£200 million .... it's contagious!

Poor old Albert Einstein!

The list of mathematical mysteries awaiting his return from the loonybin is growing and growing.

None of the rest of us is a comparable internationally famous genius, but we can see the makings of yet another mathematical conundrum.

According to press reports Essex County Council is planning to follow us down the IBM / SAP crevasse, and guess how much they expect to save?

£200 million!!!!

What are the chances of that? With three times the population of Somerset (and three times the budget), they are going to save exactly the same amount!

Of course it is always possible that Essex did actually do one of those Business Case things, perhaps even in advance of the decision to go down the route of chaotic innovation (or should that be "innovative chaos"?). It's also possible that they have got a load of sums and evidence and whatever that could explain the £200 million.

It's possible.

Where chaos resides?

No, not County Hall!

I am referring to another of Jonesy's gifts to the people of Somerset, delivered via HTV (West Eye View on 24th July).

I didn't write down this quote, luckily someone used it on an excellent little video pastiche at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiklM51QRfU so I can, once again, give you the Great Man's EXACT words!

"It's like sailing a, er, sailing ship close to the wind, you know, that's where innovation lives but that's also where chaos resides."

Right Jonesy. Thanks for spelling it out. Nice one : your innovation = our chaos.

Now we're a bunch of ignorant landlubbers down at the Dog & Duck, but luckily in a couple of days Daffer will be back. He's a sailor, and will be able to explain this stuff. Poor old Daffer has been offshore since before Valentine's day, so he hasn't yet heard about the sh*tstorm that his namesake has been whipping up.

However, I can tell you now that Daffer Jones will NOT be amused.