Making a tape or two returned II

 Hasn't been the best week being off for part of it so Matron's been insistant that I rest and take the pills.

Following on a bit from last week, often there was a promotion often tied into things like Christmas or Summer when it came to buying your tapes as after all, compared to much else we had back then, they were more portable so we could take them to a picnic or a beach and just insert and press play.

Often such promotions would tie in with key albums the companies were prepared to allow them to use to push the sales here such as this top sellers from mid 1986 with discounted stock prices.

You can also see how the art work on the cassette editions moved from a simple squared image on the front to more complex wrap around forms that might carry all the way the way to reverse of the insert know to some as the 'j card' adding to the appeal of the cassette version.

Making a tape or too returned

We kind of mentioned this machine way back in October 2019 after writing a bit about the week before in connection with making some new tapes on the Technics cassette deck, it had died.

The Panasonic RQ-JA63 is a personal cassette player from around 1985/6 that has an all metal single direction tape transport mechanism with switching for playing type I and type II+IV tapes and a switchable dolby B circuit for playing tapes made with it.

The problem with it was the main drive belt had gone soft and broke and it took a while to find the correct length, width and finish belt to replace it with. 

After lubricating the mechanism and fitting a new belt, it sounded as good as it did new. 

I haven't mentioned pre-recorded tapes much either but this edition of The Principal of Moments by Robert Plant better know as the lead singer of Led Zeppelin is one I've had from release in 1983.

Technically it is a very high quality tape using lower noise and much better sounding genuine chromedioxide tape made by BASF and played on the tape player it sounded superb

I first bought a cassette of Foreigner 4, their 1981 hit album home to Juke Box Hero, Urgent and Waiting For a Girl Like You in early March of 1982 while at school and until cassette editions were discontinued it had been reissued in different forms.

The first significantly different one was in late 1982 when like the Robert Plant tape it was duplicated on Chromedioxide tape rather than regular brown ferric oxide tape.

I came by recent a edition from the late 80's which while using ferric tape but a very good sort used the Dolby Hx Pro system to maximize the high frequency performance on more demanding parts of the music.

The Best of Rainbow originated from a Japan only release which was later issued in the UK and Europe in late 1981 adding single versions and the otherwise unavailable on album Jealous Lover.

This was a discounted Double play tape of around 86 minutes which was useful as I bought the lp version at the time making my own tape but recently bought a used but in nice condition copy of the official UK duplicated version with the red paper labels 

These tapes do sound pretty good showing before cds and Mp3 players entered the scene just how good a compact music source the cassette could be.

Did Covid steal the elections II - outcome

It was arduous for some, having to line for a while in places as social distancing regulations meant there were restrictions  on the number people allowed in Polling Stations at any one point as you stood there with your mask on and hopefully your own pencil to mark with an X (or two) your vote but we had in person voting.

The polling staff here were glad to see the voters and a good number made use of the facilities so for all the effect the staff put in to ensuring we actually had a covid safe personal vote and the care that also delayed the counting, a great many thanks.

There was a Bye-Election for the House of Commons, the seat of the UK Parliament in the town of Hartlepool in the North-east of England which most of the media attention was focused on.

On paper you would of expected Labour to home voting for was a handed down religion in this area but something remarkable happened.

The Conservative candidate, a woman from neighbouring North Yorkshire won it by a landslide and it is fair to say it was a political earthquake.

Roll back to December 2019 in that year of elections when the single biggest electoral disaster for the Labour Party occurred.

It was said results could not get any worse and with changing the leader to something more presentable they would recover.

Well that didn't happen as vast chunks of the Midlands continued to switch with the Conservatives gaining Cannock Chase, Dudley and Bedworth and Nuneaton and parts in the North .

Labour did gain a few things the odd council in the South retained a number of the Elected Mayors but in general the vote was well down.

This week we see the outcome as the different halves of the battle it out over why, the left feeling restoring much of Corbyn's agenda, the centre left want to remove every remaining bit (and much still does) and a reshuffle.

Take two totally different politicians: Boris Johnson and Andy Burnham. You know who they are and what they're about, one was a Elected Mayor before becoming Prime Minister, one is the Elected Mayor for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority area and both have failings.

The strong point of each is they connect and have a direct connection and empathy to the voters that pulls people in who aren't necessary for their parties and they are, like them or loath them, personalities.

Sir Keith Starmer isn't one and he didn't appear to have a clear set of policies, reasons why you should vote FOR labour beyond "Tory Sleaze" and have an answer to what it is they could offer to pull the country out of Covid economically that has been at cost.

Mark Drakeford, the Labour Welsh Assembly leader at least was addressing this and it was no wonder Welsh Labour did a lot better being returned to power in the Senned.

Nationally, that must be our priority, get people back to work, support changes to improve the rights of people at work not least end the so-called "zero hours contract" that is unjust and offer hope and opportunities in what has been a challenging time for all no least the young.

In the local authorities many in Labour areas still feel that for decades of voting for them, they have seen few real changes and often a top heavy approach that discourages people from doing things to help themselves. 

That has to change if we are to raise up peoples aspirations and opportunities so people lives do improve.

For many people today this matters more than just a rosette on a person at election time.

Did Covid steal the elections?

It's been an odd week with some rather unseasonal weather and the final days of something that seems almost unreal.

See, yesterday was Super Thursday as the mass media has dubbed it where a variety of different types of election are taking place across Great Britain depending on where you live.

In Scotland and Wales you have elections for the Scottish parliament and the Welsh Senned with a kind of proportional representation and some local elections too.

In England if you live in an area with an Elected Mayor  rather than the Mayor of a Town or Council area such as Greater London, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands Combined Authority you will be voting for them.

In some areas you may have elections for your local council and if like in Shropshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire you have Police and Crime Commissionaires, you will have elections for them.

We had the Polling Cards that tell us wear a mask, follow the social distancing rules and bring your own pencil to mark the ballot paper.

Thing is here it's like there is no election at all as we have had no leaflets from the four Candidates, no pieces in the newspapers by them, no meetings even outdoors even though outdoor events are possible and we've had no end of leaflets from Indian and Chinese take aways delivered through the letterbox.

It just seems like the election process has halted, almost dead and I suspect turn out will be very low not helped by snowfall here.

Results may take more time with social distancing required at the count on Friday so some may not be declared until the end of the weekend.