BIRDS EYE
Page 56
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By the Hawk
Ball point fairground
Worn-out ball-point pens may be scrap to you but they are big money to Bill MacKenzie (right), a Goodyear foreman. He made a model fairground roundabout out of them and won £1,000 in the Biro SIC competition. It took him about five months.
This was his third entry into the competition. On the first occasion in 1976 he won a colour television set. Two years later he pocketed £1,000 and now he has done it again. If he carries on like this I foresee him being paid not to compete.
Swift is the fastest
THE TITLE of world's fastest carpet fitter is up for grabs. It is thought lo be held at present by the man who fitted carpets in an ex-West Midlands PTE doubledecker while it was on its way to a Government test station.
, The bus is a fully equipped children's play-centre, which was bought, refitted and refurbished for £2,300, or just about the price of a clapped-out Cortina. This was raised by charit able contributions. John Swift (whose name is remarkably appropriate), of Erdington (Birmingham) Round Table, conceived and executed the project, which was launched only six months ago by Don MacLean, the comedian.
The livery, dominated by Mr Men characters from the children's television ser'-is, was executed in 19 Nu-Speed colours — a gift from International Paints. Two women play-group leaders take it in turn to drive, having had special training from the West Midlands PTE.
NFC poster to replace DJs
AN EXCELLENTLY produced full-colour wall chart on road goods transport — its history from the building of the pyramids, its present scale of operations and the employment opportunities that it offers — is available free to the children of Commercial Motor readers. It would make an attractive as well as informative bedroom wall decoration and a change from pop stars and footballers, most of whom are not as good looking as the lorries illustrated and make an infinitely more disagreeable noise.
The chart has been published by the National Freight Corporation to meet a demand from schools and other educational establishments for display materials and data on road freight transport. To secure a copy readers should send a selfaddressed envelope bearing a 221/2p stamp to the Information Officer, National Freight Corporation, Argosy House, 215 Great Portland Street, London W1N 6BD.
Naturally, the NFC's activities form the hub of the chart but all the information is factual and well-written, and there is no hint of the hard sell. It should be top of the pops for any road transport man's son.
Nationalise passing
THE YOUNG Socialists have promoted the motor and steel industries to the importance of football by demanding the nationalisation of all three. They would be run by boards of shop stewards, trade-union representatives and "Government experts." The nature of the expertise is not specified. If it is buckpassing, it already exists in some manufacturers' and dealers' service and warranty departments.
Football provides the perfect mould for a publicly-owned undertaking — 22 men working and 50,000 watching. Every time a car rolls off a BL production line, the last man to handle it should, I suppose, be hugged and kissed by exultant, spanner-waving workmates, and carried shoulder-high to the canteen. This would ensure the minimum of work for the maximum pay.