key as such, just a block you shove into a hole. You start it by pressing a button at the same time as the gas… then you burn a goat and select drive… and select drive…. and look for the handbrake… and try to select drive…. Look – we were tired and had never been in one before!

KM drove the 2hr trip down the I-5 to Woodland. The sun was out and we felt refreshed as we went past what would have been 2am and 3am in the UK…

Eventually after driving through some immense scenery we arrived at Woodlands WA at the Lewis River Inn. First glance was that it wasn’t on a motorway – just a normal wide American road… very wide. Probably called a lane out in America…. or a Motorway in the UK…..

After booking in we took our first look at the rooms…. or tried to. The electronic swipe cards didn’t work, so I went and changed them. They still didn’t work so KM went and changed them – This time a Motel person came up to the 2nd floor rooms to see if we were just being daft….

Using the new key cards my door opened up, but KM still had a problem…. a problem that was rectified by him walking a few strides to the left and trying the card in the correct door…. We were tired, okay?!

The room was huge…. Proper huge. So much bigger than a Holiday Inn or similar – looking at about twice the size. big TV, full size fridge (full size for the UK….) and a view… oh Lord what a view!

I had booked two balcony rooms overlooking the river. I thought if the weather was good I could sit out and read in the evening, or catch up with my work notes. I didn’t expect too much of a view – and was proven wrong! Great rooms, great views! Best place I have ever stayed in – and that is no word of a lie.

We dropped our bags in our rooms – splash of water on our faces and then went in search of food. The search lasted 30 seconds… Mexican restaurant across the street…..

I remembered to not order big helpings, and I am so glad I was told this advice. This picture shows KM tucking into his meal… It was just a regular meal…. I chose the Tres Amigos chile with three samplers of different dishes on it… HA!! these Americans obviously don’t know the difference between “SAMPLER” and “FULL BLOWN MEAL”, as I was given a plate like a dustbin lid with enough food for a small army…. or at least a family of 4 from Europe.

That night I saw the pillow but was asleep before I hit it… Over 25hrs since I had last slept had finally taken its toll on me.

On the second day on American soil we set about planning the audit. It was a wet day, so we started with a breakfast at Rosie’s Restaurant (www.rosiesrestaurantusa.com). This would become the daily haunt for our morning food – and on the final day it would provide me with my last big taste of America.

As with all the eateries we hit, Rosie’s had great service. It was fast and polite – You didn’t even get fully sat down before the iced water and coffee hit the table – and that never dropped below half a cup as it was always being topped up.

We did a little shopping in the local stores before heading back to the Motel to get to work on the audit notes. After we had completed that it was getting late, so we went for a short drive and then went for food. Nothing special on this night – just a burger at a chain burger restaurant – and although they were tasty they lacked a certain Americaness. The regular burger was the same size as a UK Big Mac…. and the Colossus Burger was… well, the same size again. Nothing eye opening about that at all.

The following morning we headed out across to the company we had to audit. I can’t really go much into that as it is business related, but I can say the company were very helpful and accomadating and went out of there way to make sure we had everything we needed. One guy (hey Dave!) also pointed us in the direction of a WalMart (so we could try a bit more Americana). After the days auditing we washed up and went off to WalMart to find out what the fuss was all about…

It had to be the first time I expected to see the curvature of the earth within one shop! The building was huge – and cheap. I guess with lower land prices it is easy to put out better prices and have larger shops. WalMart is pretty much a UK Tesco hypermarket, Homebase hypermarket, HM Supplies hypermarket, Halfords hypermarket etc all wrapped into one brand store…

Our evening meal at an American Restaurant (Oak Tree). A good sized meal with another American dish to finish off… Apple Pie. Let’s face it, we had a packed business trip, so I had to try and get as much as I could out of the limited downtime.

The final day we ate once more at Rosie’s – and as this was the last day I figured I’d see if Rosie’s would serve a burger up as a breakfast item… silly question really as they do. I saw they had no 1/4lb burgers on the menu – the smallest was a 1/3lb burger. Well… 1/3 is pretty big, but they also had 2/3lb burgers… the biggest was a double 2/3lb burger!  Yup… 1 1/3lb in one bun! I didn’t go for that as I wanted a single patty of meat instead of the stacked things that just fall apart. My answer was in a 1lb burger!!! It was the size of a UK dinner plate and full of a succulent burger with a great relish and salad. I had to cut it in half to eat it – so two 1/2lb parts! I managed the whole thing quite easily as it was so darn tasty!

Following on from breakfast we went to the company we were auditing to collect some more paperwork they were putting together for us. After a wrap up meeting it was time to head back to the airport. We had a few hours to spare, so we detoured off of the I5 and went via the recommended Mount Saint Helens as we made our way to Seatac airport (Once more – thanks to Dave for that pointer – much appreciated).

Mount Saint Helens… as it came into view it was awe inspiring. I’m afraid there really isn’t much to say… even the pictures do not do it any credit. All my senses just over loaded as we drove up the surrounding mountains to various parking areas with viewing points. Looking down 2,500ft to the roads and forests below just didn’t seem real – it looked like a diorama from a museum. The huge vastness of the whole area simply destroyed any perspective I had.

Our altitude was just insignificant as my mind had trouble getting around what it could see. In fact as we drove higher up it looked even more surreal. At one point we were stood on a brick wall 3,800ft over a valley and it didn’t seem to register! Pretty much overloaded with everything else to be worried!

At the furthest point of our detour we visited Coldwater Lake. This was another place that gave me a sensory over load. The place was not just quiet – it was silent. No telephone signals, no gift stores, no public… just us…No noise… nothing. No wind, no trees, no water burbling… just nothing. It’s so hard to even describe what total silence is like. You can’t put your fingers in your ears to experience it either, as you’ll hear the blood rushing and pulsing within your head…. nope…. Coldwater Lake was something else. A volcanic lake of the clearest green/blue melted ice water – It was beautiful.

As we carried on our trip to Seatac airport we stopped over for lunch at a Wendy’s. It was in the car park that I suddenly realised one of the things that had been playing on my mind for the whole trip…. the fact that there is a whole lot of sky. Everything is so spread out – even in the built up areas – that you are very aware of the unbroken views you had of the sky. It made the whole pace seem even bigger. Amercican cars, roads, homes etc may seem really big compared to the UK, but when it cames down to it they do not look out of place in America, where the roads, cars and homes look so very small compared to the environment they are in.

I cannot really explain my thoughts in one blog page – for once I am at a loss – but there was a final helping hand from the view out of the airliner window as we came in to land in England….

As we turned to land the altitude display in the seat in front of me showed we were at 3,800ft…. I took a photo out of the window and suddenly it clicked…. not 12 hours earlier I was stood on a brick wall at around the same altitude looking at Mount Saint Helens and down on the miniature forests and towns below…. The difference was that I was now in an aircraft with no ground under my feet… I had perspective… and we were damned high up. In the air above the UK the altitude made sense… the sheer size of the St Helens view focused a bit better…

As I had only taken a carry on bag with me I had very little room for gifts. All Chris wanted was a selected of candy that was very American and seen in movies – and for Alex it had to be a car!

A saviour of the trip was the fact I had my Mac with me. I set it up with Skype so I was able to talk to, and see, Chris and Alex back in the UK. It was using this that Chris told me about her viral infection… Her head had inflated over night and she was badly swollen, although by the time I got back it had gone down a fair amount.

The following day after my arrival back in the UK she took Alex out shopping whilst I slept in to try and catch up on sleep. I woke up as she came back in the house with a few of her friends from work… I woke to her calling upstairs that she had been in a car crash! The Berlingo had been smashed into at a junction – the fault was admitted by the other driver, but the car is not drivable now, and at this stage we have no idea if it will be repairable….. the insurance wheels are turning as I type…

First day in office

We’ve all been there…

Obama – X-Factor or Lady Thatcher?

What were you doing today?

The first day on a job is always a bit daunting – so imagine how you’d feel if several million people watched you as you start out in the position.

Yes, that’s right – today America welcomed in a new President. President Barack Obama gave a speech at his inauguration that sounded full of challenge and hope for both America and the World. Sure – as with all leaders – he’ll do things that really upset some people and make others happy, but it is how he deals with it all that will make or break him.

Will he just say things to be popular, or will he grasp even the most unpopular decisions in the course of improving and bettering the USA?

Look at Baroness Margaret Thatcher – love her or loath her, she stood for her principals and didn’t turn tail when the people started complaining. She did what she thought was best for the country – and not chase that public arse kissing popularity vote. We need a leader like her again – she may not make cheap instant gratifying vote winning plays, but she wouldn’t have let the UK get into the state it is today.

I think our Prime minister is a joke at the moment (the last few haven’t impressed me at all). It appears that he just tries to please the mass voters – and not do what is right for the Country.

I think a leader should do what is right for the better development of a company or country – and not try to be a friend to everyone – after all, look at the state of UK Government now – it’s like the X-Factor. The party leaders do what they can to get the vote – but it isn’t necessarily the right thing for the actual country. They remind me of Hugh Dennis – Once they get the mic they just HAVE to hold on to it in case they never get another chance! Popularity over effectivity – but you need to blame the voters really…. but that’s down to the state of education and peoples understanding of politics and the running of a country. Maybe we need a Dictator? …. no….. not yet.

It’s a hard balance, but you need to be a boss first and a friend second.The trouble is that people need to see you have their best interests at heart, even if they don’t like it. If you fail at this then you won’t stay in power long enough to start making things better.

The President has high popularity at the moment (a lot due to the fact that he isn’t George Bush), and is at the start of his (first?) four years. This may well be the best time to make the unpopular decisions that upset people – as that will give several years for those decisions to then reap benefits and show to the people that he does have the interest of the people at heart (even if they didn’t realise it at the time), and will do what he has to do to forge a better future.

Being a good boss will win you the respect and then the friendship of those around you – and not the other way around.

Good luck President Obama – good or bad policies, I hope you stick to what is right for the people, and not just go for the easy popularity votes.