"At last, a fashion outlet for women who want to wear mens clothes."
The picture is clearly a bull-dyke, why not just say a fashion outlet for dykes? Still have never quite worked out the bull-dyke image, the equivalent would be gay men wearing skirts, wigs, full drag basically.
Yet a man in womans clothes is called a transvestite, a woman in mans is just a butch-dyke. Bizarre. Brighton has more than its fair share of both, but i still never heard a good explanation for this. Funny old world....
The new budget is incredibly depressing, in its entirety. They really have managed not just to turn a private liquidity crisis into a sovereign debt crisis, but they have then turned that into an issue of public spending and the bailout is rarely mentioned.
And where are our "free media" whilst this happens? Largely nodding along, yes, must have cuts, bloated state, balance the books, etc... Even the pretences of a healthy democratic society seem to be largely ignored now which at least is something new.
Not only is this appalling in itself, the lack of national reaction at ground level is disastrous. Over both expenses, and now this bailout and all its associated scandals (pensions, bonuses, cuts that followed) there has been not a single mass protest. The message to the political class is that they really can do whatever they like, dangerous precedent.
Monbiots article on the Tea Party was spot on, why can the right mobilise a mass movement but the left cannot?
I had a visit from my local labour party last night, really nice pair, chatted for a while, said i cancelled my membership when McDonnell pulled out and the whole thing turned into a farce. Bloke said he pulled out to get a leftwing candidate in the race (Abbott), but what does it say about the party that it took such effort and compromise to get a single "left" candidate into the Labour party race?
I felt sorry for them, people giving up their time to go and meet people and organise, and what do they get in return? Leaders like David Miliband.
Great quote there Montana - simplicity - always best!
JayR:
Mornin' ;)
"Butches don't want to be or look like men; we just don't want to wear female clothing," Riley says.... who looks exactly like ..... a bloke.
Bizarre.
"there has been not a single mass protest. The message to the political class is that they really can do whatever they like, dangerous precedent"
I think this is what scares me the most. The media have been entirely complicit in this and there is never, ever any attempt to drag the reality into the frame. Just read Eggers' book Zeitoun - and we are now in a world were the media are able to whip up a frenzy and tissue of lies. Post-Katrina - the hysterical and uncorroborated rubbish about 'gangs of armed men roaming the streets looting and killing, raping babies' helped to cover up the armed take over of the State to protect 'assets' in New Orleans.
How this global crisis has been turned into a 'National' one caused by the Labour Party and the public sector is beyond me.
Jay - Mostly an excellent post at 8:15 but [you know what's coming ;)]
The reason why I, and many others are still in the Labour party is to change the very situation that created the recent mess.
I am convinced that Abbot was put up to it by the right wing precisely to prevent McDonnell from getting enough nominations. We lost that battle but its only a battle.
What drives me nuts is that as I said yesterday Labour is once again going to be diverted from organising a genuine opposition to the condems, this time by a totally pointless opposition. There is now no credible candidate for the left to vote for.
I still feel that the Labour Reprentation Committee led by McDonnell can be a nucleus for that opposition. There is some good news as John has come to the top and has a motion on TU rights.
It won't win of course but the issue will at least be discussed outside parliament as well as in.
These things don't happen overnight it looks bleak at the moment but heck the 19th century chartists didn't even have the vote and they fought on.
Our ambitions are for oak trees but first we need the acorns.
Could someone store this in the UT Department of you couldn't make it up please:
David Davis has condemned Osborne's budget because the Capital Gains Tax raise will hit everybody except the rich. Just read this, it's priceless:
"These are the people, not the rich, who will pay the lion's share of the increased capital gains tax. When they reach retirement age they will not be able to defer selling their share portfolio, holiday cottage or buy-to-let flat. They will need the money. So if we are not very careful, we will be punishing the virtuous."
So there we have it. Davis conception of not being rich is when you have to consider selling off your property portfolio to supplement your pension.
But the loaded, distasteful term is "virtuous".
A virtuous individual to Davis is someone who has made a killing on house prices when they were historically low.
It reveals more about the Conservative party and the type of creatures who inhabit it than 10 party manifestos ever could.
It's staggering. The pernicious use of such loaded terms as 'virtue' is replicated in the press.
Annetan:
I'm not hopeful about the Labour Party, but I do feel you have a point about acorns and mighty Oaks! Reading down the very depressing Hutton thread, I'm more and more convinced that I want to leave the UK altogether. I'm terrified at what is coming, I'm not sure my partner and I can withstand another long period of unemployment - his job is not secure and not permanent and I am struggling to find anything that pays me the same level of pay I had 3 years ago, I am very, very fearful.
That argument isnt lost on me at all, i mentioned that very point of yours to them. I was going to join the LRC but think its £10 a month and i had already joined the main Labour party at £10 and cant really afford both, may just join LRC instead.
Just heard at our new office there will be no net access at peoples desk, gutted. No more CiF, UT or even email except on our lunches at special desks in the eating areas, so only a couple more months for me of posting/reading throughout the day. Extremely annoying.
"These are the people, not the rich, who will pay the lion's share of the increased capital gains tax. When they reach retirement age they will not be able to defer selling their share portfolio, holiday cottage or buy-to-let flat. They will need the money. So if we are not very careful, we will be punishing the virtuous."
Astonishing. And to think millions thought these were "new tories". Thats probably the nations key problem these days - too many stupid people.
t's interesting Anne, Tyrone (O'Sullivan) was saying almost exactly the same as you about the Labour party - that we have to reclaim it, that it will take time but that it's the only credible route. You Welsh are a very optimistic people but keep banging on and you'll probably convince me!
Your Grace
So, together with the deserving and undeserving poor who can have the fires of hell poured upon their heads on the basis that 'from he that hath not, shall be taken even that which he hath', we now have the 'virtuous' rich, who must not be allowed to suffer and if they are sufficiently meek they may well inherit the earth.
yeah i'll still be around evening and weekends, and maybe the odd post on my lunch hour, but sadly no more day long rows on CIF threads or getting contemptuous posts onto a thread early enough that the offending author might see them, and no more early morning diatribes on here either. Not till August i dont think, but does feel like a big change, and not a welcome one either.
Jay - young twat you will be missed and the gaps you leave will ring with emptiness.
I still ain't found out what is wrong with the day.
No matter how drunk I am I definitely saw three aeroplanes heading for the continent turn around on themselves and head back west to Manchester.......????
Never said it was easy Peter and I have no desire to have a stab, if you want to put yourself out there (having admitted that your last effort wasn't exactly well thought out) then expect random internet strangers to make comments.
You really seemed to get riled after the last article, maybe this lark isn't for you.
I agree with you. From what I believe you only have 800 words tops for a CiF article. For me personally that would be impossible to put forward both my thesis argument and evidence.
Maybe it's because I'm too verbose but when I did my copule of pieces over on UT2, there's no way I would have been able to do them in the 800 words as insisted by CiF.
Cheers Deano, i'll still be around just a lot less, and not really in the day at all bar occasional lunch times, but this place is usually plenty busy these days.
Agreed on articles, surprisingly difficult to put together even when you spend hours a day writing similar arguments on CIF/UT, quite a painstaking process in my limited experience, and thats before encountering the sub eds and their infinite wisdom...
That's all you have - 800 words. And if you spill over the subs intervene and cull your effort. They can massacre an argument in a 50 word deletion.
So, now I deliver on target. Give or take a sentence.
Jennifer:
I didn't get riled. My interlocutors did. And actually, the format suits me fine: I'm loud, opinionated, and - dare I say it - knowledgeable. CiF is a 24 hour collection of ephemeral views.
If you want more, go and sit in the library stacks of the British Museum.
this brings into question the actual value of platforms like CiF. Is the word limit an arbitrary amount designed to stifle the actual argument and thus generate BTL posts below when the ATL argument itself is not made clear? Or does it take the dim view that people won't read any more than 800 words maximum? Whatever the reasoning, in my view it is to the detriment of the author.
For instance, I think evidence to back up an argument is essential, the CiF word limit doesn't allow for this and although you can hyperlink evidence, it's not the same thing.
And although CiF is the best platform of its kind, I think the word limit for articles seriously undermines the authors attempts to put their points across.
I know, I know. I type here between tasks, switch between Dutch and English with colleagues whilst I'm typing and with the added distraction of the World Cup which my employers kindly allow to be shown on TV.....
Those are my excuses and I stick resolutely to them ;)
I appreciate the ephemeral nature of Cif Peter and I don't go there looking for deeply nuanced articles covering all the bases.
I wasn't being skitty when I said you got riled, that is genuinely how it came across to me, I thought you were disappointed with your own article and reacted defensively.
I am glad that wasn't the case, you do need a thickish skin to even consider putting yourself ATL, it is something I admire in people (for a given value of admire ;) ).
It isn't something I would ever do even if I was asked to write about nice kittens and puppies are.
Don't belive the hype Jen, you could knock out a Cif piece this afternoon. It's easy if you are passionate about what you're writing about. 800 words is a bit restrictive, but that's why many of those words can be links, and the links can chunk info that you don't have to expand on in the article.
It shouldn't take more than a couple of hours, do it, today. If Jess KBs you put it on UT2.
I find myself watching the Portugal/Nth Korea match. 4 - nil to Portugal at 74 mins. Sons done his back in and needs help with the kids - but I think it's just a ploy to get grandma in so he can concentrate on the footie.
Thats 5 - nil now...and even I'm getting quite gripped although I would like the Nth Koreans to score at least one so their humiliation isn't quite so absolute.
I'd agree that the word limit is something of a problem, but try 250-300 words which i got asked to do for the paper for a future of public services (esp. mental health) last year. More worrying with CiF is the too frequent desire to be topical, before the facts are ascertained, or analysis can properly be attempted. The word limit doesn't help with this,either, not allowing room for much by way of compare and contrast (eg Peter B's piece could have been extended to contrast 24 with,say, Spooks). Too often then we get gross generalisations, when the word limit should be pointing contributors to really narrowing things down, picking just one specific,smaller aspect of an issue. Instead, too frequently we get the scatter-gun approach and that too often relies on the tried-and-trusted, but predictable and (rightly) discredited identity politics schtick: authors trotting out their hobby-horses, under the guise of the most tenuous (to a ludicrous degree) links to a current event (c.f. Joan Smith yoking sex tourism to Cumbria, on the flimsiest of grounds). Recite the old gross generalisations (prompting the same tired replies BTL), instead of fresh thinking seems to be too much the order of the day, along with specialist pleading, while omitting personal interests (cf. that piece on the magazine Scarlet). Actually, BTL-ers when they go ATL tend not to fall into this lazy journalism anything like as much as the 'professionals', but the overall effect has been to make CiF much,much less than it could be. That and the cosy,pull-up-the-drawbridge, bourgeois soi-disant liberal mindset at the paper, which gives the impression it'd rather have one of its faves penning something about any given category of person than someone from that category.
according to latest North Korean news reports just in, North Korea has never entered the World Cup.
The team called 'North Korea' at this world cup is a Capitalist running dog conspiracy designed purely to undermine the great leader and his glorious state.
North Korea never has and never will compete in any western imperialist sporting competition. And if anyone suggests otherwise, Pyongyang will launch a defensive war against the South.
Interesting points Alisdair - btw I assume you have decided to be there when your kid is born? Let me assure you it's a life meaning/changing event. It's fucking magic.
Heard an interesting programme on R4 yesterday about the disgraceful official neglect of our troops who develop ptsd and allied problems on return from battle zones. They're way over represented in prison for example.
Basically they are abandoned to their fate by the MOD and it is left to charities to pick up the pieces.
As an old army bloke yourself - I'd be interested in what you have to say about that- perhaps you could do a cif piece on that.
"More worrying with CiF is the too frequent desire to be topical, before the facts are ascertained, or analysis can properly be attempted".
"too frequently we get the scatter-gun approach and that too often relies on the tried-and-trusted, but predictable and (rightly) discredited identity politics schtick: authors trotting out their hobby-horses, under the guise of the most tenuous (to a ludicrous degree) links to a current event"
"That and the cosy,pull-up-the-drawbridge, bourgeois soi-disant liberal mindset at the paper, which gives the impression it'd rather have one of its faves penning something about any given category of person than someone from that category."
But that's OK though, because this is balanced out by the fair and consistent moderation below the line, which allows people to point out any inconsistencies, misunderstandings and errors.
"Leadership without values is management. Values without leadership is dreams. Our job in politics is to make reality more like dreams of social justice and equal opportunity. I think there are widely shared values among the leadership candidates. The test is who can turn the poetry of values into the prose of real change".
A few years ago Bryan Cloughley ,regular Counterpuncher ( who served in Borneo in the British Army and in Vietnam in the Australian Army ) described young Milliband --.
" I met him once, when he was a junior education minister, and never have I experienced such an unintentionally side-splitting parody of the main character in the BBC’s wonderful “Yes, Minister”,
""Leadership without values is management. Values without leadership is dreams. Our job in politics is to make reality more like dreams of social justice and equal opportunity. I think there are widely shared values among the leadership candidates. The test is who can turn the poetry of values into the prose of real change"."
That really is grotesque. I havent even bothered reading his Q&A, so utterly pointless was the one with his brother. What possible "values" does that urchin have? I remember his defence of mercenaries with particular affection... fitting really.
What James said. Is it different from the ordinary stress, fatigue, hunger headaches that people get in the normal run of things? Consult your doc tomorrow morning (latest) if you still have it.
I'm avoiding that Millipede Q&A - I wouldn't trust him as far as I can spit.
Turm that's what I get for trying to be healthy, no bloody salt in the house, I have been drinking lots of water though.
I think I might have had my first migraine (considering the number of times I used it to bunk off work it serves me right).
It wasn't unbearable but it was bad enough to keep me in a dark room with the TV on mute, I have no idea how people cope with chronic pain I think I would kill myself.
True Thauma but like everything else in my life it seems like it has to be all or nothing, if I buy salt I have it on everything (even toast) but don't worry I eat lots of processed food so I'm sure I'm getting enough. ;)
I was thinking a while back about the feasibility of a mandatory cooling down period after holding public office, or, some sort of system whereby, if an ex-politico did join firm x, their past voting record, policy outputs, and/or performance could be re-evaluated/scrutinised in that new context. Perhaps with a (low) threshold for retro-active corruption prosecution.
I couldn't quite make it work though, but I reckon someone a bit smarter could....
Just to make an update on the other sites, mentioned a few days ago.
A bit like last time, everything was going fairly OK until the battlefield of my personal life intruded and created wreckage and havoc.
Anyway, not sure whether to stall or just blunder on regardless.
I thought I might spin myself a sticky little rope and abseil off the edge of the internet and dangle like a chrysalis for a while, to emerge as someone or something else.
Genuine thanks for all the offers of help for the sites. I will try to get them going.
As for headache cures:
1. Drink strong coffee with lots of sugar. (This probably only works if you normally avoid sugar in everything).
2. Take 1000mg vitamin C tablet.
er, that's my repertoire of ye olde country ways and wyffes tales for curing of the agues, plagues and ailments of the hedde about exhausted.
I have, however, discovered proof of the theory that faces can be made to stick forever in one expression when the wind unexpectedly changes.
Apparently, a mother caused a sudden gust to enter the garden shed when she opened the door to discover her son performing oral sex on their elderly and embarrassed Dalmatian.
Forever afterwards, the boy's face was set with stunned goggle-eyes and a permanently moist drooping lower lip and an expression both of panic and outrage.
The boy, of course, eventually grew up to become Michael Gove.
I already had enough problems picturing the Gove person in my mind...I already needed a bucket close to hand....but now....I shall never, ever be able to listen to a word he says without seeing him inflagrante delicto in the way you describe.
now I feel sick and won't be able to look at Pongo the local dalmatian ever again......
duke
interesting article...I really do wonder about how people here in Italy continue supporting Berlusconi and the laws he passes to protect himself and his interests..... he is Mr Anti-politics. Rather than sustaining or reenforcing the establishment which is the norm he destroys it in the name of justice for himself, thus strengthening and concentrating power in his hands. I swear if I hear him say one more time that we are all being spied on and that's why they have to change the law on phone taping, which favours him and the mafia, I will start making abusive phone calls to Palazo Chigi....
I think you'd enjoy Fatwa to Jihad, Paul, very sharp book. I read it off an MF recommendation too, along with that collection of Sokals essays. Both superb.
On a lighter (or rather heavier) note, I cant remember the article, but one recently about how people do the most awful things on camera and then broadcast it to the world. Well...
there's an article in this month's edition of le monde diplo about Berlusconi and the failureof the 'clean hands' campaign. Not sure you can access it without a subscription,yo umay be able to.
James,
There's a great riff by Bill Hicks when he discusses Bill Clinton and who actually runs the country. It's from 1992 and when you read the pieces such as the le monde diplo article, it's unerringly accurate:
I have this feeling man, cause you know, it's just a handful of people who run everything, you know that's true, it's provable. It's not … I'm not a fucking conspiracy nut, it's provable. A handful, a very small elite, run and own these corporations, which include the mainstream media.
I have this feeling that whoever is elected president, like Clinton was, no matter what you promise on the campaign trail – blah, blah, blah – when you win, you go into this smoke-filled room with the twelve industrialist capitalist scum-fucks who got you in there.
And you're in this smoky room, and this little film screen comes down … and a big guy with a cigar goes, "Roll the film." And it's a shot of the Kennedy assassination from an angle you've never seen before … that looks suspiciously like it's from the grassy knoll. And then the screen goes up and the lights come up, and they go to the new president, "Any questions?"
Excellent article that, Your Grace. Serge Halimi is a brilliant writer.
Interesting POV from the Costa Rican Justice Minister that international criminal gangs will finance political parties and take over government. I wonder how far away we are from that, realistically?
Duke thanks, I saw it but I can't access it..but know something about the clean hands trials of the 90s, have found something on t'internet by the same journalist shall give it a read...
BB Hi there "interesting POV from the Costa Rican Justice Minister that international criminal gangs will finance political parties and take over government. I wonder how far away we are from that, realistically? "
um look up Forza Italia's creation and Berlusconi and you'll see that theory has become reality...........
Well, funny you should say that, but the article talks about that too, Gandolfo. Although arguing that Berlusconi is a criminal in law is difficult, he is certainly a criminal in fact.
Hasn't Italy always been under criminal control since WW2, though, pretty much, with the mafia and such-like?
@ Atomboy "Or am I missing the point completely?". Not at all. That exercise is a good metaphor,mind you:too many miss the fuller picture and so fail to twig what's going on because they're heads down doing a task that they've been told to do.
As for criminality in politics, the Scottish politico with connections to crime and drugs has been mentioned here and see Private Eye for those with dubious histories operating happily in at least local politics.
Why would it really bother people?
If we commodify people and use money as the only test of value and we then glamourise criminality through television and film - even if only to say that, preferably, a cockerney cheeky-chappie is less of a piece of shit than a politician - then what does anyone expect?
There is no longer any worth or value in honesty or integrity or operating as a good person.
The only things are material success and power.
Soon, after we have forgotten that the banks caused the global economic meltdown and the idea that it was immigrants and feckless dole-cheat scum is firmly implanted in our brains, we will be suggesting to our politicians that they are worth more and should have a pay and benefits increase on the house.
The only thing lacking is that politicians do not market themselves as efficiently as the rich and famous.
Once they do, we will idolise and envy every last one of them.
@ Atomboy. Yup, it's the kind of effect exploited by corporates and by Govts, especially those of a neo-liberal bent: aping the corporate ways, and individuals wanting the wealth of the corporates, and to hell with principles or the will of the people: the idea is to shape the will of the people and reap the wealth. You say "The only thing lacking is that politicians do not market themselves as efficiently as the rich and famous", but I reckon they've caught up (isn't that exactly what most of New Labour was all about?). Adam Curtis is excellent on this, with his series of films, especially "The Century of The Self".From Sigmund to Matthew Freud, and also David "Workfare" Freud..
Atoms -- "Soon, after we have forgotten that the banks caused the global economic meltdown "
It's not over yet ......... sometimes I wonder if it has only begun .
Halimi"s article reminded me of the Savings and Loans banking scandal in the US , political connections, Keating Five, etc. The similarity there is how long they were allowed to continue operating with falsified balance sheets, and that is according to the FDIC history on its own website .
Striking similarity with today, except the prob is worldwide and systemic.
"Although arguing that Berlusconi is a criminal in law is difficult"
well arguing it isn't the problem it's the statute of limitations and the deadly slow judicial system that has worked in his favour, as have delaying tactics such as the right to changing venues (a law approved by his govt) has led to the trials running out of time and therefore trials have ended or never taken place.. Now the mafia is a different question but it basically accounts for an estimated 8% of the GDP of Italy, politics is a sideline for the various mafias, to be used when is necessary to further their cause....money. This is quite a quick read...
Monkeyfish
Got the right score and saw it....maybe it was the wine.....
I can't wait for the first "austerity's good for the soul" article...probably from some guy from the city who's made his pile, downsized, bought an Arran sweater and a smallholding and finds his chin-wagging with the simple-folk has given him a warm communal glow, which he recommends to the rest of us...even the poor clerk in the office next to his who defaulted on his mortgage, got a bedsit in Peckham and got himself sectioned for his own good when he started engaging with the locals.
Yes, we certainly like dynasties, don't we? The Kennedy clan from bootlegging to banking to Camelot; the Bush Bible-bashers, from spooks to drug-addicts to terrorists; the Freud frauds from mumbo-jumbo to political PR and poor-bashing.
We are still in need of gurus and shamans and witch-doctors and desperately want someone, anyone, to take charge and give us a spot of abuse.
With the decline of religion and our scepticism and fear of science, we are now in thrall to whatever corporate claptrap fills our uncritical ears and mesmerises our dull eyes.
To large companies, we have become subjects, supplicants and the endlessly recyclable fuel of their uninhibited avaricious desires. We are the filthy oil which lubricates their hurtling bandwagons on and on.
Who cannot recite the advertising slogans and catchphrases of global brands better than anything from their holy books?
frog2
No, it is a long way from over.
The banks may have won - after all, their failure proved the system was working and we would always pay for their mistakes - but we have not been made to lose quite disastrously enough.
As soon as the catastrophe began, the propaganda meme from the banks was that they had been stitched up by poor people taking out loans on properties they should never have been allowed to buy, but Clinton forced the vast goliaths of finance to hand over their funds to the horrible little people, who messed the whole thing up.
It is easier to hate someone whose life and status you can recognise. We can recognise the poor and they are the culprits.
The rich are insulated in a magical land of wonderfulness from which they only emerge to do good and we, the stupid civilians, always go and spoil it.
We are willingly living in a world of fairy-tales and wonderland because it gives us a childish feeling of being protected.
We are forgetting that fairy-tales always have credible and plausible wolves and assorted rapists, paedophiles and wicked witches, who all seem only to want to protect us until...
"You say "The only thing lacking is that politicians do not market themselves as efficiently as the rich and famous", but I reckon they've caught up (isn't that exactly what most of New Labour was all about?)".
Abso-fuckinglutely!!
It's all about branding and jammin' with the right pop stars and that now, innit!?
Frog2
"It's not over yet ......... sometimes I wonder if it has only begun ."
Hells yeah. And it's not even subtle. In (however long it takes for those at the top, responsible for the shitstorm, to nick the pipes and tiles from the ruins) years, there's going to be some pretty bleak revelations....
I'm going to the pub to see if the landlady has heard the last SarkozyStory.
Thursday was the 70th Anniversary of de Gaulle's rallying speech to the surrendered frogs of 18th june 1940. So Sarko just had to go to London to find a little limelight. HM Queen didn't want to see the little shit so no TV there. But he wanted some extras so took along 150 old soldiers who joined de Gaulle. On previous occasions they were put up in hotels in London the day before. Well, they are even older now, some well over 90.
But this is a time of Austerity.
So they had to be at the Eurostar station really early, well before 7AM. Café croissants on the train, and a few energy biscuits if still hungry. A busy time in London, back to Paris to be extras again for El President. Last part of the show another event a 10PM.
The Canard Enchainé of last wednesday also tells us that government ministers were fighting like cats for months to be on the Presidential Jet, and not have to travel with a bunch of extras.
"I can't wait for the first "austerity's good for the soul" article...probably from some guy from the city who's made his pile, downsized, bought an Arran sweater and a smallholding and finds his chin-wagging with the simple-folk has given him a warm communal glow, which he recommends to the rest of us..."
stevehill?
Personally, I hate austerity. The olives in Morrisons are horrific.
By the way, I know he's looked by here from time to time, but very glad to see PeterGuillam in particularly good form on CiF yesterday and today. He is a cut above, pure and simple.
What do you do these days when someone has a dead light bulb now that the car manufacturers have made it impossible for a lot of people to change the bulb on the spot?
You are supposed give them a 'vehicle defect rectification' form. They get the thing fixed and stamped at an MOT garage and they have to return it to the central ticket office within 14 days in order for no further action to take place. Or you could just knock them off for it straight away if you were feeling peevish. Personally, I just tell them to get it fixed before a traffic officer stops them and is slightly less sympathetic. There are more important things need doing, such as beating up photographers.
Just bought 'Three Score And Ten', a 7-disc anthology of Topic Records releases, and track one from Disc 6 tickled me given the current climate, never heard it before...
"The Man Who Waters The Workers' Beer" (Paddy Ryan/traditional)
Chorus:
I am the man, the very fat man, That waters the workers' beer I am the man, the very fat man, That waters the workers' beer And what do I care if it makes them ill, If it makes them terribly queer I've a car, a yacht, and an aeroplane, And I waters the workers' beer
Verses:
Now when I waters the workers' beer, I puts in strychnine Some methylated spirits, And a can of kerosine Ah, but such a brew so terribly strong, It would make them terribly queer So I reaches my hand for the watering-can And I waters the workers' beer
Now a drop of good beer is good for a man When he's tired, thirsty and 'ot And I sometimes have a drop myself, From a very special pot For a strong and healthy working class Is the thing that I most fear So I reaches my hand for the watering-can And I waters the workers' beer
Now ladies fair, beyond compare, Be you maiden or wife Spare a thought for such a man Who leads such a lonely life For the water rates are terribly high, And the meths is terribly dear And there isn't the profit there used to be In watering the workers' beer
@ PeterJ. The Gala still goes on, but it ain't the same. This year's is on July 10th, but they've got bleeding Ken Livingstone (who chummied up to the City as London mayor, and that's before his dubious cronyism, and placing identity politics before class). Changed times.
I apologise, you're right. I'd lost track of the Gala over the last couple of decades. There's a video of last year's here, and other videos of speeches by Skinner et al. But Livingstone, FFS?
BB has agressively pushed the LibDem agenda here for months. And she also voted for them. Middle class wankers who don't give a toss about the ordinary people. It's not their reality no matter how much they try to pretend it is.
Just in case anyone is not receiving regular email updates from our illustrious ConDem Deputy PM, the Cleggameron Twin clone, the other one in the Two Daves Roadshow, here is how he is trying to sell the Austerity ("Eat You Own Babies and Sell your Own Grandmothers") Budget:
That's a shameless pile of crap from Clegg, isn't it? My own version came from Sayeeda Warsi; this is what I just dug out of my junk mail filter:
_____________________
Dear Peter,
Ahead of next week's budget, it's important to remember that the debt crisis that threatens us is Labour's legacy to Britain.
Labour left us with no money - only waste and debt:
- They left every man, woman and child owing £22,400 - They gave us one of the worst budget deficits in Europe - They left 2.47 million people out of work - And they sold off Britain's gold at a 20-year low in the market.
Unless we act now to deal with this crisis, interest payments in five years' time could end up being higher than the amount we spend on schools, climate change and transport.
That's why we have to do something about it. The cuts that are coming are Labour's cuts.
So before Tuesday's crucial Budget, take a look at this document outlining Labour's Legacy to Britain.
But don't just keep it to yourself - please send this email on to your friends and family to help make sure Labour are never allowed to leave such a rotten legacy again.
Sayeeda Warsi Co-Chairman of the Conservative Party _______________________
I will make it into a post tomorrow, for the simple reason that Sayeeda Warsi, Co-Chairman of the Conservative Party, has asked us to share her words of wisdom with friends and family and I, for one, am going to make damned sure I don't let her down.
(It is no good seeing propaganda if you do not produce counter propaganda to match it).
Yeah, Tories are wankers and LibDems are their punkawallahs and everything, but it did kind of happen on New Labour's watch didn't it? And Atomboy, it did kind of sound to me like Clegg was fairly unequivocably blaming the banks, albeit in addition to sticking the boot into Brown as if it would never have happened under any other administration. At this stage of the game, that seems pretty unnecessary and crass - if they really must shaft everyone, I'd rather they just stopped peppering their pronouncements with disingenuous political point-scorings as if we are somehow magically to expect the Coalition to transmute into trustworthy kindly-uncle types. They're all as fucking bad as each other, and this universal truth has never been so apparent as over the last sorry couple of weeks.
Well, actually, Clegg says that if only Labour had listened to Saint Vince of the Valeta none of this would ever have happened. Failing to mention that his new pals on the front bench would have let things rip with even less regulation, and that Saint Vince has had a blanket put over him in the run-up to the Deathmarch Budget.
Hello everyone, I don't know bugger all about economics but I was doing a bit of "computer housekeeping" earlier today. When I was scrolling down my bookmarks and deleting stuff that is no longer relevant, I came across this: www.howitends.co.uk. I don't know how to do links so if that is not enough information to access the site let me know and I'll post the full URL. Anyway, I don't know if the analysis on that site is right or wrong but if nothing else, it's exhaustive and well written. I'm just hoping someone much smarter than me might take a look and condense it all down into some words and numbers that don't make me break out in a cold sweat!
I am not sure whether you imagine me to be in favour of New Labour, but this is not the case. Neither do I think bashing parties on an uncritical and tribal basis is hugely sensible.
I am not sure whether this is really unequivocally blaming the banks:
And ask them why they created this fiscal bombshell in the first place by refusing to take action against the reckless banks even when Vince Cable warned of the risks they were taking.
It is blaming New Labour for not regulating the banks and saying, essentially, that you cannot blame the banks for taking advantage of this laxness.
All governments try to take full advantage, during their honeymoon weeks, of blaming the previous administration - before they become pariahs and hate figures themselves.
I did say, a couple of years ago and more, on Matt Seaton's Scrapheap, that the Tories would not serve a full term.
Once people see that they, too, are poor and all the cars and credit-cards and holidays and second homes are millstones round their over-extended necks, what will stop them rioting in the streets.
According to your earlier post, not you - since they have neglected to make the appropriate bribe.
Two hot dinners away from insurrection and all that.
"Once people see that they, too, are poor and all the cars and credit-cards and holidays and second homes are millstones round their over-extended necks, what will stop them rioting in the streets. According to your earlier post, not you - since they have neglected to make the appropriate bribe."
I'm not sure that promising to honour something you are already entitled to is a bribe as such, but I know what you mean. I don't suppose I would have much choice if it happened while I was on normal duty. I could always resign I suppose, and go and live in a kibbutz. Israeli society seems so much fairer.
PeterJ:"can't guarantee any condensation,though." Oh, I can guarantee condensation, it happens in the winter on the inside of my windows. Sorry, I never pass up an opportunity for a bit of flippancy!
Very interting article - no date on it but obviously pre - crash.
good description of global free trade as Oroborus - the global economy eating itself ! If we produce nothing we have to import everything - cheap goods from China have flooded our markets given people an artificially 'high' standard of living - at least that is what they think. They mistake 'things' for happiness.
article goes on to explain how we are living on both borrowed money and time. It did not (does not) suit the gvt. to make us aware of this - we know this now post crash.
he things yet to happen - we are on the cusp -
Demographics. Too few people will be working to support the unemployed be they workers, children or pensioners.
Energy costs will spiral - replacing fossil fuels will be impossible in time scale available. green energy is still a faraway dream.
We are dependent upon others for oil and gas - they can cut it off or charge what they like for it.
China wishes to build cities, increase its manufacturing base. Where will the money come from ? From us as they increase the price of their manufactured goods. we pay the price or do without.
read the article again before you delete it and mentally tick off the things that have already happened - the collapse of the housing market contributing to bank collapse. Look at the national debt - this did not come just from the bank collapse - it has been accumulating for years as the country was run on borrowed money.
Remember that the 'value' of the banks were notional based on mortgage values which were artifiially hyped. when house prices collapsed this notional value collapsed with them. In other words there was no actual money involved. The bank assets were only paper prices. No money has been lost - the paper economy has been exposed.
Demographics are still agains us - too few people working to support everyone else. This does not make the unemployed guilty - they are victims.
very hard times are on the way. As the article says if we lived at the level we can afford and sustain we will go back to the standards of the 30s. It will not be long before the average family will not be able to pay the cost of keeping warm in winter let alone go abroad for holidays.
I,m now so depressed i have poured a large glass of wine.
iam in the lucky position of having no debts. I don't really buy much and being skinny I get lots of cast offs and can wear children's clothes - no VAT. I am going to install wood burner before winter - surrounded by forestry here. When they clear fell they leave loads of wood behind.
Although I am far from rich I am better off than many.
Leni: I can't remember where I got the link from but there was more than just one article. Indeed, if I remember correctly that site chronicles the debacle we are in right now well back into the 1980's. I could be wrong about the dates and I certainly won't be deleting it until I have investigated it more thoroughly. Whoever wrote is was obviously clued up about economics and finance but most of that stuff goes completely over my head which is why I was asking for help on here, for someone to explain in terms that made sense to me.
Leni: I don't think you read the "wrong article" just that you weren't aware that there are others. Maybe the site has changed since I last accessed it. Maybe my link is not the same as yours. Like I said, I don't know how to do links. Come to think of it, weren't you supposed to teach me how?
Spike 22.10PM "Yeah, OK, while we were under orders from the Komintern. But we did make up for it when the starting pistol went. "
Emphatically agreed, but many non-PCF others did too. Maybe the Duke also has an interest in the Collaboration and Resistance and can do a U2 ? ---------------------- Speedkermit 23.48PM
"They're all as fucking bad as each other" and the fact that Clegg/Warsi are spouting that party-political bullshit , however true about NuLab total incompetence, is a sign that they are hoping against all hopes that we are not heading for a system-crash .
Since we ain't going to get the magic growth, deficit-cutting is the order of the day . Our overly-complex already well-developed societies , with an inheritance from imperialism and neo-imperialism , are now faced with competition from the new guys. That's globalisation. Nobody's going to lend you money unless they think you're a going concern.
Forgetting the phenomenon of Global Finance, the underlying economics and demography and ecology and the fact of limited resources were obvious since 'Limits to Growth' came out forty years ago. Cleverly done, that transition could have been quite smooth.
Of course it wasn't. I'm looking forward to being surprised that nobody in this Coalition government has a clue on what I have known for several years now. Some of them like Osborne have their own intellectual and class baggage, and don't mention that nitwit Gove ! Maybe Osborne is now wise to what is really happening -- I just don't know.
For the moment I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. It is all too easy to get up on the hind legs and scream at the Class Enemy. Reading the other week's CiF Panel on Unemployment, WTF were all of you resident Brits doing about the manifest daily injustices and outright stupidities of the Benefits system ?
Why not get 50 or 200 people together and demonstrate outside that office where Mrs Bloggs has been fucked around ?
Why were there no fucking MP's walking through the front doors of a filthy hospital with their own digital cameras to witness the disgusting conditions and take their photos back to Parliament ?...Nobody COULD have stopped them, could they ?
Highfaluting stuff about the Neo-Libs, the New World Order, the Washington Consensus, and the bloody Bilderbergers is no use until ordinary people get off their bums and do something about straightforward non-conspiratorial cases in front of their noses.
That will be a start on tackling the very real Conspiracies , AND very real Cock-Ups higher up.
I'll leave GlobalFinance for another day. And that is a fucking nightmare intertwined with the rest.
scherfig said... BB has agressively pushed the LibDem agenda here for months. And she also voted for them. Middle class wankers who don't give a toss about the ordinary people. It's not their reality no matter how much they try to pretend it is.
21 June, 2010 23:09
Scherf - it never was of any concern what you think about me our kid. I genuinely like you/
But one of us has lost the plot.
Whatever BB has done she has not done it aggressively.
I Have said before that I believe that if if Nazi's were after me I would consider BB a safe house at least for a few hours.
I would never expect the lass to shelter me for more than a couple of hours or so (she has her own family to protect)
Two hours is good enough for me. I have a lot of time for the lady it matters not at all that she is tolerant of idiots.
This is my way of saying that I think you are wrong about BB
Leni: btw I don't think economics is complicated at all. It's much the same as the law; make it as complicated as possible so that the proles won't understand it. I suppose it was a good idea until the people who devised the plot made it so complicated that they didn't understand it themselves!
deano30 I don't know all of you here as well as many of you know each other, so i don't know sherfig . I do remember BB arriving at CiF, and have great respect for her.
Some people can be very brave hiding behind a keyboard !
Chek - at my granddaughters 21st I mentioned to my youngest son, Josiah Amos, ( our family are not Jews so make of our naming as you will) that I met a bloke whose dad had played with JC.
He was in fucking awe and insisted that I send his respect when I next met with you.
Anyway: essential reading for any free spirits: "The Economic Hit Man" by John Perkin. Rather than lambast you all with a deluge of bibliograpy to wade through, I thought it might a better idea to filter it down into "bite sized" doses. I've no doubt you will let me know if this is a good idea or not!
have now read second article - too tired now to precis it.
frog may be interested to know that it was a comment he made about a year ago that first made me look at economics ! It is a very uncertain 'science' - seems to consist of a combination of locking the stable after the horse has gone whilst struggling to maintain the lie that the horse is still safely inside.
are you going to give us bitesized Perkin or do have to read it myself ?
Chek - knowing your propensity to misunderstand me i wrote that with a smile for you.
Leni: sorry I scrolled down too fast and thought you were replying to frog. I'm not going to give "bite sized" bits of Perkins, so I'm afraid you'll have to read the whole book and make your own mind up.
Graun front page,
ReplyDelete"At last, a fashion outlet for women who want to wear mens clothes."
The picture is clearly a bull-dyke, why not just say a fashion outlet for dykes? Still have never quite worked out the bull-dyke image, the equivalent would be gay men wearing skirts, wigs, full drag basically.
Yet a man in womans clothes is called a transvestite, a woman in mans is just a butch-dyke. Bizarre. Brighton has more than its fair share of both, but i still never heard a good explanation for this. Funny old world....
The new budget is incredibly depressing, in its entirety. They really have managed not just to turn a private liquidity crisis into a sovereign debt crisis, but they have then turned that into an issue of public spending and the bailout is rarely mentioned.
And where are our "free media" whilst this happens? Largely nodding along, yes, must have cuts, bloated state, balance the books, etc... Even the pretences of a healthy democratic society seem to be largely ignored now which at least is something new.
Not only is this appalling in itself, the lack of national reaction at ground level is disastrous. Over both expenses, and now this bailout and all its associated scandals (pensions, bonuses, cuts that followed) there has been not a single mass protest. The message to the political class is that they really can do whatever they like, dangerous precedent.
Monbiots article on the Tea Party was spot on, why can the right mobilise a mass movement but the left cannot?
I had a visit from my local labour party last night, really nice pair, chatted for a while, said i cancelled my membership when McDonnell pulled out and the whole thing turned into a farce. Bloke said he pulled out to get a leftwing candidate in the race (Abbott), but what does it say about the party that it took such effort and compromise to get a single "left" candidate into the Labour party race?
I felt sorry for them, people giving up their time to go and meet people and organise, and what do they get in return? Leaders like David Miliband.
Great quote there Montana - simplicity - always best!
ReplyDeleteJayR:
Mornin' ;)
"Butches don't want to be or look like men; we just don't want to wear female clothing," Riley says.... who looks exactly like ..... a bloke.
Bizarre.
"there has been not a single mass protest. The message to the political class is that they really can do whatever they like, dangerous precedent"
I think this is what scares me the most. The media have been entirely complicit in this and there is never, ever any attempt to drag the reality into the frame. Just read Eggers' book Zeitoun - and we are now in a world were the media are able to whip up a frenzy and tissue of lies. Post-Katrina - the hysterical and uncorroborated rubbish about 'gangs of armed men roaming the streets looting and killing, raping babies' helped to cover up the armed take over of the State to protect 'assets' in New Orleans.
How this global crisis has been turned into a 'National' one caused by the Labour Party and the public sector is beyond me.
Jay,
ReplyDelete"Monbiots article on the Tea Party was spot on, why can the right mobilise a mass movement but the left cannot?"
Herding cats?
Jay - Mostly an excellent post at 8:15 but [you know what's coming ;)]
ReplyDeleteThe reason why I, and many others are still in the Labour party is to change the very situation that created the recent mess.
I am convinced that Abbot was put up to it by the right wing precisely to prevent McDonnell from getting enough nominations. We lost that battle but its only a battle.
What drives me nuts is that as I said yesterday Labour is once again going to be diverted from organising a genuine opposition to the condems, this time by a totally pointless opposition. There is now no credible candidate for the left to vote for.
I still feel that the Labour Reprentation Committee led by McDonnell can be a nucleus for that opposition. There is some good news as John has come to the top and has a motion on TU rights.
It won't win of course but the issue will at least be discussed outside parliament as well as in.
These things don't happen overnight it looks bleak at the moment but heck the 19th century chartists didn't even have the vote and they fought on.
Our ambitions are for oak trees but first we need the acorns.
Could someone store this in the UT Department of you couldn't make it up please:
ReplyDeleteDavid Davis has condemned Osborne's budget because the Capital Gains Tax raise will hit everybody except the rich. Just read this, it's priceless:
"These are the people, not the rich, who will pay the lion's share of the increased capital gains tax. When they reach retirement age they will not be able to defer selling their share portfolio, holiday cottage or buy-to-let flat. They will need the money. So if we are not very careful, we will be punishing the virtuous."
So there we have it. Davis conception of not being rich is when you have to consider selling off your property portfolio to supplement your pension.
But the loaded, distasteful term is "virtuous".
A virtuous individual to Davis is someone who has made a killing on house prices when they were historically low.
It reveals more about the Conservative party and the type of creatures who inhabit it than 10 party manifestos ever could.
Duke:
ReplyDeleteIt's staggering. The pernicious use of such loaded terms as 'virtue' is replicated in the press.
Annetan:
I'm not hopeful about the Labour Party, but I do feel you have a point about acorns and mighty Oaks! Reading down the very depressing Hutton thread, I'm more and more convinced that I want to leave the UK altogether. I'm terrified at what is coming, I'm not sure my partner and I can withstand another long period of unemployment - his job is not secure and not permanent and I am struggling to find anything that pays me the same level of pay I had 3 years ago, I am very, very fearful.
@Your Grace
ReplyDeleteIt's another example of the weird idea of 'middle class' that seems to be held by the well-heeled. The Mail and the Telegraph do this all the time.
Morning Anne
ReplyDeleteThat argument isnt lost on me at all, i mentioned that very point of yours to them. I was going to join the LRC but think its £10 a month and i had already joined the main Labour party at £10 and cant really afford both, may just join LRC instead.
Just heard at our new office there will be no net access at peoples desk, gutted. No more CiF, UT or even email except on our lunches at special desks in the eating areas, so only a couple more months for me of posting/reading throughout the day. Extremely annoying.
"These are the people, not the rich, who will pay the lion's share of the increased capital gains tax. When they reach retirement age they will not be able to defer selling their share portfolio, holiday cottage or buy-to-let flat. They will need the money. So if we are not very careful, we will be punishing the virtuous."
ReplyDeleteAstonishing. And to think millions thought these were "new tories". Thats probably the nations key problem these days - too many stupid people.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletet's interesting Anne, Tyrone (O'Sullivan) was saying almost exactly the same as you about the Labour party - that we have to reclaim it, that it will take time but that it's the only credible route. You Welsh are a very optimistic people but keep banging on and you'll probably convince me!
ReplyDeleteYour Grace
So, together with the deserving and undeserving poor who can have the fires of hell poured upon their heads on the basis that 'from he that hath not, shall be taken even that which he hath', we now have the 'virtuous' rich, who must not be allowed to suffer and if they are sufficiently meek they may well inherit the earth.
Perhaps we are approaching the apocalypse. :-))
Jay - I think its £10 per year, but e-mail them to check.
ReplyDeleteYou can join from outside the party although they would prefer you to join [;)]
Jay,
ReplyDeletewill you still be able to post in the evenings at least? It would be really disappointing to lose you here.
2nd-ed. 13th. Can't u get a hand held browsing device Jay?
ReplyDeleteAnother Peter Bracken article tomorrow, this one about the army which is at least something he should know about I suppose.
ReplyDeleteSo obviously the sucess or failure of your last article doesn't affect the chances of being asked back. ;)
Thank you for your warm comment BB
ReplyDeleteI'm just back with he dogs.I am outrageouisly drunk as befits a man of my disp[osition at solistice time.
There is something wrong with the day - the planes in the sky are turning back on themselves,
I must try to find out why.................
laters
Jay:
ReplyDeleteThat's a bummer.....
HI Duke
ReplyDeleteyeah i'll still be around evening and weekends, and maybe the odd post on my lunch hour, but sadly no more day long rows on CIF threads or getting contemptuous posts onto a thread early enough that the offending author might see them, and no more early morning diatribes on here either. Not till August i dont think, but does feel like a big change, and not a welcome one either.
Jay - young twat you will be missed and the gaps you leave will ring with emptiness.
ReplyDeleteI still ain't found out what is wrong with the day.
No matter how drunk I am I definitely saw three aeroplanes heading for the continent turn around on themselves and head back west to Manchester.......????
Never said it was easy Peter and I have no desire to have a stab, if you want to put yourself out there (having admitted that your last effort wasn't exactly well thought out) then expect random internet strangers to make comments.
ReplyDeleteYou really seemed to get riled after the last article, maybe this lark isn't for you.
Peter Bracken,
ReplyDeleteSounds easy, but it ain't.
I agree with you. From what I believe you only have 800 words tops for a CiF article. For me personally that would be impossible to put forward both my thesis argument and evidence.
Maybe it's because I'm too verbose but when I did my copule of pieces over on UT2, there's no way I would have been able to do them in the 800 words as insisted by CiF.
Cheers Deano, i'll still be around just a lot less, and not really in the day at all bar occasional lunch times, but this place is usually plenty busy these days.
ReplyDeleteAgreed on articles, surprisingly difficult to put together even when you spend hours a day writing similar arguments on CIF/UT, quite a painstaking process in my limited experience, and thats before encountering the sub eds and their infinite wisdom...
ReplyDelete13th Duke:
ReplyDeleteThat's all you have - 800 words. And if you spill over the subs intervene and cull your effort. They can massacre an argument in a 50 word deletion.
So, now I deliver on target. Give or take a sentence.
Jennifer:
I didn't get riled. My interlocutors did. And actually, the format suits me fine: I'm loud, opinionated, and - dare I say it - knowledgeable. CiF is a 24 hour collection of ephemeral views.
If you want more, go and sit in the library stacks of the British Museum.
Duke my fine friend as you well know I consider you a fine top draw writer.And more importantly a gerat wit.
ReplyDelete......that said comrade may I?,....
.."From what I believe you...." @ 13.22 above
Would it have made more sense or less sense had you written....
"From what I understand you...."
BTW you are a class act and UT is the better for having you here.
Jay/Peter,
ReplyDeletethis brings into question the actual value of platforms like CiF. Is the word limit an arbitrary amount designed to stifle the actual argument and thus generate BTL posts below when the ATL argument itself is not made clear? Or does it take the dim view that people won't read any more than 800 words maximum? Whatever the reasoning, in my view it is to the detriment of the author.
For instance, I think evidence to back up an argument is essential, the CiF word limit doesn't allow for this and although you can hyperlink evidence, it's not the same thing.
And although CiF is the best platform of its kind, I think the word limit for articles seriously undermines the authors attempts to put their points across.
deano,
ReplyDeleteI know, I know. I type here between tasks, switch between Dutch and English with colleagues whilst I'm typing and with the added distraction of the World Cup which my employers kindly allow to be shown on TV.....
Those are my excuses and I stick resolutely to them ;)
"..opinionated,.." Bracken - that you are.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the ephemeral nature of Cif Peter and I don't go there looking for deeply nuanced articles covering all the bases.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't being skitty when I said you got riled, that is genuinely how it came across to me, I thought you were disappointed with your own article and reacted defensively.
I am glad that wasn't the case, you do need a thickish skin to even consider putting yourself ATL, it is something I admire in people (for a given value of admire ;) ).
It isn't something I would ever do even if I was asked to write about nice kittens and puppies are.
Don't belive the hype Jen, you could knock out a Cif piece this afternoon. It's easy if you are passionate about what you're writing about. 800 words is a bit restrictive, but that's why many of those words can be links, and the links can chunk info that you don't have to expand on in the article.
ReplyDeleteIt shouldn't take more than a couple of hours, do it, today. If Jess KBs you put it on UT2.
I find myself watching the Portugal/Nth Korea match. 4 - nil to Portugal at 74 mins. Sons done his back in and needs help with the kids - but I think it's just a ploy to get grandma in so he can concentrate on the footie.
ReplyDeleteThats 5 - nil now...and even I'm getting quite gripped although I would like the Nth Koreans to score at least one so their humiliation isn't quite so absolute.
I think you could do it too young Ms Jenn.
ReplyDelete6th goal from Ronaldo - bloody hell a 7th in the 87th minute...poor nth Korea - do you think the goalie will survive when he gets home?
ReplyDeleteI just knew I would like your son Sheff -I'm fairly confident I would like his dad too.
ReplyDeletefrm waddya
ReplyDeleteJessicaReed
21 Jun 2010, 2:17PM
By the way - does anyone know where pen is?
Good question, does anyone?
turm - I don't know our kid, but I imagine pen is where pen wants to be.
ReplyDeleteI'd agree that the word limit is something of a problem, but try 250-300 words which i got asked to do for the paper for a future of public services (esp. mental health) last year.
ReplyDeleteMore worrying with CiF is the too frequent desire to be topical, before the facts are ascertained, or analysis can properly be attempted. The word limit doesn't help with this,either, not allowing room for much by way of compare and contrast (eg Peter B's piece could have been extended to contrast 24 with,say, Spooks). Too often then we get gross generalisations, when the word limit should be pointing contributors to really narrowing things down, picking just one specific,smaller aspect of an issue. Instead, too frequently we get the scatter-gun approach and that too often relies on the tried-and-trusted, but predictable and (rightly) discredited identity politics schtick: authors trotting out their hobby-horses, under the guise of the most tenuous (to a ludicrous degree) links to a current event (c.f. Joan Smith yoking sex tourism to Cumbria, on the flimsiest of grounds). Recite the old gross generalisations (prompting the same tired replies BTL), instead of fresh thinking seems to be too much the order of the day, along with specialist pleading, while omitting personal interests (cf. that piece on the magazine Scarlet). Actually, BTL-ers when they go ATL tend not to fall into this lazy journalism anything like as much as the 'professionals', but the overall effect has been to make CiF much,much less than it could be.
That and the cosy,pull-up-the-drawbridge, bourgeois soi-disant liberal mindset at the paper, which gives the impression it'd rather have one of its faves penning something about any given category of person than someone from that category.
He is incorrigible Deano and quite unscrupulous about getting what he wants - but is usually very charming about it.
ReplyDeleteSheff,
ReplyDeleteaccording to latest North Korean news reports just in, North Korea has never entered the World Cup.
The team called 'North Korea' at this world cup is a Capitalist running dog conspiracy designed purely to undermine the great leader and his glorious state.
North Korea never has and never will compete in any western imperialist sporting competition. And if anyone suggests otherwise, Pyongyang will launch a defensive war against the South.
Great Solistice Pics this yer
ReplyDeleteInteresting points Alisdair - btw I assume you have decided to be there when your kid is born? Let me assure you it's a life meaning/changing event. It's fucking magic.
As you were, our Grecian correspondent assures us pen is alive..
ReplyDeletePeterB
ReplyDeleteHeard an interesting programme on R4 yesterday about the disgraceful official neglect of our troops who develop ptsd and allied problems on return from battle zones. They're way over represented in prison for example.
Basically they are abandoned to their fate by the MOD and it is left to charities to pick up the pieces.
As an old army bloke yourself - I'd be interested in what you have to say about that- perhaps you could do a cif piece on that.
@ deano. If I weren't there, then there is no way I would be physically able to father any further issue: my wife would see to that...
ReplyDeletecheers turm
ReplyDeleteAlisdair you are in for the joy of your life.
ReplyDeleteYour woman is wise - .........
I will reserve a bottle of something nice for when I read of your issue.
Morning/Afternoon all...
ReplyDeleteAlisdair
"More worrying with CiF is the too frequent desire to be topical, before the facts are ascertained, or analysis can properly be attempted".
"too frequently we get the scatter-gun approach and that too often relies on the tried-and-trusted, but predictable and (rightly) discredited identity politics schtick: authors trotting out their hobby-horses, under the guise of the most tenuous (to a ludicrous degree) links to a current event"
"That and the cosy,pull-up-the-drawbridge, bourgeois soi-disant liberal mindset at the paper, which gives the impression it'd rather have one of its faves penning something about any given category of person than someone from that category."
But that's OK though, because this is balanced out by the fair and consistent moderation below the line, which allows people to point out any inconsistencies, misunderstandings and errors.
Oh, hang on a minute....
I can only do this 'cos a period of retirement on the bench looms.................
ReplyDeleteScherf MNFTL friend won't be be long since Furivall was 100 years dead.
Hope you had a better day.
.."....Oh, hang on a minute...."
ReplyDeleteor several.
Did anyone else read the David 'Cock-knocker' Milipede Q and A on Cif today?
ReplyDelete(Well, I say Q and A, but he graced our presence for a whole 30 minutes...)
I don't know whether to laugh, cry, or be sick!
James - yes, a pathetic display. He's gone down in my estimation, and I didn't think that was possible.
ReplyDeleteI made a successful ( ! ) resolution NOT to read any of those Q and A , but confess I did weaken on his friday thing on the budget.
ReplyDeleteThaum
ReplyDeleteThis:
"Leadership without values is management. Values without leadership is dreams. Our job in politics is to make reality more like dreams of social justice and equal opportunity. I think there are widely shared values among the leadership candidates. The test is who can turn the poetry of values into the prose of real change".
Had me feeling particularly queasy!!
Knobhead!!
thaumaturge - the only way any of them could go up in the estimation is if they admitted any mistake , and that's impossible surely ?
ReplyDeleteThat is a beauty James, what was it the answer to?
ReplyDeleteDid someone from central office place a fake question about leadership or did he just use it for a completely unrelated question?
I would read it but I've had a really bad headache all day and don't want to make it worse.
Actually I've had a headache for 3 days now, is that normal?
Frog2
ReplyDeleteWell, there does seem to be a bit of
'Well, obviously, with hindsight, that was a bit of an error, BUT...
a) It was somebody else's fault, and/or
b) My heart was in the right place, and/or
c) The other lot are worse..
d) etc'
going on.
So, standard politician handbook type stuff, really!!
A few years ago Bryan Cloughley ,regular Counterpuncher ( who served in Borneo in the British Army and in Vietnam in the Australian Army ) described young Milliband --.
ReplyDelete" I met him once, when he was a junior education minister, and never have I experienced such an unintentionally side-splitting parody of the main character in the BBC’s wonderful “Yes, Minister”,
Jen
ReplyDeleteIt was in response to this:
"David, Good luck with it - You have a long standing association with the last-but-one prime minister.
How do you think you can set yourself apart from that ?
What are the concepts that make your platform yours, and yours only ?
And hence: Can we have little more politics back, and less management ?"
So, all in all, a load of bollocks really.
RE headache.
Not normal, no.
My first guess though would be excessive dehydration. Try drinking a lot of water.
And if it still continues, get yourself to the doctor, ASAP!!
Afternoon all!
ReplyDeleteJames
that quote from knobhead milipede just demonstrates that we have a degenerate political class...it is essentially a load of verbal wank
jen
maybe it's the solstice...take paracetamol and codeine works for me and avoid CiF!
Jen
ReplyDeleteseriously what james says drink loads of water, avoid coffee and tea.
""Leadership without values is management. Values without leadership is dreams. Our job in politics is to make reality more like dreams of social justice and equal opportunity. I think there are widely shared values among the leadership candidates. The test is who can turn the poetry of values into the prose of real change"."
ReplyDeleteThat really is grotesque. I havent even bothered reading his Q&A, so utterly pointless was the one with his brother. What possible "values" does that urchin have? I remember his defence of mercenaries with particular affection... fitting really.
Gandolfo
ReplyDeleteI'm still not convinced that Milipede isn't some sort of actual Blair clone.
That little lyrical dance along the limits of bullshit, twattery and absolute f@cking slimey daftness certainly hasn't helped....
Jen, drink a small glass of water with half a teaspoon of salt. Then at least 2, pref 3 litres a day...
ReplyDeleteJenn
ReplyDeleteWhat James said. Is it different from the ordinary stress, fatigue, hunger headaches that people get in the normal run of things? Consult your doc tomorrow morning (latest) if you still have it.
I'm avoiding that Millipede Q&A - I wouldn't trust him as far as I can spit.
Turm that's what I get for trying to be healthy, no bloody salt in the house, I have been drinking lots of water though.
ReplyDeleteI think I might have had my first migraine (considering the number of times I used it to bunk off work it serves me right).
It wasn't unbearable but it was bad enough to keep me in a dark room with the TV on mute, I have no idea how people cope with chronic pain I think I would kill myself.
Jen
ReplyDeleteThe drinking classes use bicarbonate of soda too. Thanks for the tip on peter bracken tomorrow , I can't be bothered to wade though waddya.
Eye strain reading too much on that screen ?
ReplyDeleteJen - have you given up caffeine by any chance? That does it for me.
ReplyDeleteMiliband's comments were a complete load of vacuous tosspottery. Nothing even faintly resemebling a solid idea whatsoever.
Oh I am not being that healthy Thauma, although with the nice weather I haven't been drinking much coffee so that might have something to do with it.
ReplyDeleteGiving up salt is pretty fuckin drastic, if you ask me!
ReplyDeleteTrue Thauma but like everything else in my life it seems like it has to be all or nothing, if I buy salt I have it on everything (even toast) but don't worry I eat lots of processed food so I'm sure I'm getting enough. ;)
ReplyDeleteI don't think a little salt does much harm - and you need it when its hot and humid and you're sweating a lot..
ReplyDeleteSalt on toast! I mean, I love salt, but....
ReplyDeleteEurgh.
james
ReplyDeletemore than clone milipede could be the bastard clone IVF offspring of blair...just look at those ears......
I tried to give up coffee about 2 decades ago lasted one day...horrid migraines...never tried again and won't...
Absolutely essential reading
ReplyDeleteGandolfo
ReplyDeleteYup. The signs are all there, and one day, in the not too distant future, we'll all know the truth....
Duke
Very interesting. Cheers for that.
Duke
ReplyDeleteRE the article.
I was thinking a while back about the feasibility of a mandatory cooling down period after holding public office, or, some sort of system whereby, if an ex-politico did join firm x, their past voting record, policy outputs, and/or performance could be re-evaluated/scrutinised in that new context. Perhaps with a (low) threshold for retro-active corruption prosecution.
I couldn't quite make it work though, but I reckon someone a bit smarter could....
Just to make an update on the other sites, mentioned a few days ago.
ReplyDeleteA bit like last time, everything was going fairly OK until the battlefield of my personal life intruded and created wreckage and havoc.
Anyway, not sure whether to stall or just blunder on regardless.
I thought I might spin myself a sticky little rope and abseil off the edge of the internet and dangle like a chrysalis for a while, to emerge as someone or something else.
Genuine thanks for all the offers of help for the sites. I will try to get them going.
As for headache cures:
1. Drink strong coffee with lots of sugar. (This probably only works if you normally avoid sugar in everything).
2. Take 1000mg vitamin C tablet.
er, that's my repertoire of ye olde country ways and wyffes tales for curing of the agues, plagues and ailments of the hedde about exhausted.
I have, however, discovered proof of the theory that faces can be made to stick forever in one expression when the wind unexpectedly changes.
Apparently, a mother caused a sudden gust to enter the garden shed when she opened the door to discover her son performing oral sex on their elderly and embarrassed Dalmatian.
Forever afterwards, the boy's face was set with stunned goggle-eyes and a permanently moist drooping lower lip and an expression both of panic and outrage.
The boy, of course, eventually grew up to become Michael Gove.
Atomboy
ReplyDeleteI already had enough problems picturing the Gove person in my mind...I already needed a bucket close to hand....but now....I shall never, ever be able to listen to a word he says without seeing him inflagrante delicto in the way you describe.
atomboy
ReplyDeletenow I feel sick and won't be able to look at Pongo the local dalmatian ever again......
duke
interesting article...I really do wonder about how people here in Italy continue supporting Berlusconi and the laws he passes to protect himself and his interests..... he is Mr Anti-politics. Rather than sustaining or reenforcing the establishment which is the norm he destroys it in the name of justice for himself, thus strengthening and concentrating power in his hands. I swear if I hear him say one more time that we are all being spied on and that's why they have to change the law on phone taping, which favours him and the mafia, I will start making abusive phone calls to Palazo Chigi....
Sorry only just saw from yesterday
ReplyDelete"No i haven,t read Kenan Malik"
I think you'd enjoy Fatwa to Jihad, Paul, very sharp book. I read it off an MF recommendation too, along with that collection of Sokals essays. Both superb.
On a lighter (or rather heavier) note, I cant remember the article, but one recently about how people do the most awful things on camera and then broadcast it to the world. Well...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNCvtsmJgdM
gandolfo,
ReplyDeletethere's an article in this month's edition of le monde diplo about Berlusconi and the failureof the 'clean hands' campaign. Not sure you can access it without a subscription,yo umay be able to.
James,
There's a great riff by Bill Hicks when he discusses Bill Clinton and who actually runs the country. It's from 1992 and when you read the pieces such as the le monde diplo article, it's unerringly accurate:
I have this feeling man, cause you know, it's just a handful of people who run everything, you know that's true, it's provable. It's not … I'm not a fucking conspiracy nut, it's provable. A handful, a very small elite, run and own these corporations, which include the mainstream media.
I have this feeling that whoever is elected president, like Clinton was, no matter what you promise on the campaign trail – blah, blah, blah – when you win, you go into this smoke-filled room with the twelve industrialist capitalist scum-fucks who got you in there.
And you're in this smoky room, and this little film screen comes down … and a big guy with a cigar goes, "Roll the film." And it's a shot of the Kennedy assassination from an angle you've never seen before … that looks suspiciously like it's from the grassy knoll. And then the screen goes up and the lights come up, and they go to the new president, "Any questions?"
"Er, just what my agenda is...
Duke
ReplyDeleteAs always, Bill was spot on.
Evening all
ReplyDeleteExcellent article that, Your Grace. Serge Halimi is a brilliant writer.
Interesting POV from the Costa Rican Justice Minister that international criminal gangs will finance political parties and take over government. I wonder how far away we are from that, realistically?
Evening BB
ReplyDelete"I wonder how far away we are from that, realistically"?
I dunno. 20 years?
Yeah, I'd say it probably happened about 20 years ago!!
Duke
ReplyDeletethanks, I saw it but I can't access it..but know something about the clean hands trials of the 90s, have found something on t'internet by the same journalist shall give it a read...
BB -- james has it . Good article as always by Halimi. Link in french to remind of a few more cases --
ReplyDeletehttp://www.diploweb.com/p5affu2.htm
Eva Joly ................
BB Hi there
ReplyDelete"interesting POV from the Costa Rican Justice Minister that international criminal gangs will finance political parties and take over government. I wonder how far away we are from that, realistically? "
um look up Forza Italia's creation and Berlusconi and you'll see that theory has become reality...........
Worrying..
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo
Well, funny you should say that, but the article talks about that too, Gandolfo. Although arguing that Berlusconi is a criminal in law is difficult, he is certainly a criminal in fact.
ReplyDeleteHasn't Italy always been under criminal control since WW2, though, pretty much, with the mafia and such-like?
Frog2 - thanks for the VO. Nice one.
monkeyfish
ReplyDeleteI got the count right and also noticed...
Not hard, surely?
Or am I missing the point completely?
Well I counted 17 and missed the bloody thing...apparently I'm not the only one
ReplyDeletehttp://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=how-we-fool-ourselves-over-and-over-10-06-19
@ Atomboy "Or am I missing the point completely?".
ReplyDeleteNot at all.
That exercise is a good metaphor,mind you:too many miss the fuller picture and so fail to twig what's going on because they're heads down doing a task that they've been told to do.
As for criminality in politics, the Scottish politico with connections to crime and drugs has been mentioned here and see Private Eye for those with dubious histories operating happily in at least local politics.
ReplyDeleteWhy would it really bother people?
If we commodify people and use money as the only test of value and we then glamourise criminality through television and film - even if only to say that, preferably, a cockerney cheeky-chappie is less of a piece of shit than a politician - then what does anyone expect?
There is no longer any worth or value in honesty or integrity or operating as a good person.
The only things are material success and power.
Soon, after we have forgotten that the banks caused the global economic meltdown and the idea that it was immigrants and feckless dole-cheat scum is firmly implanted in our brains, we will be suggesting to our politicians that they are worth more and should have a pay and benefits increase on the house.
The only thing lacking is that politicians do not market themselves as efficiently as the rich and famous.
Once they do, we will idolise and envy every last one of them.
Alisdair
ReplyDeleteYes, I see, or the one where they show a type of bar-chart with an obvious bar which is taller than the others.
They go down the queue of stooges, who all say that the second-to-tallest is the tallest.
When it comes to the person actually being tested, he falls obediently into line and agrees.
@ Atomboy. Yup, it's the kind of effect exploited by corporates and by Govts, especially those of a neo-liberal bent: aping the corporate ways, and individuals wanting the wealth of the corporates, and to hell with principles or the will of the people: the idea is to shape the will of the people and reap the wealth.
ReplyDeleteYou say "The only thing lacking is that politicians do not market themselves as efficiently as the rich and famous", but I reckon they've caught up (isn't that exactly what most of New Labour was all about?).
Adam Curtis is excellent on this, with his series of films, especially "The Century of The Self".From Sigmund to Matthew Freud, and also David "Workfare" Freud..
Atoms --
ReplyDelete"Soon, after we have forgotten that the banks caused the global economic meltdown "
It's not over yet ......... sometimes I wonder if it has only begun .
Halimi"s article reminded me of the Savings and Loans banking scandal in the US , political connections, Keating Five, etc. The similarity there is how long they were allowed to continue operating with falsified balance sheets, and that is according to the FDIC history on its own website .
Striking similarity with today, except the prob is worldwide and systemic.
BB
ReplyDelete"Although arguing that Berlusconi is a criminal in law is difficult"
well arguing it isn't the problem it's the statute of limitations and the deadly slow judicial system that has worked in his favour, as have delaying tactics such as the right to changing venues (a law approved by his govt) has led to the trials running out of time and therefore trials have ended or never taken place..
Now the mafia is a different question but it basically accounts for an estimated 8% of the GDP of Italy, politics is a sideline for the various mafias, to be used when is necessary to further their cause....money. This is quite a quick read...
Monkeyfish
Got the right score and saw it....maybe it was the wine.....
I didn't get the store right, but I did see the gorilla.
ReplyDeleteI have always had a problem with concentrating on what I'm... ooh look! A squirrel!
Store?! STORE?!!
ReplyDeletesCore.
gorilla?
ReplyDeleteYeah..I saw that..I meant the pink hippo on the pogo stick.
I can't wait for the first "austerity's good for the soul" article...probably from some guy from the city who's made his pile, downsized, bought an Arran sweater and a smallholding and finds his chin-wagging with the simple-folk has given him a warm communal glow, which he recommends to the rest of us...even the poor clerk in the office next to his who defaulted on his mortgage, got a bedsit in Peckham and got himself sectioned for his own good when he started engaging with the locals.
ReplyDeleteAlisdair
ReplyDeleteYes, we certainly like dynasties, don't we? The Kennedy clan from bootlegging to banking to Camelot; the Bush Bible-bashers, from spooks to drug-addicts to terrorists; the Freud frauds from mumbo-jumbo to political PR and poor-bashing.
We are still in need of gurus and shamans and witch-doctors and desperately want someone, anyone, to take charge and give us a spot of abuse.
With the decline of religion and our scepticism and fear of science, we are now in thrall to whatever corporate claptrap fills our uncritical ears and mesmerises our dull eyes.
To large companies, we have become subjects, supplicants and the endlessly recyclable fuel of their uninhibited avaricious desires. We are the filthy oil which lubricates their hurtling bandwagons on and on.
Who cannot recite the advertising slogans and catchphrases of global brands better than anything from their holy books?
frog2
No, it is a long way from over.
The banks may have won - after all, their failure proved the system was working and we would always pay for their mistakes - but we have not been made to lose quite disastrously enough.
As soon as the catastrophe began, the propaganda meme from the banks was that they had been stitched up by poor people taking out loans on properties they should never have been allowed to buy, but Clinton forced the vast goliaths of finance to hand over their funds to the horrible little people, who messed the whole thing up.
It is easier to hate someone whose life and status you can recognise. We can recognise the poor and they are the culprits.
The rich are insulated in a magical land of wonderfulness from which they only emerge to do good and we, the stupid civilians, always go and spoil it.
We are willingly living in a world of fairy-tales and wonderland because it gives us a childish feeling of being protected.
We are forgetting that fairy-tales always have credible and plausible wolves and assorted rapists, paedophiles and wicked witches, who all seem only to want to protect us until...
Alisdair
ReplyDelete"You say "The only thing lacking is that politicians do not market themselves as efficiently as the rich and famous", but I reckon they've caught up (isn't that exactly what most of New Labour was all about?)".
Abso-fuckinglutely!!
It's all about branding and jammin' with the right pop stars and that now, innit!?
Frog2
"It's not over yet ......... sometimes I wonder if it has only begun ."
Hells yeah.
And it's not even subtle.
In (however long it takes for those at the top, responsible for the shitstorm, to nick the pipes and tiles from the ruins) years, there's going to be some pretty bleak revelations....
Flippin eck, Tucker.
ReplyDeleteToo tired to keep my eyes open.
I celebrate the longest day by going to bed early!
Night night all xx
Night BB!!
ReplyDeleteDid I break the t'internetz?
ReplyDeleteJames
ReplyDeleteHow could you post bold upper-case B followed by bold upper-case B?
FFS!
It's worse than typing Google into Google!
I have sent out a crack team to try to repair the damage.
I would not want to be in your shoes when Tim Berners Lee sends you the invoice for the damage.
My bad. Apologies for that!!
ReplyDeleteI'm going to the pub to see if the landlady has heard the last SarkozyStory.
ReplyDeleteThursday was the 70th Anniversary of de Gaulle's rallying speech to the surrendered frogs of 18th june 1940.
So Sarko just had to go to London to find a little limelight.
HM Queen didn't want to see the little shit so no TV there.
But he wanted some extras so took along 150 old soldiers who joined de Gaulle.
On previous occasions they were put up in hotels in London the day before.
Well, they are even older now, some well over 90.
But this is a time of Austerity.
So they had to be at the Eurostar station really early, well before 7AM. Café croissants on the train, and a few energy biscuits if still hungry. A busy time in London, back to Paris to be extras again for El President. Last part of the show another event a 10PM.
The Canard Enchainé of last wednesday also tells us that government ministers were fighting like cats for months to be on the Presidential Jet, and not have to travel with a bunch of extras.
Quelle horreur !
Bastard Portuguese!
ReplyDeleteI had them down for 6-0 and they had to score one too many! One point instead of three.
@frog2
ReplyDeletede Gaulle's rallying speech to the surrendered frogs of 18th june 1940
Some surrendered. You're talking to the PCF here. Want to get shot on the platform at Métro Barbès?
Well the nights are drawing in now...
ReplyDelete@speedkermit
ReplyDeleteHmm. Are you thinking of feeling a few collars for driving without lights at nine in the evening? ;-)
"I can't wait for the first "austerity's good for the soul" article...probably from some guy from the city who's made his pile, downsized, bought an Arran sweater and a smallholding and finds his chin-wagging with the simple-folk has given him a warm communal glow, which he recommends to the rest of us..."
ReplyDeletestevehill?
Personally, I hate austerity. The olives in Morrisons are horrific.
Actually Spike, that's one thing I have yet to strike off on my Motoring Offence Bingocard. I prefer to tell people to turn them on instead.
ReplyDeleteSpike
ReplyDeleteIknow ! Now I've got to get there before closing time to have my usual drinking time aftr it
The PCF weren't too hot before tho :)
workingboots off, away !
Austerity good for us? We've already had lots of those, from Monbiot and Paul 'Private Frazer' Kingsnorth to name but two.
ReplyDeleteI'd do some links if I wasn't in the pub.
@frog2
ReplyDeleteYeah, OK, while we were under orders from the Komintern. But we did make up for it when the starting pistol went.
By the way, I know he's looked by here from time to time, but very glad to see PeterGuillam in particularly good form on CiF yesterday and today. He is a cut above, pure and simple.
ReplyDelete@speedkermit
ReplyDeleteWhat do you do these days when someone has a dead light bulb now that the car manufacturers have made it impossible for a lot of people to change the bulb on the spot?
Yes officer, I'll go to the garage tomorrow...
You are supposed give them a 'vehicle defect rectification' form. They get the thing fixed and stamped at an MOT garage and they have to return it to the central ticket office within 14 days in order for no further action to take place. Or you could just knock them off for it straight away if you were feeling peevish. Personally, I just tell them to get it fixed before a traffic officer stops them and is slightly less sympathetic. There are more important things need doing, such as beating up photographers.
ReplyDelete@speedkermit
ReplyDeleteHeheh. OK, I'm just a bit peevish because I spent 20 minutes this evening extracting a dip-light bulb from a Safrane.
Just bought 'Three Score And Ten', a 7-disc anthology of Topic Records releases, and track one from Disc 6 tickled me given the current climate, never heard it before...
ReplyDelete"The Man Who Waters The Workers' Beer"
(Paddy Ryan/traditional)
Chorus:
I am the man, the very fat man,
That waters the workers' beer
I am the man, the very fat man,
That waters the workers' beer
And what do I care if it makes them ill,
If it makes them terribly queer
I've a car, a yacht, and an aeroplane,
And I waters the workers' beer
Verses:
Now when I waters the workers' beer,
I puts in strychnine
Some methylated spirits,
And a can of kerosine
Ah, but such a brew so terribly strong,
It would make them terribly queer
So I reaches my hand for the watering-can
And I waters the workers' beer
Now a drop of good beer is good for a man
When he's tired, thirsty and 'ot
And I sometimes have a drop myself,
From a very special pot
For a strong and healthy working class
Is the thing that I most fear
So I reaches my hand for the watering-can
And I waters the workers' beer
Now ladies fair, beyond compare,
Be you maiden or wife
Spare a thought for such a man
Who leads such a lonely life
For the water rates are terribly high,
And the meths is terribly dear
And there isn't the profit there used to be
In watering the workers' beer
@speedkermit
ReplyDeleteI remember James Callaghan singing that at a dinner held as part of the Durham Miners' Gala one year. There's a recording made by Tony Benn here.
Both long gone now, of course, Callaghan and the Gala.
@ PeterJ. The Gala still goes on, but it ain't the same. This year's is on July 10th, but they've got bleeding Ken Livingstone (who chummied up to the City as London mayor, and that's before his dubious cronyism, and placing identity politics before class). Changed times.
ReplyDeleteAnd I meant to post this as a tribute to New Zealand and the World Cup, so now seems as good a time as any in view of Apocalypse Tomorrow.
ReplyDelete@Alisdair
ReplyDeleteI apologise, you're right. I'd lost track of the Gala over the last couple of decades. There's a video of last year's here, and other videos of speeches by Skinner et al. But Livingstone, FFS?
BB has agressively pushed the LibDem agenda here for months. And she also voted for them. Middle class wankers who don't give a toss about the ordinary people. It's not their reality no matter how much they try to pretend it is.
ReplyDeleteBut Livingstone, FFS?
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts exactly, Peter.
Just in case anyone is not receiving regular email updates from our illustrious ConDem Deputy PM, the Cleggameron Twin clone, the other one in the Two Daves Roadshow, here is how he is trying to sell the Austerity ("Eat You Own Babies and Sell your Own Grandmothers") Budget:
ReplyDeleteGordon Brown caused Global Armageddon Shock Horror!
@Atomboy
ReplyDeleteThat's a shameless pile of crap from Clegg, isn't it? My own version came from Sayeeda Warsi; this is what I just dug out of my junk mail filter:
_____________________
Dear Peter,
Ahead of next week's budget, it's important to remember that the debt crisis that threatens us is Labour's legacy to Britain.
Labour left us with no money - only waste and debt:
- They left every man, woman and child owing £22,400
- They gave us one of the worst budget deficits in Europe
- They left 2.47 million people out of work
- And they sold off Britain's gold at a 20-year low in the market.
Unless we act now to deal with this crisis, interest payments in five years' time could end up being higher than the amount we spend on schools, climate change and transport.
That's why we have to do something about it. The cuts that are coming are Labour's cuts.
So before Tuesday's crucial Budget, take a look at this document outlining Labour's Legacy to Britain.
But don't just keep it to yourself - please send this email on to your friends and family to help make sure Labour are never allowed to leave such a rotten legacy again.
Sayeeda Warsi
Co-Chairman of the Conservative Party
_______________________
The document linked to is here (PDF).
PeterJ
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for posting that and the pdf link.
I will make it into a post tomorrow, for the simple reason that Sayeeda Warsi, Co-Chairman of the Conservative Party, has asked us to share her words of wisdom with friends and family and I, for one, am going to make damned sure I don't let her down.
(It is no good seeing propaganda if you do not produce counter propaganda to match it).
Yeah, Tories are wankers and LibDems are their punkawallahs and everything, but it did kind of happen on New Labour's watch didn't it? And Atomboy, it did kind of sound to me like Clegg was fairly unequivocably blaming the banks, albeit in addition to sticking the boot into Brown as if it would never have happened under any other administration. At this stage of the game, that seems pretty unnecessary and crass - if they really must shaft everyone, I'd rather they just stopped peppering their pronouncements with disingenuous political point-scorings as if we are somehow magically to expect the Coalition to transmute into trustworthy kindly-uncle types. They're all as fucking bad as each other, and this universal truth has never been so apparent as over the last sorry couple of weeks.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I hear Warsi's name I want to vomit.
...actually, I'm not sure something can be 'fairly unequivocal'. It sounds like 'a little bit pregnant'. Scratch that bit.
ReplyDelete@speedkermit
ReplyDeleteWell, actually, Clegg says that if only Labour had listened to Saint Vince of the Valeta none of this would ever have happened. Failing to mention that his new pals on the front bench would have let things rip with even less regulation, and that Saint Vince has had a blanket put over him in the run-up to the Deathmarch Budget.
A little disingenuous there, I feel.
Hello everyone, I don't know bugger all about economics but I was doing a bit of "computer housekeeping" earlier today. When I was scrolling down my bookmarks and deleting stuff that is no longer relevant, I came across this:
ReplyDeletewww.howitends.co.uk.
I don't know how to do links so if that is not enough information to access the site let me know and I'll post the full URL.
Anyway, I don't know if the analysis on that site is right or wrong but if nothing else, it's exhaustive and well written.
I'm just hoping someone much smarter than me might take a look and condense it all down into some words and numbers that don't make me break out in a cold sweat!
speedkermit
ReplyDeleteI am not sure whether you imagine me to be in favour of New Labour, but this is not the case. Neither do I think bashing parties on an uncritical and tribal basis is hugely sensible.
I am not sure whether this is really unequivocally blaming the banks:
And ask them why they created this fiscal bombshell in the first place by refusing to take action against the reckless banks even when Vince Cable warned of the risks they were taking.
It is blaming New Labour for not regulating the banks and saying, essentially, that you cannot blame the banks for taking advantage of this laxness.
All governments try to take full advantage, during their honeymoon weeks, of blaming the previous administration - before they become pariahs and hate figures themselves.
I did say, a couple of years ago and more, on Matt Seaton's Scrapheap, that the Tories would not serve a full term.
Once people see that they, too, are poor and all the cars and credit-cards and holidays and second homes are millstones round their over-extended necks, what will stop them rioting in the streets.
According to your earlier post, not you - since they have neglected to make the appropriate bribe.
Two hot dinners away from insurrection and all that.
Although, we said this under New Labour.
Nah, as you were.
We'll all do as we are told.
At which point, I have to get some sleep.
ReplyDeleteSo, ner ner ner ner night night all.
"Once people see that they, too, are poor and all the cars and credit-cards and holidays and second homes are millstones round their over-extended necks, what will stop them rioting in the streets. According to your earlier post, not you - since they have neglected to make the appropriate bribe."
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that promising to honour something you are already entitled to is a bribe as such, but I know what you mean. I don't suppose I would have much choice if it happened while I was on normal duty. I could always resign I suppose, and go and live in a kibbutz. Israeli society seems so much fairer.
@chekhov
ReplyDeleteWill take a look at that site- can't guarantee any condensation, though.
PeterJ:"can't guarantee any condensation,though."
ReplyDeleteOh, I can guarantee condensation, it happens in the winter on the inside of my windows.
Sorry, I never pass up an opportunity for a bit of flippancy!
chekhov
ReplyDeleteVery interting article - no date on it but obviously pre - crash.
good description of global free trade as Oroborus - the global economy eating itself !
If we produce nothing we have to import everything - cheap goods from China have flooded our markets given people an artificially 'high' standard of living - at least that is what they think. They mistake 'things' for happiness.
article goes on to explain how we are living on both borrowed money and time. It did not (does not) suit the gvt. to make us aware of this - we know this now post crash.
he things yet to happen - we are on the cusp -
Demographics. Too few people will be working to support the unemployed be they workers, children or pensioners.
Energy costs will spiral - replacing fossil fuels will be impossible in time scale available. green energy is still a faraway dream.
We are dependent upon others for oil and gas - they can cut it off or charge what they like for it.
China wishes to build cities, increase its manufacturing base. Where will the money come from ? From us as they increase the price of their manufactured goods. we pay the price or do without.
read the article again before you delete it and mentally tick off the things that have already happened - the collapse of the housing market contributing to bank collapse. Look at the national debt - this did not come just from the bank collapse - it has been accumulating for years as the country was run on borrowed money.
Remember that the 'value' of the banks were notional based on mortgage values which were artifiially hyped. when house prices collapsed this notional value collapsed with them. In other words there was no actual money involved. The bank assets were only paper prices. No money has been lost - the paper economy has been exposed.
Demographics are still agains us - too few people working to support everyone else. This does not make the unemployed guilty - they are victims.
very hard times are on the way. As the article says if we lived at the level we can afford and sustain we will go back to the standards of the 30s. It will not be long before the average family will not be able to pay the cost of keeping warm in winter let alone go abroad for holidays.
Peter
ReplyDeleteyou can condense the bits I missed - save me part 2.
We will all have condensation chekhov come winter - there will be frost on the inside of the glass. Buy longjohns now .
I,m now so depressed i have poured a large glass of wine.
ReplyDeleteiam in the lucky position of having no debts. I don't really buy much and being skinny I get lots of cast offs and can wear children's clothes - no VAT.
I am going to install wood burner before winter - surrounded by forestry here. When they clear fell they leave loads of wood behind.
Although I am far from rich I am better off than many.
Leni: I can't remember where I got the link from but there was more than just one article.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, if I remember correctly that site chronicles the debacle we are in right now well back into the 1980's.
I could be wrong about the dates and I certainly won't be deleting it until I have investigated it more thoroughly.
Whoever wrote is was obviously clued up about economics and finance but most of that stuff goes completely over my head which is why I was asking for help on here, for someone to explain in terms that made sense to me.
chekhov
ReplyDeleteObviously i read the wrong article !!
willtry again.
chekhov
ReplyDeletewhat is the title of the article you meant ?
Leni: I don't think you read the "wrong article" just that you weren't aware that there are others.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the site has changed since I last accessed it.
Maybe my link is not the same as yours.
Like I said, I don't know how to do links.
Come to think of it, weren't you supposed to teach me how?
Leni:"what is the title of the article you meant?"
ReplyDeleteWell all of them but I suppose "Quantitative Easing" was the most prescient.
Spike 22.10PM
ReplyDelete"Yeah, OK, while we were under orders from the Komintern. But we did make up for it when the starting pistol went. "
Emphatically agreed, but many non-PCF others did too. Maybe the Duke also has an interest in the Collaboration and Resistance and can do a U2 ?
----------------------
Speedkermit 23.48PM
"They're all as fucking bad as each other" and the fact that Clegg/Warsi are spouting that party-political bullshit , however true about NuLab total incompetence, is a sign that they are hoping against all hopes that we are not heading for a system-crash .
Since we ain't going to get the magic growth, deficit-cutting is the order of the day . Our overly-complex already well-developed societies , with an inheritance from imperialism and neo-imperialism , are now faced with competition from the new guys. That's globalisation. Nobody's going to lend you money unless they think you're a going concern.
Forgetting the phenomenon of Global Finance, the underlying economics and demography and ecology and the fact of limited resources were obvious since 'Limits to Growth' came out forty years ago. Cleverly done, that transition could have been quite smooth.
Of course it wasn't. I'm looking forward to being surprised that nobody in this Coalition government has a clue on what I have known for several years now. Some of them like Osborne have their own intellectual and class baggage, and don't mention that nitwit Gove ! Maybe Osborne is now wise to what is really happening -- I just don't know.
For the moment I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. It is all too easy to get up on the hind legs and scream at the Class Enemy. Reading the other week's CiF Panel on Unemployment, WTF were all of you resident Brits doing about the manifest daily injustices and outright stupidities of the Benefits system ?
Why not get 50 or 200 people together and demonstrate outside that office where Mrs Bloggs has been fucked around ?
Why were there no fucking MP's walking through the front doors of a filthy hospital with their own digital cameras to witness the disgusting conditions and take their photos back to Parliament ?...Nobody COULD have stopped them, could they ?
Highfaluting stuff about the Neo-Libs, the New World Order, the Washington Consensus, and the bloody Bilderbergers is no use until ordinary people get off their bums and do something about straightforward non-conspiratorial cases in front of their noses.
That will be a start on tackling the very real Conspiracies , AND very real Cock-Ups higher up.
I'll leave GlobalFinance for another day. And that is a fucking nightmare intertwined with the rest.
scherfig said...
ReplyDeleteBB has agressively pushed the LibDem agenda here for months. And she also voted for them. Middle class wankers who don't give a toss about the ordinary people. It's not their reality no matter how much they try to pretend it is.
21 June, 2010 23:09
Scherf - it never was of any concern what you think about me our kid. I genuinely like you/
But one of us has lost the plot.
Whatever BB has done she has not done it aggressively.
I Have said before that I believe that if if Nazi's were after me I would consider BB a safe house at least for a few hours.
I would never expect the lass to shelter me for more than a couple of hours or so (she has her own family to protect)
Two hours is good enough for me. I have a lot of time for the lady it matters not at all that she is tolerant of idiots.
This is my way of saying that I think you are wrong about BB
Leni 1.17AM
ReplyDeleteThanks for your good report , I got the drift already , summarised very briefly in my paras 2 and 3 above.
The world is moving and we can't shout--
"STOP,I WANNA GET OFF !"
Leni: btw I don't think economics is complicated at all.
ReplyDeleteIt's much the same as the law; make it as complicated as possible so that the proles won't understand it.
I suppose it was a good idea until the people who devised the plot made it so complicated that they didn't understand it themselves!
deano30
ReplyDeleteI don't know all of you here as well as many of you know each other, so i don't know sherfig .
I do remember BB arriving at CiF, and have great respect for her.
Some people can be very brave hiding behind a keyboard !
Chek - at my granddaughters 21st I mentioned to my youngest son, Josiah Amos, ( our family are not Jews so make of our naming as you will) that I met a bloke whose dad had played with JC.
ReplyDeleteHe was in fucking awe and insisted that I send his respect when I next met with you.
Anyway: essential reading for any free spirits:
ReplyDelete"The Economic Hit Man" by John Perkin.
Rather than lambast you all with a deluge of bibliograpy to wade through, I thought it might a better idea to filter it down into "bite sized" doses.
I've no doubt you will let me know if this is a good idea or not!
Cheers frog2 - stick around our kid, you'll like it. We have some class acts here on UT.
ReplyDeletechekhov
ReplyDeletehave now read second article - too tired now to precis it.
frog may be interested to know that it was a comment he made about a year ago that first made me look at economics ! It is a very uncertain 'science' - seems to consist of a combination of locking the stable after the horse has gone whilst struggling to maintain the lie that the horse is still safely inside.
are you going to give us bitesized Perkin or do have to read it myself ?
Chek - knowing your propensity to misunderstand me i wrote that with a smile for you.
Leni: not sure what what you mean by your last remark. I was under the impression that we
ReplyDeleteunderstood each other quite well !
Feel free to elaborate!
Oh the fucking dawn chorus as she comes to me from China I justs love her.
ReplyDeleteCkhov
ReplyDeleteI was teasing you - I remember you being shirty with me on waddya - ministry of funny walks ! Remember ?
i was really upset when I thought that I had upset you.
i think we do understand each other - very well.
nyway - my glass of wine is catching up with me so I.m off to bed.
Goodnight x
night young miss,
ReplyDelete\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ffuckin star.
A class act indeed
Leni: sorry I scrolled down too fast and thought you were replying to frog.
ReplyDeleteI'm not going to give "bite sized" bits of Perkins, so I'm afraid you'll have to read the whole book and make your own mind up.
Night Leni, thanks, I'm going to bed too and that "ministry of silly walks" episode is going to bug me to sleep!
ReplyDeleteLeni: btw, I'm not adverse to a bit of teasing!
ReplyDeletehi 3p4
ReplyDeletethat you Montana - I heve good news for you and T
ReplyDelete?
ReplyDelete