Under intense pressure from Praguetory I have finally persuaded Croydonian to help me put some links up . I `m not a fan of blogs about bloggery with its incestuous and fetid atmosphere. I think its a medium for reaching out or its a chat room without the sex . I `m taking a different tack than some who fill their pages with hundreds of links. I have linked to Blogs I actually read and like .I will not link to any more.I do look at others, City Slicker for example but I want to give new entrants something manageable.
I hope anyone whose arm I twist to look at mine will give them a glance they are all , in their different ways ,well worth reading .
1 Top of my list is Croydonian . He takes the gold medal by a shirts width. His stories are several days ahead of the mainstream media and his speed in picking them out and presenting them is quite astonishing . He interacts with contributors often deepening a comment with background material and never fails to be courteous and amusing. He posts several items a day and for his readers is a running on the minute news source. If you look at one ;look at his .
2 In no particular order from this point Praguetory is what I regard as the Boggers blogger. He is the sort of Conservative Socialist cannot abide . Combatitive and ferociously clever , nothing seems to escape him. You don’t get the humour of the more clubbable Croydonian but you do get an informed Party Political view. His slant is more to mainstream Conservative Politics and without him the “sphere” would lose a commentator of real worth and substance. You will know more than you did before after a few moments in his company.
3 Fortean Times is written by the lovely Phillipa whose presence is one of the great attractions of Boris`s Blog. This is more , like mine, a personal and occasional Blog concerning her interests . She is , in my view, the best writer of all and at times produces imaginative and lyrical flights of ironic invention that are a delight. Beguiling , warm complicated sexy and Conservative to her fingertips .The perfect women . To visit her is to meet her. Please do.
4 Ellee- I sometimes find Elee a bit alarmingly left wing…well compared to me anyway!! . She does like her environmental issues and is nice to everyone ,which I cannot be. I love her blog though . She is more journalistic in style able to present issues clearly with depth balance and always a pleasure to read. There is a sort of calm and good nature about her that is a welcome change form the over heated atmosphere of virtual shouting .
It seems astonishing that you are not required to pay for her posts which are limpid pools of sense with wonderfully presented supporting information.
5 Raincoaster- rain coaster is based in Vancouver and in this bog has little to say about politics . I include it in the hope that people may see what is possible with the medium. She creates a sort of media work of art in which oddments and cultural snippets float like glittering fish in her aquarium Her persona is acerbic and a performance that is an integral part of the experience. If you want a glimpse of the possibilities the new virtual world go and see her. Her Political views are woeful so be warned.
6 Cramner is well known enough not to need further praise from me. In his capacity as the ghostly wraith of the Protestant Martyr Cranmner comments on religious and political matters. One of the best things about this blog are the contributions of Voyager .If there is a more knowledgeable human being currently trotting about the orb I am yet to meet him. Here you will find wit and wisdom in an artfully ironic context.Not to be missed
7 Suz Blog is here because she is local . She seems very nice and as she has just been kicked out of the Liberal Party there may be hope for her. I have found her views ridiculous in the past and I hate pink.
8 Huntin and shootin is the new Blog started by Justin Hinchcliffe . He is the leader of the Conservatives in the next Borough along and ..I see that I haven’t done the link yet . I’ll get back to him….
9 Mutley the Dog makes me laugh. What more is there to say…?
So that’s it , those are my recommendations Iain Dale Conservative Home Boris and Guido are more like institutions and no doubt you will find them but these are the ones I read with the most personal pleasure.
Go on , have a browse.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Where do we go after Sure Start ?
Lovely isn`t he , some thoughts on the demise of Sure Start
Sure Start is due to be wound up in March and its services will be much missed by the large numbers of Islington parents who appreciate the superb staff and nurturing facilities. Paradoxically it is generally reckoned to have been a failure. It t was supposed to patch the patches of misguided benefits and housing policy ,which have undermined working class communities and families. With disgraceful presumption , it was envisioned as part of a state replacement for the two parent family and a safety net for girls who were tempted into early pregnancy by the promise of independence. Points awarded to for needy lifestyles of all sorts have been exactly the disaster that Frank Field predicted when he was charged to, “think the unthinkable.”
“ No free society can function when very large sections of the working population are so imprisoned by the welfare system that their own efforts can make little difference to their income”. Gordon Brown was prominent amongst those who stopped this admirable Labour politician giving the country a firm basis for the future. The tax payer has increasingly been treated like a medieval serf ever since.
The allegation made of Sure Start has been , that underprivileged parents have stayed away and it has instead become a meeting place for the “middle classes”. There is something in this . At the Mitford centre I met a few other local fathers this morning at the aptly named “fathers only morning”. There are usually a couple of solicitors ,an architect ,and a most engaging alternative comedian. I chalked it up as yet another failed Labour policy. Good riddance
My good lady wife was unimpressed. As she pointed out ,we have had to move for work and training and like a lot of people in Islington have become isolated from our families and neighbours. Women at home in particular have no supporting community in a Borough where ,“community”, is a myth ,repeated out of mere habit. For these reasons, the Sure Start and other post natal supports have been vital in establishing new links between ourselves.
Sure Start may not be filling the need that New labour intended it to but it has been a solution to a real problem . It was entirely by accident but they got something right . Alternative facilities are likely to be arranged but is rumoured that they will not be as well funded or staffed. The Council will have amore important role and I think we would all like to be reassured that this wonderful service will be adequately maintained. .
Sure Start is due to be wound up in March and its services will be much missed by the large numbers of Islington parents who appreciate the superb staff and nurturing facilities. Paradoxically it is generally reckoned to have been a failure. It t was supposed to patch the patches of misguided benefits and housing policy ,which have undermined working class communities and families. With disgraceful presumption , it was envisioned as part of a state replacement for the two parent family and a safety net for girls who were tempted into early pregnancy by the promise of independence. Points awarded to for needy lifestyles of all sorts have been exactly the disaster that Frank Field predicted when he was charged to, “think the unthinkable.”
“ No free society can function when very large sections of the working population are so imprisoned by the welfare system that their own efforts can make little difference to their income”. Gordon Brown was prominent amongst those who stopped this admirable Labour politician giving the country a firm basis for the future. The tax payer has increasingly been treated like a medieval serf ever since.
The allegation made of Sure Start has been , that underprivileged parents have stayed away and it has instead become a meeting place for the “middle classes”. There is something in this . At the Mitford centre I met a few other local fathers this morning at the aptly named “fathers only morning”. There are usually a couple of solicitors ,an architect ,and a most engaging alternative comedian. I chalked it up as yet another failed Labour policy. Good riddance
My good lady wife was unimpressed. As she pointed out ,we have had to move for work and training and like a lot of people in Islington have become isolated from our families and neighbours. Women at home in particular have no supporting community in a Borough where ,“community”, is a myth ,repeated out of mere habit. For these reasons, the Sure Start and other post natal supports have been vital in establishing new links between ourselves.
Sure Start may not be filling the need that New labour intended it to but it has been a solution to a real problem . It was entirely by accident but they got something right . Alternative facilities are likely to be arranged but is rumoured that they will not be as well funded or staffed. The Council will have amore important role and I think we would all like to be reassured that this wonderful service will be adequately maintained. .
I am a very bad person . It turns out that in addition to accusing Croydonian of being a Socialist I pursued along line of enquiry as to his sexual predilections . Oh dear oh dear ..its lucky he has an imperturbable sense of humour . ..phew.
Additional evidence of my dreadful morals came when I got to the father’s morning at the local Mitford Centre. This is a wonderful facility where they provide a creative and safe environment for toddlers and babies which little Elliot adores. It will be closing soon I `m afraid as part of the demise of Sure Start .
I was so hung over that I was obliged to drink the entire carton of Strawberry and Banana smoothy that Ruben , the kindly helper, had set out for the children. I also scoffed quite a bit of their food . Pretty evil eh.
Well Mrs . N has finally put her foot down and there is now written constitution in place in the household.
Blogging Constitution.
Saturday
Two hours Blogging on Saturday Morning after spending at least two hours with your son
A further two hours in the evening
None of these time periods to be carried over. Its use it or lose it .
Sunday
As above
Weekdays
Anytime after “I” am in bed ( nice of her)
Weekdays two full evenings but absolutely no other computer time at all.
Elliot duties to be shared equally at the weekends only
Additional evidence of my dreadful morals came when I got to the father’s morning at the local Mitford Centre. This is a wonderful facility where they provide a creative and safe environment for toddlers and babies which little Elliot adores. It will be closing soon I `m afraid as part of the demise of Sure Start .
I was so hung over that I was obliged to drink the entire carton of Strawberry and Banana smoothy that Ruben , the kindly helper, had set out for the children. I also scoffed quite a bit of their food . Pretty evil eh.
Well Mrs . N has finally put her foot down and there is now written constitution in place in the household.
Blogging Constitution.
Saturday
Two hours Blogging on Saturday Morning after spending at least two hours with your son
A further two hours in the evening
None of these time periods to be carried over. Its use it or lose it .
Sunday
As above
Weekdays
Anytime after “I” am in bed ( nice of her)
Weekdays two full evenings but absolutely no other computer time at all.
Elliot duties to be shared equally at the weekends only
I think thats pretty fair really and in this new spirit of accord a mug of soup and a peice of chocalate cake has just arrived. I still have half an hour to go .....life is sweet
Working Class ? Whats That
Mmmm, went out for a few beers with Croydonian last night , I seem to recall threatening to out him as a socialist..well it seemed funny ( to me ) at the time .He is not , of course , a socialist but he is quite creative and thats always suspicious.I `ll be watching
Sent this in to the Gazette with my new snazzy title the other day.
Chris Graham, and others, persist in telling us that money can be created from nothing.” Council Rents are a Third of Private …because private landlords exploit a shortage. ”.By “exploit a shortage”, he means, “The price set by the market “. His choice of words tells all you need to know about the antiquated Socialism he believes in. The absence of a direct, “Subsidy”, is irrelevant.
He is counting the wrong way .There is no value except that set by the market .By withholding large tracts of hot-spot inner City housing, the price everyone else pays for property is inflated. This works by a mechanism called, “scarcity”. When some pay less the rest pay more; its that simple. To add insult to injury I notice Sharon Hayward from the local hard left claiming that the treasury benefits from the government’s having wisely investing the country’s wealth in property .The bricks and mortar are almost valueless. “We” create the value by borrowing up to five times our salaries and slaving like dogs to keep pace. The same is true of the £45,000,000 Islington Council are raising from selling property assets
Leaseholders are property owners and mortgage payers; they are almost universally working people making no claims on the tax payer. In fact they are often in the relatively low income brackets suffering 70 % marginal taxation form the vicious Brownite tax and spend government. Uniquely they pay twice, in the form of absurdly inflated Service charges that disappear into the general waste of the state
Pat Wagland smugly refers to “Working Class Tenants”.70% of Council tenants are on benefits whereas almost all leaseholders work. It is a bitter irony that she excludes these ordinarily heroic people from the, “Working “class.
Interesting that we are always supposed to be worrying about the so called, "working class", isn`t it. In fact, generally speaking, non membership of this mythical communion is defined by working . They are closing down Sure Start because it wasn`t reaching the parts other state nurturing schemes cannot reach..ie the "working class". I am going in a second with my son . Marian , my wife , made a good point . I said well you can see why, when I go there are two sollicitors an architect and an alternative comedian. She said yes and these are exactly the people who have had to move for work or training that have no support.In other words , entirely by accident the governement filled need that was very much felt by those who actually work. It is no suprise then that it has weeks to live.
Typical!!
Sent this in to the Gazette with my new snazzy title the other day.
Chris Graham, and others, persist in telling us that money can be created from nothing.” Council Rents are a Third of Private …because private landlords exploit a shortage. ”.By “exploit a shortage”, he means, “The price set by the market “. His choice of words tells all you need to know about the antiquated Socialism he believes in. The absence of a direct, “Subsidy”, is irrelevant.
He is counting the wrong way .There is no value except that set by the market .By withholding large tracts of hot-spot inner City housing, the price everyone else pays for property is inflated. This works by a mechanism called, “scarcity”. When some pay less the rest pay more; its that simple. To add insult to injury I notice Sharon Hayward from the local hard left claiming that the treasury benefits from the government’s having wisely investing the country’s wealth in property .The bricks and mortar are almost valueless. “We” create the value by borrowing up to five times our salaries and slaving like dogs to keep pace. The same is true of the £45,000,000 Islington Council are raising from selling property assets
Leaseholders are property owners and mortgage payers; they are almost universally working people making no claims on the tax payer. In fact they are often in the relatively low income brackets suffering 70 % marginal taxation form the vicious Brownite tax and spend government. Uniquely they pay twice, in the form of absurdly inflated Service charges that disappear into the general waste of the state
Pat Wagland smugly refers to “Working Class Tenants”.70% of Council tenants are on benefits whereas almost all leaseholders work. It is a bitter irony that she excludes these ordinarily heroic people from the, “Working “class.
Interesting that we are always supposed to be worrying about the so called, "working class", isn`t it. In fact, generally speaking, non membership of this mythical communion is defined by working . They are closing down Sure Start because it wasn`t reaching the parts other state nurturing schemes cannot reach..ie the "working class". I am going in a second with my son . Marian , my wife , made a good point . I said well you can see why, when I go there are two sollicitors an architect and an alternative comedian. She said yes and these are exactly the people who have had to move for work or training that have no support.In other words , entirely by accident the governement filled need that was very much felt by those who actually work. It is no suprise then that it has weeks to live.
Typical!!
Monday, January 08, 2007
Feeling fat anyone?
Sent into the Gazette. ( Written with a little help from me )
Poor Achilles ,the adorable Spaniel, ( Sarah Harvey’s article ), was left alone with a box of Choccies and scoffed the lot. I `m so glad he recovered ,but regrettably Achilles wasn’t the only one who over indulged recently. Unaccountably all our clothes seem to have shrunk over Christmas , does anyone recognise the problem? There is a new wonder diet pill , called Slendrol on the market. Unfortunately its for dogs.
For we non-canines the fun is over , and while we feel our sensitive bank accounts gingerly, the self loathing really kicks in .Gosh isn’t everyone queuing up to make you feel even worse? A day doesn’t` pass without our being told that weight problems are a plague of biblical proportions. Dark rumours circulate of the NHS refusing treatment unless you are thin , the fat tax looks set to become a reality ,and they will soon be labelling Mars bars, “Death dealing poison”.
We can’t even be nice to ourselves. In a recent survey 97 % of women admitted to looking at other women and thinking , “Goodness she’s fat” .A woman of 31 has been on an average of 38 diets ! Then the panic really sets in. We read that 23 people were trapped behind a particularly large lady who got stuck on a tour of the Cango caves of South Africa .She was freed by greasing the cave walls with liquid paraffin and some sturdy pulleys . Put the sausage roll down and back slowly away !
What are we to do ? Well the only answer is to eat sensibly , take some exercise and find someone , or something , even more bloated and disgusting than you .I have a suggestion. The grotesquely swollen State .
Gordon Brown has created a “target a day” since arriving in Government including a target for the Cabinet office to provide more targets. The cost of all this is estimated at £15 billion .After 2001,vast amounts have been spent on the public sector, spiralling public finances into deficit .As services are ,if anything ,worse ,they presumably ate the money. Mrs. Taylor said Achilles ,”hadn’t learnt his lesson“, and I `m afraid Mr. Brown never will.
So cheer up everyone , we might be on a gruel and guilt for a month, but we are Kate Moss look-alikes compared to the morbidly obese Government .
Marian Newman
Poor Achilles ,the adorable Spaniel, ( Sarah Harvey’s article ), was left alone with a box of Choccies and scoffed the lot. I `m so glad he recovered ,but regrettably Achilles wasn’t the only one who over indulged recently. Unaccountably all our clothes seem to have shrunk over Christmas , does anyone recognise the problem? There is a new wonder diet pill , called Slendrol on the market. Unfortunately its for dogs.
For we non-canines the fun is over , and while we feel our sensitive bank accounts gingerly, the self loathing really kicks in .Gosh isn’t everyone queuing up to make you feel even worse? A day doesn’t` pass without our being told that weight problems are a plague of biblical proportions. Dark rumours circulate of the NHS refusing treatment unless you are thin , the fat tax looks set to become a reality ,and they will soon be labelling Mars bars, “Death dealing poison”.
We can’t even be nice to ourselves. In a recent survey 97 % of women admitted to looking at other women and thinking , “Goodness she’s fat” .A woman of 31 has been on an average of 38 diets ! Then the panic really sets in. We read that 23 people were trapped behind a particularly large lady who got stuck on a tour of the Cango caves of South Africa .She was freed by greasing the cave walls with liquid paraffin and some sturdy pulleys . Put the sausage roll down and back slowly away !
What are we to do ? Well the only answer is to eat sensibly , take some exercise and find someone , or something , even more bloated and disgusting than you .I have a suggestion. The grotesquely swollen State .
Gordon Brown has created a “target a day” since arriving in Government including a target for the Cabinet office to provide more targets. The cost of all this is estimated at £15 billion .After 2001,vast amounts have been spent on the public sector, spiralling public finances into deficit .As services are ,if anything ,worse ,they presumably ate the money. Mrs. Taylor said Achilles ,”hadn’t learnt his lesson“, and I `m afraid Mr. Brown never will.
So cheer up everyone , we might be on a gruel and guilt for a month, but we are Kate Moss look-alikes compared to the morbidly obese Government .
Marian Newman
The story
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Lets Get Serious
Simon Heffer (DT) was saying to day what I have been saying ever since the quite outstanding Boris piece on the boundary commission ..Brown may go early . We may in fact be in an election year. If this is the case , and it is as likely as not , the question of what `we` must do is somewhat more urgent than it might appear. My advice I `m afraid is rather boring but its getting time to be serious. .Dear David
Please do not be tempted into making hard policy decisions , all the time you do not the enemy only make one criticism. If Brown seeks to bounce the electorate into an endorsement, this will provide you with cover. Don't fret about the Neo Cons and UKIP defectors, they are playing at rebellion . Remember this must be a game of reaction not pro-action if we are to win . Control and discipline is all leave showboating to the bloggers.
You appreciate that Brown will try to put right what he sees as the major obstacle to a Nu lab victory. You know roughly what these are. The leaked memo said ,"we have been outflanked on patriotism , been assailed for broken promises and spin ...the New labour Brand has been contaminated" You also know Brown is highly sensitive to the iniquitous Scottish dispensation . Dennis McShane put his likely strategy well ..." to catch the Tories bathing and walk off with most of their clothes." This was in an article entitled Brown knows he has to cut taxes". Worth reading David
You have taken the centre and Brown will try to grab it back .Moreover he will portray himself as the man of substance who will deliver the New labour Agenda ..the spin and lies will be Tony`s fault He will say you can have low taxes , reformed public services, reduced red tape and yet maintain social justice , the NHS and a caring smile. Don`t write policies ,prepare your arguments and take up the weapon he has left...............
Tell them every day that Labour said all of this ten years ago.
Mention Frank Field , told to think the unthinkable , reform the disastrous benefits system ,eliminate the poverty trap and the dependency culture. Remind them it was the back bench opposition and in particular the opposition of Gordon Brown that derailed the supposed Blair project. . Constantly entangle brown in his past and suggest he cannot be trusted.
Be prepared for a flashy gesture like ditching inheritance tax. . On 30% ( ICM) he has nothing to lose. You must be quick to smile at him him as a man who will promise anything but whose political constituency will pull left.
Never forget to say . "You've had ten years and now you admit you were wrong ?"
Keep you nerve you are getting it right . Steer clear of Iraq ,steer clear of "immigration" the EU even ( hard I know) just match the Brown moves . Keep the focus on what Blair promised ten years ago and what has happened since.
Give the Conservative Party a friendly splash of cold water they have forgotten we could lose.
Demand their support quietly we must appear unified against the certain factionalism that will erupt after president Blair. Drop the A list (Its work is done ) and throw out afew hints . They are Conservatives , they will knuckle downAt the moment the Labour party is wrestler on the mat . We have to keep them where they are ,they move , we move , nothing risky but instincts and caution are the watchwords. Play out the time and we will win . You political instincts have been supernatural , they know they picked a winner and they know they will have to grow up.
David, there is a lot to do to get this country back to where it should be but the constituency of agreement for a reforming agenda comes after victory not before . Remember this in 1979 Margaret Thatcher was highly conciliatory to the centre ground . I believe you have the talent to be one of the great Conservatives and with the economy's wheels squeaking you might just get the support for a radical agenda sooner than you think. When that happens ;don't let us down .
Yours Sincerely
Newmania
Monday, January 01, 2007
Am I bovvered ?
Following the just execution of the dreadful Saddam Hussein I have been trying to organise my feelings on the death penalty which I support
Justice is a word for rightness and has no meaning outside system of belief including right and wrong. Such a system may have religious underpinning but it is not necessary. The wish for and sense of good is in our hearts whether or not God put it there .An injustice or crime , imbalances the "Scales of Justice ". Our wish for goodness makes us want to correct this balance and the meaning of the traditional Scales is the difficulty of weighing and measuring this response . It does not mean it is easy to decide ; quite the reverse . If we do not allow this model though , we are left with "convenience ". In that case all those I dislike may expect to be bagged up and fed to the pigs by tomorrow . Why not , if there is no such thing as justice ?
Justice cannot be disassociated from revenge although the distaste for it is a real problem( the "deeds creature" problem of Hamlet). In the case of murder it is the revenge taken by the living in behalf of the dead. Like all revenge it is prompted by love and respect for the victim. I have a parable ..(it was only a matter of time .......)
Hundreds of years ago in the Village of Blogham nestled in loamy Blog shire a good man lived and by his work acquired a small cottage . A bad man seeing this thought that the world would suit him better rearranged a little . He killed Good man and occupied his house .The villager's first instinct was to drag him from his bed and after public torture and humiliation, so all should know ,dispatch him to hell. Bad man was a clever arguer though .He made suggestions that troubled them ." Retribution , he sneered , why ? I have done you no personal harm and Good man cannot be revived by this means ""Listen " he said as a pitchfork approached his temple "In order to have done this I must surely be mad .I am not responsible and as for deterrent , well it is unlikely anyone else is as mad as me . I can't see what you gain by any of this ?"Perhaps it was he screaming of good man's wife and children ..who knows but still the villagers advance upon bad man...now he began to panic "Wait wait he pleads at about this time Ghengis Khan is spending happy weeks killing and torturing hundreds of thousands ...I mean compared to him I `m really astonishingly moral "
The villagers appear to agree that this would be convenient , it is after all quite confusing and aside from the growing stench of Goodman's corpse life would certainly be easier if they forgot about him entirely. As Bad man breathed a sigh of relief however they laughed telling him that it was only a cruel joke and that his soon to be over life held nothing but pain. They did this because they loved and still love Goodman and they cannot abide the injustice.
Justice cannot be disassociated from revenge although the distaste for it is a real problem( the "deeds creature" problem of Hamlet). In the case of murder it is the revenge taken by the living in behalf of the dead. Like all revenge it is prompted by love and respect for the victim. I have a parable ..(it was only a matter of time .......)
Hundreds of years ago in the Village of Blogham nestled in loamy Blog shire a good man lived and by his work acquired a small cottage . A bad man seeing this thought that the world would suit him better rearranged a little . He killed Good man and occupied his house .The villager's first instinct was to drag him from his bed and after public torture and humiliation, so all should know ,dispatch him to hell. Bad man was a clever arguer though .He made suggestions that troubled them ." Retribution , he sneered , why ? I have done you no personal harm and Good man cannot be revived by this means ""Listen " he said as a pitchfork approached his temple "In order to have done this I must surely be mad .I am not responsible and as for deterrent , well it is unlikely anyone else is as mad as me . I can't see what you gain by any of this ?"Perhaps it was he screaming of good man's wife and children ..who knows but still the villagers advance upon bad man...now he began to panic "Wait wait he pleads at about this time Ghengis Khan is spending happy weeks killing and torturing hundreds of thousands ...I mean compared to him I `m really astonishingly moral "
The villagers appear to agree that this would be convenient , it is after all quite confusing and aside from the growing stench of Goodman's corpse life would certainly be easier if they forgot about him entirely. As Bad man breathed a sigh of relief however they laughed telling him that it was only a cruel joke and that his soon to be over life held nothing but pain. They did this because they loved and still love Goodman and they cannot abide the injustice.
In real life we do not know who is Good and who is bad and we resolve this by Jurisprudence in which we seek to recreate impersonal justice in the world . Some things seem clear to me . Death may very well be justice and as such should be available. We are right to worry about weighing the scales and our limited view of what justice is .We are wrong to be so bamboozled that we forget the point and create complexity when there is none . We are wrong to give to much weight to what the murderer has to say because it is "easier".
It has rarely been easier to see that justice has been done
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
JOHN BOWIS MEP "Better off in"
A while ago John , a simply delightful chap , came along to help the troops with the (feeble ) NHS campaign. I asked him if he would write something positive about our continued membership of the EU . As I said at the time , I am scratching my head as to what that might be but I rely on your great sagacity.
He has been as good as his word and I must say that he was a fellow of great charm , humour and reasonableness. He clearly wishes only for the best and criticism of him personally is not acceptable here !!!
Views on the big question ,”Better off out ? Or not …. “Would be welcome.
( John is an OBE by the way . My first thought was crumbs if you were an Earl you would be an Earlobe ….not A list material ? Could be …could be )
"John Bowis MEP writes:
"John Bowis MEP writes:
We have a love-hate relationship with Europe. We love their quaint villages and their food and their pageants and their arts; but we are not sure about their strange languages; and we hate their attempts to abolish our weights and measures. We are after all an Island Race and one that ruled half the world and built our wealth on their raw materials and our genius.
Now we are not so sure what we are, who we are, or why we are. We don't feel "European"; we don't want their Constitution; we certainly want to keep our £. And yet we have a sort of feeling that we are connected in some way with those peoples whose lands we visit on holiday.
So what is the European dimension to our lives - apart from the origins of most of our English language and our affinity with the music and painting and opera and writing of our neighbours? Perhaps it is the things that are central to the new Europe - the Europe of the 25, not the old centralising, harmonising Europe of twenty years ago. New Europe has Competitiveness at the top of its agenda; it has a mission to reduce red tape and bureaucracy; it understands that prerequisites to that agenda of a healthy European economy are healthy people and a healthy environment.
That is why we work together to protect our environment, cutting emissions, reducing global warming, improving the air quality of cities like London, ensuring the food safety of the produce we import from across Europe and making our drinking, ground and bathing waters fit for human use. Some of what we do is by setting good and achievable standards but much is not by legislation at al; it is by sharing experience, identifying good practice and then sharing that too. Europe is at its best when it does not irritate but when it adds value to national debate and policy making."
Thanks John .
I do hope I can tempt local sceptic JT into a few words? We shall see. Perhaps one of the uber-bloggers would pick it up ?Croydonian ...
Now we are not so sure what we are, who we are, or why we are. We don't feel "European"; we don't want their Constitution; we certainly want to keep our £. And yet we have a sort of feeling that we are connected in some way with those peoples whose lands we visit on holiday.
So what is the European dimension to our lives - apart from the origins of most of our English language and our affinity with the music and painting and opera and writing of our neighbours? Perhaps it is the things that are central to the new Europe - the Europe of the 25, not the old centralising, harmonising Europe of twenty years ago. New Europe has Competitiveness at the top of its agenda; it has a mission to reduce red tape and bureaucracy; it understands that prerequisites to that agenda of a healthy European economy are healthy people and a healthy environment.
That is why we work together to protect our environment, cutting emissions, reducing global warming, improving the air quality of cities like London, ensuring the food safety of the produce we import from across Europe and making our drinking, ground and bathing waters fit for human use. Some of what we do is by setting good and achievable standards but much is not by legislation at al; it is by sharing experience, identifying good practice and then sharing that too. Europe is at its best when it does not irritate but when it adds value to national debate and policy making."
Thanks John .
I do hope I can tempt local sceptic JT into a few words? We shall see. Perhaps one of the uber-bloggers would pick it up ?Croydonian ...
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
The Little Details
I discovered something about Patrick Keilty the compeer and (supposedly) comedian today . His father was killed by a Protestant “Group” in a revenge killing . God knows I wouldn’t want to pretend that I understood Northern Ireland . I don’t need to in order to disapprove of the Mayor of London having tea with known Terrorists.Doesn’t that unpleasant reality undercut the smear of normalcy the gelled hair would imply though .I had a similar thought when I noticed that Miss Israel was going to be let off carrying her rifle during national Service in case her modelling career was disrupted. Just the little detail opens your eyes to the difference in everything birth to deathThe Guardian reading fraternity go wrong in foreign affairs , in my view , my arrogantly disregarding the cultural and circumstantial gulf between geographical areas. They transpose ideas appropriate for London unaltered to wherever they can make disguised domestic and self congratulatory points.
Friday, December 15, 2006
A Window in Time
Courtesy of Croydonian( The Master) I discovered these exerts from the Magna Carta today. Lord Mowbray , venerable Tory Peer and Wordsworthian character died on Tuesday and his direct ancestor was one of the signatories . His family was straight from Evelyn Waugh but he seemed such a charming gentleman. When badly injured he was indifferent to a doctor but demanded the attendance of a Priest. I like that, Ive never trusted Doctors. I suspect that when you are deaths door they may well pull you though .
Magna Carta
+ (39) No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land.
+ (40) To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.
(41) All merchants may enter or leave England unharmed and without fear, and may stay or travel within it, by land or water, for purposes of trade, free from all illegal exactions, in accordance with ancient and lawful customs.
(45) We will appoint as justices, constables, sheriffs, or other officials, only men that know the law of the realm and are minded to keep it well.
WE seem to have gone backwards...in so many ways
Magna Carta
+ (39) No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land.
+ (40) To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.
(41) All merchants may enter or leave England unharmed and without fear, and may stay or travel within it, by land or water, for purposes of trade, free from all illegal exactions, in accordance with ancient and lawful customs.
(45) We will appoint as justices, constables, sheriffs, or other officials, only men that know the law of the realm and are minded to keep it well.
WE seem to have gone backwards...in so many ways
Thursday, December 14, 2006
The Modern Nativity Leaves Out Joseph
The Islington gazette has a front page headline ..........
No Room for mum and baby
MARY and Joseph had to make do with a stable and this Christmas young mother Nichola Katsaras and her baby Jayden are having to sleep in a garage.The homeless 23-year-old has been on the waiting list for a property since before her six-month old son was born - but Islington Council has still not found one for her. So Miss Katsaras sleeps in the garage with her baby in Hatchard Road, Archway.She said: "It hasn't been plastered or insulated and it's not meant to be lived in.I have my bed, wardrobe, sofa and a chest of drawers in there and I had to buy a portable radiator. Now it is winter it is starting to get really cold in there."Miss Katsaras has been living in the garage, which is part of the property her mother rents, since August 2005. When she discovered she was pregnant she made an application at the Housing Aid Centre to be classed as "homeless from home" and therefore get a property of her own……………………
This was my take on it .
I `m sure we all found the heart rending tale of Mother Nichola and baby Jayden`s housing difficulties, desperately moving. The first line the story specifically referred to Mary and Joseph .The comparison with the nativity was poignant throughout
I know nothing about this poor woman and her circumstances ,and I wish to avoid assumptions about her case . On the other hand , I am certain almost everyone who read the story asked themselves ;where is Joseph? We are asking that question far to often nowadays,
Government policies have decimated the family. Let me make it quite clear; by family, I mean mother , children, and father. Britain has the worst level of family breakdown in Europe and one on three children will experience divorce or separation before sixteen . Two out of five children are born to unmarried parents. All of these statistics are vastly worse if we look at benefit supported Council tenants. With 70% of Council tenant receiving assistance in Islington, we are at the sharp end .
The absent father has been a betrayal of white working class boys above all. Only 17% of these gain five or more A to C grades at GCSE .With today’s exams that means the rest are virtually unemployable.
Misguided benefit systems, and a housing policy that rewards irresponsible behaviour are to blame . Consequently, drug related violence terrorises Islington and all we hear is , CCTV , ID cards, and other coercive measures. These are boys who have no-one there to tell them how to be a man. The state cannot be their father.
Remember ,“Tough on crime tough on the causes of crime” ? The greatest cause of all is family breakdown , but this is not on the “New” Labour agenda. .The Child support agency has been a fiasco only rivalled by the tax credit system, and the ineffective “Sure Start“ initiative. I attend “Sure Start” with an awfully nice architect , and an alternative comedian. It isn’t working.
My heart goes out to Nichola Katsaras and I beg her not to take these words as an attack on her .My anger is directed at the government who have wrecked the lives of so many decent people . We must adjust our housing and welfare policy, reintroduce the transferable tax allowance ,and remove vicious marginal rates of taxation We must not forget , ever , that Joseph was there at the first Christmas;watching over the manger .
Brit Flicks are Awful
On the subject of the British film industry and its subsidies. I was chatting elsewhere today as follows (On EU criteria for a British film). I had read the Boris piece in today’s telegraph and Brassed of that dreadful cocktail of self pity and cliché popped into my mind .
I think when old dad coughed up coal dust ,rivals the hanging clown as the most hysterically awful moments in it . Ugh…….Boris was explaining that in order to get a subsidy the film has to be truly British in an number of ridiculous ways …
.Why the hell should tax payers prop up the "British Fim Industry"You are aware that such is the awfulness of its product that film goers actively avoid it until American Audiences have approved.Where is your silly parochial pride in the artistic deadweight of our turgid output then? Nowhere.Let me remind you of the horror of "Brassed Off" as symbolic of all the inward looking special pleading fetid off all our "creative" class dump on us . Consider "The Matrix " as an exemplar of the muscular invention of the US based world of ideas.
We sit around wondering why the media is so religiously attached to a statist agenda , It isn't hard is it ,that's who pays them which goes most of all for the BBC which should be burnt to the ground tomorrow . This is all comes form the French and their Language need for a domestic Film Industry. Also their constant wish to subvert the EU to their own utterly selfish and entirely nationalist ends.
What would Churchill Say
I have been indulging a fantasy...................The decimation of the Cities by uncontrolled migration has been deliberately allowed because the increase in red tape has destroyed the real economy. With inflation and unemployment rising there it is clear the economy cannot withstand increased demand. In any case this is beyond the Chancellors remit , the only good thing he ever did . Unreformed Public Sector resource munchers have been hosed down with taxpayer's cash and like all their kind only react by needing more.
The endless long Summer of growth (actually begun under the chancellor ship of Norman Lamont) , can only be sustained by reducing costs to big business who collude in raising entry barriers to the markets and finance large Lobbying groups , like the Smith Institute ( see Guido). Broon has to have this growth to pay the political pipers of the public sector and he is selling out the country to do it .
It is for this reason that immigration has been allowed to balloon and will continue to be allowed to replace the indigenous people with the flood of further migrants from Bulgaria and Romania next year ( One of the1038 unanswered questions) . Meanwhile One in ten Britain's actually live abroad and 500 permanently relocate every day (replaced by 1500 immigrants)
I am way past pansying around with the whole subject. The answer is lowering taxes reducing administrative burden getting out of the EU , restoring honesty to public finances . My side is winning the argument and will win in the end as the horror unfolds .Both Gordon Brown and David Cameron have signalled they knwo it . What a shame David Cameron has to be dragged like a scraggy old donkey, by the nose ,by the resurgent right .
The Green Party cannot help they are wedded to proto Socialist policies that destroy business and are useful idiots for the Socialists at best. The worst of this operates through the EU .( See new "Green "measures announced yesterday due to undermine the chemical industry) . They also encourage childish non engagement with big policy and single issue fraud of a typical Liberal kind .
When will we defend our land. The whole position is far far worse than it appears and we , the English are fast becoming no more than a scattering of aboriginies paid lip service but irrelevant to policy. I `m with Le Pen . “Love this country or leave it” . I `m with Winston Churchill I wish he was here to day to warn us we are sleepwalking towards the end of our nation. I wish he was here to tell the people who the traitors are and what they have done .This was following the betrayal of the Munich appeasement
"They ,( That’s us), should know that there has been gross neglect and deficiency in our defences; they should know that we have sustained a defeat without a war, the consequences of which will travel far with us along our road; they should know that we have passed an awful milestone in our history."
Resonates for us I think
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Worst Christmas Present Ideas ?
Mutley the Dog, (that snickering hound), has had a simply ripping idea and I am stealing it . I didn`t ask , I do not care. Don`t vist his blog if either .........
a Your gut is delicate amd prone to busting
b Your sides have a tendency to split
This was my pathetic stab , any better ideas ?
http://mutleythedogsdayout.blogspot.com/
1 The Big book of Genocide- for the Arab Islamic Government of Sudan
2 A gun -for someone who hates me and is crackers
3 Some Myrrh - Don’t ask , it was a long journey and any old shit would do
4 The gift of sight - For a blind boy( he wanted socks )
5 Five more years of show biz- For Bruce Forsyth , his immortal soul was required but he seemed please with the deal
6 An exciting roof ornament - For Rod Hull and Emu
7 Addresses of the childer- For Herod , well its what he wanted
8Um…..
8 Pork sausage - For an Orthodox Jewish vegan who had in any case dies some years ago
9 Sixteen high class whores all night - For myself …I `m so ashamed
10.A Partridge in a Pear Tree -My true love (wanted socks)
I like David Cameron
-and on the family he is getting it right:
As the subject of the Nulab assault on the family has cropped up I have diligently attempted to make a gestalt of the seething swarm of grievances that madden me between dusk and darkness. Somewhat unusually I find it difficult. It has been the soufflé that will not rise and I feel more that usually clumsy male and brutish . I do hope such qualities are still attractive.The reason a delicate trout tickling finger is required is that there are competing claims all of which one feels are self evidently super . The rights of women , the prevention of dire poverty the maintenance of the family and the protection of children. We tick all those boxes do we not , so where is the problem ?
Firstly the position of women in marriage . The operation of the divorce courts currently treats the man as under a duty amounting to strict Liability. Whatever the circumstances , be she the scarlet whore of Babylon , the man must lose . He must lose because the children are the state first responsibility. It cannot be doubted that if the explicitly political appointment of judges operated in the UK we would not be stuck with this and other Liberal anachronisms. Nu Lab as we know leaves the legal profession alone.(Tony Blair will I trust be needing the help of an excellent lawyer very soon.) . Part of the effect of this has been to increase to divorce rate but clearly this will be increasingly at the behest of women. The family there fore has be come lop sided . In any dispute the state stands as an alternative provider . In particular a provider of housing . The man is excess baggage . We can see how some of our good motives have lead to evil ends but where is the balance ?
The operation nationally of subsidised housing is well known ,of course ,to have driven a coach and horse through the web of familial connections that the working classes relied upon . It has been one of the most malign errors of political correctness that we have been denied respectability when telling the truth . Women do get pregnant in order to acquire points . Couples are prevented from acknowledging their connection by marginal tax benefits bribery The absent father has been a disaster for young white men in particular. Incidentally the poor white "underclass" perform very much worse than their immigrant opposite numbers . Briefly this is because immigrant s are often temporarily poor middleclass aspirants obliged to start at the bottom . This is not the same as being beaten into losing all self respect as the urban non-working class have been . The destruction of the family in this context has had dire consequences .Sure start has not even connected with it and its failure tells you much about the incomprehension NuLab has for real life.
Only 17 % of white working class boys gain 5 or more A to C grades at GCSE. This means they are unable to spell their own name in the degraded currency left from grade inflation. Britain has the worst level of family breakdown in Europe and around 1 in 3 British children will experience divorce or separation by the age of sixteen. Two out of five children are born to unmarried parents Make no mistake this is not a soft subject for daytime TV , this is a disease that grips the patient by the throat. It is like a sickness that attacks all the organs simultaneously . Education ,social behaviour ,drugs and crime . At the centre of it all is the family. The keystone removed the Arch must crumble and under the rubble children of ten and eleven are routinely involved in drugs crime . The single largest driving force behind this is the maintenance of a housing policy suitable for the austere need of the fifties into the new millennium. ,....and yet do we want mother and child on the street ? Where is the balance?
Perhaps the problem of the absent and derided father has been given enough air . What about the despised mother. Don your flak jackets and accompany me if you will to the Mummy war zone. Nearly half of all women in a sample of 2134 felt they were under an equal obligation to provide for the family as the man .Many of these despise the, "Housewife". On the other side significant percentage of non working mothers report their contempt for the selfishness of the worker mum and, feel that it is they who are failing in the most important role .How the Nu Labs lie . They claim , rightly , that time spent with mother and child together has increased since the sixties . When you factor in the "accessible time" measurement though the situation is very much worse .Accessible time is that time not spent cooking cleaning and working at home.What do we want then ? Get those uppity fillies back in the kitchen, and back into character? Should we have a law requiring women to be able to.." stuff a goose with one hand while whipping up a tarte fine aux pommes with the other, at the same time as having great sex with their adoring husbands". Many men will be scratching their heads in search of an objection , but lets be serious . Not in this life my friends.I need hardly add that the male has become a miserable primate picking his ears in solitary confusion. He is miserable .
A strange pottage , in all, of good , if bossy , intentions , we can all see something is going badly wrong but but to introduce sudden doctrinaire changes would only fall as foul of the law of unintended consequences as the Blair disaster. Now here comes the sting the tail ..wait for it ...any minute now . David Cameron is getting right!What , that callow matinee fraud ,...has newmania lost his solitary marble... ?Against considerable evidence to the contrary I would argue no. David cameron is listening to women . He has signalled this by fast tracking the Priti Patels and Joanne Cash`s into the loathed A list , he has spent much capital on the project . His language does not , like president Bushes`, include reference to Blair's "cojones" he does not require a "Clunking fist" You have to read he runes a little but then women are especially good at that. They have responded by backing over the Socialist Scot by 42% to 30%He is listening to suggestions that women require flexible working hours . His indifference to Big Business is a sign that their need will not come first. Most importantly he has suggested a scheme to convert Council rents into mortgages. He does not have to say how he values the countries institutions , remember he has come into the centre from the right ! Why do you think he and Boris get on so well !
Above all he has winked as much as he possible can at the party on taxes. He cannot be clearer . He wishes to simplify . As everyone knows that means reduce by the only electorally possible means . By this method he will help the poverty trap .The credit system ...let us not speak of it ! He is tied into distancing us from Europe , an essential prerequisite to doing anything at all .It all forms a picture Take the disaster of literacy he does not demand we return to the 194os as some Tories secretly wish he would . He persuaded the Education secretary to reintroduce synthetic phonics. He is interested in practical solutions
We are in early days and there is no pointing giving Nu Lab clothes to steal or policies to cost This is not a subject for big ideas and sweeping changes it is a subject for feeling our way to a new definition for the family . My reading is that David Cameron is doing just that . Some of us so hate the Labour Party that we cannot bare the reasonableness of his approach .I have begun to think we all need to grow up. David Cameron is a fine Leader , a caring man and a brave man. He is not an insider. The Party chose him because they needed him. David Davies agrees , so does Boris .The women of the country sense he has something and are saying so . What then of the men ?
Well , when the women are happy , rest assured , life becomes sweet indeed for those of us with real "cojones"
As the subject of the Nulab assault on the family has cropped up I have diligently attempted to make a gestalt of the seething swarm of grievances that madden me between dusk and darkness. Somewhat unusually I find it difficult. It has been the soufflé that will not rise and I feel more that usually clumsy male and brutish . I do hope such qualities are still attractive.The reason a delicate trout tickling finger is required is that there are competing claims all of which one feels are self evidently super . The rights of women , the prevention of dire poverty the maintenance of the family and the protection of children. We tick all those boxes do we not , so where is the problem ?
Firstly the position of women in marriage . The operation of the divorce courts currently treats the man as under a duty amounting to strict Liability. Whatever the circumstances , be she the scarlet whore of Babylon , the man must lose . He must lose because the children are the state first responsibility. It cannot be doubted that if the explicitly political appointment of judges operated in the UK we would not be stuck with this and other Liberal anachronisms. Nu Lab as we know leaves the legal profession alone.(Tony Blair will I trust be needing the help of an excellent lawyer very soon.) . Part of the effect of this has been to increase to divorce rate but clearly this will be increasingly at the behest of women. The family there fore has be come lop sided . In any dispute the state stands as an alternative provider . In particular a provider of housing . The man is excess baggage . We can see how some of our good motives have lead to evil ends but where is the balance ?
The operation nationally of subsidised housing is well known ,of course ,to have driven a coach and horse through the web of familial connections that the working classes relied upon . It has been one of the most malign errors of political correctness that we have been denied respectability when telling the truth . Women do get pregnant in order to acquire points . Couples are prevented from acknowledging their connection by marginal tax benefits bribery The absent father has been a disaster for young white men in particular. Incidentally the poor white "underclass" perform very much worse than their immigrant opposite numbers . Briefly this is because immigrant s are often temporarily poor middleclass aspirants obliged to start at the bottom . This is not the same as being beaten into losing all self respect as the urban non-working class have been . The destruction of the family in this context has had dire consequences .Sure start has not even connected with it and its failure tells you much about the incomprehension NuLab has for real life.
Only 17 % of white working class boys gain 5 or more A to C grades at GCSE. This means they are unable to spell their own name in the degraded currency left from grade inflation. Britain has the worst level of family breakdown in Europe and around 1 in 3 British children will experience divorce or separation by the age of sixteen. Two out of five children are born to unmarried parents Make no mistake this is not a soft subject for daytime TV , this is a disease that grips the patient by the throat. It is like a sickness that attacks all the organs simultaneously . Education ,social behaviour ,drugs and crime . At the centre of it all is the family. The keystone removed the Arch must crumble and under the rubble children of ten and eleven are routinely involved in drugs crime . The single largest driving force behind this is the maintenance of a housing policy suitable for the austere need of the fifties into the new millennium. ,....and yet do we want mother and child on the street ? Where is the balance?
Perhaps the problem of the absent and derided father has been given enough air . What about the despised mother. Don your flak jackets and accompany me if you will to the Mummy war zone. Nearly half of all women in a sample of 2134 felt they were under an equal obligation to provide for the family as the man .Many of these despise the, "Housewife". On the other side significant percentage of non working mothers report their contempt for the selfishness of the worker mum and, feel that it is they who are failing in the most important role .How the Nu Labs lie . They claim , rightly , that time spent with mother and child together has increased since the sixties . When you factor in the "accessible time" measurement though the situation is very much worse .Accessible time is that time not spent cooking cleaning and working at home.What do we want then ? Get those uppity fillies back in the kitchen, and back into character? Should we have a law requiring women to be able to.." stuff a goose with one hand while whipping up a tarte fine aux pommes with the other, at the same time as having great sex with their adoring husbands". Many men will be scratching their heads in search of an objection , but lets be serious . Not in this life my friends.I need hardly add that the male has become a miserable primate picking his ears in solitary confusion. He is miserable .
A strange pottage , in all, of good , if bossy , intentions , we can all see something is going badly wrong but but to introduce sudden doctrinaire changes would only fall as foul of the law of unintended consequences as the Blair disaster. Now here comes the sting the tail ..wait for it ...any minute now . David Cameron is getting right!What , that callow matinee fraud ,...has newmania lost his solitary marble... ?Against considerable evidence to the contrary I would argue no. David cameron is listening to women . He has signalled this by fast tracking the Priti Patels and Joanne Cash`s into the loathed A list , he has spent much capital on the project . His language does not , like president Bushes`, include reference to Blair's "cojones" he does not require a "Clunking fist" You have to read he runes a little but then women are especially good at that. They have responded by backing over the Socialist Scot by 42% to 30%He is listening to suggestions that women require flexible working hours . His indifference to Big Business is a sign that their need will not come first. Most importantly he has suggested a scheme to convert Council rents into mortgages. He does not have to say how he values the countries institutions , remember he has come into the centre from the right ! Why do you think he and Boris get on so well !
Above all he has winked as much as he possible can at the party on taxes. He cannot be clearer . He wishes to simplify . As everyone knows that means reduce by the only electorally possible means . By this method he will help the poverty trap .The credit system ...let us not speak of it ! He is tied into distancing us from Europe , an essential prerequisite to doing anything at all .It all forms a picture Take the disaster of literacy he does not demand we return to the 194os as some Tories secretly wish he would . He persuaded the Education secretary to reintroduce synthetic phonics. He is interested in practical solutions
We are in early days and there is no pointing giving Nu Lab clothes to steal or policies to cost This is not a subject for big ideas and sweeping changes it is a subject for feeling our way to a new definition for the family . My reading is that David Cameron is doing just that . Some of us so hate the Labour Party that we cannot bare the reasonableness of his approach .I have begun to think we all need to grow up. David Cameron is a fine Leader , a caring man and a brave man. He is not an insider. The Party chose him because they needed him. David Davies agrees , so does Boris .The women of the country sense he has something and are saying so . What then of the men ?
Well , when the women are happy , rest assured , life becomes sweet indeed for those of us with real "cojones"
Saturday, December 09, 2006
The Utopian Fallacy
It is essentially un Conservative to dream of Utopias which are generally academic jokes or religious bunkum. Nic Boles .Gay Tory Etonian Policy Wonk and prospective Mayoral Candidate quoted this the other day from Michale Oakshott
Michael Oakeshott had no doubt about a Conservative's proper response: "to be conservative ... is to prefer the actual to the possible, the limited to the unbounded, the near to the distant ... the convenient to the perfect, present laughter to utopian bliss".
What a good description that is and we Conservatives seem to be winning . We see few sincere Utopian ideas in the ether What has happened to Utopias ? I believe the last Utopia was" A Modern Utopia " by HG Wells , Thomas Mores imagined one and some bod name of Plato may have had a stab at the genre . From Aldous Huxley on though we seem unable to imagine the future without fear and trembling .My life is full of the fearful the worthy the tedious and the humourless (Raincoaster?)There is no heaven on earth and thank god for that . Even Milton had a lot more fun in hell than with that smug know all god .
Consider the humanity of Satan:
Satan, now back on earth, has a moment of doubt and despair in which he says that "the hell I suffer seems a heav'n."
I want my parking space back , that is my Utopia
Oh and just to keep it at the top of Google. Nic Boles is a useless candidate for London Mayor . Useless
Michael Oakeshott had no doubt about a Conservative's proper response: "to be conservative ... is to prefer the actual to the possible, the limited to the unbounded, the near to the distant ... the convenient to the perfect, present laughter to utopian bliss".
What a good description that is and we Conservatives seem to be winning . We see few sincere Utopian ideas in the ether What has happened to Utopias ? I believe the last Utopia was" A Modern Utopia " by HG Wells , Thomas Mores imagined one and some bod name of Plato may have had a stab at the genre . From Aldous Huxley on though we seem unable to imagine the future without fear and trembling .My life is full of the fearful the worthy the tedious and the humourless (Raincoaster?)There is no heaven on earth and thank god for that . Even Milton had a lot more fun in hell than with that smug know all god .
Consider the humanity of Satan:
Satan, now back on earth, has a moment of doubt and despair in which he says that "the hell I suffer seems a heav'n."
I want my parking space back , that is my Utopia
Oh and just to keep it at the top of Google. Nic Boles is a useless candidate for London Mayor . Useless
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Green Belt Development is Political
Boris had something a bit flavourless to say about the Green belt and it seemed to spark a bout of the old rant juice . made me feel better anyway
"Wa" and "ffle" Boris . Meaning waffle and not even joined up waffle , as you very well know .There is absolutely no reason to trample on the green belt whether or not parts of it may be less than Haywain material (afternoon Constable). London has oodles of spare space and mega oodles of cheap housing . Why is it cheap Mr . to lazy -to -run -for -mayor ?No-one wants to live there of course . You would be staggered given the vibrant rainbow nations of Peckham Lambeth and most of your own manor , that floods of unhappy commuters , bored with English food and starved of "urban community" theatre are not flocking into the streets that go nowhere, and characterise the real London. Our blissful Parklands , the envy of the world , are but the throw of a flick-knife away. For reasons I dare not speculate about ,however ,they are , unsnapped up , left to rust , ever the bridesmaid. Thus the price remains low , thus Bethnal Green Harringay and a host of handy little bolt hole retain there "distinctive character".Well you could hardly expect the residents to move out could you , after all most of them are on call at the City Honey pot 24 hours a day aren't they ? Oddly no.In many of the most salubrious areas ,potentially , working anywhere at all is a mystery , much as the Roman remains were to dark age savages , who imagines giants once staked the land. The vast majority are occupied by state subsidised one parent families who could equally accept the largesse of the weary working stiff, in the Hebrides . Predictably , all attempts to create artificial pools of "affordable " housing soon acquire there own special aroma of affluence or is it effluence , one of the two ; and defeat their supposed purpose immediately .Perhaps some might not like what I say but at least we can all agree that demand for housing has nothing , absolutely nothing , to do with available space in the metropolis. It is a political matter and incidentally , a matter of fiddling the books .As Hertfordshire squeals in dismay at the 3% Social housing barrier being broken , we live here in Borisania with the 70% barrier about to be airily flicked aside with a gallic shrug of the shoulders . The problem is not people moving into London it is people moving out ! George Walden , who has had some simply darling things to say about Cameron ,pointed out the role of honour amongst white flight deniers . Polly Toynbee (kids at public school), Dianne Abbot ,(same), Emily Thorn berry ..now let me see was a "the local school" or b A Grammar school yes a GRAMMAR SCHOOL she wangled with a second home . They have all bought themselves out .Cameron ? Is anyone taking bets because I `ll take a slice of that sweet actionIt isn`t race , its immigration as the majority of immigrants agree. It isn't immigration its uncontrolled exploding cheap Labour needed by Mac Broon to disguise his supply side catastrophe. It is also the location of the nations Social problems in what is rapidly becoming a wildlife park . Gentrified Barnnsbury and Nottinghill dwellers do not live in it . They pass through it in the economic equivalent of a nice big 4 by 4. How there privileged children squeal and coo at the collapsing schools , the daily knifings and other exotica. How snug and safe they are. As they glide past they might be lucky and spot a rare , "new best friend" Trevor Phillips .Look he is waving his arms and warning us of some sort of cultural war , did you catch it sweetums ?..going to the dogs did he say ?
Over the next twenty years London is predicted to double its population . The white working class are shattered and there are 500,000 more EU migrants lined up for next year. Meanwhile the damned Socialists have £156billion of Private Finance Initiative Borrowing guaranteed by the tax payer but off the balance book when Council house sales go straight into the pocket of the state . This all, ratchets up the ease with which ever increasing amounts of benefit collecting subsidised communities are concentrated in London .Always in London , nowhere else would put up with it nowhere else can it be hidden. That why we have to turn the country into a car park . That why we have take our birthright and desecrate it .
Noone will take on the absurdity of free houses or at least start putting them somewhere else . Noone will take on Urban Social collapse . If the state wasn't handing out free houses there wouldn't be a London housing problem and the answer...much much much more of the same courtesy of my special favourite little popette Ken bloody Livingstone .
Aaaaaargh!
"Wa" and "ffle" Boris . Meaning waffle and not even joined up waffle , as you very well know .There is absolutely no reason to trample on the green belt whether or not parts of it may be less than Haywain material (afternoon Constable). London has oodles of spare space and mega oodles of cheap housing . Why is it cheap Mr . to lazy -to -run -for -mayor ?No-one wants to live there of course . You would be staggered given the vibrant rainbow nations of Peckham Lambeth and most of your own manor , that floods of unhappy commuters , bored with English food and starved of "urban community" theatre are not flocking into the streets that go nowhere, and characterise the real London. Our blissful Parklands , the envy of the world , are but the throw of a flick-knife away. For reasons I dare not speculate about ,however ,they are , unsnapped up , left to rust , ever the bridesmaid. Thus the price remains low , thus Bethnal Green Harringay and a host of handy little bolt hole retain there "distinctive character".Well you could hardly expect the residents to move out could you , after all most of them are on call at the City Honey pot 24 hours a day aren't they ? Oddly no.In many of the most salubrious areas ,potentially , working anywhere at all is a mystery , much as the Roman remains were to dark age savages , who imagines giants once staked the land. The vast majority are occupied by state subsidised one parent families who could equally accept the largesse of the weary working stiff, in the Hebrides . Predictably , all attempts to create artificial pools of "affordable " housing soon acquire there own special aroma of affluence or is it effluence , one of the two ; and defeat their supposed purpose immediately .Perhaps some might not like what I say but at least we can all agree that demand for housing has nothing , absolutely nothing , to do with available space in the metropolis. It is a political matter and incidentally , a matter of fiddling the books .As Hertfordshire squeals in dismay at the 3% Social housing barrier being broken , we live here in Borisania with the 70% barrier about to be airily flicked aside with a gallic shrug of the shoulders . The problem is not people moving into London it is people moving out ! George Walden , who has had some simply darling things to say about Cameron ,pointed out the role of honour amongst white flight deniers . Polly Toynbee (kids at public school), Dianne Abbot ,(same), Emily Thorn berry ..now let me see was a "the local school" or b A Grammar school yes a GRAMMAR SCHOOL she wangled with a second home . They have all bought themselves out .Cameron ? Is anyone taking bets because I `ll take a slice of that sweet actionIt isn`t race , its immigration as the majority of immigrants agree. It isn't immigration its uncontrolled exploding cheap Labour needed by Mac Broon to disguise his supply side catastrophe. It is also the location of the nations Social problems in what is rapidly becoming a wildlife park . Gentrified Barnnsbury and Nottinghill dwellers do not live in it . They pass through it in the economic equivalent of a nice big 4 by 4. How there privileged children squeal and coo at the collapsing schools , the daily knifings and other exotica. How snug and safe they are. As they glide past they might be lucky and spot a rare , "new best friend" Trevor Phillips .Look he is waving his arms and warning us of some sort of cultural war , did you catch it sweetums ?..going to the dogs did he say ?
Over the next twenty years London is predicted to double its population . The white working class are shattered and there are 500,000 more EU migrants lined up for next year. Meanwhile the damned Socialists have £156billion of Private Finance Initiative Borrowing guaranteed by the tax payer but off the balance book when Council house sales go straight into the pocket of the state . This all, ratchets up the ease with which ever increasing amounts of benefit collecting subsidised communities are concentrated in London .Always in London , nowhere else would put up with it nowhere else can it be hidden. That why we have to turn the country into a car park . That why we have take our birthright and desecrate it .
Noone will take on the absurdity of free houses or at least start putting them somewhere else . Noone will take on Urban Social collapse . If the state wasn't handing out free houses there wouldn't be a London housing problem and the answer...much much much more of the same courtesy of my special favourite little popette Ken bloody Livingstone .
Aaaaaargh!
Gratuitous Pictures of Us
Not much more to say really but i am getting back to the serious busines of boring the pants off anyone unfortunate enough to fall down the well in a tick
I`m bloody Busy
Well I have discovered that what with working having a family and trying to have a poltical life i do not have much time for this . Sorry .
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Liberal Hunting- a boy can dream....
This isn`t irony , this is a call to arms . Look out Kempton we have you in range
( Stolen from the amazing raincoaster a sort of media poet who irritates amuses , entertains and all sorts have a look)
In Praise of Joe Dolce
In “About a boy”, Nick Hornby the hero Will , makes a living from royalties from an ancient Christmas hit always on a new advert somewhere in The East , I think Asia is pretty key in all this actually .The “friend” in Bridget Jones` Diaries had one hit in the 80s and found this enough to get shagged forever. I saw one of the Bros brothers saying something rather mournful which was that you cease to be “hot” but the pure recognition stays forever . That right isn’t it you don’t forget people they cease to be interesting like a pile of junk in the basement .Sigue Sigue Sputnik were a truly awful one hit wonder , they wander this penumbral region of virtual half life like unquiet spirits. Croydonian ,the worlds greatest blogger noticed them disputing rights to the name. I love one hit wonders though.
People are always saying what a tragedy it was that the sublime ( I don1t think) “Vienna “ was kept of the top spot by Joe Doce and Shaddup you face .Au contraire Vienna was manure in a raincoat and Joe Dolce was a genius with much to say about life and art .
Let us examine the La Dolce Vita
Art Forum examines the work of J Dolce
Hello, I'ma Guiseppi, I gottta something speciala for you, Ready, uno, duo, tres, quatro.
(…………..calling to the muse clearly Homeric in inspiration… ),
When I was a boy just about a fiftha grade, Mama used to say don'ta stay out alateWith the badda boys, always shoota pool, Guiseppi goin-ta flunka school
( Immediately savage social commentary is commenced with the mother making explicit , the moral centre of the piece)
Boy it make-a me sick, everyting I gotta doI can'ta getta no kicks, always gotta follow rulesBoy it make-a me sick, just to make-a lousy bucksGotta a feela like a fool
( the hero chafes at the discipline required for the nation to succeed . Shakespeare dealt with similar material in Henry V part 1, the hero must cast the childish , the Falstaffian aside.)
And the mama used to say all the time,What'sa matter you, hey, gotta no respectWhatta you tink you do, why you looka so sadItsa not so bad, Itsa nice-a place, Ahh shaddupa you face
( In the Greek style chorus the emotional counterpoint mirrors the dialectic between conformity and inspiration , resolved with the a plea for silence as the hero struggles to find reconciliation)
Newmainia is a sensitive feeling person and always looking for beauty.
See link to Croydonian the worlds greatest blogger in the below post
What tax would you cut ?
Somebody asked which taxes you would reduce , I had a few quick thoughts and suddenly its all so clear…………..
Well what a marvellous suggestion this is .
1 Corporation tax I must urgently be reduced as I think even the lobotomised left accept
2 The tax allowance must be raised
3 VAT should immediately be scrapped on all goods with a proven green effect . This would have a massive knock on result for the placement of resources and research into efficiency . Similarly tax breaks should be available for green cars and UK holidays .(Actually labour want to tax UK holidays by adding a surcharge on B and Bs )
(Beneath this green dressing the secret agenda would be to scrap VAT altogether it is a vicious regressive tax we were ,until fairly recently, better off without )
4 Tax allowances for exam results payable to parents .
5 Scrap Stamp duty there is no reason for it whatsoever
6 Scrap inheritance tax or at least tie it to house prices ..obviously
7 Scrap IPT .
8 Return tax benefits to dividends in pension funds ,,obviously
........And so on , a series of virtuous tax advantages by which happy means we also reduce the size of the state encouraging better behaviours and responsibility. This would be paid for by the slow dismantling of the benefits system , the selective introduction of privatisation, less waste , greater tax yield and better growth..
Cut the state away slice out the tumour of dependency the country needs surgery
Well what a marvellous suggestion this is .
1 Corporation tax I must urgently be reduced as I think even the lobotomised left accept
2 The tax allowance must be raised
3 VAT should immediately be scrapped on all goods with a proven green effect . This would have a massive knock on result for the placement of resources and research into efficiency . Similarly tax breaks should be available for green cars and UK holidays .(Actually labour want to tax UK holidays by adding a surcharge on B and Bs )
(Beneath this green dressing the secret agenda would be to scrap VAT altogether it is a vicious regressive tax we were ,until fairly recently, better off without )
4 Tax allowances for exam results payable to parents .
5 Scrap Stamp duty there is no reason for it whatsoever
6 Scrap inheritance tax or at least tie it to house prices ..obviously
7 Scrap IPT .
8 Return tax benefits to dividends in pension funds ,,obviously
........And so on , a series of virtuous tax advantages by which happy means we also reduce the size of the state encouraging better behaviours and responsibility. This would be paid for by the slow dismantling of the benefits system , the selective introduction of privatisation, less waste , greater tax yield and better growth..
Cut the state away slice out the tumour of dependency the country needs surgery
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
The Brown Tartan
Thats the Brown tartan up there and Mac Broon trying to flog a dead horse.Apt ?
Perhaps my favourite Tory Blogger is Croydonian . Let me recommend anyone who wants up to the minute repartee, gossip and sheer good humour to his blog . I look in very day and generally lower the tone . He has been doing all the work as usual comparing the heterogeneous origins of London MPs to the racially selected Scottish ones. I must also recommend Praguetory , another superb commentator whose idea it all was. Hat tips and genuine admiration to both.
http://www.croydonian.blogspot.com/
http://praguetory.blogspot.com/
I decided to have a look at the situation in these parts and took on London: out of 70 MPs I can offer - by birth - seven Scots, two Welsh, two Northern Irish, two Germans, one Egyptian (hello Margaret Hodge), one Swede, one Hollander, one American and one Indian. Beyond that, there are six MPs from the Midlands and 12 Northerners of various stripes. There are a further four from the SE or the West and four who have kept their place of birth well away from the public gaze, so if anyone can help out on the origins of the members for Ruislip, Islington South, Ealing North and Hackney South, I would be much obliged. Unambiguously London born MPs make up 26 of the 70, so on a like for like basis, 91% of Scottish seats have Scottish MPs, whereas only 37% of London seats have London MPs.
Now to me this is all about the end of the Union and the attempt of the Broon to hide it from the English . I had this to say:
Scottish attitudes are driving the Union apart and this process has been going on for a long time.When I am not happily giggling at Lord Snooty and his merry capers in the Beano I leaf through such books as “Death of Tory England” In it there is good chapter ,“celtic fringes”, charting the decline of the Conservative Party ,“Unionist Party”, in this context” in those areas. As late as 1955 the Conservative party had 36 Scottish seats in Scotland, Labour 34. Astounding don’t you think how strong that “British National “sentiment was , and when you think of what British National means now .. Oh dear .
The death of the Conservative party in Scotland especially is bound up with the death of the concept of Union . People who echo Margaret Thatcher ,”every Conservative should be a unionist in their bones” are like Angels beating their wings in a vacuum , to misquote Mathew Arnold.. There is no point applying the kiss of life to a corpse and Margaret Thatcher never believed it anyway. It will be interesting to see if nationalistic themes come to predominate in England , I suspect it will not be quite the same .
. By the way this staggering shift since the 50s is one of many that are dealt with in the book “The Chosen People”. Sometimes we think , by a sort of chronological illusion we are in the same period as the Coronation of our present Monarch . We are more remote than they were from the Victorians . You notice this trick of time when , in Alan Clarks diaries he writes “thirty years ago when the Luftwaffe flew over London “ in 1973!!! Thirty years ago was the Sexpistols. Times they are a changing and the attitude of the English to the UK is about to change . Scotland behaves entirely as you would expect any nationalist sovereign country to.It has felt that way about itself for along time now . It has been hidden from the English because Conservatives are still sentimental about the old days and the Labour party , more venally , need the votes
All of this of course has one important point for us . It is the Laird MacBroon of the clan Broon unwilling to let Scots in England vote on devolution , let is not forget , is in a sticky spot. Let us join with Alec Salmon in shouting “the Mac King has no clothes” He is going to try to govern England with Scottish votes and it will be the greatest imposture on any electorate in this land in all history .
God I do feel sorry for the Scots Tories though , what marvellous people they are .
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Social JusticeWhat class am I ?
I see an active role for the state in disrupting what you might call class monopolies of opportunity . This could be through the educational system , which means taking on the NUT . This could be through providing outlets by grammar style streaming . It must include buttressing the working class communities from within , protecting them from without .Not all of this is pretty , most of it will fly in the face of what I think of as the "Liberal "consensus" about the benefits of multiculturalism and undermining traditional family structure .
One thing that horrifies me is the disappearance of working class political representation from parliament . On this basis it is hardly likely that much will be achieved . I would like to see the Conservative party reconnect with its working class support , not focus exclusively on the centre "Liberal " voter. I would like to see more talk about social justice and less about image friendly subjects like the "environment ". I am concerned at the rampant inequality between classes that widens daily .What we get as our "representative MP s ? Priti thingymabob . Asian , oh goody, but the sprig of a long line of bureaucrats last seen getting kicked out of Uganda by the blacks for feathering their nests at their expense. She knows nothing of disadvantage .
I want to see class back in the political agenda and Bennetton ad smarm dispensed with . By the way inside the EU all of this is somewhat problematical.
Here is a thought . What about a what class am I quiz ?
1 Did either of your parents have tatttoo ?
2 Were you educated at the states expense
3 Do you like X factor
4 Did you ever devote a lot of time to dance impressively at clubs
5Did you play out ?
6 Did either of your parents attend any educational establishment after 16
7Can you fight , or have you ?
8 has anyone in your family ever done anything creative for a living
I may come up with some more ideas
Toyn Bee in the Tory Bonnet
Subtle eh ?
Well this has been going on all week one way or another and I think it raises interesting issues about poverty and exclusion. Polly Toynbee however has nothing to add, and I fear it is more toffish Liberals agreeing about what nice people they are
I have just had an awful week , I `ve got gastric flue and the tinnitus I always struggle with is out of control . My hollow voice echoes directly from white faced Hades.
What is the Toyn bee in the Tory bonnet ? .A political philosophy cannot be only a means for safeguarding the privileged the successful and the lucky . How glib and fatuous it is to say "yaaas well you are giving disincentives to pile up more cash as a Lawyer by obliging me to support this "work -shy" family " ; as if the disincentivised one would exchange places for a second .
People are not of fundamentally different sorts ,given any numbers ; the barriers between classes are higher than they were in the 60s . Quite clearly new Labour have little interest in the poor except to infantilise pacify and bribe. Conservatives , if they were sincere , and many have doubts , must think of new approaches.
One point is ,that the most worrying trend is not relative poverty but, "absolute poverty." Absolute poverty, in a bottom detached level of the population, has worsened ,and in the context of overall growth ,and increasing incomes ,it is like a chasm. We have created a whole culture that exists not inside but beneath society , parasitic on it becomes and detested as a carrions feeder. This is something we must be concerned about , it is expensive , it creates nihilism and terrifying crime It is wasteful and wrong .
Other fissures have grown ;the barriers between those outside private education and without capital as compared to those with those advantages . It is telling that top Public schools are now abandoning the A levels , the last redoubt of reliability, because they are worthless internationally . All of those in public education with money are stratified away from the remnant . These escapees include the children of Polly Toynbee . Naturellement.
Liberals like to bleet loudly about all this, mostly to advertise their own class qualifications . Graduate , professional , Guardian reader was , for a long time a statement of class superiority , it still is in the less "with it" Universities like Oxbridge . They are safe in the knowledge that they will not live with the objects of their staged concern and their children will never meet . Time and time again this nauseating double standard is replayed . This is why many Conservatives hate Polly Toynbee , not her supposed "caring qualifications ". Her sickening hard hearted hypocrisy
In my youth working-class credibility if not solidarity was something to aspire to .Now it has been replaced by a faint smear of social concern worn more or less like an accessory.People forget that some of us became Conservatives out of moral outrage at the duplicitous smarm of middleclass ,"worriers". Norman Tebbit is a hero to all of us who have this thread in the skein. Neo Con monetarist thinking makes for a good essay and a cogent argument . It is fairly useless to deal with education , opportunity and social exclusion but without a strong policy here Conservativism , for me , implodes.
Margaret Thatcher`s "Right To Buy " , was brave attack on entrenched positions on behalf of the poor . . One hopes the rumours about a Cameron rent to Mortgage scheme are true . I equally hope the Conservatives will immediately come to the aid of leaseholders who have been the doctrinal whipping boy of the inner city hard left ever since.
So Clark , who is himself a creepy little wonk has touched , perhaps accidentally, on a key issue . Society is drifting apart. "Opportunity" the prerequisite for moral Capitalism does not exits for whole geographical and social trenches. We can hardly suggest more credits , more benefits , more means tested goodies which has been an unparalleled disaster . So what can we do ?
Not easy is it . Firstly accept that the state cannot solve the problem it can only try to create better conditions for people to solve it for themselves.
Cuts on Reggressive indirect taxes
An increase in the tax allowance
A slow squeeze on points based Council housing and benefits
The development of new mortgage products and housing association schemes
The reintroduction of grammar schools by some other name ( which T Blair quite obviously sees as essential himself)
Major public investment in education which must be keyed directly into work , not floating in a NUT dreamland
Tight curbs on further immigration
Rigorous policies of cultural coherence for those here , especially on language
Schools with eight languages should not be inflicted on the most dis- advantaged
All of this would help working class communities to re -establish
The end of the state will provide assumption
AND A Large tax allowance for married couples
.Cash rewards for exam results
I also think you have to attack the glacial snobbery that has descended on the country by finding ways to mix people and extend the experience of everyone .
Perhaps the internet will help , thus far I'm not greatly encouraged
The Trade Unions have a vital role to play in all of this especially in training schemes
David Cameron has talked about a Responsibility revolution. I wonder if he means it. So far he has shown little appetite for political risk taking .The concept of responsibility is exactly what must be reintroduced to the deserts where the poorest live.
re. Let us hope not
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Can anyone draw ?
Now what I need is someone who can draw . I had an idea for a cartoon as below but can I draw it . Nope . The idea , obviously , is the end of the planet of the apes but it was the line itself I like .. A man crawls along a beach , ........he does not recognise the land , ...before him is the rotting disregarded symbol of past glories.........It is titled “Planet of the Liberals”,
The statue is of Margaret Thatcher,.... half in the sand ......
He cries to the pitiless sun
"Damn them all! Damn them all to hell!!"
Saturday, November 18, 2006
The Sound of Music !!!
A bit of a break really , having seen the Sound of Music I can vouch for the brilliance of Connie Fisher and the strength of the whole production. This week there has been a lot about paedophiles in the news . The absurd BA ban on men sitting next to children . The publication of names on the web and Michael Jackson .After being booed of stage he says he`ll never sing in public again . If only we had known it was that easy .
Lets forget all that and remind ourselves of innocence and hope . The Sound of Music is a show you have to take on its own terms . If you are able to do so the rewards are considerable
We think of it as something that's just there; overly sentimental and , those worst crimes against the modern (in)- sensibility, light , comic , poetic and sophisticated. It opened on Broadway in 1959 and, I would guess , was the last show of the incomparable duo R and H. There is an elegiac delicacy about it that is absolutely not what you expect Few big numbers for the coach party , but music scenery character and story knitted almost magically
It is strongly thematic .Music , life and the Hills of Austria are the subject of the arresting overture stating the main symbols, that will gather meaning. In the Nunnery Maria is, significantly, still out on the mountain ,, she is a "problem" , but Maria "makes me laugh" . The moral centre of the story is the Abbess, and in the show ,shorn of the need for cluttering reality ,the importance of the Nuns is more to the fore than one expects . The abbess sends her to find ,"Her dream "., to find herself In the house of the Von Trapps she meets a bereaved man ,distant from his children and headed for a marriage he feels would be "appropriate", with a Viennese sophisticate . She is everything that Maria is not She is rich , knowing and glamorous , but she cannot speak to the children and she does not know the mountains of Austria in her heart . Typically she is treated kindly as a divided character who seeing the nobility of Von Trapp , but unable to share it .Crucially she makes an accommodation with the Nazis. The Captain cannot
Maria rediscovers the Von Trapp music and through the course of some of the best songs. "Doe a deer .." , "favourite things" , reawakens the family through musical fun . Half childlike herself she and the children create a new hope, "When you know the notes to sing , you can sing most everything " This is music that does not advertise its complexity it appears to flow from the situation . The captain joins the life that Maria has brought
She dances with Von Trapp , a much older man than her , and says ."Its different to when you are girl isn't it ". All is decided , "lets ask the children". She returns ,once more, to the nunnery , now a woman ,and they are married.
Max the impecunious social butterfly ,who provides a cynical counterpoint , has mischeviosuly arranged that they appear in Salzburg for the folk festival . With the Nazi threat looming, Captain Von Trapp is offered a commission , and cannot refuse it outright . They must escape . He agrees to go as the newly invented ,Von Trapp family singers . They win the competition with Edelweiss. Edelweiss is the national flower of Austria and the song articulates mourning for its loss to the fascist jackboot . The children play their part ,with a comic orchestration of their play songs . Max finally shows the goodness we suspected ,and , by sacrificing himself ,allows them to escape to the nunnery.
Evil shows its dark face, as the family hide from stalking soldiers silhouetted in the moon light .Lisel , who herself is "sixteen going on seventeen" , sees Rolf , her first love for the last time as he redeems himself by passing the family by. Another passing from childhood to adulthood .
Then how will they escape , what can save them ? The roads are blocked .They must go to the mountains .
Finally the forces of good combine. The Nuns and the children climb through the night , the mountain protects them as the Nunnery had .The last tableau is of the iconic group looking down on Switzerland . The bright dawn is rising. The show builds to this end which coincides with the reprise of "Climb every mountain " . Not the strongest song in the show but its placement is powerful. With all the threads tied ,and Leslie Garret on hand as the Abbess ,to give it some serious welly , the happy ending is entirely satisfying.
I would argue that the American wave was the cultural fact of the last century , that Rogers and Hammerstein are the best exponents of its most distinctive form .In this their swan song they created the most complete work of art ,bar none ,in the last hundred years . It is as perfect as Pride and Prejudice . It will last forever .
Friday, November 17, 2006
Cameron`s Camelot
( Who will be his Lancelot )
Boris of course
. I have been raving about this titanic Conservative .
Boris , who I have just watched on question time performing brilliantly , reiterated the point that Reid is posturing by framing a law that will be resisted on Libertarian ground, so as to appear to be tougher on Terrorism, than thou .This is typical of the sophisticated news handling that Nu Lab have made the signature of their government . In this case they are appearing the opposite of what they are . From the Blackpool conference onwards ,they have been a party without the rudder of principle. As a result, the natural tendency for bureaucrats to want more power, for interest groups to want more tax money, and for politicians to want more laws has drifted calamitously. This is what the electorate have had enough of .They must therefore appear decisive, but it is sham . Most of the queens speech initiatives have no chance of becoming law, and exists for pantomimic effect. Reid ,( between the lines), is the worst offender .
There is an interesting code going on here . Nick Griffin has just been discovered ( oh my goodness) to be racist , or not, because he says Muslims are evil people intent on no good . We are , apparently , in such imminent Terrorist peril that we must be bunged in chokey , at the whim of plod . Meanwhile, further laws are being framed to deny me the right to say this is all the fault of Islam with its encouragement to ,"find the faithless and slay them". It is absolutely no coincidence that Boris mentions the telling fact about the number of Muslims who believe in Sharia law . The dove Muslim majority is largely a myth.
Behind all of this is the revolt of the white working class against Labour and often into the hands of the BNP . The Labour front bench have over the last two months made endless anti Islamic comments , ( quite rightly ) for the benefit of this audience , but they dare not take on their multicultural support .So , despite the official abandonment of catastrophic multicultural policy the Labour party ,hugely in the thrall of minority pressure groups , cannot act . As Boris points out there will be no compulsory English or cultural, induction of any sort.. No move to value the working people of this country to won two world wars for us .They will continue to be betrayed . Labours answer is to threaten to lock everyone up and to drag out M15 and Plod to back up their need to be tough .As if they were immune to political pressure ; I don't think.
Its birthday and Christmas for me . News lead legislative initiatives , coded racism, ( with no real help on immigration and housing), Braun Haus fire emergency shouting and illiberal statist bullying. Well done Boris well done indeed !You are the smiling cavalier who ,with a laugh and a swagger, impales the NuLab deceit time and time again.
What a fine cabinet minister you will be. Personally I hope to see you ,as Deputy Prime Minister ,Lancelot to Cameron`s Arthur in the new Camelot of the Conservative Administration.
Huzzahh!!!!!
Saturday, November 11, 2006
The good the bad and the ugly
The Good
Sickened by the tainting slither of Blair we must turn to reminders we have something in this country worth saving . I have a small story. Sentimental I know but something that just happened:
Getting of the tube I bought a poppy and while I was there as little boy ran over , from his mother and asked “Why is everyone wearing them then ? “ The smiling lady on duty said, ” To remember the soldiers that died for us and help the ones that didn’t.” He said “That’s so sad “ ,and the woman replied;“ Yes but it makes you proud as well “.
Now he knows .A small act of a nation remembering.
I thought of this driving home and later reading WF Deede`s reminder that Earl Haig was hero to his men and devoted his life to their welfare after the war.Now you won’t find that version of Haig on the BBC will you .
The Bad
I thought that the Blair thing on identity cards was one of the single most mendacious statements from any politician I can remember for a long time . He constantly implied that immigration was a problem for which ID cards were urgently needed . In other words, he was stirring racial fear in an oblique and sickly sanctimonious way that was the textual equivalent of an icing sugar covered turd.
Immigration chaos has been caused by the shambolic execution, of the bad policy for which his government is responsible . Similarly , crime and anti social behaviour , caused by deluded Liberalism in the judiciary and inactivity on badly need police reform , has nothing to do with the absence of ID cards . As for terrorism it has become the Braun Haus Fire emergency for every acquisitive little Bureaucrat from Ian Blair to the Spy Woman . We do not , I repeat NOT curtail our freedoms out of a hysterical fear on a few mad terrorists .
The single thing that impressed me was that the cost was mostly incurred by the introduction of bio metric passports . I discovered the next day that this was an outright lie and the computer systems for tracking us all were the main expense , Entirely unrelated. Lies lies and more lies.
True he raised the issue of freedom “The Issue !!!!”. What next the issue of whether abundant air might be helpful for breathing. It is not an issue Blair you maniac. You are building your bridge over he river Kwai . Stop!I believe there is no reason for doing this beyond an instinct to control and a wish to be the busy busy busy little pest he has become in his snippy dotage .Away with you and give us Brown nose . I have high hopes that his brief reign will be , if possible , even worse!
The Ugly
Blair has no right to this country I hope he buggers of and does lectures abroad . Its all he really cares about .
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