Wu Wei

Update on small claims

A sudden vast  increase in traffic to my blog (no, not another war in Georgia) has been caused by someone spotting the post (here) about how we successfully sued Easyjet in the Small Claims County Court, but did it online which was very easy. Thank you lightbluetouchpaper.

It only works for suing British firms or firms with offices in England and Wales. 

However, a friend has also found there is a European version for crossborder claims.  You can find out about it here.  To get the form, you need to download the Regulation, (the form's an appendix) but it seems to explain what you have to do.

It only applies to claims up to 2000 Euros, which is not a lot,  but enough to be helpful with budget airline problems.

Distractions

Have you ever seen a fantasy like this?

 

Certainly not what you expect when you go to the Tbilisi Technical University for a presentation on energy efficiency.   I can't think of anything I have seen similar except the ceiling in the IMechE (I think) headquarters in London, where (as far as I remember) Britannia mixed with dragons and railways, which dated from the 1890s. This ceiling in Tbilisi has recently been renovated.  The whole building dates from the 1950s in the style of Tsarist classicism.

The walls are equally fabulous:  there are orange murals of classical Greece and Rome, Renaissance Italy and Egypt, all with depictions of people and science from that period.  Also we decided one panel had the Tower Bridge of London, with a rather strange depiction of London's geography.  Not sure why that was there at all.  

Printing money for the elections

As the balloting draws near, rarely a week goes by without an announcement of a new benefit or social program. Pensions and teachers' salaries are going up. Vouchers for gas and electricity are going out. City Hall is pledging to cover seniors’ medication costs and give them free public-transit passes. The city’s social-welfare budget has tripled since last year, according to a EurasiaNet report. The initiatives are often personally introduced to voters by Mayor Gigi Ugulava, an ally of President Mikheil Saakashvili, before the cameras of pro-government national TV stations.

via tol.org

They came and asked us about the vouchers for electricity and gas.  They thought they could take a loan from our energy efficiency credit line. We explained very patiently that loans had to be paid back.  They asked if we had any other ideas on how to reduce the cost of electricity and gas to households.  Knowing it was coming up to the election, we weren't as anxious to help as we might have been with a serious request.

We explained very carefully, that the normal way was to pay social security, but they had just abolished that.  Otherwise, paying half the money from the City, which it didn't have,  was just printing money, which led to inflation.

They obviously didn't like that.