Pesky gulls

The mewing cries of gulls to me is the sound of the seaside. I know gulls are found inland but they always seem out of place. One of the first things I notice after arriving in Whitby are the gulls. Because we are high up they are often flying at the same level. They are mainly herring gull which are the most common type- unlike the common gull which isn’t at all common. Around the Midlands area the black headed gull is found most often.

The gulls are a mixed blessing. There is bird poo all over the place; particularly annoying on the windows of the flat. They also leave deposits all over the car. After our last trip I thought them so unsightly I set about cleaning the car, not just deposits from the glass but from the bodywork as well. I found fifteen separate deposits on the body and several more on the glass.

I’m not sure what the gull diet is but I had to scrape one awkward deposit away with some difficulty. Otherwise I found Cif bathroom cleaner and Cif window cleaner effective( other products are available ). I have a nostalgic preference for Cif brand as I worked on it when it was just the French liquid abrasive cleaner many years ago. At that time the UK equivalent was Jif with a plethora of different names around Europe such as Viss or Vif. Unilever rationalised to one name a long time ago. Really old readers may remember Handy Andy which was the late sixties all purpose liquid cleaner. It was the unique properties of Handy Andy which led to the extremely successful liquid abrasive cleaners and thence on to the variety marketed today.

One part of the gulls diet in Whitby is fish and chips. The gulls are extremely aggressive and it is increasingly frequent that the gull tries to grab while they are eaten in the street. The town council puts up notices pleading with visitors to take care and not feed the gulls. I’m afraid we are seeing evolution in action. The more aggressive gull gets more food, reproduces better and takes over the population. In a hundred years it could well be like the “birds” movie by Alfred Hitchcock..

We went to Scarborough last week and my impression is that the local gulls are less aggressive. I would think the Whitby ones definitely are ASBO material. I wasn’t impressed by Scarborough although I think we visited the more down market part..

We travelled by double decker bus and because of long stops I had chance to go to the top deck. I’m used to car level viewing ( with my eyes on the road ) so the top deck view was enlightening. Easily the best part of the trip was the journey. Although it is mainly along the main coast road the route goes through Robin Hood’s Bay and Fylingthorpe;. in fact within a 100 yards of Martin’s house. I had thought that the steep ( 25% + ) hills would be terrifying but the driver took them very steadily. When I first visited the area I was surprised to see double deck buses tackling the route which I would have thought impossible for them..

Our main issue at present is company procedure. The block vendor had the idea of setting up a management company comprising the owners of all the flats to manage the whole building and its communal areas. This is an excellent idea in principle but it does involve some administrative chores.

Comparative advantage

I’m introducing a bit of economic theory because it is widely recognised by the cognoscenti as true but is seemingly ignored by so many in public life. This is perhaps because it isn’t intuitively obvious.

Economist Daniel Ricardo in 1817 showed that by concentrating on production where there is comparative advantage and trading then economies and hence people are better off.

A very simple illustration of the idea.

Taking two equal sized countries A and B. They make shoes and corn. A is more efficient at both  producing 80 bushels of corn per man hour compared to B’s 30 but A can only produce 25 shoes per man hour compared with B’s 20. Country B has a comparative  advantage. In shoes

If both countries produced both shoes and corn the output would be A 600 man hours to produce 48000 bushels of corn  and 400 man hours to produce 10000 shoes. On its own B from 600 man hours gets 18000 bushels of corn and from 400 man hours 8000 shoes.

The combined output 60000 bushels of corn and 18000 shoes.

 However if A concentrated on producing corn and B on shoes Then A devotes 1000 man hours to produce 80000 bushels of corn and B 1000 man hours producing 20000 shoes

Combined output is now 80000 bushels of corn and 20000 shoes

Neither country is working extra hours but by concentrating on their comparative advantage the two countries produce more and become better off.

This shows that, writ large, trade is a win-win situation.

Politicians have sometimes tried to argue against this but usually to support a protectionist agenda. Protectionism can be superficially appealing.